During the past year, I'd say I've done 10 basketball-related podcasts/interviews. Each of them require preparation, lots of note-taking, sometimes a glass of wine, and the calming of my nerves. Once I get the interview started, I calm down, and do the best I can for 10-15 minutes or whatever. Yesterday, two colleagues of mine, (Kyle and Mike) who also cover the Washington Wizards asked me to be on their podcast(audio/evidence of this will be posted at a later date), and per the usual, I prepared, I wrote notes, I got nervous and I calmed down and ran through it in 15 minutes. But after last night, I came to the same conclusion, I've come thru after the other 9 podcasts/interviews I've done..I suck at it.

I'm not saying I suck at it because my self-esteem is low, or I'm trying to use reverse psychology to get my confidence up, I'm saying I suck at it, because I really do. I am a writer. I can sit down, think on something for a bit, then write it down in a clear, concise, typo-ridden way. That's when I am in my comfort level. When I am put in a position where I need to talk on the spot, things change a bit. I ramble, I cut sentences short, I ignore my notes, I mangle words, I mix metaphors, and I fight the urge to curse like George Carlin. And my voice, no matter how enthused I really feel, sounds like I'm going to sleep. And to make things worse, as soon as I end the interview/podcast, I think of 45 things I could have said but didn't..then I look at my notes and realize that 43 of those 45 things were written right there. Its just one big bag of wrong.

Of course I'm going to continue to work at it and get better, and to my credit no one has overtly told me that I suck, but its an internal feeling that I have. I feel like I need to write the article of my life now, just to offset another bad performance. But unfortunately, there's no room for pouting or complaining, because tomorrow I have yet another interview to conduct. Maybe the 11th time is a charm...

By the way, I had a great run this morning, and what made it so good? It wasn't the fact that I felt strong and finished it 7 minutes earlier than I usually do. It wasn't the warmer temperatures or the two rats I saw during my run. It was the fantastic play list that was on my IPOD. I shall list the songs in the order they were received, so that you too can have an inspired workout.

1)Nas is Like - Nas
2)Another Victory - Big Daddy Kane
3)Diamonds Are Forever - Kanye and Jay-Z
4)Think About It - Snoop Dogg
5)The People - Common
6)Tha Shiznit - Snoop Dogg
7)Daytona 500 - Ghostface
8)Roc Boys - Jay-Z
9)Revolutionary Generation - Public Enemy
10)On the DL - Pharcyde