Mirin Fader of Bleacher Report joins the WHAT podcast | Trail Daddy: A Trail Blazers Podcast…
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the voice of women in basketball I’m Tara and I’m Cassidy thank you so much for listening today we have an amazing show coming up we have mirin fader staff writer at Bleacher Report and she’s also written for the Orange County Register espnw.com Sports Illustrated doc or Sports Illustrated and slam welcome to the show my gosh thanks for having me on I’m excited so we usually get things started with a little bit of an ice breaker and think and because it’s summer it’s hot out I was thinking if you could have any basketball player DJ your summer pool party who would you pick okay that’s an easy call Liz C Shameless plug for for my story that came out today on the aces um oh my gosh she’s like everything that I aspire to be as a woman confident energetic fun she’s awesome that would be um really awesome I mean just having her at the party would be amazing but also like setting the tone with the music and all that good stuff um for me because I’m like super unhip and I don’t know what makes good DJ and I would probably pick like the oldest NBA player because it’s more likely that I would under know the songs that he was going to play um you know there’s been a lot of talk on Twitter randomly about Andre Miller um recently over the last couple of days so I bet you Andre Miller would like throw down some good old nice Classics that I could really get into at a pool party wow making a return I know I know he’s not you know a current player but you know this is sort of like we should like this subtitle of this podcast should have something to do with like Andre Miller tribute or something I’m I’m into it I’m into it how about you Cassidy okay so one of my first thoughts was definitely Liz C but I’m G to mix it up and go since I’m having a pool party it’s going to have to be in Portland right now I’m gonna go with Dame DOA DJ in a party I think it could be a it could be fun Dame can I’ll just let Dame throw whatever party he wants to throw really amazing yeah yeah and then if he brought the baby I would totally play with the baby oh my gosh the baby could DJ my party and I’d be thrilled love that baby so I’m interested how did can you tell us a little bit how you got into basketball and writing yeah definitely um I was a basketball player before I was a writer I kind of spent my whole life as the basketball player me and um I started in fifth grade I I just saw a bunch of guys like heading towards the court and I was just sort of like mesmerized by this like Mass Exodus of boys going there and I was like where are they going I want to go I don’t know something just carried me over there and I I picked up a basketball and it was just like love at first sight you know it was just like this is who I want to be this is what I want to do um ended up playing um pretty much for the next like 15 years and um I played my first year in college and uh now I sort of have transitioned becoming a sports writer you know I knew that basketball was something I wanted in my life life I knew it was still you know a huge part of me that I wasn’t ready to let go and so I just thought okay let me combine both of these passions because writing was always a passion too so now that I have them together I Feel Complete what position did you play okay so I’m like borderline 411 but I um I always tell people I played center because that’s just my dream but uh no I was a point guard I was a point guard but I love to shoot it so I was just unfortunately hype challenged but did you have like a signature move oh man I was so into like the hesy and just try to like Blow by people and like pull up at the elbow like that was my favorite thing that’s awesome so for those people who out there who might not be familiar with you or your work can you describe your writing uh Style and what kind of writing you do yeah um I do long form writing I most of my pieces are about like 4,000 words and um what I really want to be as a Storyteller somebody that can write stories about sports that are more about the people playing the sport than the actual sport so if you know nothing about sports you can still get into my work um yeah I just I focus on the human aspects of it uh I write about all sports and uh I’m lucky to be employed by Bleacher Reports so that’s sort of my summary so we each picked out a couple of articles about yours of yours that we wanted to talk about um so I want to start off by asking you what it was like to write the U the lamelo show so for people who haven’t read it the lamelo show was um you wrote it in 2018 and as far as I understand it you spent time in Lithuania following the ball family and in particular kind of focusing the article focuses on lamelo’s experience um playing in the lthl Manan league and the big baller League I think is there was also a um a special like tournament I guess that was put on by the ball family so I found that a super fascinating look at the ball family because we’d seen them a lot but you really like spent time with them on a completely different part of the world so you know my first question about it is just where did you get the idea uh to do that and what was it like being in Lithuania with the ball family I mean it was the opportunity of a lifetime I’ll never be able to repay bleacher report for um I have to thank Christina Tapper and Matt Sullivan they just asked me to go they were like hey uh we think we should do this profile we want to send you um part of it was because I profiled Lonzo ball his um older brother that used to be on the Lakers prior to that but so I sort of had some sources within their Circle but part of it was just like flat out crazy because I wasn’t staff I was a