After six years at ESPN and 18 years at the Associated Press, I have gone independent to continue to do what I have been doing for the bulk of my adult life — providing NBA and international basketball news, commentary and in-depth analysis, giving my readers links to the best basketball articles out there each day, while also allowing for the voices of the visitors to this site to reach a broad, worldwide audience. Is this a blog? Yes, sort of. But this is a site that will break news, too, publish dispatches and commentary from around the globe from a staff of distingued correspondents and contributors, while also soliciting your contributions. (Example: Deadspin wouldn’t be Deadspin without the weekly Funbag, and there will be a place for something similar here). It is a new world for me, one with total editorial freedom. I hope you are as excited to be here as I am.