NBA play by play broadcaster Michael Grady and Mirin Fader, editor of "The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2026"

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1:59Michael Grady: Welcome to the Sports Media Podcast. I'm your host, Richard Deitch. My producer is James Jackson. Two guests on this episode. It is a very NBA-centric episode. First up is someone who I think has developed into one of the best play-by-play people regardless of sport. Michael Grady is a play-by-play broadcaster for the NBA on Prime, the NBA and NBC. And if you are a Timberwolves fan, you know that he is part of that television group as well. The NBA starts today as we're taping this on October 20th. So I wanted to get someone who's going to be deep into the sport this year. And with that, I bring on Michael Grady.

2:36Michael Grady: Welcome.

2:38Mirin Fader: I appreciate you. Appreciate the kind words. And it's been a while. Good to catch up with you, Richard.

2:42Michael Grady: Good to catch up with you. I believe you're in Miami today. Am I correct? Yes.

2:46Mirin Fader: Yes. Just ahead of heat and Timberwolves. I'm just going to go as a spectator on Wednesday night. So yeah, just as a fan Wednesday night.

2:54Michael Grady: Are you staying at a hotel or you staying at Giannis's mansion? Well, what's the setup?

3:00Mirin Fader: I didn't get the invite this time. Maybe next Miami trip.

3:04Michael Grady: All right. Hotel it is. All right. So here's, here's what I want. I find what you're doing to be fascinating in that You have landed on two network level broadcasts for the NBA. You're doing stuff with Prime Video, obviously, and you're doing stuff with NBC. For certain people, making one of those would have been a lifetime destination kind of achievement. So since we have not talked on this podcast for about four years, these are obviously new jobs since then. Break them down for me if you can. Tell me how each of them came about.

3:39Mirin Fader: I you know what I'm still pinching myself to be honest Richard I I last time we talked I was over the moon and excited to have that opportunity with the Minnesota Timberwolves and to be the lead play-by-play guy after spending five years in Brooklyn is mainly a sideline reporter and so last time we talked I was excited about that opportunity and just you know slowly but surely my work was noticed. And with the new partners coming in, NBC returning to the NBA family last year and Prime Video being the new kid on the block, both expressed interest at the same time, which again, meant the world to me.

4:21Mirin Fader: NBC, I fell in love with NBA basketball. I fell in love with broadcasting to a certain extent through NBC, watching the NBA on NBC, growing up in Indianapolis, watching Reggie Miller battle the Knicks, and of course, watching Michael Jordan's dominance and listening to the likes of Marv Albert and Bob Costas, of course, and watching Inside Stuff with Ahmad Rashad. So to get that phone call meant everything. And then to see all the exciting things that they were doing with Prime Video and what they were trying to bring to the table, That intrigued me as well. So what started out as a bidding war turned into a situation of, well, NBC slash Peacock's games are at the beginning of the week.

5:06Mirin Fader: Prime Video's games are at the end of the week. We think he can do both. And there was no way I was going to turn that opportunity down. So it was just kind of the perfect setup, the way it worked. And I appreciate everybody involved for helping to make it happen. And then for me, I'm just a kid in a candy store. I love the game. It's just an opportunity for me to serve the game on multiple platforms.

5:29Michael Grady: And you feel free to give a shout out to your agent. It's nice work.

5:37Mirin Fader: That took months of months of negotiating to get that done. So truly thankful for that.

5:42Michael Grady: One of the things that one of the things that is really pertains to this moment, Michael, is that I honestly believe 15 years ago, these networks would not have let you do this. Like the world was so much more competitive when it came to talent. And today, like you're a great example of someone who works for two different networks. Well, once upon a time, they may have been competitors. I'll give you another example. Perfect. Very high profile one. NBC allowed Rebecca Lowe to be one of the lead broadcasters of the World Cup this year as a host when Fox obviously had the rights to the men's World Cup.

6:15Michael Grady: We've now seen, you know, Kevin Harlan is sort of maybe the patron saint of this. Obviously, he works with CBS calling NFL games, calls March Madness for them, but then floats over to Prime to do basketball and does Westwood run radio for the NFL. So I think and I'm sure you're sort of cognizant and aware of this. Your professional career happens to be at a moment where the networks, you know what I'm saying? They now see this as additive, where I can tell you 15, 20 years ago, they would have seen it as we're not letting our people work for a competitor.

6:48Mirin Fader: No, no. And I, you know, Kevin Harlan's been inspiration of mine. And then as you know, my time in New York, I still live in New York, but my, my time specifically with the Nets, I'm watching Ian Eagle night in and night out. And then when he was off, Ryan Rucco would be in there. And then if I had a night off and I wanted to watch the next game, I'm tuning into Mike Brain, who wears multiple hats. the uniqueness to your point is to be calling the same sport um the same league for multiple networks and i think again prime video coming to the picture as a as a streamer and as ambitious as they are um that that may add a little bit of wrinkle and why this was possible we'll see if this kind of thing continues but it certainly feels like uh a very different place that we're And we'll see again, we'll see if it continues.

7:39Mirin Fader: They may say at the end of my deal, OK, we're never doing this again. But at least in the meantime, I'm having so much fun working with so many amazing people. And I feel like if I'm at least serving the game, then I'm doing my job for everybody.

