See you around, Silver Screen and Roll

It has been almost nine years since I wrote my first blog post for this website. And I use the term “wrote” extremely loosely. The only sentence I composed in our since-sunsetted version of a daily links post — known as “The Credits,” longtime Silver Screen and Rollers remember — was “the day Lakers fans were dreading is finally here: Dwight Howard has chosen the Houston Rockets as his free agency destination.”

Still, despite that meager contribution, I was addicted. My parents and little brothers were probably so annoyed by how often I’d pull out my Samsung Galaxy Tablet while we were on that summer vacation in San Diego to proudly show them my name on the website I’d been an obsessive reader for years. It was a small opportunity, but just getting to do the work, for this community, at this site I loved so much for so long, was a dream come true.

A lot has changed in the nearly nine years since that post. I left Silver Screen and Roll. I came back. So did Dwight Howard (twice!).

I also graduated from Cal State Fullerton. I got married. I moved to Los Angeles and got to cover the Lakers as a beat reporter during their only good season in almost a decade… at least until the NBA and the world shut down due to a global pandemic.

Throughout it all, this website, and the community around it, have been there for me. Sticking with me as I had more creative freedom than I’ve ever had in my entire life. You humored me as I wrote about the ornithological legitimacy of Andre “The Big Penguin” Drummond’s nickname, investigate the urban legend of The Lakers Giraffe Logo, and you’ve stuck with me throughout this incredibly delayed and self-indulgent lede, and so I hope you’ll stick around for a few more paragraphs.

But, mostly, we’ve hung out together here for a whole lot of bad basketball. After all, the Lakers have gone almost 100 games under .500 (290-397) during my nine seasons writing about them. So there has been a lot of bad basketball, in addition to the one scintillatingly fun title run in 2020.

Still, even with losing as a near-constant for the first time in Lakers history, this website kept winning, and one of the many things that changed over that time was what I enjoyed about the work. My excitement started to be less about seeing my own name on the front page, and more about helping my team create the coolest content they could dream up.

That shift in passion is why I’m stepping away from running Silver Screen and Roll. But I’m not saying goodbye. Not just because my last attempt to leave — one that only lasted a few months — showed how futile me ever leaving this site for good is, but also because I’m not going far. I’m being promoted, to Editorial Manager for SB Nation’s NBA team brands, where I’ll be overseeing and trying to facilitate the continuing creativity of this fine blog and all of its sister sites.

But the new responsibilities that come with that work mean that my podcasting and blogging production is going to be far less frequent. So while I’m not going anywhere, you’ll likely be hearing from me quite a bit less. Whether that’s good news or bad news for you will depend on how often you agreed with my takes, I guess.

There are a metric ton of friends, mentors, colleagues and haters that I couldn’t have gotten this opportunity without, and so I won’t even attempt to name them all. You know who you are.

Including you, the person reading this. Thanks, Greg.

As far as what’s next for the site: A new editor-in-chief, obviously. I will continue to monitor things for now and still potentially post a bit if there is big, breaking news until we find my replacement, but we will be taking applicants to be the next site manager here in the next few weeks (we will post that opening on the homepage when it goes live).

But no matter who stewards her next, Silver Screen and Roll and this community are way bigger than me, and I know they will only continue to expand outwards and upwards with this incredibly talented staff who make the site what it is more than I (or any one person) ever could, anyway.

This blog was amazing before me, and after nearly a decade, it’s time for me to hang my ergonomic keyboard in the rafters along with the carpal tunnel braces and lumbar support cushions of Drew Garrison, Dexter Fishmore, C.A. Clark and Josh Tucker.

Eventually, we all have to move on from the Blog Life, but I’m going to always fondly remember the journey. So from that first post, to this last one, thanks for coming along with me for the ride.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.