(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with an interview I did on our sister series, "Lessons in Leadership", with a leader in the area of sports media.

John Fanta is a play-by-play broadcaster, reporter with Fox Sports.

I talked with John Fanta.

And by the way, he's a new dad.

Talk about the changing face of sports media, what media leadership really means in the area of sports, and frankly, what it all means to consumers of sports media.

Check out John Fanta.

- Good to see you, new dad.

- Steve, that's the best title, the best introduction I'll ever receive right there.

Yes, it's great to see you too, my friend.

And yes, we are new parents, myself, my wife, Victoria.

Our baby boy, Andrew, born on May the seventh.

Amazing.

A miracle.

- Describe, again, for those of us who have been blessed enough, fortunate enough to be parents, and also when they get older, I'll just tell you, John, it doesn't get any easier.

But that being said, (John laughs) you've accomplished so much as a broadcaster, as a professional in the field in such a short period of time, it doesn't even remotely compare to being a parent, does it?

- No, it does not.

And it also makes, you as a husband, and now as a father, one million times more grateful for one, your wife.

Two, your mother.

Three, mothers everywhere, because what a mother has to go through.

My wife was in labor for 36 hours, and then went into a C-section.

So, that was unlike any experience that I've ever been a part of.

But Steve, throughout all of it, she maintained such a positive energy, such a positive outlook.

It really just served, every minute of that served as a reminder of why I decided, why I knew right when I met her that she was going to be my wife.

And, you know, you walk into the C-section room and it's all white.

You feel like you're in "Bruce Almighty."

And I'll never forget Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All" was playing over the speaker.

And that moment is just beautiful.

It's unbelievable.

It's amazing.

And our son, Andrew, is doing well.

And I learn something new every day, Steve.

That's what makes it so cool.

You know, it's like us, but on steroids, times 20, if not more.

Every interview we do, or every event that we cover, we learn something new.

But being a parent, there's nothing like it.

It's hard to sum up.

- You know, you got me thinking back.

Our boys are 22, 21.

Our daughter's 14.

I have an older son from my first marriage, who's 31.

And I think to myself, I try to remember back to when they were, Andrew, like little babies, and I have a hard time doing that.

That's why I'm constantly scrolling through my phone, looking at pictures of our kids.

But I got to ask you, over your left shoulder, the Fantas now have a new member of the starting five.

(John laughs) Tell us what the heck that is.

- So, this is a jersey that, you know, this is a great story on leadership, actually.

It applies to you.

This is the jersey that the NBA, the NBA gifted us for our wedding.

- No.

- Yes.

So, how did I get really connected with the NBA?

You never know when your number's gonna get called.

This was seven years ago.

I was at a bar, Mills, in Hoboken, right on Washington Street.

And I was having a Miller Light, Steve, on a Saturday night, just totally chilling.

And I was standing at the bar, and up comes this guy, and he asked me, you know, "Are you John Fanta?

Are you the college basketball guy?"

We end up talking for a half hour.

We talk about what you and I talk about when we.

- Hold on.

By the way, we're talking about.

Hold on one second.

While we're talking, my phone goes off.

Who's on this?

It's Charles Barkley and the guys that were just on TNT who are moving.

I swear.

I'm not even making it.

Now Shaq's talking.

Do me a favor.

Can you shut that off?

I don't know how it happened, but while you were talking, Ernie Johnson and the great team from TNT came up on my phone.

Don't ask me.

So, now you're in a bar, you're drinking.

- Responsibly.

- Responsibly.

It's a Miller Light.

- Yep.

Yep.

- Go ahead.

A guy come up, "Are you John Fanta?"

- Yep.

And I say, "Yeah, I am" and we start talking basketball.

And he went to Oregon State, and he's a, you know, he's a hoops junkie.

And about 30 minutes goes by, he goes, "Well, you know, my name's Matt.

And ironically enough, I'm in a director position with the NBA's broadcast department."

And I say, "Oh my goodness," you know, "it's great to meet you."

He goes, "You know, look, I know that this is pretty fresh."

He goes, "I didn't mean to have an interview at the bar, this is by chance, but I've actually got an event in two weeks, and would you be available to call it?

Would you be available to do it?"

I was fresh out of college, single, didn't have much going on.

I said, "Of course.

Where and when?"

- By they way, tell everyone where you went to college.

- I went to Seton Hall University.

- Just plugging our partners.

Go ahead.

- Yeah, I went to Seton Hall, right here.

Right here in New Jersey.

- Right.

- And Matt, Matt said, Matt was actually starting to get his law, not his law, his masters at Seton Hall.

And we just hit it off.

And I ended up doing a, you know, a minor event for the NBA.

Out of that, has sprung an amazing relationship of friendship in which I do some NBA games throughout the year.

I do some world feed games when USA Basketball is in action, for FIBA and whatnot.

I sit in the Barclays Center.

If you're ever at the NBA Draft, I'm on the in-house show at the desk.

I get to work draft night.

It is the most fun experience because everything's happening in the moment and you're reacting to it.

That all started at a bar.

You never know when something could happen.

That's how this jersey becomes reality.

- That's wild.

And by the way, since you never know this, as well, I was actually going through my Facebook feed and that's why I should have shut it off, but it's ironic because I have a question here.

Literally, we're taping this early May, excuse me, early June.

As we speak, one of the greatest broadcast teams connected to the NBA with Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny "The Jet", right, and Ernie, Ernie Johnson, right, they're moving from TNT, breaking up.

