She's 18. She's Interviewed Steph Curry. She's Just Getting Started.

While most 18-year-olds were figuring out college applications, Sloane was sitting across from Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Blake Griffin — microphone in hand, homework due tomorrow.

She is not a prodigy by accident. She is a prodigy by obsession.

In one of the most energizing episodes SuperFan Diaries has ever put out, J.R. Green sat down with Sloane — the creator behind the powerhouse NBA media brand Sloane Knows — to talk about how a little girl who loved the Yankees became one of the most compelling voices in basketball media before she ever set foot in a college classroom.

It Started with a Three-Year-Old and the Yankees

Before the NBA. Before the podcast. Before the interviews with All-Stars.

There was a three-year-old in the stands who was already paying closer attention than most adults around her.

Sloane grew up with sports in her blood, and baseball gave her the foundation — the love of the game, the obsession with the details, the understanding that fandom is not passive. It is something you do. Something you build.

The Yankees were just the beginning.

 

The Nardwuar Method: Why She Does the Work Nobody Else Does

If you have ever watched Sloane interview an NBA player, you already know she is different.

She does not ask what everyone else asks. She goes deep — pulling up facts, stories, and moments that the athletes themselves have almost forgotten. The research is relentless. The questions land.

She calls it the Nardwuar Method, after the legendary Canadian music interviewer famous for making artists feel genuinely seen. Sloane took that approach and brought it to basketball. The result is athletes who lean in instead of leaning back. Conversations that go somewhere real.

At 18, she has already figured out the thing that takes most journalists a career to learn: preparation is the interview.

The Phone Call from Draymond Green

Not every young creator gets a mentor. Sloane got Draymond Green.

The story of how one of the NBA's most outspoken, most polarizing, most compelling figures took a teenager under his wing and helped her find her voice is one of the highlights of the entire conversation. Draymond did not just give her access. He gave her perspective — on the media, on the league, on what it actually takes to build something that lasts.

It is the kind of mentorship that changes the trajectory of a career. Sloane clearly knows that. And she has not wasted it.

 

Why the Female Perspective Changes Everything

Sloane is not just covering the NBA. She is covering it from a point of view that the sports media world has historically underrepresented — and she is doing it at exactly the moment the WNBA and women's sports are finally getting the mainstream spotlight they deserve.

She talked with J.R. about why the female perspective is not just welcome in this space — it is vital. Women make up a massive and growing share of the NBA's fan base. They deserve voices in the media that reflect their experience of the game.

Sloane is one of those voices. And she is getting louder.

 

Vanderbilt, Oprah, and What Comes Next

Sloane is headed to Vanderbilt. And she is thinking big — not just "sports journalist" big, but Oprah big. Her goal is to build a media presence that transcends any single sport or platform, something that connects people to the stories behind the athletes they love.

She has already proven she can get the access. She has already proven she can ask the right questions. The infrastructure is being built in real time, one interview at a time.

She is 18. She is just getting started.

 

What She Wants You to Know

Shoot your shot. That is the whole message.

Sloane did not wait until she had a media company behind her or a journalism degree on the wall. She started. She reached out. She showed up prepared. And the doors opened — not because she was lucky, but because she made it impossible to say no.

Whatever you are waiting for permission to do, Sloane is the reminder that you probably do not need it.

🎧 Hear Sloane's full story on the SuperFan Diaries Podcast — where passion meets the game.

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