Introduction to Crying Wolfe

It will be audacious. Awe-inspiring. And most importantly, above average.

I hardly remember the scene as it played out.

Rather, it's an image crystallized in memory. The Alamodome. Championship atmosphere. Tunnel bathroom. Kenny the Jet Smith?

It happened so quickly. It registered on my personal Richter Scale, so much so that I still tell people this happened to me. Out of nowhere, I was holding the bathroom door for the freaking Jet. He uttered a thank you. Let me tell you, what an honor to hold a door open for a thankful Kenny Smith.

I was there covering the 2018 NCAA men's basketball championship, but the circumstances that brought me there were irrelevant then. He's an NBA Analyst. A part of my nightly winter and spring routine comes to life. I went back to my seat, and in front of me, they were all there — Smith, Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson — on their makeshift TV stage near the south baseline.

If you think my aspirations and definition for "cool" are misguided, you might be right. Fine, you are definitely right. But I love the NBA. It is the best league, an incontrovertible truth. It's broken a fourth wall that lets incessant basketball acolytes like myself watch a beautiful game, invest myself in sneaker culture and athlete fashion, follow uncompromising personalities, and speak to discussions transcending what happens on the court. It resonates at a human level, despite the pervasiveness of otherworldly athletic prowess on display. And I can't wait to watch more of it this year than I ever have before.

Part of this blog, aptly named Crying Wolfe as a host for my basketball and life musings, is personal. I missed sports writing, a sentence I will continue to utter as if it wasn't a significant part of my life mere months ago. I am a proud owner of NBA League Pass and I'm going to get my money's worth 10 times over. And finally, it's going to get cold in Chicago — I sure as hell wouldn't go outside anyway.

As the season goes on, I will always have things to say about the NBA. Whether people care to hear it is something I can only hope for. I will use this platform to educate myself further on basketball history — beyond watching the Malice at the Palace an uncomfortable amount of times — and hopefully to educate you too.

It will be a new experience writing from my couch and following a litany of moving pieces in a ceaseless league.

If I acclimate well enough, I'll be writing so quick and smooth they'll call me The Jet.