Meet Edwin Garcia

We were lucky to catch up with Edwin Garcia recently and have shared our conversation below.

Edwin, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

My work ethic comes from my parents. They’ve always been hard workers and instilled in me the motto, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” It may sound silly, but my other inspiration is Kobe Bryant. I try to adopt the Mamba mentality in my work, and when I need a boost and feel myself getting tired or slipping, I think, “What would Kobe do?” and I find the energy to get my work done and do it at a high level.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I work for Silver Screen & Roll and Swish Appeal to cover basketball at the highest level possible. That means full-time daily coverage of the Lakers, Sparks, and women’s basketball in general.

It’s challenging work but so worthwhile to watch this beautiful sport daily and cover everything from news stories to recaps, features, and articles.

The part everyone relishes with my job is attending Lakers games live, and while that is a blessing and a privilege, it’s a fraction of what the job entails. Most of the time, it involves constant writing, coming up with ideas, transcribing interviews, and lots of driving. For me, it’s important to enjoy everything involved in the beautiful struggle. To be the me who gets to go to Laker games, you also have to be the me who is working until the wee hours of the night to make sure fans are getting the best coverage possible from the sites I work for.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three key qualities a journalist must have include being a great reader, an even better writer, and brave. You have to see what others are doing in your field. Maybe you don’t read things too close to your team or specialty as much, but it’s important to read. Other people have things you can learn from, and they literally show you that work online. The writing is obvious, I get paid to watch sports beasue I write about them well. You have to love writing, or else you just won’t make it. The last one is so important, you must be brave. You might have to write something negative about a player or the team you are covering. If it’s true and your truth, you must say it. The people rely on you to use that access to inform them about what’s happening with the team. If it’s good, report it, if it’s bad report it as well. If you aren’t willing to be honest and have solid values, this is not a job you should take.

For those who want to try it starts where you are at. I was told to watch the sport as close as you can at the highest level you can. That might be high school or college maybe even pro but start from there, and learn from those better than you. That could be asking questions, getting mentorship or again, reading what the people you look up to are writing.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

Whenever I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I ask myself three things: “Have you worked out, eaten, and slept?” I fix whatever I’m missing from these three as soon as possible. If all seems fine, then I look for movement. Walking is so important and it helps relax me and unwind and get away from the everyday grind for a moment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/authors/edwin-garcia
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecreates88/
• Twitter: https://x.com/ECreates88

Image Credits

Photographs by Dia Miller