Today we’d like to introduce you to Zak White.
Hi Zak, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi! my name is Zak White (@BarnBurnerZak) and I am proud to say I am a born and raised Memphian I spent the first 30 years of my life there until recently moving to Colorado. Growing up in Memphis and attending the University of Memphis means that basketball is a part of my DNA. I grew up a hoops fan watching the Tigers from the mid-90s and the Grizzlies ever since they made their debut in the Pyramid (remember Pax channel 50 anyone?).
In 2017, a friend of mine decided that he was going to start a blog and podcast network focused on Memphis sports (Grizzlies and Tigers) as well as movies – our website founder has his own movie podcast and has written and submitted multiple screenplay scripts to contest. My friend figured since there was a group of us that were texting, tweeting, and talking non-stop about these topics, it would be fun to share our knowledge and opinions with a greater internet audience.
This initial version of The BarnBurner was hosted on WordPress and ran for about five years in its original state.
We named the site The BarnBurner because there’s nothing better than a close game where intensity and passion are coursing through your veins. The score is close and it’s coming down to the wire. You can’t take your eyes off the action as you wait to see if your team will step up to the moment, or shrivel under the spotlight. This intense scene is what makes sports fans feel alive.
This is a BarnBurner.
During the time of our fledgling blog, we were deep into the grind of our first jobs post-college and figured that this could serve as a creative outlet for us to help ease the monotony and frustrations of the day-to-day that we were experiencing as newcomers to the professional world. Little did we know that what we were building was something that others were interested in and that we would ultimately plunge deeper than we ever expected.
We soon realized that our most popular content and the most interesting conversations were based around the Memphis Grizzlies. With this in mind, that is where we began to focus our creative energy.
We recorded over 100 podcast episodes of our Grizzlies podcast – The Backdoor Cut Show. We wrote hundreds of articles covering everything from game recaps to deep dives on Dillon Brook’s effectiveness. The original website that we built was found at the-BarnBurner.com and ran for the better part of five years.
However, in 2021, the founder of our site and another friend who was highly involved needed to stop contributing due to changes in their professional careers that made writing or podcasting on the topic of the Grizzlies a conflict of interest.
Around that time, I moved away from Memphis for the first time in my life. My family and I relocated to Colorado, about an hour north of Denver, for my job. It has been tough being away from the Ja Morant-led Grizzlies after suffering through half a decade of underwhelming basketball. But The BarnBurner gives me a good reason to stay connected to the team, to fans, my friends, and other hoop heads that love the Grizzlies and appreciate what they mean to the city of Memphis.
In late 2021, we decided to close up shop at our old WordPress site. However, I decided that even though my core group of friends who once were the backbone of the blog would not be able to participate, I still had an itch that needed to be scratched. I made the decision to keep The BarnBurner name alive by migrating over to the increasingly popular Substack platform and creating a newsletter under the same name (thebarnburner.substack.com).
Since starting The BarnBurner substack nearly a year ago, I have been reinvigorated with my passion for the Grizzlies and creating content that is thought-provoking, substantial, yet easily digestible by fans of all levels. I have found that this platform creates highly engaged subscribers and makes it easier to build that consistent follower basis with each article being pushed directly to their email inbox.
The NBA offseason is nearing an end and pre-season basketball is not far down the road I look forward to jumping back into the non-stop discussions and article creation and consumption that goes along with an NBA season.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not always been easy to create content. During the slow parts of the season, it can especially be hard to find topics to broach that is creative and insightful.
That’s where the online community comes into play. I frequently am interacting with Grizzlies fans on Reddit and Twitter to get my creative juices flowing and help me stay motivated to put digital pen to paper.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love the discourse with other fans as well as the confidence and learning that comes with writing and putting your articles out there to the world.
According to Steven Covey, it is important for successful people to have a hobby that allows them to be creative and exercise that part of their brain. For me, that hobby is writing and podcasting about the Grizzlies.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is providing great Grizzlies content to a fan base that deserves the best coverage. Until Ja Morant, the Grizzlies were rarely covered in the national media and didn’t often receive their flowers. I want to do my part to help keep them in the conversation across online platforms so that get the recognition that they deserve.
For example, The Athletic has not had someone dedicated to the Grizzlies in several seasons. Ja Morant is a superstar, but still, the national media doesn’t believe that Memphis warrants extensive and consistent written coverage.
Contact Info:
- Website: TheBarnBurner.substack.com
- Instagram: @TheBarnBurner
- Twitter: @barnburnerzak
