NBA Trade Watch continues ... but it's also time for some reflection on this Newsletter Tuesday

This Substack recently celebrated its second birthday and the Transaction Game in #thisleague has finally slowed down sufficiently to talk about it

This NBA-obsessed Substack — with its side crushes on soccer ... tennis ...  travel ... food ... coffee ... gadgets ... and sneakers — is a little bit different than any other Substack out there.

Or so I like to tell myself.

One factoid that adds some heft and validity to that claim: The Stein Line has two anniversaries.

I announced the launch of this addictive self-publishing endeavor on June 25, 2021, which was thus recorded as the date that The Stein Line went live, but my first full article wasn't published until July 12, 2021, because I had to complete the two weeks' notice I had given The New York Times after letting the world know where I was headed.

Consider that my long-winded explanation to account for the delay of my long-promised Two Years In reflections post that I finally completed over the weekend.

I had to get past July 12th, right?

Not really, no. The real reason that I couldn't assemble these thoughts in late June, of course, is that the NBA news cycle was churning far too quickly and wildly between the draft and free agency for me to spend extended time blabbing about myself and what I'm up to. It made far more sense to wait for a lull in the Transaction Game action and our Damian Lillard/James Harden/Pascal Siakam trade watches to shift into milestone-and-assessment gear.

Please allow me now, then, to offer my profuse thanks to all of you for reading along and chatting with me frequently and most of all helping me build this thing into a true community that, two years in, literally has thousands and thousands of residents.

It’s pinch-me stuff to write (and read) that sentence.

This is also the most personal writing I've ever done — my absolute privilege to deliver NBA coverage to you in this manner.

I love writing this way, connecting directly with so many of you and, for the first time in my nearly 40 years in this circus of a business, learning how to be entrepreneurial. We can speak earnestly and honestly here about, say, that new in-season faux tournament hatched by the NBA ... rather than me being forced to go on TV and pretend to tell you I love it.

I have to make every decision here. I nail some. I absolutely flub some. Just to be in this position, though, is legitimately inspiring and energizing.

Yet I must also admit that the celebratory jig I normally might have indulged in behind closed doors in celebrating The Stein Line's second birthday got stifled by seeing what just happened to the NYT sports department. I loved that place so, so much. I've told the story many times about how I endeavored to buy two hard copies of every edition of The Times that carried my byline from a nearby supermarket in Dallas because I was that proud to be printed on those pages. Seeing the sports department disbanded two years later — that word, in the freaking headline, hits you like a hammer — has left this newspaper nerd quite saddened for my many former colleagues still there and the industry as a whole.

Some of the emotions are similar to what happened to me many years ago. I landed a full-time job with ESPN in September 2002 after 5 1/2 wonderful years with The Dallas Morning News and, in ensuing years, received all kinds of kudos for supposedly having the foresight to escape newspapers before their decline began in earnest. In truth there was precious little foresight involved. It was largely good luck that, just like now, has me knocking on every piece of wood I see.

In those days, I had simply begun freelancing once a week for ESPN while still at The Morning News, taking over its Midwest Division column from the legendary Mike Monroe when the alleged Worldwide Leader was a much smaller operation. I felt like my writing was much more creative, edgy and modern in those weekly ESPN.com contributions and I came up with a plan to follow Andy Katz's blueprint. Katz went from college basketball newspaper man to full-time ESPN insider; I was simply trying to put myself in line to pull a Katz in the hope that ESPN.com would someday hire a full-time NBA writer. The NFL Network's Steve Wyche and I were the finalists for the job when ESPN finally reclaimed a piece of the NBA's national TV contract heading into the 2002-03 season and fortune smiled upon me that time after Wyche had beaten me out a couple years earlier for a gig covering the Wizards for The Washington Post.

I would love to suggest some two decades later that a grandiose vision led me to leave The New York Times when I did, too, but that would also be an exaggeration. As I wrote in last year's reflections piece, I agonized over the leap to independent publishing for months. I wasn't sure if my ego could accept that I might never have an NYT byline again. Luckily I listened to

Hamish McKenzie

and

Dan Stone

and their wise counsel: They saw more clearly than I did that publishing in Substack's orbit was where I belonged.

