For the past couple of seasons, this web site (as well as striketwo.net and faircatch.net) has been an outstanding hobby. I've learned a ton, met some really talented bloggers, and had a great time doing it. The only downside was that I could never seem to find enough time to follow through on all of my ideas.

Over the holidays, I worked with my wife Erin to flesh out one of these concepts: building a much bigger and better social media site for sports fans (or lowpost 2.0). After discussing it with several advisors over the course of January, we decided to take the plunge. I quit what was a terrific day job so that we can both pursue this new venture full-time.

The new site is named Ballhype, and we're working night and day to get things ready for the launch. We've just begun to open up the beta period, so please drop a quick note if you're interested in participating. We'd love to get your feedback.

My apologies for the lack of updates over the past several weeks; practically all of my free time has been spent working on a new sports-related project. I'll post more details here soon, but feel free to drop a note if you'd like to participate in the closed beta.

Despite Boston's mediocrity over the past few years, Celtics fans maintain the strongest online presence in the league. Leading the pack is Jeff Clark's CelticsBlog.com, this week's featured blog on lowpost.net. Besides writing hundreds of posts per year and overseeing the message boards, chat rooms, and other blogs on his site, Jeff has managed to fill in at TrueHoop and launch a league-wide blogger preview site. In other words, the Aquaman of the NBA blogosphere is a busy guy with a huge following.

Jeff took time out from the C's win streak and Iverson watch this week to trade email messages for this Q&A:

How long have you been a Celtics fan? In other words, in which championship era did you grow up?

Since as early as I can remember, and the earliest years I remember are the 85 and 86 seasons when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I grew up tall (6’5" eventually) so basketball was always my favorite sport (that’s like a law or something). The Celtics had such a winning swagger about them that I was just hooked for life. I loved Bird’s dominance, I loved the Chief’s glare, I loved McHale’s wit, and later I got to learn about Red and Russell and all the greats from years past. Of course, I had no idea I was in for another 20 years (and counting) of trying to recapture that greatness.

They may never equal that ’86 team—those guys were tough. Speaking of the Chief glare, why did Parish always seem so grumpy? You’d think that all the weed would have mellowed him out more.

Parish was intense. From what I understand, he was quiet as a church mouse on offense and barking out orders like a field general on defense. I like that he didn’t back down from anyone (see Laimbeer, Bill — oh man, someone needs to put that fight on YouTube). You need that kind of intensity to win championships. It somehow balanced McHale’s easygoing attitude (not to mention all the whining he did to the refs). Throw in Bird’s personality and I have no idea how it all worked, but thankfully it did. That was the thing with all of Red’s moves. They always just seemed to work out. Until Bias of course, but we are all still recovering from that.

Which retired Celtic would you most like to have playing in his prime for this season’s team?

No question it would be Russell. Bird and Cousy and several others would each do wonders with this team, but Russell is the ultimate game changer and team maker. He would dominate today’s "centers" without needing to score. Think Ben Wallace with a PHD.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever heard Tommy Heinsohn say?

I can’t even narrow that down. That guy is like every Celtic fan’s crazy uncle that you can’t help but love. Everyone makes a big deal about his statement about Pierce, but you have to keep in mind he said he had a chance to be the best offensive Celtics player of all time. Best defender goes to Russell, best all-around goes to Bird, but best offensive player is still up for debate.

Plus, Tommy is crazy like a fox. If he were younger, the team would be lucky to have a guy like him coaching the team again. They would run and they would play with swagger because of the way he believes in them. Basketball is so much about confidence. Once these young players start to believe in themselves, look out.

Are there any past or present Celtics that you don’t like? How about Greg Kite? Or Rick Fox?

Rick Fox went to the Lakers, but I never really disliked him. I was always a fan of Antoine Walker, but few players have polarized their fanbase more than that man. More than anything I’m just relieved he’s (probably) played his last game as a Celtic.

Bill Simmons: friend or foe?

Friend, no question. He has even been kind enough to give me some pointers along the way. And not just "good job, keep it up" type encouragement. More tough-love, constructive criticism advice like "don’t settle for being decent, do your research and keep working on your writing." I respect that and I appreciate it greatly. He’s still one of my favorite writers because he captures the feelings of being a (Boston) fan so distinctly.

You’ve been running CelticsBlog.com for nearly 3 years, correct? How did it all get started? At the beginning, did you have any idea that it would grow into what it is today?

Yeah, working on 3 years. I actually had another general sports site that I ran with my friends years earlier, but I think our readership could be counted on our fingers and toes. Still, it was a good experience and taught me the value of focusing in on one subject that I’m passionate about and finding that niche audience that shares my passion.

I had no idea it would get this big. Actually, the big break I got was when the Boston Globe site closed down the Chat Room that they had. A whole lot of fans liked going there every day and were left with no place to call home. I quickly found some chat software, stuck it on my site, and invited them over. Turned out to be a win-win.

Clearly the best part of my blog isn’t my writing. It’s the community of passionate fans.

Yes, you seem to have quite a following.

They actually are sometimes very hard to please. If I make a spelling mistake or don’t fact-check my statements, I have hundreds of editors that make sure I know about it right away. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. They make me a better blogger.

Which of the Cavalier’s polls are you planning to spoil this year?

I keep trying to needle him into getting the Orange Roundie to come out of retirement. Maybe I can convince him to challenge Pierce’s INFUSION3 to a game of HORSE. Careful ... CARE-ful ...

Does the blog ever interfere with your personal life or professional life? Or is it the other way around?

It is a fine line between hobby and obsession, so sometimes I can be accused of spending too much time on it. Still, I try to be very diligent about not letting my faith, my wife, or my day job take a backseat to my hobby (in that order). I have, however, found that I’ve become much less of a fan of the Red Sox and Patriots because I just don’t have the time to spend thinking about them anymore. So of course my non-Boston fan friends make fun of me for picking the wrong team/sport. I’ll have the last laugh though. Really, I will. Stop laughing.

Which other Celtics blogs do you consistently read? What about other NBA blogs?

I really like the guys at CelticsStuff Live because they have some excellent podcasts. I download them onto my iPod and listen to them while I work out or drive to work. (Yes, this is an all-day obsession). Celtics17 is another good one. In particular they do a good job with game recaps. Red’s Army is a photoshopping nut, and I dig that about him. I try to check in with the rest of them occasionally, but who has the time to keep up with all of them? Especially when the Cheap Seats section of my site is pumping out quality fans-perspective content too.

As for other team’s blogs, I have to visit TrueHoop at least once a day. I have dozens of other blogs in my RSS feeder, so when a topic hits that I’m interested in, I can click there. Between that and lowpost.net, I barely need any bookmarks anymore.

I’ve discovered that sports blogs in general (and NBA blogs in particular) tend to link to each other more frequently than any other types of blog. Any ideas on why that might be the case?

