A few years back I wrote a piece about my favorite sports podcasts. It turns out I didn't include my true favorite, and on the week following its way-too-early demise, I must wax all-too-poetic about the legacy and memory of TrueHoopTV (aka TrueHoop, aka The Basketball Analogy, aka TBA). It seems that the shows end is not 'The End' for the collection of unique voices spearheaded by the Evil Producer Jade Hoye, but for many in the strong family that the show built, the end of THTV/TBA signified the end of an era. To memorialize, I'll break out the old 'A...B...C...'s' about this brilliant little podcast that burned way too brightly to last forever.
A. is for Amin Elhassan
Let's start off with one of the TrueHoop OGs. Amin Elhassan was such an instrumental part of the show, well beyond his duties of hosting the BOMM show on Monday's after that became a thing in mid-2016. Amin Elhassan is many things, but mostly a seemingly good dude that toes the line between confidence and arrogance better than anyone I've ever seen. He also was a behind the scenes driving force in growing THTV and later the TBA podcast into something more than a daily basketball discussion. The BOMM podcast was always a great appetizer to the Week at the THTV restaurant, and he perfectly navigated that show and used his connections brilliantly to get great guests on. But more than anything, I love going back and listening to old episodes, before the BOMM days, when Amin was less the moderator and more the contributor, the brilliant, caustic, bombastic personality he portrays so well.
B. is for Banned & Bontemps
In the beginning, I didn't get the Tuesday Show, with four to five white, country NBA reporters. Over time, it became arguably my favorite show of the week - and nothing was better than the incredibly sick rapport between Banned McMahon and Timmy Goodtimes. Firstly, 'Banned' is a national treasure. For someone whose voice is so stereotypically hick, he had easily the fastest, sharpest tongue of anyone on the whole roster. He was the only person who could spar with Radio Ethan and out-fox him without even putting on a character. And nothing was better than seeing Banned McMahon take it to poor little Tim Bontempts. Goodtimes held his own nicely, and got a few jabs back, but Banned truly was the 'baddest man in all the land.' Banned's rise into a true THTV superstar cemented the Tuesday show for me, and became such a crucial part of my weekly drives through the Greater Toronto Area.
C. is for Callers
Having Callers on the show started in earnest with an appearance by Jimmer Jimson Jr., on January in 2017. It was a brief appearance during the end of the Friday Mailbag, an episode I listened to shoveling up the one big storm we had last year. The first one didn't go so well - though Jimmer became a cult favorite in the THTV/TBA universe. In reality, the first 3-4 didn't go to good. The first good one had, as Big Wos noted, the advantage 'of being black'. Anyway, overtime, the guests became more numerous and of far higher quality. In the end, the last few Friday Mailbag's featured more airtime with guests on than just the regulars, and the guests in some cases became regulars, like Tony's Trivia, a game Kaleigh Brandt seemed to mercilessly cheat at, and Anthony Canton III's brilliant poetry. By the end, TBA was a truly communal affair.
D. is for Dad Pods
TrueHoop was Henry Abbott's baby. Abbott was a true OG in the new-age basketball media, and lent his name first to a brilliant little enclave within ESPN, and ultimately TrueHoop TV and finally the podcast. He finally got hi, I don't know, revenge(?), with his short-lived but brilliant Dad Pod with David Thorpe. It was part of my weekly commute through the GTA to Bellwood's Brewery, its 40-50 minutes timing perfectly with Toronto traffic. It wasn't as raucous as the other installments (save for the Dance Break interludes) but featured two 'old hands' just shooting the shit about life and basketball development more than the game itself. It was very different than any other segment of the THTV universe, but one so special, if not long lived.
E. is for Ethan Sherwood Strauss
Oh, Ethan. What to say. THTV was family axed for a week back in April when ESPN went through its Black Friday. It was reborn, but a piece of its soul was always going to be missing without Ethan Sherwood Strauss. There's was no better punching bag on the show, but what made it work was that everyone was punching up - punching up towards a great writer, a great mind, a person who would drop million dollar words for no reason, and of course had connections to the Golden State Warriors. Ethan was also an amazing storyteller. I've relistened to his brilliant yarn about losing his passport in Bangkok during his honeymoon, full with such little meaningless hilarious details like not bartering with cab drivers and him leaving his new wife at the airport being like the Titanic sinking. Ethan was also one of the OGs of THTV, and in reality, I didn't know truly how important he was until he was gone. Sherwood was irreplacable, enough so that he takes up two letters, with the 'R' assigned to his person as well.
F. is for Fornicating Bears
Jade's legendary story (both on the POD and on instagram) of two black bears having sex in his back-yard kiddy pool doesn't make this list because it is funny, it makes this list because it existed on the air. Late in its run, TBA became less about basketball and more about the lives of the people on the show - a change that didn't really impact its quality one bit. Jade's tales from Connecticut were always welcome, whether it was his rough and tumble upbringing, to the forested nature of his current residence. Stories like these made the show less a tutorial in the game, an analysis of a sport by experts, and more getting a seat at a very diverse, integrated dinner table.
