When Lauren Jbara packed her bags to join Bally Sports South in Atlanta, she knew the transition would be more difficult than any other. Although she valued her job in Denver, with Altitude Sports and Entertainment, relocating to a larger market situated her in a position where she could eventually make the jump to the national stage.
In thinking about the locale during her move, Jbara realized that it is where Warner Bros. Discovery is headquartered, opening a chance for discussions with the company. Following her stint in Denver though, she needed to get acclimated to the area and demonstrate her aptitude for reporting on the regional level.
At the time, the NBA was operating under health and safety precautions as a result of the global pandemic, limiting how Jbara could effectively gather and disseminate stories to the audience. Despite the challenges associated with the career move, she quickly proved to be an invaluable asset to regional broadcasts of Atlanta Hawks games and grew accustomed to being around the team each day.
While she remained focused on her job with the Hawks, she remained cognizant of national opportunities and had several conversations with people at the network ahead of landing a freelance, fill-in opportunity on NBA TV.
“It worked out that it was a day in-between two Hawks games and I went in and did it,” Jbara said. “It was so much fun, and then [for the] postseason, they asked me to come back again, and I filled in four more times on their GameTime shows.”
As Jbara went to the studios to fulfill her assignments, she was impressed with the crew and familial feel that the environment engendered. Over the summer, Jbara’s two-year contract with Bally Sports expired, leading her to look for her next opportunity. Upon receiving an offer from Warner Bros. Discovery that she would get to be a studio host for NBA TV and report for the NBA on TNT, Jbara felt it was virtually impossible for her to decline.
“I’m excited to grow and learn in a different way,” Jbara said. “It’s going to be weird because I feel like all of my experience right now in the regional space obviously has been with the teams, so you lock into a team and learn so much about that team. It’s going to be different and fun and a new challenge.”
One of Jbara’s first assignments in her new role was to travel to Sacramento and report live from Sacramento Kings media day. Following a 48-win season and disappointing first-round exit after a seven-game battle with the Golden State Warriors, she was there to interview players, personnel, and other key figures to discover the expectations and goals for the new year. Throughout the season, Jbara will cover a variety of franchises, supplementing live game broadcasts with insightful reporting and anchoring studio programming surrounding all of the action.
“It’s cool building those relationships with a different team,” Jbara said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, this is fun. This is really fun.’ I’m just excited for a new challenge to work with an incredible group of people that they have at Warner Bros. Discovery to build my skillsets in similar ways, but also different ways at the same time.”
Jbara fostered her inherent versatility within sports media at a young age, in part through her participation in various leagues as a multi-sport athlete. Even though she always had a natural affinity for sports, she instead chose to major in neuroscience at the University of Michigan. One day when she was taking an organic chemistry class, she came to the realization that she was not happy and decided to switch her major to communications.
“The transition actually was easy because I was having a really hard time in a lot of those classes,” Jbara said. “Just in terms of switching classes, it ended up being a lot better, and truly, I was so much happier.”
In making the changeover as a junior in college, Jbara recognized the importance of expeditiously working to land internships and got her start with WDIV-TV in Detroit. Being able to make it there, however, was facilitated by working at WOLV-TV, the student-run television station at the university. Jbara had plenty of opportunities to gain experience and make mistakes in an effort to hone her craft and discover her niche, but doing so required persistence and patience.
“I had my first on-camera thing and they threw to me and I was in a studio, and I literally just stared there live at the camera because I forgot my name and I did not speak for a solid 15 seconds,” Jbara said. “Then we had to restart it all over again and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was my debut on camera. This might not be the right path for me too.’”
When Jbara started at WXYZ-TV to work as an intern at a station closer to her school, she learned under sports director and anchor Tom Leyden. While there, she was afforded chances to assist with broadcasts for the Detroit Lions and continued becoming more proficient on both sides of the camera. In addition to this behind-the-scenes role, Jbara took the initiative to reach out and earn a position as the in-arena host for the Grand Rapids Drive, then an NBA D-League team in its inaugural season.
“I would drive there a couple times a week all the way from Ann Arbor to Grand Rapids – about two-and-a-half hours – do a game and then drive back,” Jbara said. “I was doing that [in] my senior year, [which] is when I really started getting those job opportunities.”
