This is an opinion column.

Mixed emotions today as a former employer, The New York Times, shuttered its sports department. I am not surprised, as I shared with friends who sent me a link to the news this morning.

Last year the New York Times spent $550 million on The Athletic. From that moment, sports at The Times was going to change. Today, it changed.

I began there in 1981, three years out of college, lured by the man who remains one of my industry mentors, Sandy Padwe. He’d joined the Times as Assistant Sports Editor after being a Senior Editor at Sports Illustrated, where he molded, mashed, and motivated me.

Getting hired by the Times was not easy. After numerous interviews with editors in the sports department, I was escorted to the Times main newsroom—sports, still then whispered by many to be the Times’ “toy department”—to be interviewed by A.M. Rosenthal, the legendary Times bow-tied journalist, and then-executive editor.

Well, it was less of an interview than a discourse—a sermon, actually—on what it meant to be a member of The Times. Or, a “Timesman,” as he said. He may have asked one or two questions; I don’t remember. What I do recall is: When he finished speaking, he stood up, reached out his hand, and said, “Welcome to The Times.” I still have his letter welcoming me to the staff.

Apparently, meeting with Rosenthal did not mean being hired was a done deal. When I returned to the sports department, Joe Vecchione, the sports editor, and Padwe looked at me. “Well?” they both asked.

I shrugged. “Well, he said, ‘Welcome to The Times.’” They smiled and applauded and put me to work.

I was hired to cover the New Jersey Nets, who are moving from Piscataway to a new arena just across the Hudson from Manhattan. They had a new coach in the mercurous Larry Brown, and young rookies Buck Williams and Albert King, a nucleus for a team that would be as intriguing as any in the league over the next few years: Michael Ray Richardson, Otis Birdsong, Darryl Dawkins. NBA old heads know those names.

They were good—good enough to stun the Dr. J/Moses Malone-led defending NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers three-games-to-two in the best-of-five opening round of the ‘83-84 playoffs. Infamously, Julius Erving, after the Sixers won game 4 in New Jersey to tie the series and send the deciding game to Philly, said in the locker room: “You can mail in the stats.” Yeah, he did.

My years covering the Nets also happened to coincide with the emergence of an era lead led by two distinctively different yet similar stars: Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Thus, I had a front-row seat to witness a critical transition that brought the league from years of dangerous darkness when it was widely criticized by white fans for being “too Black.” These years when Magic’s Los Angeles Lakers and Bird’s Boston Celtics, interspersed with strong teams in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Houston, were the birth of what is now a multi-multi-multibillion-dollar enterprise that is the most global among U.S. professional sports leagues.

I saw it all happen from courtside—until they started selling those seats to rich folk and celebs.

My tenure at The Times included many significant stories in other sports. I was covering the U.S. Open when Martina Navratilova, then the most dominant woman in sports, saw her 61-match win streak end on the racket of her doubles partner. It was an emotional moment that found its way to A1, a rarity for sports in those Times.

I was also at courtside for what I still believe was the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history, Villanova, defeating Georgetown to win the 1985 national title.

RELATED: Sports’ biggest upset? I was there

I was at home when I received a call from Vecchione asking me to cover the death of a young NBA draft pick: Len Bias. We did not know at the time his death was due to a cocaine overdose, and would become a cautionary tale for a generation, then and to come.

I left the Times in 1987 when Vecchione said I was not yet ready to become a sports columnist. (I remain ecstatic that the opportunity was later given to my then-colleague and still friend William C. Rhoden) I was offered a sports column by the Atlanta Constitution, and chose to avail myself of it—it became my entre to the South.

Sometimes you must move on to move up; this is one of those times.

Just the other day I began perusing a notebook, one I long forgot I had, which contains fading clips of dozens of stories I wrote for The Times. I haven’t yet gotten through it.

I cherish those Times years, which offered me a foundation for writing and reporting that remains invaluable to me today.

I’m sure The Times will continue to produce great sports journalism; I look forward to reading it.

Onward.

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