J.R. Smith and Rasheed Wallace discuss the team’s newest acquisition.

Blogging can often be thankless. You get accused of being a Lakers fan masquerading as a Clippers fan for the “all the money we make” (what?), or you get told to pack up and move to Omaha. You put your life on pause, kick sleep to the curb, and ignore family and friends just so you can put up 1,000 words on a defensive rotation you saw in the third quarter of a game in December. We are a sick, sick breed, and perhaps there’s no one sicker than Charlie Widdoes.

I mean that in the best way, of course. I can tell you that Charlie is this weird combination of a calm, level-headed dude and an incredibly passionate guy; maybe a reflection of where he grew up and where he is now. There are so many admirable qualities he brings to the table, but it’s his approach that separates him from the pack. Charlie is obsessed with the process instead of focused on the result; something you don’t really find in sportswriting very often. It’s refreshing. He researches his ass off, he backs up all his claims and opinions with something substantial, and he never mails anything in. As a result, and as you know, Charlie is good every damn time he does this while the rest of us are swinging and missing all over the place.

For about three years now, Charlie has represented the New York chapter here at ClipperBlog, and I guess the Knicks got tired of us stealing one of the smartest voices in the game right from their backyard. It makes me very happy to announce that Charlie will be the new Social Media Coordinator for the Knicks — a huge pull for them, and a huge loss for us.

I’m sure he’ll pop in every now and then, like when Eric Bledsoe goes off for 30 points in 16 minutes, but for the most part, he’ll be diving into everything Knicks and providing the same smart analysis for them that he did for us. Follow him at KnicksNow.com, keep following him on Twitter, and please tell him to remember me when he’s running the Knicks front office in ten years.

I can’t begin to thank Charlie enough — for all the work he did to keep the site thriving, for being a tremendous friend, and for setting an example I can point to and say, “this is how it’s done” to anyone who follows in his footsteps.

You deserve this, Charlie, and I couldn’t be happier that your process led to this result.