Hark! Who else goes there?

I hope you will check out this app that specializes in podcast curation and now includes my voice on Hark’s NBA Now series

TORONTO — This has been a great week at The Stein Line.

We published more than 4,000 words of NBA Power Rankings on Tuesday. Then Jake Fischer wrote a couple of top-shelf insider pieces on the increasing value and utility that low-dollar contracts have on the trade market ... followed by a banger on all things Brandon Ingram. On Sunday, of course, I’ll have an around-the-league NBA notes compilation for you as well.

Also! I sneaked back to my beloved Western New York for a Buffalo Sabres game (details omitted to spare my soul and psyche) before making my long-awaited return to Raptorsland in way too long (staff researchers are working to confirm if it's really been five years). I'll be at Mavericks/Raptors at Scotiabank Arena later tonight.

On top of all that I also wanted to share some details about a new project I'm working on. One of the greatest and funnest things about the independent publishing game — relax, Grammarians, I know that the latter adjective is not widely accepted as a legal word — is the ability to also try out side gigs that are A) new and interesting and B) totally my call when it comes to giving them a whirl or politely passing.

As opposed to, say, ESPN or The New York Times holding all the veto power and just saying no, no, no to everything like they always did.

That level of freedom has allowed me to partner with the wonderful ALLCITY Network that you surely know well by now — I make several weekly appearances on DLLS shows and the other five NBA podcasts on the network — and has likewise enabled me to start contributing to the creative team at Hark Audio.

Hark specializes in creating playlists that feature highlights from podcasts in pretty much every genre you can think of. They wanted a host to introduce clips for their new NBA Now series and former NBA TV producer Matthew Horowitz approached me to essentially operate as the intro voice for NBA Now.

Or as I like to call it: The Narrator!

I like the Narrator tag, in all truth, because I always wound up in the Narrator role in school plays decades ago as a tiny Sabres fan in grade school. So I have long assigned it a level of prestige that is probably overstated ... but hey. Typical me!

Now you can hear my voice, too many years (and pounds) removed from grade school, for roughly 30 to 45 seconds — three times a week — introducing clips from various NBA podcasts that the Hark Audio team has curated.

The way Hark itself explains it:

Hark editors are podcast-obsessives who clip moments of podcast genius and curate them into Harklists — our own take on podcast mixtapes.

Download the Hark Audio app and you'll quickly see (and hear) what they mean. Hark editors are listening to countless podcasts all week to find the most interesting clips for listeners and present them in easily digestible playlists. I have been tasked with teeing up those clips for you three times a week.

NBA Now!

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

PS — Was I also drawn to Hark because I love the company name which instantly gets me thinking about a certain Mancunian soccer team's famed "Hark Now Hear" chant? Very, very possible.