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Welcome into the Blue Crank presented by jkine Day, joined by Kate Scott, play by play voice of Philadelphia seventy six Ers and new voice of Madden twenty five.
We're here in Philadelphia.
Your New City brett Yawie, which is a hotel, coffee shop boutique.
Yeah, can I live here? They have everything I need?
I want to live here. Kate.
Let's dive all the way into this career that you've built and Kate, folks that are watching this probably recognize you as the Sixers play by play announcer. Maybe we are now a few years into that journey and you've become just beloved in this city, But it wasn't necessarily always like that. Can you take us through the journey though, of how quickly you've gone from people saying okay, who's this to beloved by so many in this city.
Does it feel quick?
I mean, listen, it feels.
Quick to me based on how far you've come and people in the city pulling you aside to take photos and loving you so much. So what does it feel like to be adored in this way?
Looking at the journey again? Well, you know me, miss ros and I'll try to call you Laurence throughout this fine miss Rose, even though that's my nickname for you. But it's interesting in that it feels like it is in a really long time since I got here, and I have had to work like crazy to get better at my craft, which I think has allowed people to then open themselves up to me and being the team's play by play announcer, and then I guess, as you said, like it has also happened a lot faster.
I gave myself three years.
I knew that from the outside looking in and now being here, that Philly is the most intense, incredible sports city in the country, hands down. I'm saying that not because I'm biased, just because I've been everyplace else, and I knew because of that it was going to be
the hardest to win over. So I give myself three years because I knew I represented so many things, not only a change from a legend in Mark zoom Off, but a woman from California, like so many things that so many of our fans had never had in.
Any of the sports they watched.
So I just said, hey, be patient, keep going to work every day, and hopefully you'll win people over along the way.
Because I say this to you all the time.
You can't tell people to support you, you can't tell people to love you. You have to just give them the space to do that and hope that they come around. So yeah, it's pretty great to be where we are today.
For those that might not remember, what were those first few months like for you?
They were incredibly difficult.
And it wasn't just the first few months, I'd say the first four to five months. And on top of just the huge change. Obviously it was the biggest job of my career, but it was in still in the midst of a pandemic, so all the things that I think would have helped me transition a little bit faster, being able to spend time around the players and the coaches, getting to travel with the team. I was calling all
the road games off monitor. I wasn't able to interact with fans, so I was just kind of this new that felt very removed from everything, including the fans, which was challenging. All my sports system was still back on the West Coast. It was it was the challenge I knew it would be, but then there was added layers to it. But I think I'm nothing if not incredibly mentally tough and resilient and gritty, and all of those things got me here to Philly.
So I just said, Okay.
It's time to double down on all the things you know that you possess and got you here and just keep going to work day after day. And yeah, those first four or five months were incredibly tough, but prepare me for things that I'm doing now. So I'm now in retrospect really grateful that people were incredibly awful to me for a number of months because I got through that, and I know that I got through it. So now I'm just like, bring on, baby, what else you got?
We talk to you and me about doing the work right and the work being as great as it's been. Is why people now have developed such a respect and a fondness for you. When you look at years one through three, what are the games that stand out? What are some of your favorite either memories of just being there or calling a special moment for one of your.
Seventy six ers.
Oh wow, well there were so many this year.
But I think I'll flash back to the game that I think at least fans of our team have reflected to me was really the first game where they thought, oh, Okay, this chick can do this, And it was Joe wasn't playing, and Tyrese goes off and we're at the center right.
And we're already gonna win. Because we're ahead, but it's.
A chaotic possession on the defensive end for the Sixers. Mattis Sabel gets the ball, throws it up and Tyrese is just open.
We're gonna win the game already.
And that was at the end of January, so it had been October, November, December, so it was really like I had made it through what I just talked about, really a really difficult time, and I just said, efy, Kate, just let go, like stop.
Trying to be something or someone.
Just let him hear you, and you know, Sam's really gonna win this game. Tyrese maxon And the response was overwhelming after that game, like, oh, this girl can do this, Like that's the passion. Okay, I see why we hire her. So that was just a great moment for me as well to learn because I think being another, being one of one, one of two, and what I do. It's so hard to be yourself because nobody else looks or sounds like me.
So even though I know being myself is.
