Basketball Running Gamer
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CHRIS VIVLAMORE, AJC ATLANTA HAWKS BEAT WRITER
--Philadelphia Inquirer
--Pro Sports Editor, AJC – Led coverage of the
Michael Vick federal dog fighting investigation.
--Atlanta Thrashers, Beat Writer
--Atlanta Hawks, Beat Writer
--Atlanta Braves and Falcons, backup Beat writer
1.
The Skeleton
2. Halftime
3. When the game is
decided
4. Two files or one
 1.
THE SKELETON FILE
 “Before the game starts, I put a skeleton
of some information together like team
records, how many games they lost in a
row or won in row. I’ll add some other
things like where they go next. If there are
a couple of stats that are of interest (ex:
Kyle Korver has a 39-game streak of threepointers made). I’ll always have that
skeleton (of a story) before the game
starts.
 2.
HALFTIME
“Then
what I’ll do, usually at
halftime, I’ll just type up a
couple of graphs. This is
how the first half went, in
case I need it.
 3.
WHEN THE GAME IS DECIDED
 “Then it depends on when the game is
decided. If it’s a blowout, then I can start
writing earlier. When it’s a blowout I can
do more of the big picture. But if it’s
coming down to the wire I will write during
timeouts or during any break that I can
get. Then, I’ll start to kind of get some
running of key plays, something that
happened or a big run or things like that,
so that I’ll have that on background to
add to that skeleton file.
“Then it depends on usually if it’s
not a blow out and I don’t have
the lead written, then I’ll write it
right at the buzzer: “This is what
happened” and then kind of
massage the rest of that
skeleton. That allows me to have
about 12 inches or so of a
running story that I can hit at the
buzzer.”
 4.
 “I
TWO FILES OR ONE?
always keep one file going. But
there are times where I may write it
like it’s a win or a loss on the same
file. To me, it’s just easier. I can have
the, “They are going to win” graph
and then below it I can have the
“They are going to lose” graph.
Then I can just delete one. For me,
it’s just easier to work off of one
than to try to get caught up
between two files.”
THE WRITETHRU (The running
story has been filed)
1.
Questions for Coach
2. Questions for Players
3. Time to write and rewrite
4. Descriptive writing,
scene
 1.
QUESTIONS FOR COACH BUD
“Now,
it’s time to run off to the
coach’s press conference. He’ll
speak about 10 minutes after
the end of the game. He’s
supposed to. Sometimes it’s
longer than that. Then I do that
interview and the locker room
gets opened.
2. QUESTIONS FOR THE PLAYERS
 “I’ll
buzz through there. Again, this
depends on how much time that I have
and what my deadline is. That will dictate
how much time I can spend in the locker
room. Sometimes, I literally might only
have 10 minutes in there to get players.
Sometimes, I might have more (time). So, I
just try to move around and talk to as
many players as I can. But that’s all
dictated by time.”
 3.
TIME TO WRITE, RE-WRITE
 “Then
I just run back (to the
computer).
Sometimes what I’ve written can hold
and I can just add some quotes to
the running story. Sometimes, I might
have to blow it up because there is a
key play, key injury or somebody said
something after the game that would
merit me re-working the story. But
generally speaking, I’ve got about an
hour to come back at it.
 “As
much of the skeleton of a story that I
can keep, the better. But If I need to retweak it, I can. Maybe some of that
running that I wrote at halftime can
disappear and that’s kind of how I do it. I,
obviously, prefer reaction after the game
over anything or something like the key
play. But like I said, if it’s a blowout and
you kind of got a frame (of a good story)
you might just put quotes in (the story)
about what they said.”
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4. DESCRIPTIIVE WRITING/SCENE
“I try to use as little of the description of the
game or scenes as possible because it’s hard.
You don’t know if that play is going to end up
being important or not. I’ll use some color
sometimes if I can hear a coach say
something or a player says something I may
use that. I’m more concerned about going
‘here are the facts’ because I don’t have a
lot of time. Then just take that, and I’ll
expound on it in the writethru. I’ll tend to do
more of that after the fact.”
Twitter:
@CvivlamoreAJC