With trust in the mainstream media dwindling daily, it’s no wonder corporate sports journalism is also losing ground. Partisanship and traffic-driven agendas have diluted the public’s trust in NBA talking heads. As anyone with a microphone and laptop can start a podcast, a DIY community of fan-driven podcasts has emerged. Not every team has the rabid fanbase and legacy to earn multiple DIY podcasts. But many fans of coastal, big-market teams have tired of the chaos-for-clicks of ESPN and the like.
Podcasts have become popular because fans yearn for X’s and O’s instead of hyperbole. With this in mind, we have omitted podcasts hosted by former or current NBA players, as these have received plenty of love online. Instead, we collected the best of the bunch, spotlighting teams with large networks of fan-made pods.
For a franchise filled with celebrities, bandwagon jumpers, and fairweather fans, there is a subset of die-hard purple and gold Laker fanatics. The pod features creator Pete Zayas, Mike Trudell, and the controversial Darius Soriano (who is a lightning rod, with fans split on his appeal. I, for one, love him). Zayas, a former basketball coach and a content creator for Lakers org., decided to create a pod around his favorite team. And this pod isn’t for LeBron James fans who hop from team to team, depending on whose jersey he wears. The Laker Film Room is just as interested in the last guy on the bench as James’ output at 38.
The Knick of Time Show melds intellectual discourse with street credibility while breaking down the good, bad, and ugly of the New York Knicks. Created by J Ellis, co-hosts Ryan G. and Ebony Dumas rely on. Knicks fans are the most thoughtful, most well-read fans in the league, and you have to come correct with the stats and the facts to engage them. Ellis’ pod is the antithesis of the “Knicks for Clicks” propaganda of the mainstream media, focusing on analytics and talk radio-style fan call-ins to allow everyone to have a voice in discussing the legendary Knicks. Ellis also recently debuted a Knicks-themed game show, KnicK-Tac-Toe.
The Miami Heat Beat offers fans a stacked blog full of analytics, in-depth analysis, and a nightly pod covering every post-game. What more could you want? Hosted and produced by Giancarlo Navas and Brian Goins, the duo described their brand of commentary as a “clunky mixture of data-driven analysis and on-air buffoonery.” But in an age where way too many sports pods take themselves too seriously as micro-celebrities, the Miami Heat Beat is a refreshing take on hoops with brevity balanced with smart debates on Heat ball.
So this one isn’t a conventional “podcast,” but Slightly Biased’s brand of green-screen performance art is the best piece of Mavs media in a landscape filled with corporate shills, propagandists, and homers. We have no idea his real name, and it doesn’t matter. What does is his insane loyalty to streaming live on Twitter during every single Mavs game, giving his off-the-cuff reactions and sardonic brand of observational comedy. Slightly Biased is the best single personality behind any team’s platform, and he consistently outshines the Mavs in-house media as the go-to source for well-rounded discussions on the good, bad, and ugly of Mavs basketball.
It’s been a seemingly endless rebuild since Paul George left the team in 2017. Tom Lewis with Indy Cornrows has been there for it all, tracking the team’s progress building through the draft and eventually trading for All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton. Indiana is a hoops-obsessed state, and Lewis delivers the goods, keeping the current squad in context to the last 20 years of Pacers hoops. Even when the fools at SB Nation dropped the blog as part of their programming, Lewis went independent, continuing to give Pacers fans an authentic place to air their grievances and unite over the best team the franchise has had since the 2012-2013 season.
The Hawksbeat host, Edwin “E-Dub” Powell, is a smart-as-hell OG who has seen the slow-burn progress of the Hawks franchise as they escape “mid” and try to become a consistent contender. Powell has been covering the Hawks for eight seasons and works hard to incorporate fan feedback into the show’s format. No move is too small or niche, and the podcast has given in-depth analysis of roster moves like the summer signing of Wesley Matthews and the release of Tyrese Martin.
To host a podcast about the storied Boston Celtics franchise, it’s a prerequisite to know the history of the legendary team. The Celtics Lab, hosted by Alex Goldberg, Justin Quinn, and Cameron Tabatabaie, utilizes analytics, historical context, and hot takes to project what heights the Celtics’ current core will eventually reach, especially now that they have added Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis and shipped off Marcus Smart. They do a great job of contextualizing the local media landscape around the Celtics and how race and class impact how the team and players are covered.
Hosts Justin Rowan and Carter Rodriguez are hilarious on Twitter, and their podcast doesn’t disappoint. Neither take themselves too seriously, even though they are part of the team’s official media platform. Nor are they afraid of pissing off fans of other teams. Are they a bit homer? Sure. A bit obnoxious? At times. But are they passionate dudes with great chemistry who watch every game to deliver quality, in-depth coverage to their fans? Hell yes.
Hosts Haize and Pat The Designer have had difficult conversations lately about blowing up the Bulls roster to retool and build through the draft. That’s not a fun discussion to have pod after pod when the expectations were much higher when DeMar DeRozan joined Zach LaVine on the perimeter. The “Locked On” network can be known as a little pasty and bland, with look-a-like white bros misusing basketball terms. The die-hard duo behind Locked on Bulls are real ones, unafraid to roast their team’s effort or front-office moves.
As the Orlando Magic rise from the ashes of their rebuild, the NBA’s best young core deserves a podcast that holistically covers the team every step. Enter hosts Jonathan Osborne and Luke Sylvia have engaged the fanbase with 600-person draft parties. The vibes are high in Orlando, as they might take state supremacy from the Miami Heat this season. What stands out is Sylvia and Osborne’s reluctance to overhype the burgeoning young Magic stars, preaching patience about the potential and mistakes of Anthony Black, Paolo Banchero, and Cole Anthony.
Fans of this pod are proud they don’t act as a corporate mouthpiece for the Kings franchise. At times, they have been criticized for being “too negative.” Kings fans are a top-three fanbase in the NBA. Kings Pulse hosts Brenden Nunes, and Richard Ivanowski deliver sober analysis on the rising franchise as they escape decades of poverty. As most fans of bad teams do, Nunes and Ivanowski follow the entire NBA and bring this context into how they talk about and critique their favorite team.
Named after Mario Elie’s 1995 “Kiss of Death” shot and blown kiss, which helped to eliminate the Phoenix Suns in Game Seven of the Western Conference, hosts of Kiss of Death, Michael Brown and Jeremy Brener, cover in-depth analysis and interviews with current and former Rockets players and coaches, like Alperen Şengün, James Harden, John Lucas, Mike D’Antoni, Kevin McHale, Jeff Van Gundy, and the infamous Daryl Morey. Like any authentic pod, they refuse to sugarcoat things and freely critique their team, as they did heavily when Stephen Silas was the coach. They were an early proponent of the team selecting Cam Whitmore with the 20th pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, even though the once-lauded prospect fell in the draft due to poor team interviews.
