Archive for the ‘Ask Stackmack’ Category

Holly MacKenzie says goodbye

Posted by Holly MacKenzie under Announcements, Ask Stackmack on Oct 03, 2011

I’m on a plane flying back home to Toronto as I write this. I’ve decided that one luxury of being 5-foot-1 is the ability to stretch out your legs without being in an emergency exit. As I think about where I’d like this piece to go, there are two things that stick out to me.

The first is that I just called Toronto home. Three years after leaving Nova Scotia for the only Canadian city with an NBA team to follow my hoop dreams, it has become my home. The second is that I’m writing this on a plane. About four years ago, I flew from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, writing my first piece for SLAMonline.com after somehow convincing the guys I grew up reading to give me a shot for a New York-based internship despite living in Nova Scotia. From SLAMonline came The Post Up and from The Post Up came theScore and eventually The Basketball Jones and various other stops along the way.

In that time I’ve interviewed athletes I grew up watching, got to see the game I adore up close, had the privilege of developing friendships with many of my fellow writing colleagues and was also able to do some things that I couldn’t have even dared dream when imagining life as an NBA writer. One of the sweetest parts of being able to share your thoughts, words and experiences with people is that some of those people actually grow to care for you. The friendships and connections I’ve made with some of my readers are the single greatest gift I’ve been given as a result of this gig.

I think if you ask any NBA blogger they’d tell you the same. Our community is an amazing one and — no exaggeration — some of the most important people in my life are those I’ve met via email, tweet or Facebook message. Through the amazing times and the rough moments, the people who have experienced them all with me have been the people who cared enough to listen to what I had to say. Writing about basketball is a passion. Being able to write about basketball for an audience who actually cares about your words is a blessing.

For giving me that blessing I want to say thank you. Thank you for reading and asking and commenting. Thanks for hitting me up on Twitter, for flagging me down during halftimes at the ACC and for becoming such a part of my every day that I feel it’s necessary to explain why this will be my last post here at TBJ.

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Ask Stackmack: Little bit of this, little bit of that

Posted by Holly MacKenzie under Ask Stackmack on Sep 20, 2010

You may or may not have noticed that I’ve sent out some tweets asking for questions for a mailbag post. While we count down the weeks until the start of the regular season (and perhaps after the season starts, depending on the questions you guys have), I thought we’d do a mailbag round up once a week or so to answer some of your questions.

What kind of questions do I want? Anything that you may have wanted to discuss about basketball or writing about basketball or spending roughly 87 percent of my time devoted to basketball. And, if you want to throw in a music or poetry question here and there to shake it up and keep it interesting, that’s cool, too.

If you’d like to hit me up with some mailbag material, email stackmack32@gmail.com or tweet me @stackmack.

And without any further rambling from me, let’s get into some of the question you guys had this time around. Because I was asked the question, I get a lot of emails, tweets and Facebook messages about (How did you get the job you have), I broke this first mailbag down into two questions, because my answer was a lengthy one. I’ll be posting more answers to your questions as the week goes on, so keep checking back!

*****

Question: Can you think of a bigger (and better) “eff you” that one rival has ever done to another than the Celtics signing of Delonte West this week? — Matt

Matt, thanks for your question. Unfortunately, I can’t really give you a fair response, because, to be honest, I hadn’t thought of it like that. Ha. I suppose with the way that you spelled it out, one could say that the Celtics are sending a dig at their rival in LeBron, but really, I think Celtics fans such as yourself should be happy with the commitment the organization has had to getting better and to getting over the hump that prevented them from being champions last season. Many times when a team makes it to the Finals, they keep the group together and try it again. While I agree with this logic, I also think you need to come to battle with some extra weapons in your arsenal. With the moves that the Celtics have made, they are showing they certainly don’t plan on bowing down to the Heat and that not only do they want to make it out of the East, they are thinking championship.

Interesting though, to think of the Delonte/LeBron rumors and to also think of Delonte getting signed by a contender. Funny, since many had seen him out of the league this season.

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