A brief message for our readers

What’s up everybody? I know you’re all raring to go for the start of training camp, because I am too. I haven’t been able to focus too much on the Sixers the last few weeks—been traveling like crazy—and I’m looking forward to settling into the usual rhythm of an NBA season.

Through different periods of basketball and under leaders of all types, this website has been the best place to talk Sixers basketball. Like a lot of the writers who have written here, I was a regular reader before I contributed a single word to the site, and it has not been surprising for me to see lots of previous contributors move on to full-time gigs within the industry.

And I’m going to be one of them. I can’t tell you where just yet, but I’m stepping down as the Managing Editor of LB effective today, and you’ll see me covering the Sixers and Philly sports on a full-time basis somewhere else very soon. Training camp starts next week, after all.

This is not a decision I’ve come to lightly. A lot of you have pointed out that I’ve been carrying the mantle for the site since Jake and Shamus made their decision to move on, and I was prepared to continue doing that during this season, albeit with a lot more regular assistance. Thanks to a lot of work and relationship building from various people involved with the site—and a willingness from the team to build a relationship—we have more access than ever, and would have been able to add that into the fold on top of the stuff we have always done. You’ll still see that from me, just at a different home.

Leaving comes down to just a couple things for me: I was presented with an opportunity worth leaving for, and one that will allow me to focus on one thing on a full-time basis. Between the writing I do for Complex and trying to keep the watchful eye on Sixers/NBA news that you need to run a site like this, my concern was diminishing returns on everything I was involved with, both for myself and for the people who read this site.

Stringer Bell has a good, very NSFW explanation about this.

I was worried once the demands of the season started kicking in there would be way too many 40-degree days on my part. That’s not the type of life and career I want to have, nor is it what this fanbase deserves after finally being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And so it’s on to a new adventure for me.

There are a lot of people I owe a big thanks to, in no particular order: Michael Levin, Jake Pavorsky, Derek Bodner, Spike Eskin, Rich Hofmann, Shamus Clancy, Seth Pollack, Max Rappaport, Marc Whittington, Mike Prada, Sean O’Connor, Roy Burton, Wesley Share, Scott Rafferty, Sohil Doshi, Chris Reichert, Tanner Steidel, Ian Levy, Matt Carey, Jake Fischer, Matt Moore, Jake Hyman, Justin F., Brandon Lee Gowton, and countless others. I owe the readers here most of all, for helping me make a career, even temporarily, out of something I enjoy doing a whole lot.

One other thing before I go. I have lots of people ask me about how I got started writing, what sort of path I’ve taken, and whether I have advice for them to make progress in such an unstable industry. The short answer is I don’t, but what I will say is relevant to just about any field: try to make the most out of every opportunity you have, even if you’re only working or writing for yourself.

I have tried to do that here, in addition to the various other places who have been silly enough to let me write there over the last few years. There have been times when my desire to push forward has come and gone, when I had periods where I’d write less than others for reasons personal and professional. Ultimately what keeps bringing me back is two things: this beats the hell out of an office job, and I’m competitive/irrational enough to keep betting on myself.

A lot has been written lately about SB Nation’s payment practices and editorial structure, and I don’t care to debate about the more disheartening parts of the internet writing business, because there are systemic flaws with trying to make money that are much bigger than SB Nation. Until companies figure out a good, sustainable way to monetize content that doesn’t involve pivoting to video, workers will continue to be in a perilous position.

If you’re someone out there who wants their voice to be heard, always be conscious of what you are getting out of the exchange, whether that’s money, tangible exposure, access, or all of the above. No one can determine your worth but you. I can confidently say this site has given me as much as I have given it, and ultimately that’s how you should feel in anything you do. My hope is that the person or people who take over next feel the same way about LB as I do about it, and I will be helping to find that person as I step aside (you can throw your hat into the ring yourself by applying here).

This place will always have a special spot in my heart, because it’s where I’ve made relationships that have profoundly impacted my life, and where I ultimately was able to use the infrastructure I was given to build something special with a great group of people. I genuinely, truly love you guys, even those of you with whom I don’t share basketball opinions, and I trust we will be seeing each other at many Sixers games in the future.

And just like that, he’s...