I've never seen CD prep in my life. Stop it. We had like eight episodes together. He didn't prep for interviews because I'm that funny. Yeah. His whole prep was like, think of jokes on the spot, like that was the whole thing. So he's just freestyles. Yeah, pretty much, he's a freestyle all right. Welcome to another episode of Running the Break. I'm your host, c J. Toldan. I was joined by my co host Alex Loong. Alex, how you doing, man, I'm good. I'm good. I feel like we we've had a really good run of special guests over the summer, and I feel like me and you have been doing you know, equal distribution of work, you know, bringing people from from our own inner circles, you know, me bringing my eighteen friends from Toronto Act. I'm enjoying every every cut or cut down is I'm sad Kauai has gone. You know, when's Katie coming? It's uh, but that is the off season talk, you know, that's I'm trying to get my friends, all of them a visa, you know, in the US. So I think if they just do an NBA podcast, they can put that on their resume and that will work for them. But we have we have another great guest joining us today, and c J, I will I'll let you introduce our special guest today. Yeah, this guy is a close personal friend and I only say that could it helps out my career? Um No, but for real. He is the founder of House of Highlights and has since left a couple of years ago. We're coming up on a couple of years. Um he left to take over Sports Center for ESPN. So who's been doing real work over there? And you also may have seen his TikTok at omar. So without further ado, omar raja omar. How's it going man? What's up? CJ? It feels like the old days. It's really really funny right now, it does be like the old days. Who's equipment involved in recording our conversation? So I'm just reminding you this is being recorded. Don't say anything bad. I never say anything bad. I'm a good person. This is what This is what bad people say. It sounds like you're you do you say terrible things outside of this show? Okay? Okay, but I do know do I'm saying that up top because we me and you are close friends. Alex and I have become close friends of the last few months collabbing on some stuff, and like, I do want to ask you some questions about your career while we have you on this episode. But I do like this isn't like every other show. I genuinely, you know, give us some nuggets from your from your life and like what it's like running one of the biggest brands in sports. Um, But yeah, I don't want it. I don't want this to sound too foremost, so let's just like hang out and and uh yeah, share some stories. For sure. I was actually in Toronto a couple weeks ago, Alex I was. I was in your neck of the woods. It was great. It was the Caravana was over. I was there for like a performance. Lebron was there, Draymond was there. So that was really cool to see how many people love the city of Toronto, especially NBA fans right excuse me, NBA players, Like I don't think that is something that is quite understood, especially now we we're hearing all the rumors and maybe Katie goes to Toronto, and you've seen players speak out about how much they love Toronto. So I would love to get into that because the amount of NBA players that love that city is a lot more than people expect. No, definitely, and you know, I'm always I'm always happy to obviously you know, have a pro Toronto chat. But like, you know, Carabina, you know, you know this, you know you were here, Like it's it's such an event. It's such an event in the city, and it brings out NBA players, it brings out the labs. One of the things I always say is like NBA players love to party here, they love to spend the summers here. But you know, when it comes to the NBA schedule, then it gets a little tough. And I don't even blame them too, because, believe me, like I think, there are a lot of similarities between living in Canada and living in the US. But at the end of the day, like all these players, especially coming from the US, you know, they're so used to a particular way that that for them to even think about moving to another country, it's a huge step for them, right, It is a huge step for them. They got to take family and personal considerations into it. But man, yeah, I didn't know you're here for a Caravanta. So, like the biggest stars that were in Toronto was Number one was Lebron. We gotta give that to Lebron. Number two, I know Adam Sandler has been filming movies here and number three was almar So those are the top three people in Toronto, close personal friends, all three of those. You know, it was interesting that I don't know if you guys saw that video Draymond taking the photo, Yes, for a fan, for a fan with Lebron. That was hilarious to see. I wonder if the person that asked uh, Lebron for that photo even knew that Draymond Green was a player, because it can be really with casual fans like times you don't know, casual it's crazy for every die hard NBA fan knows, but times casual fans they don't know they know Lebron. And that's really it. The way the way Draymond has been acting. I mean, I know him and Lebron clutch and all that, but like Draymond loves Lebron. Draymond loves Lebron. After and that heated finals, I would have never guessed, never guessed that Lebron and Draymond Green would be really close friends. But yeah, over the last couple of months, we've seen all the photos and the videos. Like, yeah, someone someone joked because the schedule came out Lakers are playing the Warriors on on opening night. I saw someone on Twitter joke that Draymond is going to give his ring to Little just as a sign of respect. No, but oh no, you're right, Like if you told me in twenty sixteen, after all that happened in that finals, that that even though these two are repped by the same agency, obviously all of those connections, that they would actually have this friendship, Like, it's actually incredible for me to see. Yeah, I mean it's unexpected. I mean, especially after the suspension, Like you would never guess you would have never guessed it. Well, that's what things are different off court, which is a very obvious that that's our that's the premise of this show is running the break, we talked about things off the court, and so I do want to just you know, backpedal a little bit or just take it back a little bit and kind of remind people, Omar, you were the founder of House of Highlights, Like you really in the last what what is it like seven eight years have carved this very unique role. Um before I even like say what what that is like, tell us a little bit how you would