Please Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself

HOW DID YOU WIND UP ON A SITE LIKE THIS?! šŸ˜‚

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Great question! Letā€™s try and dive into some of thatā€¦

ā€œDID YOU REALLY DM PEOPLE TO DEMAND THEY PAY TO FOLLOW YOU?!!ā€

Not really. Since the beginning of this NBA season, Iā€™ve been putting out NBA-level film breakdowns and insights for free - here, YouTube, Twitter, etc. After burning through my own savings doing so for 6 months, I discovered a business plan that I think makes the most sense: Patreon. Patreon lets you subscribe to content creators for as low as $1/month, eliminating the need to churn out clickbait/ master YouTube algorithms/ etc. 

Iā€™ve DMd followers of mine to let them know Iā€™d really appreciate their support on Patreon, & TREMENDOUSLY appreciate the 115 or so people who do support currently.

There were a couple people who were big followers of mine from the start. I interacted with them plenty, answered all their basketball/coaching questions, etc. When I DMā€™d them asking for support, they ignored it. I donā€™t particularly like people who will take advantage of you & love your stuff but refuse to even RESPOND about support. Tell me youā€™re a college kid struggling to pay the bills. Tell me not now but maybe later. But donā€™t just ignore it. When I noticed that they not only wouldnā€™t respond but also were trolling me (writing obnoxious things, RTā€™d disrespectful things about me, etc), I decided I was done letting them enjoy my stuff for free. I DMd maybe 2-3 people who had gotten on my nerves, telling them that their time following me for free was up: they could choose to support for $1/month if they wanted to keep following. 

Of course, they chose to get their 10 seconds of fame by exposing the DMā€™s. Cool. They donā€™t get to follow me anymore. As far as the DMing: is it the best look in the world? No, but I donā€™t think I committed a terrible crime here either. Iā€™m about loyalty. Be good to me and Iā€™ll be good to you. Twitter is free, but I didnā€™t sign any contract with Twitter saying Iā€™m going to put out high-level in-game film breakdowns available to the world for free forever. I have to pay the bills like anyone. For now, my stuff is free, and if this is your first exposure to it, know that you will get to enjoy it for free in peace. Besides: the Twitter ā€˜rulebookā€™ seems to be made up on the fly. Look how many dudes some of these big personalities follow. You think that had anything to do with how big their followings are? #Cā€™monMan. And I wonā€™t even talk about how many dudes have literally purchased followers. Twitter is content. Newspapers were all free online at one point, and itā€™s how the whole industry almost ran out of business.

ā€œARE YOU OK? YOU SEEM DERANGED!!ā€

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Gotta love that Twitterā€™s form of mental health treatment is to inspire literally thousands of trolls to DM me things like ā€œF youā€, ā€œc*ntā€, other unspeakable things...Seems very not toxic and great social justice! Including the people e-mailing me my home address, family names, etc.

As far as my mental health, letā€™s touch on that for a second. 

Am I perfect? No. Am I some macho tough guy who doesnā€™t have problems & thinks I have it all figured out? Absolutely not. I struggle with depression and anxiety just like hundreds of thousands of people in this world. 

Was I fired from the NBA? I was fired once. Leading into this season, I was trying to continue making it work on the Advance Scouting side. But since both my coaches were fired after last season, I was in limbo. I got offered the same by one playoff team...but TOR was changing their scouting under Nick Nurse, MIL I believe did it differently than Bud did In the past...so with one firm offer and a bunch of ā€œmaybesā€, I decided I wasnā€™t going to continue to go thru this every offseason and wait around for teams to potentially leave me hanging with nothing. 

Now hereā€™s a part of the story I havenā€™t ever even told. 

My girlfriend was moving out to LA for a one-year internship. Being at a flexible stage, I moved out with her. Out in LA, I happened to stumble into a coaching opportunity! The owner of an expansion ABA team wanted me to be their head coach. He presented as a normal individual with a 30-year business background. Had the full-backing of the league. And most importantly was willing to step up and commit financially. He gave me a fully-guaranteed contract to be their head coach. 

