Sports reporter Adrian Seconi reckons he has written about 5000 stories over the past decade. That is about 2.5 million words, and every one has been a gem - yes, he wrote his own introduction to this story. He shares some of his highs and lows after 10 years in the job.
Lemar Gayle rolled up his pants and there it was - the scar from where a bullet had passed through just above the knee.
I was thinking about that scar when he was shouting abuse down the phone at me.
It was perhaps one of the few times I have shrunk from an argument or been afraid at work.
Gayle had just been fined $500 by the Nuggets for disparaging comments he had made about his coach and team-mates in an article I had written in 2008.
In a rage, Gayle quit the franchise.
I am not exactly sure where he was when he phoned but I imagined he was on his way over to our office.
Nuggets general manager, Warrick Diack - the sword-wielding, muscle-bound behemoth who starred as the Highlanders mascot for many years - had to ''Jake the Muss'' Gayle from the offices of Basketball Otago and eventually escorted him to the airport.
Thankfully, not all of my news stories have invoked such passion.
And Gayle has been in the minority.
There has been the odd terse encounter throughout the years but mostly the job has been a joy.
Some of my favourite moments have come from covering basketball and, in particular, watching the Otago Nuggets.
Journalists are not cheerleaders but I rose from my seat the night the Nuggets snapped their infamous 33-game losing streak.
I was tempted to dance a jig with coach Alf Arlidge but instead had to settle for a big, sweaty man-hug with an American seven-footer who wept during our interview moments later.
It still gives me chills, and Lance Allred has been one of the more fascinating characters I've interviewed.
He was the first legally deaf man to play in the NBA.
He grew up in a polygamous sect.
He battled OCD.
He had written a book.
So many intriguing storylines.
He was a gold mine.
A sense of foreboding gave way to acceptance this week with news Basketball Otago is bust and will appoint a liquidator.
It spells the end of the Nuggets for the foreseeable future.
It is devastating news for the basketball community.
The game at grassroots level had been in such good shape, too.
It is just that the people charged with delivering the game to the community have failed - miserably.
BBO's demise has been a low-water mark of my decade at the Otago Daily Times.
At the other end of the spectrum has been the rise of cyclist Alison Shanks and dual basketball and cricket international Suzie Bates.
I was there the day Shanks missed selection for the Otago netball team, and while it was devastating for her at the time, it proved to be the catalyst for a wonderful career in cycling.
Her rapid transformation from representative netballer to world champion pursuiter and Commonwealth Games gold medallist was intoxicating.
Bates was still had school when I began reporting on her prodigious talents.
Ten years ago, she was wrestling with the concept that one day she would have to give away either basketball or cricket to specialise in the other.
She went on to play for the Tall Ferns at the Olympics. She is captain of the White Ferns and led the Sparks to their first title in 51 years last summer.
In netball, Otago's back-to-back success at the national championships in 2012 and 2013 stick out.
The defence was in Dunedin and Otago was not among the favourites to win.
But the team recovered from an early setback to make the final and, with time up on the clock, shooter Te Paea Selby-Rickit drilled a penalty shot from deep on the baseline to seal a dramatic 54-53 win against Hamilton.
• Seconi wrote a separate piece on cricket, his major round, late last year.