G. is for Gone with the Windy
I already mentioned in the B&B spot how much I grew to love Tuesdays Gone with the Windy, but let's reiterate from a more personal angle. Early in 2017, I was doing a project in Vaughan, Canada, a good 30-35 minutes north of Toronto Central. Being me, I decided to drive down into the city a lot for dinner (hey, when your not paying...?), and the THTV podcast kept those drives interesting, and few better than my Tuesday drives. Sure, at first the minuteau that the show covered could get irritating, but I soon (very soon) learned to love it. It is more than just the rapport between the Tims, it was Tom Habestroh's guitar, it was Windy's hot taeks that he would push so far against an audience so dismissive. Everything from Windy's dislike of Al Horford's contract, to his passionate defense of why the NBA shouldn't cut down from 82 games. It was a far more combative podcast than you would think given it was the only show to actually gather four tried-and-true basketball journalists together.
H. is for Hoooooops
The good ol' promo code of 'Hoops' became, randomly, one of the more lasting, if random, running jokes in the history of the podcast. Each time it was read, another 'o' was added to the name. Running jokes are the throughline of any great friend network, and the running jokes within the THTV/TBA universe were all so great. From 'leveraging the chat', to Wos's mysterious job, to Tray knowing everyone on earth, to KP being a machine, to Wos loving IPA's, to JV (RIP) being a tinder all-star. So many episodes were enlivened by the never ending run of jokes upon jokes upon jokes.
I. is for Intro Music
Oh the music. Jade's diverse, vibrant collection of random unlicensed music was so note perfect. Each show had an intro (and, for the most part, outra) song that fit so well, from the cheeky whistle on Tuesday, to the hard bass line on Monday, to the excited clapping hands on Friday. The music helped give each show an identity straight off the bat. More low-key was the brilliant collection of itnerlude music played during the episodes. Legend has it if you ask the Evil Producer Jade for a song with a timestamp he'll provide the goods, and why not? The music is one of the most underrated contributions Jade brought to the show.
J. is for Jade
The story of THTV and TBA begins and ends (literally, with him leaving ESPN) with Jade. The Evil Producer was the throughline of everything they did. It was, seemingly his personal passion project turned up to 11. What Jade did was so incredible, slowly cultivating an amazingly close-knit group of both podcast regulars (a roster that went a good two dozen deep) and more importantly and more impressively listnership. The TBA community was just that, a network of thousands and that came together around a truly impressive feat of engineering from the Evil Producer. To be honest, I was not at first on board with Jade becoming a more active (see: contributing) member of the shows beyond his producing, but he quickly won me over with his earnest approach, his valuable contribution as a true raconteur, and his unending love for the TBA community he was so instrumental in building.
K. is for Kaleigh
What to say about the only regular (non-FOB pod) female THTV/TBA-er. Kaleigh was truly an awesome part of the THTV experience. First off, it is hard to imagine someone with her specific combination of skills and personality traits. She was brilliant, could do a rubik's cube in ridiculous time, could wax poetic with memorable long-form monologues, and she was also a foster child who coupled as a true beauty. Quite a unicorn. Oh, and she seemingly never saw any movie worth seeing and reveled in the fact that most of the pop culture on the show flew well over her head. Kaleigh became an integral part of the show's community, making many random jump-in's on the TrueHoop reddit. Shouts to Rachel Nichols, or the many smart, funny and delightful women who appeared on the FOB show, but Kaleigh was so good as the primary female member of the gang.
L. is for Large Casts
There is no podcast I listen to on a normal basis that features more than two hosts. When a show with normally two people adds a third I find it distressing. When a podcast I like makes it more of a panel experience, like The Nerdist, I find it almost offputting, so off is the distribution of speaking and the clarity of voices. Somehow, someway, this mom and pop podcast show was able to do this better than anything I've ever seen. Hell, it does it better than live TV panel shows with 3-5 guests. There were episodes, generally on Friday, that featured 6-8 people and could distribute time somewhat equitably. It could go one without people talking over each other, without anyone feeling left out or domineering. I don't know how this could be possible over Skype, when media finds it hard to do in person, but it worked, so so well. If anything, the smaller the roster the more depressing it was. Every episode should have been the famous Thanksgiving Mailbag that featured 10 people.
M. is for Mariano's Monta Monday's
There was no recurring creation better than Monta Monday's. I am not familiar with the genesis of the segment, the origins of it all (I'm sure Monta Ellis was involved), but Mariano's weekly paean to Monta Ellis was always incredibly hilarious. Each one had a familiar pattern that never got old, inserting Monta Ellis into every conceivable situation and showing his "impact" on history. My favorite, honestly, was the first, when Monta Ellis schooled a little boy on the basketball court, with the man doing the schooling as Monta Ellis and the man being schooled as James Naismith. Other great ones were how Monta was responsible for Good Friday and Easter, and how he inspired each track name on Illmatic while trash-talking Nas on the court. As they say, Where There's a Monta, There's A Way.
