Writing Career on Hold
Posted on September 2nd, 2006 by
Great little article by Paul Shirley over at ESPN.com
Technically, my contract with ESPN was finished with my last entry. I’ve written the 40 columns I owe, so it’s time to either renegotiate or move on down the road. (This will be listed as No. 40 only because there was a mailbag that got lost in the shuffle. I regret not doing further mailbags. If this adventure continues, I promise to rectify that situation. Additionally, I promise to use the word rectify more often.)
I’m not sure whether I will continue writing for the dot-com. When I was in Las Vegas, playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA summer league, I was asked several times if I was serious about playing this fall. My forays into the world of entertainment have left people wondering about my intentions. Men with direct influence over my potential employment have even told my agent that they think my side work is too much of a distraction.
I take issue with their theory. Basketball uses only a few hours of even the best-prepared player’s day. I work out more than most players I know, yet the most time I ever spend in actual physical activity in one day is three hours. (The player who claims more is lying.) And my regimen is at the grueling end of the spectrum. I’ve seen much worse. While riding to my first NBA practice, in training camp with the then-world champion Los Angeles Lakers, a veteran player said, “This should be interesting. I haven’t touched a ball since the last game in the Finals.”