Upon graduating college, Jbara continued broadcasting to a captive audience as an in-arena host with the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena, along with the Detroit Pistons from The Palace at Auburn Hills. With the Pistons, she had the opportunity to file digital reports as well, including a weekly segment on news surrounding the team and arena.
Even though she was connected to professional sports organizations, Jbara continued to pursue opportunities and ended up working as a sideline reporter for Oakland University Golden Grizzlies basketball broadcasts on ESPN3. In order to make ends meet, she waitressed at Kona Grill and eventually met people associated with a country music radio station owned by Audacy, then Entercom. Through initiating conversations, Jbara started hosting a Sunday music show on 99.5 WYCD where she worked on her intonation and vocal delivery.
Because she worked in a deluge of roles, Jbara balanced her seemingly interminable responsibilities with other activities pertaining to the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. Outside of occasionally taking a run though, she did not engage in regular workouts and decided to accept an invite from a friend to go to a workout class at The Barre Code. After one session, she ended up becoming enamored with the practice. As a result, she purchased a membership and found herself attending one to two classes per day and always felt refreshed immediately thereafter.
A couple of months later, she saw that they were auditioning new instructors and felt compelled to try out for the role. Upon landing the job, she trained to become certified in barre and kickboxing and eventually started leading sessions while continuing her broadcast work. Although the field is not directly related to sports media, Jbara believes that the skills she fostered through her experience both as a student and instructor have proved invaluable in her work as a reporter and host.
“It was cool to kind of learn a bunch of people’s different walks of life and their career paths, etc., but I also think it kind of helped me with the broadcast space too because you need to learn how to keep your energy up all the time,” Jbara said. “I think that was really helpful to me as well, so it’s funny because I feel like even though it’s doing a different thing, it kind of still builds on what I do for my career.”
While Jbara enjoyed working in her home marketplace, she eventually felt compelled to move to join a regional sports network and started emailing executive producers all around the United States. Altitude Sports and Entertainment ultimately hired her as a host and reporter, where she contributed across Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Rapids coverage on Altitude TV. Through the support of her friends and family, along with the professionalism of her colleagues, Jbara did not struggle with the transition to a new city. In fact, she continued to teach fitness classes at another location for The Barre Code, retaining what had become a safe haven for her in Detroit.
“It was more excitement rather than being sad for leaving the Detroit sports market,” Jbara explained, “because I felt like I capitalized on everything I could do back in Detroit.”
When she first arrived in Denver, Jbara was instructed by her boss, Kenny Miller, to sit in the television truck and see how everything worked. As time went on, she became more comfortable at the network level and viewed her colleagues as an extension of her family. The feeling of inclusivity and acceptance is something she valued as she took constructive criticism and simultaneously dealt with the ramifications of impugnment on social media.
“At first, I would get a mean comment on Twitter and I’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh, they hate me,’” Jbara said, “but now I’m just kind of pretty secure in who I am and just try to do the best that I can do every single day and hope that shows to the fans.”
An instance where Jbara demonstrated her personality on the air came over the summer while she was working as a sideline reporter for Bally Sports South with the Atlanta Braves. During a historic 104-win season for the team, Jbara was at Truist Park on a blazing summer afternoon demonstrating a neck fan to the viewing audience. She also recited the axiomatic statement, “The heat is hot,” creating a moment that went viral on social media and resonated with the audience.
“Even though it was hot, like really hot outside here in Atlanta, it was really fun to be outside at a ballpark,” Jbara said. “When I grew up in Detroit, I grew up with the Tigers and that was my team. Being able to go with the Braves back to Detroit [and] cover [Miguel Cabrera’s] final series against the Braves; it was just cool to be able to have that full-circle moment as well, but it was really fun.”
Jbara was a new addition to the broadcast crew this past season along with play-by-play announcer Brandon Gaudin, and she felt that the team was a friendly and cohesive unit. As a multifaceted on-air personality with the Braves and Hawks, she was able to further develop her broadcast style to appeal to the audience.
