Friday Donuts: Passion, Taylor Swift and T-shirts
We all have a voice we associate with our favorite sports moments. When recalling a highlight in your mind’s eye, it’s not the first, second, or even third thing you might think about. Really, you may not even think about it all. It’s just there.
I fell in love with basketball because of Dwyane Wade and those mid-2000s Heat teams that captured my imagination and taught me the meaning of sustained excellence. The Big Three, from 2010-2014, inspired me to go even further and start sharing my opinions about basketball on a public stage.
The voice associated with my most formative sports-fan years is that of Eric Reid, legendary play-by-play man for the Miami Heat going into his 36th year with the team.
Needless to say, it was really cool when I got a chance to do a show with him this week, from his new broadcast booth at the Heat’s arena.
This isn’t the first time I’ve spoken with Eric. Obviously, we’re both at a lot of these Heat games. I actually sat next to him and Heat color analyst John Crotty for the Eastern Conference finals. Front row seat to the broadcast that I’ve heard less and less since I started covering most of these home games in person.
But this was cool.
More than the stories he shared, the passion that emanated from Eric as he spoke about his broadcasting career, what Dr. Jack Ramsay meant to him, and what it means to be a good person is what resonated. Passion is always interesting to me.
If you’d like to watch the interview, you can find it on YouTube here. But this basketball season, I’m thinking about what makes me passionate/what gets me excited. And then I’m going in that direction.
🍩 My search for the perfect T-shirt has taken up countless hours of my life. In my mid-20s, I decided to graduate from whatever I had left over from college and buy a whole new allotment of reliable tees. After weeks of research, trial, and error, I landed on Uniqlo’s Supima cotton tees. Simple, comfy shirts at $10-12 a pop in a variety of colors. They served me well for years.
But then I turned 30, and the Uniqlo tees had dutifully fulfilled their service on the front lines of my day-to-day wardrobe. It was time to find a new T-shirt. At this stage in my life, I’d like to think I’ve graduated from $10 T-shirts. (although I can’t say I won’t order a few every now and then.) So I started my research again, this time looking for something a bit more premium, with more lasting power, that will look more put together when worn in a professional setting.
Of course, I went down “The Bear” rabbit hole and ended up, like so many of us, at the Merz B. Schwanen website. The shirts are great. Made from loopwheeled, two-count fabric that is durable. They are also always out of stock in the colors I want and expensive. I have a few and I love them.
But I needed something (a) in stock and (b) a bit more affordable to buy in bulk.
Enter Whitesville. Like Merz, Whitesville tees are sturdy, loopwheeled (no side seams) and made of quality cotton. I find them softer and more forgivingly fitting than Merz, too.
And the best part?
They come in two packs for $90. While they can, at times, be difficult to find, be patient. These shirts come from Japan and can get held up at U.S. Customs. But keep checking the sites that sell them and once they come in, buy a few packs and upgrade your T-shirt life. Or don’t, and leave more for me.
🍩 1989 Taylor’s Version vault song rankings*
Say Don’t Go
Now That We Don’t Talk
“Slut!”
Is It Over Now?
Suburban Legends
*I reserve the right to change these at any moment.
🍩 Notable pods this week: Eric Reid interview; Heat season-opener postgame show
🍩 Notable words this week: Burning Qs mailbag; Jaime Jaquez Jr. needs to play; 15 increasingly bold predictions for the Heat’s season
Also, if you missed it, my story from last Friday on Tyler Herro for The Ringer.