Amina Hussein was enough of a basketball star growing up in Oakland that she was interviewed by the local newspapers. One clipping saved by her mom was from when Hussein was in 10th grade, where young Amina proclaimed that she wanted to get into sports broadcasting.
On the court, Hussein liked defying expectations: At 6 feet 1 inch, she was
expected to play close to the basket but “I had a mean jump shot and 3-pointers were my bread and butter,” the captain of the Holy Names University (Oakland) basketball team said. When it came to her career game plan, though, Hussein, now Amazon’s head of U.S. sports on-air talent and development for Prime Video, mostly stuck to the script.
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The big change came early on, when she abandoned her plan to be a broadcaster after realizing she was happier behind the scenes. After college, she nabbed a job in sports radio in the San Francisco Bay Area, building up connections in the NFL and NBA. She had never really left the Bay Area but when the then-Oakland Raiders made the Super Bowl in 2003, she traveled to San Diego for the game and met folks from ESPN, which led to a job offer.
Culture Shock in Connecticut
“You can imagine that as someone who wanted to be in sports broadcasting, ESPN was the pinnacle,” she said. “I couldn’t turn the job down, although moving from Oakland to Bristol [Connecticut] was culture shock.” Not only had she never owned a winter coat before, she went from living in one of the nation’s more-diverse cities to being the only person of color on ESPN’s radio side, she said.
Still, Hussein loved ESPN. When she decided the “ceiling was too short in radio” she segued into TV, starting the network’s booking department more or less from scratch. “I think I was called the talent producer manager,” she recalled, adding that her social skills enabled her to flourish on the talent side. “That’s my sweet spot. I’m just good at working with people. I can identify good people, I like to give feedback and I’m open and honest.”
I felt I was turning into a Flintstone at ESPN. I wanted to get into the tech space.”
— Amina Hussein
Brandon Lowe, who worked for Hussein at ESPN and now is a producer on her team at Prime Video, said her people skills extend to those she leads. “I remember my job interview. She was so personable and struck me as someone you’d want to work for and alongside.”
Hussein liked her talent gig for another reason. “It allowed me to be in the control room and learn the ins and outs of live television production, which is what I wanted to do.”
She ultimately became an Emmy-winning senior coordinating producer, working on shows such as NFL Live and Sunday NFL Countdown before getting out of Bristol for Los Angeles to work on basketball shows such as NBA Countdown.
Eventually, Hussein wanted a new challenge in a more modern arena. “I felt I was turning into a Flintstone at ESPN,” she said. “I wanted to get into the tech space.”
During the pandemic, she moved on to Peloton, the workout-bike maker, calling her brief six-month gig there “a 30-minute bike ride.”
‘Thursday Night Football’ Recruiting
She didn’t want to move to New York and the logistics became convoluted, so she quickly took the opportunity to work at Prime Video, where she recruited talent for the new Thursday Night Football program there. “Building something from scratch was intriguing,” she said.
In fact, she brought on the legendary Al Michaels for play-by-play duties and, to help create pre- and postgame shows that were “younger and cooler,” hired recently retired players like Ryan Fitzpatrick and Richard Sherman, who went to Harvard and
Stanford, respectively.
“The big challenge was the unknown, especially because chemistry is really
important in these pregame shows,” Hussein said.
That it all came together smoothly should not be a surprise, according to Lowe. “She’s a great leader because she always has a plan and executes it, but she also empowers those around her,” he said. “She gets to know you as a person, knows your strengths and puts you in a position to shine.”
Hussein is now simultaneously focused on the new season and looking ahead to the future. “I hope we get the NBA, in part selfishly for me,” she said. “And I’d like to get back into production, too.”