Good question. I can’t speak for other types of blogs (who has time to read other types of blogs?), but perhaps it has to do with the sense of community that draws fans together. The same reason fans seek out other fans of their team is why bloggers seek out other bloggers around the NBA. We feel a kinship for each other, admire each other’s work, and feed off each other’s positive energy.

Also, blogs are still new and fresh and a bit of an unchartered territory. Nobody is really sure what they are doing. So we like to look around and see how others do it. The thing is, there is just no cookie-cutter way of blogging. You’ve got Free Darko writing like he’s got a PHD and Suns Gossip who has artwork that could have been done by a 5 year old. Wiznutzz is like a mash-up of Shakespeare and Dave Chappelle. YAYSports is a multimedia empire (in his own mind). JE Skeets is hilarious. See, there I go dropping names again. I just love my blogging brothers and sisters. I can’t help it. (Cheers also to Sactown Royalty, Pounding the Rock, and Hornets 24/7 - I’m sure I’m forgetting someone really good too)

Technorati claimed to be tracking 57 million total blogs at the end of the last quarter. Why are so many of them devoted to the Celtics?

It seems like the perfect storm of fan-bases. For one thing, I really do think we have some of the most intelligent fans. For another, our fans are cocky enough to think other people NEED to hear our opinions. That "confidence" is underrated. Bloggers by our very nature are obnoxiously confident in ourselves to the point where we need everyone to love us (or at the very least pay attention to us). Finally, the success of the 80’s (and before) definitely spread the fan-base all around the globe. So those that don’t live local need to get their fix somewhere, and the Internet is the perfect place to do so.

Besides, I showed them how to do it right, and they all copied me. (See? There’s that cockiness.)

Simmons would have liked that last bit. So, if Boston has the most intelligent fans, which other NBA city has the most cretins?

Trying to get me in trouble huh? I haven’t a clue. Many fan bases haven’t had teams for long (Memphis) or haven’t had winners in a long time (Clippers) or have a reputation for being rowdy (Philly) but I haven’t experienced enough games in other team’s stadiums to tell you one way or the other. I wish I could hate on the LA fans, but when Kurt from Forum Blue & Gold turns out to be such a good blogger and all around good guy, it makes it tough.

In fact, that is one beautiful thing about the link-sharing nature of blogs. It brings us together more than it divides us. That was one motivation in doing the NBA Blog Previews this last October. I value the other bloggers and their fan-bases and wanted to hear what they had to say about the teams they feel so passionate about.

Yeah, people seemed to have a lot of fun with those previews, and the blog spent a lot of time on WordPress.com’s list of top blogs during October. How did you come up with the idea, and are you planning anything similar in the future?

Well, in stark contrast to my ego, is my humble side that tells me I know next to nothing about the other 29 teams out there. I could bust my butt and watch video and research scouting reports and read news stories all offseason and still not understand the other teams anywhere near the level that their fans do. So why try? I just wanted to hear what Matt from Blog-a-Bull thought about Big Ben or even what Natalie from Need4Sheed thought about Big Ben for that matter.

I could go on for days about this, but the bottom line is that I respect bloggers’ opinions and I enjoyed the whole process.

I did do a fly-by "how’s your team doing one month in?" review, but I admit I didn’t put a ton of effort into it. I might do another one for either the All Star break or perhaps the trading deadline. At the very least, I’ll try to spearhead something big for the playoffs and draft.

OK, last question ... Celtics Pride: great movie, or the greatest movie?

Meh. I thought it was cute in its own way, but it had very little to do with the Celtics and less to do with pride, so I find it hard to endorse it in any way.

I wish someone would make a movie about Bill Russell’s story. It could cover everything from the way he and KC Jones taught themselves to play great defense at USF, to his epic battles with Wilt, to his personal struggles with race relations. I just think his story would be great for the big screen. Then again, he’s probably too private to let something like that happen.

Note: lowpost.net featured blog and interviews will be on a brief holiday hiatus after this week.

This week's featured blog on lowpost.net is NBA Basketball and Other Unrelatedness—creative wording for a creative site. Howie (aka TheHype), the blogger/artist, seems to see the world differently than most. His drawings and Photoshop compositions are enjoyed by many, and one of his T-shirt designs recently even caught the eye of Agent Zero himself.

Howie and I traded email messages during the week to generate this Q&A:

First of all, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions during your exams week. Your parents aren’t going complain to me if you flunk out, though, are they?

No no no, thank you Jason, for your genius mind’s creation of Lowpost.net in the first place. It’s a big dose of my daily hoops-vitamin intake that I’m obliged to be a part of this cool project (that, and I needed something to do with my 4am study break!)

As for flunking out, don’t worry man, I’m already quite capable of accomplishing that all on my own, Q&A or no.

How did you first become interested in hoops?

Probably the easiest answer for anyone in my yougun’ age bracket: MJ. It was all about MJ and Bob Costas. It was an enlightenment when I found out we had access to the NBA on NBC, but only around ’96 (you know, the pesky time difference conversion for us Canucks...) so I only caught Jordan’s tail end career. But still, I was hooked ever since.

OK, you’re making me feel old. MJ is understandable, but Costas?

Yeah seriously, dude was mesmerizing to me for some reason. For sure the greatest is Marv Albert, but Costas has his own style that I thought was just as good as Marv. And Costas did those cheesy, slightly-poetic summaries at the end of games that I really liked. Maybe the only thing against him, in my books, is that he had a role in BASEketball.

Are there a lot of NBA fans in Montreal?

Overall, no, not too many NBA fans around here even though I’d like to believe otherwise... this little fad called "hockey" and "Les Canadiens" is all everyone wants to talk about. But there are a ton of talent for basketball if you know where to look and lots of open gyms that I’m thankful for. That’s really where I congregate whenever I need to shootaround, have some actual NBA chat and runaway from the library.

What are some of your favorite blogs to read (NBA and otherwise)?

I’m interested all of them, but then I remember I don’t have that many hours in a day, so I stick with teams I like to follow. I love to check out Ms. SunsGossip’s classic creations, who is on the rise and everywhere these days. The Rising Suns is another very good PHX team blog, Lucas puts tons of good work into it. I like BulletsFever Bullets Forever, not only because of those nutty Wiz, but Mike is also a student/blogsmith, so I’m happy I’m not the only "kid" stressing out around here (and I’m sure he’ll probably graduate much much sooner than I will...) Seth’s Your New York Knicks has funny observations. Need4Sheed is simply an awesome site, it’s better than the Pistons’ official site. Let’s see, what else, I’m an avid reader of SLAMonline since its html days, and now they’re employing Ottawa-ians (Ottawa-ers?), probably wanting to take over the world. And I guess all the hot spots like HoopsAddict, TBJ, YAY! TrueHoop I like to hit up, though I must admit I’m really behind in reading a lot of their constantly updated stuff!

Non-NBA, I like to browse BoingBoing and be amazed by the smartness of people, The Sound of Young America has interesting links and cool guests on their podcast and I don’t know if you’re familiar with Ze Frank’s The Show (video blog), but that’s a fav of mine. But really, hoop blogs are so good lately that I don’t want to divide my attention elsewhere.

