As Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle was about to
take the podium for his scheduled pregame press conference before the Mavs took
the court to face off against the Miami Heat, a host of media members patiently
waited. Most of them had their smartphones out, and some were dressed in a suit.
But in the very front row on the left side sat Tim MacMahon,
in his usual spot, with his usual attire of jeans and a nice shirt, and his
usual pen and notebook to go along with his smartphone.
The 38-year-old ESPN Dallas reporter has a unique approach
to his job and is well respected by fellow media members he works with, as well
as personnel he interviews and reports on.
“He dresses comfortable,” said Eddie Sefko of the Dallas
Morning News when asked about what impresses him the most about MacMahon’s
approach to work. “Nice jeans, every once in a while he’ll break out a suit,
which throws everybody off, but usually nice jeans and a good shirt”
Other than just his attire, Sefko went on to praise
MacMahon’s work, saying “he’s got a nose for what people want to read. He’s
good at digging through the BS and getting to stuff that will grab readers”
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| MacMahon prepares to ask Coach Carlisle questions prior to a Dallas Mavericks game |
MacMahon grew up locally in the metropolis of Flower Mound,
Texas. He was the third of seven children to Paul and B.J. MacMahon.
His father Paul was an advertiser while his mother was a
stay-at-home mom and looked after Tim and his three brothers and three sisters.
MacMahon went to Marcus High School in Flower Mound for 12 weeks before switching over to a boarding school in Bath, Maine. Over there, MacMahon excelled in sports, playing quarterback and safety on the football team, center on the basketball team, and ran track.
MacMahon enjoyed playing multiple sports and said, “The one
good thing about getting sent to this little prep school in Maine is that I was
able to go both ways (in football), which obviously would not happen playing
for a 5A school like Marcus.”
Though MacMahon enjoyed football and basketball, there was
one sport he despised.
“Track is terrible,” said MacMahon.
Following his high school graduation in 1995, MacMahon took
his basketball talents to St. Petersburg, Florida where he played basketball
for Division 2 program Eckerd College. After playing there for a semester and
focusing his studies in business, he decided to move in another direction.
“I took a couple of economic classes, figured out that
wasn’t my thing,” said MacMahon. “I figured out I didn’t want to be in business
my whole life.”
MacMahon figured he wanted to be involved in sports and the
best way he thought of was the media. That, along with his then-girlfriend now
wife Tida being in North Texas, led to Tim packing his bags and moving from
tropical Florida back near home and becoming part of the Mean Green.
At UNT, MacMahon was advised to do broadcast journalism as
opposed to radio television because it “gives you more options.”
While at UNT, MacMahon engaged himself in the school
newspaper, the North Texas Daily while also taking part in the school radio
station, KNTU.
Soon, MacMahon met the late Richard Durrett, a TCU grad who
was the editor for the Denton Record Chronicle at the time. MacMahon recalled
them meeting in the Super Pit before a UNT basketball game, where Durrett
interviewed him for a part-time position at the Chronicle, working about 12
hours a week at seven dollars per hour.
“He[Durrett] was really good to me,” said MacMahon.
That part-time job turned into a 39-hours-a-week job, which
led to MacMahon senior year being stretched out into what he called a “senior
era.”
“I was working full time at Denton Record Chronicle, wasn’t
taking many classes, so it took me four or five years to finish up what would
have been my senior year,” said MacMahon.
After finally finishing his classes, MacMahon graduated in
2003 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.
When speaking on the academic side of college, MacMahon said
it’s “the most overrated part of college. Nobody has ever asked me about my
GPA.”
MacMahon continued working for the Chronicle while soon also
taking a position at the Dallas Morning News for the North Texas beat. After a
few years, MacMahon went to the Dallas Morning News in the Collin County Bureau
and did that for a few months.
After that, MacMahon got promoted to cover high school
sports in the area and did that for three years.
Following his three-year stint doing that, MacMahon got
elevated to the college ranks, covering schools such as Baylor and Texas Tech.
After nine months doing that gig, the blog position came
open and MacMahon worked with people like Sefko and covered the Dallas Cowboys
and Mavericks extensively, while mixing in a little bit of Texas Rangers as
well.
Then, in 2009, ESPN Dallas.com was launched and MacMahon
transitioned there along with his editor, and has been there since.
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| MacMahon works in the media room following a contest between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers |
When asked about MacMahon, Taylor pointed to why he believes
MacMahon has been so successful.
“The best thing about Tim is that he is unafraid,” said
Taylor. “He doesn’t let players, coaches or members of the front office
intimidate him and you can’t say that about every journalist. Sometimes you
have to ask tough questions and it’s not always easy because a lot of times the
people you are talking to don’t want to provide answers.”
Taylor went on to specifically talk about MacMahon’s work
ethic.
“The job is about grinding,” said Taylor. “It’s about
working nights and weekends and holidays without complaint. It’s a job of
inconvenience and you have to accept that if you’re going to succeed. Tim
doesn’t have any problem grinding.”
When talking about an inspiration, MacMahon pointed to a
couple of guys.
“David Moore, was covering the Cowboys with the Morning News
when I was in school and he was a North Texas alum,” said MacMahon. “Phil
Rogers, who’s with MLB.com now was another one. I never met him but he was with
Chicago Tribune at the time and a big time baseball writer. I saw those clips
and said “Hey if they can make it big time out here, so can I.”
MacMahon has definitely won over his respect with the people
he works with too. Before almost every Mavericks game, MacMahon and other
reporters talk to Mark Cuban in the locker room. Cuban spoke glowingly about
MacMahon and his work.
“He’s an expert at headline porn, he knows how to have fun
with it,” said Cuban. “He makes it fun for me and makes it interesting.”
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| MacMahon (right) interviews Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki following a game between the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers, in which Nowitzki moved to 8th on the all-time NBA scoring list |
“My schedule is determined by the Mavs schedule, Cowboys
schedule, whatever my radio schedule is, which is also unpredictable,” said
MacMahon. “My wife and kids need to understand there will be times I don’t have
too much time. I just maximize the down time, and in the busy time just do what
I can.”
MacMahon said in his down time, he likes to hang out with his
daughters Baylee, 8, and Finlee, 5, and play with them and just watch sports.
“I don’t have very exciting life,” said MacMahon.
MacMahon acknowledged that he is very happy with where he is
right now.
“My hobby is what I get paid to do,” said MacMahon. “If I
wasn’t working I’d be looking for excuses to watch sports on the weekends and
at night. Now I have a legitimate excuse, I can tell my wife I have to do this
for work.”
MacMahon says he likes where he’s at and “doesn’t have any great
goals to check off the list.”
“I’d like to continue advancing and that crap, but I love
what I’m doing,” said MacMahon. “I want to keep doing this, and do it well for
next 30 years and then retire. That’d be nice.”
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