J.A. Adande built one of the most impressive careers in sports media and then left his full-time job at ESPN to do something different. In 2017, he returned to his alma mater to become the director of the sports journalism program at the Medill School at Northwestern University, where he also serves as an associate professor.
Adande, who also worked for the Chicago Sun-Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, is also known for his appearances on Around the Horn. While he is still occasionally on the show, that will end when Around the Horn airs its final episode on May 23. We thought it would be an ideal time to catch up with Adande to ask about Around the Horn, his current gig, and being honored with the Curt Gowdy Print Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last October.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Awful Announcing: Will you be on the final episode of Around the Horn?
J.A. Adande: “To be determined. We still haven’t decided how we’re going to do the final show. I don’t think it’s going to be all hands on deck like we’ve done for some of the reunion shows where we had everybody. We’ll see. I thought it was cool that they brought Sarah Spain and Izzy Gutierrez back for the Halloween/April Fool’s Day show. They got one last moment there. They’re definitely two of the best.”
How do you feel about the end of the show?
“I feel very appreciative that I was part of a show that was on for more than two decades. There are very few shows that get that type of run. I’ve heard from so many people who say that’s the show that made them want to get into sports journalism or sports media. One of the benefits of the show being on so long was that we’ve got the newer generation of people who are on the show and grew up wanting to be on it. That wasn’t something that I ever aspired to do because the show didn’t exist when I was a kid.”
What is the legacy of Around the Horn?
“People saw me on there and wanted to emulate what I did. When you hear things like that, that’s pretty cool. So I think that’s the legacy. The legacy is how many people you see all over ESPN and other media outlets that first got their big breakthrough on television through Around the Horn.”
Was preparing for the show a challenge?
“I’m curious what it’ll be like not having to pay attention to so many things. The ‘burden’ of this show is having to follow so many things, what’s going on in the sports world. I can’t tell you how many beautiful weekends in L.A. I spent inside watching college and NFL football because if you’re on a show on Monday, you better watch a good 12-15 hours of football on the weekend, even if you’re only going to be talking about it for four minutes.”
What’s the No.1 question your students ask you, and what do you tell them?
“‘Why I came back, left my role to do this?’ There’s so much disbelief, but it’s funny. A lot of times things just make perfect sense when you’re doing it. For me, I’ve done everything I wanted to. Getting to 20 NBA Finals was a big number that I wanted to hit. I felt like I told a lot of the stories. I came in and it was the era of Michael Jordan, the first three-peat for the Bulls. I was in L.A. for the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, LeBron and the Heat, and then the rise of the Warriors. That was a lot of stories. And that’s just the NBA. Obviously, that was my main focus, but I covered tennis and the Williams sisters, golf and Tiger Woods. …I got to do a lot of cool stuff. The Olympics. There’s only so many stories you can tell.”
When you were a student, did you ever think you would return to Northwestern as a professor?
“I thought it’d be cool to teach here at Medill, but I didn’t see myself living in Chicago later in my life. I did get the chance to teach at USC, but I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to have this full-time role at USC like I have at Medill. They called and asked me to come, so that’s why I came back to Chicago. I had been in LA for 20 years. I was ready for a change.”
How would you describe your job?
“It’s a variety of roles. Teaching is just a small percentage of it. That’s my favorite part, but it’s recruiting new students. It’s being available to alumni if they need letters of recommendation or anything else to connect them with job opportunities. It’s serving on the curriculum committee. It’s planning trips and plotting out the program. One thing people ask is, ‘Do you miss producing content?’ I’m producing two to three multiple-hour lectures per week. That’s my method of storytelling.”
Who are some rising stars in sports journalism who have impressed you lately?
“I really like Brandon Quinn (of The Athletic). His column when John Feinstein died, he got Mike Krzyzewski on the phone, Jim Boeheim, and all these people. I remember thinking, ‘Man, that was like a Feinstein-worthy column/story. He was just so plugged in, and he writes so well.
“It was cool to see one of my former students from when I taught at USC, Paolo Uggetti have the main story for ESPN.com off the Masters.”
What do you love about sports media now?
“I love it more from the consumer standpoint. The fact that you can watch every game on a variety of platforms no matter where you are. You can be on a plane and watch a game. You can be at work. We take for granted how accessible the NCAA tournament is. I remember feeling privileged cause I had DIRECTV, and you could purchase March Madness on demand. Now it’s so easy. You can watch on the March Madness app, and that’s free. What I love about sports media now is the availability for everything.”
What was it like joining the Hall of Fame?
“That night, what made it extra special was that so many of the people who inspired me, the people whose posters I had on my wall when I was a kid, were in that room, the very people who made me want to cover the NBA. You had Michael Jordan and Dr. J. And then, because Michael Cooper was going in, all of the Showtime-era Lakers were there with the exception of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Magic (Johnson), James Worthy, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambis, Mychal Thompson, Pat Riley. Having them there, I thought they were watching me for 10 minutes after all those hours and hours that I spent watching them. …Having all those greats of the game in the building for the pinnacle of my professional life made it that much better.”