like introduce yourself to somebody who's a fan of the NBA but doesn't necessarily know you. Yeah, I think a lot of people are curious, like why did House of Highlights blow up in the first place? Right? Because all the all there was, ESPN was on Instagram, Bleacher Report was on Instagram, all these media, The Score was on Instagram. So what did I do differently that you know other folks might not have? But I think what happened is we when people um started posting on social media, they treated this the accounts the same way that you want TV, Like we're just gonna post the top ten plays and hope that does well. But you know, you guys know Josiah on Twitter knows those little moments that are like, you know, Lebron makes a weird face, Lebron and Mario Chalmers kind of going back and forth on the bench, those are the moments that kind of go really viral. So my specialty was, Hey, I know everyone's gonna get the Lebron dunk or the Dwyane Wade dunk. I'm gonna capitalize on all the funny moments. If a player makes a funny face. I'm gonna do a caption underneath it if a fan has a funny reaction, if they're just a funny moment. That Sports Center or other media companies at that time never really capitalized on I'm just gonna go all in on that, And honestly, I didn't have much competition in that format of videos for about a year, Like no one was catching on that, Oh wow, these videos do better than the dunks or the deep threes or the buzzer beaters, and that was something that you know, I was able to kind of play with and have a lot of fun with, and within like six months, I remember my I made it moment was like Snoop Dogg, Dwyane Wade and like la Ron James had followed House of Highlights, and I was like, I made it, Like I'm good, I can retire now that you know, I had no idea what my life was going to be like just years later. I think that was the main reason why House high that's kind of blew up in the beginning. What's like the first moment when people ask you, you know, about your career, especially for a House of Highlights, like what's that one viral moment that sticks with you. I think that it was when Kyrie was on Vine and at that time, you know, even then with social media wasn't taken seriously. You know, oftentimes with social media there was like, oh, it's an interns job, it's not like a real employees job. But now we've seen, i think a decade later, the value of social media. It's like the it's a company's biggest marketing tool. Um. So, you know, I used to watch every player's you know, vine clips, whether it was like Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan's Kyrie and Kyrie had this like nerf ball windmill dunk. I don't know if anyone remembers that, but yeah, it went so crazy, and it was the first time where like what sites were embedding the video, like they're doing blog posts around like the House of Highlights post. I think the other part and I don't have like a specific memory, but I was one of the first accounts to let people send in their stuff. So if you were at a Lakers game, a Knicks game, a Bucks game, you could record something that maybe wasn't seen on the broadcast and send it into House of Highlights. And there were a lot of moments um sent in you know at that time, whether it was funny fan moments, maybe it was a funny bench reaction um that kind of went viral, so I would say the Kyrie Windmill dunk. But also people sending in clips and those clips going viral was kind of like this really big moment and that's why, you know, I feel like the criticism and of course, like let's be real here, a lot of these posts, and especially when you've put your your name has been behind House of Highlights. You've been like sort of a front facing figure at sports Center in House Highlights. People post why does Omar get to do this? Like why you know he's just reposting highlights? Is that you in your dorm room invented that playbook? Essentially? Yeah, it was. It was right now, all the accounts are very similar, but at that time, you know what House the Highlights was doing, which wasn't When we think about it now, it's not like completely different or that jarring or that crazy, but it was just slightly different. And it was a playbook that worked incredible at the time on Instagram and it's still working to this day and now even with TikTok. That playbook is is working because I think those moments of like a fan goes like this, or a funny moment happens. If you're not a sports fan, if you're not an NBA fan, you can still understand what's going on. You can still understand the human reaction, the relatable um reaction of your friend does something crazy and you kind of, you know, lose your mind. And I think that was that was an element that helped a lot, where like my mom would kind of be bragging about the page and like her friends who don't follow sports kind of were able to kind of follow along. So that was kind of the cool part of how the Highlights in that journey. I love that personal side of the story, especially like you know, you you're at what the University of Central Florida, You're like majoring in business at the time. What was that like just for you, Like on the personal side, Like as obviously how the Highlights is blowing up and people start to know the person behind it, they start to know Omar, like, how did you just deal with that? Like personally, it's a good question. I think c J. When I started really kind of people started recognizing me luckily. That was kind of post college stuff. Like during college, it was really tough to balance going to school but then also running like this two three million follower page and having a full time job with Turner Sports at the time, so that was crazy, Like it was really hard to balance that part of it, but you kind of just hustled. And then like a year later, you know, me and c J would go to like Lakers games, and people I don't know remember this, like people would ask for air pods or people would ask like it was so unique the different asks I got, or like the way people identified who I was. Like some people like that's the guy that posts on House of Highlights, or that's the guy that does the Twitter show, or my favorite was like that's the guy that gives away like shoot a four iPhones. And it was like so unique dealing with that aspect of it, because you know, people would ask for iPods, excuse me, air pods, and they would think I had an extra air pod in my back pocket that just handed them, and I'm like, I don't know, man, Just like the giveaways and randomly selected I can't just rig it for for you to