What made, what makes that team what has made that team so great?

Because that's, to me, when I sit there and watch, not only do they know the game, but it's entertaining as well.

- Authenticity.

Not afraid to take some shots.

And be able to take a beating from time to time, but all in good fun.

Having energy, but in a loose way.

Steve, they don't force the issue.

You can't on TV.

It's supposed to be organic.

It's supposed to be authentic.

- Yeah, like when your phone goes off, when your Facebook feed goes off.

I know the editors wants to cut this out by the way, but keep talking.

- You want to be relatable.

Those guys are so relatable.

Ernie does such an amazing job of keeping things on the roadway.

I think he is an outstanding one of one host in television sports history.

Charles Barkley doesn't care what anybody thinks, and it's very refreshing in that regard.

He says things, he gives analysis.

He's gotten to this point where he is close to irreplaceable, as close as it gets in this industry.

And Shaq has grown as a result.

And I think Kenny, Kenny's very underrated for I think the energy he brings, the different things he does.

He jogs to the screen, breaks down some pictures at halftime.

- Hold on one second, John.

You remember, you know the video when he was jogging to, it was around Christmas time?

- Yes.

- And he pushed Shaq into the Christmas tree.

And you know that's not planned.

It's not canned.

It's just, and then Shaq's feet are sticking up from underneath the tree.

You... - What that does is it gives you, the non-sports fan, a laugh, entertainment.

And you say, "You know what?

I'm captivated."

I think that that's what that crew does so well.

They relate to the basketball fan, but they've also reeled in basketball fans as a result of how welcoming they are, but also how human they are.

The "Inside the NBA" crew for Turner has been absolutely outstanding for basketball.

They all deserve, that crew deserves to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

- And they're moving over to ESPN.

- Yes, but Turner will still produce it, which is interesting.

You know, ESPN makes that move, but Turner will still produce it.

I think that that's fascinating in this current media landscape.

- Well, let's speak about the media landscape.

Put this under our banner on "Media Leadership."

Put the lower third up as we're talking.

And this is John Fanta, who is, one day he will wind up being in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame because already in his ridiculously young career he's done some pretty great things.

I got to ask you this.

When you're talking about the team with Ernie, and Shaq, and Barkley, and Kenny, Kenny Smith, the relatability to their audience, their audience's relatability to them, you were talking to us about this.

You started messing around on Cameo, did you not?

- I did, yeah.

- Remind people what Cameo is for some old school folks and others who may not know, and what it has to do with fan engagement, interaction.

Go ahead.

- So, Cameo is an app in which influencers, broadcasters, movie stars, singers can hop on, have their own page, and you, the fan, can request them for a certain amount of money.

I'll say right now, if you hop onto my page, it will be something that I fully believe is affordable for just about anybody because I want to engage with the fans, the fans are who I do this for.

At the end of the day, it really is the truth, besides my family.

But, I think it's been very cool.

In March, my agency, you know, came to me.

I'm proud to be with Creative Artists Agency, at CAA, and they said, "Hey, you should do this.

It's March Madness Fans love your energy during this time of year.

You should hop on Cameo and do videos of different things."

And I, Steve, at first, I'm like, really, is this gonna be the right idea?

Am I doing the right thing here?

I don't want to, you know, I don't want to shill.

I don't want to do anything like that.

But they're like, no, no, no.

They're like, this is how you converse with fans.

This is how you engage with fans.

Steve, we're talking now hundreds of requests from different fans.

I've been so humbled.

"Can you tell my dad 'Happy Birthday'?"

"Can you tell my son, who's a long time supporter of yours, how much it means to you to have him supported.

What you think St. John's ceiling's gonna be?"

"Can you break down UConn's roster?"

For fans.

It's unbelievable.

- That's Cameo.

By the way, no disrespect, John.

I love, it's great that you're doing that.

For me, particularly when you're connected to public broadcasting, it doesn't feel right for me.

For you, it works, correct?

- It works, because a lot of what I have seen, and I think is interesting right now in the current, especially in the sports world, Steve.

Your social media brand, and following, and who you are in that space has never been more important.

Never.

- Real quick on this, you're saying what we are doing, traditional legacy media, not gonna be enough?

- Well, I think it's important, and I think there are ways that we're seeing legacy media even come back a little bit more than people expected to see.

The last couple years it's been, "Well, this is gonna move to this streaming platform," and "This is gonna move to this streaming platform."

Streaming platforms are integral, they're very important.

But if you look at the television ratings on broadcast news, on broadcast stations, rather, the big networks, we're still seeing an appetite for that.

I think it's how the two merge.

So, I think the more that they both engage with one another and embrace one another, the better it's gonna be for all parties.

But, you know, people, right now, the consumer, they're having to pay for a lot of these streamers.

Whereas, big broadcast television, they're still a place for that, especially when this costs 24.99, or this costs 31.99.

- P.s, there's always a place in our world for public broadcasting.

You don't have to pay for it and it's quality content.

That's the end of my commercial for non-commercial TV.

That is in fact, John Fanta, play-by-play broadcaster, reporter with Fox Sports.

Check him out.

John, wish you and your family, and Andrew, your new son, all the best.

- Steve, I would talk with you anytime.

Thankful for you to have me on.

I appreciate you.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Seton Hall University.

Valley Bank.

PSE&G.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The North Ward Center.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program.

And by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by Insider NJ.

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