Downs and Dunks: NFL and NBA News Website

Downs and Dunks is a news website about the NFL and the NBA. It publishes news, game scores, schedules, how-to-watch guides, fantasy football and fantasy basketball tips, trade rumors, analysis and beginner-friendly explainers. The site describes itself as an independent fan news site and is not affiliated with the NFL, the NBA or any team.

The problem or goal The goal was to give NFL and NBA fans one place to find current news and updates. The site is organized so a fan can quickly find what they need, such as last night’s scores, tonight’s games and TV channels, injury reports, power rankings or a plain explanation of a rule like the NBA salary cap or the play-in tournament.

How it works The site is built on WordPress and organized into NFL and NBA sections. Each section has its own categories: News, Schedule, How to Watch, Fantasy, Analysis, and Draft (NFL) or Trades and Rumors (NBA). There are also team pages for both leagues and a separate Explainers section. The home page shows the top stories, the latest stories from each league, how-to-watch posts, fantasy posts, explainers and a numbered trending list. Visitors can use a search menu, and the site includes standard pages such as About Us, Contact Us, Editorial Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use and Disclaimer. The publishing workflow is automated.

What I built I built a custom WordPress theme and a custom WordPress plugin. The theme controls the look and layout of the site, including the navigation menus, the home page sections and the trending list. The plugin adds custom functionality on top of WordPress. The source code is private.

Role of AI I used Claude to help build the custom theme and the custom plugin. I also used AI to help write the articles and news published on the site.

Tech stack WordPress, PHP, a custom theme and a custom plugin. Deployment uses GitHub Actions and cPanel.

What I learned Building this project showed me how to turn a WordPress site into a custom, structured publishing platform instead of relying on a ready-made theme. I learned how a theme and a plugin work together, and how to set up an automated deployment from GitHub to cPanel. I also learned how to work with AI to build and publish content for a large, fast-moving topic like sports news.