win an AirPod, so that and I do want to say because there are accounts all there's again, there's so many curation sports Highlight accounts and a lot of the you know, a cheat code for getting followers. Was the giveaways. Again, something that I feel like you really knew how to do well and what I want to give you praise for is you actually delivered on those things. Like truly, I've seen it. I've seen you have to go like, hey, I gotta go and buy this thing and send it off to this kid I've never met. Yeah, shout out to Josh over a house of highlights. He used to he used to help me do it every week, but like, yeah, like it used to be. Like I think the best part was is there were people that hadn't gone to NBA games. I remember a Spurs fan in particular that I've never gone to a game, and I think he was like eighteen, nineteen years old, and he won the giveaway and he's like, hey, I was able to go to a Spurs game for the first time I ever have amazing tickets. But I also took the person that had a crush on like the last year and it was like an amazing date and it was an amazing moment, and I was like, you know what, that's like pretty cool, Like that's nice. So I think the giveaways, you know, the giveaways actually started when I hit ten million. I think after you know, you hit ten million followers on House of Highlights, it was like how did I how do we get this far? You know? Now at that point, it was like Lebron and Dwyane Wade were all commenting commenting underneath post. I was like, I can't believe I'm here. And I remember doing like a ten million thank you for ten million followers post and all the comments were so nice, and I was like, we need to give back to the community. So I think every week we were giving something away for like two years. So that was like really really cool. I think that's so amazing and just like kind of that engagement, you know with the adiends. You know the other thing too, I think we definitely want to walk through so many parts of your career. But like, you know, we had Adam left go on um, you know, a few weeks ago, and he shared some like really cool stories just like one on one meetings with with Alan iverson like kind of behind the scenes chats that he would have with shock, like like again, you know we're kind of approaching this part is if like we're just approaching you and just like the two of us just holding you hostage at a party right now, it's like yo, yo, tell me tell me the coolest or like that first interaction with like a prominent NBA figure that had you like star struck in a way, Carmelo Anthony in the summer of seventeen, this is the start of Hoodie Melo. Chris Brickley was a good friend of mine and I remember Melo was having an event in Baltimore. I think it was the TBT Tournament. So Chris said, hey, man, you should come out to the event. Maybe we can all grab dinner with Melo or whatever. And it's so funny, man, I had no idea, Like when when I saw Carmelo, I just froze and I didn't treat him like a normal human being. It was like he was a god and I was scared to say a single word to him. So I remember we got into a car to go to the dinner spot, and you know, naturally, you know, when you're hanging out with your friends. Oh, hey, man, nice to meet you, and I'm sitting right next to Carmelo, and I don't say a word the entire time, and I'm just terrified. Everyone else, everyone else in the car and the suv is talking. I am not mellow, is showing like different areas he grew up, and he's like, oh, that's my school and all that stuff, and I'm just like, don't say anything, don't embarrass yourself. Whatever. Then we get to dinner and I think we were like everyone's like eating food. I'm sitting next to him and I still haven't said a word, to the point where Carmelo texts, uh, Chris and says, why hasn't your friend said anything yet? And it was so embarrassed. And the worst part was I'm sitting right next to the guy. I just get up out of my seat and I'm like, hey, in the middle of the dinner, Hey, I'm Omar, nice to meet you. And it's like, no, man, Like, you don't need to get up and speak to Carmelo and then like and and introduce yourself. Late now to do that at the end where it's not awkward and everyone's looking at you like what's going on? But I remember he was asking me like questions about my career. I had no idea what to say. He's like, what what do you think long term you're gonna do? And I was like, maybe make documentaries, Like I had never thought about making documentaries. Made it, made it up on the spot because I wanted to sound like I was really really smart and uh so that was my first My first convo went really really bad. I would say my first day of meeting Carmelo was was bad. But luckily I think I saw him the next week and he was very nice. Didn't you know, joke about it at all? And you know now you know every time he sees me, we say hello. But I think another one was I got to go with Steph Curry to China. So we went to about three cities. Um, it wasn't just staff, it was Steph Curry, Joel embiid Mo Bamba, Dennis M Jr. I think it was seeing stuff. I mean, Steph is one of the nice disguise I've ever seen. But seeing how passionate the fans were in China. They were there was thousands of people, literally thousands of people waiting outside our hotel. He would walk through the main entrance and people would be losing it. I remember someone at the hotel had told me the you know, the hotel is completely full, and I'm like, oh, is there is there an event? They're like no, They Steph Curry fans know that he's staying here, and they're they've all bought a room hoping that they're going to be on the same floor as him and hoping that they may see him. And so I think those are the two that stick out of like this this is a whole another world. Um. But step was nice to everyone and that was like one of my big takeaways of like he was so nice to all of those fans that were going crazy for him. Um. So that was cool to see. Do you want to say because you had mentioned when you that encounter with um with Carmelo Anthony, you said like that was the summer of two goals, the seventeen Hoodie Mellow, Right, you kind of just like Blaze passed at like another kind of just like how House the Highlights itself and you and like knowing how to like you know, put stuff out there like House the Highlights was really the catalyst for stuff like Hoodie Mellow, Drive by Dunk Challenge like stuff like that. Can you describe like, so when you see that, when you're posting that and you're captioning that, can you walk us through do you know this is a potential