Hello, Again (Again)
Deep in the Catalan night, musing about musing about the NBA.
We’ve all got our tendencies. Proclivities. Peccadilloes. In combination, these make up the behavior that one might term “highly on brand.” Left unfettered to take root and blossom, they can result in self-parody.
Some thirty-one months ago (the passage of time continually confounds me), I staked out this small online nook in order to resurrect the work to which my original corner of the internet, blog-era remnant Hardwood Hype, is dedicated. On that day, March 27, 2021, I put together a combination introduction-mission statement that read, more or less, thusly:
“There’s a cobwebbed version of sports writing - basketball in particular - that once permeated the internet. It was tangentially current events-driven though, in many cases, the news largely served as a springboard for a riff.
It was freewheeling, experimental, often introspective. In hindsight, its role was not unlike that of the ABA in pro basketball’s evolution. We could pinpoint its emergence, rise, plateau, and ultimate fizzle. Frankly, though, the particulars don’t much matter. The fact is that it developed organically, had a sincere moment, and has since faded. Whether today’s NBA discourse is better or worse for that is - to be downright philanthropic - debatable.”
What happened between that late March day and now? In some combination, it’s the usual suspects that make “chronic almost doer of things” chillingly accurate. These particulars are fairly standard and also not terribly important.
What actually matters is here, now, and a genuine effort to turn this into something real.
I’m Emile Avanessian. For years, I’ve taken exhaustively researched, feelings-driven visits to the corners of the NBA and European football that interest me. Intermittently, I stumble upon the motivation and wherewithal to write about them. This has mostly happened at the aforementioned Hardwood Hype, but also at quite the array of sites around the internet – some still kicking, others now dark.
Almost exactly four years ago, my wife and I moved from New York to Barcelona because… it doesn’t sum up easily. In that time, I’ve written for myself, about Lionel Messi and an incredibly prolific yet all-but-forgotten NBA campaign, as well as at Sports Collectors Daily, Forum Blue & Gold, Basketball Card Fanatic, Defector, Urban Pitch, The Blizzard, and The Squall, among others.
Idealistically, I hope to contribute to the revival a style of writing that deserves better than being buried in pixelated history and paved over with SEO. As I see it, a thriving ecosystem of basketball writing from more than, like, four outlets, offering up a range of voices and opinions - some deeply nuanced, other profoundly weird - on an equally wide range of subjects is, objectively, a good thing. To that end, I’ll also work to periodically collaborate with thoughtful, funny, and diverse individuals.
In the meantime, in a couple of posts per week, I’ll overanalyze the greatest, most significant, and strangest moments and performances from basketball’s past and present, revive old faithfuls from The Before Times, and otherwise just float wherever the vibes carry me.
As I said in the introduction to my other new publication here, FC Barcelona Femeni-focused La Barça Soc Supporter, for the time being - and probably for a good while to come - the good old-fashioned, not-yet-extinct, gives-a-damn writing will reside on the friendly side of the paywall. Of course, if you are so inclined, financial support is, in fact, welcome.
Over time, paywalled stuff will pop up - interviews, chats, podcast(s), videos. That’s not a today issue. For now, all of this stuff is somewhere between theoretical and in the works.
This time there really is more to come. What exactly it all amounts to is unclear. What I can promise is every fuck I have to give. I hope this is enough to draw you into a free subscription and get you to nudge a friend or two in the same direction, and maybe even reach for your wallet!
Regardless, thank you for being here now. Let’s join hands, beat the drum for Byron Scott and Allen Iverson, discredit Danny Ainge, Paul Pierce, and Karl Malone at every turn, and see where that gets us, huh?
Stay tuned over the next couple of days for the first revival and old go-to, Reading Between the Lines season previews for each conference!