7:54Michael Grady: I think both places really do an excellent job with their NBA coverage. But you're unique, again, in the fact that you're working with both of them. So let me ask you two questions on this. First, how would you define or describe how Prime Video does the NBA?

8:10Mirin Fader: I see a freshness to it. I feel like I think the numbers back up. They are reaching a younger audience. They have talent in the studio, especially who are recently out of the game and still very much have a connection, very much a connection to it. And I also feel like they have a blank canvas to work with. I think that, you know, the other networks who, you know, have had their sport for a while or even NBC coming back into it, they have a blueprint. And then I love the way NBC has been innovative and come up with different ideas like the on the bench broadcast, but prime video truly had a blank canvas to work with and the ambition behind how they were going to go about telling NBA stories, their presentation with a tremendous studio.

9:08Mirin Fader: that they have in culver city um uh that part is exciting it's it's one thing to say i i remember hitting stories about um you know with the clippers i know the clippers it's a tough tough situation for them right now but when they were building um their arena um balmer spared no expense it's just we want to have the most innovative you know arena out there and i feel like amazon has taken that same approach with how they're going to cover the nba you know a tremendous studio with an led floor that's what we're going to do um the cameras set up everything that they're it's uh it's it's really a fresh fresh way of presenting the game yeah by the way you can

9:46Michael Grady: mention steve ballmer on this podcast he is not suspended from a mention on this podcast this year michael so you're okay you're not going to get in trouble for that yeah give ballmer a little bit of love he's not well i know i'm not going to go that far but but i will at least we'll be able to mention them um something that's really interesting to me because and i do want to ask you about the working with the um with the analysts who are on the court because that's obviously um a very unique you know unique presentation that nbc decided to do but from listening to so many of your games at this point i don't particularly feel like you're calling a game differently between the two different um employers that you have you you interact obviously with your analysts differently because they are different people.

10:32Michael Grady: But when I hear you in terms of just your call, your cadence, your pacing, all that stuff feels the same to me. So like, is there anything in your, I don't even know how to, how can I ask this? Like, do you feel you're presenting the same game or do you feel like you have a NBC call and you have an, and you have a prime video call?

10:50Mirin Fader: No, I'm, I'm, I'm conscious about presenting the same call and just being, being me. And I feel like I appreciate the way both sides are managed to where I'm not, you know, changing or shifting for whatever network that I'm on. Michael Grady is Michael Grady on NBC and on Prime Video. And that's really, you know, I haven't given this a ton of thought, but I feel like that's really important, you know, to me. I'm working. working, my colleagues are legends. The other guys calling the games for both networks are legends. You've been hearing Ian Eagle's voice for 30 years. You've been hearing Kevin Harlan's voice for 30 years.

11:38Mirin Fader: Mike Tirico, there's a comfort when you hear Mike Tirico's voice. And so when NBC gets started again and Prime Video is new on the scene, outside of the Minnesota audience and maybe fans of the Brooklyn Nets and maybe a few folks in Indiana during my time there, although I didn't do TV when I was in Indianapolis. There's a large, you know, audience that's never heard my voice. And so that's another reason why I embrace every rep, because it takes a while for people to get comfortable. Okay, I trust this guy. I trust what he calls. I trust that he understands the game, the rules. I know what I'm going to get from an energy standpoint.

12:22Mirin Fader: and so I'm just kind of in the early stages of building that relationship right now and that's been fun so I definitely try to be myself regardless of the network that's smart that's

12:32Michael Grady: thoughtful answer too all right so in in doing um in getting a little bit of a sense of your schedule your first NBC game comes on October 26 on Peacock does that sound right to you Warriors at Nuggets Yes. Yes.

13:15Michael Grady: for you. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but if they're not, if they're on the opposite side of the court, you can't look left or right traditionally when you want to interact with your analysts. So how does that work? Like, do you have, you must have a video camera or screen in front of you where you could see Robbie's face and Austin's face in this or, but maybe I shouldn't guess, how does it work for, from your end?

13:37Mirin Fader: So the remarkable thing about it is it is actually easier for me i wouldn't say easier but it is easy for me because i can look across and make eye contact with those guys okay and so in the flow of the game you know maybe maybe a player gets in the way at times but from my standpoint i can still see those guys and still make eye contact and still build a cadence and a rhythm with them even though they're literally across the court The brilliance is that these guys generally can't see each other. And so if they step on each other's toes during the broadcast or whatnot, it's more incidental. And it's also forgiven, I think, by the audience, given the format.

14:27Mirin Fader: This style of game truly feels like three guys sitting at a bar talking hoops. it doesn't have your traditional rules of a broadcast there's a little bit more energy behind it there's going to be a lot more X's and O's and breaking things down this season which I'm really excited about these guys getting into the nuts and bolts of how both teams are playing but they're unable to see each other and they're still rarely stepping on each other in the broadcast So their chemistry that those two specifically have been able to develop has been really fun to watch.

15:08Michael Grady: And then am I correct that your first Prime Video game is Thunder at Cavs on November 2nd? Does that sound right?

15:15Mirin Fader: I'm going to have Friday, October 30th. I've got Lakers at Golden State. Oh, OK. That should be my first one.

