Midnight Madness: How My Newborn Daughter Became My Unofficial NBA Off-Season Co-Pilot
Life with a newborn is a beautiful, chaotic whirlwind, and like many new parents, I'm intimately familiar with the nocturnal ballet of feedings and diaper changes. My daughter, bless her heart, has a built-in alarm clock set for every two to three hours, which, while exhausting, has unexpectedly unlocked a secret perk of parenthood: front-row seats to the NBA off-season's biggest moments.
It’s the NBA off-season and for some inexplicable reason, the most monumental trades consistently drop like bombshells around midnight or even later on the East Coast. This timing, which would usually leave me groggy and catching up on Twitter the next morning, has become a silver lining in my sleep-deprived reality. Because when that familiar ding of a Shams Charania tweet alert goes off, I’m usually wide awake, bottle-feeding my baby, and perfectly positioned to witness the chaos unfold in real-time.
Take, for instance, the recent Jrue Holiday trade. On June 23, 2025, when the news broke that the Boston Celtics were sending Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers for Anfernee Simons and two second-round picks, I was mid-feed, scrolling through my phone. The tweet popped up, and suddenly, the quiet hum of the baby feeding gave way to the excited murmurs of the NBA Twitterverse. Tonight I am waiting for the Celtics to make their draft pick at 28 and it will be around midnight when they make the selection.
And the benefits don't stop there. On those extra fussy nights when my daughter just won't settle back down, we've found our own unique lullaby: emergency NBA trade podcasts. The ) voices of analysts breaking down the latest blockbuster deals are surprisingly effective. We’ve become regulars with "The Still Poddable" podcast featuring Jam Packard and Jay King, dissecting the trades and then switch over to the "The Locked on Celtics Podcast" with John Karalis.
Along with her ABCs and 123s and countless readings of "Goodnight Moon," I'm confident my daughter will be an expert on the ridiculous intricacies of the NBA salary cap and the nuances of the first and second apron by the time she enters preschool. She may not remember these late-night sessions, but the foundational knowledge of basketball salary cap will be deeply ingrained,