I worked for him for about a month. I put a whole team together - recruited everyone, held tryouts. Even had an assistant coach candidate fly out cross country - on his own dime - to work the tryouts. Same with some players. Team was ready to go. 

Then 3 days before my first payday, he texts me some nonsense about his bank account being hacked and on hold...little discrepancy after discrepancy in his resume pops up...payday comes and I donā€™t get paid...days after he still canā€™t pay me...he basically reveals himself to be a con man. Falsified resume. Non-existent LLCs. Lie after lie. Fake businesses. Fake PhD. Ponzi scheme type stuff. 

Never got paid a dime. Devastated emotionally. Dragged a whole lot of others into it. Sick to my stomach. Wrecked with self-questioning, obviously. Why was I so stupid to believe him? Etc. 

Yes, if you didnā€™t know, the ABA (Dr. Jā€™s ABA) is around now. It has like hundreds of teams around the country. Thereā€™s a few teams supposedly that do very well & do things right, some that even get 10K fans a game. I had done as much research as I could do short of demanding to see the ownerā€™s bank statements. The ABA itself had put out a statement calling him the perfect guy to bring the ABA back to Los Angeles. Despite my own reservations and doubts about the league, his legitimacy, etc. - I had a contract with his signature on it fully guaranteeing my whole first year salary. My family and I thought that was enough to proceed given my trust of him at the time, the chance to be a Head Coach, etc. Coaches, agents, etc. that I trusted urged me to take the opportunity, especially in a big market. The league, I can now confirm, is a joke. Few good teams. Rest are a joke. No accountability. Joke management. Ponzi-scheme structure in itself. Disgraceful, honestly.

Obviously, I didnā€™t get a dime. California has a system to go after unpaid wages legally and Iā€™m owed thousands of dollars from that. Unfortunately, the government is so backed up they told me that itā€™ll be years before I even have a HEARING, at which point I wonā€™t be in state anymore and heā€™ll probably be long gone. Of course I thought about suing - but as you may know even winning the case doesnā€™t win you any money if the dude is bankrupt. A year of promised financial stability down the drain.

Fast forward a month or so. My car is sitting on a side street in CA parked overnight. I walk out to my car in the morning. Find it damn near totaled. Hit and run. No note, no camera, nothing. 

Thankfully, I have Geico. I explicitly asked Geico before I moved if my MD coverage still applied in CA. They said it did. I was good. Covered for a rental car even over a month. This happened over a month. Cool. All set. 

Despite literally having my rental agreement in their possession for 4 months and accepting it as is, Geico now decides that Fair isnā€™t a rental company. They kind of fall in the gray area actually - between a rental and ownership. But even though Geico was fully aware of what company I used and accepted it and said Iā€™d be covered, faced with having to actually cover a big expense, conveniently Geico is no longer on my side. They deny coverage. I have to pay $4,000 out of pocket to fix my rental car. 

Everyone deals with sh*t. Thankfully no one died, these are not emergencies, etc. I am grateful. But they were incredibly stressful - emotionally, financially, etc. 

Do they excuse me acting like a jerk at times? No. If I was a jerk to you - I apologize. Iā€™m not perfect, and have certainly made mistakes. Iā€™m sure some of my aggression has stemmed from financial insecurity at times - with 115 people subscribing currently you can do the math and see that itā€™s clearly not enough to pay the bills, despite me investing basically all of my time into it. Iā€™m hopeful that over time, as more and more junkies see the content and how detailed it is, more will feel they can spare even $1/month and help out. Iā€™ve tried to respond to nearly every DM, every tweet, everything Iā€™ve been involved with over the past 6 months or so - Iā€™m sure I could have handled lots of situations better, and Iā€™m sorry if you felt I was mean to you.

Do I regret DMā€™ing BucksFilmRoom? No, not really. I told my side of the story. Iā€™m type A, I flew off the handle a bit. But I wonā€™t have a dude who hasnā€™t done a thing in basketball and has all his clout cuz he named himself BucksFilmRoom cuss @ me after Iā€™ve been nothing but a resource to him. Exposed DMā€™s never look good. I was told that EXPOSING DMā€™s was a no-no. Iā€™m sorry you had to see me a little aggressive. That dude deserved everything I said to him.