What got me here, every day there's things telling me, but don't be that much yourself, Like I don't know, maybe hold that part of k back. But that was a moment that said, no, just lean into you and be you and do it. So that was from your one And then you know this year Joe scored seventy points on the day that Kobe had his day, you know, a decade plus earlier, Tyrese going for career high after career high, taking us to overtime.
Down in San Antonio.
And then the last one, you know, Game five at Madison Square Garden with Tyree's hitting the logo three. And I'm sitting here thinking, first of all, how did I get here? Like this is incredible. I'm sitting at mid court at Madison Square. Guar and Breen and doors are right next to me, like Clyde Frasier and Kenny Albert around there.
This place is ready to explode, and I'm.
Getting paid to be here. This is incredible. So those are a few of the moments that are going to stand out to me. And I just again, I'm pinching myself. Then I'm talking about it with.
You right now.
You mentioned how did I get here? Sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden. So for those that haven't followed your career, how did you get from Clovis, California?
Look at you.
Oh I am well very shout out to Seato Central California. I know everything there is to know.
But for those who don't, how do you get from Clovis, California in your youth to here in Philadelphia in your prime.
You have family and friends who have from the time when you were young told you you could do and be anything, which planted the seed in me that I could do and be anything. And then time and time again, I went up to people who were doing jobs that I wanted to do and was told, woman's never done this before. I don't know, woman's never done I said, okay, cool, can I try? And then I tried, and then I learned how to do it and got better at it.
There's so many jobs, but you know, a quick summary is I was literally a sideline reporter for every team in the Bay Area.
I mean, Lauren laughs at me.
At this point. I started as a radio traffic reporter and did that for five years.
Out of college.
I knew that sports was what I wanted to do. But so many people want to do this. It's the candy shop of life. You want to get paid to cover sports? Yeah, there's eight billion other people who want to do that, So I had to work my tailoff. I worked in radio. I worked in television for the PAC twelve network for NBC Bay Area.
I was flying across the country.
I spent my wife's fortieth birthday at UMass in January. It was seventeen degrees there was one hundred people in the gym. I was calling an E ten women's basketball game. But I knew that if I wanted to call the Olympics. One day, NBC had the Olympics and they needed a voice to call their eighten women basketball package. And I said, I will fly across the country in the middle of January and then take a red eye, you know, back
to get back to call a PAC twelve game. So long story long, I have worked my tail off for almost two decades because I love what I do and I always want to get better. So it was just can I try learn how to do it, learn how to become the best at it? Okay, what's next, Let's keep going, Let's keep challenging ourselves.
You say what's next, And we're sitting here at a good time to talk about what's next for you? Because for those that might not be aware, Kate Scott, the new voice of Madden twenty five. That game coming out sometime around my voice of Madden too, sometime around this recording and release. For those that don't know, this has been a tedious process that started for you in twenty
twenty two. You're in a booth alone a lot of the times, listing every single name of every single player that might play in the game this year, listing every team, listing every type of coverage and play.
You breaking down the football.
Thank you.
How about you tell us though, what it's been like, from learning the news, to keeping the secret, to executing and now getting to see yourself as part of such an incredible project.
It's been so freaking cool.
I mean, I'm an old head, so I played the original iterations of Madden way back in the day when John Madden was actually one of the voices, and they recorded like fifty lines, so there was very little commentary in the game. But since then, I've obviously grown up in Football is one of the other sports I call in addition of basketball, and it is such an ingrained part of the culture that football players say. I learned how to play defense by playing Madden when I was in high school.
Have players.
Now. My recent Seahawks preseason broadcast referenced, oh, that was a hit stick hit, Well, that's like a perfect hit in Madden game. So it is such a part of the vocabin culture of football throughout the world. It's a huge deal. And I knew that I was again gonna be the first. I knew there was gonna be a lot of eyes and ears just waiting for it to be bad, waiting.
For them not to like it.
So I am so thankful to the team at EA and the specific team at Madden that I've been working with. From our first recording early December twenty twenty two, we said, let's blow the roof off this thing. Let's work our asses off. I want you to critique me as hard as you can. Let's get every single line as close to perfect as possible, and then once we hear them
in the game, if they're not, let's rerecord them. And that's where we are now, over one hundred and sixty five hours and counting up another session this afternoon.
