About Me

Basketball and writing have been in my blood for a long time. My high-school yearbook is full of "see you when you are covering the Sonics for The Seattle Times." And that's essentially what I did – cover the NBA for 17 years. But I also covered everything else – the Olympics, Goodwill Games, Final Four, Seahawks and NFL, Mariners and Major League Baseball, hydroplane racing, and lots more, literally taking me around the world. My first love always has been basketball and, when I became the first sportswriter ever to win a national writing award at the Times, it was for a profile of then-Sonic coach Bernie Bickerstaff. That story is so old, it's not even in the Times archives anymore. However, two others I won national awards for – about Gary Payton (The Son Also Rises) and Shawn Kemp (Man Child) – are still there. While we're on the subject, I've also had stories about Steve Largent (too old) and Soviet baseball (Comrades of Summer) published in books. I also was the main author of Rising Stars: The 10 Best Young Players in the NBA for SI for Kids Books. It should come as no surprise that my wife, Florangela Davila, also used to work The Seattle Times, and now teaches journalism at the University of Washington and does work for NPR affiliate, KPLU.

My longtime involvement in basketball led me to coaching. I first coached boys and adults, then turned to girls when my oldest daughter, Sassia, was old enough. Our first team was an all-Asian team called the Dragons. Our last team was the Northwest HoopGurlz. My mentors in coaching are two historical figures – Bob Kloppenburg, who developed the SOS pressure defensive system, and Ernie Woods, the winningest community-college coach in Washington history. I helped set them up with a website while I was at Rivals.com, which now is the most impressive coaching site on the Web, Hoop Tactics. My other main coaching influence is Chris Bown, my coaching partner with the HoopGurlz. I also coached briefly in the Triple Threat program, where I met Chris Hansen, who now of course works with me at HoopGurlz.com. We have players now playing in college but, as objectively as I can be, the player who had the most heart, I'm proud to say, was Sassia. She loved taking charges and was unselfish, sometimes to a fault. Her personality isn't such that she was a consistently big scorer, but she put up numbers when we needed them. My youngest daughter, Mika, went to a lot of our games and still goes to a lot of games with me and loves to cheer for just about anyone. She just started Special Olympics activities, I'm proud to say, so we shortly will be able to cheer for her!

I earned two degrees – in journalism and political science – while also working on the student newspaper and in student government (I was SB vice president my senior year) at Seattle University. I also worked almost the whole time with a community newspaper chain that owned the Beacon Hill News and South District Journal, among others. I earned my Masters in American Government/Minority Affairs at Columbia University, where I studied under Charles V. Hamilton, the co-author of the seminal Black Power. I also played a lot of basketball in New York City, including down at the famous Cage down at West 4th and 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village.

I thank those who have read this far. I want to wrap this up with a list of some of my Favorite Things, to help you know me better and turn you on to some cool things:

Barneys New York
Fred Segal
Leffot
Lost Boys
Kobo
Honestly, if I didn't start with these shopping Meccas, people who really know me would go, "Huh?" Yes, my name is Glenn and I'm a shop-a-holic. And not just for anything, either. I love clothes. Back when I was covering the NBA, I wanted to bust out of the "Oscar Madison" look that permeated the profession, so I focused on dressing nicely and got to know all the big stars of the era because I found every meaningful clothier in the country. I don't mind saying that we have two closets in our bedroom – one is twice the size of the other and that big one is mine. True story! Anyway, Barneys is the gold standard and there's one in most major cities. My favorite is the one in Beverly Hills, mostly because of the great layout, but the flagship on Madison Avenue is a very close second. My all-time favorite joint, Fred Segal, is the place the stars shop in L.A. and is the place for the West Coast look. Leffot, which is on the corner of Christopher and Gay in New York’s West Village, is the dreamiest place in the country for shoes and following the store’s blog will have you salivating. Speaking of salivating, Kelly Muccio hand picks everything in Lost Boys, the Georgetown (DC) boutique she started because, well, no one else was doing anything better for men. If I could buy only one label, it would be John Varvatos, which is American, so it fits me — not to mention the luscious fabrics and fabulous scarves. Finally … if you visit Seattle, you need to stop by one of Kobo's two locations. The one down in the International District (Jackson Street) is bigger and has a historical section. This place is run by my friend, Binko, and her husband John. I've known Binko since high school and we were roomies in New York City while we both were in grad school (and she had the rent-controlled apartment). I don't think I've ever left that store without buying something. Check out the website because it's equally beautiful.

