Q McCall did not get kidnapped in his sleep and replaced with some clown named Nate.
They are, shockingly, the same person.
But no worries: whoever this person is, he still enjoys Love & Basketball.
So why the change?
No particular reason, except for the numerous times that I met someone in real life and they thought I was playing with them by telling them my real name is Nate, not the Q McCall person whose words they suffer through out of love for women's basketball.
So ultimately the change is not about fame, fortune, or credit.
"I've gotta answer to a higher calling: art. You think I did this for money? I did this for credit."
The change is first and foremost about simplicity.
More practically, it's about having one consistent identity between here and the other places my writing appears (e.g. here or here) so people don't believe they're reading two different people who think very similarly.
So allow me to re-introduce myself...and us.
My name is Nate and I like basketball. I particularly enjoy women's basketball. And I manage this site, but I'm relatively new to the game. So with the help of a few other people who have recently changed names, including:
- James Bowman (aka "petrel") to cover the ACC from Atlanta
- Jessica Lantz (aka "Freelantz") to cover the Big 12 from the state that swindled the Sonics from Seattle
- Holly Tanneyhill (aka "BuiltByDays") to cover the Big East from Storrs
- DishNSwish (aka "Dishin" via WSTR) to also cover the Big East from Storrs...
...as well "Queenie" (Rebecca), "Scotter" (Scott), and "M Robinson" (Mike) we attempt to provide you a variety of perspectives on women's college basketball to provide a nationwide lens on the game, appreciate women's basketball on its own terms and, hopefully, further our understanding of it as we go. During WNBA season, we have also been joined by Lisa, Seth, and Trevor.
Calling all lurkers...
However, even with that many people working in one space, we can't quite cover everything about women's basketball in the world. I mean, we're trying, but people keep complaining about other things they're doing with their lives or something.
So since we've revealed ourselves to you as March Madness approaches, perhaps this as good a time as any to put out a call to those of you who visit and read the site but have not revealed yourselves to us with your comments, fan posts, or fan shots. If you have no idea what a "fan post" or "fan shot" is that's cool - it means you're normal because those terms mean just about nothing outside of the SB Nation domain. Thankfully, Jessica has put together a little primer to help you figure that out.
Calling all lurkers: Come out, come out wherever you are!! - Swish Appeal
If you really want to branch out, SBN has these great things (see the right sidebar) called fan posts and fan shots. Post a link, a picture you took, a video you find on the web and share it with the rest of the community. Or if you fancy yourself a writer, submit a fan post and start a discussion. And for your information, this post right here is a fan post - it's not hard! These are quick and painless tools to get more involved and let the rest of the Swish Appeal community in on the news of the day (click here to see a tutorial of all of these features).
And don't worry about what's "appropriate" to post: it's a women's basketball site. So anything that you perceive as related to the intersection of "women" and "basketball" qualifies as valid.. For example, on the sidebar now you will see everything from college game scores/summaries to James' Wikipedia experiment to identify the most popular WNBA team to Ray's youth through college basketball exploits to a 1993 Easy Spirit commercial featuring former WNBA player Sue Wicks (and, in the comments, an even worse 1991 version). If you're interested in it, we're interested in it, and we'd enjoy seeing it, particularly if you've identified a gap in what we're covering.
But the number one goal here is simply to share our passion for the game of women's basketball. If you have that - or are developing that and are willing to follow our whims - you're welcome here.
That is all.
The Management