But we don't want it to be good.
We want it to be great so that people can't push back on the woman or the other any of that stuff. No the shick knows football. She's great at calling it, like, let's have a blast doing it. So it's and I've learned a ton as an announcer too, because, as you mentioned, like my job is to call what I see, but all of these recordings, we just have a script and we have context, so we kind of we know when the play is going to be firing
in the game. But it is still so hard to replicate the emotion that I feel when I'm again City in mid quarter of Madison Square Garden and this is huge three at the end of a playoff game. You can't replicate that. You can try in a booth, but it's hard to walk in there and be like, okay, fourth quarter of the super Bowl, like let's go. So it's been a great learning process for me as a broadcaster to learn how to find that and create that without having the game.
So yeah, it's been incredible.
And certainly good practice for the Super Bowls that you're going to call it live.
Okay, okay, okay, maybe we'll see You said.
In twenty twenty two you wanted to make it a perfect product, And this is what's someone important had to say about the product that you're creating from Sean Grady, the executive producer of Madden Oh Wow. Sean said, we were set on getting Kate on board for Madden twenty five because she's a rising star in sports broadcasting.
We love what she's.
Doing with the seventy six ers. It was important for us to bring a diverse voice to the game. As the first female commentary voice to call an NFL game on the radio. She came with the expertise and authenticity we were looking for and it's been a perfect fit. Expertise and authenticity dropped off the page for me.
Where do those words hit you?
Well, I'm just suppressed to you reached out to Sean.
Great research five here, journalism, Yeah wow, I'm overwhelmed by that. You know me, those are things I strive to be every day. I know that if I'm an expert at the things that I'm calling.
I say this a lot.
But you can hate my voice, you can hate my face, you can hate that there's a woman that there's another call in your game.
But somewhere inside.
You're still gonna be like, Okay, but I didn't know that stat she just dropped.
Okay, that was pretty good.
So That's why I have always I'm always and I know that I probably will never get there, but I always strive for that expert so that at some point the hate will maybe dissipay. And then I've also learned that being authentic and vulnerable. Again, nobody can be me but me, and I know that that's one of the things that sets me apart, and some people seem to
like that version of me. So I just keep going with it because again, I take things from the broadcasters that I respect, but then I have to put it in my own voice otherwise it's gonna sound fake and forced, right, And I know that that won't fly in Philly, and it's not gonna fly in Philly, it's not gonna fly anywhere. So uh yeah, that's wow. Thank you for sharing that with me.
And they're not the only people that have already given some praise, like Kate Scott for her work on that in twenty five. Tyrese Maxi has also been a vocal is the best supporter of you and your work. So for those that don't know, he just saw a clip of what the game looked like, reposted it, called you
the Goat. I haven't even seen this yet, what is does it mean to hear words like that from a person that's in the position that Tyrese is, Maybe in the context of now the years you guys have shared together.
Yeah, man, you're just you're hitting me less and right of misrose and to give Kate her flowers. Know though that I'm almost more used to the criticy and the hate. I'm still uncomfortable getting compliments.
Well, Tyrese Maxie, thank you.
I think first and foremost, that speaks to who he is, the young man that his parents raised, because he's not on my payroll and he doesn't need to do that and we haven't even talked about this yet, So that's incredible, and I think speaks to who he is. And I think he already at such a young age, understands what
his voice and his endorsement and his platform mean. And that means so much to me, because you know, you hope as a broadcaster that's somewhere along the line you're going to get to be the voice of a great team or a great player, a great moment. But the fact that I was lucky enough to arrive here right when the Tyrese Maxi train was leaving the station. I mean, I'm grateful for that every day.
So I know that I'm just getting started.
He's just getting started, and I can't wait to see where both of our.
Journeys take us.
One more question about Tyres as we transitioned back into your broadcasting career and the role model that you are to so many people. Tyree shared a story in that first season that you guys share together. You now have a really beautiful special relationship, I think with Tyree's but back then you were just the person that was calling the games when he was at home with covid or injured watching on TV, and he said, I loved Kate.
From the jump. She does such a great job.
I want to be like her in my career after my current career. This, of course, is twenty one year old Tyrese at this point and has talked sense about sometimes turning the volume down on other games and doing a Kate Scott impression.