thing that can go as viral as those type of things would become. Yeah. I think the biggest takeaway would be like is this easy for people to replicate? So when I saw that drive by Dunk challenge, I'm like, it's the summer. This is so easy to do because we've all driven past the hoop and been like, oh we could we could dunk on that, or we can shoot on that real quick and then run away. I feel like, as kids, I've done that before myself. So with a drive by dunk challenge, I think enough challenges had kind of gone on where I'm like, hashtag drive by dunk challenge. We posted and then within the next day there was like fifty d m s of people doing it. The my favorite one though, was the running Man challenge. I don't know if you remember that one. That was two college basketball players that were like dancing to the song I forget the song um now, but um that became a thing that O'Dell was doing. By the end of it, James Harden, like everyone was doing it by the end of it, and it started on the House of Highlights and it was it just started with two college basketball players d m ing us the video and they ended up on Ellen. They ended up on like late night talk shows. So that was like after that moment, I was like, Oh, there's some real power here with the Internet of like you can really I don't know, I guess become a behavioral influencer. I think that's how my old boss used to say, like, h oh, can can influence behavior And that was kind of cool to see. But you know, now it's it's it's so funny. Now it's kind of pivoted to like TikTok. TikTok is like where all the trends now starts. So it's really interesting. Yeah, what's happened like for you you know, obviously you've been in this game and you've seen kind of the changes across social media and like, to be honest, like a lot of the House of Highlights stuff that you guys were doing, Um, you know, obviously everybody's trying to do that now, like everybody's trying to replicate a lot of these things, and now you have these new platforms come up, like you mentioned with TikTok, right, Like what's it been like for you personally, Like you know, with with with personal and with work to to kind of just keep adapting to to to to the social media landscape as it changes. Yeah, I would say, you know, either the Instagram algorithm changes every two weeks, where you know, one day you want to post carousels, the next day you want to post a photo, and then the highlight. Then you know a month from now it's gonna be just post reels. Then you know three months from now, it's like do a voiceover on your reel and then go to the highlight. Like it's it's so unique. Where like the algorithms for all the platforms change a lot. And I know, you know, we all remember when Instagram just used to be chronological, so you just used to post your thing and walk away and it was done. And now you're thinking about the platforms out rhythm, and you're also thinking about like, oh, wow, TikTok is really big, like how do I capitalize on that? And I think my biggest mistake was like in twenty nineteen, I was like when TikTok was blowing up, I was like, ah, like I don't know if it'll be here a year from now. It's like a dancing app. And that was probably the biggest mistake I made of like, no, no, no, TikTok is here and it's one of the most influential apps out there right now. Um. And so I think in the beginning of quickly realized like no, no, no, it's here. It's here to stay, and it has the most interesting, unique, you know content of any platform. So I think the interesting But but kind of going back to your question, every platform is really different. What goes off on Instagram doesn't really go off on TikTok. What goes off on TikTok might not go off on Twitter, you know, for example. So I think for me, when TikTok came out and it became really big, the first six months of TikTok, I was terrible, Like I was making really cringe e videos where like my group chats. Thankfully, DJ never roasted me. Thank I think I asked, hey, how do I do this too, and like, yeah, I mean, you made a good green screen video, but I was bad at making like those green screen videos of like in the background is like Lebron or staff or John Moran, and I just didn't know what I was doing. And so I think the important thing to think to know it was like before House of Highlights, I was used. I was making YouTube videos as a kid, so I had like, you know, ten years at that point of like making you know, uh, I had ten years of experience of making videos online. And when TikTok came out, I was terrible. I was awful, and I kind of eventually found, um, you know, my my thing with going behind the scenes at NBA games and showing off all of these players workouts. I think a lot of people knew that Steph Curry had an amazing workout, but I don't think people knew that Kevin Durant had an amazing workout, or Kyrie or how Lebron gets his boy ready before games. And that was something that I was really able to kind of take advantage of. And I think the interesting thing is, you know, everyone in media, you know, gets this access and could have done it, and it's sometimes the opportunities right in front of us, and we don't even see it, right because no one, you know, think about it. For over a decade, no one had made pregame videos outside of staff. And so I think it's interesting to note like this next big thing or next big content idea might be right in front of us, but none of us have actually just thought to try it or go for it or anything like that. But yeah, TikTok is a powerhouse. Now. Well that's why I mean, like, shout out to you for figuring that out, because how many I mean, I think between all three of us. You know, how classic and usual is it that you know, someone the media gets a pressed pass and they're like, the one piece of content is like selfie on the court, you know what I mean, But like the one piece of content is actually the actual credential like revote because you're not supposed to post those on the internet. Yeah, that's never happened to me, by the way. Um, but guys, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back, and I want to get more into the story, and Omar, it's also about what you think about the future of social media and NBA where it's going. Right back, all right, everyone, welcome back to running the break. Alex here with c J is still joined by Omar. Omar tell us about your work with the Sports Center account and with ESPN. What that's like, because it's so interesting because I think about House of Highlights and a lot of the work that you've done, and I feel like