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Catching up with NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin on women in sports, her new podcast, and more
“[This job is] different for women. There are just so many things that men don’t have to think about.”
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After the Knicks beat the Celtics in double overtime to open the 2021 season, Abby Chin and her fellow media members funneled into the press conference room at Madison Square Garden. It was the first in-person postgame media session since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the room was buzzing.
While she took in the excitement around her, Chin realized something that stopped her in her tracks.
“These are the two marquee franchises in the NBA, and among a group of 50 to 100 people, I was the only woman,” said Chin, NBC Sports Boston’s veteran Celtics sideline reporter. “It’s 2021! That’s not right. I was dumbfounded.”
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Chin had been in the business for more than a decade and had grown used to being in the minority as a woman in a male-dominated industry. But something about that day in particular felt like a call to action.
“From that moment on, I felt like it was really important to try and do what I can to foster more women in the business, and try to help and do whatever I can,” she said.
She joined a mentorship committee at WISE, a nonprofit organization for women in sports and events, and she looked into teaching a college class — a goal she accomplished this spring.
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She also was inspired to begin work on her latest project, a podcast called “Women’s League” — cohosted by Chin and former NESN Bruins rinkside reporter Naoko Funayama — which highlights the stories of women in the male-dominated industry of sports broadcasting.
“This job can be really intimidating, and you have to have a really strong support system to get through those early stages,” Chin said. “That’s what inspired the podcast.”
Chin and Funayama began releasing episodes in March to align with Women’s History Month, but the recording process began last summer at a pink-walled studio in Salem. In the first three episodes, Chin and Funayama were joined by guests including ESPN’s Michele Steele, MLB reporter Heidi Watney, and Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx reporter Marney Gellner.
Their conversations are casual and wide-ranging, but center on their experiences as women in the industry. Chin’s main goal is to celebrate her fellow reporters’ accomplishments, but she also hopes to bring attention to the challenges women face in the industry.
“You so rarely see and hear about them,” Chin said. “[This job is] different for women. There are just so many things that men don’t have to think about.”
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Before each appearance, Chin performs an extensive hair and makeup routine because it’s what viewers expect from her. She doesn’t like getting her nails done, but always has a perfect manicure because it’s visible when she’s holding a microphone. She has to plan her outfits around her menstrual cycle, and she always carries around multiple pairs of shoes at varying heel heights.
Chin also has two young children, Mabel and Silas, both of whom she gave birth to while on the Celtics beat. She nursed each of them for the first year of their lives — an added challenge when traveling with the team.
After her first pregnancy, she reached out to human resources to see if she could expense the cost of shipping breastmilk back home to Boston while on the road. They didn’t immediately have an answer because no one had ever asked.
“People want to help,” she said. “You have to tell them how or ask for what you need. And I think that’s hard for a lot of women to do, especially a lot of women in a male-dominated field, because you don’t want to be considered a liability, or someone who is lesser than or weaker than, or needs more help.”
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That was one of the lessons she sought to impart on her students at Boston University this spring, where she taught a broadcast journalism class to a group of 15 seniors. Half of her students were women.
“That’s part of why I wanted to teach, is to kind of try and bring down those barriers,” Chin said.
During the semester, Chin brought the class to a BU men’s basketball game to observe the production room. Only upon arrival did she realize the entire crew — the director, technical director, and tape operator — were women, giving her students a glimpse of what their futures could look like.
“I feel like you don’t know it’s possible,” Chin said, “until you can actually talk to someone who’s done it before.”
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