Most reporters and beat writers know that when times are tough, there are certain players they can go to in a locker room that they can go to to get good quotes. That there are players who will say well what is going on, identify the problems without throwing their teammates under the bus.
Chris Hine wrote the book on Anthony Edwards. Literally, his book Ant was the first longform examination of Edwards fast and charismatic rise in the NBA, and offers a thoughtful exploration of Edwards’ childhood and upbringing all the way up to his first Olympics appearance in Paris. Chris got his professional start at The Chicago Tribune, initially covering a mix of college sports before switching to the Blackhawks beat. His work took him to The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, across all sports but eventually settling into the Wolves beat — his first week on the beat was when Jimmy Butler took the team to task and wound up getting traded for it.
We talked about book writing: what was compelling about Edwards, how the throughline of the book changes as Chris wrote, how Chris organized the hours of interviews he did and simultaneously wrote, also how he tackled it all in a three month window of the NBA offseason.
We also talked about interviewing athletes, knowing when to push and when to give someone space to ruminate. What changes when circumstances around a team or a person change, become tense — as with bad losses, the trade deadline, seasonal slumps — and how to navigate locker rooms and asking questions when the unfathomable happens — as with the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the ongoing occupation of Minneapolis by ICE.
Plus: Seeing the emotional maturation of Anthony Edwards up close, getting started in professional hockey locker rooms, creative outlets and how important they can be for your brain, the Timberwolves team group chat, whether emotional IQ in sports media improved, seeing the human side of athletes being on the beat with them day after day, and why you’ll never hear an athlete say “I’m tired” on the record.
