Inside the Press Box: Mike Wise

Storming the Crease is conducting a series of interviews with people who cover (or work for) the Caps and the NHL. You can find the complete log on the right sidebar. Today's twenty-first installment: Washington Post columnist Mike Wise.

1. Can you talk about your transition from New York to Washington and going from covering just the NBA to writing about everything?

I felt comfortable covering the NBA for so many years and, during the Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy years in New York, there was no more exciting thing. They were always in seven-game series or somebody would get suspended. There was plenty to write about. And I played basketball very poorly at a small college in Hawaii and at a junior college in Sacramento and I just felt comfortable with basketball.

But for me, I was always more interested in writing about people than sports. So to me, even though the things I didn't know, I tried to get to know the people around them. I figured if I write [about] them, then I'll know something about it.

2. How has the current trend of Internet usage by newspapers has changed your approach, if any?

I think it's made me more aware of the fact that there's so many media commodities out there that people have to chose from, so many options, that if you're not making yourself multidimensional; if you're not doing radio, if you're not doing video blogs for your newspaper, if you don't have a personality, that kind of thing, or if you don't like to do that kind of thing, I think you limit your career options.

I think that newspapers in general have to be aware of everything that's out there and make those changes without forgetting what they do best, which is write the definitive story that nobody else can. And I'm very aware of it.

I remember once Harvey Araton of the New York Times, my colleague and friend and columnist, said to me once maybe 10-15 years ago, 'why are you doing interviews on New York One?' or, I went on "The Charlie Rose Show," which was really cool, but he said 'why do you do all this TV?' or 'I heard you on the radio the other day.' And I think I saw Harvey not too long ago and he said to me, ‘keep going and doing that stuff. It's job security.'

For me, you have to be across different platforms to really be beneficial to your newspaper and make people read and watch because they can now.

3. Was your Donald Brashear profile the kind of story you're always looking for?

I wrote a Gilbert Arenas profile about two-and-a-half years ago and talked about the mother that abandoned him, the father that was the hero that drove him to Los Angeles so that he could become who he was, and I found myself, for whatever reason, drawn to these dysfunctional backgrounds. I think it helps me cope with my own, to be honest. (Laughs.)

On one level it's cathartic and it's gratifying especially when you get the response that you do. And on another level, I don't want to get too deep, but for some of the players that I've done these stories on that have really opened up to me and trusted me, and I've trusted them with incredibly sensitive information that a lot of people wouldn't want in front of the public, it's been a little bit of a healing thing for them.

I don't know if some of them may open the doors to their families and try to reconnect. Some of them won't. But the bottom line is that they've about those things for the first time in a long time in their lives and they're willing to share it. And if that helps them at all, then I feel like I've done my job.

The best thing that happened to me about that story was Donald Brashear e-mailing me and saying 'I don't usually talk about these things, and I never wanted to, but now that everybody's come up to me on the street and talked about the story, and people are e-mailing me at the team, I want to give out my personal e-mail and say to people who have children who have been abused or people who have dealt with abuse in their life, they want to e-mail me, here's my personal e-mail [address].'

And I'm thinking wow, this guy is now becoming an advocate for this and better for a guy who rose above this and became an NHL player and made of millions of dollars and found a way to redirect the pent-up aggression and injury he had as a child. To me, that's just amazing.

In that way, those columns are more gratifying than Ovechkin vs. Crosby, where everybody and their mom on one side or the other is going to basically want to end your life or your career after they get upset with you.

4. What are some of your favorite hockey-related moments?

My favorite hockey memory is the moment that the New York Times sports editor called me up and said 'we need somebody to do a Pavel Bure story because the Rangers are about to play the Vancouver Canucks maybe in the Stanley Cup finals. Nobody knows about this guy out here, so could you go do a story about him? And, by the way, I know your paper went out of business and this would be a freelance job. Have you ever covered hockey before?'

And, of course, having grown up in Northern California and Hawaii, I said 'I love hockey. I know hockey.' That was 15 years ago, and 15 years later, I still don't know hockey, unfortunately. But that story ended up catapulting me to the Times and I got Pavel Bure to drive me around in his Mercedes and he talked about living in Vancouver and being a star.

So I remember that Pat LaFontaine goal, I stayed up. I even forgot who they were playing, I hate to say it. But it was such an incredible game and how long it went. When you're on the West Coast, you don't need to stay up as long.

[Editor's Note: He's referring to the Caps-Islanders' four-OT game on April 19, 1987.]

I think even the casual fan [asks] 'Where were you for the Miracle on Ice? Where were you when that happened?' At that moment, if you weren't a hockey fan in America, you weren't a sports fan.

From then, fast forward to the Rangers, having dealt with Messier just a little bit -- I've written a couple columns about him in New York. Just being around that area then was pretty intense and memorable.

And then Ovechkin, he's really the most exciting player in the game, arguably the best player in the game. Whenever I think that I've got a bad job and I have a deadline to meet and I've had to wake up at 5:45 a.m. to catch a flight to Baltimore, so I can drive to the Kettler Capitals IcePlex and do a column on Dave Steckel and then be at a game the next day, I think to myself 'are you kidding me? There are people who would be giving their left arms for that.'

So sometimes, when I see a game like Ovechkin had in game two [against the Pittsburgh Penguins] or just being a part of game six, I literally marvel at the fact that I get paid to do that. It's reinforces the fact of why I went into this business and why I didn't cover school-board meetings for a living.

5. What occupies your time when you're away from work?

I play with my dog -- half lab, half golden retriever. Her name's Tallulah, but I just call her Luly. So we go running a lot. I've done four marathons, but by the time I'm done, I mean I hate to say this, but the Kenyans are on a layover in Zimbabwe. It's five hours or something. So I have some fitness goals, try to stay in shape a little, play basketball really badly.

And this is going to shock people, but I like to make cupcakes. I actually make cupcakes, I can bake a little. If I could get paid what I do now to just make cupcakes, it would be like Bo Jackson: cupcakes or sports writing? What am I going to do? Very tough.