15:23Michael Grady: All right. Appreciate it. Yeah. But once again, I'm going to blame the research department, which is me. so okay so the one thing about prime video you can correct me if i'm wrong there's no set analyst for you right you could have a different analyst depending on where that game is roughly

15:39Mirin Fader: is that accurate yeah that was the case last season for sure and that was the case really for both networks and so that was a that was a baptism by fire and just getting used to so many different people which was amazing for me because i was again i i mentioned i pinched myself earlier and i'm still pinching myself when i think about the people that i'm i'm getting able to work with weekend and week out but this season um for both networks i'm going to generally have a set um group that i'll work with it'll flip here or there um but for the most part i'm going to work with brent berry for a number of games and toward the end of last season we worked together a lot and then i'm going to have a number of games um with uh candace parker um and then and then we'll have a Kyle Lowry will pop in sometimes a Dwayne Wade will pop in sometimes so those will be the the two that I I um at least right now on paper I'm going to be working with um the most um so

16:36Michael Grady: that's that leads me oh it means you're going to say that that's something I wanted to ask you about because you and Candace did a lot of WNBA games and I thought you guys had a really really good chemistry how was that experience because she she is a unicorn in many ways in that she is both excellent as a game analyst as well as in the studio.

16:54Mirin Fader: Yes. And I think, I think her, you know, her superpower is, is just, is being able to state an opinion unflinchingly and people may, may appreciate that opinion or they may not like that opinion, but she is fearless in the way that she'll step up to the plate and say, this is what I believe in this moment. It's not only explaining what's happening out there on the floor, but just giving her perspective as a former player. and someone who's still very much tapped into the game on just what she thinks. And so I really enjoyed working with her during the W season. We really hit it off during the NBA season last year.

17:31Mirin Fader: That was the first time that we really met and connected and worked together. And it's just really felt seamless. So she is a unicorn. She's amazing. Brent's terrific as well. I remember watching Brenton slam dunk contest back in the day, And I've always admired his work that he had done in the past with Turner. And so to be able to work with him and just really click on and off the microphone has been great as well.

17:56Michael Grady: Yeah. Second generation NBA broadcaster, given his dad's broadcasting career. In addition, obviously, his dad was a great player in the ABA and the NBA. I do want to ask you about calling W games this year, because this was a year where that league, I think, and you could see it in the television viewership numbers and the attendance took another step um just in terms of like the excitement games feel like an event and anytime like prime video is going to do a game or or um you know abc is going to do a game that's going to feel like an event i don't have the games that you did in front of me but i'll just you know we're taping this on october 20th michael so i'll just use an example if you happen to watch the dream play the valkyries yesterday like just the atmosphere and intensity in golden state was unbelievable like that felt like a championship.

18:44Michael Grady: And I could say having covered the tempo this season here in Toronto, and that even in a 6, 8 ,200 seat arena, like that arena sometimes felt electric. So it feels, it felt like to me as someone who's covered that league for a while that this year in particular, it just felt like it took another step in terms of like excitement, enthusiasm, engagement for the league. What was it like for you being on, being on the floor and being able

19:09Mirin Fader: to actually see it at like that close yeah this was this was the first time so last handful of years i had done liberty on a local level and so and all the road games i was i was stuck in a studio and so i wasn't able to travel to see the other arenas and so i was really excited about this season because i could hit different venues and see the enthusiasm from the different fan bases across the country. And I had an amazing time, Richard. The way the game is growing, the way that it's expanding. And I've been involved with the league for maybe 15 or so years, back when the Tamika Catching Days with the Indiana Fever, when I was a PA announcer for the Indiana Fever.

19:54Mirin Fader: And just to see the way the game has grown, to see the personalities of these players come out, to see the skill level, the shot-making ability, just continuing to take things to another level. And the thing that really stands out to me is just the thought that it's just not slowing down. Juju is on the horizon. There are a number of tremendous players in the college game right now that will be making their debut in the W in the coming years, and there's just going to be no slowing down. Paige Beckers is going to be better. there's so many players in the league that will be taking their game to an entirely different level they're not even in their prime yet and so to think that at this point we're still just scratching the surface Kaitlin Clark is still learning and trying to improve and and trying to take her game and her teammates to a two to an entirely different level so we it's it's been so fun to watch the passion in all these arenas I feel like just about every game that I had regardless of where it was, whether it was in Dallas or Indiana or in Atlanta.

21:01Mirin Fader: I mean, it was sellout after sellout. And I feel like you could feel it coming across on the television screen.

21:09Michael Grady: You grew up in Indianapolis, right? So that's why you would have had that connection to the fever. And you went to college there. Although, I don't want to, you can pronounce your college's name because I'd probably mangle it. How do I pronounce that college's name? uh vincent's vincent's okay so and so indiana for you is kind of like where your formative years of

21:30Mirin Fader: like your sports fandom i would imagine started a hundred percent a hundred percent the the other

21:37Michael Grady: job we have not talked about yet is your work with the timberwolves just continue to call games for that franchise um they obviously are really really interesting particularly with the uh the Lamello ball trade. So you have that backcourt now that looks good. Having talked to people like Mike Breen and Ian Eagle over the years, Michael, it's always important to them to at least have some kind of handful of games with a local team because it feels like they remain connected to that kind of job. So I would think for you, even though you now have national jobs, you still want to be part of the Timberwolves family in some ways.

22:17Michael Grady: Is that fair to say?

