Welcome to The Kings Beat with James Ham

Introducing The Kings Beat with James Ham

Author

James Ham
October 28, 2021

Where to begin…

For the last six years, all of my energy went into being the Kings Insider for NBC Sports Bay Area. Due to the complexities of corporate structures and the fact that the Kings are an out of market team in the midst of a 15-year playoff drought, the decision was made to sunset my position.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that I am now free to cover the Kings in my own way.

Being adaptable is key in the ever changing media world. Last Wednesday, it was announced that I am joining ESPN 1320 to work alongside Damien Barling and Kenny Caraway.

This is a new path and one that should be exciting and a lot of fun. I love the work they do on the D-Lo and KC show and I think I can bring something different to the programming.

Different. That is a term that you may hear me say or write a lot moving forward. After 11 years of covering the Kings for Cowbell Kingdom, ESPN’s TrueHoop, NBA.com and NBC Sports, I want this new adventure to be different.

My plan is to continue to cover the team on a daily basis, but I’m going to use the tools that are now readily available in 2021. For injury reports, starting lineups, game coverage, game recaps and video clips from practice, I will use social media, mostly centered around Twitter.

You will hear my voice on ESPN 1320, and after a little over a year away, I am excited to go back to my podcasting roots. The Kings Beat podcast is now available on major platforms, which is a tremendous creative outlet for me and something I miss dearly.

Lastly, this is my new and exciting platform to write from. The Kings Beat on Beehiiv gives me a chance to stretch my legs a bit and write engaging long form content. I hope you’ll subscribe and get the latest news and podcast links sent directly to your email inbox.

I won’t be writing every day, but more like three to four times a week to supplement the other work I am doing on other platforms. It won’t be standard game recaps or sidebars. I’ll write columns, features and reactions to major events.

Between ESPN 1320, social media, podcasting and The Kings Beat, I should have you covered for all of your Kings needs, but this is where you, the reader, listener and consumer of Kings content, have a voice.

How do you want your team covered? What type of information is most valuable to you? What guests would you like to hear from and what stories are you interested in learning more about?

In a sense, I want to start this new path with you walking alongside me.

For now, all of The Kings Beat content, including podcasts, will be open and free to the general public. Some of the content will soon be gated for paying subscribers, but that commitment will come with some added bonuses.

My call to action is simple. Please subscribe to the newsletter so you get the latest articles and podcasts delivered directly to your inbox. And if you want to get in on the ground floor and become a paid subscriber now, you will have unlimited access to articles and podcasts moving forward and I am also offering a virtual happy hour to celebrate the new endeavor to the first 50 people to jump in and lock down a paid subscription.

For those 50 paid subscribers, we’ll all log in to a Zoom video link with our favorite cocktail or other beverage and chat Kings basketball as a group. I’ll take suggestions on Kings coverage, answer questions and give you access to some of the stories and adventures I have encountered in my 11+ seasons covering the Kings.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.

-James

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