LA Clippers rookie Jason Preston was an NBA blogger before his career took off

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

Like most NBA players, Reggie Jackson spent the evening of July 29 tracking the draft, specifically the moves of the LA Clippers. 

Jackson was a free agent at the time, but he had spent the previous season in Los Angeles and knew he might re-sign with the team. 

Early in the draft’s second round, the Clippers acquired the rights to the 33rd pick, a point guard out of Ohio University named Jason Preston. Soon after, Jackson looked at his phone and saw that someone had shared a link with him. It was for an old blog post from a site called Piston Powered.

Jackson had never heard of the site but clicked anyway. The link sent him to an article from August 2016 titled "Reggie Jackson doesn’t think the Pistons have a ceiling." It featured a picture of Jackson wearing his Detroit uniform and a familiar name in the top left corner, where the author’s byline usually went. Which confused Jackson because the name of the author was Jason Preston.  

"I really thought it was just a mix-up," recalled Jackson, who in August re-signed with the Clippers. 

Most players pivot to the media after the conclusion of their playing careers. Preston took a different path. Not only is he likely the first person to ever go from blogging about the NBA to playing in it, but it’s fair to assume he’s also the first sportswriter to become teammates with players he once covered. 

"I never envisioned playing with somebody who wrote a piece on me," Jackson said. "Sportswriters are typically older."

Preston’s blogging career began in high school, the way so many sportswriters start. At just 6 feet tall and a scarecrow-like 140 pounds and after averaging less than two points per game as a junior at William R. Boone High School in Orlando, he recognized that his physique was not that of a professional athlete, no matter how much he loved the game. 

A die-hard Pistons fan, he’d spend his nights scrolling through Twitter, scanning Pistons fan blogs, devouring everything written about the team. The job seemed fun. He figured he’d give it a try. He enjoyed reading the Piston Powered site, a fan-centric blog that was part of the FanSided network. He found the editor’s name and sent him a direct message on Twitter asking if he could contribute. 

"But he was 16, which was too young," said the site’s editor, Duncan Smith. "So we told him he could check back in on his birthday, and if he still wants to write for us at that point, he’d be good."

A few months later, on Aug. 10, 2016, Preston turned 17. He followed up with Smith that day. His first post, which was published soon after, led with the headline, "Which Piston starter will make the biggest leap next season?" It featured sober assessments of Jackson and forward Marcus Morris, who now also plays for Clippers, and an ode to Stanley Johnson.

"I love Stanley Johnson," Preston wrote. "He is a straight dog, one of the best competitors in the league."

About a month later, Preston aggregated a story about the Pistons’ desire to build a practice facility in downtown Detroit. His first game recap came in November, following a Pistons comeback win over the Denver Nuggets. He graded Morris a "B" ("Morris looked like himself tonight, scoring in a variety of ways, and bringing his usual toughness on the defensive end.") and head coach Stan Van Gundy an "A."

Preston contributed to Piston Powered for six months, often drafting articles while sitting in class. For his final blog, which came in February 2017, he handed out postgame grades after a dispiriting Pistons home loss, including a "C" for Jackson. 

"Many times throughout the game, Jackson would take a tough long jumper, early in the shot clock that just was not needed," Preston wrote about his future teammate. "It is a huge momentum killer when those shots do not fall."

Preston had caught the sportswriting bug. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the University of Central Florida with the intention of majoring in journalism. But around that time, a friend invited him to play in an AAU tournament. By then, Preston had shot up to 6-foot-4 and had refined his skills. He dominated the tournament, impressing some college coaches, who told him he had a chance to play Division I ball.

So like so many other sportswriters before him, Preston abandoned the field to pursue a more lucrative career. 

He left UCF, enrolled at a Tennessee prep school and put up big numbers. That earned him a scholarship to Ohio, where he was named First Team All-MAC last season after averaging 16.8 points, 7.4 assists and 6.4 rebounds per game. He also led the school to an upset victory over Virginia in the NCAA Tournament, all of which caught the eyes of the Clippers.

"He has an incredible story," Lawrence Frank, the team’s president of basketball operations, told reporters after the draft. "His senior year, he averaged about as many points as I did, and I got cut from my high school team."

Preston’s path to the NBA was both improbable and inspirational. But zero-to-hero stories are also nothing new for the world of professional sports. More rare is the player who has already blogged about the people he now calls teammates, which, I thought, could make life awkward if they’ve read his work.

"I’ve spoken to both Marcus and Reggie about it," Preston told me this week over the phone. "They both thought it was cool. It’s a pretty crazy coincidence."

Sidelined since undergoing right foot surgery in early October, Preston’s basketball activity has been limited to watching practices, studying film and sending questions to coaches over text. 

"It’s hard being out," he said. "I think I’ve taken some positive steps, but I wish I had more opportunities to learn and showcase what I can do." 

So what grade would he give his own offseason? 

"An incomplete," he said. 

With more free time, might Preston want to dive back into his previous career? Maybe he could recap Clippers games or blog about life as a rookie? 

"I’m a player now. I’ll leave that to you guys," he said. But he also added another reason: "Blogging’s a lot of work." 

That's a sentiment any writer can relate to. And anyway, Preston was already pivoting to other platforms. He recorded a video on his draft experience for Uninterrupted's YouTube channel over the summer, and now, like so many other sportswriters, he's thinking about all his multimedia possibilities.  

"I might convert it into more of a podcast thing," Preston said.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.