22:20Mirin Fader: Yes, absolutely. Every local fan base that I've been a part of has a piece of my heart. That's going back to my days in Indiana. Brooklyn, I left home. That was my first time leaving home and then stepping in New York and not sure if you're going to be accepted, embraced. and that's been a love affair that continues with Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Nets. And then going to Minnesota, a place that, you know, during my time with the Nets, when I was traveling with the team, I would just pop into Minnesota, we'd do the game and we would fly right back out of there. I spent no time in Minneapolis. I knew about all of America and I knew about Prince being from there.

23:00Mirin Fader: And that was just about it. And once again, unsure of how I was going to be embraced And just that connection, that love that's just, you know, reciprocal between myself and that fan base. And then the working relationships that you have. Jim Peterson is one of the best analysts in the NBA. And we hit it off from day one. And we just have a really good time in the broadcast. And so that's probably the overarching thing about regardless of network. When you show up and you're working with people that you enjoy being around and you're able to laugh, have a good time. call a game um it's really it's really not work and then to ride is on the local level the the peaks and valleys of an nba of an nba season and you know a team can be riding a winning streak or it's a losing streak or what you know regardless of what the team is going through and to be able to be locked in with the fan base and a part of that ride which is something i still am connected to and remember from my days as a kid and watching the pacers over 82 games and then get into the postseason and just remember how my my nervous system was affected by how the team was doing I still feel that and so um and I you know I hope that comes off on the on the uh the broadcast so it was definitely important to me it's been told to me by several several folks and friends you know in the industry I think Brian Anderson was one of the first guys to tell me hey don't leave that job don't leave yeah I don't care if you're going to do three games uh stick with stick with that gig and um and so yeah so yeah it's been it's been important to me to stick around and still have that connection.

24:32Michael Grady: Yeah, that's good advice. Earl, finish up on a couple of things. You mentioned Brooklyn, your Instagram feed, which is Grady, G-R-A-D-Y for anybody who wants to follow. This in many ways is an ode to Brooklyn. Like I was on there today. And again, I lived in Brooklyn for a year. I lived in, I was a Manhattan snob for 18, Michael. Don't hate on me. But I did One, you're clearly into photography and just imagery. You've traveled around the world. But I really love your feed because in many ways, your Instagram feed is a love letter to Brooklyn. Fair to say. I highly recommend it to anybody who loves New York.

25:13Mirin Fader: Yeah, and it'll evolve as the season goes on. I wanted to do something that felt a little editorial on what each week looks like for me. And so these last few weeks of the off season, I've just been been home in Brooklyn, haven't had any flights for the most part. I've just been kind of home and and I and I love Brooklyn and I'll always I'll always love Brooklyn and the people in the community and so many things to see and do in New York at large. But now, you know, like we like we said at the start, I'm in Miami now so that the the week to week will look a little bit different. So there'll be some Miami content and then we'll get to Orlando and sort of evolve.

25:58Mirin Fader: The camera will be with me every step of the way as folks get to see what this journey looks like with three different networks and the cities and the flights and all that type of stuff. But but, yeah, I like that. I love Letter to Brooklyn, though, that that that I love that it feels it feels that way because it's it's it's true. Yeah.

26:19Michael Grady: I mean, again, on Michael's feed, like you could see him in his different in the different cities he's at. Takes a lot of photos to obviously of the people he's working with at that game. I love that just as a behind the scenes. Like one thing I could tell you that sports writers, certainly my generation would do is if we got to a arena early, we'd shoot the empty stadium. And then you put it out on your you know, this is one really like Twitter in particular was really big. and fans seem to love that because fans don't get a chance to be in like an empty arena when no one is there in the same way for you like there are going to be times when people you're in front of a famous stadium or arena you know most people unless they live in that city don't ever get to experience that so i hope you continue that you also have an eye you clearly have a visual eye so um i appreciate you yeah and i'm not that trust me i'm not the biggest instagram person so this This is true praise for me.

27:11Mirin Fader: Yes.

27:12Michael Grady: All right. So the last one, and we'll end on this, and this is just some, you know, like storyline NBA talk this year. You're working in a season that really feels like it's going to be phenomenal. You know, Nick's looking to repeat. Weminyama, like, has something to prove, I think, just after the way the finals ended. LeBron is in Philly. Giannis is in Miami. Kawhi is in Toronto. There's a lot of fascinating things that happen in this particular offseason that feels like it's going to lead to a phenomenal year in the NBA. The East looks like a juggernaut. You make the argument for a lot of teams to make the playoffs.

27:54Michael Grady: What stands out for you? And I realize we could do an entire podcast just probably on these storylines. But you're going to get a chance, I think, just given your job, to just see a lot of really interesting teams and a lot of interesting players.

28:07Mirin Fader: Yeah, it's fascinating to see this shift now because for so long, Richard, we would talk about how dominant the West was. And the West is still tough, but the Eastern Conference is ridiculous. There's just no other way to put it. Toronto came this close to being able to knock off Cleveland in the postseason a season ago. Cleveland wound up getting to the Eastern Conference Finals. And Toronto didn't really have Emmanuel quickly in the postseason. And Brandon Ingram was hobbled. And now they add a former finals, you know, two-time finals MVP in Kawhi Leonard in his return. And what is that going to do for Toronto?