N. is for No Ethnic People at Ethan's Wedding
The Trail of Ethan was so perfectly TrueHoop TV. It was deep in the doldrums of the offseason. It was a quick joke at first when weeks prior Amin mentioned how there were no African American people at Ethan's wedding, which Ethan blamed on his isolated upbringing and La Jolla. What it turned into was a truly irreverant piece of comedy, full of strange southern accents from Amin (hilariously stupidly named 'Accented Justice') and Tom, and slowly Ethan being coerced into admitting that yes, there were no African American's at his wedding. The bit reached all-time levels when it was discovered that there was one person... the DJ, which unleashed Amin in all his glory ("A Man paid to serve at your every whim"). This came at the tail-end of Amin and Ethan's faux feud, but it was a perfect little climax.
O. is for Oakland
The shows connection to Oakland is not lost on anyone, especially Wos who is famously 'heavy in the bay.' It was there they held their first live show - being a gainfully employed adult in the New York area made it fairly hard for me to go, but I sure wish I went there. Oakland was also the home to one Ethan Sherwood Strauss. It was also the location of some legendary episodes in the 2015 and 2016 Finals when the crew lollygagged around the bay. Truthfully, I had no real idea of what to put for 'O'. I'm sure I missed something more obvious or at the very least more meaningful, but whatever. 25/26 ain't bad.
P. is for Pelton
It seemed to be a cruel fate for Kevin Pelton to be the host of the Friday Mailbag. He was infamously analytically inclined (some compared him, strangely enough, to a machine), wrote hard core basketball statistical tomes, and he was part of a show that strayed miles and miles away from being about basketball. But in reality, it was golden. KP was the lovable dork. First off, I loved his voice. I always pictured KP smiling, laughing when he spoke. Something about that voice just did it for me. Pelton was also always so good at going along with the joke, whether it be his fondness for everythign Seattle. or his own side 'Pelton-cast' that he does with his brother, or his likeness to a machine. Kevin was also famously dismissive of the quality of the questions he received for the mailbag, another funny little twist on the happy-go-luck guy his voice portrayed. Also, shouts to KP for also being an infrequent drop-in guest on the TrueHoop reddit.
Q. is for Questions from KP
I've gone back and re-listened to Friday Mailbag's from early in the 2016-17 season. It is startling just how many questions KP actually asked during the episodes. Overtime, the lack of questions asked became a joke, so often with Zach chiming in "have we answered one question." The pessimist would say this was them straying away from all sense of decency. The optimist, and realist, would say that the Friday Mailbag was never about the questions (Kevin was all too quick to admit that the questions often were very poor in quality), but about getting those voices together to shoot the shit. I got a couple questions answered over the years, most memorably the first listener question when TBA was born out of the THTV ashes in May ("Over/Under two weeks before the internet says the old pods were better"), and it was an honor to get a #AskWos question asked and answered. It really only was a select few.
R. is for Radio Ethan
One of the best parts of the THTV/TBA oeuvre was their ability to beat bits into the ground without them losing any of their effect. The best example was Radio Ethan, which started so organically. I think it first started by accident (admittedly, it predates my listening to the show), and was at first used sparingly and often on-command when Amin/Tom/Wos wanted Ethan to do it for fun, to mock the overtly macho, nihilistic vibe of sports-talk radio. In time, it grew to special episodes where Ethan played the character for a full hour. But Radio Ethan was still the best in surprise doses, none better when he broke into the BOMM studios in the Monday show after Trump's inaugaration, full with him changing Big Wos's name to Big Todd, and getting a new name as Mr. Radio. Maybe five years from now Radio Ethan would have become played out, but not a second sooner.
S. is for Spreecast
I wasn't a religious THTV watcher in the Spreecast / TrueHoop after dark days. It was a bit overwhelming at the time, a grainy Skype video footage of four people I don't know talking and making each other laugh in-between buffering and audio problems (Jade corrected this overtime in a big way). But the humble origins of the show did belie its brilliance. The few times I did check in I enjoyed it - enough so to remember the names of Amin, Tom and Ethan. I followed those three in their weekly chats in ESPN.com, a now defunct joy hidden in some dark, desolate corner of the Worldwide leaders online fortress. I don't know when exactly I became a daily THTV listener, but when I got myself committed for good, if anything I was depressed I did not consume more of their garage-band beginnings.
