Hi Jimmy,
So here's the thing, and it could be an interesting angle for your piece or it could make you wanna cross me off yer list: I ain't doing a Clippers blog anymore. I was hired by FanSided to start up FullyClips, and they liked my work a ton, but there's a limited audience for Clipper fans. Thus when FanSided's Knicks blog (BucketsOverBroadway.com) opened up, they wanted me to take over that spot since it's a much more productive market. And I couldn't say no. 'Cuz I write to be heard. Er... read. So I dunno if that makes me useless to you, or if it makes me an intriguing case-study on the frustrating life of being a Clipper blogger (which is clearly worlds different than the excitement of being a Laker blogger). Honestly, when I'd tell people I was a Clipper blogger, often people either weren't sure if the Clippers were a real NBA team or if they did know the Clips, they'd go, "Really? I didn't know anyone actually liked the Clippers."
Lemme know if you're still interested in filming me, and if so, I live in Silverlake & could do the interview on Thursday,
Whoa, this turned into a long-ass response, so I hope your
butt is positioned on a nice cushy pillow. I also
included an arty b&w photo of me so you can fool people
into thinkin' I'm all sophisticated-like.
Okay, here we go:
1 & 2) I got started in this via craigslist. I'm a screenwriter, and probably once
a year or so I glance at the awful writing jobs listed on craigslist ("I have a sure-fire brilliant idea for a film. All you have to do is structure it, write it, turn it into a film and spend a million hours on it & I'll give you 20% of all the money we'll definitely
make from it!"). There happened to be a postingfor FanSided.com saying they were looking for bloggers for all the LA teams. I'm not into other sports, but
I'm insanely obsessed about NBA basketball. Ioccasionally would email long bball rants to friends which they always found funny & informative, so they'd say I should do a bball blog. So when I saw this ad, I contacted FanSided and told 'em about my bball
love. They responded that unfortunately the Laker blog had already been claimed, would I by some wild, extremelyunlikely chance care even the slightest about the
Clippers. I told 'em I was actually a huuuuge Clipper fan. I'm from New York, and thus alwaysfirst & foremost a Knicks' fan, but I've now been out in LA for 12 years. Meaning I could onlycatch Knick games if they were on ESPN or TNT, and since they've sucked this past year, those were rareoccurrences. But every single Laker & Clipper game
was on the boob tube. So I started watching them botha ton and got into them. However, when it came tseeing games live, it was much harder and more expensive to
see the Lakers, so whenever I went to a game I'd see theClips. Eventually, I fell for the trap that allClipper fans fall for: "This year will be
different." Anyway, back to getting the job -- Isent a sample writing to FanSided & they loved it. After brainstorming many ideas, it was either me or a friend
of mine who came up with the name
"FullyClips.com."
3) Yeah, I've got a bunch of other hobbies and
interests, but nothing out of the ordinary that'd bring any different insight into me as a blogger.
4) Honestly, I hadn't read many blogs before I started, so I dunno what stereotypes there are. Oh, but I guess I actually personally had a stereotype in my head of what I
thought of sports bloggers 'cuz I was shocked when I found out that the writer of ClipperBlog and frequentTrueHoop contributor, Steve Arnovitz was gay. I
figured only lame straight dudes could get so into theminutia of this junk. Turns out sport blogs go both ways. Hmm, actually now that I think of that, maybe
that's more my stereotypes of gay men rather than bloggers...
5) I guess my favorite Clipper moment was before I was a blogger. I went to see Game 1 of the playoffs whatever year it was they made it (2005-06?), and the fans were
insanely jacked up. The thing is, since the team pretty much never makes it to the post-season, the fans kinda went overboard. They were standing and cheering
so much at the beginning that I knew there was no way they'd be able to sustain that energy the whole game. They blew their wad at the beginning 'cuz they pretty much hadn't been to a playoff game before. It was like little kids jacked up on sugar, running amok, and you know they're gonna come crashing down. Luckily the Clips took care of business so they didn't need us to be a factor at the end, but it was funny seeing people exhaust themselves even during the pre-game intro.
In terms of my fave moment while blogging, well I'd say it was less a moment and more a slow realization of what it means to be a Clipper fan. We all know the franchise historically is a wreck, largely caused by a vile owner who won't spend money, yet we keep coming back. We keep having hope. There is NO REASON in the world to believe that things will change, and yet we do believe. There's something amazing (and okay, pathetic) about that type of mindset. And it's not that we have blinders on: we do our "Fire Dunleavy" chant and complain about the team as much as anyone, but we keep coming back. Either Clipper fans are masochists or there's something kinda profound
there. Yeah, yeah, I know it's probably the masochist part, but still...
6) As much as I enjoyed writing about the Clippers, it was really hard to get readers. I noticed that the half-dozen posts of mine that got the highest number of viewers were ones about the rest of the NBA, not theClippers. It didn't matter if I posted 7 times a
week or once, I would still get the same (low) amount of readers. It was pathetic. And when I spoke to people in person and told them I wrote a Clipper blog,
I'd get one of the following responses: A) Who are they? B) Aren't they in the minor
league? C) I didn't know that anyone actually liked them. D)
So as the year 2010 was approaching, FanSided was brainstorming for End-Of-The-Decade stories. Someone suggested that for each sport (bball, baseball, football,
hockey) we should have the bloggers for each of the worst franchises debate who had a worse decade. For the NBA, the natural pair were the Clips & the Knicks. But
the heads of FanSided said they weren't happy with the Knick guy and were looking for someone new. I told em that I was actually first and foremost a Knick fan,
so I could write a psychotically split post arguing about which of my two teams were worst. However, when they heard I was actually a Knicks fan, they started pushing hard
for me to switch and take over that blog instead. There wasn't a huge following for Clipper stuff, versus New York is one of the top markets so they were psyched about having a writer they like take it over. I felt loyalty to FullyClips since I'd started it from scratch, but in the end, I had to take the leap, so now I'm th lead blogger at BucketsOverBroadway.com.
Other interesting bits: no one cares about the Clippers. No one. Even the LA Times no longer has a full-time beat reporter on the Clips. By comparison, the Knicks have like 3 or 4 daily newspaper with dedicated reporters (plus most have occasional contributing writers or writers specifically for the online blog section of their paper). Besides my Clipper blog, there really were only two other worthwhile blogs about them
on the whole internet (but those two sites are darn good & have a much larger, more passionate fan following than I did). I'd tell you how many Laker bloggers there
are, but I can't count above 537. However, as a esult, the head bloggers of those two Clipper sites actually have official press credentials and get to go to the games for free & sit in press row. That is an extremely rare perk for a blogger, particularly for a team
that plays in a major market. So I was looking forward to those opportunities and a chance to perhaps have a real connection with the team itself (like getting to interview
players and coaches).
Wow, this has gotten long. Hope the stuff I included is useful. Lemme know if there's any other info you want.
-Alex
No comments:
Post a Comment