28:53Mirin Fader: Washington nobody's really talking about them I know DeBonce is going to be hurt to start the season with the ankle but before nobody paid attention to Washington now you have to pay attention to Washington that's not a night off when you face the Wizards Orlando should have beat Detroit yeah you know in the postseason a season ago and so Orlando has some motivation head into this year you know Boston as we have this conversation they're on TV right now doing battle with the Pistons. I was talking to Brian Scalabrini, who's on the call of this game, and he thinks, again, of course he's going to say this, but he gave valid reasons as to why he thinks that Boston will have the number one record in the Eastern Conference.

29:32Michael Grady: Well, it could change, but as we're taping this, they're up 14 or so. They're in the third quarter as we tape this.

29:39Mirin Fader: Yeah, so again, I'm just really in awe of just, Indiana didn't even make the playoffs a season ago. They add Halliburton and they'll have Zubats this season as well. So I'm really excited about the NBA Cup also because I think in a season where, okay, this really looks up for grabs, I think the NBA Cup is a fun setting to see, okay, what are we working with at this stage of the season? And I think those games are going to end up being a whole lot of fun. In the West, again, it's OKC and San Antonio, assuming those two teams stay healthy. And then I'm curious, is there a team that really puts it together and proves themselves to be a threat to either of those two teams?

30:25Mirin Fader: But as it stands right now, that is shaping up to be one of the one of the more exciting budding rivalries in the history of this league. I'll go so far as to say the way that these two teams are stacked and built.

30:41Michael Grady: Do you as we're out of here, I'll give a shout out to my producer, James Jackson, is a Philly guy. Do you have the Sixers this year, at least as of yet on your schedule? Do you know?

30:50Mirin Fader: I do. I've got the Sixers about five times this season. So I'm looking forward to those games. Most of the time they're on the road. I think I only have one actual trip to Philly as it stands right now. I'll probably get more towards the end of the season, hopefully. But I'm curious about the Sixers. Obviously, the squad on paper is stacked. but can they stay healthy? Are they able to preserve their key guys over the course of a season? Because if Embiid misses significant time, if LeBron, who's already talking about sciatica, has to miss significant time, they're good. They're just not a championship squad.

31:36Mirin Fader: So I'll be very curious to see how they manage their key guys' bodies over the course of the season. but they're going to be, I mean, at full strength, they're going to be a problem. I can't wait for this opener with the Knicks.

31:49Michael Grady: Yeah, it's cool. And also, too, just the fact that, you know, you have to, in the back of your head, know that this could be LeBron's last year. And so when you're doing his games, you know, maybe one of those games is the last time you call one of the greatest, if not the greatest player in the history of the league. It's a cool thought.

32:08Mirin Fader: Pinch myself one more time.

32:09Michael Grady: Yeah, I hear you. All right. Michael Grady is a man of many different employers at this point. He is working for NBA on Prime, the NBA on NBC, and of course, still part of the Timberwolves broadcast group. as I've said on social media, as I've written. I'm not just putting him over, as they say, in the wrestling business here. He's one of the best broadcasters working today. I love when the guy calls either NBA or WNBA games, and I'm really, really happy to see that there are network executives who have given him a prominent spot because his talent deserves it. Michael, continued success, Matt.

32:50Michael Grady: I hope we can catch up later this year. Have a great season. And thanks so much for joining me today on the Sports Media Podcast.

32:57Mirin Fader: Thanks again for the kind words. Means so much coming from you. And anytime. Look forward to catching up again soon.

33:23Mirin Fader: each and every week. New episodes drop each and every Wednesday. Be sure to follow or subscribe to Free Range wherever you get your podcasts.

33:33Michael Grady: My thanks to Michael Grady. Check out all his excellent work during the NBA season. We now switch gears to a project that is near and dear to me. Miren Fader is the editor of the year's best sports writing, 2026. the annual anthology of the best sports writing in a given year that is from triumph books she's also a senior editor senior editor she's also a senior writer for the athletic i mean maybe she is a senior editor now as well just getting promotions left and right but this uh this book um i was the editor of a couple years ago so it's uh it was an amazing experience to be part of very very intimidating and so i'm pleased to bring in this year's editor of the year's best sports writing 2026 and obviously one of the excellent feature writers in the country.

34:24Michael Grady: Mirren Fader, welcome.

34:25Richard Deitsch: Thank you so much for having me.

34:27Michael Grady: You're welcome. All right. So the role of the editor in this book is to sift through as much sports writing as you can in a given year. And then I think after you do that process, you have a sense of like what's being written, how much is being written, and like what the state of kind of long form sports writing is at the moment. So that's where I want to start. Tell me about just the process of going through this and sifting through all this material. And then perhaps more importantly, do you remain optimistic about the state of long form sports writing in North America?

35:03Richard Deitsch: My favorite question. Well, I think first, I'm such a book nerd. So I thought, well, this is going to be so easy. I just read all the time. I read everyone. and I started to sift through it and I was like, oh my God, this is actually really hard. This is a really tough assignment because you're not just trying to read everyone. You're trying to read widely in terms of you want different sports, you want different themes, you want different tones, you want different perspectives, you want different representation, not just in in race, but gender and age, you're just looking to read literally as many different kinds of perspectives as possible.

35:46Richard Deitsch: And you'd be surprised at how many people are writing, right? Like there is this narrative, obviously, that has so much truth to it about, you know, long form is dying and writing is dying. And God, that Atlantic cover story, like actually sent me to the moon about the death of literacy. But at the same time, this project really gave me some hope because it showed me how much writing there is out there. There's actually an incredible amount of writing. It's just that long form is no longer 10 ,000 words. Long form is really what I do. And I'm capped at like 4 ,000 words. There's only about two people in the country that write 10 ,000, 15 ,000 words, and I'm not one of them.