during that era, you know, this kind of social media, um, you know, content in sports was kind of seen as I don't know how to describe it, kind of like an underground thing. And then I feel like it turned it flipped mainstream because like that's how I feel like, that's what happens across like any industry, Like like you look at music, you look at movies. It's always independent creators who come up with these great ideas and then kind of the bigger companies think about how they can kind of become a part that. What was that like for you? Just the adjustment if and if there was any at all in terms of like here's a new audience and obviously a huge audience at ESPN and Sports Center. Yeah, and to to kind of pay you back of what you said, I would say nineteen was like when a lot of companies were starting to kind of follow that House of Highlights playbook, and some companies had success, and some companies were just the comments section was killing them, right, and it was like, hey, this isn't working, and you kind of had to be authentic about it. I think the biggest I guess change when I joined ESPN was, hey man, this isn't just NBA. There's college basketball, there's high school hoops, there's obviously UFC in the NFL. There's so many leagues going on, and I think when we think of a House of Highlights, it was just NBA, and it's like, how do I bring this playbook to different sports? Um? I remember the UFC was kind of and I also joined, you know, right before the pandemic had started, so then it was like trying to find moments to play with with pretty much just UFC because that was the only league that was going on at the time. And I remember, you know, Joe Rogan had kind of thrown it to the crowd, but there was no crowd at one point. Um. So for me, like I learned like, Okay, these are the moments I get to play with, and these are the moments I have fun with some of you. I mean, UFC stars are kind of like ww E stars, where their their own personalities and they kind of play characters. So I was kind of able to amplify that and play with that, So I think the biggest change kind of coming to ESPN. ESPN was great about letting me do what I wanted to do. Um also being able to just use all the d ms we get from Sports Center, so I think, like, you know, House the Highlights, we got a bunch, but Sports Center was I remember I made the announcement that I was joining Sports Center on my Instagram page and I think the next day we had like two thousand d m s. So it was it was really cool to be able to like, hey, we could really, we could really you know, curate off the d ms. We get a people sending in stuff and the power of Sports Center that brand is something that people really know. And I think, Uh, the interesting thing is like when you go to events, maybe sometimes that security guard doesn't want you standing there. Uh and maybe my old job, you know, I'd say House of Highlights and they don't know what that is. But when you say ESPN, they're like, oh, yeah, you you belong to Yeah, go go sit courtside and watch Lebron. Like it really was interesting to see that angle of it as well of like oh yeah, okay, the power of ESPN is a little bit different because everyone, everyone's familiar with that brand and really respects it. Tell me how because I think one of the biggest criticism that's been kind of holding uh for the last couple of years on these pages is like you post maybe a kid in his classroom doing a prank, and they're like, this is an NBA highlights, So what's the best response to something like that? I think, Well, so, I think some of that was more of the house of highlights thing, But I do think like Sports Center, you're gonna see stuff that is sports adjacent right where it's like someone working out is that sports? Is that non sports? Is someone playing at l A Fitness? Is that is that too? Is that being like that's on an NBA highlight, It's someone just playing at l A Fitness? And I think the interesting thing is when you look at the numbers, those clips do just as good as the Lebron James Tomahawk dunk. And I think that surprises people, right. Sometimes you see people I wouldn't they get upset for like like why am I seeing this? Or why is this on my feed? No? Man, like that post has the most views of the week, It has the most likely the week that has the most shares of the week. And I think the important thing to remember is there's no barrier to end to entry for those clips. Right, we can immediately see someone just playing pick up and we don't need to know the context of that player. We don't need to know if the two teams or rivals against each other, you know what I mean. You don't need to know if that type of dunk is even good. You know, sometimes a dunk is good just because you don't see it that often, and to a normal fan, they don't know. They just think a dunk is a dunk. So I think that's kind of why it happens to people. People tend to um like those clips just as much as they like NBA highlights. And I think the biggest thing to think about is when we watch Sports Center twenty years ago or whatever you watched growing up, that was just for US fans, right, it was for American fans that grew up watching the sport. Sports Center has a large international following. I think there's more people that follow I don't know if this is true, but it's very the The international following is very, very high, and it's almost you know, it's like fift in US and fifty international audience. So it's important to think about, like, hey, there's there's a whole different pool of people that don't just watch NBA every day, and they want to see those funny clips, or they want to see a UFC match, or they want to see, you know, other things outside of just hey, I want to see NBA highlights every single day. People will take that and go omar, you're you're really good at given the pr response, But I will say, like when you say sports adjacent, like truly, like the water bottle challenge was kind of like a specific example of the class from stuff and then you see Kyrie and Lebron doing it on the sidelines. So like this the overlap whether or not that social media created that there, it truly is within the same realm now social media created or not. Yeah, I think also like with challenges now, I think we're gonna see the next few years as the younger generation of players comes on, there might be like dance challenges that maybe the older generation doesn't understand, but you know, the class is gonna be all about and they're gonna be posting on kind of how like people looked at Juju Smith Schuster are