On your about page, you suggest that your blog is keeping you from focusing more on school. Be honest ... if it wasn’t for Unrelatedness, you'd just be partying more, right?

Ha! Without a doubt. That, and sleeping, can’t get enough of those great things. Actually, now that you mention it, I vaguely recollect that’s how The Unrelatedness started in the first place... needing to find a calming activity during the drunken haze of the morning after...

Is there any special significance to the Space Invaders on your header? Were you even alive when that game was out?

Ah, I’m just being a goof. Yeah, no way I was born back then. I don’t know if you noticed, before it was Pac-Man, slowly eating balls to get to Mr. Jerry West’s (that didn’t come out dirty did it?). I guess I just have an affinity for retro game icons. It’s also a way of letting readers know this is that type of NBA blog, y’know, the silly/random kind.

You probably had them at "Unrelatedness." Any chance we’ll see Missile Command or Spy Hunter up there in the future?

The title is pretty weird isn’t it? And trust me, I’m aware it’s super long and doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as easily as everyone else’s, I’d change it, but I can’t think of anything else.

Choosing headers is a very rigorous procedure: there are lab tests, charts and most importantly, voodoo. But yes, Missile Command and Spy Hunter made the cut (they’ll get rotation with others soon).

Which of the drawings that you’ve posted to the blog do you like the most? (My favorite is probably the DJ Mbenga sketch.)

Awesome! Yeah, that one is probably the best "direct joke" I could think of and I’m happy you liked it (I was starting to think I was only amusing myself with all those toons). I actually like the Stormtrooper tomahawk from a while ago, because Stormtroopers rule.

And I’m sure you and others probably figured out that I’m not really an actual artist, I’m just practicing with each one. My hope is that I can get good/consistent enough to develop a weekly strip with characters (about the NBA), but that’ll take a while, so don’t hold your breath!

You’ve posted links to mash-ups of old school jazz vs. the Wu Tang Clan, plus Queen vs. 50 Cent. What other mix-ups would you like to see someone produce?

Something weird like Snoop Dogg vs. Air Supply. Don’t ask me how that can work, but if some savant DJ can make it happen, I’m so downloading buying it.

For fun, I’d love to see: Tony Parker’s rap mashed-up with Celine Dion’s greatest hits. You have the French connection there and for the music video, picture this: Cirque du Soleil with none other than Eva Longoria headlining.

Who wins in a matchup of the Hickory High and Shohoku High School basketball teams? Assume it’s played in Indianapolis.

Jason, dude, you made my day. Because of this question, I must buy you a case of Molson 24s and we must chug. Your research is impeccable sir, I can’t believe you thought of this!

As for the answer: it’s got to be Shohoku hands down. Sorry Huskers, but you still depend on Jimmy Chitwood too much down the stretch, and Shohoku’s hustle will lock him down. Besides, the whole starting five from Shohoku can light it up on the offensive end: Takenori Akagi will just dominate inside. Double him? Pass it to Hisashi Mitsui to rain 3s all day. I haven’t even talked about Kaede Rukawa, the Joe Johnson of Japan high school athletics. Oh, and not even Coach Dale will want to pick a fight with Hanamichi Sakuragi. Hickory’s "four pass" offense won’t be able overcome that blowout.

Can you tell I’ve thought about fantasy matchups like these a million times? Man, I could go on forever...

Things went well last week for Matt Watson of Detroit Bad Boys (this week's featured blog on lowpost.net). On Friday, he helped to launch AOL's new NBA FanHouse. Later, the Pistons won their eighth straight game, suggesting that their early-season struggles were over. On Saturday, UCLA upset USC to give Michigan a shot at the college football national championship. Today: not so great. The Pistons lost to the Bobcats, and Florida leapfrogged the Wolverines in the BCS rankings, stealing their Fiesta Bowl berth.

I interviewed Matt Watson on Saturday. Here's the transcript:

First of all, congratulations on being selected to join the NBA FanHouse.

Thank you—I'm definitely excited about it.

How did it all come about?

Actually, Jamie Mottram contacted me out of the blue about it. I'd known about the FanHouse obviously when they launched the NFL and college football one, and it's funny because I actually had contacted Brian Cook, who has a popular Michigan blog, congratulating him when he became part of it. I asked him at the time if they had any plans to do an NBA blog, and he said, "I think they might do one later in the year, and I wouldn't be surprised if they contact you." I had forgotten about it after then, and a couple of months go by, and then one day, I have an email from Jamie Mottram in my inbox, and I was pretty happy to see that.

Do you have much interaction with the other NBA FanHouse bloggers?

Yeah, since we're trying to get off the ground running, there have been a lot of emails between everybody going back and forth. There are ten of us, so the emails pile up pretty quickly. There's friendly banter on top of the organizational and logistical emails you might expect. It's been pretty fun.

And do you have a regular beat?

There are six of us that are covering five teams, and three general bloggers, so to speak—who cover league-wide stories and fill in the blanks where need be. I have five teams that I'm covering—the Pistons, the Magic, the Jazz, the Grizzlies, and the Raptors. It's kind of an odd collection of teams, but we had a draft, and I ended up having to pick last, which is how I ended up with the Grizzlies.

I assume the Raptors were your second-to-last pick?

Yeah, they weren't my top choice. But they're a young and interesting team, and there were some other teams available when I chose them. I think there are a lot of storylines that are going to be interesting to follow this year. Certainly the Sam Mitchell watch is one.

Do you feel like the Pistons are on the right track now?

Yes, I am. I was definitely worried early on, but they've extended the winning streak to eight games, and I really like the way that things are coming together so far.

If you could forget the past six years, who would you most like to have coaching the Pistons right now: Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, or Flip Saunders?

Forgetting the last six years would be tough. I honestly would have to say Flip Saunders. Carlisle had his quirks, which I think is why the team was never able to get past the Eastern Conference Finals with him. One thing that kind of bugged me with him, was that he pretty much wasted all of Tayshaun Prince's rookie year by not letting him play until basically the first round of the playoffs, when Orlando had Detroit on the ropes, and he had to play Prince because they needed somebody to step up to Tracy McGrady. And that was kind of Prince's coming-out party.

And then Larry Brown—I just don't think he really trusts his young players. We saw that with him kind of responsible for destroying Darko's confidence. The team as it's constructed right now, there are several young players that need to step up this year; otherwise, the long term future of this team is in jeopardy as a contender.

I would actually say that Saunders is the least proven out of everybody, but if Flip Saunders can continue to guide this team as well as he did in the regular season last year, hopefully keep a little more harmony as they head into the playoffs, and also give guys like Carlos Delfino and Jason Maxiell a lot more consistent playing time, and let them develop into regular rotation players, then I probably have to stick with Flip Saunders.

If you could do the 2003 draft over again, would you take Carmelo, Wade, or Bosh instead of Darko?