36:30Richard Deitsch: So ultimately, I actually felt better about the state of journalism in long form because we're finding a way to do it. Like, yes, things are still awful in the industry. But, you know, when I graduated college 13 years ago, ouch, there was no athletic. And so I look at all the publications I selected. I'm like, wow, this is a totally different landscape. But look at it. It's still here.

36:56Michael Grady: Yeah, I'm not going to I'm not going to let you know where I was 13 years ago. I was like, graduating college to New York somewhere. So it's interesting that you say that because I had a similar experience with one caveat on this. I, too, after reading more sports writing in a given year than I did, and I also had a panel of people who helped me. I'll ask you if you did as well. I also was heartened by the fact that there was so much great long form writing. Here's the caveat. What I was troubled by was I wasn't sure how many of those people could actually maintain a living doing that kind of writing outside of the handful of people who were working at these major places and maybe had big enough names where they could have a pretty good career as a full-time freelancer.

37:45Michael Grady: so when i looked at you and the reason i'm asking this when i looked at your book and obviously all the stories were excellent there were from they were from a lot of sort of traditional mainstream kind of places so that's always been that was that continues to be just my one worry is that so long form will exist but is it only going to exist you know what i mean in the athletic espn.com uh you know the dallas morning news or just name your random big city paper that still hopefully as some kind of outlet. So that was interesting to me when I read your your edition this year.

38:21Richard Deitsch: Yeah, I mean, sadly, I think you're right. I felt the same way, you know, and I definitely don't want to come off as, you know, Pollyanna about the whole thing. You know, I've been laid off twice in my career and I am 35. I've been through it. I'd happened at the, you know, beginning of my career and at the peak of my career. So I've seen all sides of this. And yes, I think a select few will be able to keep doing this, but it will not be a lot of people. And that is very sad and very difficult. However, I've never seen more interest in young people in doing this. And so I don't think it's an indictment forever.

39:01Richard Deitsch: I just think we don't know the answer and we don't know how it will change, but I have never had more young people reaching out to me and doing great writing. I mean, it's spectacular. So I can't, I just can't bear to think that all of these, you know, young people will just give us stats. Like, I don't think, I just don't, I don't think so. I don't know how it will work, but it just, they're hungry for it.

39:30Michael Grady: they now we just need a mechanism one of the cool things about this your book this year so we'll get to some positive stuff is i i thought it was cool that there were modern athletes who had been profiled and profiled like really well like the book starts off with a profile like like a big piece on victor webbing yam and so that actually to me was really heartening because again like during my career um you know i worked at sports illustrated in my 20s and 30s and like that was a magazine which had such amazing access to the current best stars that you could really, you know, you could go to their house, sit down with them, follow them around in their lives and produce four or five, six thousand words and really feel like you knew that.

40:11Michael Grady: And so that was the cool thing about your book. Was it like there were still people who were doing that, like who were sort of even in an age where they have so many agents and marketing people and more importantly, their own mechanism now to promote themselves, which didn't exist when I was, you know, 25 at Sports Illustrated. I thought that was pretty heartening was that and that's that's about the writers. That's about we still have so many great people in the industry who can figure out a way to navigate even in a world where there's so many more handlers.

40:38Richard Deitsch: Absolutely. I mean, you know, there's so many writers in this book that know how to get those details that you're not going to get by being at Wemby's house, but you are going to spend hours and hours and hours talking to people around him and getting those details and getting those anecdotes and spending time, you know, talking with the middlemen that hold the power to the access here. And, you know, maybe you get three minutes in the corner over there and you notice something and then you ask somebody else. The people in this edition, they are scrappy, they are creative, and they are dogged.

41:13Richard Deitsch: And that's the thing. Like the sports writers, journalists, whatever, we've always had to be dogged. We've always had to be scrappy. But when you are in this age, and you are trying to get to somebody's soul in 10 minutes, you simply must get more creative. And so that's kind of been the theme of my own career. And I really wanted to pick writers that understood hustling within those parameters is not easy, but it is always worth it. And it's always rewarding. Like I read the Wembe piece, And I was just like, wow, like, this is incredible. And I and I and then there's there's people that, you know, maybe our younger readers don't really know much about like Eddie Guerrero.

41:53Richard Deitsch: But you still felt like you were going on a journey with the writer and you felt like you were learning about the humans, the human beings that played these sports. And so I just knew with this edition, like, yes, I want to have balanced sports writing in the sense of we want to have some stories about like issues in sports. Like we've got one about the dark side of betting, but at the core of who I am and what I love to do is the human portrait of athletes. And so I want to make sure that we have that representation in here of people that understand there is such a universal benefit when you talk about a singular person and their stories.

42:31Richard Deitsch: While they may not seem relevant to us because these people are famous and they make so much money, their stories are really just a window into us.