So we've talked about how special Tyres is to you, But just.
To know that you're a role model for so many, not just young women, but young men in positions like his, what does that mean to you?
Yeah? That's I mean, and you thankfully have brought this to my attention because I'm still it still blows my mind because I'm often asked, you know, what does it mean to inspire young women? And thankfully for this one's like hold up, hold up. But it's not just young women, it's not. And that is, over the last couple of years become one of the many incredible layers of what we're doing here because I never in a zillion years
thought that that would happen. I didn't think that I would even be inspiring young women, let alone NBA players who are on their way to superstardom and other young men who come up to me at the games, because just the same way that Mark was the voice of so many generations of Sixers fans. And again it's hard for me to wrap my head around. I hope to
have that opportunity to do that for everybody. And there's going to be women and men and everybody else, and it's just going to be, well, that's our Sixers announcer. It doesn't matter what she is or where she's from, but she's ours.
So yeah, that's wild.
When young men, women, everybody in Philly looks back at Joel Embiide's MVP campaign or the rise of Tyreese Maxie. Those highlights and I remind.
You all outside I know are going.
To be coupled with your voice. Yeah, so now I'm curious. The blueprint was born out of the idea that the people before us set a blueprint or a path for those of us to follow, right, those of us following to follow. Yeah, and you also leave one behind for the people that are following you. So for you when you were growing up, when you were Tyrese.
Maxie, it's been a minute, as your kids says.
Stop, who were you looking too to lay the blue print that you've been able to follow.
Yeah, well that's the thing, like, there were so few women doing this, you know this story. I didn't start calling games until after I graduated from college because I didn't hear a woman calling a game for the first time until I heard Beth Mowens calling a Mountain West football game on the West Coast at like ten PM on a Friday night when I was a junior in college.
So up until then, I had been writing and sideline reporting and learning how to shoot and starting to delve into a little hosting and anchoring because I thought those were the ceilings for me. But now looking back, I was always drawn to the sports centers hosted by Robin Roberts, by Linda Combe anytime Susie Colber was on ESPN too, But.
I was always drawn to women.
Leslie Visser and Andrew Kramer are reporting before the NFL game, and I didn't understand it at the time, and now it makes sense to me, right because they were the few voices and faces that looked and sounded like me. But to be honest, there wasn't that many that I knew of at the time time. One of my favorite parts of this is now that I'm older and thanks to social media, there was a lot of women doing this. You just didn't know their story outside of their market.
But it is so important to me to connect with as many women as I can and thank them because I know that I'm not here sitting with you having this blueprint conversation without them, so that has been one of the best parts of this. I'm getting to see another one in a couple of days for NFL preseason who we've never met, but she's been crushing it on Fox NFL broadcast for years and I can't wait to say thank you. I'm not here calling the Seahawks game tomorrow night without you.
And then, as we've talked.
About, you know, I love to mentor, so I'm going to try to make this industry look as reflective as the audience of sports fans as possible. So yeah, I mentor, and I'm trying to pass all that love and inspiration onto the next generation.
And you're doing it well.
And I will now take the opportunity to say thank you for what you've done, because I don't sit at the table without you either. What do you hope you're leaving behind for the people that get the privilege of knowing you personally, or just the ones that are watching on TV somewhere out here in Philadelphia somewhere around What do you hope that they're learning from you right now?
But if you love something with everything you have, you can do it. If you put in all the energy and efforts and lead with kindness and love and strive for that expertise, you can do it. And doesn't matter if people who don't look or sound like you haven't done it before. Why not you?
Right?
Noe Lyle said it at the Olympics. Why not you?
Why not me.
So I think that's what I would love to leave people with, and it's not just for sports broadcasting. Those are some of my favorite conversations I've had with fans who've come up to me at games and are like, I don't even like basketball.
This my first Sixers game.
It was a lot of fun.
But I just know that you are one of the very few to do this.
And let me tell you about the industry I'm in and how much your story has inspired me to do things that I didn't think I could do. Which again, I'm getting paid to be here at the center calling Sixers games and my presence is inspiring you.
That is incredible.
So, yeah, you mentioned how tough the city of Philadelphia is. We're sitting here in Philly. We're at Yowie. It's a hotel, a coffee shop, a boutique. It's been spectacular to be immersed in this space with you in a.