T. is for Tom Haberstroh
Not sure why, but Tom was always my THTV underrated MVP. He too was one of the original OGs of the universe, I believe, but why I grow to really enjoy Tom was his slow turn into the Andre Iguodala of THTV's death lineup, the man who could play all the roles (I guess this could be Draymond Green as well). He could joke it up with the best of them. He had his own characters, whether it be his incessantly amateurish guitar playing to Rodeo Joe. He was incredibly goofy. But he was also an incredibly sharp basketball mind that could more than hold his own on the Windy Tuesday podcast and break down the game both from an X's and O's standpoint and an advanced analytics standpoint. Tom may not have been the loudest, or the funniest, or the most raucous, but he was always there filling in the gaps just perfectly.
U. is for Uncensored
What may have doomed the show in the end was how unfiltered, how raw, and how 'edgy' (in a corporate sense) the show was. By all accounts, Jade left on his own terms, but the show may not have been long for the world. ESPN may have grew tired of having non-ESPN personalities on a popular podcast network expressing opinions that could often be best described as being out-of-pace at the Mickey Mouse Corp. Still, what made it great was what killed it. The best part was the last few months when Jade seemingly went into Eff-You mode and let a few 'shits' sneak by. Beyond the literal uncensored nature, was how unfiltered the show was, not ever shying away from complex, controversial and sensitive topics, addressing them with a nuance and precision that was shocking for a show like this.
V. is for Valerie (Momma) Hoye
Not only was the TBA cadre of superstars a family, but in the literal sense they extended it to their family. There were a couple podcasts with Ethan and his wife Allie. Both Tom and Mariano's mom made cameo appearances. But more than any family member, Jade's Mom Valerie became a crucial member of the gang. I forget under what pretense was she first added to the Friday Mailbag, ostensibly to give her opinion on some TV show. Giving fairly accurate TV recommendations and opinions was her game, but overtime it extended into further opening a lens into Jade's life. Jade cultivated such a warm and welcoming atmosphere, with nothing more direct than a direct connection with his own Mom.
W. is for Wos
Oh Big Wos, mysterious, manic and marvelous. Big Wos began a great new era of the THTV story by being the first recurring non-ESPN personality. Overtime he became a crucially integral part of the show, their true 'supporting' player that would go on BOMM on Monday, moonlight every now and then on Gone with the Windy, and show up regularly on the Mailbag. There was the famed Wos Week early in 2017 where he appeared on each show during a week. Of course, one would think it is at best ridiculous for a grown adult man to do this while seemingly working a full-time job, but of course we don't exactly know what Wos does. We do know he has all the audio problems, shills for Drake constantly, calls Gordon Hayward his second son, and has a few choice opinions on the city of Boston. Wos, in many ways, was THTV's International Man of Mystery, and like Austin Powers, he's heavy in London/
X. is for X's and O's
I have gone through this whole alphabet with barely mentioning basketball, the topic the TrueHoop TV and the TBA podcast was supposed to be covering. To be honest, at times the utter lack of basketball talk was tough, but only because when they did go hard on basketball it was so good. Whether it was Windhorst and the Tims breaking down the salary cap, or Tray spinning yarns on summer runs and youth basketball, or KP bringing the numbers, or Abbott and Thorpe breaking down development and game play style. When it wanted to, TrueHoop and TBA could go so deep into basketball with an engaging style that was unmatched.
Y. is for Yeeerrrrrpppp!
OK, I'm going to get proselytize-y for second. One of the best facets of THTV was its ability to cut so easily across racial lines. From the simplistic sense, on its weekly roster was a show called 'Black Opinions Matter Monday' followed immediately by a Tuesday show whose standard roster was four white guys, three of whom lived in Omaha, Dallas and Charlotte. Jade's affectation for the phrase 'Yeeerrrr!' and 'Yeeerrrrppp!' was a small signifier of that. The show mixed worlds so well, from Tray's incessant shout-outs and the talk of dapping, to Rodeo Joe and Tom's huckster guitar alter-ego. Moving beyond the black and white was the FOB show featuring a cadre of Asian voices. To put it not-so-lightly, the show was about as diverse a program as there was.
Z. is Zach Harper
We end with Harper, the man who, more than anything, symbolized what I grew to love about THTV/TBA - the comedy. Honestly, to me a podcast is fairly meaningless unless it can make me laugh. All my favorite podcasts are either podcasts run by comedians, or about sports but have good enough chemistry that they bring the laughs (Joe Posnanski's Poscast with Michael Schur, and Marek vs. Wyshynski as prime examples). TrueHoop was the best at this, and Harper was the king of the jokes. He batted a pure .666 on his jokes too. Harper was there for the origins of the pod, but that was before I started listening. His 'return' to the normal rotation really did signal a shift in tone for the show, and his comedic focus and chops transferred quite easily to the rest of the cast as well. More than anything, THTV and TBA made me laugh. They made me learn, made me think, made me live through so many long drives through the Greater Toronto Area; but more than anything it made me laugh.
