Farewell, Posting and Toasting

I will try to be brief, since I’m formalizing something true and apparent for almost a year now: I am retiring as editor-in-chief/magistrate/archduke/whatever of Posting and Toasting. I gave birth to P&T exactly 10 years ago today (Happy birthday, sweet child!), so I figure today is a nice, round-numbered occasion on which to cut the umbilical cord, as everyone does upon reaching age 10.

10 years! That makes me feel a little wistful, a little proud, and very old. SB Nation asked me to start their first and only Knicks blog when I was 17 — sliding my amateur blogspot hobby under the widening SB Nation NBA umbrella — which means this gig has spanned my entire adulthood. Besides my own family, it is perhaps the only consistent presence in my life over the last decade. I’ve run P&T as a high school student, a college student, a freelancer, and a full-time SB Nation employee. I’ve run it through the happiest periods of my life and I’ve run it so depressed I couldn’t get out of bed. Y’all have caught me ecstatic, enraged, energized, exhausted, in love, heartbroken, at home, abroad, on planes and trains and buses, high, drunk, naked, and defecating. Probably all of those last 4 things simultaneously on at least one occasion. So yeah, for me, this is a big deal. Or it’s been a big deal, because this has been a gradual withdrawal. And a mostly positive one. It is nice to watch the Knicks without feeling like it’s work.

Which brings me to more important things, like this: At some point over this decade, P&T transitioned from Seth’s Knicks blog to SB Nation’s Knicks blog — a place for all kinds of Knicks fans, as long as they’re kind and thoughtful and don’t take themselves too seriously. Joe Flynn is key to that transition. Joe is a strong writer and editor who loves the Knicks but doesn’t worship them, questions the media but doesn’t hate them, and continues to surround himself with a larger and more various cast of writers than I ever managed. And these folks — Joe in particular -- work their asses off because they want to. SB Nation is a wonderful place in most ways, but it has never to my knowledge compensated team bloggers fairly for the immense amount of work many put in (and profit they generate). This is not a job, but it is a JOB, let me tell you. These blogs run on adoration and compulsion and devotion to the communities. A lot of each of those things. Respect this crew, help this crew, and join this crew if you are so inspired.

Whiiiich brings me to my final and most important point: P&T is yours. This community is wonderful — even in person, I can attest! — in a realm that tends not to be wonderful. Sports blog comments sections mostly comprise hordes of faceless young white men screaming at each other about the same 4 things, but here I feel we’ve got something approaching a warm, inclusive, thoughtful, and light-hearted conversation running all day every day. The community has its flaws and goes through its dark ages, yes. It can be so aggravating. But I am still most proud to have gathered thousands of Knicks fans and found most of us having a good time in good company.

And that is my final message: Please have a good time here. That goes for writers and commenters alike. Enjoy P&T. Enjoy being a Knicks fan. Help others do the same. Too many of the things around you make your day worse. Don’t let this be one of them. Have fun, be civil to one another, and please don’t post large photos, GIFs, or links to illegal streams in game threads. Go the Knicks.

Two postscripts:

1. Way too many people to thank, but special thank-yous to SB Nation NBA blog bosses Seth Pollack and Matt Bernhardt, and of course to Joe and this whole team, and everyone who’s written for P&T all the way back to Osborn and Gian and viva_morrison and Barnesgasm and so on.
2. You can still find me on Twitter. You can email me. I’m still at SB Nation, working mostly behind the scenes on social media and video, and writing on occasion. I’ll still show up on podcasts, I’ll still be lurking here on occasion, and I’ll probably give in and write about the Knicks sometimes somewhere at some point. I am still very, hopelessly desperate to talk about the Knicks all the time.
3. I love each of you. <3