freelancer for them and I was 26 and um you know everyone was like why areen they sending you but um no it was such a phenomenal experience it was really hard um I’m a Cali girl I wasn’t used to Winter uh let alone in a foreign country driving in a foreign country driving in snow like all of these things were so new to me and um it it was kind of like going through the experience as lamelo was because he too was from California and so um I mean it was a journalist dream as far as like watching something happen and unfold as this family takes over this basketball league and it’s kind of a sham and the boy is being treated like crap and you know it’s not this kind of rainbow picture that they’re portraying to everyone back at home so you know I just had to tell myself throughout this time you’re going to soak up as much as you can um tell tell the right story and and trust your work but it was really hard did you have access to talk directly with the family it seemed like the writing mostly was your observations of it so what was like collecting the information that you were going to write about like yeah I mean it was really hard because I went over there with the intention of following Melo for a month literally a month and you know their agent sort of agreed with it and then on the second day I interviewed Lavar he was just in the lobby and I just went up to him and then um the third day Lavar said something to another reporter that went viral in America he made like disparaging comments about Luke Walton and so the family pulled all the plug on access they were like you’re not getting near melow you’re not talking to any of us anymore even though it wasn’t me that did the story it was another reporter but all the other reporters went home I stayed and um yeah so I stayed for three more weeks and uh I did not have access to my main character even though I saw him every single day cuz I snuck in the gym and I convinced like the security guards to let me just watch practice every day I really played up the short girl thing like oh like I’m nobody like whatever um sometimes you got to do what you got to do and um yeah and then I just so I did have a front row seat to everything but I didn’t have a translator so I had to like find the players that did speak English and then have them serve as translators so it was really tough I mean I was way out of my comfort zone oh my God you’re so brave I just had a I just had an amazing editor let’s just let’s not even it’s it’s all her Christina Tapper like pushed me through can you can you talk a little bit more about about what how your editor supported you I assume she was from distance right yeah yeah so she’s in New York and you know at the time like we’re the only women there um you know working in the editorial team there and um she called me every day and was just like how is your mental health are you are you eating cuz I wasn’t really eating like I was like going through a lot there was just not a lot of food and she was just there for me and cared for me as a human and um you know there were things that happened that were really scary um you know traveling while being a woman reporting while being a woman You’re vulnerable in a lot of ways that your male counterparts aren’t and every time something would happen she would just know what to say and I mean I’m just so grateful wow that’s that’s really intense I mean one of the interesting things I thought about the piece was you really set the tone of it being kind of Bleak and dark you had some video that you took of the snowy surroundings and it just it was interesting because on the one hand it kind of looked like any Town USA in the winter but you know you know the the houses look similar the snow looks the same everywhere you go uh but at the same time it just had a a different feel to it because it was in a different part of the world and I didn’t know you didn’t even have a translator so you had to figure all that out how I mean how did you steal yourself to do all of this you know what motivated you to keep going I mean it was really Bleak it was really dark it was so hard but it was because like you know this has been my dream for so long like in a way basketball in a way Sports rating and I prior to this I was at the Orange County register for 4 years and you know that ended and we had layoffs and unfortunately like I became a full-time freelancer after after that um now I’m hired by bleacher but during this time I wasn’t and so this was like my shot this was like this was like the mother of all opportunities the mother of all tryouts and so even though I had written for br for a year and a half you know leading up to this this I felt like my dream was on the line and yeah everything was going wrong that could possibly go wrong with the story I didn’t have access anymore to the family that I’m covering you know like everything was terrible and I had to just say like how bad do you want this like you know there’s a lot of people that want to be writers but there’s not a lot of people who like when push comes to shove and you’re put in a position and you have to perform like you just you find another gear and you’re just like I I have to perform and and that doesn’t mean that I didn’t mess up and I didn’t have you know lots of drafts before it became the story that it was but I was just like extremely determined to fight for my job that I wanted so so badly all these people believed in me sent me over there paid like thousands of thousands of dollars for me to be there I couldn’t come back with a weak story like I couldn’t not measure up and so I did feel like a tremendous amount of pressure I don’t think I slept that entire month that I was there but um I did come back and I did get hired so it was worth it amazing you wrote it you know well