Beat writers tell the damnedest stories. Wendell Maxey is one of those storytellers.
During a time when we’ve witnessed a sharp and steady decline in journalistic integrity, it’s refreshing to read articles from a reporter who spent his life genuinely telling a story the way it should be told, informatively, enthusiastically, honest and without bias, with a flair that highlights the personal.
Over his impressive twenty-plus year career, Wendell Maxey has written for Sports Illustrated, ESPN.com, NBA.com, Slam Magazine and the USA Today. Not a bad resume if you can get it. As a result of his worldwide travels, the pages of Maxey’s passports are frayed and withered, stamped and likely resting in a drawer somewhere, a testament to his life’s work, the frequent flyer miles adding up with each assignment.
His latest release, the appropriately titled Called for Traveling, is a collection of his works that span over two decades… and continents. He covers not only the NBA but countless other sports, leagues and personalities.
The pages within Traveling are snippets of varying lengths, from one region as remote as the next, from Europe to the Pacific Northwest and back again. At his best, in each piece, Maxey reveals the human side of the pro athlete, the one that we forget exists outside the lines. This is the common and prevalent theme throughout his work. You’ll meet James Jones, not the forward but the vegetarian, Todd Marinovich not the quarterback but the artist and JJ Birden not the wide receiver but the chocolate salesman.
You’ll read not of Terrell Brandon’s jump shot but of his barbershop. “Take a peek into a barbershop in northeast Portland, and you’ll see an unlikely sight: two-time NBA All-Star Terrell Brandon sweeping up hair clippings and taking out the trash. Brandon opened up Terrell Brandon’s Barbershop in a corner brick building on Alberta Street, in one of Portland’s poorest and most racially diverse neighborhoods. Brandon spends five days a week at his shop, which he says remind of him of his days in the locker room.”
You’ll read of Don Nelson coaching a younger generation, Hank Gathers’s impact on a nation and Shogun Shaq putting people in their proper place in the NBA’s pecking order.
But Maxey covered not only 1990s NBA. He also covered women’s high school basketball, minor league baseball and the UFL.
You’ll read about the Tacoma Rainiers and Omaha Nighthawks. You’ll read not of Boston Red Sox pitcher but rather Portland Beaver pitcher Luis Tiant.
Maxey reminds us that sports aren’t always about players at the highest level surrounded by incessant and often annoying media attention but that there are millions of stories worth telling, careers before and after, reminding us that the stats on the back of a basketball card do not make the person, but rather the character and their will.
Called for Travelling is a crash course in international basketball, a reminder that no matter how many men are playing in the NBA, there are countless more trying to make it there, players like Sean May who played in the league, then for a variety of reasons left to play overseas while doing everything in his power to get back. “He’s hungry. He’s healthy. He’s putting up decent numbers. May doesn’t want to be left out of sight and out of mind, but it tends to happen often in the overseas game. But if he wants to make it back to the NBA, the road goes through Croatia.”
And you’ll read of Eric Musselman who coached the Warriors, Kings, Magic but also the Venezuelan National team.
Maxey’s focus is on the people, most of whom are confident, humbled and grateful in their constantly changing settings. “After spending nine years covering the NBA, I spent many seasons chatting with rookies across the league as they experienced their basketball baptism. It was easy to tell the guys who cherished every minute of the journey and gave thanks every step of the way from those who, for some reason, donned daily armor and an attitude of entitlement.”
Maxey will you take you to places around the world that you never knew existed yet are still culturally significant for basketball nerds. His is a pleasant reminder of how important basketball remains in households around the globe. From community work to entrepreneurship, from D leagues to G leagues to international leagues, the sport is far more than just a ball and basket between four lines, but what can happen outside those lines when people get involved.
Maxey’s Called For Traveling in many ways parallels the players he’s covered, some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t, all with a story worth telling.
