Despite growing up a huge sports fan, basketball was not even close to a passion early on. I watched Michael, Magic and March Madness but the day to day of the NBA fell far behind baseball and football. 

Instead, I got into basketball when I started college at UCLA. Sitting at halfcourt about three rows off the floor for two Final Four teams and consistently strong Pac-10 talent made it easy to fall in love with the sport. As the players I rooted for and watched moved on to the NBA, it became natural to extend my interest there. Since some are interested in this, I double-majored in Economics and Political Science and minored in Public Affairs (Public Policy, basically). 

I went straight from college to law school at UC Hastings in San Francisco. Around that time, two of my friends who were still at UCLA started a blog (Vegan Fish Tacos) and said that if I had the interest and time I could write there as well. There was not much available time for me to write that first year, but over the second year of law school I spent some energy honing my craft at Vegan Fish Tacos, focusing on draft material since I still knew the college game better than the NBA.

Around that time, my work started getting some attention. Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie (then run by J.E. Skeets, now of The Starters) linked to a piece in May 2008 and Kevin Arnovitz did a write-up of VFT for TrueHoop in 2009.

After getting to the point where I felt my work was worthy of a larger audience, I began reaching out to those I read for evaluation and advice. One of the first people who responded was a writer for RealGM (Chris Reina) who told me he actually ran content for the site and wondered if I was interested in doing some writing for them. Due to my draft background, the first piece I did for RealGM was an immediate analysis of the 2009 Draft

After working on more material for them, Chris asked where I lived because there was a chance they could get me credentialed for some NBA games. As it turned out, RealGM had a good relationship with the Warriors and they let me cover a preseason game against the Clippers. Despite only attending about ten NBA games in my life prior to that point, I was on press row and ended up being assigned a seat next to Ric Bucher, which was a thrill since I watched him on ESPN. He and everyone else in that section was incredibly nice and that game happened to be the first Stephen Curry ever played at Oracle.

During that season, I covered about half of Golden State’s home games due to still being in law school. Basketball media was a much smaller community then (especially since the Warriors were terrible) and the writers were incredibly supportive. Getting insight and advice from Marc Spears, Sam Amick, Marcus Thompson and Rusty Simmons was a thrill in and of itself, but that time also helped me find a place in that ecosystem. The Warriors’ PR staff also did a great job making sure I was taken care of despite being a 24-year-old baby-faced kid who was their first regularly credentialed media member from a web-only outlet.

That positive experience aided by such strong support inspired me to be similarly helpful for newcomers to the media room in future years. That attitude helped create friendships with Ben Cruz, Ethan Sherwood Strauss, Jordan Ramirez and Nate Duncan, among others.

Over those first few seasons, sports writing was always a side project. I commonly referred to it as “the greatest hobby in the world” because I attended NBA, MLB and NFL games for free with amazing access as a media member and never asked for more than that. 

That expectation changed a little in October of 2013 when I started recording the RealGM Radio podcast and writing for Warriors World. Branching out into new areas with different audiences was an awesome experience that encouraged me to keep expanding my horizons within sports media. That said, I was still making my living outside of sports and had reached a workable equilibrium. 

It took about a year and a half for that dynamic to shift. After a shift in employment, writing became one of my choices for the next big step alongside more “conventional” options. As luck would have it, I was on the phone negotiating an expansion of my role with Warriors World when the Sporting News reached out. Agreements with those two outlets finalized in April of 2015, the same month Nate and I started the Dunc’d On Basketball Podcast.

The shocking, immediate success of Dunc’d On (along with the experience of covering a full playoff run including the NBA Finals) allowed me to shift into doing media full-time. Even after years in the business, finding a new equilibrium took some serious time but having supportive, flexible employers made a huge difference. Each was enthusiastic about my expanding profile and workload as long as I fulfilled my obligations. 

At first, one of my concerns about this change was having enough to write about. A key element of my approach is to make sure every piece of material is worth a reader or listener’s time and that requires both novel thoughts and effective execution. Writing for different outlets facilitated this a great deal and watching the amount of basketball doing Dunc’d On requires played a role as well. (Of course, Kevin Durant helped too.)

Another advantageous component of my process was adding new outlets in a more piecemeal way. While changes added to my workload, each fit in as a smaller step up, making it easier to adjust while still fulfilling every obligation. Going full-force into one thing can happen as well (and may be part of my future- you never know in this business) but that approach functioned as a stress test for each new overall workload. 

Uncertainty stands as one of the hallmarks of the sports writing world for a good reason. The circumstances surrounding each of us change frequently and are typically outside our control. That reality creates the need for flexibility, fortitude and a proactive mindset.

Over these past seven years, I have approached the business with a few different core values that could prove useful:

1. Make sure everything you publish is worth the reader/listener’s time: This has to be the cornerstone of the business but even more in sports because there are so many options. People will not agree with every argument or insight but making it worthwhile is more than enough.

2. Do not make enemies unnecessarily: This is very, very different from shying away from criticizing someone or something. As someone who lived on early message boards before making the transition, I know how easy it can be to take pot shots. However, those rarely lead to worthwhile conversations and can become problematic later on. Both making and absorbing substantive critiques is part of any public venture, but understand that it is a long game and sports is a small world.

3. Make sure no one ever regrets hiring or paying you: This is a biggie inside and outside of sports. We all inevitably change employers, outlets and the like over the course of our lives- that happens. Those changing relationships make it even more important to make sure you meet every obligation and satisfy the people who decided to give you an opportunity. That mentality produces better work product and (typically) healthier relationships with employers and employees alike.

4. Be prepared to have sports as a side gig and be honest about your chances: I called sports writing “the greatest hobby in the world” for years because I loved it but also knew how few the opportunities were to make it more than that. Getting a job with a team and/or making a real living in this business are both incredibly unlikely but that does not have to be a negative. Loving it and working for the “right reasons” made my journey to this point a joyous one without too much discouragement.

5. Check and double check your material, especially when taking a negative position: One of my biggest mistakes early on was trying to correct Chad Ford on a CBA nuance before finding out that it had changed from one CBA to the next and I had missed that shift. Chad was extremely gracious about the whole thing but it serves as a constant reminder of the importance of diligence.

It has been an amazing road to this point and I never lose sight of how lucky I am to be able to make a living writing and talking about sports. Hopefully I can help make sure the best people can continue making a living doing so for years to come.