A Farewell & A Call For Arms
Posted by Brian Robb on Oct 13, 2010
It’s been twenty months since the inception of CelticsHub. As one of the charter members of the blog, I have been privileged to have the opportunity to work with Zach Lowe for that entire time span.
As any regular reader of this website knows, Zach’s coverage of the C’s has been second to none these past two years, as he been a tremendous contributor in building CelticsHub up from a fledgling website to one of the most respected Celtics blogs on the web.
You’ve heard of five-tool baseball players? Zach Lowe is a five-tool blogger. The video analysis, advanced stat crunching, detailed recaps, tremendous features, humorous anecdotes, Zach did it all for CH, and for you the readers and he did very well.
To give you an idea of just how much of an impression Zach has made over this short span of time, I offer you a story. It was May 2010 and I was covering the C’s-Magic series at the Garden, casually chatting with a fellow writer in the C’s locker room prior to the start of Game 3.
Nearby was the locker of a Celtic who is no longer with the team. I don’t want to name names here, so let’s just call him Tony A. Actually, that’s too obvious let’s say TA. In any case, this individual was listening to his headphones, when out of nowhere he approached me and took a close look at my credential, before returning to his locker. Perplexed, I tried to engage the player:
BR: What’s up man? Everything cool?
TA: You write for CelticsHub eh?
BR: Yes I do (Sounding probably a bit too excited to answer the question)
TA: Is Zach Lowe here?
BR: Uhhhh….no he couldn’t make it tonight. (Zach lives in NYC) I can pass along a message to him though…..if you want.
TA: Nah that’s alright……just tell him to holler at me next time he’s here. (Puts headphones back on)
It took me a second to put it all together. Was TA really just a big fan of Zach Lowe? Maybe Tony loved Zach’s advanced stats and video breakdowns! Then, it hit me.
Earlier in the season, Zach had written an entertaining and very accurate column, listing some reasonable Dos and Donts about said player on the team that became incredibly popular with CelticsHub fans. It was written by Zach with complete genuineness, as TA was a source of promise and unending frustration for C’s fans everywhere over the course of his career in Beantown.
Yet ironically, TA had improved his play dramatically over the final few months of the year and into the postseason. The list had worked or so it seemed!
It appeared though that somehow Zach’s name and most likely the column had made their way into TA’s mailbox. The man may not have been……let’s say thrilled with it, but this was as sure of a sign as any that CelticsHub and more specifically Zach had made it. I mean hey, he had Celtic players as readers here!
Stories like this show just how flat out spoiled to have Zach here at CelticsHub for almost two years. The guy works as hard as anyone out there in the NBA blogsphere, balancing a full-time job on top of all of his work with us, along with some writing for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times amongst other respected publishers.
With that in mind, it is with tremendous excitement that I announce that Zach will be leaving CelticsHub to accept a full time position at Sports Illustrated writing a new blog that will cover the C’s as well as all things NBA entitled The Point Forward.
Go read it, bookmark it, follow it on Twitter, and support Zach at the start of what will be an undoubtedly successful blog, a terrific pickup by SI. Naturally, he already has five terrific posts up today, including one on the C’s as NBA contenders so be sure to check that out at The Point Forward.
The good news is that if you follow CelticsHub on Twitter, you are now a follower of Zach’s SI twitter account already, to make sure you didn’t lose him in the switch.
In the meantime, we started a new twitter account here at CelticsHub so be sure to follow us as well on Twitter to get all the recent CelticsHub updates.
***
A call for arms
So while it’s exciting to see Zach start his new gig, his departure creates quite the challenge for us here at CelticsHub in attempting to replace his contributions. Easier said than done. I’m not even sure anyone is capable of filling those shoes. Yet, Brendan and I remain committed to bringing you the top-notch Celtics news and analysis you have come to expect from us here at CH. Which brings us to our big question:
Are you interested in writing about the Celtics? If you have the time as well as the passion for the C’s and the NBA, please get in touch with us at CelticsHub@gmail.com. Here’s some information we will be looking for in any application.
- Name
- Age/Location
- Writing Background (If any)
- Explanation of why you would be a good fit for CelticsHub (Advanced stats knowledge a big plus)
- Writing clip(s)
- Video clip(s) if available
- Any other information you think we should know
A few things to keep in mind before applying. First, please be upfront about just how much of a time commitment you are able to make. We pride ourselves on our in-depth analysis and covering every single game in such a manner, so we will need people available to contribute a sizable time commitment weekly. If we like your stuff, and you can only post a couple times a week, we still might have a use for you but we need to know what you can do so it’s best to be upfront with us.
There is a monthly stipend that comes with the position, but the biggest thing we can offer you is exposure. CelticsHub is one of the most visited Celtics blogs on the web with thousands of visitors everyday. Our site has been featured on ESPN.com, ESPNBoston, amongst other sites all over the Internet.
As Zach has shown with his success, respected people are reading. Who knows, with some luck and ability, you to could follow in Zach’s footsteps and move on SI or another full-time blogging position.
So don’t hesitate to send your stuff in whether you’re a seasoned writer or just someone looking to start somewhere. If you like the C’s, have the knowledge, passion, and time we want to hear from you. We are also particularly looking for people with a knowledge of advanced basketball statistics, so if that fits your bill, be sure to send your stuff in to celticshub@gmail.com We will start reviewing submissions this weekend.
In closing, on behalf of everyone here at CelticsHub, including Bryan Roy, Brendan Jackson and myself, we’d like to wish Zach a heartfelt congratulations on his new position, as well as a deep thanks for all the time and effort he put into CelticsHub the past two years. We wish you the best of luck at SI, I for one, look forward to reading.
The Ticker