Lesley McCaslin
In the immediate aftermath of some of his biggest moments, Russell Westbrook chats with Lesley McCaslin. For the past five years, she’s provided in-game updates and postgame interviews with Thunder players, bringing personality to the sideline reporter and studio host roles.
She added another responsibility last summer when she gave birth to a baby boy, the first child for her and husband Ben McCaslin.
McCaslin got her television start in Abilene, Texas and worked at News 8 in Austin before she did freelance sideline reporting for Fox Sports Southwest, including jobs covering the Dallas Stars and Mavericks and Texas Rangers. But before all that, McCaslin thought her on-camera career might come in a very different field.
I was an athlete if cheerleading counts, which it did for me. I played tennis and basketball and different things growing up until I went full-on gymnastics and cheerleading. When I was a senior in high school, I went with Texas Tech to the college cheerleading nationals, and we beat Louisville, which was a big deal. They had me take online credit to qualify. I’d do that at night. We’d practice 9 to midnight three times a week after the kids got out of class at college. And then we went to Daytona for the championships and won.
I wouldn’t say I’m OCD or a perfectionist, but I’m pretty driven, pretty organized, very competitive. I’m kind of Monica on “Friends.” That’s
from my mom. She’s also loving and willing to do whatever for her children. My dad is laid back, likes to read a lot – a great Christian man. I think I have a little bit of both of them, but my personality is more from my mom.
I went to Texas originally
to do theater and dance. I was an extra in whatever movies I could be in. You can see me in “The Life of David Gale” with Kevin Spacey a few times. I think you could have seen me in “The Wendell Baker Story,” but I think they cut out my scenes. My freshman year at Texas, I was a contestant on a really ridiculous show called “Fear” on MTV. It was a show about scaring people. We were at this fort on Dolphin Island outside of Mobile, Ala., and they tried to make us do challenges. I was terrible. I left after the first one. I got my 15 seconds of fame and that’s it.
I visited Los Angeles maybe five times and then just decided, ‘I don’t think I want to wait tables for this long to be somebody I’m not. I want to be myself.’ I was going to graduate in 3½ years, and a semester away from graduating I thought, ‘What am I doing?’ So I was almost a senior and decided I’m going to add a year of college and try to get into the broadcast school where they take 15 kids in each journalism class. I had to start interning, I worked as almost as a full-time nanny as much as I could, I had two majors, I started waiting tables at night. I was kind of all over the place trying to survive and do one more year and make it work.
The first time I got in a broadcast class, they had us pretend to do a live report. I nailed mine. I thought, ‘This is it. I know this is it.’
When the Thunder job opened, I had been freelancing for maybe a year and a half. I wanted something full-time so badly. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and this team were really starting to take off. I thought, ‘I want to be a part of this.’
I think I’ve been around long enough that there’s a trust element here, not just with Russell but with everyone, that I think is important. I think they need to know that you’re not trying to do anything that would harm them or put them in a bad light. You’re there to hopefully put them in
a good light and have fun with it. With Russell, if he trusts you, he’s really good to you. I think it’s true for most people who know him personally – if you’re on the plane with him and around him day in and day out – that you’re amazed at who people think he is.
My parents always worked really hard and always raised us to know that we could. My sister’s a lawyer. My brother’s in real estate. That was just kind of the mindset. It wasn’t ever that I was going to get through college and get married and get taken care of.
I feel like I have a good
balance now. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go working and having a kid, because I haven’t had a kid before. But when I’m home, it’s great. And when I’m on the road, I also really enjoy it. I feel like when I come home, it makes me a better mom, because I get to be out there doing something that’s also gratifying to me. It makes me appreciate the travel and the job and it also makes me appreciate being a mom. Some people want to be home all the time. For me, I know I need both.