Pivot in Progress | Kev in Progress #3
Kevin talks pivoting from injury and what he's been doing lately.
i got surgery.
After falling while roller skating and tearing my deltoid ligament (ankle) and syndesmosis (ligament connecting tibia and fibula), I got surgery and have been bound to the couch and my office chair for several weeks. I had many aspirations and things I was excited about doing this summer that now are inaccessible to me. Being on a big boot/splint makes any amount of stairs look more threatening than biking across the bridge to the lakefront trail did just a few weeks ago. My recovery plan, as laid out by Dr. Lee, is looking like 6 months until anything resembling basketball or roller skating is possible. So here I am, in the dunker spot, choosing to pivot or to gaze solemnly out the window for the next six months.
my pivot in progress.
Nearly every one of what I call my Summer Craft Courses (hobbies to prioritize learning and experimenting curiously with) are now inaccessible to me: baking, coffee? Its a struggle to stand for any amount of time without getting tired or being at risk of falling. Biking, basketball, roller-skating, weight-lifting? Forget about it. The only thing left for me to do is to pivot. Unlike Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, and Tyrese Haliburton, my job doesn't require a healthy leg, I can pivot without an ankle. My pivot looks like returning to the alto saxophone I haven't touched since seventh grade. It looks like reading a lot of X-Men and Invincible comics. Picking up new skills like drawing. I feel lucky to have a breadth of interests and I wonder how an athlete pivots from injury when they've been reliant on their legs for so long?
For those who have been through injury or faced a tough scenario that forced you to pivot, leave a reply to this email with your experience.
i've been finding out.
I recently discovered the podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out (PTFO), what appears to be the best investigative sports journalism being done right now. In one, he broke a story on collusion between NFL team owners to reduce guaranteed contracts across the league, but especially in relation to star quarterbacks. In another episode, he goes deep on the NBA sports betting scandal, gathering sources by tracking obscure twitter and facebook accounts. Both of these investigations, beyond the shock factor of the content, blew my mind that this (currently) unaffiliated media person is able to find out so much. Whereas contemporary sports journalism consists of Stephen A. or Big Perk yapping on about awful takes, announcements of players being traded on twitter/bluesky, and player podcasts of fluctuating levels of entertainment and clownery, PTFO presents a nice shift from the pure entertainment angle.
updates in progress.
I've been DJing and posting on youtube, check me out by searching "KEV IN PROGRESS"
I posted pictures on instagram for the first time in a while.
what i'm listening to.
Let God Sort Em Out (Rap)
The Shadow of Your Soul (Jazz)
Jackie Mittoo (Reggae)