18 months ago, I wrote a piece called "The A-B-C's of TrueHoop TV" (http://loungingpass.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-b-cs-of-truehoop-tv.html), detailing, in 26 painstaking installments, my love for ESPN's long gone podcast network born out of Henry Abbott's TrueHoop blog. The podcasts were incredible, a true unicorn that survived on the brink battling ESPN's corporate mothership time and time again. That August, of 2017, the show was shuttered when Jade Hoye, its producer, left ESPN.
I wrote the piece mostly out of a loving, appreciative despair. I had seen favorite podcasts go away (I would have another one leave in a few months, when Marek vs. Wyshynski ended). But there were oodles of episodes held in archives (shout-out to podfanatic, which still has them). And when I wrote the post, sent it to Jade, he posted it for the THTV world to read, and replied to my twitter dm basically telling me that the show was not going away. It would be back. It did come back, and 18 months later, I finally got to meet the man behind the podcast mask, the rest of the bunch, and just how great that community of people, both hosts and listeners, is.
The podcast came back a few weeks later outside of ESPN's watchful eye, named The Basketball Friends under the 'Leverage the Chat' name. That lasted a few months (there's an amazing story behind it apparently). It has come back for (knock on all woods) good as the Back-to-Back podcast on the Count the Dings network (along with other non-Back-to-Back shows like BOMM - Black Opinions Matter Monday, the Friday Mailbag, etc.). It is largely the same people (though pour one out for those still at ESPN, like Brian Windhorst, Kevin Pelton, Tim McMahon, Tim Bontemps and so many others that made the original Truehoop podcast network amazing). It is reborn, and its cavalier go-at-it-alone survival has only increased its potency, and more than anything the bond it has created with its listeners.
I listen to a bunch of podcasts. Many of them have done live shows. This is the first time I went to one. Within the history of this show, dating back to its ESPN roots, they've had live shows, three times in Cali, once in Vegas, and twice in my own damn backyard. Twice they came to New York. Twice I missed it, first because I was traveling for work, second because I was traveling for fun. When they announced one in Boston, I took the leap, without looking back, and after a great weekend, I'm more pumped not only to attend the subsequent live shows, but to listen to these band of hilarious crazies.
The best part of the live show wasn't the actual live show - though that too was amazing. It was meeting the hosts, and the fans, and seeing how blurry the line is between the two. The live show itself was from 8:30pm - 11:30pm on Saturday. But for the 90 minutes before, and the 150 minutes after, and for 180 minutes or so on Friday night, we weren't watching them on a stage, we were mingling and talking and belting out karaoke bangers with them.
The blurred lines between host and fan probably started when Jimmer Jimson Jr. was a live guest on a Friday mailbag way back in Jan, 2017. That followed with more guests, and ultimately to some of those guests becoming recurring hosts and participants in shows (mainly the Friday Mailbag, where they famously answer minimal questions). Beyond them, there was the group of people who had been to previous live shows, and were basically close knit friends. Then there were us live show rookies, but there's no velvet rope.
This all is credit to Jade Hoye, who has broken the barrier between host and listener long time ago, opening a lens to his personal life, and by proxy having us all do the same. That through this creation he can get so many people that are at a minimum NBA media famous do the same, is such a credit to what he has built.
Dating back to when I did that A-B-C's post, I gave nine people their own letter, and I was able to meet with, joke with, talk to, six of them. And at a deeper level than just a quick shake of a hand. That's what makes this group special. Even if to them it is a quick shake of the hand, for me (and I would think for most of us who attended) it was something more personal.
The other incredible aspect of the weekend was meeting all the other fans. Some of whom I've interacted with on Twitter, or Discord, or at least heard on the show as a guest, but so many that were just like me - making their first live show trip. In a sense, it was reassuring that there were so many people who were crazy about this little fly-by-night podcast network like me, if not so many more so. All from different backgrounds, different entry-points, different opinions. But all sharing one key 'like' in common.
The show itself was amazing - three hours of consistent laughs, consistent great moments, be it the behind the scenes stories that normally are 'bossanova'd' during the podcast (ie. hidden behind some lovely elevator music because the story reveals some secrets), or a great discussion around the Boston Celtics struggles, or having the man behind TrueHoop originally (Henry Abbott - who recently re-launched the blog on his own) give a great creation story. The actual three hours of the show were special, but it was the hours around it that left its mark.
I've listened to these people talk about sports, music, pop culture, life and so much more, for three plus years. I've read some of them and asked questions on the long defunct ESPN Chat section to some of them. But seeing it all play out in front of you, with the ability to talk to them afterwards, was just different.
I've had a few interactions with the show in the past. Be it the couple times my questions have been asked on the Mailbag (most memorably - to me at least - having the first question when the show re-started in April, 2017, after a two week cancellation). Be it the A-B-Cs article which got some nice love at the time. To finally being a guest on the mailbag in October, dialing in from a loud Mumbai street (props to Jade putting up with the urban maw of noise). But these all pale in comparison that actually meeting these people, and seeing how approachable, how nice, how hilarious they all are.
The moment that for me was both most surreal and most real, was late on Friday, after the karaoke event ended, riding back to my hotel being driven by Jade himself, with two hilarious and incredibly chill hosts on the Monday show - Black Tray and John Jervay, - in the car. The whole night seemed like being inside the podcast, but this was literally so. It was out of sheer luck - me staying in the same hotel as Jade, and Jade Hoye being enough of a mensch to give a ride to a relative stranger (in his mind, none of us are strangers, which is what makes him great). But this was truly a surreal moment, and the one where I knew that the Count the Dings community is real, and the time I invested listening to this podcast for three plus years, through four or five different names, is being paid back in full.
