Ridiculous Upside comes to a close

In May 2008 and little known basketball blogger named Matt Moore signed on to this site with the promise of covering “the NBA Draft, the D-League, the CBA, the PBL ( I know, I know, what the holy crapola is the PBL. No, it’s not bowling. We’ll get to it. Hang in there.), European competition, and some of the processes about personnel decisions.”

As you can see by that mission statement, a lot has changed in the ensuing years of developmental basketball, but one thing this site certainly accomplished was being the launch pad for several careers in the industry.

The aforementioned Matt Moore has gone on to become a prominent voice in the NBA media world. Scott Schroeder, who was a vital part of this site until 2013, went on to be a video coordinator, coach and eventually a front office executive in the league he covered so diligently. Scott is now the Director of Basketball Operations with the Grand Rapid Gold. He’ll always be the guy controlling the music at Vegas Summer League to me though. Good on you, Scott! Next came Keith Schlosser who brought his own brand of passion to the RU pages. After his time here, Keith took a job with the NBA and then with an agency representing players. I consider him one of my true friends in this business.

There’s been many others who have contributed their talents over the years. Too many to name but you can scroll through the archives here. I even had a byline or two back in my early days in this game when I covered all-star events in Phoenix in 2009. I interviewed the two D-league ASG coaches that year who went on to pretty good careers themselves, Quin Synder and Nick Nurse, and I blogged about a legit free throw line dunk by a guy named James “Flight” White. The proof is in the pictures.

So yeah, this site holds a special place in my heart for all the players covered (check out this interview with PJ Tucker while he was playing in Germany in 2012!) to all the ballers who aspired to play this game professionally but never quite achieved the ultimate dream. But mostly it’s all the great writers who have passed through these digital halls who love the game and the people who play it.

As the world of developmental basketball has changed over the years we’ve decided it’s time to let RU ride off into the sunset. SB Nation team sites will still cover their related G-league teams and we’ll cover prospects and the draft and all things upside in other places. Don’t worry though, Ridiculous Upside will remain online as a tribute to those with big hoop dreams.