The Profile AMA: Baxter Holmes, ESPN’s NBA feature writer
Baxter Holmes, a national NBA writer focusing on feature stories for ESPN, participated in an AMA chat with Profile readers. He has written articles on the NBA’s secret wine club and on how Kinston, N.C. is a talent factory for professional basketball players.
Here are the highlights
Q: In your opinion, what elements are necessary to have in a compelling profile?
HOLMES: That’s a great question. You need tension, compelling characters, an element of surprise, dialogue, vivid scenes that make the reader feel like they’re right there. I’m always thinking of the reader’s attention and how it’s such an easy thing to lose — in fact, I’m always terrified I’ll lose them. So I keep that in mind both in the writing and when I’m searching for ideas. I also want to reach everyone, not just sports fans, so I’m looking for human stories — whether about wine, a terrorized small town or parenthood, a subject I’ve written about a few times. That’s a long answer but those are always things I’m considering.
Q: With your focus on NBA, to what extent are some players getting involved with tech ventures? Kobe’s been doing it for a while, Steph and Andre are, I’ve heard KD mention on it. Some guys up in NYC also. Is this a theme you see growing quickly throughout the league? Is there demand for access to startups?
HOLMES: It’s a huge movement right now. Players are very savvy and are investing heavily in that area — and while I don’t know all the details about demand, I do know that this trend is growing across the league.
Q: Is Steph Curry really that nice?
HOLMES: Haha. He is very nice. I’ve interviewed him a handful of times for various stories and he has always been kind, thoughtful and generous — and also a little funny. One of my next big features focuses on the Warriors. Stay tuned!
Q: Which NBA player impresses you most from a business or brand standpoint?
HOLMES: LeBron is incredibly impressive on that front, but Kobe is likewise very impressive, especially considering the fact that Kobe’s short animated film is nominated for an Oscar. He can do anything if he applies himself — and when he applies himself, it’s really something to see.
Q: What’s an example of a time where there was heavy spin/lying but you ignored it and published the story the way it was?
HOLMES: The first thing that came to mind involved Kobe Bryant. As someone who covered the end of his career for ESPN, I knew he was deified in Los Angeles and elsewhere as a larger-than-life, almost flawless figure, and I get that, to a degree. I mean, he’s one of the greatest players ever. But the way he was so often portrayed also ignored some hard truths about who he was as a basketball player, as a teammate and so on. There might be heavy spin from him, or the Lakers in general, or even from fans and local/national media. Leading up to his final game, I wanted to give readers a deeply honest and intimate look at him as a player. And I think I did that, though I’ll let the story speak for itself. (It’s a bit long…) http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/15186931/last-true-days-kobe-bryant
Q: My close friend is the basketball coach for Brownsville PS in Brooklyn — also a sort of NBA incubator? Opioids: the two neighborhoods also have this in common, as well as being very tough places to grow up. From your perspective Baxter, after obviously interviewing many people in and out of these neighborhoods, what are the common attributes that allow the individual to expand out of (what most would consider) hell and into a world that is obj much better — some even getting to a place where they create a better space for all?
HOLMES: First, thank you for the kind words on that piece. As to your question, everything is a case-by-case basis, but having a stable household is definitely a crucial foundation, as well as some kind of gainful employment for one or both parents. In Kinston, local law enforcement attributes the rise in crime to the fact that there aren’t many jobs and thus people turn to other means — crime — to make ends meet. That’s a hard reality, especially in many of these small towns that struggle to survive. Beyond those attributes that I mentioned above, there needs to be some facility — like Kinston’s gyms — and plenty of mentors — like the people that run those gyms — in place, too.
Q: Which food related feature was more fun to report your deep dive on the NBAs obsession with PB&J or the vino aficionados?
HOLMES: They were both fun in their own ways, but as someone who likes wine, I’d have to say that one was more fun, for obvious reasons ;)
Q: As a national NBA writer how do you get your story ideas? are they mostly organic, assigned by editors or do you get pitched by player or team PR ever?
HOLMES: Many of my ideas are organic, as I’m just paying attention, trying to listen more closely or whatever the case may be for a nugget that, with a little more digging, may turn out to be a compelling story. My editors have assigned me stories in the past. I do get pitched by a team or player from time to time, though I’m not sure when I’ve actually followed up and done any of those stories. A former editor of mine preached that there are good ideas all around us — we just need to be open to them. I think about that line all the time.
Q: Can’t quite tell how long you’ve been in the game but what changes do you detect from profiles of young basketball stars when you started vs now?
HOLMES: I haven’t been doing this too long — I’m 31 years old — but, generally, I feel like there’s not as much reporting as there was in years past: not as many phone calls, on-the-ground fact gathering, research, etc. Part of that may be because news organizations have cut back and slimmed down so much, which means less money to do all that stuff I just mentioned. Part of it may be that the speed of the internet and social media makes people want to publish more stories faster, even if they’re sacrificing quality for speed and quantity. As such, the stories with more reporting tend to stand out more now, I think, whereas they were probably far more commonplace years ago.
Q: What is your perspective on sports writing as a career? Do you see yourself on a similar beat/path 2, 5, 10 years out?
HOLMES: It’s a tumultuous time to be a sports writer — or just a journalist, for that matter. I’m not even sure if the path I took — the student paper in college, internships at newspapers around the country every summer, then trying to land an entry-level job after college — works anymore in this digital age. And with there being so many layoffs, cutbacks and so forth, it’s hard to feel like you’re on stable ground. That said, I’ve done the beat reporter job, covering both the Celtics (for The Boston Globe) and the Lakers (for ESPN) and those jobs probably aren’t going away, if you can get one. There’s just too much interest. I hope, though, that my job of national features and things of that sort still exist down the road. I guess we’ll see.
Q: What are things you do to hone your craft and are there a couple items you’d recommend to the general working professional to improve written/story telling skills?
HOLMES: The first thing is obvious: read constantly. But beyond that, you need to read very, very carefully. Study how writers put together sentences, paragraphs, entire scenes. Notice the verbs they use. Think about how they’re developing characters and creating tension and suspense and building it through the story. Notice how truly great writers end certain sections or even sentences. For me, there are a ton of writers whose work I admire and study very closely on that front, and I highly recommend doing the same. Likewise, it’s important to listen very, very closely when doing interviews, because at some point, the subject may say something that’s a window into something else — and you have to be focused enough to pick up on that and then steer the interview there, if it warrants it. Many of my ideas come from just listening carefully, quite honestly.