I would probably take Carmelo. It's Carmelo or Bosh, really. A much as Wade is everybody's poster boy right now, I think that the backcourt as we have it right now is still the best in the NBA with Chauncey and Rip. I don't think Wade could have possibly developed at the same rate as Chauncey developing into an MVP candidate and Rip becoming an All-Star for the first time in his career.

But Carmelo, my big concern with him coming out of the draft, was he just looked like he had too much baby fat on him, and I though that he had the frame, that you think he might carry a few pounds. He really this year impressed me with his conditioning. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wins the scoring title this year. Plus, aside from some of his antics during his rookie season, his clutch shooting, he's become known for that, more so than any of the other players.

My big problem with Bosh, and it's not really a big problem, is that if we had drafted him, which at the time was not even a thought that anyone would take him in the top three, if we had, then we would have been that much less inclined to acquire Rasheed Wallace, and he put us over the edge for the 2004 title.

How about some quick word associations? What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Chauncey?

Winner.

Big Ben?

Rock.

Scott Skiles?

Dictator.

Dumars?

Smooth.

Flip?

Twitch. That's kind of cruel, but if you've seen any games, he has a lot of ticks.

Let's compare a few of the original Bad Boys from the late 80's and early 90's. Who was your favorite out of John Salley and Dennis Rodman?

At the time, probably Salley. We never actually won a title with Rodman in the starting lineup. He came into his own as the rebounding leader after the Bad Boys peaked. Growing up, when they were winning titles, honestly, I kind of liked Salley. It's hard to believe now, but he was the personality back then. Rodman was still very introverted. Salley was known as the team comedian, and he was a very fun guy to like.

How about Buddha vs. Rick Mahorn?

Oh, that's tough. I would say Mahorn. Mahorn I really identified with the team, and he was the one who was in at the end of the games; he was the muscle. Buddha he was kind of a fan favorite, but he would pretty much play the first quarter, but then you wouldn't see him for the rest of the game.

Dumars or The Microwave?

I've got to go with Dumars. I have very fond memories of The Microwave, but I've got to go with Dumars.

These guys didn't play together, but what about Mark Aguirre vs. Adrian Dantley?

I've got to go with Aguirre. He was there when we won it, so I've got to stick with him.

You've said that Laimbeer was your favorite from those old Pistons teams. Do you think he'll ever get a chance to coach in the NBA?

Honestly, I do. Isiah interviewed him back in the day (I think it was before he hired Larry Brown). This is kind of a conspiracy theory here, but someone—I think it was one of my readers—mentioned offhand their speculation that Laimbeer begged off the TV coverage this year (in addition to coaching the WNBA, during the NBA season, he would work TV next to George Blaha). They suggested that Laimbeer is backing off from that because he doesn't want to be commenting on a guy that he's probably going to end up replacing at some point, being Flip Saunders. They compared it to Ron Rothstein, who after getting fired from the Miami Heat, was a TV commentator for the Pistons, and ended up as the first coach after Chuck Daly. I wouldn't be surprised—if not in Detroit, somewhere. But, given his reputation still left over from his playing career, I won't be surprised if the only place he's really welcome is Detroit.

How's married life treating you?

It's going all right, smoothly, I'd say. We've been together for about five years. There hasn't been too much that I've learned about my wife Julie since we got married, so it's not like I didn't know what to expect, but yeah—it's been very nice.

The secrets start coming out in year two.

Yeah—I don't want to say anything I'm going to regret.

So, with the FanHouse gig and The Roto Times, are you writing for three different sites now?

That's right. If you want, it can actually be four, because I actually write for two different sites under the Roto Times label: The Roto Times and The Hot Sheet, which is their subscription site.

How do you fit in all that work?

There's a little bit of a rhythm that goes to it. The work that I do for Roto Times is basically twice a week: previewing the football games and then recapping them at the start of the week. That takes up most of my time on Tuesdays and Fridays. In the middle, I do what I can, depending if there's a game that day or anything going on with the Pistons. And now, I just started the FanHouse, so I expect it'll be something I spend an hour or couple hours a day working on. It takes a lot of discipline, because I do work from home. So it does take discipline to keep working. I also have various other freelance gigs here or there, and I also do web design on the side, so I have a couple other projects that keep me busy. All in all, I have a couple different things going for me.

Motor City Blogs is one side project ... how did you get into that?

Yeah, basically I wanted something to teach me PHP, the programming language. I had the idea for a while, and looked around at various pieces of software, and I figured it would be a fun thing to do. That's how geeky people waste their time.

Finally, what's your take on Orange Roundie-gate?

I understand Scoop Jackson's quote-unquote apology. I can understand where he's coming from in terms of maybe an editor took it out, and maybe he meant to give attribution to it. I think it's larger than that, I think it's larger than whether there was a link there. He basically took the idea and spent 4,000 words acting as if it was his. Whether or not he mentioned briefly in the middle that it was from another site I think is irrelevant. If he just wanted to personify the ball—fine, he's not crossing any boundaries. Once he takes the name Orange Roundie, he's blatantly ripping off somebody else's work. I will admit if this was another author who did it, I think the uproar would have been a little bit less intense. But Scoop Jackson I don't think has many fans. I honestly haven't really met anyone who really likes his work. Maybe he has an interesting column here or there, but I think everyone is kind of sick or bored with his work.

OK, you're J.E. Skeets. You and your friend Tas have built The Basketball Jones into one of our premier Canadian blog and podcast combos. You're consistently entertaining, you dispense pretty decent gambling advice, and you even have a new reflecty logo. You have a tremendous amount of upside, but you understand that you can't spend all your time on the NBA until you can afford to quit your day jobs. So, you start waking up at 5:00am so that you can start podcasting five days a week.

TBJ is lowpost.net's featured blog this week. I interviewed J.E. Skeets on Saturday. Here's the transcript:

Before The Basketball Jones launched, you wrote on jeskeets.com. How did that site evolve into today's Basketball Jones?

J.E. Skeets started on January 1, 2005. It was a complete bet with my friends right before New Years in 2004. I was sending a lot of emails and whatnot, and they were like, "You should do a site or something," and I was like, "All right, yeah, I'll see if I can write something every day." And they said yeah, it'll last two weeks, it'll last three weeks, whatever. It started as jeskeets.com (I guess it was on blogspot at the time). I just started writing, and that went well, and my friends were checking it out, and maybe their friends too.

In October or November, I was running out of things to write about (you can only write about the weirdos you see on the streetcar so many times). So, I started writing about basketball. I guess I saw Deadspin, when it was still fairly new, and I wrote something about signs on Doug Christie. I sent it in (like, whatever), and Will put it up, and obviously, your hits go through the roof, and this was even when Deadspin was pretty small. I thought that was sort of cool to have a lot more people reading about it. So I just started writing about basketball a lot more, and more and more people started coming.

And then I talked to Tas and Jason (JD). I went to school with these guys, and Tas wanted to get into doing something with basketball in the media. We were like, "You know what, why don't we just start a podcast?" That's actually why The Basketball Jones started. And I was sort of thinking that I had been writing a long time, and writing more and more about basketball on jeskeets.com, so why not have more of a basketball site. So we started that up in January '06. It was solely for the podcast (the first couple of posts I think were just the podcast), but then I continued writing over there and it just kind of snowballed into whatever it is now.

