What It Meant to Me
After two seasons, Dan Olinger bids a fond farewell to the Rights to Ricky Sanchez extended family.
May 10, 2012. Trailing 78-77 with seven seconds remaining, the Sixers fouled Bulls’ center Omer Asik in hopes to extend the game.
I was at that game in Wells Fargo Center. Basketball was already a core part of my life. The Sixers? Not as much.
Sure, I had a jersey and would keep track of the team’s progress through each season. I’d seen the incredible Lou Williams’ game winner against the Big 3 Heat the year before. But I didn’t live and die with the team game after game. An 82-game schedule filled with 8 p.m. tip-off times on weekdays doesn’t exactly fit into the daily schedule of an elementary school kid. I wanted them to win games, but I couldn’t say at that point they were an integral part of my life.
Then Asik missed both free throws. Andre Iguodala grabbed the rebound, took it the length of the court, and drew two free throws of his own, both of which he made despite shooting just 61.7% from the charity stripe that season. Moments later CJ Watson’s full-court heave hit the back of the rim and bounced wide. Wells Fargo erupted into euphoria as Iggy jumped on the scorer’s table. The eight-seeded Sixers had knocked off the one-seeded Chicago Bulls.
That moment changed me from a kid who liked basketball and just happened to be a Sixers fan, to a basketball fanatic who loved the Sixers. I could talk for hours about everything I remember from following the team for the next decade. Obviously there were a lot of big moments that almost any fan could tell you, but it’s the less-discussed instances that I cherish more for whatever reason. I remember watching the Sixers lose to the Mavericks so badly during the 2014-15 opener that they were down 73-29 in the third quarter, producing an all-time-underrated funny screenshot. I remember staying up late after my own basketball game to watch Joel Embiid announce himself as a superstar on the national level by dropping 46 points on the pre-LeBron Lakers. I remember sitting in my college gym’s lobby for three hours straight because I got distracted watching Shake Milton drop 39 points on the Clippers. For better or for worse, the Sixers were now a part of my identity.
In 2020, I got my first chance to write about the Sixers for an audience thanks to the good folks at Liberty Ballers. As nerdy as it sounds, it blew my mind that there were actually some people who cared about the things I wrote, that I wasn’t just spewing off my insane thoughts about basketball into the void. But I’d never talked to anyone working for the Sixers. I’d only ever been to a few games in-person as a fan, and there’s only so much you can know watching through a TV screen hundreds of miles away.
That changed in November of 2023. I messaged Spike what was probably a way-too-long rambling and incoherent email asking him to let me write for The Ricky. I thought it was a long shot. It’s hard to imagine a podcast you listened to on the regular for years just letting you join their operation, let alone the NBA’s most famous team-specific podcast by a country mile. Plenty of people talk about their favorite teams into a microphone, but how many have enough standing to start Retweet Armageddon and ring the bell in front of 20,000 people before a game?
To my surprise, Spike actually responded. Even more surprisingly, he actually wanted me for the job. It was one of the happier moments of my life, full stop.
Once again, there’s so many incredible moments I’ll remember from the last two years. From covering my first ever Sixers game as credentialed media, to making 36 out of 50 free throws to save my job, to witnessing Embiid’s 70-point masterpiece just a few rows away from the court, to hearing Madison Square Garden go silent after Tyrese Maxey’s season-saving shot in Game 5. I’ll never forget any of it.
But truthfully, like my time watching the Sixers when I was just a fan instead of a writer, it’s the smaller things that honestly mean more to me. Like every time Spike or AU reached out to me to let me know that they particularly liked one of my articles, or any time any of you reading this article commented to let me know that I’d done a good job.
Putting yourself out there online can be pretty stressful. I know I constantly worried about whether people liked the work I was doing. The fear that people might not like you and that you’re not good enough to have a legit audience and platform is real. But every time someone on Substack, Twitter, Bluesky, or even on the RTRS Reddit told me they appreciated what I wrote, it brought a gigantic smile to my face. It sounds cheesy, but all those comments really did mean the world to me.
As most of you know, this is my last post for RTRS, and probably the last bit of writing you’ll see from me anywhere for a while. It was a lot of fun, and the fact that it all happened still feels like a dream come true, even as I’m moving on to a different chapter in my own life.
Of course, when it comes to thanking people, the wonderful people here at The Ricky are those I have to thank the most.
Spike – who took a chance on a kid who probably came off with way too much weird energy asking for the job, yet believe in me anyways. I admire so much about Spike, particularly his confidence in himself and the confidence he puts in everyone working for him. Without question the best boss I’ve ever had.
Mike – who put up with me randomly messaging him at weird times about my favorite second-round draft prospects and somehow always had his own thoughts to contribute no matter how niche a basketball player I mentioned to him.
AU — not just one of the nicest people I’ve worked with, but one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. A person who treated me with kindness in every situation and consistently made me a better writer despite having to put up with rough drafts that were probably 1,000 words longer than they should be.
CJ – who put up with me sending him random videos all the time and never once complained about it despite me asking some pretty unreasonable things. An amazing person who does an amazing job.
MOC – a true ball knower and a person who was nice enough to encourage me in the way I wrote and confidently talk about basketball. Additionally, one of the few people I know who publicly supported my enthusiasm for Derik Queen. That’s a true friend right there.
Zo – one of the few Sixers fans I know who was willing to chop it up with me about college football. I’ll never forget us simultaneously predicting that the Michael Penix Washington team would beat Oregon in the final Pac-12 Championship game despite being huge underdogs.
Abbie – who supported my love for Pokemon even when most Sixers fans and Ricky readers probably had no clue what I was talking about whenever I referenced it in a tweet.
Ahmed – Short lived as it was, The Draft Council was a blast and I loved talking to someone each week who knew so much about basketball at every level of the sport. A great guy and one who I’d highly recommend all of you keep following for more incredible ball knowledge.
The list could go on for so much longer. Obviously a huge shoutout to Adam Ksebe for sponsoring The Danny the past two years. Shoutout to all the people on the Sixers beat who helped me out the past two years during games at Wells Fargo, and to everyone on the communications staff for the Sixers, who were awesome to work with and kind enough to credential me for games from Philly to Las Vegas.
None of this happens if Asik makes one of those two free throws, or if Iguodala misses one of his. I probably would have gone on just being a relatively normal Sixers fan instead of an obsessive one, and I wouldn’t have had the passion I needed to make this team a part of my identity and write about them for nearly a half-decade. The Sixers have meant so much to me and always will. But even more than that, The Ricky has meant so much to me, and always will.
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
“The Danny” is brought to you by the Official Realtor Of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
appreciated your work, Dan. best of luck on the next step
I'll miss you covering the team Dan. I loved reading your breakdowns in my email, especially on the draft this past year. It had me diving into more YouTube prospect highlights than I typically watch. The Sixers as we know aren't an easy to follow but there are some great people who cover the team and you were certainly one of them.