This week we celebrated CelticsBlog’s 20th anniversary. What started as a small blog launched by the Blogfather Jeff Clark has become a powerhouse of Boston Celtics coverage. Along the way, hundreds of writers have passed through the site’s virtual doors.
Some were fans looking to share their views and opinions. Others were bloggers who loved to write about sports. And, of course, some wanted to cover the sport as a profession. That’s the beauty of this site; there’s a home for everybody. Yet, CelticsBlog has become more than a home. It’s a launchpad. It’s a space where you can thrive as a budding journalist or content creator. Few people know this more than Kevin O’Connor, now one of the most prominent names in NBA media for The Ringer.
“I joined CelticsBlog in 2013,” O’Connor told me. “I believe it was March, late March 2013. Probably almost eleven years ago now. I was there until July 2016.”
Like many of us, O’Connor had grown up reading CelticsBlog. He would consume the game recaps, the postgame analysis, and the opinion pieces that were consistently posted on the site. To him, CelticsBlog was one of the best spots on the web to consume Celtics coverage. So, when he got the chance to join the team, he saw it as an opportunity to be part of his favorite website.
“I didn’t think of it as a place for people to get their start writing because for me, I had read it since I was a little kid,” O’Connor said. “So I think for me, getting my start there, this massive Celtics platform, I always loved Celtics and I always read CelticsBlog…I was going to my favorite Celtics website to talk with fans and to read about what’s going on with the team and get instant reactions. So, for me, it was like suddenly I was on the site that I loved for years.”
Every day, multiple articles are posted on the site. Some are quote captures, others are opinion pieces, and some are analytical deep dives. There’s something for everyone, and the writers are encouraged to try their hands at multiple writing styles. Readers often find well-researched and well-polished articles with creative angles or contrasting trains of thought. What they don’t see is the work that goes on behind the scenes, where Jeff Clark and Bill Sy are encouraging the staff and providing feedback to help develop the talent on the roster.
“Jeff Clark was absolutely, like, in so many different ways, an awesome mentor for me. Figuring out what I like to do and how I like to do it,” O’Connor said before explaining some of the lessons he learned from Clark. “Not every game will be amazing to write about or talk about. But how can you find something interesting from sometimes those mundane games where it’s like just one of 82? What’s a trend you can look for? Trying to think about making something interesting for the people who weren’t able to watch the game and they want to go read a recap to find out what happened. So I think that’s something that not only applies to game recaps but anything you do covering sports.”
Social media has ensured the NBA news cycle runs 24/7. Finding creative angles to explore and tell a story is increasingly difficult. We also live in an era where some tracking data is readily available to the public. However, that hasn’t always been the case. During O’Connor’s time with the blog, if you wanted to track a certain aspect of a player’s game, you had to do it by hand. And that’s where the creativity can really begin to thrive.
“There’s this article I wrote about Jeff Green. I manually tracked every single one of his drives to the basket. I was proud of that one because it was before the era of tracking data. I watched everything to try to figure out trends with why his at-rim finishing was a bit worse than it seemed like it should be for a player so explosive and so athletic.
And I think that one for me is reflective of kind what we were talking about earlier with emphasizing looking outside the box and reflective of my work ethic as well to kind of take the extra step in doing that. I did similar for like a Jay Crowder stat. Like him shooting threes, landing wide with his feet versus landing narrow. There’s a big discrepancy in his three-point percentage when he lands narrow or balanced. He was way better than when he landed in a wide.”
Throughout the past 20 years, CelticsBlog has excelled at those types of articles. The ones where multiple angles are covered, and the creative process is what shines through. It’s part of what makes the site so special. It’s also what gets writers noticed. After all, putting such incredible amounts of work into a piece will surely catch the eye of editors elsewhere — especially when that work clearly depicts a fierce work ethic. That’s why O’Connor has continued his rise to prominence with The Ringer as a writer and podcaster.
Nevertheless, O’Connor still checks in on the site that gave him his big break. He keeps track of the new writers, and some of the familiar faces that are still present on the site to this day.
“It’s always nice to look back and see some familiar names, whether it’s Bill Sy, or whether it’s brand new names on the website, like yourself starting off in recent years, or Noa recently.”
However, he’s also thankful to some of the staff who came through the ranks with him and helped him branch out beyond just writing. During his tenure with CelticsBlog, Jared Weiss one of his colleagues. Weiss has since gone on to become a prominent name with The Athletic. However, during his earlier years, he was part of CLNS Media and regularly was on the postgame show, often with O’Connor as his co-host. This allowed him to build necessary reps behind a camera and played a pivotal role in the formation of the analyst we see today.
“Jared Weiss, when he was the host doing stuff with CLNS Media — Bobby Manning now is doing that with Noa sometimes as a co-host and kind of a rotating set of people. But Jared Weiss used to invite me on the post-game show, and I was very uncomfortable on camera, and I didn’t really like doing it at all. But I kind of knew in the back of my mind, like, getting that experience is useful and doing things that make you uncomfortable sometimes is useful.”
Bobby Manning and Noa are both regulars at Celtics games and practices. They operate as CelticsBlog’s beat writers, along with Jack Simone. They provide on the ground insights to the team, sharing stories and conversations that would otherwise go untold. Gaining that level of trust and respect from an NBA organization isn’t easy. It comes via years of relationship building, hard work and professionalism. O’Connor played a role in that development as one of the site’s first credentialed media members, courtesy once again of Jeff Clark.
“I started in end of the ‘12-13 season and then the beginning of the ‘13-14 season, Jeff Clark kind of fought to get me credential for, I think it was media day or something like that. But I was able to go to games and that experience going to games was amazing. And Celtics PR, obviously always respectful of CelticsBlog, and I hope that’s true for all 30 NBA teams.”
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O’Connor is in his 12th year covering the NBA. By the time he walked through those virtual doors, CelticsBlog was already approaching its adolescence. The stage had already been set, and the site was already among the best at what it does. O’Connor ran with that. Empowered by Jeff and Bill, he used the platform to the best of his ability. Now, he’s one of the site’s biggest success stories.
However, even now, as CelticsBlog moves one year within the legal drinking age, the site is still churning out talent. Jack, Noa and Bobby — to name a few — all have amazingly bright futures ahead of them. They are talented individuals following in the footsteps of the alumni that have come before them. The Englishman writing this article continues to chase his dream via the site that is known for making dreams come true. O’Connor is one of the shining lights of how CelticsBlog can amplify talent. More importantly, of how CelticsBlog continues to provide some of the best team-specific coverage in the world by future superstars in the field.
Jeff Clark started a small blog 20 years ago. Now, he and Bill Sy oversee a juggernaut that has been built on incredible values and a dedication to continual improvement. O’Connor is an example of those values. The fact he still checks in on the site that helped launch his career speaks volumes. With all that in mind, it’s incredibly exciting to think of what the future holds for the site, it’s readers, writers and alumni. There’s something special about this place…Just ask Kevin.