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Who are you?
My name is Salman Ali. At the time of writing this, I’ve covered the Houston Rockets in both an unofficial and official media capacity for the better part of a decade. I’ve also hosted the Houston Rockets podcast ‘Red Nation Hoops’ since 2015.
What is ‘Red Nation Hoops’?
Red Nation Hoops is a blog I created and ran in the mid-to-late 2010s. Although it’s run was short lived, Red Nation Hoops helped spawn my media career and gave a lot of young writers their first at-bats. It gave birth to the Red Nation Hoops podcast and forged several lifelong friendships along the way.
I stepped down as managing editor in 2019 after being offered a position at USA Today Sports Media Group. The blog disbanded soon after and I begrudgingly chose to forfeit the domain ‘RedNationHoops.com’. I continued covering the Rockets for various publications, but never fully abandoned RNH. In fact, the podcast kept producing episodes long after the blog disappeared.
When this newsletter was in the planning stages of early 2022, I purchased the domain back.
As I launch my independent media career, Red Nation Hoops will be the core of everything I do. It’s getting back to my roots of long-form opinion and analysis. More importantly, it’s getting back to my roots as a blogger. Perhaps over time, this cold and jaded heart can thaw away and beat for the Rockets again one day?
For now, this newsletter is my humble attempt to bring objective reporting, analysis, and opinion of all things Houston Rockets.
Why subscribe?
You have the right to know where your hard-earned money is going with this newsletter. First and foremost, every week you’ll get a new article sent to your email inbox. This article could be anything from hard reporting to my own musings on the current state of the team. ‘State of the Rockets’ was the newsletter that proceeded this and while RNH won’t be as formulaic, we’ll be taking temperature checks of the team quite a lot.
In addition to that weekly post, you’ll get a subscriber-exclusive episode of the Red Nation Hoops podcast every month. This means you’ll get five guaranteed episodes of RNH (4 free + 1 paid) every month when you sign up. It’s a way of showing my appreciation to the loyal listeners of the show.
There will also be a monthly mailbag where RNH subscribers get a chance to ask questions throughout the month.
Subscribe to get full access to Red Nation Hoops.