It seems like in some shape or form, they will return, but it won't be the same. Not literally in that it is very likely that the ESPN talent and the non-ESPN folks will be separated. Not emotionally as there won't be this perfect amalgam of sports, pop-culture, comedy and pure joy in one 60-150 minute package. TrueHoopTV and TBA filled way too much hours of time in my life. I've seen many podcasts that I loved come and go - many of them from ESPN itself, but nothing hit me like losing THTV and TBA. The show lives on at Podfanatic with a full archive, and more than anything it lives in my memories.
A. is for Amin Elhassan
Let's start off with one of the TrueHoop OGs. Amin Elhassan was such an instrumental part of the show, well beyond his duties of hosting the BOMM show on Monday's after that became a thing in mid-2016. Amin Elhassan is many things, but mostly a seemingly good dude that toes the line between confidence and arrogance better than anyone I've ever seen. He also was a behind the scenes driving force in growing THTV and later the TBA podcast into something more than a daily basketball discussion. The BOMM podcast was always a great appetizer to the Week at the THTV restaurant, and he perfectly navigated that show and used his connections brilliantly to get great guests on. But more than anything, I love going back and listening to old episodes, before the BOMM days, when Amin was less the moderator and more the contributor, the brilliant, caustic, bombastic personality he portrays so well.
B. is for Banned & Bontemps
In the beginning, I didn't get the Tuesday Show, with four to five white, country NBA reporters. Over time, it became arguably my favorite show of the week - and nothing was better than the incredibly sick rapport between Banned McMahon and Timmy Goodtimes. Firstly, 'Banned' is a national treasure. For someone whose voice is so stereotypically hick, he had easily the fastest, sharpest tongue of anyone on the whole roster. He was the only person who could spar with Radio Ethan and out-fox him without even putting on a character. And nothing was better than seeing Banned McMahon take it to poor little Tim Bontempts. Goodtimes held his own nicely, and got a few jabs back, but Banned truly was the 'baddest man in all the land.' Banned's rise into a true THTV superstar cemented the Tuesday show for me, and became such a crucial part of my weekly drives through the Greater Toronto Area.
C. is for Callers
Having Callers on the show started in earnest with an appearance by Jimmer Jimson Jr., on January in 2017. It was a brief appearance during the end of the Friday Mailbag, an episode I listened to shoveling up the one big storm we had last year. The first one didn't go so well - though Jimmer became a cult favorite in the THTV/TBA universe. In reality, the first 3-4 didn't go to good. The first good one had, as Big Wos noted, the advantage 'of being black'. Anyway, overtime, the guests became more numerous and of far higher quality. In the end, the last few Friday Mailbag's featured more airtime with guests on than just the regulars, and the guests in some cases became regulars, like Tony's Trivia, a game Kaleigh Brandt seemed to mercilessly cheat at, and Anthony Canton III's brilliant poetry. By the end, TBA was a truly communal affair.
D. is for Dad Pods
TrueHoop was Henry Abbott's baby. Abbott was a true OG in the new-age basketball media, and lent his name first to a brilliant little enclave within ESPN, and ultimately TrueHoop TV and finally the podcast. He finally got hi, I don't know, revenge(?), with his short-lived but brilliant Dad Pod with David Thorpe. It was part of my weekly commute through the GTA to Bellwood's Brewery, its 40-50 minutes timing perfectly with Toronto traffic. It wasn't as raucous as the other installments (save for the Dance Break interludes) but featured two 'old hands' just shooting the shit about life and basketball development more than the game itself. It was very different than any other segment of the THTV universe, but one so special, if not long lived.
E. is for Ethan Sherwood Strauss
Oh, Ethan. What to say. THTV was family axed for a week back in April when ESPN went through its Black Friday. It was reborn, but a piece of its soul was always going to be missing without Ethan Sherwood Strauss. There's was no better punching bag on the show, but what made it work was that everyone was punching up - punching up towards a great writer, a great mind, a person who would drop million dollar words for no reason, and of course had connections to the Golden State Warriors. Ethan was also an amazing storyteller. I've relistened to his brilliant yarn about losing his passport in Bangkok during his honeymoon, full with such little meaningless hilarious details like not bartering with cab drivers and him leaving his new wife at the airport being like the Titanic sinking. Ethan was also one of the OGs of THTV, and in reality, I didn't know truly how important he was until he was gone. Sherwood was irreplacable, enough so that he takes up two letters, with the 'R' assigned to his person as well.
F. is for Fornicating Bears
Jade's legendary story (both on the POD and on instagram) of two black bears having sex in his back-yard kiddy pool doesn't make this list because it is funny, it makes this list because it existed on the air. Late in its run, TBA became less about basketball and more about the lives of the people on the show - a change that didn't really impact its quality one bit. Jade's tales from Connecticut were always welcome, whether it was his rough and tumble upbringing, to the forested nature of his current residence. Stories like these made the show less a tutorial in the game, an analysis of a sport by experts, and more getting a seat at a very diverse, integrated dinner table.
