On the NBA Lockout Beat

Imagine if your butcher's job description suddenly required him to speculate on pork-belly futures. That's pretty much the position that Henry Abbot, the founder and lead writer for ESPN's TrueHoop Network, found himself in as the NBA's labor dispute turned into an extended lockout. Instead of simply covering basketball, Abbott has spent the last few months reporting on the machinations of the lawyers, agents, and various representatives as both sides of the player/owner chasm. But more than his fellow writers, Abbott was well-positioned for this change. TrueHoop has been documenting the ins and outs of the non-basketball aspects of the NBA since well before the lockout; Abbott's ability to cover both the sport and its place in our culture is how he attracted his national audience (and earned the interest of his (no longer quite so new) bosses at ESPN) in the first place. Even though he's able to handle the new reality of his job, though, Abbott isn't necessarily thrilled. "Fun though it was to have a businessy change of pace," he says, "let's get back to basketball already."