Sophia Jones has always loved talking about basketball, specifically with her father.
Throughout her childhood in Miami, the two liked staying up late watching whatever West Coast game was. Mark Jones, her dad, is a longtime sports broadcaster, having covered countless NBA games over the years for ESPN and ABC. The two would go back and forth with opinions, the natural give and take of a father and daughter speaking a shared language. Jones would point out bad shot selections or criticize a play design; Mark would highlight the stories the crew would weave into the broadcast.
“It never really dawned on me that she might want to get into journalism and sports and television,” Mark said. “It should have been more obvious, I guess, now that I look back.”
In addition to watching and playing basketball whenever she could, Jones shadowed her dad and even sat in on some of his production meetings; Steve Kerr once let her attend such a meeting on her birthday.
A point guard, Jones earned a scholarship to San Jose State and enrolled in the fall of 2020. Her college career so far has been disrupted first by the fallout from a sport-stopping pandemic and then, last September, by a torn left ACL and meniscus. But the knee injury she suffered during a preseason practice has offered…
