Olivia Harlan: Sideline reporter, Sam Dekker fan, and so much more

I talked to ESPN’s Olivia Harlan about her future husband Sam Dekker, the state of the LA Clippers, her career, and much more.

Last week, I sat down in a swivel chair at 9 in the morning. I set my phone down on my desk, scrolled through my contact list, selected Olivia Harlan’s name, and pressed the “call” button. As soon as I thought my nerves would get the best of me, Harlan answered the phone. With a reassuring “hello”, I eased down and ended up having a fantastic conversation with Sam Dekker‘s wife-to-be. She put a lot of emphasis on preparation, which made me worry that somehow she’d know that I was finally ready to go just an hour before our interview.

Harlan was born into a family of footballers. However, rather than playing it, the Harlan’s live it and speak about it. Her grandfather, Bob Harlan, was once the CEO of the Green Bay Packers for 19 years. Under his direction, the team won Super Bowl XXXI. Her father, Kevin Harlan, has been a broadcaster since 1982. He first worked as a commentator for the NBA’s once-Kansas City Kings, and after bouncing around from team-to-team, he called games of much larger proportion. He calls NBA and NFL games on countless networks nowadays, including a few Super Bowls. Younger generations may recognize his voice from the NBA 2K series.

You’d expect all of Kevin’s 4 kids to work in the family business, but rather, Olivia is the only Harlan to follow in her father’s footsteps.

“He probably would’ve had it that none of us [followed in his footsteps],” Harlan said. “He always said that it’s such a paranoid business, such a tough, relentless business. But I was not gonna back down, and it’s kind of all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

Harlan also spoke about her father’s emphasis on the production truck, telling me that he would instruct his kids to sit in the truck and see how many people it takes to get the broadcast on air rather than in the booth with him. In her own words, “it takes a village”.

Olivia began her broadcasting career before she graduated college, although that didn’t stop her from earning her degree on time from the University of Georgia. She was offered a job package with Fox Sports, where she would host a show covering the NCAA’s Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and be a sideline reporter for half of the Atlanta Hawks’ games.

Things picked up for Harlan in 2015, when she joined ESPN as a sideline reporter for college football games.

“The coolest part about my job is probably the coaches you meet, the players you meet,” Harlan said. “My secret thing I do that I’m really proud of is after each game, I write each of the coaches and all four coordinators and handwritten letter thanking them for their time and hoping that they’re happy with our coverage of their team. Every once in a while, I’ll get one back, and I have them all framed in my office. To me, that’s the coolest thing about sports reporting in general, are these people you come across.”

Harlan explained that people often ask what it’s like for her to be a woman in a male-dominated industry, and to that, she says that she simply feels like she belongs.

“I feel like I don’t have a challenge, being a woman in the business,” Harlan said. “I feel like I sit on the shoulders of giants, like women 20 years ago were the ones to have the challenge to go to a stadium and not be able to find a women’s restroom nearby, or to be offended by male coworkers. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, I’ve never experienced it, but I’ve always felt like I belong in the room, and that’s such a blessing since that obviously has not always been the case. You can’t be afraid to ask questions though. You think you know the game so well, but then you’re in a meeting with coaches and they’ll talk about a defensive cover that I’ve never heard of, and I’ll ask my analyst after if they can draw it out. So you have to be willing to learn and to be hard on yourself. I always say I may not be the smartest, I may not be the prettiest, but I always feel like no one can out-work me.”

Harlan hopes to work in the business for as long as she can, but when she’s not on the sidelines, she’s attending one of her fiancé’s games, or hanging out with him at their home in Marina Del Ray, California. The two met through a mutual friend, and it was very much love at first sight, Harlan told me. They instantly became best friends.

“I’m a Sam Dekker fan first and whatever team he’s on second,” Harlan said.

As you can assume, the two don’t get to see each other all that often. Their busy schedules rarely have off days align, but they remain in sync with each other through phone calls and FaceTime.

“Sam and I always take one date night a week and we try not to bring our phones, because both of our phones are just constantly buzzing because we’re both subscribed to every sports app notification,” Harlan said.

Sam was drafted in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets. He played college basketball for the Wisconsin Badgers, not too far from his hometown of Sheboygan. There, he played for 3 years under Head Coach Bo Ryan, who retired after Dekker’s final season. He and Frank Kaminsky led the team to an NCAA Championship appearance, but fell just shy of victory and were defeated by the Duke Blue Devils.