G. is for Gone with the Windy
I already mentioned in the B&B spot how much I grew to love Tuesdays Gone with the Windy, but let's reiterate from a more personal angle. Early in 2017, I was doing a project in Vaughan, Canada, a good 30-35 minutes north of Toronto Central. Being me, I decided to drive down into the city a lot for dinner (hey, when your not paying...?), and the THTV podcast kept those drives interesting, and few better than my Tuesday drives. Sure, at first the minuteau that the show covered could get irritating, but I soon (very soon) learned to love it. It is more than just the rapport between the Tims, it was Tom Habestroh's guitar, it was Windy's hot taeks that he would push so far against an audience so dismissive. Everything from Windy's dislike of Al Horford's contract, to his passionate defense of why the NBA shouldn't cut down from 82 games. It was a far more combative podcast than you would think given it was the only show to actually gather four tried-and-true basketball journalists together.
H. is for Hoooooops
The good ol' promo code of 'Hoops' became, randomly, one of the more lasting, if random, running jokes in the history of the podcast. Each time it was read, another 'o' was added to the name. Running jokes are the throughline of any great friend network, and the running jokes within the THTV/TBA universe were all so great. From 'leveraging the chat', to Wos's mysterious job, to Tray knowing everyone on earth, to KP being a machine, to Wos loving IPA's, to JV (RIP) being a tinder all-star. So many episodes were enlivened by the never ending run of jokes upon jokes upon jokes.
I. is for Intro Music
Oh the music. Jade's diverse, vibrant collection of random unlicensed music was so note perfect. Each show had an intro (and, for the most part, outra) song that fit so well, from the cheeky whistle on Tuesday, to the hard bass line on Monday, to the excited clapping hands on Friday. The music helped give each show an identity straight off the bat. More low-key was the brilliant collection of itnerlude music played during the episodes. Legend has it if you ask the Evil Producer Jade for a song with a timestamp he'll provide the goods, and why not? The music is one of the most underrated contributions Jade brought to the show.
J. is for Jade
The story of THTV and TBA begins and ends (literally, with him leaving ESPN) with Jade. The Evil Producer was the throughline of everything they did. It was, seemingly his personal passion project turned up to 11. What Jade did was so incredible, slowly cultivating an amazingly close-knit group of both podcast regulars (a roster that went a good two dozen deep) and more importantly and more impressively listnership. The TBA community was just that, a network of thousands and that came together around a truly impressive feat of engineering from the Evil Producer. To be honest, I was not at first on board with Jade becoming a more active (see: contributing) member of the shows beyond his producing, but he quickly won me over with his earnest approach, his valuable contribution as a true raconteur, and his unending love for the TBA community he was so instrumental in building.
K. is for Kaleigh
What to say about the only regular (non-FOB pod) female THTV/TBA-er. Kaleigh was truly an awesome part of the THTV experience. First off, it is hard to imagine someone with her specific combination of skills and personality traits. She was brilliant, could do a rubik's cube in ridiculous time, could wax poetic with memorable long-form monologues, and she was also a foster child who coupled as a true beauty. Quite a unicorn. Oh, and she seemingly never saw any movie worth seeing and reveled in the fact that most of the pop culture on the show flew well over her head. Kaleigh became an integral part of the show's community, making many random jump-in's on the TrueHoop reddit. Shouts to Rachel Nichols, or the many smart, funny and delightful women who appeared on the FOB show, but Kaleigh was so good as the primary female member of the gang.
L. is for Large Casts
There is no podcast I listen to on a normal basis that features more than two hosts. When a show with normally two people adds a third I find it distressing. When a podcast I like makes it more of a panel experience, like The Nerdist, I find it almost offputting, so off is the distribution of speaking and the clarity of voices. Somehow, someway, this mom and pop podcast show was able to do this better than anything I've ever seen. Hell, it does it better than live TV panel shows with 3-5 guests. There were episodes, generally on Friday, that featured 6-8 people and could distribute time somewhat equitably. It could go one without people talking over each other, without anyone feeling left out or domineering. I don't know how this could be possible over Skype, when media finds it hard to do in person, but it worked, so so well. If anything, the smaller the roster the more depressing it was. Every episode should have been the famous Thanksgiving Mailbag that featured 10 people.
M. is for Mariano's Monta Monday's
There was no recurring creation better than Monta Monday's. I am not familiar with the genesis of the segment, the origins of it all (I'm sure Monta Ellis was involved), but Mariano's weekly paean to Monta Ellis was always incredibly hilarious. Each one had a familiar pattern that never got old, inserting Monta Ellis into every conceivable situation and showing his "impact" on history. My favorite, honestly, was the first, when Monta Ellis schooled a little boy on the basketball court, with the man doing the schooling as Monta Ellis and the man being schooled as James Naismith. Other great ones were how Monta was responsible for Good Friday and Easter, and how he inspired each track name on Illmatic while trash-talking Nas on the court. As they say, Where There's a Monta, There's A Way.