over a year ago a year and a half ago are there any sort of lasting images uh for you from the final piece I mean just a look on melo’s face when he would just look so miserable like every time people talk about this kid I always think of that like you rarely he’s R rarely afforded agency both in terms of voice and of like actual physical decisions he’s making and I just always think of like what I saw when the cameras were off like there was a tension in the piece between like cameras on cameras off and I wanted to make that very clear that when cameras were on people were getting a very different View of what happened when cameras were off and I just needed people to see how this boy looked when the cameras were off and I think a lot of people did see that and sort of see him as a tragic figure and I mean I’ll just never forget how low he looked because melo’s known as being like fun and bouncy and loud and like I just didn’t see any of that wow I I should have started off by telling everybody that they definitely need to go uh check that article out so I will reiterate that at this point it was a really fantastic piece um and I want to transition to the next piece because um the next piece that I wrote I read I read them back toback which I think was really fascinating and the next piece is the rise of the next attenta Copo so um the first one obviously was about lamelo younger brother of Lonzo and then the next one that I read right afterwards was about um Alex younger brother of Giannis and as I was reading it I couldn’t help but see some recurring themes some similarities between these two younger brothers um but also just like Stark differences between who they are and how their families operate I guess um so I’m wondering if you were thinking about that as you were writing this piece or you know did you realize that you were doing that yeah that’s you know what that I really appr appreciate that because I I so was I even went back and looked at my Lithuania journals um because like I’m a journaler and um I just kind of thought like wow this is so different like this family is everything that Lavar and BBB wanted to be but just aren’t they just have a different personality and Lonzo and Melo are not as close as Alex and Giannis and I just thought there was a lot of synergy between the two stories but of course like you want to you never want to tell the same story twice and so I thought it was fascinating that this dad was absent and it so that in itself is like a complete departure but there there were enough similarities to where I drew on that experience and I was like H there’s the same amount of pressure on Alex I think than uh lamelo but there is way more complexity with Alex and way more anxiety inside of Alex nobody has really cracked the inside of Melo because he won’t be cracked and he won’t talk about and he can’t cuz his dad has him on a leash and so he doesn’t say anything and if he does he is just like I want to be the number one pick I just want to be great nobody has really um nobody knows how Melo really feels inside about all this versus I was really fortunate to get to you know the interior of Alex to see that he doubts himself and he doubts whether he can do this but he also wants it really bad and so it’s it’s complicated yeah and the the family Dynamics were so uh interesting because you know for the the ball family it was you know they were they were already you know established in their California neighborhood the kids were going to these well-known schools they were you know already you know performing at a high level and then Lavar kind of took them off in a different and unexpected Direction and then on the other hand you have the attenta Copo family you know starting you know in Greece and you know trying to get their dream of you know Coming to America to be basketball players and so trying to having been from a different part of the world to try to come in and and fit in so that that that kind of stuck struck me as a jux to position there too just between trying to fit in and then trying to also carve your own path and how those turned out differently yeah I mean you’re so right and I think agency is like a theme of both of them like whose dream really is it I I think it’s unclear what are some Lasting Impressions for you about the intenta Copo um piece I think that Giannis is so much more tender and complex and warm than and and Brilliant than giving credit for it it does kind of bother me when people just talk about his athleticism when there’s so many other talents that he has and I wanted to show a different side of him I think another thing I realized with Alex and I realized this you know in other stories too but particular this one is how hard it is to be a young person trying to play sports in America anywhere really but I think it’s very hard to embark on the path that he’s embarking on and there’s a lot of pressure on these kids and you know a lot of times we’re unsure why they want to make it what this does to them means to them and um I just think it’s really cool though that he’s in a family where the metrics for Success are different they they want him to go the NBA but they he doesn’t need to go to the NBA like in their family he needs to work hard be kind and be respectful and those are the the metrics of success so I kind of left with the feeling that this is I mean this is a real family you know this is what Brotherhood is about this is Advertiser content brought to you by Fredo hello I’m chip Murphy here to get you ready for the big tournament tonight we’ll break down we break down who will be cutting cut what are you two doing sorry chip pre here got his feathers ruffled when I told him Ruffles has zero chance of winning the title and I was letting dip know that she is not taking into