Harlan and Dekker enjoyed their time with the Rockets, and loved the organization. Head Coach Mike D’Antoni and Kevin Harlan just so happen to be close friends, so the fit was ideal for all parties involved.

That is, until Dekker got traded to the LA Clippers.

“It could not have been more of a shock, but it is such a business,” Harlan said. “They’ve got a future Hall of Fame guard, so I don’t blame them. I don’t hold resentment over that. We’re sending the D’Antoni’s a Christmas card, they’re still good friends. So it was a shock, and to make matters worse, [Sam] was actually in the gym in Houston doing Summer workouts, no one else was there except a couple trainers [when he was traded]. Sam just takes the offseason so seriously, I swear I don’t think he even missed one day… And he saw on Twitter before even his agent could get to him that the trade went through.”

Despite the initial shock, the couple had to adjust quickly to their new life. They both grew up in the Midwest and had never lived in a city like Los Angeles before.

Dekker may have been luckier in his trade than others though, since some of his teammates were traded along with him to the Clippers. Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, and Montrezl Harrell were all part of the deal that sent Chris Paul to the Rockets.

Fortunately for Harlan, the transition was easier for her as well. She was already close with some of the teammates’ wives, and she first arrived in LA feeling like she was a part of a family. And although she’s surrounded by “basketball wives”, Harlan doesn’t always feel like one. She doesn’t describe herself as glamorous, and since she’s still “in the game”, she doesn’t think she falls into the usual category of NBA housewives that you’d see on TV, rather a different dynamic.

“We have a group text, and if someone’s husband is going off, our group text is pretty funny,” Harlan said, laughing.

What made the transition easiest for Dekker though, was his relationship with Blake Griffin. The two have been friends for years, bonding over basketball and a similar sense of humor.

“They were talking earlier in the Summer about what Blake would decide to do in free agency,” Harlan said. “But once the Rockets trade went through, things changed. Sam and some of the guys wanted to get to LA as soon as they could to be included in Blake’s free agency meetings. He decided to stay with the Clippers that night.”

Sam’s fit with the LA Clippers has a chance to be a great one, given the chance he gets to show what he can do. He made a positive impression on Houston’s fans last season with a few breakout performances, including one 30-point showing in a win over the Memphis Grizzlies. It was his first NBA start with the Rockets, and he clearly put the league on notice.

“Every play, whether it’s offensive or defensive, he gives 110%,” Harlan continues. “His focus and his work ethic is obvious, so I guess when Clippers fans see that, I feel like they’re going to appreciate him even more. People have already been very nice… But once he gets going, he is a really fun player to watch.”

I ended the conversation with one final question, asking for her thoughts on the future of this LA Clippers team. It’s a trying time for fans of the once-coined “Lob City” ball club, as the team sits near the bottom of the Western Conference standings. The Clippers hit the ground running by winning their first four games, but have since stumbled to a 7-11 record.

“I’ve been with losing teams and winning teams, and I know how this attitude can permeate so quickly,” Harlan said. “If you look at the talent there, Blake, [DeAndre Jordan], Pat when he’s healthy, Lou is an incredible Sixth Man. They have so much talent there, and maybe it’ll just take a second. You saw glimpses of it in the first four games, but some of these games have been so frustrating. That Miami game on that Sunday, the Cleveland loss in overtime, so many of them have been right there. Those are the ones that hurt so bad. I just hope they can all stay positive, because that’s the biggest killer. They can come out of it though. The NBA season is so long that these stretches seem so deadly at the time, and you look back and you think it wasn’t so bad, but then there’s less margin for error after it. This is a team that should make the playoffs. They need to keep that end goal in mind.”

In spite of the team’s early shortcomings, Harlan knows that the players, as people, all really enjoy each other.

“They all went to San Diego, just for a weekend trip for fun, and Blake put it together,” Harlan said. “DeAndre one day put together a paintballing trip. They’re all boys, and they’re all friends, and that doesn’t always happen.”

What’s so special about Olivia Harlan is that she knows who she is. Barely into her career as a reporter, she’s already established a firm foundation for herself to build upon. It’s her father’s advice about kindness and competition that keeps her on top of her game, and she’ll continue to follow it:

“Competitiveness with yourself. Don’t look around, but truly compete with yourself. You’ll never be satisfied, and it’s a blessing and a curse, but you’ll get better.”