N. is for No Ethnic People at Ethan's Wedding
The Trail of Ethan was so perfectly TrueHoop TV. It was deep in the doldrums of the offseason. It was a quick joke at first when weeks prior Amin mentioned how there were no African American people at Ethan's wedding, which Ethan blamed on his isolated upbringing and La Jolla. What it turned into was a truly irreverant piece of comedy, full of strange southern accents from Amin (hilariously stupidly named 'Accented Justice') and Tom, and slowly Ethan being coerced into admitting that yes, there were no African American's at his wedding. The bit reached all-time levels when it was discovered that there was one person... the DJ, which unleashed Amin in all his glory ("A Man paid to serve at your every whim"). This came at the tail-end of Amin and Ethan's faux feud, but it was a perfect little climax.
O. is for Oakland
The shows connection to Oakland is not lost on anyone, especially Wos who is famously 'heavy in the bay.' It was there they held their first live show - being a gainfully employed adult in the New York area made it fairly hard for me to go, but I sure wish I went there. Oakland was also the home to one Ethan Sherwood Strauss. It was also the location of some legendary episodes in the 2015 and 2016 Finals when the crew lollygagged around the bay. Truthfully, I had no real idea of what to put for 'O'. I'm sure I missed something more obvious or at the very least more meaningful, but whatever. 25/26 ain't bad.
P. is for Pelton
It seemed to be a cruel fate for Kevin Pelton to be the host of the Friday Mailbag. He was infamously analytically inclined (some compared him, strangely enough, to a machine), wrote hard core basketball statistical tomes, and he was part of a show that strayed miles and miles away from being about basketball. But in reality, it was golden. KP was the lovable dork. First off, I loved his voice. I always pictured KP smiling, laughing when he spoke. Something about that voice just did it for me. Pelton was also always so good at going along with the joke, whether it be his fondness for everythign Seattle. or his own side 'Pelton-cast' that he does with his brother, or his likeness to a machine. Kevin was also famously dismissive of the quality of the questions he received for the mailbag, another funny little twist on the happy-go-luck guy his voice portrayed. Also, shouts to KP for also being an infrequent drop-in guest on the TrueHoop reddit.
Q. is for Questions from KP
I've gone back and re-listened to Friday Mailbag's from early in the 2016-17 season. It is startling just how many questions KP actually asked during the episodes. Overtime, the lack of questions asked became a joke, so often with Zach chiming in "have we answered one question." The pessimist would say this was them straying away from all sense of decency. The optimist, and realist, would say that the Friday Mailbag was never about the questions (Kevin was all too quick to admit that the questions often were very poor in quality), but about getting those voices together to shoot the shit. I got a couple questions answered over the years, most memorably the first listener question when TBA was born out of the THTV ashes in May ("Over/Under two weeks before the internet says the old pods were better"), and it was an honor to get a #AskWos question asked and answered. It really only was a select few.
R. is for Radio Ethan
One of the best parts of the THTV/TBA oeuvre was their ability to beat bits into the ground without them losing any of their effect. The best example was Radio Ethan, which started so organically. I think it first started by accident (admittedly, it predates my listening to the show), and was at first used sparingly and often on-command when Amin/Tom/Wos wanted Ethan to do it for fun, to mock the overtly macho, nihilistic vibe of sports-talk radio. In time, it grew to special episodes where Ethan played the character for a full hour. But Radio Ethan was still the best in surprise doses, none better when he broke into the BOMM studios in the Monday show after Trump's inaugaration, full with him changing Big Wos's name to Big Todd, and getting a new name as Mr. Radio. Maybe five years from now Radio Ethan would have become played out, but not a second sooner.
S. is for Spreecast
I wasn't a religious THTV watcher in the Spreecast / TrueHoop after dark days. It was a bit overwhelming at the time, a grainy Skype video footage of four people I don't know talking and making each other laugh in-between buffering and audio problems (Jade corrected this overtime in a big way). But the humble origins of the show did belie its brilliance. The few times I did check in I enjoyed it - enough so to remember the names of Amin, Tom and Ethan. I followed those three in their weekly chats in ESPN.com, a now defunct joy hidden in some dark, desolate corner of the Worldwide leaders online fortress. I don't know when exactly I became a daily THTV listener, but when I got myself committed for good, if anything I was depressed I did not consume more of their garage-band beginnings.
T. is for Tom Haberstroh
Not sure why, but Tom was always my THTV underrated MVP. He too was one of the original OGs of the universe, I believe, but why I grow to really enjoy Tom was his slow turn into the Andre Iguodala of THTV's death lineup, the man who could play all the roles (I guess this could be Draymond Green as well). He could joke it up with the best of them. He had his own characters, whether it be his incessantly amateurish guitar playing to Rodeo Joe. He was incredibly goofy. But he was also an incredibly sharp basketball mind that could more than hold his own on the Windy Tuesday podcast and break down the game both from an X's and O's standpoint and an advanced analytics standpoint. Tom may not have been the loudest, or the funniest, or the most raucous, but he was always there filling in the gaps just perfectly.