account Ruffles iconic ridges guys it’s March we have to start talking about the tournament we are it is the 2023 Fredo Le snacket we’re talking about Big Time matchups between Cheetos Smart Food lays Sun Chips and more just head to the Fredo snack bracket and vote for your favorite chip pretzel or dip for a chance to win up to $1,000 or a Year’s worth of snacks this sounds great keep up the good work just go to Fredo snack. sbnation.com no purchase necessary sweet sakes ends for 3 2023 void prohibitive years worth of snacks awarded in the form of 52 coupons each good for one bag of chips see official rules at freay snack. sbnation.com well I’ve monopolized this whole I’ll step back I let Cassidy I’m like fascinated so I’m totally fine with it um wow um yeah those that brother team is they fascinate me for sure so I want to talk a little bit about nasier little and is learning the hard way your piece about the Portland Trailblazers rookie what was so interesting about him that made you want to profile him well I think in this instance I got very lucky because back when I pitched it in the summer he was just like the number three Prospect or whatever and he was about to you know I knew he was a one and done so I was like okay I’m never going to get to the Duke guys access is probably terrible everyone’s going to be rushing to profile Zion I’m going to do it differently I’m going to profile him and then I wasn’t able to interview him till like November because UNCC has this policy where they don’t let freshman talk during preseason so it’s like great I have to wait but then it ended up working in my favor because he ended up struggling so much and not really playing a whole lot and so then the story became way more interesting and so I I mean I wanted to profile him for so many reasons like what do you do when the plan when the actuality of the plan looks different than what you thought it was what do you do when you took a risk and it might not have gone the right way what do you do and like you might not make the NBA the way that you want to you know when you’re not averaging 25 points a game when you’re coming off the bench and you’re supposed to be a star and everyone’s like what’s happening what’s wrong with you I just found all those things way more fascinating yeah I think it is it I think all of those things can make someone uh relate to him a lot easier because I think everybody’s had one of those moments where they were like ah maybe this isn’t right but I think I’m wondering kind of do you think Portland’s going to be a place that he thrives with the culture that the Blazers have built here I do I feel like he’s in a good position I think that first of all he is one of the most mature athletes I’ve ever spoken to you know I mean I was really astounded by his maturity he wants to work hard he does not feel he’s entitled to anything I know after that season he’s probably way more motivated than he was then because it was I mean it was so hard going through it I don’t think he’s walking into this feeling entitled I think that he’s going to put his head down and he’s going to work and I think his game is better suited for the pros than it was in college he’s such an up and down player and like Roy’s system was just not for him like he was just not good in the not as good I think in the half court set that he could be at the spacing and the pacing of an NBA game so I think he’ll be good but it’s not going to happen right away um but he could learn a lot from the players there do you have a main takeaway about him as a person besides his maturity I think he’s learning what a lot of players uh would behooved to find out as soon as possible which is that um just because you are on highlight tapes and you have athleticism and you’re being praised does not mean you actually have transferable skills to play at the highest levels of the game he was learning how to play defense in his first year of college so the A system that he and so many of these young players are a part of are not teaching fundamentals of help defense so there were so many scenes like in the story and just in practice every day where he’s like I literally don’t know what I don’t know what to do like I don’t know where to go because he’s never had to play defense before and so it just kind of made me think like how many Noz Littles are there out there that are in for you know get all the glory early and then once they get to College they’re suddenly behind because they they haven’t focused on the fundamentals that’s interesting do you are there any other players that you that you uh have followed it all that you kind of feel like Also may be missed out on certain elements from playing up their way up through Au I’m trying to think I’ve profiled a lot of high school kids um I don’t know I think I think it’s a common theme like I profiled Jaylen green fantastic player fantastic person comes from a great family as does Nas again like so much hype so young um incredible athleticism and he could shoot but um yeah like defense is never the thing thing you know defense is never the priority and so um you know I’m not I’m not a basketball coach I mean I was actually for four years when I was uh working at the OC Register to make ends meet because journalism uh Circa 204 15 16 but um no I think you know my job is to explore kind of the struggles that people go through it’s not all struggles but it’s just like there’s a much more interesting complex realer Journey underneath big stats and big highlight plays and I think a lot of people look at young people and they’re very dismissive of them they they don’t really understand the pressures these kids are under They Don’t Really Care to listen to their story but if you really sit down and talk with these people they have a lot to say you