the NFL player on TikTok, and they're like, why is he on TikTok? That's so weird? You know. I think we're about a there's a whole generation right now growing up on TikTok, and I'm sure when they're playing in the NFL, NBA, etcetera, they're gonna be on that platform and you know, dancing and having a lot of fun. I think a really good point to you guys mentioned, you know when you talk about not just posting NBA highlights, like I don't know, there's probably a lot of you know, there's some content creators who listened to the show. You know. My thing has always just been to like you and just listen to the worst comment out there on everything that you put out, because like you're being paid Omar, like I'm being paid CJ to like create content. It's up to us have a taste level and to understand what people actually want. Right. So as much as you're getting that feedback in the comments, and as much as you might have that general NBA fan who's like, I don't want to see these other highlights, like you said, like the numbers speak for themselves. The engagement speaks for themselves, and I think it's so important sometimes for for content creators to to not kind of just like follow exactly what the comments are saying or follow exactly what people demand. Like like sometimes I see people fall into that trap of of just like chasing kind of making everybody happy. Like you're not there to make everybody happy. You're there to put out the content for the audience. Yeah, you're never gonna make it everyone happy. And I also think it's important to know, like there might be two comments, but there's one million likes, it's not even close when you really think about it. So talking to t J from Twitter, I don't know if he's been on the show yet, but he's he's a great guy. You know, some people think like we come on and when we when we run into social media account, we just like like, oh I just feel Lebron clip today, or maybe I feel like Trey Young. Like that's not how it really works. You're kind of thinking about what does well, what do people want to see um and what's the bar you set? Because I want everyone to like every NBA highlight, or not even every every NBA highlight, I want them to like every post as much as they like a Lebron James dunk. Right, So if I know Lebron James dunk is gonna get me five thousand likes, I know that's the bar. And so I want every NBA highlight, I want every NFL highlight, I want every U g C clip to get that number. And so that that's kind of how it works. It's not like you log on and like I'm like today I'm gonna post the video of me and CJ playing basketball. Like that's just not that's just not how it works. And I think the other thing, that's how post myself playing Fortnite, But that was very very early days where I just didn't know what I was doing. Yeah, yeah, I think to Like the other problem too, is like when you're someone in your position, it's just like you know, when things are doing well, like you're not going to get feedback. You're only getting feedback on things that people don't want. Like that's when people are gonna speak out. It's like going to a restaurant. People are very strongly opinionated when they leave one star reviews, whereas like five star reviews, it's like, oh this is a great place. No one's looking for that, like like it's the people who want to leave the one star reviews, And like I think it's cool too because like I mean, I'm I'm We're working on trying to get someone who's like worked in like NBA team social to come on the show to chat with us, because I'm so I think like the running joke a lot of times on social is like, oh no, this intern is gonna get fired because he posted something. For the longest time, like you mentioned, like social stuff was associated with like just an intern earned that was being tasked to do something that nobody wanted to do. And I feel like that trend is changing now, like people actually understand the power of social and that there are people behind the scenes. Like you mentioned, you don't just wake up and post a lebron clip, Like there's a lot of strategizing and a lot of thought behind it, which I think is cool because I think people should appreciate like kind of the behind the scenes process a bit more. Yeah, and it's not just one employee anymore, right, I think maybe maybe seen it was like one person runs the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and all the accounts. Now it's it's an entire team, you know, five people, ten people running these you know, team accounts. Sometimes there's just a videographer that just goes and shoots all this stuff. So the team, it's it's teams now too. It's not even just like it's an intern. It's like their employees and they're a team of employees that work together. And the CEO of that company or the team knows how important that social media pages and those accounts are. So yeah, it's changed a over the last decade. Okay, so this is a question from our producer because I I really do think the nuggets from a creator's p o va is um. You know, people listen to this like want to work in sports and and really I think like the the entries of access or whatever to to do that are are in front of us with these apps and stuff. So let's say this, say all of what you have done has been a race, but you still have your knowledge and instincts. What what what would you create? Like how would you get into this business? I would make a TikTok or a YouTube page. Um right, YouTube used to be really really hard. I want when I first started, I wanted to be a YouTube or oh eight um and I used to make like video game videos and they used to get a couple of thousand views, but never really took off to that next level. I think I would make a TikTok page and I would first start off by picking big name athletes, right, it would be Lebron, it would be Steph Curry. It would maybe even be like Logan Paul the w w E because their social media stars. They do really well on social media, and I would make content about them. I think that trick is often called like s c O hacking, but now it's kind of brought into like the TikTok world where you just make content around big athletes and what does that mean. You could do an origin story, you could talk about how much money they make off the court. You could talk about, um, why you think they're the next big thing? Right? Like you can make a video why why is John morant the next face of the NBA? Or why is John Morant um a better version of Derrick Rose? You know what I mean? Like, find find interesting topics. And I think the biggest thing