Meet Game Point, a new hoops publication
By Ian Levy
If you’re like me, there is never enough hoops content to engage with. Video, podcasts and the written word — basketball is being discussed and analyzed in so many forms and in so many places (we’re pretty proud of the work we’re doing here at FanSided), but I’m always looking for something new and creative to sink into. That’s why I am so excited about Game Point, a new quarterly print magazine focused on basketball and basketball culture, coming in October.
Game Point released a Kickstarter campaign today, hoping to raise the funds necessary to get the idea off the ground. Here’s a quick description of the vision from their campaign page.
"This large, lengthy, high-quality magazine will feature sharp writing, beautiful artwork and clean design for basketball fans who appreciate the aesthetics and imagination found within the basketball universe.Game Point will be thick with original writing covering the NBA, NCAA, international basketball and the WNBA, with incredible art and design to match."
The aspirations are lofty but Game Point has an incredible team behind it. The founder, Andrew McNeill, is a veteran of ESPN’s TrueHoop Network, having covered the San Antonio Spurs for several seasons. The team he has assembled includes several big names including Jared Wade and Elliot Gerard, both of whom have contributed to FanSided in the past.
I spoke with Andrew about the project last week at Hardwood Paroxysm and he talked in more detail about his plans:
"As you mentioned, the Kickstarter campaign launched today and that really gives an overview of what the magazine will be and what we’re hoping to accomplish. In one sense, it’s a tool to gauge the validity of an idea and see if there’s a market for it. I think there are basketball fans out there who want a magazine like this and will pay for it, but we don’t know for sure. The next 30 days or so will say for certain. It also gives us the opportunity to take pre-orders which, for producing a physical product, is a big help in planning and budgeting.In another way the crowdfunding campaign gives us the opportunity to build a small community around the magazine early in its life. One of the perks of the crowdfunding revolution is it has given people the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something and really feel like a part of the process. The ability to be behind the scenes as something is funded and developed and follow along as it comes to fruition creates a little more emotional investment than there might otherwise be for a basketball magazine.But in the end, it’s going to be about the stories we write and illustrations that are created for the magazine. And I’m confident the first issue (and every succeeding one as well) is going to kick ass."
Smart and creative basketball people doing well-funded work, in a print publication that I can actually feel and touch? Count me in.
If you’d like to support Game Point, visit their Kickstarter campaign and make a donation. Every little bit helps.
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