. >> before his position as senior nba writer for espn, mark spears was a san jose kid with dreams ofn the nba, until one day, in the seventh grade -- >> there was a guy from the warriors that came down and spoke to us and i just went to listen to him and hoping to get some free tickets or a bumper sticker or something, but what he ended up giving me was some words that changed my life, he pointed to me and he said what do you want to do when you grow up? and i said i wanted to play for y'all. and he said well what if you can't, what if you get hurt, what are you going to do? and i said, i don't know. and he said my advice to you, combined what you love and life with what you do in school, and you will love what you do every day. >> he wrote a letter to the san jose mercury news. >> i always tried to answer those letters back then, so i did, and i explained, this is what you've got to do, read as much as you can, write as much as you can. >> i wrote on all three schools i went to and i had three internships, one was unpaid at san jose metro, i got one at the grand rapids press and the

>> reporter: before his position as senior and be a writer for espn's, mark spears was a san jose kidade -- >> there was a guy from the warriors that came down and spoke to us and i went to listen to him in hopes of from getting a ticket or t-shirt or something but he gave me words that changed my life and for some reason he pointed at me and said, what you want to do when you grow up ? and i'm like i want to play for you all. nannies like, what if you cannot and you get hurt or what if your career does not last a long what we you do? i was like i don't know. he said my best advice to you is like if you can combine what you love most in life with what you do best in school you will find a career that you're happy with every day. >> reporter: he wrote a letter to a sportswriter at the san jose mercury news. >> i always try to answer those letters . back in with postage. i did. and i explained this is what you have to do. read as much as you can and write as much as you can. >> i wrote on the school paper at the three schools i went to and had three internships, one was unpaid . i got o

mark spears as always, thank you very much. oakland native malika andrews, host of nba today and nba countdown on espn. >>>>mark has so. many students, so many young journalists. that he takes under. his. wing because he takes so seriously the responsibility of paying it forward. he sees his career as something that only happened because of all of the people who helped pave the way for him, and he is so very committed to making sure that the next generation of journalists has access to that wealth of information. he's always helping young people and different people, and it's something that i admire him because he's very, nonchalant about it. >>>>spears received the ultimate honor for an nba writer in 2023. the curt gowdy award for journalism that welcomes enshrinement into the naismith basketball hall of fame. >>>>pops, i know you're watching. thank you and love you. and let's find a cure for als. >>>>last year, his father, curtis, lost a seven year battle with als. but he did get a father son moment with the hall of fame ring

mark. i don't think there's been an event in recent history where there have been so many different interpretations of what trump had to say. we will own gaza. i watch the alternative media spear, obviously everyone's talking about it. i'm not really sure i agree with anyone because i'm not really sure anyone really knows exactly how we got to this point and maybe just from, you know, wing that we don't know and we still really don't know to this day. what are your thoughts about this? a very bizarre, but very impactful story. i think for us is actually own the gods a and a has should have responsibility for what has been high in that sense. i agree with you. yeah. there's back a, it's right. i obviously trump is talking about it like it's a real estate deal with making just get those pesky palestinians out of palestine. well then they can rebuild. but the new middle east, the riviera and they have like marty they use. it's almost like you think we have to move them out of queens and we and put them in manhattan. yeah, um. the problem is that that is bare land. i mean, we could move, it is right. and the iranians have suggested that we move via is riley's out of israel to sepa