42:40Michael Grady: So again, the book is The Year's Best Sports Writing 2026. It's out now. You'll be able to get it on Amazon. It's just so people know the piece we were referencing. Victor Webinama is preaching ethical basketball. There's a larger tooth to it all. That's by Marcus Thompson II in The Athletic. The Eddie Guerrero piece is by Roberto Jose Andrade Franco. That was on ESPN.com. Eddie Guerrero obviously is a WWE legend. He's been in this book many times. um stephanie abstein my old colleague at sports illustrated wrote a piece on cal raleigh uh that was in this book um and again it's uh it's an example of really um you know the highest levels essentially of sports writing uh that exists in the country um one of the things that was very valuable to me miren was i had a group of uh people around the country you know a couple of Jay Donde, who had who was the who was the editor the year before me.

43:39Michael Grady: I was on his like reading committee. And then I asked him to be on my my friend, Jane McManus, who is the was an editor after me. She was on my committee. And so I did have people like sort of who were scouring this stuff. You know, ultimately it fell on me and ultimately it fell on you. But I did have people who I asked if they could to send me like the 10 best stories they had read during the year and like why they thought they did. And that was very helpful because my biggest fear as I had two fears as being the editor or guest editor. One was that I wasn't going to be up to it because like David Halbestram, these very famous people had, you know, I'm sure you felt the same way.

44:17Michael Grady: It's just intimidating. I didn't want to look at who did it in the 90s because these were giants and I didn't have that kind of career and I just would get too intimidated. So that was one. I had to fight my own inner battle. The second was I didn't want to miss anything, particularly my blind spots, like what like pieces that maybe I wouldn't necessarily have an affinity for or publications that I normally wouldn't read. I was hoping I had people who would catch that for me. Did you have anything similar where you had even a group of friends who are like, I'm going to look I'm going to look for all the things that I think is interesting this year.

44:49Michael Grady: And maybe they catch something that you might have missed.

44:52Richard Deitsch: Yes. And first of all, I will just say I have the same exact feeling. I was like, how did they choose me? Like, is there a typo here? Because I, you know, I believe I am the youngest guest.

45:04Michael Grady: I'm almost certain you are, given the people who've done this before.

45:07Richard Deitsch: Yeah. And very few women and the women that have done it are like the goats, you know, like Jackie Mack, like Jane Levy, like her Kovacs bio is right over there. Like I just I was just like, how is this possible? And so I definitely reached out to all of my friends. And the thing that I told them was, I want to know the one story that if you were to get coffee with a friend and catch up and inevitably ask each other, what have you been reading lately? I want that story that's been on your mind that you're like, oh, my God, you have to read this. It was so bananas. So I basically asked everyone, like, what is that one story for you?

45:44Richard Deitsch: And the story in the collection about the steakhouse with Mahomes and Kelsey's venture was from a friend. I would have never found that. The story about it's called El Jefe. It's from Toronto, again, outside the country. This story was absolutely incredible. It's a former snowboard Olympia.

46:06Michael Grady: Ryan Wedding. We've gotten a lot of a lot of him up here. It's it's like out of a movie, his story.

46:12Richard Deitsch: How I mean, listen, Netflix, if you are listening, you have got to get this.

46:17Michael Grady: I'm fairly certain someone's probably in development.

46:20Richard Deitsch: OK, because I'm reading this story on the plane and this guy is like they're talking about him and his snowboarding. And then all of a sudden he's on the FBI most wanted list. And I'm just I'm just sitting there on the plane like this is why I write. Holy crap. This is amazing. But that was sent to me by a friend. So I would have never scoured Toronto life. I don't live there. I would have never found that. So again, it's such an example of like, we can sit here all day and lament about the industry or, and I should say, and, or we should say, look, there's also really awesome writing in a lot of places that you may not traditionally look.

47:00Richard Deitsch: The community was essential because I think that I am a big reader. I know I'm a big reader, But we all have blind spots and we all miss them. And to be fair, the notables was really hard as well, because a lot of those were really good stories. But you can only fit so many and you are also battling page count. And so there's a lot of factors under consideration. And so I'm really grateful to the people that helped me.

47:30Michael Grady: One thing I wanted to ask you, because I knew that I had to navigate this, and that was, what do you do when you're working at a place where it has a ton of potential people who could make the book, either in the main section or the honorable mention section? And when my book came out, I was at The Athletic. You're obviously at The Athletic now. So how did you, I don't know, was it challenging to sort of have to pick people you work with? You don't want to alienate some, alienate my right word you don't want to make you don't want to disappoint somebody if they think their work should have been in it but you should also shouldn't preclude somebody who you work with at the same place if you think their work deserved it so i wonder how you navigated that

48:10Richard Deitsch: i mean that was really hard and also i had literally um just found out about this opportunity when i went to the athletic and so i i was like well it it is a fact that the athletic is one of the few places producing such work that would be in this book, right? Like I, I simply can't have pieces that are less than a thousand words in here. So the fact of the matter is, is like, while I do happen to work here, this is for a good reason, one of the few places that actually I'm going to be choosing from, you know, because they, they do produce longer things. So I was actually really conscious of that throughout and not wanting to put too many or too little or wanting to be balanced.

48:56Richard Deitsch: And again, like, even though there were a lot of the ESPNs, it's like, can we also add the Toronto life, like just trying to be mindful, I didn't have like a quota, but I wanted to be more mindful about it. And then of course, like, I read Juliette McCurr's profile in the New York Times about this family grieving, you know, a death of their football son. And, you know, I'm starting to read it. And I'm like, I've read this story in the sense of like, There's so many tragic stories like this. And then it turned out to be a completely different story about hope and forgiveness. And I was like, well, Juliet's got to be in there.

