By KEVYN SANTIAGO
IU Diversity Sports Media Institute
What started off as an internship became what Mike Wells loves doing today.
For young journalists, Wells has the epitome of a dream job.
“I wanted to be the next Stuart Scott, but I ended up writing more and I found a new passion in journalism,” Wells said
Now, he covers the Indiana Pacers for the Indianapolis Star. But he hasn’t forgotten the road he took to reach his enviable position.
“I ended up getting an internship in Seattle, Washington. I found that to be the most important part of my life," Wells said. "After I took the internship, I drove to Minneapolis to interview players from the Minnesota Vikings and from there I was able to network and get different coverage on different teams. It really helped my career out to get this internship.”
To strengthen his career, Wells used relationship building as a means to improve his status and credibility at the Indianapolis Star and continues to maintain these relationships with the athletes today.
“Athletes need your trust which can be used to your biggest advantage,” Wells said.
He has the opportunity to interview the most elite athletes in the NBA. It’s a job all young journalists would envy.
Wells’ close relationship with Miami Heat’s Jermaine O’Neal suffered when Wells published negative coverage of his performance. O’Neal eventually understood that Wells was doing his job, and that their relationship was more important than just one sour story.
Wells knew there were certain athletes who enjoyed media coverage more than others, but he found that building relationships early on with players was a good way of covering and writing about player updates.
Although Wells has an interesting career, there are drawbacks.
“My biggest sacrifice that I had to make was leaving my family, primarily my daughter and my wife. I’m glad my wife is understanding about my job or else she would be really unhappy with me,” Wells said jokingly.
He later learned that there was no downtime working with a team that practices all year round – whether it’s games, draft preparation, or offseason workouts.
With the constant revolution of the media, Wells found an efficient way to update news whenever he needed. He turned to Twitter as a tool to publish his work in a quick manner.
“It’s an instant form of communication,” Wells said. “The diverseness of media just changed for me and I was able to update everything on a higher and quicker basis.”
Now that Wells has accomplished much in his career, many are left to wonder what’s next for him.
"I love teaching. That was originally what I love to do and what I would like to do in the future, but for now I would like to concentrate on writing and doing what I do best."