Mock Interview-sports journalist

Tell us something about yourself:

My name is Adia.  I was born to a loving family with two elder sisters.  The neighborhood in which I grew up also had quite a number of children so I never lacked playmates.  This was how I first developed a keen interest in all kinds of sports.  When I was in elementary school, I joined the table tennis team and the badminton team.  Then when our national baseball team won the silver medal in the Olympic games in 1992 and the whole country reveled in baseball fever, I became so fascinated by the game that pitching and catching became a daily event for me and my friends.  I also became a fan of the professional baseball league, CPBL with the Uni-President Lions as my favorite team.  

In junior high school, my interests further expanded to include basketball.  One of my sisters was working for the Hong-Kuo Pro-Basketball Team at the time, which gave me unlimited access to the stadium and the games.  I am quite fluent in sports language and familiar with player- or team- profiles and would like to devote myself to a career of a sports journalist.  I would like to add that my major in college was English, which has equipped me well for the field in international sports.  I have had many writing courses and communication courses, which I am sure will help me write very impressive sports stories.

We noticed that you have not had much experience working as a journalist.  Why do you want to work for us?

  Well, of course it would be great to have a job that can combine your interests and what you have been trained for.  As a sports fan and a well-trained writer and interviewer, I am sure I have the passion and the tools to do the job right.   I might mention that I』ve been a devoted reader of your newspaper.  Recently I noticed that there are increasing pages on sports, which I find very surprising and exciting.  I』m sure I can contribute a great effort to these pages and the company as well.

Well, let』s give it a try then.  How would you write up the NBA fight scene that took place on the court on November 19th?

Well, the Indiana Pacers were dominating the defending NBA champion, Detroit Piston, with few minutes to the end.  It started when Detroit player Ben Wallace went in for a lay-up and was fouled hard by Ron Artest.  In response, Wallace pushed Artest back very hard.  The two players then began shoving at each other near center court.  When the quarrel seemed to have died down a bit, suddenly Artest was struck by a cup thrown from the stands.  Artest jumped up, charged into the stands, and began throwing punches at the fan.  His teammate, Stephen Jackson joined the fight right away and the scene became really wild.  

I think the whole incident happened because Piston was falling behind and was about to lose the game.  As there has been a history of rivalry between these two teams, the tension was really high throughout the game.  This explains Ben Wallace』s reaction to the hard foul.  But it was not the action of the athletes that was troubling.  What』s more outrageous was Artest punching the fan outside the court.  Although the spectators should not interfere in what goes on in the court, no professional player should behave the way Artest did either.  Still, as the damage is already done to the audience, the public, and the league』s reputation, the NBA must deal with this problem properly in order to maintain the integrity of the games.