do quite a bit of writing about kind of younger players before they make it big or get into the professional leagues uh what do you like about learning about those early years of these young athletes I just think it’s so exciting it’s so um like there’s something very interesting to me about somebody about to set sail on their career like I think it’s also fascinating too saying goodbye to a career because it’s also like saying goodbye to an identity that you’ve been your whole life I don’t really find the middle of one’s career as fruitful but certainly the beginning is the most exciting to me because they’re about to go on this journey and we don’t know how it’ll go it might not go well they might ride the bench they might never make it they might get hurt they might fizzle out I just think it’s interesting also how excited they are to talk I think sometimes when I talk to Pros they’re just like can we get this sh over with but the kids are like oh my God like I’m ready you know it’s like it’s my moment and um some of them can be you know too arrogant but there is a childlike excitement and you can tell that they’re just like oh my God Bleacher Report and so I just I just like their excitement it’s awesome have you ever uh got back and followed up with any players later kind of after they’ve they’ve been in a league for a little bit well I am doing a follow-up story with one right now an NBA story and I have pitched the lamelo in Australia sequel so maybe maybe that’ll happen I don’t know I’m sure the family won’t let me go like near them but we’ll see so you just had an article C come out today slash this week for those who are listening um uh who going to check the Las Vegas Aces and you said today that you had a lot of stories that didn’t make it into this piece and there were a lot of great stories in the piece so I’m wondering if you could give us a taste of what maybe didn’t make it in Oh my Jesus I like there’s so many I can’t even tell you like I definitely shed some tears over the last week at what was cut I you know I know I have a thick skin but you know I killed like 80 Darlings um there were some funny moments with Bill like uh he we were we were sitting over breakfast and um he orders like this large order and then she comes back with his coffee and he goes would you mind spilling spilling that on this and he points to my recorder on the table I it was so funny like it was so like also terrifying but it was so funny to me like I couldn’t get over it so I definitely had that in my first three drafts but it was cut at the end so that one actually broke my heart um what else what else um I think there was just a lot of scenes that um like that might have been oh there’s one at the airport uh Bill’s luggage got run over we like all of a sudden he’s in the street yelling and everyone’s like it it’s literally 4:00 a.m. like nothing happened why is he yell you know we’re not on the court and apparently like somebody ran over his luggage so that was like struggle defined um literally in the right before the Delta terminal um so that got cut and then uh God there was just like the eyelashes scene was so funny with with G it and originally it was like a whole paragraph but then it was condensed to a sentence but you know everyone’s like come on lashes like kill it girl and it was just so cute and funny and and Liz was like oh my God she has the butterfly uh lashes and everyone’s like what’s a butterfly lash and then Liz like takes uh like her lash to her um lips and she’s like demonstrating like butterfly kiss and everyone is just like so lost and she’s like you guys I’m a white girl at heart like come on like whatever so it’s just it was very funny like it’s just little moments like that when you’re around them all the time they they say really funny things or there A lot of times you know Liz I don’t get paid enough for this you know just like saying that out loud or her saying to the GM I’m sorry I said uh on national TV but at least I didn’t say you know so there’s just like a million lines are like Ria Brown um you know she was she had some lotion and Plum was like let me get some and then she was like put some on me and Ro is like why and she’s like cuz I don’t want it to get on my hands cuz I’m about to shoot so like it’s just little details like that like the perfectionist so anyways I could go on and on and on uh definitely like broke my heart like not being able to include all the anecdotes I think one of the things that I took away from it because it’s it’s very hard for us Blazer fans to like Bill lamb beer but for the last few years I I know Tara and I have both been warming up to him a little bit and this story solidified that I think we kind of love him a little bit um can you just speak a little a little bit more about your experience getting to know him because it seems like such an interesting Dynamic for him yeah like he will try to spill coffee on your thing and he hates literally hates media but he like everyone just called him an so many times but it was like an that we love you know it was just like he will do anything for this team and they they love him like they wear his shirts all time and he’s just like he’s not what you think he is like yes he can be a jerk but he’s not like he’s not screaming every second I think there’s just like this image of him just like yelling every second it’s just not true he’s really he’s really tender and one thing that I went on about in my draft that got cut was he’s able to let things go like basketball he’s not one of those people that played and wears their heart on their sleeve and they’re upset about the game hours after like the way Liz is like he lets it go like when the buzzer is over it’s over like he’s not stressed about it like it doesn’t upset him and I think that was