Are there a couple other DMā€™s in that BSO piece? Sure. Call me old-fashioned: instead of sub-tweeting someone or screenshotting their tweet so they canā€™t see it and having a parade, I prefer to let people know what I actually think of them. Yes; Iā€™m aggressive. I like that better than passive-aggressive. I come from a background where youā€™d get chewed out by incredibly intense head coaches if you made a single mistake. If I have a problem with you, I might tell you how I feel. Personally, I think thatā€™s better than all the passive-aggressive bullshit. If I knew someone was taking shots at me or being outright disrespectful, I occasionally let them know.

What am I trying to do? Iā€™m trying to provide quality basketball analysis. If thereā€™s an outlet that appreciates that and is against clickbait, hot takes, and outright making sh*t up, Iā€™m easy to get a hold of. If thereā€™s not, like I said: Iā€™m not positive what the exact business model is yet, but I have promised that if you subscribe now your price wonā€™t go up any next season.

BUT YOUā€™RE THE DUDE WHO SAID YOU COULD BEAT A WNBA PLAYER 1-ON-1

Lol. 

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The worst part of Twitter is that trolls like this will outright lie/misrepresent things youā€™ve said. And then unfortunately big accounts like DFJ will take it as gospel, RT it to the masses, etc. 

I never said I could beat a WNBA player 1-on-1. I told a story from my days with the Wizards of 5-on-5 pickup games with WNBA backups. I said the games were competitive. That is about all I said. The tweet was crammed into 180 characters, so it accidentally sounded A BIT like I was saying that I could challenge WNBA players to 1-on-1, when what I meant was that I played in 5-on-5 pickup games where I merely didnā€™t humiliate myself. I quickly clarified and explained what I meant.

The tweet was taken wildly out of context/misrepresented to millions, so about 5 months ago I had to deal with a similar woke twitter mob dmā€™ing me that Iā€™m the devil and so on. Iā€™ve apologized for the tweet 100 times over. If you are reading this and didnā€™t see any of my apologies: Iā€™M SORRY. IT WAS A DUMB THING TO SHARE AND TONE DEAF. I HAVE OWNED IT AND I COMPLETELY REGRET SHARING IT. Read my thread, please.

Iā€™ve been done with it for a long time. But itā€™s literally hysterical to see the game of telephone play out. Even a very popular SI writer hilariously and completely botched what I said in a since-deleted tweet. I canā€™t tell you how many times Iā€™ve read ā€œohh yeah isnā€™t that the dude who said he could beat a wnba player? Nah he actually said he could beat ANY player in the WNBA one on one! Nah he really said heā€™d dunk on Maya Moore!ā€ The tweet has been screenshot plenty if youā€™d like to go find it. Or, you could take trolls like ā€œAnthonyIrwinLAā€s word for it. 


WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE YOU?


I donā€™t think everyone hates me. 

Iā€™ll remind you that perception isnā€™t always reality. 

Iā€™ll remind you that jealousy/fear/self-preservation can always be a motivator. 

I have a theory. Quite simply: Iā€™ve been the guy who hasnā€™t gone by the ā€œrulesā€ all along. I havenā€™t been afraid to call out writers for crappy writing. I havenā€™t cared about going out and networking with bloggers and befriending everybody. I didnā€™t follow back every blogger initially. I didnā€™t play nice with the guys who consider themselves the ā€œgatekeepersā€ of NBATwitter.

Many of these bloggers/writers seem to operate under an ā€œold boys codeā€. We donā€™t take shots at each other. Bashing coaches or players until the end of time? Perfectly acceptable! Fire everyone? Yes please! Russ choked, Dame choked. KD is soft. HOT TAKES! Nothing is ever good enough!

Criticize a writer who doesnā€™t have the basketball Xā€™s and Oā€™s knowledge of a 3rd grade coach for criticizing Jim Boylenā€™s ā€œantiquatedā€ schemes with absurdly biased, narrative-based coverage? HOW DARE YOU? 

