Akiem Bailum
Akiem's sportswriting journey began in 2012 when he wrote for The Signal, the student newspaper at Georgia State University. He was sports editor the year GSU made the NCAA tournament and when R.J. Hunter (and his father/coach Ron) became household names throughout sports. Since then, he has worked in North Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut and Kentucky including covering the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 for the Independent Tribune and assisting in coverage of the 2019 Kentucky Derby for the Courier Journal in Louisville. Akiem has also written extensively about the WNBA for BeyondTheW.com where he has, among other things, covered the 2018 All-Star Game in Minnesota and correctly predicted the site of the following year's All-Star events which was Las Vegas. He has also written about other WNBA-related topics including the Seattle Storm's arena situation and the New York Liberty's ownership transition.