{"id":36,"date":"2026-10-24T00:18:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T04:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/?p=36"},"modified":"2026-10-24T01:57:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T05:57:02","slug":"clueless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/24\/clueless\/","title":{"rendered":"Clueless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s basketball season again, which always brings me back to NBA on TNT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a couple of years, I photographed NBA on TNT without really knowing anything about basketball. I knew Michael Jordan was the greatest player who ever lived. Apparently, other people had opinions about this, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My ignorance occasionally required an explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once, during the All-Star Game, I was heading from a hotel to the venue when a producer told me to ride with Kenny Smith. As I climbed into the SUV, Kenny said, \u201cHey, no photos in the car, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure, no problem. I\u2019m crawling in back and sleeping until we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He smiled and gave me a thumbs-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we arrived, there was a crowd. People were calling out \u201cYo, Jet!\u201d and yelling his name, thrilled to see him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, weird,\u201d I said. \u201cWere you a ball player?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat? Yeah, man. I should be in the Hall of Fame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew Kenny as one of the hosts of the show I worked on. I thought he was a sports commentator, like Ernie Johnson. I usually saw him next to Shaq and Charles Barkley, which apparently had done something to my understanding of scale. Ask me about fighters or skateboarders. Those were my people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years later, thanks to my partner, basketball became a regular part of our evenings. I watched hundreds of games. I developed favorites, loyalties, and opinions that nobody had asked for. I loved an unexpected pass. I loved watching someone sink a three from an unreasonable distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I became, among other things, a very big Steph Curry fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, while adding photographs to my archive, I came across this frame of Curry and Chris Webber on set at the 2013 NBA on TNT Social Media Awards. I recognized Steph immediately. Such a young face, but unmistakably him. One of my all-time favorite players, standing in front of my camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I opened the metadata. Where his name should have been, I\u2019d left a blank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, I had no idea who he was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has become a recurring theme in my life. I find myself in the middle of something; I do my job, and move on. Years later, I learn enough to appreciate where I was and who was standing right in front of me. By then, of course, I can\u2019t go back and pay better attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something funny about becoming a fan of someone and then discovering you\u2019ve already met. There\u2019s a little regret in it, too. I wish I remembered more about that day. I wish I\u2019d known enough to enjoy it the way I would now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019m glad I made the photograph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s basketball season again, which always brings me back to NBA on TNT. For a couple of years, I photographed NBA on TNT without really knowing anything about basketball. I knew Michael Jordan was the greatest player who ever lived. Apparently, other people had opinions about this, too. My ignorance occasionally required an explanation. Once, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,15,12,16,13],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-clueless","tag-nba","tag-nba-on-tnt","tag-steph-curry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theemucommand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}