Call out HewlettPackardBasketball for using INDIVIDUAL QUARTER PLUS/MINUS to diss DeMar DeRozan? Blocked. Literally. I. Got. Blocked. By. Matt. Moore. For. Tweeting. ā€œStop. Using. Individual. Quarter. Plus. Minus. Itā€™s. A joke.ā€ Blocked. Literally. For that. And people get mad at Russ for saying ā€œnext questionā€ to one reporter he doesnā€™t like.

Criticize the love-affair with BBALLBREAKDOWN (who has the audacity to call me a clown) - self-proclaimed ā€œCoach Nickā€ who has his following because heā€™s a good marketer? Seriously. Go look how many writers/sites follow him and engage his stuff. Because he has a cool logo, a handle with basketball in it, & figured out the YouTube algorithm before anybody. Meanwhile, he literally believes PLAYERS SHOULD NOT DIVE ON THE FLOOR FOR LOOSE BALLS, among many other cockamamie basketball theories. He also suggested Tom Izzo and coaches like him should go extinct because he - basically - yelled at a player. Coming from a short-lived high school (JV?) coach. Meanwhile, you can read the comments to this article about ā€˜Coach Nickā€™ and his firing and judge for yourself. Whether it was racism or just bad coaching - I donā€™t know for sure - but I do know that itā€™s laughable that heā€™s considered an authority figure on Twitter because of his following and because he plays nice with others. I do know that he has been the butt of many jokes in the NBA. I do know that I personally witnessed him conduct some of the most cringe-worthy interviews Iā€™ve ever seen at NBA Summer League, trying to get players to repeat his signature ā€œYOU IN?ā€ slogan. I do know that there are thousands of middle school coaches on here who know more about basketball than ā€˜Coach Nickā€™. THIS is the dude we give the presumption of expertise to, because he has the big following and BBALLBREAKDOWN name?

Letā€™s face it. There are a lot of clowns on NBATwitter. When I was in the NBA, I followed Woj. Zach Lowe. Steve Jones. Kurt Helin. The beat reporters and people who do a great job - Ian Begley, Jeff Zilgitt, Sam Amick, etc.  

Only when I got on here ā€œfull-timeā€ did I realize there are a ton of clowns like Duncan Smith, Josh Eberley, DamanR (?), who have their ā€œcloutā€ because they got a blue check. Because they were propped up by the Nations, the ClutchPoints, the BBallIndexes and FanSideds. Because they think theyā€™re high-and-mighty and beyond reproach because they can put you on blast to their 10K or even 100K followers, and you canā€™t.

THESE are the companies who really control discourse on NBATwitter. Companies who have made fortunes off exploiting unpaid college students. Companies who literally care more about clicks than truth. Companies whose versions of an ombudsman are as competent as the Jack in the Box mascot. Companies who literally told me my stuff is too nuanced for their core - that their core audience is more ā€œdumbed down,ā€ clickbait crap. And that my Xā€™s and Oā€™s stuff is not scalable & not mainstream. 

These guys have the clout, and itā€™s a fraternity. Duncan Smith screenshots something completely out of context. Zach Harper RTs it. SreekySomething makes a meme. Thatā€™s the shit that Twitter apparently is about. Memes and jokes. Thatā€™s the shit that sells. That, and clickbait. Which of course is why Skip Bayless and co. are paid millions of dollars to scream things they donā€™t even believe. 

Iā€™ve decided Iā€™m done with the trolls, frankly. Iā€™ve spoken on why I feel twitter has become a toxic environment and how a lot of the people I just mentioned should take accountability for that. Sadly, it seems Twitter wants to continue going in a direction where we say crazy sh*t to people weā€™d never say to their face. (For the record - Iā€™ve never said anything that I wouldnā€™t say to somebodyā€™s face. If BucksFilmRoom was here? Iā€™d absolutely say everything I said. I canā€™t say the same about the 1,000 people who DMā€™d me calling me a pu**y, c*nt, etc.) Where a bunch of unqualified bloggers bash coaches incessantly, call KD sensitive and soft, and make it so athletes canā€™t even go on Twitter, basically. KD is a sensitive soft a-hole for being human. For dealing with the same insecurities that ā€” admit it, deep down, we all have. God forbid the man be insecure ā€” HUMAN ā€” the same thing we encourage everyone to be in our mental health education ā€” while also calling him a soft baby for caring what others think of him.

