Changes are coming to Liberty Ballers, and you can help

Before we get down to business, it is worth repeating here what I have spoken with Jake Pavorsky and Shamus Clancy about in private. Those two have poured a ton of work into this site to make it what it is today, and though most of what you see is their tremendous writing, they are even better people than they are writers. They are Queens Boulevard, so to speak, and it will be an enormous undertaking to move on at LB without them.

As Jake mentioned in his farewell post, times are changing in the sports media industry, and we’re certainly not immune to that. But we are not pivoting to video, dropping support for The Process, or even doing less than we were already working on already. In fact, we need to do more moving forward, to keep up with the times and keep up with a team that’s set to really take off over these next few years.

With Jake moving on to pursue other things, I am the lone managing editor left standing, so you can run all your complaints, questions, compliments, and Lou Bega-related concerns through me moving forward.

As you may have noticed from some of our draft workout and broader draft coverage, we have had more of a presence as credentialed media over the last few months. It is my hope that this will only expand as things start to kick into gear in a couple months, allowing us to blend what we already do with much more reporting and work on the ground.

The short version—I need your help to make this site even better than it has been. So here’s what I’m looking for.

We need news writers

First and foremost, we need people who live and breathe the Sixers, and really the NBA as a whole. If you listen to dozens of podcasts, you have mobile notifications on for more reporters than you can count, and you are constantly checking in on Joel Embiid’s Instagram, you are my kind of person.

The type of people I’m looking for have experience turning around quick—but smart—news stories on the different items of the day, and can do so in a manner consistent with the collective voice we’re known for at LB. Ideally, you’re also somewhat familiar with the back-end stuff, SEO and the like, though that’s something that I can definitely work with you on if not.

Sometimes the news is obvious, like a player winning an award or suffering a devastating injury. But I’m looking for people who are savvy enough to recognize smaller moments, and feel confident riffing on those moments in post format. This story and this story are two examples of what I mean.

A lot of people who get into this want to write long features, and long features only. I can promise you that you would have every opportunity to write broader analysis pieces, but the meat of this website and your theoretical work is combining that tendency to analyze while keeping up with the moment-to-moment intrigue of the Sixers.

We need draft analysts

If all goes well, the Sixers’ own draft position will be nowhere near the top of the board in the coming years, with the hope being they’ll be fighting alongside whatever powers are left in the Eastern Conference. That doesn’t change our desire to cover the draft in-depth, and in fact, I’d like to expand our draft coverage as well.

Though we cover things here through a Sixers-centric lens, there will always be a home for smart, well-researched coverage of the draft, even if the Sixers aren’t making selections in the range the player(s) in question will be selected in. So if you spend just as much time watching Pac-12 basketball as you do watching the Sixers, I’d be interested in talking to you.

What else do we need?

While those are my two primary areas of concern, here are some other smaller ways you can help out.

• Have aspirations to work in social media? I would like to have someone who understands our voice—and the Sixers generally—to run our Facebook page, taking all the responsibility that comes with that. This doesn’t have to mean you’re writing at all aside from captions on our posts, but it does mean staying on top of what we’re producing, and staying in contact with me at all times.
• Have experience in front of a camera? There’s a possibility you can be our point person on Facebook Live, taking ownership of what we’re producing there. We’ve already started to dabble there, and I would like to make that a more regular part of our programming schedule. If you’re willing to go on camera and talk Sixers once a week in some capacity, let’s talk.

Aside from that, I am looking to bring in some contributors to fill gaps that exist not just here, but everywhere in the industry. I will ultimately add people who I feel are the best fits, but I would especially like to add a woman (or women, even) to our staff if there are Sixers fans out there with the writing chops and desire to help. It is extraordinarily hard to make it in this industry, doubly so if you’re a woman, and I would like help to change that if it makes sense for the site.

Most importantly, we need team players. I can’t stress this enough—the reason this site has thrived through editorial changes and and talent loss is because we have been a team first and foremost, solving problems as a collective. I want smart and talented people, but I also want people who are willing to lend a helping hand in whatever way they can, as often and as quickly as they can.

What’s in it for you?

You are probably already aware of this, but blogging is not the most lucrative industry in the world! That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to work for free, but you have to work hard for anything you make.

If you’re only available to contribute in a limited capacity, you’re still welcome to inquire about getting involved, but the focus right now is bringing on people who feel comfortable committing to a fairly big workload, and incentivizing them accordingly.

For those of you not as concerned about the cash as you are about getting your work out there, you will definitely have every opportunity to do that. The opportunity is ultimately what you make of it, and I will be with you every step of the way to help you achieve whatever it is your end goal is.

So how do I get involved?

Glad you asked! I have put together a fairly simple Google form for you to fill out, which hits on what I’m most interested in, and we can whittle down from there.

Here is the form, if you feel inclined to throw your name in the mix.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to me individually, and of course you can sound off in the comments below.