I assume you get a lot more readers to the site than listeners to the podcast.

Definitely, and that's something we're trying to work on. The real baby to me is the podcast. That's what I really enjoy doing, and obviously Tas, too. We feel that there aren't that many out there, and the ones that are aren't that great, so that's where we try to focus a lot of our attention. I love writing too, and you're right—more people will come to the site because you wrote something stupid or funny about two guys dancing. They can quickly read that, whereas it's a lot harder to get them to click on an mp3 and listen for 15 or 30 minutes to your show. We've been trying to get more and more people to do that, and it's been working. But we still get many more readers than we do listeners, for sure.

How much work goes into the podcasts? Is there anyone else beyond the three of you?

It's just us three. When we were only doing a podcast once a week, it was basically Tas and I doing all the content. JD's not even a huge basketball fan, but he's amazing at what he does with all the audio stuff. We'd go over to the studio (our sort of makeshift studio), and the three of us would just get together, and JD would have the music ready, and Tas and I would have all of the content, it would take us maybe an hour, or maybe an hour and half if we're just joking around, for a half-hour show at Jason's house.

For the morning show, Tas and I will wake up at about 5 and try to get as much basketball knowledge in our heads as possible, trying to find out what happened the night before, what are the big storylines, what we should talk about, if we got any mail, yadda yadda. And Jason comes on at about 5:20, and we start talking about how we're going to go with this. We have a pretty good layout now; we sort of know where we're going, we're doing headlines and this and that. Tas and I usually have to do some writing for the headlines, and we're trying to record by 6:00am. If all goes well, a 15-minute show should only take us 20-25 minutes, with stops and whatnot.

You guys try to keep pretty consistent about the length of the show. Any reason for that?

We just think it looks cool. You're right—there's really no point, because that's the cool thing about podcasts (you can get on and talk for as long as you want). The reason for us in some sense is that we hope to turn this into something maybe a bit bigger (hopefully getting paid to do it somewhere down the line, or something like that). We just think it looks more professional, and if someone ever did come to us and say, you guys should be on radio, or we want to pay you to do this, I think it's something that they would look at, if you guys can make it 15 minutes every time or 30 minutes. It just adds a sense of professionalism to it.

That gets to one of the other questions I had: What's your ideal job? I assume you'd love to be working in basketball full-time.

Without a doubt. As for my exact dream job, I have no idea. I guess if someone came and gave us tons of money so that we could get up and not do it on Skype, our morning show, and be in the studio ... that would be ideal. I just want to keep writing and talking about basketball—it's a lot of fun, especially with the NBA blogosphere that's out there. The thing for us, which is really cool and why we started to do the daily morning show is that we started to realize that a lot of international NBA fans, they got nothing. Their content is basically all on the Internet. They don't have tons of games to watch, or a lot of highlight packages to watch on their local television. So we have just gotten tons of emails from throughout the world, saying, "Your show comes on here at noon, and it's perfect because we get caught up on the NBA."

Ideal job would be to be paid for what we do now, and take it to a whole another level. We want to get into video podcasting, and all that, too. There are lots to tackle still.

So, if the broadcast career takes off, would you still want to keep writing?

I'm a horrible writer. I hated writing in school, and I'm pretty ass at it—maybe not creative stuff, but generic, what's-going-on type of stuff, I'm not that good at. I'm not nearly as talented as everyone that appears on lowpost. I don't want to stop doing it by any means. I enjoy it and I think people get a kick out of it. I think it'll still be a big part of The Basketball Jones, yeah.

With the writing, obviously you do a great job of finding crazy stuff out on the Internet. Do you spend a ton of time surfing around every day?

Henry [Abbott of TrueHoop] actually helped me out with getting a bunch of RSS feeds. He gave me a lot of advice on that. I use lowpost; I probably read lowpost more than you do. I'm basically just checking all the time, and a lot of people send stuff in now, which is really cool. In the beginning, you have to be out there, to find all of this weird stuff. Now, more and more people are sending tips in, and saying, "You gotta to check this out." That's cool, and it makes my job a lot easier to get it up on the site.

Your base of commenters is strong as well. Last week you had the Sam Mitchell chess post that came directly from your readers.

Yeah, exactly, I didn't even write that post. A commenter wrote that (he's actually a friend of mine), and Howie at ... his crazy long blog title ... did the picture, I didn't even do anything. I just put it up, and it's probably one of the funniest things we've ever had on the site. It's cool—I really like the community in the NBA blogosphere and all of the commenters and stuff like that. It's neat because everyone seems to want to help each other out. Howie didn't have to do that, but he wants to, and it helps him, because more people will go to him, and it gets his name out a little bit. I really like that—I think it's really cool.

You obviously spend a lot of time leaving comments on other people's blogs ... sometimes it looks like you've got interns doing that for you.

I don't. I could use some, so if they want to contact me ...

Yeah, I enjoy reading tons of blogs. When I write something, I like for people to weigh in, or tell me I'm wrong, or say they agree or what not, or expand on my thought. So, I just try to do the same to all the other guys or girls that I like to read out there. Do I do it a lot? Maybe it looks creepy, does it?

I see a lot.

It probably is creepy. I should cut down, then.

How did you come with the J.E. Skeets name?

I don't know if I could tell you that—I might have to kill you. Let's just say it was a result of a bad golfing accident, and that's all I can say.

I'll just use my imagination.

Yeah ... you'll never get it with that.

Do you have any favorite posts from either TBJ or the old site?

I've always found it absolutely hilarious how many people really enjoy those Romance on the Hardwood things. To me, it was like obviously a complete joke. Someone, I think it may have been one of my friends, saw the picture and sent it in and said it looks like they're at the prom or something. So I said, yeah it does, and just wrote the thing. Some of those are my favorite ones. I was a fan of the Bruce Bowen one, when the Chuck Norris thing was going on.

That's my personal favorite.

Yeah, that one I put a lot of time into.

... Abstinence is 100%. Bruce Bowen is 101% ...

Right. I like making fun of Bruce Bowen, too. Which others? Recently, [thinks for a minute] ... they all suck.

Ha. According to the lowpost.net database, the post that people have linked to the most on TBJ was How To Take The Perfect Rookie Portrait.

Yeah, you know what, I put a lot of time into that one, too. The other one that I also got a lot of response from, and it's probably because of the people I was writing about, was the Marbury and Steve Francis one, where they were just hanging out, just shooting the shit. That one I got tons of emails for. It's funny, every time I do one of those Romance on the Hardwood posts, I get 15-20 new pictures, saying do it for this one or that one. It's sort of my thing now I guess ... which is not something to put on a resume.

The Raptors' easiest stretch of the year comes in March. 10 of their 14 opponents in that month currently have losing records. Does Colangelo wait until February to fire Sam Mitchell so that the new guy (Hubie Brown or whoever) gets off to a good start?