is just start because that first month is going to be kind of rocky regardless, because you're gonna have a lot to learn. You're gonna learn, you know, how to hook a user. You're gonna learn because what what's gonna happen is you're gonna post ten fifteen videos on different topics. You're gonna see what does well, and then you're gonna kind of focus on those types of videos. And then you also notice, like, oh, if I make a question as a hook of like is Lebron James the highest paid athlete outside of you know, outside the court, that might be like those questions are great hooks. So even like there's just different content styles that you'll learn over the months and years, like I'm I'm better now than I was six months ago, and that kind of is a constant progress of just posting videos and learning. So I think I would make a TikTok or YouTube page short form to start, and then I think if I were to do a YouTube page, it would be like longer form videos of like analysis of how the NBA has changed in the last decade, or even like answering questions that we all think of. Like one of my best videos for the UFC is um why do UFC fighters put on vasoline? It has twenty million views on TikTok, we when we all no, no, but like when we watch a fight they're putting on uh, petroleum jelly before their fight. No one really knows the answer. You think you know, you think you know, but you don't really know, right, And so that's just some easy research that you can do. They got twenty million views on TikTok and I think like eighteen million on YouTube up. And then another good one was why is Lebron throw power in the air? So it's like stuff that we always see, explain why they do it. That's that's a great way to kind of tap into the content, like like it's it's it's it's something that just like it's easy to digest, and it's something that I think everybody is just curious about because at the end of the day, like anybody could kind of like consuming content on YouTube on social media, everybody has a curiosity, right, Like we don't spend hours consuming sports and then not be curious about these things. Um c J. Any questions from before we hit them with the with with with our surprise lightning round surprise, No, I think, um, I mean should we let's let's take a break. We'll take a break. Get the sponsors to say what they need to say, and then we'll come back and we'll get in this lightning round that I created for Omar. All Right, we're back with Omar Rajah of Sports Center Form really house of Highlights. Omar, he dropped some really really great nuggets. Appreciate that. I mean, I think you've essentially are inspiring the next omar Um to catch up to you and potentially threaten your next opportunity. So appreciate that. We we could talk to you for hours, but we we've created this lightning round game. Um, just rapid fire questions that you answer whatever is right off the top of your head, and we'll just try to get as much infunt as we can this next few minutes. Cool, let's do it, all right, I'll kick us off. Name the best NBA player on social John Morant mm hmmm, as to be okay? One line, one line answer as to why right now that he has the most interest, Like, people are fascinated with his personality. They love when he dances, and also his his dunks because at first it was like he wasn't dunking on them and he was missing, and now he's actually dunking on some of these guys. So I think he's an easy player to root for and that's like he's not polarizing, So that's great. Yeah, he's in that sweet spot in his career right now. I feel like he's got a lot of that fans support. Next up for you, funniest NBA player on social can be active or retired player. Oh, probably Boban just because he's like he's down to like make fun of himself and even that you rang with Shack like, I think that the fact that he's able to laugh at himself helps a lot. Okay, favorite NBA highlight of all time Dwyane Wade dunks on Anderson very jel Oh landed on the stanchion. I also remember Michael Jordan was at that game because Wade had just signed with Jordan Brand. So I remember even Michael Jordan's cup was kind of they panned him like minutes. They showed like a replay later where Jordan was reacting to it, and I was like, yeah, that's awesome. Yes, what are you look, Adam Job, They're Dwyane Wade. Why up the bunt of everything? Fillso welcome to your Kodak movement everything fillso standing right shouldn't brook Wayne White? Did you And that's a TikTok video right there we go? Did you know? C J? There there there we got knowledgeable. No, he's got the content brain going, man speaking out down Wade. I feel old now because like man, I feel like I'm the guy walking around be like yo, people forget how sick Dwayne Wade was. But people don't remember that oh six finals, Like people don't. People just don't remember. I'm so I mean, do you remember when he was a profile picture on House Highlights? The story or no, no, tell me that there was a thing. You know. One thing that was really interesting about House to Highlights was the comments section was like its own community, so like c J, and it capting Omar again and honestly, at one point it became the entire Bleacher Report office. We're commenting underneath post and it started with c J. Great post Omar or funny post Omar. At that point there was no relation of like Omar and House of Highlights, and it started taking off of like who's Omar? Like the comment section like Who's Omar? And then I think people started understand that I'm Omar and they started understanding the joke that like, oh, this guy named Omar does all the post um and and so the entire comments section for years then became like amazing post Omar or hey Omar, this wasn't that funny, but good try Like it was like this entire it became a bit and then um. One of the bits that we also started was do you remember every time Dwyane Wade during his final year had an amazing highlight? I would just run to the comments section and be like, who remembers when Dwyane Wade was the House of Highlights profile pick? Oh, so you guys would do a whole bit of you know, because the page wasn't that big at the time, and they're all like, I don't remember. I remember. But then then me and CJ got to NBA All Star and I'm hiding because I know, oh I forgot about this part. He asked Dwayne Wade if he remembered when he was the profile pick for House of Highlights, and and what do you say? He'say, yeah, right, did he said that? He's like yeah, I love Yeah. He was like yeah, yeah, yeah, I love House of Highlights check them out or whatever. I