Don s Daily T shirt.
I know I had to rep Come on, let go, How would you.
Describe Philadelphia and it's sports culture that you are now really synonymous.
With one day soon already?
Okay, how do you.
Describe it to people that haven't experienced Philadelphia?
Sports culture.
I say to people that there's no competition. I've been to small towns with one hundred thousand at a college football stadium. I've been to big cities across the country with big teams, just like you're in Philly. We live and breathe our sports teams, like our mental health depends on how our team did the night before. And I have talked to psychologists and therapists who say that's true. So if y'all could win tomorrow night, we would really appreciate it. It is our blood, like the city sets
down on Sundays and it's go birds. You don't say hello, which is so special to me because sports has been my life and has been pumping through my bloodstream since I was a little girl. But also, and one of the reasons I wanted to come here, and one of the reasons I now love being here is they make you earn it. There's a grit, there's a chip on
the shoulder, and people are honest and direct. Everyone always said, oh, they're rude, I don't know, and I'm like, no, there's a difference between being rude and caring so much that you're gonna say, Kate, this was good. But if you did this, I think you can make it even better. And I don't think you say things like that unless you love and care about somebody the way that this city loves and cares about its sports teams. And now I'm a very small piece of that. So that was
a very roundabout answer. But it feels like I've come home because, as I've explained, grit and tenacity and mental toughness and you don't think I can do this, Okay, freaking watch me. That has been me since I was a little kid playing soccer with ninety boys at recess, and that feels like Philly to me. But then when you do good, it's like, bring it over, let's make out like you're my favorite person in the whole world.
Not you, but you know, like people are sliding down polls and kissing each other because their team won, and I love that. I think that's what life should be, and that's what Philly is to me.
This is either going to be the clunkiest or sw This transition that I mean I just talked about made it out, So that's not the part I.
Was latching on too.
But you mentioned how attached people are to Philly sports it's clunky Philly sports that they might you might need to talk to psychologists to therapists about it.
Right, I see where you go.
He talked where we started recording. About the fact that you're doing a ton of interviews these days. There's a lot that you're getting to talk about, and there's a lot you're repeating yourself over. But I know something that's near and dear to both of us is talking about the side of things of your success that people maybe didn't see, don't see, never saw, and don't get to talk about.
And that for us has been mental health.
Right, that was a great transition.
I put those words out there because I was hoping, see this is she's good at what she does. I was like, I'm just gonna love these out here and see if you took it and yammed it down, thank you. So I tried to distract you with the making up. Okay, I won't say that anymore.
So, yes, you did a great job.
So mental health, can you tell us a little bit about how far you've come and why it's important to you to bring attention to that topic when it's not something that you can always open up.
It but also isn't this a great representation of how difficult and clunky sometimes talking about mental health can be. Like you just you just have to talk about it. You can't just be like ms ros and what's going on. I'm anxious today. I had to take a pill to be able to come and sit down here today. I'm dealing with a horrible bout of depression right now. But I still have to call four sixers games in the next six nights. So here we go, So here we go.
Everything's great, We'll give me smiling.
I think, first of all, thank you for bringing that up and creating this space where we can talk about it, because I think a lot of people I don't know, but I think some people look at me and think happy and joyous and.
Energetic, which I am and I have always been.
And I know that was one of the things that took people a while to overcome, like that's fake, She's not that energetic all the time. And now people realize, no, that's just case cheerleader all the time. But I also have struggled with depression and anxiety for a long time. Depression runs in my family, from my grandfather to my mom, to my sister to me. Just the same way that other things can run in your family and your bloodstream.
Depression is one of those things for me, and I am so fortunate to have a supportive family who has wanted me to get help, who hasn't looked down on me, and saying you can overcome that yourself, because for a long time I thought I could. I thought I was quitting by asking for help, because again, former athlete, I can get over anything myself. And then somebody in sports reflected to me, like, hey, you tol me your meniscus
in high school. Were you just going to play through it or did you have to go get surgery and then have to do rehab for a long time.
Your brain is no different.