That's brilliant. Colangelo is so shifty that he would do that, so yes, I agree with that.

Let's talk about the 2003 NBA draft. You've got the big four of LeBron, Carmelo, Wade, and Bosh. If those guys were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who would be Donatello?

Oh, wow. You've done your homework. Donatello is the leader of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; there's no doubt. Everyone thinks it's Leonardo, but they're wrong. I've had so many people say, "C'mon, why don't you do a post on it and explain it to me." But I can't—I just know it, all right? The Donatello would have to be LeBron, with the power in that bo. That was the best, I don't care. They say those kitana blades were awesome that Leonardo had, but if you ever played the video games, the bo was fantastic because it had long reach, right? You could go through the floors and stuff. So, LeBron would be Donatello, without a doubt. I would make Wade Leonardo.

Bosh has gotta be Rafael, right?

Yeah. That's fair. Who does that leave? Carmelo, bit of a party guy, maybe? Cowabunga? Sure, he can be Michelangelo.

Moving on. How bothered are you that Canada still doesn't have a WNBA team?

Extremely bothered. I can't sleep at night, half the time I get the shakes. Because I think we would dominate it. We would have to have just Canadian women on the team. If I owned a Canadian WNBA team, that would be my rule. And we would wear flannel. That would be a cool jersey: flannel.

We are called the Basketball Jones, but that is one facet of basketball that I do not follow.

OK, on the men's side, if you were to select the all-time all-Canada basketball team, does Todd MacCulloch make your starting five?

Todd MacCulloch, oh boy. He almost has to, by default, I think. I remember I was so angry when I found out that Todd MacCulloch was the first Canadian guy on SLAM magazine cover. I actually got in a fight with the guys at SLAM before I knew them about that. He was actually good, until his feet betrayed him. So yes, he's my starting centre, sure. He seems like a good guy, too.

Vertical leap of about one inch, but he could catch the ball and lay it in.

Right, it might have even been minus, actually. He was fascinating. He was actually good; he was a solid NBA centre. Well, maybe not in today's game; he's worse than Big Z. He would start for me without a doubt. I'd start him at the point guard, though—ust to throw the other team for a loop.

Right. Bring Nash off the bench?

Exactly. Bring that spark plug.

OK. Let's say you win a sweepstakes and get to pick between two prizes: courtside season tickets to the Raptors, or a chance to follow The Roots on tour for 6 months. Which do you pick?

[Thoughtful pause...] I would take the Raptors season tickets. I sit up in the nosebleeds at the ACC now, and I've sat down there a couple of times. As much as I love The Roots and watching them perform live, I've gotta go with the Raptors, because when I'm down there, it's like stimulation overload. I don't even watch the game when I sit down there—there's so much to look at and try to take in. I love it, I absolutely love it. I would take the courtside season Raps tickets, for sure. For sure.

But The Roots would perform hopefully at halftime.

It's time for the 2nd in our 205-part series: "Better Know an NBA Blogger." Featured on lowpost.net this week is SunsGossip—a true one-of-a kind amongst NBA blogs. The blog's low-res pictures evoke children's drawings (an anonymous commenter noted last month: "this site looks like its [sic] done by third graders that ride the short bus"), but the wit behind them is comedy gold.

I interviewed the law student behind the blog, Miss SunsGossip, on Saturday. Here's the transcript:

What prompted you to start SunsGossip?

I was reading this Boris Diaw message board over the summer, and a bunch of people were speculating as to whether he was dating Ann Strother of the Phoenix Mercury. Several people said that they wouldn't believe it until they saw pictures. So I thought it would be funny to show them some "pictures" of Ann and Boris together. So I created the blog, and posted to the message board, and got so much hate! Not only were people clowning me on the message board, but several people actually emailed me just to tell me how stupid it was, and how I had too much spare time, and how it wasn't funny at all. After that, I was forced to continue the blog.

You've obviously received a lot of praise since then. Are you surprised by the amount of attention it's received so far?

Yeah, I really am—it's great how much love I've gotten from the other bloggers. That's kind of like the best compliment you can get. I'm also getting nice emails from readers, which is pretty tight. I don't have groupies or stalkers like the guys at Golden State of Mind, though.

Wait, GSoM has stalkers?

Yes, they do—you can ask them about that.

[Will do.]

How long does it usually take to do the drawings?

A really long time.

Don't your law school professors keep you busy?

You would think. Law school is pretty busy, but it's all about prioritizing I guess. Frankly right now I'm flunking out of law school. I do want to eventually graduate because it's part of the master plan of becoming the next David Stern. If that doesn't work out, I'll settle for being Michele Tafoya or something like that.

You recently posted a homemade video (of LeBron dunking on Duncan). How long did that take to put together?

That took several hours of in-class time, which is when I do most of my blogging, actually (instead of paying attention). It took several hours—I won't even try to front like it didn't. I'm working on it becoming a regular feature.

When did you start following the Suns?

I'm actually a closet fan of other teams, too, just because I've lived in so many other places. I'm from New York originally, but have never been a Knicks fan. I still like the Sixers, and I still like the Rockets, because I've lived in Philly and Houston. And I've never lived in Phoenix, but you have to love the Suns now because they have all my favorites: Boris Diaw, obviously, who I love; Raja Bell, who I've liked since Philly; and then you always have to love Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash and those guys. So it's been fairly recent, but I don't want to seem like a fair-weather fan.

Speaking of Bell and Diaw, what will happen sooner: the launch of RajaBell.com or Boris working himself into playing shape?

That's harsh! I think Boris is actually making good progress. I heard that he lost 10 pounds. In the game last night, Bill Walton called him the best high-post player in the league, so he's on his way. RajaBell.com—I don't know what's going on with that, but I plan on asking Raja about it when I see him at the game on Monday here at Golden State.

Nice. Did you get a press pass?

No—that would be tight, but I'm just planning on being the groupie waiting outside the locker room.

Have you seen the new Suns book, "Seven Seconds or Less"?

No, I haven't. It's a hard-copy book? It's not online? I don't ever get out of the house—if it's not on the computer, I don't see it.

I've got it here, and I'll read you a quote from Boris Diaw: "I do not date American women. I have them." What's your reaction to that?

What did he say? Wow—oh, my heart is broken! Did he really say that? Oh my goodness—I might have to change my whole opinion of Boris. I can only justify that by thinking that translated in French, that means something nice, like he doesn't date American women, he only loves them, or something like that. Wow.

What are your favorite blogs to read?

There are so many. Besides lowpost of course, I'd say required daily reading is Howie the Hype. I also like to check out Bench Renaldo and Jones on the NBA, and of course The Rising Suns. And I can only try to keep up with YAYsports and True Hoop, because those guys are so prolific. One last one—Hornets247.com. I think it's really funny, but I think that guy Ron hates me because I always make stupid comments.

An 82-0 season is out of reach for the Suns now, but do you think they can win out from now on to go 77-5?

