30 Home Games

“From Australia, adopted son of Latvia though. I’m going to Okinawa and Manila to watch the Latvian team go all the way... I’m a Roland Šmits die-hard. 😊”
2 years ago today, I embarked on an unforgettable fan journey with the Three Stars. A chance encounter leading to a Cinderella run across the 3 host cities.
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Latvia co-host EuroBasket from tomorrow. Wish I could’ve been there but I’ll be supporting them all the way.
Thank you , and let’s go 🫶🇱🇻.

I remember reading about math nerds making waves at major poker tournaments from my dad’s TIME subscription. The article felt ancient as I associated it with magazine piles in the living room. Looking back, it was 7 years after ‘Moneyball’ was written and 4 years after the inaugural Sloan Conference.
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I was greeted by Emma at her collage workshop. It was a new venue and she’d incorporated a theme: Future Shock. I had pre-prepared references and it fortuitously dovetailed with the assignment.
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If you’re wondering how gamechanging AI might be, one only has to look at the analytics revolution in the NBA. How Barkley still considers Daryl Morey an idiot, even after a “jump-shooting team” won it all.
On socials, the comments section and group chats, you’ll find fans lamenting the cost of efficiency over entertainment. How the modern game pales to the one they grew up loving:
• 3s-and-layups over mid-range 2s
• ⁠Legacy making over load managing
• ⁠First round picks over first round exits
• ⁠Free throw over free flow
• Highlight reels over real-time drama
• Data sets over eye test
• ⁠Betting lines over storylines
• Analytics over intuition

Kirk Goldsberry remarked on Michael Lewis’ invisible hand, shaped by his former life as a bond salesman:
“KG: (33m) Slowly efficiency starts to replace the word greatness in a lot of conversations. That’s straight out of Wall Street... The intrusion of financial reasoning into front offices and sports itself is one of the larger trends... The more financial ideologies infiltrate art, music, cinema—I don’t think it’s been great.” (Plain English with Derek Thompson, May ‘24)
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I skimmed through the provided text as the collage party arrived. It was written 15 years before Neil Postman’s ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’, I’d never heard of it. The book was an artefact of the past, and tonight primarily used for aesthetic.
As I sat with this sea of printed content, I pondered the value of taking some of it in before I began cutting it up.

I spent a night in watching ‘Generation Wealth’ (2018) after attending the Tar Heels game.
Director Lauren Greenfield’s latest project is ‘Social Studies’, a docuseries examining the all-encompassing effects of social media on young people. The first generation of digital natives.
The Apr11 Search Engine ep with the director is a great primer to get you started.

Rebirth.

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Bali, Indonesia
(Oct 2023)

Happy Lunar New Year!

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Waikiki, Hawaii
(Feb, 2024)

First!
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Tokyo, Japan
(Sep 2024)

Was a pleasure being at the ‘Courtside Photo Club’ launch, a gallery show and limited merch collection curated by in collaboration with . Showcasing some of the best (and my fave) photographers from around the world.
Thanks for the assist Sam, and happy World Basketball Day to y’all.

We have liftoff!

Paris 2024 tips off at the end of the month. 4 spots remain, with the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments taking place in Greece, Latvia, Puerto Rico and Spain in the coming days. Allez!

Was in the studio audience for the latest SBS Insight on ‘Super Fans’. It’s also the fourth time I’ve gotten a hoops shirt to air on the show.
The discussion touched on the light and dark side of fandom. It dovetailed with my own relationship to hoops and current misgivings that tech has gamed passion and community. From network effects to data scraping and algorithms.
Enjoy the episode.

Heading home

A highlight on my World Cup tour was balling with locals in Jakarta.
Finding instant connection with people just met is what I love most about hoops and travel.
To my surprise, our local running mate gifted me one of his jerseys after I’d moved on. Appreciate the keepsake and thanks for the assist .

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Jakarta, Indonesia
(Aug 2023)