Dorian Waller’s ultimate dream is to carve out a career reporting about basketball, but before he can craft award-winning, slam-dunk stories about players and coaches, he knows he has to sharpen his skills. Thus, the lifelong Houston Rockets fan and proud Prairie View A&M alum has taken his game to a new arena: the Masters of Sports Journalism program at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Waller, who is living independently outside of the Houston, Texas area for the first time in his life, faced an additional adjustment. He went from a Historically Black College an hour from his home to a predominantly white institution where he is one-of-nine Black students in a 30-person cohort. He could have traveled further West had he decided to continue his academic journey at USC, the other school he considered before choosing to attend what he considers the more welcoming Cronkite School.
At Prairie View, Waller grew so much and experienced some of the best moments of his life. His journalism education there focused primarily on the broadcast and cinematography aspects of the field, two areas where he received a lot of exciting hands-on opportunities.
“I was a sports director for our student production company KPU TV where I was turning in like 16-17 hour work days,” Waller said. “Me and three of my other friends were like we’re the studio there and we worked hard.”
He said that what he learned at Prairie View helped lay the foundation for him to be successful at ASU and in his journalism career ideally spent near the basketball court.
Knowing what growth he needs to achieve his career goals, Waller has fully embraced Cronkite’s challenging courses. He has enjoyed learning from ASU’s professors how to improve his writing, fine-tuning other journalistic skills and using AP Style for the first time.
Waller’s transition from Houston to Phoenix was also aided by the friendships he quickly made with cohort-mates and the fondness he developed for this university and the state of Arizona.
“As soon as I got here, out of nowhere I started hating the Arizona Wildcats, so I just started embracing everything in the state and that helped a lot,” Waller said.
Even though a new slate of academic classes and a Spring sports reporting internship with Arizona’s Family keeps Waller busy, that does not stop him from keeping a close eye on his beloved Rockets, who he has rooted for every season since the 2008 group led by superstars Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming that won 22 games in a row.
Waller excitedly shared that the Rockets are off to a strong start in the 2024-25 NBA season as they currently sit in second place in the Western Conference, only trailing the Oklahoma City Thunder. A basketball historian who considers himself “a student of the game”, he also noted which players have to step up in order for them to keep surpassing expectations.
“I think we look really good,” Waller said. “ I was expecting us to be a lot better this year, but I did not expect us to get this good this fast and hopefully it’s sustainable into the future. We just need some more consistency out of our big three guys. Amen Thompson has been very consistent. I have been proud of that, but Alperen Şengün and Jalen Green have been a little inconsistent here and there.”
Given Waller’s extensive Rockets knowledge, vast array of basketball-related opinions and burgeoning journalism skills, it does not seem like a shot in the dark to see him as a future Rockets beat reporter or NBA columnist for the Houston Chronicle or filling a broadcast role on the team’s local television network. Either way, Waller seems poised for lift-off, mirroring the Rockets’ resurgence to NBA playoff contention.
