Thunder vs. Heat: Oklahoman staff shares NBA Finals staff picks

Ryan Aber has worked for The Oklahoman since 2006, covering high schools, the Oklahoma City RedHawks, the Oklahoma City Barons and OU football recruiting. An Oklahoma City native, Aber graduated from Northeastern State. Before joining The Oklahoman, Aber worked for the Muskogee Phoenix, Southwest Times-Record in Fort Smith, Ark., and the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas.

Darnell Mayberry grew up in Langston, Okla. and is now in his third stint in the Sooner state. After a year and a half at Bishop McGuinness High, he finished his prep years in Falls Church, Va., before graduating from Norfolk State University in 2004.

Mayberry joined The Oklahoman’s sports staff in 2005 after a year at the Akron Beacon Journal, where he covered the University of Akron men’s basketball team, high schools and recruiting. Since arriving at The Oklahoman, Mayberry has become the leading authority on the NBA as the only traveling media member and the only reporter to cover every NBA game ever played in Oklahoma City.

He served as the paper’s beat writer on the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets from 2005-07, broke the news of the Seattle SuperSonics’ settlement negotiations with the City of Seattle in the summer of 2008, a development that allowed the team to relocate to Oklahoma, and has covered the Thunder since the franchise’s inception.

Mayberry and his wife, Courtney, were married in 2010 and live in Oklahoma City.

Jenni Carlson, a sports columnist at The Oklahoman since 1999, came by her love of sports honestly. She grew up in a sports-loving family in Kansas. Her dad coached baseball and did color commentary on the radio for the high school football games. Her mom kept the scorebook during baseball games and yelled her head off no matter the sport. They passed along that passion to Carlson and her two younger brothers.



Carlson played golf in high school and planned to play in college, but when she started at the University of Kansas, she decided to focus her attention on journalism. It’s a decision that she’s never regretted.



Her first big story was a profile on Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams for the yearbook, and Carlson has enjoyed interviewing sports figures and sharing their stories every since.
Carlson is a 1997 graduate of Kansas. She and her husband, Ryan, were married in 2009 and live in Oklahoma City. They welcomed their first child, Millie, in June 2012. Carlson was the president of the Association for Women in Sports Media from 2008-10 and chair of the board from 2010-12.

John Rohde joined The Oklahoman staff in January of 1987 as a sports columnist. He has covered all college sports, plus the Texas Rangers, Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans/OKC Hornets and professional golf. Rohde also has served as a beat writer for OU football and basketball and currently is covering the NBA and the OKC Thunder. Rohde is married, has a son, was raised in Boulder, Colo., and was a 1982 graduate from the University of Arizona.

Mike Sherman is sports editor of The Oklahoman, where he has a combined 18 years of service during two stints as a writer and an editor.

He covered high school sports for The Oklahoman from 1984-93. He also worked as a news writer for the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pa. (1993-94), sports editor for the Observer-Dispatch of Utica, N.Y. (1994-97) and an assistant city editor for The Tennessean of Nashville, Tenn. (1997-2002).

Mike is a graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma, Hammond High School in Columbia, Md., and a proud native of Savage, Md.

Berry Tramel, a lifelong Oklahoman, sports fan and newspaper reader, joined The Oklahoman in 1991 and has served as beat writer, assistant sports editor, sports editor and columnist.

Tramel grew up reading four daily newspapers — The Oklahoman, the Oklahoma City Times, the Norman Transcript and the Oklahoma Journal — and entered the newspaper business at the age of 17, with the Transcript in 1978. His first game assignment was the Lexington-Elmore City high school football game, and he has enjoyed the journey ever since, from high school wrestling duals and regional track meets to Orange Bowls and the NBA playoffs.

Tramel was born and raised in Norman, Okla. He and his wife, Tricia, were married in 1980 and live in Norman near their daughter, son-in-law and three granddaughters.