I have been helpful to 6K or so legitimate people who actually like my content. Iā€™ve tried to respond to every DM and almost every legitimate basketball question. So if I see you pop up in my timeline with a profanity at me, or a clown emoji, or anything else blatantly disrespectful - I usually hit the block button. And once I started doing that - apparently it became a badge of honor in the blogosphere to screenshot that I blocked you and also celebrate that. Cool, I guess. Whatever makes you happy. 

You can check whoā€™s following me and see itā€™s pretty clear some of the big names in basketball follow me. Even people who have trolled me plenty have admitted I know my stuff. I donā€™t know, maybe itā€™s just me...but I would take the word of the lifelong reporters and basketball analysts and coaches who follow me over the bloggers, the guys who are verified when we have no idea why theyā€™re verified, and the obnoxious analytic frauds who have 10K followers and literally make shit up. There are literally lifelong analysts, coaches, top NBA players, commentators, front office execā€™s, etc. who follow me - but they are not the ones out there TWEETING about it. Because a bunch of people have decided to make out-of-context snippets and such go viral, thatā€™s what you think of me. You donā€™t know me, you probably havenā€™t followed me. Try giving it a chance.

WAR??!!

Iā€™m done waging war. From this point forward, Iā€™m done engaging with trolls, obnoxious people, relentless negativity. Iā€™m sorry if Iā€™ve clogged your timelines with that crap. From now on, my rules are pretty simple:

Follow if you want. Be respectful. Act like a normal human being. Keep it to basketball. 

Do that, and weā€™ll all get along just fine. 

Psychologists can explain the phenomenon better than I can but whether you realize it or not, you are unbelievably more likely to side with someone, take their word for it, if they have a blue check, hundreds of thousands of followers, etc. I represent as myself - no burner, no made up account name, my actual picture, etc. Thatā€™s made me a target for trolls - who apparently have nothing better to do? But if you really love basketball, youā€™ll probably like my content. Chances are, you have seen some of my tweets already - a lot of my Xā€™s and Oā€™s explanations, YouTube videos, etc. have gone relatively viral. You just havenā€™t clicked follow because I didnā€™t have the blue check. Follow, check out some of those, and then form your opinion. 

My ethos is simple: I respect coaches, having been there and understanding how tough the job is. I respect players, having worked closely with them & understanding the immense pressure and 24-7 scrutiny theyā€™re under. I respect beat writers and people who travel around reporting on teams and bust their rears to give good coverage and so on. I respect you if you treat me with respect. Facts > Jokes, which I know is about the opposite of normal twitter.

More than likely, that means I have a pretty small niche following on here. But to my followers and people who have been loyal, I appreciate you tremendously. 

I promise I will ignore the trolls from now on. Iā€™ve said my piece, Iā€™ll leave that all in the past. If you choose to side w the bloggers and co. over me, fine.

If you legitimately want to learn about basketball and understand the Xā€™s and Oā€™s better, Iā€™m glad youā€™ve found me. 

If youā€™ve followed for a while and would like to show support, patreon.com/ScoutWithBryan is where you can. Yes: I realize asking for money in DMs isnā€™t the best move. But at some point, people need to decide if they want clickbait to continue to rule the basketball world and there to continue to be 80,000 different basketball bloggers and experts, or if there is still a thing called ā€œexpertiseā€ thatā€™s maybe worth encouraging by supporting. I have nothing against those 80,000 - there are good apples and bad apples, rising star bloggers and goofballs. Iā€™d love to help and be a resource. But if you just want to be a disrespectful troll, you get no respect from me.

If youā€™re a blogger/writer/etc. about basketball at any level - hereā€™s what Iā€™m willing to do. Help you. I want to be a resource. Tag me if you have a basketball question. DM me. Have me on the podcast and Iā€™ll talk ball all day. Thereā€™s no reason we canā€™t get along.

BUT ARENā€™T YOU A BLOGBOY RIGHT NOW?!!

