Sixers team reporter Lauren Rosen loves telling a good story. Her own is pretty remarkable, too.

When 76ers play-by-play announcer Kate Scott graduated from college in 2005, she was under the impression that there was one NBA media job for every woman in every city to compete for.

In 2024, she is alongside Sixers team reporter Lauren Rosen, who also embodies the progress made for women in sports media over the last 19 years. Rosen, who hails from Houston, lives to be the one telling stories, but by landing her role, she also became one of the city’s better ones.

“Obviously, in the NBA, the players’ stories are told all the time,” Rosen said. “Those are stories that are well known. But I’m very passionate about the idea that every single person, regardless of what your role is, has an interesting story.”

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When becoming a college gymnast didn’t go as planned, Rosen, 29, turned to cheerleading. She became a tumbler while pursuing a degree in English at Duke, a school she didn’t even consider until a friend begged her to come visit.

From there, Rosen got her foot in the sports media door as an ESPN production runner after joining Duke’s office of external affairs as a senior.

What was the job description? Whatever ESPN needed, really. Picking up talent and organizing small shoots eventually turned into doing so for Final Fours, the NBA draft, and NBA scouting combines.

Rosen realized sports media was the path for her.

“It was sort of backward,” Rosen said. “Many people go to school to study journalism or sports broadcasting. I really didn’t figure it out until I was a senior. And so I had to go and get the practical training.”

After getting her master’s in journalism at Northwestern, Rosen opened her career with a position as a public relations assistant with the Chicago Bulls. She could feel herself getting closer.

“I was telling myself, ‘This isn’t journalism, but it’s close to storytelling,’ ” Rosen said. “I was helping with the storytelling, but I wanted to actually tell the stories.”

Rosen joined the Sixers in 2018 and was promoted to her current position in 2022. Her role has evolved from just writing for the team’s website to doing postgame interviews, hosting the club’s affiliated podcasts, and working with the Sixers’ flagship radio partner, The Fanatic (97.5 FM).

“It happened quickly,” Rosen said with a chuckle.

Rosen faced no shortage of judgment for not working her way up from smaller markets.

“Women are already facing an uphill battle,” Rosen said. “The traditional male sports viewer isn’t inclined to trust them because they came up with only men telling what’s happening with their favorite team.”

That challenge has been coupled with Rosen’s mental health battle, somethingshe has no problem discussing. It has been her most vulnerable fight, her most human. She’ll readily say it has made her a more empathetic reporter.

“I’m going to make sure that if a player talks about something sensitive with me, like their upbringing, like their mental health, like any obstacles that they’ve gone through, I’m going to make sure that I have their words as authentic and as accurate as possible,” Rosen said.

“When I look back throughout my career, getting to a healthy place with my mental health kind of changed everything.”

[Today’s man] came up with only men telling what’s happening with their favorite team.

Like many younger women in the industry, Rosen found that her path was carved by those who came before her, like Scott, whom Rosen recognizes for her talent in bringing Sixers games to life for their TV audience.

“It’s gotten easier in the seven years that I’ve been [in the NBA],” Rosen said. “Two women are calling play-by-play full-time: Lisa Byington [for the Milwaukee Bucks] and our own Kate Scott. And when I came into the NBA, there were zero. So that’s 200% more than when I came in.”

And Scott’s side?

“[Rosen] expects things from her peers in this industry, that she expects of her audience, are things that I never would have dreamed about expecting just a couple of years ago,” Scott said with a laugh. “That gives me so much hope. … Their expectations are much higher because they know where they belong.”

The Sixers organization has embraced Rosen. Since arriving, she has followed the players’ stories and watched them grow. Some might not realize it, but they’re doing the same with her.

“I am still well within the range of being the same age as the players that I’m covering,” Rosen said. “It’s easier to connect with folks who are in a similar phase of life as I am. … We all came out into the world sort of at the same time. And because it’s easier to connect, it’s easier for me to tell their story.”

Rosen’s stories are told in Philadelphia, which has a fan base locked onto every word, one that holds its media members to high standards.

“I joke with her all the time,” Scott said, “the way you’re growing in this market, any place you go after this, you’re going to call me up and be like, ‘Hey, this is so easy.’ ”

Rosen gets a dose of that reality as large as anyone else. But she’s thankful for it; she knows that it kept her on her toes.

“[Philly] has forced me to be really good,” Rosen said. “I think women in general in sports are forced to be really good because there is an inherent skepticism. ... The man is already not sure that the person has the authority to speak on this topic.

“And you’ll hear women say it all the time, that we have trained ourselves to be right every time. That’s the case for women; that’s the case for sportscasters in Philadelphia, and I’m at the intersection. It’s like double jeopardy.”

That’s a harsh intersection. But it has made Rosen better.

What’s the principle?

“I am not going to tell a story unless I am 100% sure that it’s true,” Rosen said.

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