"They're Playing Basketball" is 10 years old today

Today, this website turns 10 years old. That makes us the third-longest-running women's basketball blog after Helen Wheelock's site (1999) and Mel Greenberg's blog (2005). It is great to see this birthday.

When I founded "They're Playing Basketball" one hot summer day in 2008, my goal was to write recaps of collegiate, WNBA and high school games I attended, as there were a lot of fantastic basketball happenings in Los Angeles at that time. Soon after that I got some writing jobs, situations changed, and so did the mission of this blog, which eventually resulted in WomensHoopsWorld, founded on this day in 2015. It has been a fun and unbelievable journey.

With the rise of the internet came the proliferation of writings, as a higher number of people now read news online than they do in print. At the turn of this decade, my aim became not only to write about the sport and tell the tales therewithin, but to bring light to all the stories of women's basketball, whether I wrote them or not. This is why, by the end of each day, readers of this blog are gifted with a comprehensive list of news links taking them to every major WBB story of the day, from local publications to ESPN to websites. If a piece tells a story, is written by actual journalists and shines light on an athlete, a team, a coach or the sport in general in a meaningful way, it will be linked here.

I am almost obsessive about it, as I comb dozens of websites every day for news to ensure that each and every morsel of the good stuff is properly exposed. As a writing and blogging perfectionist, I can safely say that no one finds more women's hoops news stories than me.

Call it a gift of love that extends from my journalistic roots.

Journalism used to be about bringing out the truth and shedding light on people and situations. In the early days of our country, the profession was considered an additional branch of government because of the checks and balances it provided. I got into journalism over 30 years ago because I felt compelled to tell the stories of life and people on Earth. That is why I am still a journalist today. (It is definitely not to get "clicks," etc, as is the purpose of some these days).

My favorite pieces to write are the stories about extraordinary people who aren't necessarily stars. The NCAA and WNBA are chock full of those women. Of course every sport needs its stars, but as Prince once sang, "we all got a space to fill.....everybody can't be on top." The people who occupy spaces 2-12 on a bench can be - and are - pretty damned fascinating. My pages are full of those players.

Right now women's basketball is in a great place. The skill set and level of play in college and the pros is off the charts. The game is moving to "position-less" basketball, which is highly-intriguing. Parity is prevalent throughout the collegiate and WNBA ranks, which elevates excitement exponentially. The women's hoops fan base is increasing, as is the size of the media core that covers the sport. These are promising times.

Thank you for reading this blog. It gets a huge number of daily views, and in tweeting out most of the links that are provided here, I get anywhere from 1 to 2 million tweet views per month. It is exciting to be spreading the women's basketball word in such a way. And in reading the stories linked here, you are increasing your knowledge of the game and thus, helping to grow it. Keep up the good work.

I promise to do the same.

- Sue Favor