the coolest part like instead of being like Plum you need to make aing shot get it together he’s just like go home and I think that’s one thing that really surprised me about him is how calm and patient he is because I was just after watching the 30 for 30 I was just expecting him to be like a off my court like why are you here and like there were times where he was like I don’t I you know do you trust he said to the media but do you trust her like all this stuff you know it was not like I was just waling in there and everyone was happy that I was there you know he didn’t he doesn’t like media but I think for the people in his world he will do anything for and he he loves this team I have a a a question um you talked about you know the the scene like with the eyelashes and everybody just kind of hang around laughing and joking together um what kind of differences have you noticed between um you know hanging out with a woman’s team and hanging out with the men’s team or have you noticed differences um I think I mean there’s certain things that are just not going to happen to me when I’m in men’s circles like Liz and so I profiled Liz last year and while we were eating lunch last year we discovered that we have the same Dior lip gloss and it was a glorious moment and uh I think of her every time I put it on I’m just like oh my God like I can’t that’s not g to happen obviously with the men’s teams but barring that I think it’s just different like with the men I am treated with I mean okay I I’m not making sense there have been some pretty awful moments in my career where I’ve been treated terribly by men in this field whether it’s a player or whatever but there have also been tons of times where I’m treated with utter respect but there’s just not a complete comfortability that there would be when it’s all women there was just an intimacy with this group that just felt completely comfortable and even if it was a men’s team and they treated me with exact same respect exact same whatever there’s just a comfortability there that just would not be there with men it just wouldn’t it’s just it’s the same but it’s different and I think it’s they were kind of like wow like a woman is coming to you know profile us and you know Liz vouched for me like I know her you know and I think there was just like I don’t know there’s just a comfort there and there’s there’s certain things that you can talk about like there’s a line Liz said in there about like I want to have babies well we talked about these things and and that’s not necessarily the conversation that I’m going to have with a men’s player you know so I don’t know and I I’m care I’m careful about it because I never want to act like oh I can’t handle the and stuff because I absolutely can it’s just a different it’s just a different vibe it’s a different experience but I think bill is so quick to say there’s no difference between men and women you know he’s like to me I just I love you know I’m here for basketball they’re Ballers so he doesn’t see any difference between the two games but yeah you know as a reporter it’s it’s a bit different so we should probably wrap it up here um I have one more question about kind of your uh work as a storyteller um so you know when I read your work it’s interesting because you’re in it but you’re not in it so like you’re clearly writing from close observation but you don’t really become a part of the story and I I’m wondering if that is um you know something that you do on purpose that how important it is to you um like how much you’re a part of the story or not a part of the story yeah thank you for that question it’s something I think about a lot um Lithuania was the only story I was in the story and that wasn’t my choice my editor was like you need to be in the story you were there and that was a very specific function which was like I’m I’m letting you all know that I’m seeing something that nobody else is seeing so that was like a very different purpose but the reason why other than that I don’t do it is just because like I never want the story to be about me like I never I mean I I just don’t like maybe one day like I could publish a memoir about the stories behind the stories but as far as like my actual stories it’s I feel it’s a distraction like it annoys me when I see writers say I I am watching him in the backyard and blah blah blah it’s it’s like a weird Flex it distracts from the scene like you being there doesn’t do anything like it doesn’t add anything to the setting in fact it’s weird it’s like why I don’t care about you like who are you you know and I think so many writers are trying to like show that they’re great and like get a big following and have access that I sometimes it comes off as a flex and there are other writers who don’t use the eye for that purpose they just they use it effectively it’s just a standard method of Storytelling that you see in the New York or anywhere else not because the writer has this like pompous attitude it’s just that’s what they’ve been taught it’s a very classic thing but I just personally don’t feel like I belong in there and maybe I’ll change maybe in a couple years I’ll start being in there but I just I just like don’t see the purpose at all so I lied I have another question yes um who are some of the writers that you admire and some of the people who have mentored you along the way oh my gosh such a long list I the okay so the writers I admire WR Thompson um Gary Smith um Jonathan ABR um Jeff Pearlman who is one of my big mentors um Ramona shelburn um but then I have a whole other like list that’s not Sports WR so I I learn most of my writing through non sports writing and it’s it’s Tony Morrison Louise erri Joan didan um books like evicted Matthew Desmond uh ghetto Side by Jill Levy like these are books that