The lure of being a publisher and embracing Boundless Autonomy — and even Total Responsibility — was ultimately too strong. I took the leap and I am so grateful I did. Running a largely one-person shop, albeit with some sage editing assistance from my former ESPN.com NBA supervisor Royce Webb, takes an incredible amount of work. I've published nearly 450 pieces over the past two years and have taken zero weeks off … but it is difficult for me to imagine covering #thisleague any other way now.

(I really need to make some business cards just so I can walk around and hand them out and bellow: "I'm the publisher. I really am.")

Former Times opinion columnist and podcaster Kara Swisher explained this all so well about a year ago when she left The Gray Lady to return to Vox and operate more independently herself.

“I’m 60 years old this year [and] I’ve made a lot of stuff for a lot of people,” Swisher told Bloomberg. “I want to do what I want to do. I want to make whatever I want to make and I think that’s a great thing.”
 
She was so right. ESPN was Disney-level strict, but The Times was an even stricter place to work. Virtually all of the fun side projects I've been able to work on to complement my Substacking — iHeart podcasting, video essays for Bally Sports Southwest, my new radio show on 97.1 FM The Freak in Dallas — would have been blocked by The Times’ voluminous rulebook. They wouldn't let me have a podcast under the NYT Audio umbrella despite years of pitching, but they were also certain to veto my attempts to do the podding I now do alongside Turner Sports' Chris Haynes. I've thought about assembling a piece someday to highlight all the things during my 3 1/2 years there that the NYT said were verboten. It messed with my spirit.

What this Substack, by contrast, has done for my spirit ... rejuvenating doesn't begin to cover it. Your readership and support have helped me build this enterprise into a publication that I can proudly say routinely informs NBA fans of major news happenings throughout the league well before they happen.

Why wait for July 1 when you can read days in advance here that Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks were going to Houston ... or that Draymond Green was going to re-sign in Golden State on a four-year, $100 million deal ... or that the Pacers were determined to sign Bruce Brown away from Denver and trade for Obi Toppin ... or that the Cavaliers were going to land both Max Strus and Georges Niang?

The past year has been filled with stories and reporting behind them that instantly spark fond memories. I won't soon forget last summer's trip EuroBasket. Ditto for my early season dispatch that correctly nailed the eventual sales price of the Phoenix Suns' ownership transfer from Robert Sarver to Mat Ishbia and this one that correctly forecasted Marc Lasry's exit from Milwaukee Bucks ownership. There were tales of France's battle with USA Basketball to secure Joel Embiid's international commitment ... and Sam Querrey's move from top-level tennis to pro pickleball ... and going one-on-one with Golden State's Stephen Curry. This was the season that I resurrected the Daily Dime for the NBA Finals and kept you way ahead on Detroit’s drawn-out but ultimately successful coaching courtship of Monty Williams as well as Dallas’ foiled pursuit of Jeff Van Gundy for Jason Kidd’s staff. Way back in October, I wrote this When Victor Met Holger feature on Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama working with Dirk Nowitzki's lifelong shot doctor Holger Geschwindner. In February, this Kyrie Irving trade reaction column became the most-read story in the history of this little Substack.

And together — you with me — we have turned my weekly Substack Chat sessions into what I like to think represents one of the most lively, welcoming and enlightening Friday Happy Hours you will find .... with seemingly hourly contributions from various members of our community throughout the week that make this corner of Substack Chat an inviting place to be at all times.

Yup. I was sitting at my favorite wooden table at Brentwood restaurant on Sunday as I composed most of these thoughts on my BlackBerry KEY2 and there was indeed a lot of knocking.

I fully realize that not everyone can join us here as a paying subscriber. If you prefer to remain a Free subscriber, you will still continue to get a few thousand words every week from me. Hopefully you will enjoy what you read and hear and encourage friends and family to join us, since word of mouth is always hugely important for growth.