49:32Richard Deitsch: Absolutely. Gold star. But then I was like, Juliet is at the New York Times. I'm technically at the New York Times. Is that weird? I think those thoughts go in there as well. So just being honest, yes, you're considering so many factors like that.

49:47Michael Grady: The last issue is in my book as well. We had a couple of people who, and maybe this isn't always be the case, who were in my year and your year. I'm sure that would probably be the same for you as well. The last thing I wanted to ask you about is you are, as I mentioned at the top, you're a senior writer for The Athletic. You do a lot of NBA work for them. You wrote a book on Giannis that was incredibly well-received, and congratulations on that. Giannis is one of the biggest stories, I think, of the NBA season. LeBron going to Philadelphia, obviously Giannis in Miami, Kawhi Leonard in Toronto.

50:25Michael Grady: But let me, because you're the Giannis whisperer, let me ask you about Giannis. What is your expectation after his remarkable career in Milwaukee? And now it feels like such a NBA chapter two for him.

50:40Richard Deitsch: It's so strange. I wouldn't go far as to say the same strangeness I felt when I saw Hakeem Olajuwon in the Toronto purple. But it still has such a dissonance to me when I see Giannis in this heat jersey. I think for him to have made that choice, it's something that he's chosen with his full heart. You don't make a choice like that where there's any second guessing. And just from knowing like how many people there care about him in Milwaukee, that I don't think it gets enough credit how extraordinarily difficult that was to leave. It's difficult to stay, but it's very difficult to leave. And so, you know, I kind of saw it as, wow, he really believes in this opportunity.

51:32Richard Deitsch: And while I don't know or think really it will bear the same fruit potentially as a championship, I just think there's something about it that is extraordinarily important to his growth as a human being. We forget, even though he is getting up there in basketball years, that he's still quite a young person. And I just think for his own growth, for his own development, moving past the place where you grew up is going to be crucial. And I think we all do that. were just not famous basketball players. But I did want to shout out the reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. If anyone wants to go back, speaking of long form, that took me like 30 minutes to get through.

52:13Richard Deitsch: They did a long form on what happened. And, you know, it was so good. It was so good. And it's so different from the long form that I do. That was an investigative piece but i think to kind of hammer this all home i left that piece thinking like wow janice was not perfect janice clearly like did some things and said some things that were not exactly janice like but what incredible non-biased journalism that was truly he uh he i find the i find him fascinating

52:50Michael Grady: and I find Webb and Yama fascinating is probably because they're not steeped in the American culture of basketball. So I find their journeys really, really interesting. And they're not only interesting players, they're just very interesting people. I think that's why I'm attracted to both of them in particular. Mirren Fader is the editor of The Year's Best Sports Writing 2026. That's the annual anthology of the best sports writing in a given year. I think they told me in North America. Is it still in North America? I believe so. Yeah. It's not just the U.S. because you do have some Canada in there.

53:27Richard Deitsch: But then I chose Canada. So what do I know about being there?

53:30Michael Grady: All right. That's all right. We appreciate that. It's from Triumph Books. Let me give a shout out to Adam Moten and Clarissa Young who worked on that book with me. They were incredible to work with. And Mirren told me before we came on that she had the same experience. And so, you know, both of us obviously have a stake in that series now. And so we hope that series goes on for a long, long time. Maren, congratulations. It's a very cool thing. I'm sure it must have been so exciting when you got that package, you know, of the first 50 books or whatever that they give you. And you open it up and you see your baby actually is real.

54:07Michael Grady: It must have been cool.

54:08Richard Deitsch: It's insane. And if I could just say, y 'all, please read the intro that I wrote. It is a manifesto and love for sports writing. If you want positivity and hope and love for the craft, please read that intro essay too.

54:20Michael Grady: People will read it. The people who are devoted to this book will read the entire book. That's one thing I did find out. Check it out. Maren Fader, she's the editor of this year's Best Sports Writing 2026. Again, it's all over the place, whether you get your books in Amazon or old school bookstores, it'll be there. Maren, thanks so much. Good best of luck.

54:39Richard Deitsch: Thank you so much.

54:43Michael Grady: All right. My thanks to Michael Grady. Of course, catch all his work on NBC as well as in the NBA on Prime. And if you're in the Minnesota area, listen to this. Obviously, catch him on the T-Wolves. My thanks to Miriam Fader as well. Check her book out, Year's Best Sports Writing 2026. If you like these kind of conversations, head to the archives. We've obviously done a ton of stuff on Troy Aikman and his relationship or fading relationship at this moment on ESPN. So you can check any of the roundtables on that. Who else did we have recently? We had Oliver Wilson on, who's a British broadcaster calling NFL games for Westwood One, doing a great job on that.

55:19Michael Grady: It's really interesting. Peter King was on this podcast, of course, October 8th. He's got a new book out as well. And obviously, Troy Aikman was on this podcast in September where he talked about his relationship with ESPN and calling the Super Bowl this year. So if you like that stuff, please leave us a review. And stars, that's always appreciated. I want to thank James Jackson for all his hard work. Thanks to everybody at Odyssey. Most of all, thank you for listening. We'll see you soon on the Sports Media Podcast.

56:12Richard Deitsch: through 26th. Shop at byrna.com slash protection before these savings vanish into the night. Must be 18 plus. Purchase and shipping restrictions vary by state and municipality.