When Jbara takes the air, she is focused on conveying the necessary information in a concise, casual manner rather than emitting a sense of incongruity. In describing her approach, she referenced Inside the NBA award-winning host Ernie Johnson and how he views his role as a privilege, referring to it as a “get-to job.”
“I get to do this and it’s so much fun,” Jbara said, “so I like being able to provide great information to fans, but also do it in a way where it just feels like we’re hanging out.”
Early in the season, Jbara has hosted NBA GameTime, a program that recaps the slate of action across the Association and will continue to host studio programming throughout the season. Over the last several seasons, Jbara hosted series for the Braves but was more involved in the niche when working in Denver. She is looking forward to becoming immersed in the occupation once again, delineating and interpreting the action to elicit discussion about topics ranging from conspicuous to recondite.
“I’m excited to have an experience to do that a little bit more and show my knowledge and work with a bunch of different incredible analysts that they have at NBA and on TNT obviously as well too,” Jbara said. “It’s a new challenge, but I’ve done it before, and so [I am] just bringing that same broadcast mentality of being yourself and all that.”
When Jbara begins working games as a sideline reporter this season, she will engage in extensive preparation to ensure she is ready to conduct interviews and tell the story of the game. There are different ways to think about the structure of the interview depending on the setting or circumstances, but catalyzing the subject to expatiate on a topic is an invariable shared characteristic nonetheless. For the postgame interviews in particular, the key is in obtaining genuine reaction, practically concurrent and in the moment.
“If someone makes a buzzer-beater at the end, you know you’re asking about that,” Jbara said. “Walk me through that play; ask a lot about their team and how their team is pushing them, etc.”
Aside from conducting interviews, it is also Jbara’s job to gather intel and communicate it to her producers, directors, and other commentators. Being privy to sensitive information carries a sense of responsibility and requires an understanding of bedrock principles of journalism rooted in promulgating the truth.
“It’s basically just reading a room,” Jbara explained. “You know what you’re allowed to share; you know what you’re not allowed to share, and just kind of being smart with that information.”
Through her background working for professional sports teams and regional sports networks, Jbara is cognizant of how fundamental it is to remain objective on the air. In not being associated with any one particular organization with Warner Bros. Discovery, comprehensively covering all angles of a story will help further effectuate that intention.
“I think that when you’re doing a regional broadcast, you’re really only covering one side; the storylines for the one side,” Jbara said. “So I think learning stories of players from both sides will help me stay objective as a reporter because you have the ability to cover a lot of stories on both sides, and that’s kind of your role.”
Staying sharp and possessing a keen, prompt mental acumen with a sense of alacrity requires professionals to keep their energy levels up. From previously teaching fitness classes, Jbara has the wherewithal to maintain her stamina and tries to build endurance through the gradual elongation of each season. Even though she drinks a substantial amount of coffee each morning and takes micro-naps throughout the day, she seems to thrive on a minimal amount of sleep. Jbara presumes everything will catch up to her down the road, but even so, she is committed to retaining a work-life balance to attain longevity.
“I think before, success to me was everything in my career [and] getting to the top of the career,” Jbara said. “I think as I’ve gotten a little bit older, it’s having the career, but also being happy at the same time.”
Jbara views sports as a means of unification, and she considers herself fortunate to be part of the process of bringing people together. On a daily basis, she tries not to lose sight of the auspicious fortune she has been afforded in divulging stories and engaging in different types of reporting. Everything she does is geared towards establishing a feeling of relatability and keeping people compelled and invested in the game itself.
Through her years traversing the country in a variety of different roles both in and out of media, Jbara has found her voice and is continuing to use it to serve as a conduit between the fans and the game on the hardwood. For many years, her goal was to report for a regional sports network, and after achieving that, she is working to thrive on the national stage. Wherever the spotlight may lie, Jbara intends to embrace the pressure of live television and be distinct in the dynamic media ecosystem.
“A lot of people told me when I first got into the broadcasting space, ‘What makes you different?,’” Jbara articulated. “I think for me, it’s just being myself on camera and being able to excite people when I’m talking. I truly am a fan of all the teams in the leagues that I cover, so I try to bring that excitement on camera and just make fans excited too because that’s our job.”
Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, email Derek@BarrettMedia.com or find him on X @derekfutterman.
