James is moving on. We’re going to miss him!
Where to start…
I am from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. I am 37. I’ve been a Houston Rockets fan since I was about 9.
Why? Well, I spent the first year of my basketball fandom as a Phoenix Suns fan. That’s because Charles Barkley was on the roster.
I always preferred the antagonist. They’re more interesting characters, blah blah, cliche deep white boy stuff. I couldn’t root for Michael Jordan – too easy. I had to find his primary antagonist.
In 1995, that seemed to be the Round Mound of Rebound. Something about Barkley stirred my soul. This guy is short and overweight, and he’s dominating everybody anyway. He runs his mouth and he backs it up. Barkley, Shut Up and Jam! is a pretty fun game.
The rest is history. Barkley gets traded to the Rockets. He falls off instantly, but my fandom never wavers. I flirt with the Vancouver Grizzlies (do I know how to pick ‘em or what?) but in the end, I’ve only got eyes for the Rockets.
Back then, the internet wasn’t so prominent. If you wanted to read about the Rockets online by the time I actually got on the internet, you had to cut your parent’s phone access off, listen to this ancient technology called a “modem” make an insufferable noise, and wait 10 minutes for www.thedreamshake.com to load up.
My God – if you’d told a young James Piercey he’d eventually write for TDS…
Moving on from TheDreamShake
If you’d told a 35-year-old James Piercey he’d leave TDS? Forget about it.
I thought I’d be here no matter where my career took me. Let’s talk about me a little bit more. Let me indulge – this is my last piece. Besides, I’d like to explain why I’m moving on.
I have a Masters degree in Political Science and a journalism diploma. That’s a lot of education. It hasn’t been especially helpful in the career department.
I’ve applied for about 10,000 policy positions and another 500 communications jobs. Nothing. Zilch. The economy here in Newfoundland is bad. Nepotism rules the day, and I don’t have the connections.
Don’t throw a pity party – I’ve thrown enough of them. A couple of years ago, I decided to take matters into my own hands after getting “terminated without cause” by an insurance company. I put myself through journalism school.
In the meantime, I asked myself “What can I write about online”? My first thought was basketball. Another tidbit about myself: throughout my 20s, I lived in Toronto, Ontario. Yes, I frequently disappointed Raptors fans with my undying Rockets fandom.
I was in Toronto to pursue music as a rapper. Here’s my former group.
We did some cool stuff. We were nominated for three East Coast Music Awards (ECMAs). Signed to the same indie label (shoutout to URBnet) that once broke Classified, who you may or may not have heard of. In the end, we couldn’t break through. No regrets.
Anyway, my point is this: I didn’t always see basketball as a viable career path. On a whim, I googled “basketball writing jobs”. I got my start with Fansided. Fast forward to a few months ago, and I was pumping out pieces and writing for TDS on the side as a passion project.
Now, I have an opportunity to combine passion with my career goals. I’m returning to Fansided to take over Space City Scoop, their Houston Rockets page. That’s why I’m leaving TDS. I can’t very well split my Rockets article ideas between two pages, can I?
It’s going to be different over there. I can’t exclusively write the long-form content I’ve been able to do here at TDS. I’ll be covering Rockets news and rumors. Still, the good people at Fansided have let me know that I can drop a weekly piece doing whatever I want.
They’re good people over there. Still, I’ll forever appreciate the people I met here too – even you jackals in the comments section.
Thank you for everything
If I’m thanking people, I have to start with Darren.
Darren: you’re the best, man. Thank you for empowering me to write the way I want to write. Thank you for understanding when a family crisis had me falling short of my quota. If you’re reading this and wondering whether you should come to work for Darren at TDS, I promise you that you should.
I’d also like to thank Harrison. He’s always sharing my content, and his praise means a lot – no analogy needed.
Finally, I’d like to thank you guys for reading my work. I know some of you have never forgiven me for trading Sengun to Brooklyn. I’d like to get on my high horse and pontificate about content creation, and anonymity on the internet, but I won’t.
After all, you’re passionate fans. You’re supposed to hate me for suggesting I trade your favorite player. Plus…it was a bad trade.
I’m so lucky to have had a platform to suggest it. The Dream Shake…
Wow.