Christian Meyers Interview Published on: 29, Aug 2022

My biggest hobby growing up was playing basketball. I still play pick-up ball on occasion with my friends, but when I was younger, I used to play a lot by myself. I wasn’t just practicing my jump-shot or ball-handling skills, but I had a very creative imagination that kept me busy during those times alone. I pretended I played for the Los Angeles Lakers, and I had a schedule of the teams that we needed to play on certain days. I played out all the four quarters and the different scenarios in my head. Sometimes we won, and sometimes we lost. So I miss that creative side of me and that wild imagination that I had as a child. It’s that blissful ignorance and innocence that comes with being a kid, and it’s something that simply goes away when you grow up.

All the free time that I had. As a kid, the only responsibility that you had was doing your homework and the occasional chores that you had to help with. So my days were filled with a lot of playtime and little projects that I would entertain myself with. At this stage of my life, I feel like I have two jobs. I have my full-time job and this writing career that I’m trying to establish. Free time is scarce, and I would prefer to not use the prime of my life to work non-stop.

It was in seventh grade when my language arts teacher made the class write about whatever we wanted every Monday morning. I wrote about various things, but I mostly wrote about the sports games that I watched over the weekend. My teacher gave me a lot of encouragement by complimenting my writing style. She said that it had a good voice. That helped spark the interest that I had in writing.

I wrote about the 90 greatest players in NBA history on one of my friend's blogs that he had. That website no longer exists, but it was a way to get my feet wet. I remembered I read that article a little before the website was taken down, and I was a little embarrassed by my takes and some of the mistakes I made as a writer. But I’m glad I had that experience and it allowed me to improve my writing skills.

In 2018 I took writing a lot more seriously and I started my own blog. I wanted to redo my top 90 players list that I made, and I extended it to the top 100 players NBA players of all time. Shortly after I finished that two-part article series, I wrote about the top 50 greatest playoff runs by a player. At the time, I was writing articles just for fun. However, I remember distinctly where I was when I decided to write this book. I was in the parking lot of a shopping center in Cincinnati, and I was in the car waiting for my wife to finish shopping. I was thinking about my future and if I was ready to park behind a desk and make banking my career. There was something in me that wasn’t ready to make that decision, and I wanted to at least try to do something that I genuinely enjoy doing. So I realized that I already have close to 50% of the content that would make up for my book, so I decided to dedicate myself fully to writing my first book right then and there.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with either option. I believe it’s all preferential. I think there are a lot of benefits to choosing the conventional publishing option, especially when it comes to marketing the book. They also provide a safety net to the writers because you know they’re putting your book out there in front of the public. However, I believe there is a bigger reward if you take the self-publishing route. You just have to truly believe in your work and in your abilities. If you do the leg work, if you try to master the marketing side of things, and if you have the patience, then I believe you can really reap the rewards. That’s the mentality that I have, and that’s why I decided to self-publish.

I think the impact of writing is as big as it’s ever been, we just don’t consume it the same way. If you are a content creator, then you know how much writing you have to do just to put videos out there for the public. We are in the golden age of content, and there are a lot of talented writers out there who are responsible for the incredible shows and movies that are out there for us to consume. We as writers just have to be willing to adapt and try to convey our stories in a different way to reach another demographic of potential fans. There are always going to be people who prefer consuming these stories in written form. If it hasn’t gone away now, then it never will. But the power that we have in our pens, or in our keyboards, has never been as evident as it is now.

At least five years of dedicated study. I consider myself a basketball historian, and I’m always viewing box scores, old games, and old sports articles about the events of the past. So that’s something that I’ve always researched for fun, but I started really diving into the history of the game once I wrote that first article that I mentioned previously. I also made sure to listen to the perspectives of other NBA experts to try to understand the many different ways that people view greatness, and sometimes you have to be willing to make adjustments to the way you view things.

The reader communicated with me through Twitter, and his Twitter handle didn’t have a name. But he told me how happy he was that he bought the book and that it was well-written. He even told me that I need to find a way to reach out to a sports page called “The Ringer” and its creator, Bill Simmons because the book was pure gold. I told him how flattered I was for his kind words and that I wish it was that easy to get in touch with such a popular sports figure. But I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Some of it is grammatical. Sometimes I feel like I overuse commas and there are a few misspelled words that I overlooked in the editing process. My book is full of statistics and facts about the different teams and players of the NBA, and I wanted to avoid dunking a whole bunch of numbers to the readers to the point that they felt overwhelmed. However, I felt like did miss a few opportunities to include some very interesting statistics about certain players that I’ve researched that would have made their case much more intriguing.

I enjoy doing a lot of physical activities. I work out 4 to 5 times a week and I still enjoy playing basketball. I love traveling like everyone else, but I make it a case to attend at least one sporting event when I visit a major city. And every time I go, I like to purchase some kind of souvenir from the stadium to remind me of the visit that I had. I also love music, and I find myself listening to music just to wind down. If the opportunity presents itself, I also enjoy attending concerts.

It’s not hard work if you love what you do. Writing is not hard for me. What’s hard is making it a full-time career and making it my primary source of income. Getting my name out there and the constant efforts to market the book is a little challenging.

They wait till the book is finished to market the book. I believe it’s never too early to start marketing your book, even if you’re in the brainstorming process.

I am the creator of a YouTube channel called “Basketball Universe”. It’s essentially an extension of the book that I wrote. I love talking about the legacies of the players and linking the current events to the past. I make a video once a week from that platform. My YouTube channel is not about hot takes or starting debates. It’s very light-hearted and there are a lot of fun topics that are entertaining but informative.

It’s been a good one. It’s very helpful to have a platform willing to constantly promote my book to the thousands of followers that they have. There aren’t many websites that also show the number of people who view my profile, and that’s also a very helpful feature.