I guess I'll have to retract my 82-0 and be a little more realistic. They were looking good last night, even without Steve Nash, so I have high hopes that they're coming back together now.

How do you feel about how NBA teams always seem to find white guys like Pat Burke and Sean Marks to put at the end of the bench?

You mean the whole league, or just the Suns?

It's pretty much every team—there's Brian Scalabrine, Mark Madsen, Michael Doleac ...

That's a tough one. I don't really know how to interpret that, because some of these guys really are the best players—Steve Nash is the best example that I can think of. I would guess that there's not any real thought going into that, in terms of taking a couple of white kids versus other kids.

The fan base of the NBA, obviously because of the makeup of our country, is largely white, and I think they enjoy watching any color player. A lot of people probably enjoy the fact that they can get down with some black folks for something that they enjoy.

Featured on lowpost.net this week is Henry Abbott's True Hoop. Much like the RZA (aka The Abbott), Henry is a leader among NBA bloggers—I don't know of a more prolific, authoritative source around. If you only read one NBA blog each day ... well, you should think about reading The Wizznutzz. But if you read two NBA blogs, be sure to make one of them True Hoop.

I interviewed Henry on Friday morning—here's the transcript:

You’re a former sportswriter for mainstream media as well as a blogger now. What do you see as some of the biggest differences between mainstream media sports writing and blogging?

Well, there are a couple of different things. One of the big things is that when I was writing for HOOP and Inside Stuff (which I still write for a little bit—I’m not totally done with that), every story that you want to do either has to be an editor’s idea, or it has to be an idea that’s cleared in advance with an editor. I’m a guy who has an idea for a basketball story about every 20 minutes, and that magazine comes out once a month. It’s just kind of hard—you don’t get to use 99% of your ideas of what might be an interesting basketball story. The blog just lets you—every time I have a friggin’ idea, I just put it up there, and start this running commentary and make it kind of a voyage, rather than "Here’s one story about Cuttino Mobley." It’s more like, here’s a little bit—I found an interesting thing about Cuttino Mobley, and a few minutes later we can revisit it then you add in the conversational element.

A big part of my job at True Hoop is listening to people—listening to people’s comments, when they email me, and call with interesting info. That part of it is unbelievable—how much more I know about the NBA now than when I was a reporter full time. People who are sympathetic to what I’m doing, read it, and they want to help, and they tell me stuff. A lot of them are involved in the NBA. That’s happening more and more now—it’s amazing. I just feel more plugged in than I was before.

I think another big difference is that I feel like my whole thesis behind True Hoop is, "I love the NBA, warts and all." I like it even though, when you go to a game, and go to the locker room, and you interview players (and I’ve done quite a lot of that), you end up having (I bet you every NBA reporter has) this kind of disillusionment: "I used to love the NBA and a lot of these people are total a-holes." It’s just the truth, and a lot of it is because you’re the media, and they’re perfectly nice guys who don’t like dealing with the media, because the media is problematic to them, and that’s totally understandable.

The league itself (not talking about the players) by and large has this notion that the way to present the NBA to the public is very sanitized. They’re not going to acknowledge that some of the people involved are really not very social. I understand why some of these players are like that, and I don’t hate them for that. It happens, and I feel like we should put that on the table too, and talk about the NBA without hiding everything. I feel like knowing everything I know about the NBA now (which isn’t an insane amount, but it’s more than most fans get to know), I still really like it. I love the NBA; it’s my great passion in life—even though I know all this dirt. I’m really not looking for dirt at all, and I hate it when I know dirty little secrets, because I don’t know what to do with them. But, there is some dirt, and that’s OK. It’s still a good product, still worth buying a ticket, I think. I feel like we should talk about honestly it like adults and intelligent people, instead of trying to make it all bright and shiny, and try to fit a square peg in a round hole.

At this point, the interview was interrupted by my son waking up 45 minutes early. As it turns out, Henry also has two very young children. We resumed several minutes later.

With the two kids, how many NBA games are you able to watch?

I’ve had to make some hard choices over the last few years. Before I had kids, I’d go to a lot of games, and I live near New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, so I could go to all three. But, now that I have kids, not only do I not get to go to a lot of games, but I don’t even like to watch a lot of TV. Life is busy. Obviously I love the NBA, but when I’m home and the kids are awake, I don’t choose to be staring at the TV.

I don’t watch a lot of games, to be honest. I try to watch during the playoffs or when there’s an interesting game. I have various ways of watching stuff online, which is pretty cool. I feel like I get to see everything that I feel like I have to see, and I pretty much see nothing else. So I kind of choose my spots. Time is just so much of the element now.

Also, True Hoop isn’t really about breaking down games. I’m interested in that, and I like it, and I did some live-blogging during the playoffs. But I feel like it’s more about what people are talking about in the NBA, which might be a game, but it also might be not a game, or something else entirely. I feel like any second that I spend watching a game is a second that I’m not checking on what they’re saying in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune today, or whatever it may be. I feel like job #1 is keeping tabs on the discourse.

I guess not watching the games helps when you’re fan of a team that isn’t winning, like the Blazers. How did you originally become a Blazers fan?

I grew up in Portland, and I went to a pretty intense school. I went to a private school where we had a lot of homework, and I spent a lot of time doing my homework, and it was boring. At some point I got a Walkman, and that was the thing—I couldn’t watch TV anymore, but I could listen to the Blazers and at least look like I was doing my homework, and sometimes even do my homework. I was probably 10 or 11 when I got that Walkman, and it was almost like a religion. I would listen to almost every game. And I would even listen to it in the car, and listen to Bill Schonely on KGW. I became a huge Blazers fan. I’d read every article in the Oregonian every morning about the Blazers, and I’d follow the Blazers hard core. I went to a few games, and it happened that some of the early games I went to were some really good ones—some great playoff wins. My dad started taking me fairly often, not a ton, but maybe 10-15 games per year. I got the bug really bad, and I’ve always been a Blazers fan. I left Portland in ’91 and followed the team from a distance ever since. So much easier following from afar now than it was in ’91, thanks largely to the Internet. I’ve followed them from all over. I’ve lived in Asia, and South America for a while, and gone to great lengths to keep tabs on how the Blazers were doing throughout the years.

There’s that Jerry Seinfeld joke about how players come and go, and coaches come and go, and ultimately, fans end up rooting for the uniforms. When you’re living in a city it’s easier to do that because everyone else is rooting for the local team, you can go out and see them. I’ve moved around a little bit, and given up my allegiances to the cities I used to live in ... I don’t know if that makes me less of a fan. (At this point, I seemed to forget that I was conducting an interview.)

I don’t pretend to understand how that fan thing works. I just know that I like me some Blazers. There is something really magical about being in a city when the team based in that city does really well. I was in New York when the Rangers won the NHL Stanley Cup. I’m not a hockey fan at all, but for that week, everyone was wearing Rangers stuff, and everyone was excited, and it was like springtime—so exciting. I was in Portland in 1990 when the Blazers were in the Finals against the Pistons. I was just getting back in Portland for the summer in ’92 when they were in the Finals against the Bulls. It’s just a great thing to be there when the team is doing well. Portland was insane during that series—it was so incredibly exciting.

