My most recent article, Oregon’s Next: Jackson Shelstad was published on Pro Insight. It was never my intention to write this article or one of this kind and yet, maybe, it’s always been my intention. During my final seasons with the Trail Blazers, I was really interested in doing more writing. Sure, I could write scouting reports and such but I wanted to utilize more of the creative side of writing. I met with the Assistant General Manager of the team and shared some ideas I had for the team utilizing my creative writing. He green-lit my project and I even garnered a small budget it for it. Over the next couple of months, I began to gather information from every Trail Blazers game… utilizing my time in pre-game preparation and video meetings combined with in game action and post-game breakdowns and quotes. And then… a pandemic hit. And then… I was working from home for the next one and a half years. The project never got off its feet the way I’d hoped. And before I was even back at the office full-time, I was fired.