Your brain is hurting right now, So go get help because we need you one hundred percent. And I'm so thankful for that conversation because I've had a therapist now on and off for over a decade. I've been lucky enough to not talk to her for a number of years. I've been on antidepressants, I on occasion have to take anti anxiety medication. I've struggled with panic attacks because life is hard. So I just wanted people to know that
that you can be multiple things all at once. You can be energetic and joyous and happy and also be in a really dark, depressive episode that people don't know about it because, as my therapist just told me, I'm a very high functioning depressive. So some people may not be able to get out of bed. I can call Game five at Madison Square Garden and be in a really tough mental space.
But I'm just able to do that. Everybody's different. I wasn't.
I was in a good space then, but yeah, So I just really want people to know that it's okay to not be okay. I'm so grateful that that sentence has kind of permeated society over the last few years.
It's okay to ask for help. You're not quitting.
You are investing in yourself and your people and everything you love because you're saying, I want to stay here, and I'm going to put in the effort and the work to get back to myself so that I can be my best version of myself.
You've given me a lot of gifts in this mentorship and friendship, but probably the biggest one is the shared understanding of what it's like to wake up.
You mentioned it.
Okay we have six or six days, four six Ers games in the next six days, and I'm feeling extremely depressed and I don't know how to get out of bed this morning.
And go live this life that we've worked really.
Hard to be a part of it, and that millions of people would trade us for in it, for getting over yourself get to work.
How could you not be happy waking up in Toronto ahead of a playoff series? Like so for anyone that might be experiencing something like that, that is waking up on a Monday with a week ahead that looks exciting, but they're having a hard time getting excited about it.
Yeah, well what do you say to those people? I understand, I've been there, I still go there from time to time. It's okay, first of all, and if you put in just little bits effort, right, We've talked about this.
Getting outside helps both of us. Just finding the.
Energy to get outside and go for a mosie. Doesn't even have to be a walk, just like a mosie. Something about the green and the sunlight like helps me. Sitting on a bench, you know, I love to find a good park bench and just watching the world go by helps me. It doesn't help everybody connecting with a friend. And I think one of the really important things is sometimes when we're in those spaces, it's hard to reach out, right. So if you have somebody in your life that you
think is dealing with this, reach out to them. Don't think you're bugging them, and know that you may not get a response. But I cannot tell you how many I still have texts from friends who simply said, thinking about you, Kate, I can't wait to see you again soon, And they don't know that that got me out of an incredibly difficult moment, those words, Hey, I'm thinking about you.
I matter to somebody.
Wow, Okay, I'm going to get up and put on my clothes and go to shoot around.
I can do this today.
So yeah, it's it's difficult. We can all get through it together. Whatever helps make you a little bit happier, if it's getting outside, if it's getting that cup of coffee, if it's listening to.
That song or talking to that one friend.
Yeah, what are I mean?
Is it getting outside for you too?
Yeah, it's definitely. So it's twofold. It's going outside.
My problems don't seem as heavy to me when I'm outside.
And when i'm moving, yeah, for sure.
And then secondarily, though, as you mentioned, when getting outside isn't moving the needle for you, understanding what does for me?
That was therapy for me.
I was really blessed to access it at a young age and then need to return to it. Right it's way too inaccessible and that's why it's important. When you give me the floor, I'm gonna say that we need to do some work on completely agree making it more accessible, and that there's no shame in deciding to do it for women, for men who really struggle looking for these things.
Yeah, yeah, I think. And I'll just end with this. Tormimoniscus got hit by a car that was traveling forty miles an hour, moved across the country to get this sixer's job. People all over the world hate me and they don't even know me. The hardest thing I've ever done was asked for help because I thought it was quitting when it was actually the bravest thing I've ever done. Because I don't know if I'd be here having this conversation right now if I hadn't so on.
Behalf of a former kid that really needed to hear what you just shared thank you. I think it's really important that folks in positions like yours are providing representation. Obviously, some of it jumps off the page for you being the first woman to do what you're doing in multiple realms, speaking about mental health, speaking about finding your wife and what it's meant to be gay and from California and a woman like not just about pow right coming into
this space. So for that community that you represent with so much grace, where does that fit into your life today?
And what do you say to that group of people that appreciate you so much?
Well, you know, we've known each other for three years now. I'm looking around the room, known everybody in here for a while now, and I mean, it's just a part of who I am. Right, It's not a big deal because it's one of the things that I have learned over the years. If you lead with it and just make it a part of your normal from the start, then everybody again can have their own reactions. But it's not like it is what it's it's not breaking news.
