Sports Journalist Creates Viral 'Hoops for Hotties' Series, Which Shaq Calls 'Funny as Hell' (Exclusive)

Mariah Rose had been sharing sports contented connected TikTok for a while, but thing still didn’t consciousness right. Yes, she was proud — and moreover excited — astir nan level she had built of complete 100,000 followers. But each clip she scrolled done nan comments connected her videos, mostly from men, she felt “miserable.”

Growing up successful Atlanta, Rose had ever been immersed successful sports, acknowledgment to her mom. In fact, nan very first activity she and her relative ever did was sports. Her mom had a saying: “An idle mind is nan devil’s playground,” and she lived by it.

Rose yet chose to prosecute volleyball but continued to autumn successful emotion pinch different sports, particularly basketball. To this day, she’s a monolithic Stephen Curry fan. Though she doesn’t callback ever being formally taught nan game, she picked up a batch conscionable by watching her relative play.

“I’d beryllium successful nan backseat of our car, and my mom would opportunity to my brother, ‘Don’t get successful this car unless you sewage 20 points,’ ” she recalls.

“I’d perceive her either kick aliases cheer, talk s--- astir nan players — who shouldn’t beryllium playing, who should beryllium and why they lost,” she adds. “That’s benignant of really I figured retired what was going on, because I ever had to beryllium there.”

When Rose went to assemblage to study sports broadcasting astatine nan University of Georgia, she people recovered herself breaking down sports for nan women astir her — whether it was her mom, her friends aliases moreover strangers astatine a sports bar. At nan time, she didn’t deliberation overmuch astir what it meant to beryllium a female successful sports.

But precocious — disappointment by her male-dominated assemblage and inspired by each those casual conversations — Rose, now 25, made a TikTok called Hoops for Hotties. To her surprise, it went viral.

“I thought it was a nosy small bid name, and I conscionable stuck pinch it,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively complete Zoom. “I person nary thought why — it conscionable popped into my head. It was conscionable 1 video explaining hoops basics. And I was like, okay, nan assemblage is there. Women do care. They are interested.”

“My comments were much fun, and nan assemblage I was attracting was much fun,” she adds. “So I became obsessed pinch it. I started explaining everything.”

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When it comes to making sports relatable for group who mightiness not typically watch, Rose says nan imaginative comparisons travel naturally. She often draws connected her emotion of popular culture, including The Real Housewives and Love Island, to create nosy metaphors.

For example, one video she posted compared Destiny's Child to nan different shot positions. "no 1 amended to explicate nan positions amended than Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child! 🏈👑🐝," she captioned nan video.

"Omg shot makes consciousness now 😩😩😩," 1 personification commented connected nan video.

"so what i’m getting from this is that one request much ppl to explicate sports successful position of beyonce for it to make consciousness to maine 😭," personification other wrote.

Another personification replied, "girl guidebook to football! this made it click truthful overmuch faster."

One of her biggest challenges, she says, is dealing pinch moments erstwhile she feels for illustration there’s thing to talk astir — though, successful truth, location ever is. “You conscionable person to find it.”

“Another large situation is learning to equilibrium nan truth that I could tally into these players successful existent life,” she continues. “At nan extremity of nan day, my work is to my assemblage — not to nan players aliases nan media. I’m not trying to get them to for illustration me.”

“I’ll tally into situations, for illustration Joy Taylor’s point pinch Fox News — aliases immoderate that was — and nan assemblage is begging maine to talk astir it. Joy follows me, and I person respect for her. So it’s astir uncovering that balance. I person a work to beryllium honorable and opportunity what I really think, because astatine nan extremity of nan day, my employer is maine — and my audience.”

As Rose has continued posting Hoops for Hotties content, her pursuing has grown to complete 669,000 connected TikTok and 37,000 connected Instagram. She's besides created dedicated pages to her Hoops for Hotties contented connected TikTok and Instagram.

As a result, she’s turned societal media into her full-time job. She logs connected astatine 9 a.m., makes content, takes calls, does interviews and connects pinch her followers. One of her astir memorable moments? Shaquille O’Neal erstwhile reached retired to her directly. “Shaq messaged maine saying, ‘You funny arsenic hell,’ ” she says pinch a laugh.

“I get messages each nan clip like, ‘You made maine want to activity successful sports,’ or, ‘I was ever told not to do this,’ ” she says. “That past 1 is simply a large one. I was ever told not to awesome successful publicity because I wouldn’t make immoderate money. But astatine nan extremity of nan day, it was ne'er astir nan money for maine — it was astir nan truth that I’d beryllium miserable doing thing else.”

“Women show maine I inspired them to get into sports, aliases they’ll say, ‘You taught maine X, Y, Z astir nan NFL, and I was capable to support up pinch nan men successful my meeting,’” she adds. “And that intends a lot. It makes maine consciousness for illustration I’m helping group consciousness much confident.”

When it comes to nan future, Rose has large dreams for her platform. She hopes to grow into longer-form contented connected YouTube and motorboat an audio type of her contented arsenic well.

“I conscionable want to support climbing,” she says. “I want each female who’s willing successful sports to person a spot they tin spell to perceive and consciousness represented — to person a sports outlet, because location are a batch of us. That’s my main extremity correct now.”

She besides wishes much group — sports fans and non-fans alike — understood that it’s perfectly okay to beryllium a casual fan. In fact, she says, astir group are.

“Don’t consciousness for illustration you person to cognize everything, aliases each player, aliases consciousness stupid for asking a question,” she says. “The feline making you consciousness dumb astir sports? He doesn’t cognize everything either. So it’s okay to beryllium casual, to dip your toed successful erstwhile you want, and measurement backmost erstwhile you don’t. It’s expected to beryllium fun.”