The strange connection between a small town in North Carolina, a near nuclear disaster and the NBA. Pro basketball players’ love affair with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Carmelo Anthony’s obsession with wine. 

Baxter Holmes has a knack for finding the untold stories in pro basketball, the ones that are kind of hidden from plain view but emerge through his tireless reporting. 

Baxter joins Brian this week to talk about his recent story about Kinston, N.C. and the unlikely pipeline that town has to the NBA. Baxter talks about how he followed the threads of this story, how he decided what to lede with, and how he handled the emotional nature of the story. Baxter also talks about his reporting process, how his editors have helped him find and shape stories, and why listening is such a lost art. 

Baxter Holmes on Twitter

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