It's like, Okay, she has blonde hair, she's from California, she wears a lot of pumas, and like she's gay.
So it's just there's plenty of other things I would say about you to be there, okay, but those things you experience too much.
But also I learned a number of years ago that if I just made I get one of those things, then again, people can process it on their own if they need to do any processing.
But a lot of people don't at this point.
But when I came out to my parents over twenty years ago, now I'll get ing up there, my mom started crying and I was like, oh crap.
I thought she knew.
I thought she was getting me supportive. Why she crying?
And it was my junior year in college and she said, no, I'm not crying. I knew.
I knew the friend you brought home for Christmas wasn't your roommate.
And I'm like, good job. Mom.
She said, I'm just so scared for you, Kate, because you're already trying to be a woman in sports.
And again this was two thousand.
She's like, there's so few women and can you name anybody, man or woman in any broadcasting job who's gay?
And I paused and.
I thought, wow, I mean I know some who are, but at that time they weren't out, and I just said, no, Mom, I don't. She just said, I'm so scared for you. It's already going to be hard. Are you sure that you want to make it that much harder? And I didn't know at the time, because you know, I was young and thought I was going to conquer the world and had no idea that I would be here, but hoped that one day I would be in a space like this.
But that conversation taught me, Hey, if I ever get to.
A place where I have a platform like this, where I'm confident in my abilities, where I know that everybody I love and respect knows that I got this job because I'm really good at it, then I would love to use this platform to show the rest of my community they can do this too, because again, I have the best job in the world, So why not use it to lift up other people, to show other people who maybe thought that they couldn't do something like this
that they can. So, yeah, I think you've probably noticed over the last six months, I've become more out open.
Right.
Went to Pride this past summer with the Sixers.
Contingent, which was wonderful for me.
Because now I feel like I've proven to enough people I'm a play by play announcer who also happens to be all these other things.
So I'm gonna hopefully, as I feel comfortable, lean.
More into those things and do what I can to lift the other parts of me and communities that I represent up.
As you continue to lift different groups of people up, as we come to a close on the blueprint presented by JKJ, I want you to speak directly to some of those groups.
Oh okay, so let's start with the kids.
That watch you at home, young, my kids, anyone that's watching six sixers as a kid.
Who are going to grow up with memories of what it was like to watch Joel and Tyrese and Paul George play together, and they're going to associate those memories with your voice.
Not just those kids the kids that are going to be playing Madden over.
The next few years decades of time that are going to hear your voice there.
What do you hope that they know?
Oh?
Wow, Well, like I've said a ton of times, this is the best job in the world. But I think you see it often with athletes or musicians where it's like, oh, the overnight success. No, I've worked six to seven days a week for twenty plus years now, and nights and weekends and holidays, and as I mentioned, birthdays on the other side of the country and freezing temperatures.
To get the coolest looking.
Jobs, you have to work really hard in the dark for a number of years. You know. Years ago, I flew across the country, stayed on my friend's couch because I had gotten a ten minute meeting at NBC in Stanford, Connecticut, borrowed my friend's car because I didn't realize I could take a train to Stanford, went up there simply to
shake somebody's hand. Because I was living in California, most of the games I was calling were at eight o'clock Pacific time, and I knew that everybody back here was just and I just said, thank you so much for making time today.
I'm Kate Scott.
I just wanted you to put a face and maybe a little personality to a name that, hopefully, over the next few years you'll be reading as I make my way up on the West coast. And he was dumbfounded. He was like, wait, you didn't come here to ask for a job. I was like, no, I mean down the road I hope to call the Olympics for NBC, but I know that in order to do that, I need to introduce myself to you, prove myself on NBC affiliates on the West Coast, and just keep working hard.
And he was like, oh, okay, and then we talked about his daughter's soccer team for a while, again because just making an impression. Two weeks later, I got the call from them, Hey, we have some A ten women's basketball games. Can you fit that in between your Pac twelve schedule? And the answer was no, but my answer was yes, Yeah, where do you need me, Let's go. So I used every flight to prep for the different games.