I was actually a young child in Portland when they won in ’77. I don’t remember anything about that, but I do remember in the years following there was kind of a magical aura around the team. Portlanders loved the team in a way that you could feel and see, and there wasn’t a lot of cynicism about it. The irony is that the Portland franchise has had more than its fair share of good guys over the years. That championship team had a special bond—they’re all friends still. The Oregon fans are spoiled, and the Terry Porter/Clyde Drexler/Jerome Kersey teams—those were some pretty good guys. People expect NBA players to be guys you’d love to go and give a hug to. It’s starting to get like that again, but in the interim, they’ve been let down.

The fans have also been lucky with the overall success of the team—with a 2221-straight season playoff run. Obviously it’s been tough for them to take the losing and some of the bad apples over the past several years.

Yeah—I think most cities are more aware than Portland that you’re going to have some of some of those crime stories, and you’re going to have some of those losing seasons. The team has only been there since 1970 and they won the championship in 1977. They’ve been one of the better teams in the league ever since. These last few years have been incredibly hard for most Oregon basketball fans to swallow, but it’s not so atypical. Plus if you look now at what’s happening in Indiana or Boston—there are plenty of teams in rough periods right now.

Moving on, it looks like you’ve done some radio work in the past. Have you thought about doing more with podcasting?

We’ve done a little bit—there have been a couple of mp3’s on True Hoop. I think there will be more of that in the future. I like it—that’s what I got my degree in (broadcast journalism). Ninety-nine percent of what I did was radio, and I worked at CBS radio. I want to do it, the only problem is that it’s kind of time-consuming to make it sound good. Making it sound just OK is not time-consuming, but I feel like I don’t want to do anything that wouldn’t be good. I have Pro Tools, and we’ve messed with it a little bit, and trying to do it. All of my radio experience is before digital editing. I’m almost 32, but that makes me feel really old. I’m really good with a razor and a china marker and everything. If it gets to the point where I can do it easily, where I don’t spend the whole morning doing short podcasts, then I’ll definitely start doing a lot more of it.

Right—the whole morning is, what, 5 posts on the blog?

It’s so easy to put up written stuff, there’s just so much low-hanging fruit. If I spend all morning on one project or all day on a podcast then it means I’m missing out on all of the NBA stuff going on at that time. I feel pressure—I just know that every couple of hours there’s some really great NBA story that I’d love to put on True Hoop. I’m falling behind every time I spend a few hours not keeping tabs on that stuff.

What is your typical day—how do you go about finding things to write about?

The core of it is just having signed up for a million RSS feeds. Everything that has an RSS feed that might have interesting basketball content I sign up for. There’s so many now, when I started True Hoop, I could literally every day in a half hour read every RSS feed that I considered to be a good RSS feed—from a basketball blogger and every basketball section in the US. Now there’s so many RSS feeds that you can’t do that. You can’t read them all—you could spend all day trying to keep on top of that. Originally it wouldn’t be uncommon to come in and find 1500 stories. And you just kind of scan through them all, and you can do that in 20 minutes. Now I come in and it’s more like 10,000 stories, and you just can’t get them all.

So, I end up choosing who to read based on the quality of the writing and the quality of the content, which even means that there are some sources that are really, really good sources that may not often be about basketball. If the New Yorker has something about basketball, I don’t ever want to miss that or if Harpers has something about basketball, that’s usually really good stuff, or GQ recently had a lot of basketball stuff. When really serious journalists are writing about basketball—I really want to get that stuff. I’m a basketball blogger, so I read all of my favorite basketball blogs every day. That’s a lot—dozens. Obviously, I have my favorite journalists. And you have to read Charley Rosen because he’s really good to get the comments going.

What are some of your favorite newer blogs?

I like so many blogs—these are the ones off the top of my head. If I looked at my RSS feeds, I’m sure I could think of a lot more. I’m a big ClipperBlog fan—I guess everybody is, but that’s a pretty new blog. I guess I root for that SunsGossip blog. I love the art, and it sometimes makes me laugh really hard. I obviously like Sactown Royalty a lot, that’s not very new though. The Painted Area—I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Painted Area? (I am now.) They have really good basketball analysis including the European stuff. I think they really know what they’re talking about. I was listening to them a lot during the world championships, and also other times. I always try to read that one. There are so many, I could probably go on all day.

I try to keep my blogroll updated with them, but now, honestly, it’s not unusual for me to come in and see 3 or 4 emails from people saying, "hey, I started a new basketball blog ... could you add me to your blogroll?" Usually I’ll sign up for the RSS feed, and if it’s good, I’ll add it. But, it’s a lot of reading to be done nowadays, there must be 500 basketball blogs now (something like that). You’d probably know as well as I would.

Yeah, there are a lot, and this is the time of year when a lot of new ones are starting up with the new season.

One of my pet peeves about blogs, and this is just my take—I don’t pretend to know what’s good or bad. My taste is such that I don’t really want more off-the-cuff un-expert analysis. Somebody telling my why the Knicks are going to win tonight. The fact is—the Knicks themselves don’t know whether they’re going to win tonight. And if they are going to win, they don’t know how they’re going to win. It’s one of those things that we don’t get to know. I don’t feel like we need more off-the-cuff speculation. That’s one of my pet peeves. Some blogs—I don’t think they last very long, or have big audiences—some blogs have a lot of that. Being one more guy, a poor man’s version of what the talking heads are saying on TV today. I feel like it’s not the best use of blogs for me.

To me, a much more valuable thing is to have different voices on the important topics of the NBA, whatever that may be, and different perspectives. Stars are emerging all the time. They talk about if you give a million monkeys a million typewriters, one of them is going to write Shakespeare. Us bloggers—we are those million monkeys. Some of them are good, some of them are really good, and they’re people who wouldn’t have gotten a job covering in the NBA. Or they might run a blog with ad money and make some money for themselves with that. Sports writing had been a closed profession where you had to know somebody to get a job, but now suddenly it’s open, at least with the audition process. Anybody can audition. There are some really good writers writing basketball blogs.

I agree.

Finally, you're a professional blogger (this is your career). How often do you find yourself writing for something that will bring traffic to the blog versus writing about something that just interests you. Or, is it all the same?

I don’t ever think of it that way, but having spent time in newsrooms, I definitely have that ingrained sense of "ooh, this is going to be popular." When I'm reading, I feel like, "ooh, this will inspire discourse." Where my taste and news taste begin and end, I don’t know—they kind of fuse together. Like all bloggers, I look for things that people will find interesting, but I never think, this will bring traffic. I’m in this for the long haul. I want people to trust True Hoop as a source, and somewhere they can go every day to find out what’s going on. I don’t want them to think they’ve been led in for some cheap short-term ploy. I’m not going to have Basketball Porn.