10 years of The Pick and Roll: Matt Hickey
The Pick and Roll is entering its 10th year and to celebrate we're taking a walk down memory lane with contributors past and present.
This year marks 10 years of The Pick and Roll.
Just like basketball, we’ve changed a lot over the last decade, but at the core of it all are our contributors.
To celebrate the milestone we’ve asked some of them, past and present, to discuss their journey with Team PnR throughout the years.
Matt Hickey, a contributor since 2016, gets things underway…
Seven years ago I contacted The Pick and Roll looking to become a contributor.
From memory, my “audition” piece was a story headlined ‘The Curious Case of Cameron Bairstow’ and discussed the Aussie forward’s situation in the NBA at the time.
It wasn’t a masterclass in journalism, yet Kein Chua and Damian Arsenis, who still run the show to this day, gave me the nod and I was on board.
The basketball scene in Australia has changed a lot over the last 10 years and The Pick and Roll have been a key driving factor in the growth of the game at various levels.
Back in 2013, Andrew Bogut was in his first season with the Warriors, Liz Cambage was a 21-year-old playing for Tulsa, Ben Simmons spent his time playing for Montverde and in the Big V, the Townsville Crocs were still in the NBL, the West Coast Waves and Logan Thunder were in the WNBL, and the Australian Boomers hadn’t won a major competition medal.
Times have certainly changed since then, as has The Pick and Roll.
When I first joined we pumped out stories every day, covering the ins and outs of Aussies overseas and those playing in local leagues. Although the ‘who’ is still the same, the ‘how’ is different.
Taking on a different style of content through a subscription model was a necessary shift to move with the changing media landscape and the fact that the readers and Aussie basketball lovers have shifted with us, shows me the strength of The Pick and Roll.
I have been lucky enough to cover Olympic Games, World Cups, the NBA on the ground in America and plenty more. And I have interviewed a wide range of people from Patty Mills to Brickman.
But for me, two stories stand out as my personal favourites.
In 2021, after Patty Mills led the Boomers to their very first Olympic medal, I had the chance to chat with Kirsty Ah Matt, the daughter of the first Indigenous Australian to compete in the Olympics Games, Michael Ah Matt.
To hear Kirsty speak about her father, who sadly passed away at the young age of 40, was a truly touching experience. He was the epitome of a trailblazer and at the core of it all just somebody who truly loved the game and it shone through in how he played it.
The other was a feature on the 1997 Melbourne Tigers.
I fell in love with the game watching Game 3 of the NBL Grand Final series on VHS tape. In fact, if you play that game now I still think I could repeat the commentary word for word.
To have the chance to speak with Andrew Gaze, Lanard Copeland, and someone who I think embodied what I love about the game the most, Warrick Giddey, was one of the greatest honours.
In fact, I think I still have a screenshot of a text message notification that had the name “Andrew Gaze”.
I guess the thing that I hope shines through in my writing and those others that contribute to The Pick and Roll is that in the end, just like you, we just love the game.
The fact that we’ve been around for a decade suggests that is true and hopefully, it continues for another 10 years.
I am now lucky enough to work full-time in sports media, whilst also still contributing to the PnR. I’m not the only one either, with others doing the same or following other passions they also love.
Cheers to 10, and here’s to 10 more!