I was covering four different leagues at that point, men's and women's college, but it was so many names and teams, and again, I don't know how I did it, but now that I'm here, those moments propel me on the tough weeks where we've got four games in six days, And because of that, a few years later, they asked me to call a hockey game for the first time because they trusted me, they knew I was a play by play announcer. They had faith in me, and that
led to the Olympics. So I think this was a really long way of telling kids, these are the most incredible jobs, and it can be in any industry, not just in sports, but usually the coolest jobs. It takes really hard, consistent work to get there. And that's why one of my favorite sayings is, little by little one
walks far. You know, the old saying was there's no elevator to success, which is another play on it, but one step out of time from traffic reporting to siline reporting, to hosting, to anchoring, into calling high school sports to calling college sports, calling men's college sports, to hear. And I wouldn't have it any other way because now I have such an incredible army behind me rooting me on
because they know that I put in the work. I didn't luck into this, I didn't have somebody that helped me get this job.
I earned it.
So and there's nothing sweeter than that. I don't think, so.
Little by little one walks far. And you always know my other saying, just.
Be you and do the work. Wake up every day, figure out a way to be yourself because nobody else can, and then put in the work and it's going to take you far and far.
Now, is Philadelphia, and I can tell you for sure. We've talked to children. There are so many adults in the city of Philadelphia that would love to have a beer with you.
I do it. Let us do it.
Let's just face them out at games the way people see you walking up to the booth.
Oh my god, it's kids. Got Okay?
Do you want some of my beer? Like crazy?
Yes, the answer is yes, but I probably shouldn't on game day.
So, because you can't always have a beer with everybody in this city.
That wants to, Let's figure out a way to do that though.
What's your message to grown people that have embraced you now that want.
To know you better.
Well, first of all, thank you.
That means more than any of you will know, because this is the hardest sports town in America and probably one of the hardest in the world.
But truly thank you because I know that I was such a change for so many.
It was a change for me. I grew up listening to men call sports. I think that speaks to what incredible people they are. To My favorite messages, and I posted some of them are the past year or two.
I hated you at first. Oh, I wanted you to go back to California.
You were the worst. I'd never heard a chick.
I don't know where this voice is coming from, but there it is.
That's probably what they sound like in their basements.
Yep, that's what I imagine.
But I gave you time and this one game and this one play, and my friend told me I was a jerk, so I started listening again. And now I can't watch a game without your energy, like it just makes me so happy. I get so pissed when you and all aren't calling games in the playoffs, and so just thank you for giving this new and different who is me a chance because I know that it was a lot. Your support now means everything to me, and
just you wait, we're just getting started. We're going to be one of the best in the NBA very soon, one of the best broadcasters across all sports very soon. And a lot of it is because of you all and the sport that you have given me in the inspiration and motivation you give me.
Every day to be the best, because Philly is the best and I love being here.
You mentioned Beth Mowens as someone that you found to set a blueprint for you when you were around twenty one years old, the exact same age Tyrese Maxie was when he found you as a.
Blue print before a career.
Yes, said, junior in college, so unless you were wad or way behind.
It was on my twenty first birthday. I celebrated by coming out to.
My parents'ctacular and watching Beth Mowens, who has now become a friend.
So what I want to know for the last group that I.
Hope that you'll share a message with to the women that came before you, what do you want to say to them?
Oh? Wow, thank you, thank you.
I am not here without you. And I laugh when people say, oh ye have it's so hard. I saw those mean tweets that people sent you, and I just start laughing because I'm like, bro, you have no idea. People have no idea what Beth and Leslie and Andrew and Claire Smith and Susie and Susan Waldman and so many of my mentors went through. The people they were simply trying to cover were literally spitting in their faces and telling them to go away just for doing their jobs.
And that was twenty five years ago.
Was not that long.
So their support of me now it again. It gives me the chills because I am not here having this conversation calling Sixers games without them. They are the blueprint. They were ahead of their time. They haven't gotten nearly the shine that they should have that I am now getting because of them.
So I try every day to work my.
Tail off to make them proud and to shout them out because I'm not here without them.
They can call you anything they want, but they can't say you're not grateful, that you're not a hard worker, and that you're not one of simply the best people to have a conversation with you. So I hope that everybody enjoys this as.
Much as I enjoyed too chatting with you. Kate Scott, Thank you for joining us on the Blueprint presented by JKJ