taught me how to write um mentors Christina Tapper like I mentioned earlier I owe so much of my career to her this woman gave me a chance she was like I believe in you um Jeff I owe so much to Jeff uh you know I just dm’d him one day when he moved to Orange County and I had just started at the register and um I was like you’re you’re my favorite writer like can we please talk and um he ended up being like he’s like family I mean he’s he’s just done so much for me I can’t even explain I’m so grateful and then uh my current editors at bleacher um Jake Leonard Elliot ponel Ian Blair I’m just so grateful for them and um yeah there’s just been so many people Matt SUV in there there’s been a lot of people that’s helped me and it does bother me when like writers don’t acknowledge people who have helped them because like as much as writing can feel like a solitary activity it’s not um you have people in the trenches there with you and like I know there’s a lot of people that help me get here and I would be remiss to not give them credit because there’s so many times where I’m in my own head I’m like oh this piece sucks and like they’re the ones that bring me out of that very cool Cassidy do you have any more questions I’m wondering uh just wondering uh how can everyone find your work oh my gosh well I spent a lot of time on my website so that would be amazing if they could visit it mirin fader.com very simple um my Twitter which I’m getting better at uh just nerdy writing quotes and coffee shop and cookie musings um and basketball um which is just at Mir and fader so yeah I would love it if people could check out my stuff did you say cookies because that’s my favorite food I’m literally cookies are my superpower like when people are like how do you how do you write I’m like listen if I have these cookies I probably wouldn’t get through my deadlines it’s a really bad habit but it um that’s that’s my motivator hey you do what you got to do you do what you got to do cookies are great cookie oh man okay well I I’m kind of like basic like chocolate chip is like classic and my uncle makes me chocolate chip cookies he’s like a second dad to me yeah and he puts these like giant chips it’s it’s kind of everything but second I’m like any type of peanut butter like I am obsessed with peanut butter so like peanut butter cookies are just life oh I love peanut butter cookies somebody gave me one at work today it was like made it made my whole week I ran him to him in the elevator and he had like a whole plate full of cookies and I was like oh my God those look amazing and he was like here you want one and I was like oh it was my favorite kind of peanut butter the ones that have like very little if no flour of them at all so it’s basically like just peanut butter and they’re so good okay we’ll have to do a whole another podcast about um cookies yes I’m okay that we want to thank you so much for joining us today that was a fascinating discussion and um to remind everybody to go to your website to read more stories because there’s a huge variety of them I mean a couple that we didn’t even talk about that I found really fascinating the one about Marcus Smart was really good um the one about Andrea um I can’t remember her last name but she’s a yeah she’s a transgender athlete and her story just so many good things so um you know it’s summertime we all need to get caught up on our reading and maybe you don’t have a beach book but you have a you know some long forms you want to catch up on I would strongly suggest everybody check out your stuff because it’s really great easy to read I really appreciate that so much so that’s going to do it for this week’s hoops and talks podcast don’t forget to follow the podcast on Twitter at hoops and talks and to subscribe to the show uh in the Blazers Edge podcast feed you can find that on whatever platform you use to get your um podcasts we love email so send us an email with your Icebreaker ideas and cookie recipes or questions or whatever else you want us to know our email is hoops and talks at gmail.com you can find me at TCB bigs on Twitter and you can find Cassidy at Cassidy gemut on Twitter and again you can also follow Mir and fader or find her uh her work on her website mirin fader.com mirin thank you so much for joining us it was fascinating and um hopefully we’ll be able to talk to you again someday yes I enjoyed this anytime thank you [Music]
Mirin Fader, writer for Bleach Report, joins the Women’s Hoops and Talks podcast to talk about her experiences covering a variety of interesting people. From observing LaMelo Ball in cold and lonely Lithuania, to hanging out in a basement with the close-knit Antetokounmpo brothers, to comparing lip gloss with the Las Vegas Aces’ Liz Cambage, Fader has immersed herself in the lives of the people she profiles to bring us their unique and compelling stories.
We learn what it takes to get to the heart of the stories she tells. What drives her to keep going even when things are going wrong? What is interesting about covering young players at the beginning of their careers? What is different about covering men and women? Why doesn’t she like to put herself into the story? From Trail Blazer rookie Nassir Little to Trail Blazer arch nemesis Bill Laimbeer, we covered so much in this conversation.
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Follow Blazer’s Edge on Twitter @blazersedge, WHAT Pod @HoopsAndTalks, Tara @tcbbiggs, and Cassidy @CassidyGemmet. This week’s guest: @mirinfader or mirinfader.com
Women’s Hoops And Talks (W.H.A.T.)Join the Women’s Hoops And Talks Facebook group to talk about Trail Blazers with others who identify as women who love basketball.
Music used in the episode: “Happy Alley” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/20041743?utm_source=youtube
