Sportswriters share experiences writing about crazy NBA Finals Game 1: ‘Rip it up!’

The Indiana Pacers have proven throughout the NBA playoffs that you should expect the unexpected.

But if you’re a sportswriter, often times your job is to anticipate, especially if you’re on a tight deadline. The realities of our modern sports media ecosystem necessitate that some writers, depending on the type of piece they’re writing, need to start drafting their article prior to the end of a game.

So when Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton flipped Game 1 of the NBA Finals on its head during the fourth quarter last Thursday, many sportswriters had to rip up the first drafts of their pieces. Some of those sportswriters shared their experiences with The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov ahead of Game 2 on Sunday night.

“I might need to retweak my takeaway lol,” Knicks writer James L. Edwards III said during Game 1 in the publication’s Slack channel.

“RIP IT UP!” an editor wrote.

“LMAOOOOO welcome to my playoffs experience, everyone,” NBA writer Shakeia Taylor, who has covered the Pacers throughout the playoffs, also wrote in Slack. “You cannot write before the game ends,” she added.

That may be true for a Pacers beat writer, but that might be more exception than rule. Anyone watching Game 1 would agree, the Oklahoma City Thunder looked in control for 40 minutes before the Pacers surged late. Few people, other than Pacers fans, likely saw a comeback coming.

But that’s the beauty of sportswriting. Occasionally, you get to write about something completely unexpected. Thursday fit that bill, at the cost of some rough drafts that never saw the light of day.

Writers might not want a Haliburton miracle every game, but every once in awhile? That’s what makes a great story, even if meeting that deadline might be a little more stressful.