Welcome to Basketball Feelings, Year Seven

The newsletter gets a makeover, and becomes a digital magazine!

Today marks the 7th anniversary of BASKETBALL FEELINGS. A frankly confusing number I’ve had to count, recount, and fact-check myself by referencing the interviews I’ve given about it.

What started on TinyLetter as a way for me to secure a small niche for the way I wanted to write about basketball as my work in the space expanded has since grown to a publication with over 5,000 subscribers, a podcast, annual features, guest writers, a forthcoming book, and still the writing and work I love best.

The impetus to start BASKETBALL FEELINGS was a protective one. I didn’t want to lose sight of how I saw the game and the people who play it, and I always wanted a space to extrapolate — at length, sometimes messily — on the less straightforward or comfortable elements of basketball and pro sports. You’d be surprised, but not every editor is keen on a 5,000 word close study of Intimate Partner Violence in the NBA (nor are they always keen on a stubborn celebration of Russell Westbrook, but I digress).

I had always pictured this newsletter staying small because, I guess naively, I didn’t think there was such a big audience for it. I’m proud that as BASKETBALL FEELINGS has grown the voice — my voice, and now others — and the tenets haven’t changed. Cue this big change:

The shift to a digital magazine is in content, layout, and editorial schedule, but the shift is also to challenge myself to push BASKETBALL FEELINGS outward. To embrace the platform I’ve (reluctantly, accidentally, proudly) created. To invite more voices to use this platform as the digital media space shrinks (and to, the plan is with growth, pay them for that work).

What that looks like, formally and for you, is:

• One guest essay per week

• One long-form essay by me per week

• A podcast, every other week

• More mini-features and recurring series’, like ‘Exits’

• Merch, a little ways down the road

What this also means is more legwork and so, if you’re able to financially support this shift by upgrading your subscription to paid, it’ll go a long way. Regardless of how you subscribe to BASKETBALL FEELINGS, I’m so grateful.

Thank you for reading, subscribing, sharing, and being such an integral part to BASKETBALL FEELINGS’ growth and next chapter. Welcome to Year Seven.