Yes, I am currently typing this on my blog. Astute observation. Blogboy to me means someone who thinks they know a ton about basketball and feels qualified to call Jason Kidd and Jim Boylen ā€œdumbā€ despite being a blackjack dealer. Just having a blog doesnā€™t make you a blog boy. There are a lot of really good ones that I follow, promote, have done pods with, etc. But there are too many fish in the sea right now, and not enough people who are willing to really do the legwork needed to learn the game.

My credentials are listed on this site and my Twitter. I put in my time to earn my stripes. Although it pains some on Twitter to admit it, expertise is still a thing. I have stated many times that I am not with a team anymore by lifestyle choice. I didnā€™t like being in an industry where the average coach gets fired every couple years and the whole staff gets thrown into limbo, and you have to be willing to move your family around the country non-stop. I decided to give the media side a run. Iā€™ve been shocked to find how many clowns who think Russell Westbrook never shouldā€™ve been made a PG feel qualified to call out NBA head coaches. I think that plays a part in the massive instability in the industry, including cuckoo billionaires who made their living in other fields thinking theyā€™re experts at running a basketball team (which usually >> dysfunction). They let this ā€œnoiseā€ get to them. I am trying to help make it smarter noise, so coaches can occasionally hang onto a job for a while and not have to deal with psychotic fans demanding they get fired every day.

Do I care about a blue check? No. If Twitter came calling and said theyā€™d like to give me one, would I take it? Sure! But itā€™s hysterical how many people think Iā€™m all bummed out, because Iā€™m sitting here 6 months into my Twitter career and the trolls decide to make it look like Iā€™ve failed. I have over 6300 followers! I have 115 paying people! I have hundreds of others who message me and tell me how much they love and appreciate my content. The comments on my Warriorsā€™ G6 video are literally about half ā€œthis is the best analysis Iā€™ve ever seen.ā€ How many other people - tweeting under their OWN name - with no BS self-given HoopsReference handle - no big site hawking their stuff, no support from the big gatekeepers - have 6300 followers mostly from word of mouth?! And yes, I know some of you may be trolls. May have just found me from this nonsense. But Iā€™d say Iā€™m doing alright! Blue check donā€™t validate me! In case youā€™re new to Twitter, they will literally validate just about anyone. Itā€™s literally why theyā€™ve paused applications for verification. My experience is my credential. I donā€™t need to please everyone.

What I want to do: Analyze basketball. Feed my family. Thatā€™s all. I have a beautiful girlfriend and a puppy. I have never in my life tweeted from a burner account or created any fake email. If Iā€™ve ever said anything to you, the DMs out there, etc. - you know it. I donā€™t hide behind a random Twitter handle. My name is on everything I write.

The best comedy is all of the people convinced what an unhinged, deranged madman I am. Last year when I did the Hawks and Raptors scouting I coached a team of 7th graders and gave lessons on the side. (You can read my reviews. Theyā€™re quite good.) Notice how not a single person piling on me here has actually MET me, had a phone convo with me. The author of the freaking BSO piece didnā€™t even contact me for the ā€˜exposeā€™ he wrote about me. And all the people also ranting about what a psycho I am - you know how many people came to my DMā€™s to say: are you OK man? Do you need everything? Everything alright? Maybe 3. You know how many people sent me hate DMā€™s? Maybe 300. Twitter is literally fake. A lot of people have a whole lot of clout and think theyā€™re really important from it. I know what I did in basketball. Basketball people know what I did in basketball. If you ask anyone who actually KNOWS me - I can promise you Iā€™m a very polite, respectful young man. I just tell it like it is. And people today would rather judge someone from one screenshot than follow them for a day.

From now on, Iā€™ll try to avoid the trolls and just put out analysis. Sorry for getting sucked into all this nonsense. Thank you for reading. If youā€™ve supported from Day 1, or now you get what Iā€™m about - please, do me a favor. Send someone this link. RT this post. Tell the guys you hoop with to check out my Zion video, or my Giannis video, or my Twitter. Clearly, Iā€™m punching up. I need basketball junkies who get it and who respect me keeping it real to keep spreading it for me.

Because believe me, Iā€™m gonna keep it real.