Graphic by Joshua Brown

By Miles Johnson, Sports Editor

The Maroon Tiger will be well represented at this year’s NBA All-Star Game weekend. Morehouse students Miles Johnson and Corey Guy, along with Spelman’s Taylore Gills, were selected to attend All-Star weekend by Professor Ron Thomas, the director of Morehouse’s journalism program. He will accompany the trio on this trip to Cleveland. 

“I selected Miles, Corey and Taylore because all of them have done very well in my sports reporting course,” said Professor Thomas, director of the Journalism in Sports, Culture and Social Justice program. “In addition to that, all of them have been very active outside the classroom in their activities with journalism and with sports.”

Miles Johnson is a junior Communications major and Journalism minor at Morehouse. Miles is the sports editor of The Maroon Tiger and the co-sports producer for the visual media side, Tiger TV. Miles loves everything about sports and in addition to his work with MT, created his own sports podcast called “Real Talk with MJ.” 

“Coming to Morehouse was the best decision of my life, and I’m beyond thankful for this opportunity,” Miles said. “Professor Thomas and the journalism program have pushed me to become a better writer and I’m excited about the networking and experience I will gain this weekend.”

Taylore Gills is a senior Sociology major and Writing minor at Spelman. She is the special projects producer for Tiger TV. Taylore also has her own blog called “Talks with Taylore” in which she has written articles ranging from highlighting NBA star Jaylen Brown’s activism to recapping women’s college basketball.

“Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to attend All-Star weekend but never have,” Taylore said. “Being able to for the first time as a reporter and journalist is something I wouldn’t have even dreamed of back then. I’m really grateful to Professor Thomas for believing in us enough to take our skills to Cleveland.”

Corey Guy is a senior CTEMS major at Morehouse. He was the Maroon Tiger associate sports editor last year. Corey is a writer and photographer who has already been published in NBA.com and Slam Magazine. Corey is looking forward to experiencing All-Star weekend for the first time.

“All-Star, in my opinion, is the biggest weekend in sports,” Corey said. “I’m super excited to represent my HBCU and showcase our experiences to the world, while representing my hometown [Milwaukee] in Cleveland this year. I want to thank the NBA, Morehouse journalism program and Professor Thomas for allowing me this experience.” 

MT will be at almost every All-Star event, including the Rising Stars Challenge, the HBCU Classic featuring Howard University vs. Morgan State, and NBA All-Star Saturday night. 

None of this would be possible without the donation the journalism program received from the Michael Jordan Family Fund and Nike’s Jordan Brand.  

“Last summer Michael Jordan and the Nike Jordan Brand gave us a total of a million dollars for various projects,” Professor Thomas said. “For this year, Michael Jordan’s donation gave us $12,500 to send students to off-campus reporting assignments and I chose the NBA All-Star  Game because it was a natural way to use Michael Jordan’s donation.”

Be on the lookout for MT content including articles and videos from Corey, Taylore and Miles in the coming days.