SI Media Podcast: Featuring Cleveland Cavaliers beat reporter Chris Haynes

Welcome to episode No. 37 of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch. In this podcast, which is published weekly, Deitsch interviews members of the sports media about their work and interesting people about the sports media. This week's podcast guest is Chris Haynes, who covers the Cavaliers and the NBA for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

In this episode, Haynes discusses covering LeBron James on a day-to-day basis, the modern-day responsibilities of an NBA beat reporter, the NBA organizations that are most and least media-friendly, how young reporters can improve on a beat, whether being an reporter of color in a league predominantly African-American is an advantage of disadvantage, the window of opportunity James has to win a championship, and the difficulties of maintaining a marriage on a beat with constant travel.

Haynes also talks in-depth about a first-person piece he recently wrote that went viral. In that piece, Haynes, a former reporter with Comcast SportsNet Northwest covering the Trail Blazers, alleged racial profiling by the Portland Police Bureau in connection with a never disclosed 2013 arrest and acquittal. Haynes wrote the piece amid the scrutiny James faced for not weighing in on the Nov. 2014 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed by a Cleveland police officer. It’s a piece really worth reading.

A reminder: you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher, and you can view all of SI's podcasts here. If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions, please comment here or tweet at Deitsch.