The math sounds surreal to me, but Year 5 for The Stein Line is really underway

#thisleague

Fourth of July fireworks on a Friday night.

It's a great way to spend an evening and launch a long holiday weekend and, for me, find some much-needed time for reflection.

By now you probably know of the tradition on this platform to write a year-in-review piece every time a publishing birthday is celebrated. What I've found, though, is that it's pretty tricky to write, edit and post that sort of column when you have a launch anniversary of June 25th amid considerable NBA chaos.

June 25th was indeed NBA Draft night this year. The days before and after the draft are some of the busiest on the calendar because of the transactional mayhem that needs to be covered as soon as the NBA Finals are a wrap. So it's really not the moment for me to try to assemble or share my predictably sappy look back at the past 12 months.

That opportunity finally arose for this independent publisher on Independence Day — after sundown — with Mrs. Line and our two boys all away in California because I always tell them that it is far better to be far removed from the madness in the home office this time of year, when I am writing and cursing and shouting loudly into the phone at all hours and pacing the house as I take those calls and, generally speaking, not the friendliest dude to be around because #thisleague is free agent frenzying.

Now, though, is the time. Please allow me to say an overdue THANK YOU for another ridiculously amazing year for The Stein Line. Draft night somehow marked Day 1 of Year 5 for this publication. Which means I have really been self-publishing my own newsletter longer than the three-plus years I published a newsletter every Tuesday for The New York Times, which launched me into the newslettering world in January 2018.

Year 4 here was momentous and unforgettable for me because, as I touted just before Thanksgiving in the story above, this was the year that The Stein Line truly became an NBA Superstack. And that's not merely because my pals at the Cotton Bureau stitched up my very own trucker hat that I'll be wearing to summer league in Las Vegas next week and maybe even making available to the public if the community agrees that it's wise to start offering up some merch.

Perhaps it's a touch braggadocious to anoint yourself in such a manner, but I truly believe that we've lived up to the Superstack tag since

The People's Insider

Jake Fischer began making his vital twice-weekly contributions to The Stein Line. In June, of course, Jake was writing way more often than two pieces a week and his stuff has been so thorough and good.

Jake and I either wrote solo or joined forces on 40 pieces last month alone. Over the past 30 days, as the below screenshot illustrates, we've generated more than a million page views. And that's presumably because no basketball website on Earth correctly forecasts more for you about what will be happening in NBA free agency — starting before free agency officially tipped off — than this one.

Think about all the moves and developments, just in the last month, that you read about here before they happened. The Kings' serious interest in Dennis Schröder. The Mavericks' serious interest in D'Angelo Russell. The Grizzlies moving to the forefront of the Ty Jerome chase. The Hawks moving to the front of the crowded line in pursuit of Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson emerging as the specific duo targeted by the Pistons to replace Schröder and Malik Beasley. The Spurs trying to trade for Kristaps Porziņģis and then shifting their focus to Luke Kornet. And before all that: The Knicks wanting Jason Kidd or Ime Udoka to replace Tom Thibodeau … even though both Kidd and Udoka were under contract. How about this Fischer story from late March that warned you of the looming disassembly of the Celtics? And back in January and February: First word about the Raptors wanting to trade for Brandon Ingram as well as the Warriors shifting their trade interests to Jimmy Butler once they abandoned the pursuit of Kevin Durant.

These are just some of the examples that led a Western Conference executive to pay us a very gratifying compliment recently that I can't resist sharing with you here: "You guys have become like The Hollywood Reporter for the NBA. Everyone in the industry is reading you."

The exec's comparison speaks to exactly what we're trying to do: Report as much as we can report about what's happening in the NBA that is not being televised and take our community behind the curtain with us. We are working and writing for you. We chase NBA stories that haven't been told. We strive to deliver in-depth proprietary reporting and commentary that readers can only get here.

If team officials, league officials, coaches, players and agents want to read along, too, even better.

I will always look back on 2024-25 with such fondness. Jake and I hashed out a formula that would enable us to join forces after years of spitballing about it while he also continues to do video work as Bleacher Report's lead NBA insider. And because I was able, thanks to your vital support, to become an entrepreneur in the first place in my 50s, I am the only one who needs to be consulted when a yea or nea is needed on some of the wonderful side projects that I've been asked to take on along the way, like my collaboration with DLLS Sports and the ALLCITY network that was revealed to the world in August by fellow Substacker

Joe Pompliano

... and my hosting of NBA Now on the Hark Audio app that I so cherish ... and my recent collaboration with Basketball Reference on a number of pieces … and the privilege of being able to write a couple video essays for my beloved Manchester City.

Love the graphics produced for my ALLCITY appearances — like this one from my pals at PHNX Sports — that sport the look of a trading card.

I also knew that adding Jake's wonderful words would especially raise the bar for The Stein Line in May and June because he loves covering the draft so much. I've never been much of a draft expert. This year? I found myself more prepared than ever for the first round just because I was constantly editing Jakey's stuff.

Now I'm excited for the summer months like I've never been before. I think Jake and I, as a doubles team, can publish some better-than-ever compelling content during August and September before training camps crank up anew.

Please let us know in the comments if there are topics in particular that you'd like us to tackle. Fire in any suggestions you have for coverage tweaks or improvements, too. Remember: This is our newsletter. Our community. You've surely heard me say before that I like to co-opt the line that my Buffalo-based pal

Tyler Dunne

always uses to describe his Go Long NFL coverage: "Completely powered by you."

I try to never lose sight of the fact that not everyone can join us here as a Paid subscriber. If you prefer to remain a Free subscriber, please stick with us. Hopefully you enjoy the weekly free pieces like this one that land in your Inbox as well as the previews of everything else Jake and I are writing.

Paid subscribers, as always, will get every word that we publish … plus the ability to interact with us in the comment section of every story … along with the exclusive license to start your own threads in my Substack Chat room whenever you want.

When you add in Jake's contributions, you're now getting close to 300 written posts a year from The Stein Line. Pretty much all of the costs attached to the proprietary reporting we do — my travel, health care, simply being able to fund Jake's writing, etc. — fall fully on me. So your backing is absolutely critical to what we are building and generating.

I'm so proud of (and grateful for) the way The Stein Line keeps growing. We recently moved to a career-high-tying No. 4 on the Substack Sports Bestsellers List … and that's a humblebrag there was no way I could avoid weaving in here as a lifelong tennis junkie who is obsessed with computer rankings.

Which is yet another great aspect about covering the NBA this way. This platform enables me to cover the league's innerworkings and team up with Jake to try to consistently deliver reporting you can't get anywhere else and do it all in the most personal manner that I have ever done the job … with the absolute freedom to mix in occasional tales about tennis, soccer, travel, coffee, food, sneakers, trading cards, tech gadgets, etc.

Yet again: That sound you hear is me knocking on the nearest piece of wood.

Thank you!

THANK YOU to everyone who has been on this journey with me since we launched in June 2021, everyone who just signed up in the last week and everyone in between. Thank you for understanding that (you guessed it) I'm going to put a bow on this piece in the same incurably sappy and nostalgic way that I always do.

This, of course, is the first time in the history of The Stein Line that our annual Hoosiers-inspired signoff comes in the wake of Gene Hackman's passing in February. Yet I'd like to believe that his portrayal of Norman Dale will live on forever for basketball fans. Because he was that damn good drawing plays up for Jimmy Chitwood.

As only Coach Dale could say it: