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HBO: What's the highlight for you to work on a show like Real Sports?
James Brown: To start we have the finest group of correspondents anywhere to be found in sports. I really mean that. We have far and away the best bunch of serious journalists slash storytellers in the world of sports. And what they do on an ongoing basis every single month, just makes me stand up and cheer. I feel so proud and so privileged to work with them on an ongoing basis that for me to single out any time and say oh that's a highlight, I mean every time I come to work is a highlight.
HBO: What has been the evolution of Real Sports over the past 10 years?
James Brown: In many ways Real Sports is very different than the program that debuted ten years ago. In other ways, it's very much the same. The mandate remains the same, which is, tell good stories that can't be found anywhere else. Having said that, I think we're telling them better than we ever have in a more intelligent fashion and reporting on a sports world that grows in complication and complexity each day. And the world we're reporting on is certainly a much more complex and complicated sports world than existed ten years ago.
HBO: Why do you think non-sports fans enjoy Real Sports?
James Brown: I think one of the reasons that maybe the casual sports fan or someone who isn't really a sports fan tunes into Real Sports is because we explore the human interest story. The topic can have a sports aura, or maybe one of an entertainment aura. But in the final analysis, I think most viewers will ask the question or look for, well how does this relate to me?
HBO: Is there a story that you did over the years that stands out?
James Brown: I did a story not too long ago on Ricky Clemens, the young man who played basketball at the University of Missouri. The story about Ricky Clemens incorporated a lot of the elements that we've talked about, a star athlete, African American in a predominantly white environment. It involves elements of payoffs. He alleged that the University was paying him money. He was very reluctant to acknowledge that but only because there were jailhouse conversations when he was incarcerated that it was on tape that he was paid, did he reluctantly acknowledge that he was paid. There were elements of interracial relationships. He was dating a white young lady. There were higher ups who did not want to acknowledge what was taking place. That story, I think embodied a lot of what we were talking about previously as to why Real Sports is a program that so many people are interested in because it involves elements that go beyond sports or elements that are common to any kind of sport story be they sports, academia, business, etc.
HBO: What sets Real Sports apart from other TV shows like it?
James Brown: Real Sports prides itself on making certain that both sides of the story are presented. What sets this program apart from others is the cross talk at the end of the show. It is extremely important that all the reporters maintain a very balanced approach in presenting the story as we do. At the end, we're given the opportunity to elaborate on what we feel because we're there with the interview subject. We can read body language. We can listen to the consistency in one's story. We can take a look at the other factors involved in interviewing that subject to offer an opinion ourselves.
And to me I think that's probably a distinct growth point of the show from day one, where most often you'll see on TV the reporter isn't asked to give his or her opinion. That certainly sets this show apart. What is even more unique is that Bryant Gumbel never ever shares with us what questions he's going to ask at the end of the program. So truly we have to react in an extemporaneous fashion and what our gut tells us.
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James Brown
Brown graduated from Harvard in 1973 with a degree in American Government and was then drafted in the fourth round by the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.
Read JB's bio.
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