U. is for Uncensored
What may have doomed the show in the end was how unfiltered, how raw, and how 'edgy' (in a corporate sense) the show was. By all accounts, Jade left on his own terms, but the show may not have been long for the world. ESPN may have grew tired of having non-ESPN personalities on a popular podcast network expressing opinions that could often be best described as being out-of-pace at the Mickey Mouse Corp. Still, what made it great was what killed it. The best part was the last few months when Jade seemingly went into Eff-You mode and let a few 'shits' sneak by. Beyond the literal uncensored nature, was how unfiltered the show was, not ever shying away from complex, controversial and sensitive topics, addressing them with a nuance and precision that was shocking for a show like this.
V. is for Valerie (Momma) Hoye
Not only was the TBA cadre of superstars a family, but in the literal sense they extended it to their family. There were a couple podcasts with Ethan and his wife Allie. Both Tom and Mariano's mom made cameo appearances. But more than any family member, Jade's Mom Valerie became a crucial member of the gang. I forget under what pretense was she first added to the Friday Mailbag, ostensibly to give her opinion on some TV show. Giving fairly accurate TV recommendations and opinions was her game, but overtime it extended into further opening a lens into Jade's life. Jade cultivated such a warm and welcoming atmosphere, with nothing more direct than a direct connection with his own Mom.
W. is for Wos
Oh Big Wos, mysterious, manic and marvelous. Big Wos began a great new era of the THTV story by being the first recurring non-ESPN personality. Overtime he became a crucially integral part of the show, their true 'supporting' player that would go on BOMM on Monday, moonlight every now and then on Gone with the Windy, and show up regularly on the Mailbag. There was the famed Wos Week early in 2017 where he appeared on each show during a week. Of course, one would think it is at best ridiculous for a grown adult man to do this while seemingly working a full-time job, but of course we don't exactly know what Wos does. We do know he has all the audio problems, shills for Drake constantly, calls Gordon Hayward his second son, and has a few choice opinions on the city of Boston. Wos, in many ways, was THTV's International Man of Mystery, and like Austin Powers, he's heavy in London/
X. is for X's and O's
I have gone through this whole alphabet with barely mentioning basketball, the topic the TrueHoop TV and the TBA podcast was supposed to be covering. To be honest, at times the utter lack of basketball talk was tough, but only because when they did go hard on basketball it was so good. Whether it was Windhorst and the Tims breaking down the salary cap, or Tray spinning yarns on summer runs and youth basketball, or KP bringing the numbers, or Abbott and Thorpe breaking down development and game play style. When it wanted to, TrueHoop and TBA could go so deep into basketball with an engaging style that was unmatched.
Y. is for Yeeerrrrrpppp!
OK, I'm going to get proselytize-y for second. One of the best facets of THTV was its ability to cut so easily across racial lines. From the simplistic sense, on its weekly roster was a show called 'Black Opinions Matter Monday' followed immediately by a Tuesday show whose standard roster was four white guys, three of whom lived in Omaha, Dallas and Charlotte. Jade's affectation for the phrase 'Yeeerrrr!' and 'Yeeerrrrppp!' was a small signifier of that. The show mixed worlds so well, from Tray's incessant shout-outs and the talk of dapping, to Rodeo Joe and Tom's huckster guitar alter-ego. Moving beyond the black and white was the FOB show featuring a cadre of Asian voices. To put it not-so-lightly, the show was about as diverse a program as there was.
Z. is Zach Harper
We end with Harper, the man who, more than anything, symbolized what I grew to love about THTV/TBA - the comedy. Honestly, to me a podcast is fairly meaningless unless it can make me laugh. All my favorite podcasts are either podcasts run by comedians, or about sports but have good enough chemistry that they bring the laughs (Joe Posnanski's Poscast with Michael Schur, and Marek vs. Wyshynski as prime examples). TrueHoop was the best at this, and Harper was the king of the jokes. He batted a pure .666 on his jokes too. Harper was there for the origins of the pod, but that was before I started listening. His 'return' to the normal rotation really did signal a shift in tone for the show, and his comedic focus and chops transferred quite easily to the rest of the cast as well. More than anything, THTV and TBA made me laugh. They made me learn, made me think, made me live through so many long drives through the Greater Toronto Area; but more than anything it made me laugh.
It seems like in some shape or form, they will return, but it won't be the same. Not literally in that it is very likely that the ESPN talent and the non-ESPN folks will be separated. Not emotionally as there won't be this perfect amalgam of sports, pop-culture, comedy and pure joy in one 60-150 minute package. TrueHoopTV and TBA filled way too much hours of time in my life. I've seen many podcasts that I loved come and go - many of them from ESPN itself, but nothing hit me like losing THTV and TBA. The show lives on at Podfanatic with a full archive, and more than anything it lives in my memories.
