A story the conspiracy theorists will love...

Thanks to everyone who read the piece -- glad you all enjoyed it. Happy to discuss it more if anyone has thoughts or questions.

 

Not a question per se, but this sounds like the most fun story in the history of the world to write.

So to turn it into a question: How long did this take you?

 

There are no shortage of NBA GMs who have passed on a top player to take a center who winds up being a steaming pile of shit.

 

There's an overly long and complicated story behind the story here, but I worked on this on and off for about two years. If you're just adding up the actual time researching, reporting, conceptualizing and writing, it's probably two total months or so.

I've written a lot of high-wire acts over the years, but this was probably the highest. Hugely satisfying to see it published and to get good feedback.

Oh, and yes: once I figured out how to turn the topic into a readable narrative, and what the voice needed to be, it was totally fun to write. Not before. And the first pass was still hard. Long form is always kind of draining. But going over the text to tweak and polish ... that was a blast, because everything felt right.

The reporting was enjoyable from start to finish. I'm sure that comes across.

 

Any death threats, black helicopters hovering overhead or suspicious cars that keep showing up in your rearview mirror?