Former WNBA Player Fran Harris In Hot Pursuit of TV Gig
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| Fran Harris was a member of the Houston Comets in 1997, the league's first championship team Bill Baptist/NBAE/Getty Images |
Former WNBA player Fran Harris has experienced her share of tryouts over the years. From her high school days at South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas, Texas, up to her college days at the University of Texas at Austin and well into her international tryouts for the USA National Team, Harris knows that hard work will pay off.
Twenty-two years after being named an alternate for the 1988 US Olympic team, Harris is trying out for a starting role once again, this time for ABC�s Good Morning America.
�Dear GMA� is the name of the latest game for Harris, as she and 19 other contestants are finalists in the television network�s search for the next advice guru.
The big question is: How is it a basketball player came to pursue a career in television?
The answer is simpler than you�d think.
Basketball.
When the American Basketball League announced in 1995 that they were going to have tryouts in Atlanta, Harris was intrigued, even though she hadn�t played in nearly eight years. But the lack of play didn�t deter Harris from trying out, which was likely for the better as she ultimately wound up being drafted by the Seattle Rain. But right around the time when she was drafted, a friend called to tell Harris not to sign with the ABL because a new league was starting up; the WNBA.
Harris began reaching out to agents to situate herself in a league overseas with the hopes of scuffing up the hardwood again before the professional league tipped off. Within one week of finding out the news about the WNBA forming, Harris got word that a team in Switzerland was looking for a guard who was ready to toss up some points. It would stand as the open door to Harris�s return to basketball, and an obvious factor in her being selected by the Houston Comets for the league�s inaugural season in 1997.
�The great thing about the 1997 season, for me personally, is that I hadn�t played basketball in seven and a half years,� said Harris. �After I was cut, what I feel unjustly from the 1988 Olympic team, I pretty much said, �You know? That�s it.��
�From a team standpoint [the �97 season] was great because no one expected us to win a championship,� she added. �That�s what made winning that championship so sweet.�
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| Fran Harris played only two seasons in the league before returning to a career in television Bill Baptist/NBAE/Getty Images |
�I knew that because I�d already been in television, I knew my future was going to be in television,� said Harris, who�d started calling college games for ESPN three years before the WNBA tipped off. �I honestly just kind of felt like it was the right time for me to get out.�
The transition from player to analyst was a seamless one for Harris, who relied on her prior experience and new-found connections, particularly ones she developed from her two seasons with the WNBA, to break back into the field.
Harris assumed the broadcasting role of a halftime insider, someone who provided updates during the intermission, just two weeks after retiring from the WNBA. After just one season she quickly found herself sharing broadcasting duties with former NBA star Reggie Miller on the Lifetime Network, currently an analyst for TNT�s NBA broadcasts.
The continued work on the sidelines allowed Harris to sharpen her interviewing skills, an obvious strong suit for any self-help guru. But the real guru started to take form when Harris walked away from sports broadcasting in 2001 to start up a life-coaching practice.
�I really started paying attention to where the television landscape was going,� said Harris, who was routinely asked to appear as a guest on reality shows or as a speaker at various engagements. �It was going more reality and unscripted, more transformational and that kind of stuff, and I figured I�d be able to carve out something.�
Harris turned to a number of friends in the field, particularly producers, for input and advice on how someone with a sports and a broadcasting background could interject the life-coaching aspect and market it as an all-in-one package.
In March 2010, Harris was named as the host of HGTV�s �Home Rules,� a show dedicated to providing serenity in the home to people who aim to manage the usual chaos of daily life. With Harris�s advice, the show is focused on helping �dysfunctional families put the function back into in their lives,� according to the show�s website.
Along came an e-mail in September 2010 from her sister, a psychotherapist in Florida, where the note on a forwarded e-mail simply said, �This is you.�
�This� was an ABC Networks casting call for advice gurus, asking for interested applicants to answer questions in essay form. This round of filtering was then followed by two more rounds of phone interviews before finally asking the narrowed field to submit video samples.
Nearly 15,000 people applied to the initial call. Only 20 remain.
Harris is an undeniable �people person,� capable of clicking with practically anyone on a variety of subjects. It�s clearly an extension of her personality, but she admits there are certain self-help topics she enjoys discussing more than others.
�I love talking about relationships,� Harris said. �Those can be parent-child, lovers, boyfriend-girlfriend, corporations; that really is a strength of mine. I think because I can bring a lot of the team-building expertise that I have in there, and people don�t realize they really are partners and teammates.�
Even with all the advice Harris dishes out to others, she has a little bit of self-encouragement for herself as well.
�You have to focus on your assets, focus on the things that you�re great at, and I�m very clear with what those are,� she said. �You focus on those assets, bring them to the forefront and you minimize the things you�re not so good at.�
Viewers and fans are encouraged to visit ABC�s �Dear GMA� page to read essays, watch videos and submit questions to the contestants.