Paid subscribers, meanwhile, will continue to get every single word I write, attentive responses in the comments from yours truly and the ability to launch your own threads at any time in the chat room that never closes.

All the costs attached to proprietary reporting — like travel, health care, etc. — fall fully on me now, so your assistance is vital in helping me produce the best possible content. In return I pledge to keep bringing you all the NBA news, chatter, opinion, storytelling, historical perspective and interactivity I can muster. I’ve been sketching out some fun plans for Year 3 that I will be expounding upon soon, leading off with what I hope is a burst of coverage that lives up to the all-timer Class of 2023 soon to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in a few weeks.

You guys surely know by now how nostalgic (and traditional) I tend to be, so I'm guessing some of you remember how I closed this dispatch last year. Those who do recall likewise had to know that, once again, I wouldn’t be able to resist sending it over to Coach Dale to formally and properly usher us into that Year 3 together with a few words as only he can deliver them:

---

The Stein Line is a reader-supported newsletter, with both Free and Paid subscriptions available, and those who opt for the Paid edition are taking an active role in the reporting by providing vital assistance to bolster my independent coverage of the league. Feel free to forward this post to family and friends interested in the NBA and please consider becoming a Paid subscriber to have full access to all of my posts.

As a reminder: Tuesday editions, on this and every Newsletter Tuesday, go out free to anyone who signs up, just as my Tuesday pieces did in their New York Times incarnation.

---

Sneakerhead Corner

When my summer league trip to Las Vegas began with a quick stop at NBA Con on July 8, there was serious crowd competition for the league's fledgling event right on the Mandalay Bay premises.

The longest lines I saw that day were for Sneaker Con.

I didn't manage to crash that Con, too, but I've still managed to enjoy a pretty prosperous footwear run in recent weeks.

I already shared with you how I quickly secured multiple pairs of Nike's extremely overdue re-issue in June of the Mac Attacks made famous in the mid-1980s by tennis legend John McEnroe. (I am re-posting the picture of how they look in the box.)

To my great relief I also discovered just in time that one of my favorite UK sneaker chains — size? — has amplified the renaissance of my favorite soccer shoe brand from the 1980s. Patrick boots were synonymous with England star Kevin Keegan in those days and the most coveted soccer brand of the day in my circles.

I'm not sure how it escaped me until now that size? was suddenly carrying four or five new Patrick models, but I gratefully found two pairs of the style I wanted available only in a UK 6 and a UK 10. The 10s mercifully fit pretty nicely.

Look at this delicious gum-soled heat:

---

Numbers Game

🏀 98

Opening Night of the 2023-24 NBA season is Oct. 24. That's 98 days from now in the wake of Summer League in Las Vegas.

🏀 76

Twenty-eight of the league's 30 teams are scheduled to hold their Media Day for the 2023-24 season on Oct. 2. That's 76 days away. 

🏀 2

The two teams that start the season with exhibition games abroad — Dallas and Minnesota — will hold Media Day on Sept. 29 and their first practices of the new season on Sept. 30.

🏀 92

All 92 games of the FIBA World Cup from Aug. 25 through Sept. 10 in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines will be broadcast on various ESPN and ESPN+ channels.

🏀 25

Still can't get over Sabrina Ionescu draining 25 of her 27 attempts in one unforgettable title-clinching round of the WNBA's 3-point content.

🏀 5

If James Harden gets the trade he wants out of Philadelphia, his next destination will represent the fifth team he's played for after stints with the Thunder, Rockets, Nets and 76ers.

🏀 13

Harden, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have combined to play for 13 teams already when you add in Durant's four teams (Thunder, Warriors, Nets and Suns) and Westbrook's five teams (Thunder, Rockets, Wizards, Lakers and Clippers).

🏀 97.1

Readers in the Dallas area — or those who want to listen online — can catch me live for an hour on Saturdays talking NBA on 97.1 FM The Freak. Saturday Sportsworld debuted on July 1 and can be found via both Apple Podcasts and Spotify.