About

In July 2012 Justin Verrier wrote an otherwise unheralded article about an otherwise undistinguished basketball player named Josh Selby for ESPN. Selby was on his way to being named the joint MVP of the NBA's Las Vegas Summer League but is not likely to ever be a superstar of the ilk of LeBron James. Or Lionel Messi. Or Sonny Bill Williams.

But, in a way, that's not the point. The point is that he might be. He could be. It is the possibilities of sport that transfix us. The Chief Sports writer of the English newspaper the Times, Simon Barnes, wrote in The Meaning of Sport that his fascination with sport stems from a pursuit of perfection, of an excellence rarely achieved but at any time possible.

Or as Verrier put it:

Promise is the Siren of most sports leagues.

While the most productive teams obviously win the games, earn the accolades and take home the awards, the prospect for greatness is often more alluring. By definition, the unknown produces more intrigue than the known. (The interest in the Miami Heat, for example, should take a dramatic tumble now that they have won their title and the sideshow has essentially been packed up. Rather than playing the villain role they were cast into since The Decision, the Miami Heat will be only a really good team. Oh, how boring.)

Whether you follow basketball or not (and I would consider myself to have only a blossoming interest in the NBA), in those two paragraphs Verrier somehow captures the essence of what makes sport, at least for me, so compelling.

On Promise is the Siren you won't find the latest sports scores (check your Twitter) or fact-based match reports (your favourite news website has got it covered better than we ever could) but you will find important context, thoughtful comment and considered opinion that takes you beyond the bare essentials of water-cooler banter to the stories behind the scorelines - often less obvious but more interesting - and the possibilities that exist sometimes only in our imaginations as we celebrate not just the headline-grabbers but the seductive and intoxicating potential for greatness that unites sports fans everywhere.

At Promise is the Siren we are fascinated by sports generally, but have a particular focus on stories emanating out of football (soccer), rugby league and basketball, and more than a passing interest in rugby, cricket and ice hockey. Whilst we reserve the right to write about other sports, we'll aim to do so only when our interest and/or expertise warrants it.

Promise is the Siren draws its inspiration from the likes of Bill Simmons and others at Grantland; Sarah Winterburn, Nick Miller and others at Football365; and Martin Lenehan, Matt Logue, Steve Mascord and others at Rugby League Week.

In keeping with the philosophy of celebrating brilliant and innovative sports writing, Promise is the Siren is also influenced by a series of writers whose work is not confined just to columns, articles or blogs but manifests itself in book form. The relative scarcity of good sports books in a sea of largely terrible ghost-written autobiographies is something of which we are all too aware and we aim to reward good sports writing by highlighting it on this blog. Some books that have already proven particularly influential are Bill Simmons' The Book of Basketball, Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski's Soccernomics, Michael Lewis's Moneyball and The Blind Side, Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid and, although not always strictly about sport, just about anything by Malcolm Gladwell.

We hope that as well as enjoying what you read on these pages, you would also be inspired to go out and consume good sports writing wherever it might be found. We'll aim to direct you to it whenever it comes to our attention and feel free to get in touch to let us know what you think of the blog, other writers we should be aware of, or any other crazy sports-related ideas you might have. After all, the possibilities are endless and, as always, Promise is the Siren.

Ben Jefferson
Promise is the Siren