mean. It was like the most like canned response, but it was like it was a funny moment where man, we were just fans of posting stuff and like making jokes or whatever, and then for some reason they put they let us talk to NBA players, and we just straight up asked that and he went with it. Yeah, No, that's so no, that's so amazing. And again it goes back to I think just like community building and engagement, like that's that's such a big part aside from the content. Al Right, Next one for your favorite NBA moment you've ever experienced personally, Probably the bubble. I think just there's no specific moment. I think in particular, if I had to pick one moment, it is when the Lakers won because Lebron was just so happy he poured champagne on all the media and I was like, this is crazy, Like, how am I here? I just started as an NBA fan five years ago and now I'm in the now, I'm in the bubble getting to experience all this stuff, and that's it. It's over. This historic NBA championship belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers conquer the bubble and batter number seventeen. Well soon hanging the raptors um. But then there was also an amazing moment where he was face timing his mom and and then his kids and his wife. So that stuff, that stuff really stuck out a lot because the entire time I kept thinking, how am I here? Like, how am I here? So it was really cool. We gotta, we gotta have you on for another episode. I want to just like talk all bubble. I know there's been some stories of like just like what it was like in there a lot of riding bikes and Tyler hero is a bike rider as well. He liked bikes as well. You play Future on his like beats by Dre Speaker and then he I think it was him and some friends and they'd be just riding the bike around campus. Omar tell me if you don't want to answer this one, it's it's okay. So favorite NBA accounts to follow on social that isn't Sports Center, so like even like a kid out there making stuff or like, you know, even just like, uh, you know who's really good right now? G D Factory love making all these edits and work with him on the House of Highlights um, and he's he's been doing it for like ten years legendary um, but now he's like really pivoted to being like a short form NBA editor and he'll kind of get these old NBA highlights and have like a different perspective on them, so they're really good. G D Factory. No, I like that. What about your best follow on NBA Twitter? Has to be Josiah, right, has to be Josiah. He's ability. I think Josiah's ability to always kind of be onto like it's never like, it's never were like, oh there was a big moment and Josiad wasn't on Twitter to you know, kind of make his jokes or have fun with it. He I think that there's a lot of value in him always kind of being there. And obviously he's funny. He's funny. He's funny as a Gains. It's not as funny as c J generalely the funniest person I know. CJS backdrop is the funniest thing I know right now, we talked about it. The Reggie Miller Jersey on a blue hangar just looks. Producers, please please clip, please clip this one minute for just for me to post personally next week. You know, this is an audio platform but you know, like c J is is looks like he's on the run right now, and he's like literally in a motel bathroom and there's a jersey. There's a Reggie Miller jersey that with with a like a baby blue hanger. For no reason, Okay, we just we're moving this week. There, I got, for some reason schedule every person to come in internet security of the water is broken in our shower, so everyone's fixing stuff right now in the only room to podcast from is the bathroom. You know, I'm a content creator. Nothing. This is for the love of the game. This is truly um. Alright, last one, omar best NBA arena or city? Like, so, where do you like to go to? Bos So, Madison Square Garden is by far the best arena. And I want to preface that because it feels very generic to say that, like all, MSG is the best. UM. And I grew up as a Miami Heat fan, and there was that Knicks Heat rivalry in the you know the one so like the first team I was taught to root against was the Knicks. So I remember when I first went to MSG, I went on with like a hater mindset, like there's no way this arena is good. It's old, like it's gonna be terrible. And I walked in and it was like the vibe is different, the lighting is interesting, Like there was just something about did that just stuck out? Um? And I think an important thing to know is when I did a series called Reacting to Highlights with with Dwayne Wade, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard and so many other guys, every single player said their favorite arena was Madison Square Garden, So it has to be the best. Yeah, no, I will I will add to that too. You know. I think, you know, having covered you know, games at the Garden and stuff, I think anybody who hasn't been there thinks that it's kind of like a joke that everybody still says like that's the best arena. But like you mentioned, like if you've been there, you know, just the difference, the vibe is just there. Um And and obviously it's New York, like you know, like it's it's it's it's hard to describe. It's hard to describe. But like watching a game there and especially seeing the Knicks, like when they were so successful, had that run like two years ago against Trey Young and all that stuff, like it was so exciting to see. Like people always joke like, yo, the NBA is better if if you know the Knicks are good like Yo, that's no joke. Like I want to see I want to see an Eastern Conference finals at Madison Square Garden, you know, like like it like at electricity in the building. Is it's just hard to match, uh, c J. Anything left for Omar before we let him hop off and create content, No, man, we'll have you back. Is that. I know there's a ton of other stories that I've heard that other people need to hear, but I appreciate your time, Omar. Don't worries. C J. Thank you so much for having me on. Guys, Yeah, definitely, because do you want to let people know I'm sure people know already, but let people know where they can what they should follow on on social Yeah, please follow ESPN on TikTok Sports Center on Instagram and then at Omar on TikTok as well. Yeah. Awesome. Also, men, we just want to say thanks once again to our producers behind the scenes, Pete Grace and Kurt and for everybody listening to Running the Break, please subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, leave us a five star review. All of that stuff and cjn L will be back next week. Peace,