Beat Seat in the House
HarleySoltes.com
Strobist
National Press Photographers Association
National Press Photographers Association
National Association of Photoshop Professionals
Nikonians
Even users of this website know my latest, greatest passion is photography. Most of my mother's family back in Japan is involved in the camera business, so it's kind of in my blood. That and being Japanese makes me pretty gizmodo. But I really got past the point-and-shoot interest level because of this website. I want a website about girl's sports to be very visual and, from all the feedback, it's hit home with many. So the first link is to my buddy Rod Mar's hellacious blog on sports photography. I've been all over with Rod on stories and he's always been a shooter who could write while I now am a writer who can also shoot a little. He does a great job explaining how he made his awesome sports pictures – as an added bonus, he has a great sense of humor. The second link is from my friend Harley's personal site. I have to say that no one captures the moment better than he, and it was the result of a lot of planning. He and I also went on assignment together to the Soviet Union; it was supposed to last 10 days and we stayed nearly a month. The Strobist is the website I probably check more often than my own because it is a tremendous study in off-camera lighting. The others are organizations to which I belong, helping the non-stop process of self-education.

Pacific Northwest Ballet
Bumbershoot
Seattle Audubon Society
La Medusa Restaurant
Cook's Illustrated
Do grown men do the ballet? I sure love it. It's like basketball, if you think about it – athletic and theatrical. The "PNB" is the only thing to which I have season tickets. One of my recent highlights was taking a sidetrip to New York and seeing the New York City Ballet with a couple of my former students. Bumbershoot is the music and arts festival in Seattle and where I live the entire Labor Day Weekend. It is great for sampling and discovering different types of music. OK, believe it or not, I'm a birdwatcher – though more of a birdfeeder. The past year, I moved the feeders up to the main deck and it's a constant show. We have a family of Northern Flickers who are regulars, a Downy woodpecker that we call "Bobby" (as in Robert Downey Jr.), a hummingbird we call "Buzzy," chickadees, junkos, sparrows, finches, Stellar jays, the occasional hawk, a couple of squirrels I like but have cut off their access to the bird seed. I also will make occasional trips to bird watch. Last but certainly not least, La Medusa, with the great, young chef, Julie Andres, serves up "Sicilian Soul Food" and is our favorite place. It is a miracle in a neighborhood within walking distance called Columbia City, which was a DMZ when I was growing up in Seattle. On the same block, Julie's husband, Evan, operates the Columbia City Bakery, which offers up sinfully delicious breads and pasteries. I've also recently taken up cooking (after decades of eating out at least 10 times a week) and I now read Cook's Illustrated way more than I read Sports Illustrated.

Unforgiven
Seattle International Film Festival
Beloved
Thomas Marriott
Unsung Hero
House
Battlestar Galactica
Damages
Entourage
Think I have some time issues? In addition to the website, to my family, and all of the above, I also love the movies, love to read and love listening to music, especially jazz. And, of course, in a household that includes a TV writer, there are plenty of shows to watch. Unforgiven is my all-time favorite movie, not because it's a Western, but because I love Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman and it's about friendship and a man seeking redemption. I've managed to shoehorn a constant presence at the Seattle International Film Festival into my busy schedules. I love to read. It is the way I've learned to do most things and the best way to get inspired when I'm on a major writing project. I’ve gotten to know trumpeter Thomas Marriott through a project I helped do for KPLU and, in addition to being a talented jazz musician, he’s a great guy. My all-time favorite "album" is Unsung Hero by saxophonist Charlie Rouse. It's sometimes sad but always moving. House is the program whose episodes I'd watch over and over. Certain people think it's because I can relate to House and, I have to admit, I can be a bit of a butt sometimes. I started watching Battlestar on my video iPod and think it's the smartest show on TV, plus the only place where women and minorities appear in power and as equals. It's also a metaphor for the stresses of multicultural societies. I also love the high tension, grittiness and strong female characters of Damages. Finally, you may have to be a guy to really get it, but Entourage is dead on about the Hollywood scene, a scream and Ari Gold could be the second-best character on TV, after House. We may disagree on that, but we can hug it out afterward!