• Job: Senior editor, NBA basketball and PGA golf, Rotoworld

Photos by KARL W. RITZLER/Special (ENLARGE)

From his home in Dahlonega, Steve Alexander watches satellite feeds of games and news conferences related to basketball. He then shares his findings with readers on the Rotoworld Web site.

(ENLARGE)

Alexander's enthusiasm for sports predates his days of being paid to monitor the activities and health of professional athletes. Among his sports memorabilia collection are these Atlanta Hawks jerseys.

• What I do: When Kobe Bryant, the star of the Los Angeles Lakers, stubs his toe, Steve Alexander is one of the first to know about it. And then he tells everybody else.

Alexander, known as "Dr. A" on the fantasy sports Web site Rotoworld, is in charge of the coverage of professional basketball and golf for would-be sports-franchise owners around the world.

In fantasy sports, fans create teams by selecting real players in baseball, football, basketball or other sports. Those teams, organized into leagues, compete based on their players' statistics. In basketball, for example, a player's points, rebounds, assists, blocked shots and field-goal percentage might be counted.

How real-life players are performing — and whether they are hurt or have been traded — is key information for people who play fantasy sports. Alexander keeps Rotoworld readers up to date on even seemingly insignificant details. If Bryant has a sore toe, for example, he might play less time and have fewer points.

Alexander writes most of the basketball reports himself, but two other writers do the initial reporting on golf.

"I watch basketball all night," said Alexander, 40, sitting in front of a couple of computers and a satellite television screen in his home office in Dahlonega.

Games on the West Coast, for example, often don't start until after 10 p.m. Eastern time.

Alexander has help during the NBA season, when as many as 12 games are being played at the same time.

"On a 12-game night, I'll post 80 player-news blurbs," he said. "We're known for our news."

That means that when a player has a good night, gets injured or is ejected from a game, Alexander and his staff post a short news item on the Web site's basketball page.

Alexander usually doesn't get much time to sleep, he said, because he gets up early to glean information from online newspapers and Web sites based in NBA cities.

"I go through the feeds for news that will affect fantasy players," he said.

He rarely does original reporting, relying instead on NBA beat writers, bloggers and analysts for information, then condensing it for fantasy players.

For the NBA draft, which occurs after the season ends, and for season previews, Alexander offers his analysis of how players will fit with their new teams and on whom fantasy players might want to focus.

"I put myself in the position of the average fantasy player," he said.

• What got me interested in this: "I was using Rotoworld every day, reading about my fantasy players," Alexander said, when he worked in customer service for a mutual fund company in Indianapolis. "I spent so much time, it would be nice to get paid for it."

He began corresponding with the Rotoworld staff and soon was posting NBA news blurbs several nights a week for free.

He gradually increased his involvement, including writing a weekly column, and eventually got paid for his work.

"It was hard to go to bed late and get up for my real job," Alexander said, but his earnings from Rotoworld were increasing.

In 2004, he and his wife, Casey, who was working in window fashions, had grown tired of cubicles and Indianapolis.

"We decided to quit and move to the mountains," he said.

They eventually settled on Dahlonega. Alexander called Rotoworld and offered "to do as much work as you want me to."

Rotoworld was purchased by NBC the next year, and Alexander went on salary, with benefits.

"I get to work at home, doing something I love and have a passion for. It's the best decision I ever made," he said.

• Best part of my job: "I don't have to get in a car and drive anywhere," he said, adding, "I still love fantasy sports. Spending my time doing fantasy sports is a dream come true."

• Most challenging part: "Because I'm working at home, in total concentration, it's easy for me to work all day, every day," he said. "It's very rare for me to go to bed before 3 or 4 a.m. I get up at 9 a.m. Naps are very good."

• What people don't know about my job: "How much digging we do to get the news," he said. "I can find out if a questionable guy [someone whose playing status for the next game is uncertain] is going to play.

"I work to find out what's going to happen before it happens."

• What keeps me going: "I know, during the season, a lot of fantasy basketball players rely on our site for timely, accurate news," Alexander said. "People make moves [to their fantasy rosters] based on what people at Rotoworld tell them."

• Preparation needed for this job: "You need to have a passion for fantasy sports," Alexander said. "And you have to be a good-enough writer. There's not anyone around to edit everything you write."

You also need to have a flexible schedule and an understanding family, he added.

Alexander has a bachelor's degree in communication from Hanover College in Indiana. After graduation, he was a sports broadcaster for a television station in Indiana.

He also worked for a time-share company.

Now, "I can do my job anywhere, as long as I get satellite TV and have an Internet connection," he said.

- By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.

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