'Dear Nate'

That is a hell of a story

 

The discipline to end with that stunning last line....breathtaking, exquisitely.

 

Read it last night. The lead is one of the best I've read in a long time. Not too many stories make you cry six paragraphs in. As the father of a 1-year-old, I cried. Hard. No shame in admitting that. I would love to know, during the interview process, which came first:

1. The anecdote from Zane about Nate climbing out of his crib.

2. The anecdote about Zane and Kyle's conversation about Kemper climbing into bed as well.

Was Friend like "hey, did you heard this story about what Nate used to do?" and Kyle told him, "yeah, we were just talking about stuff like that." Or was it the other way around? I'm only curious just as a craft question, because both provide the obvious bookends to a great story.

Details obviously are a big part of what's great here too.

Here is one:

Then Nate walked to the team bus, carrying his red pillows.

Here is my favorite though:

It healed a little bit of a wound, and, back in Stillwater, the players on the team were forever grateful. Some of them were not faring well, emotionally, Jonzen being one of them. He was rummaging through Nate's drawer one day when he found a notebook. He opened it up and saw the note that Nate had tucked away after the Elite Eight loss to Florida.

It read: "Nate Fleming, the starting point guard at Oklahoma State University.''



Friend is simply one of the best we have. If you have ESPN Insider access and have never read it, go back and read his feature about David Boston, which was written before he was busted for 'roids. It contains one of my favorite kickers ever.

http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/story?id=1628275

 

that there is just what aspect that makes this piece so extraordinary. a tragedy most of us were familiar with but also knew nothing about the victims. and it didn't take a couple of thousand words to draw us in, to make us care; he took care of that business from jump street and never did he take hj.is foot off the pedal.

i haven't read s.l.'s alipiqua piece in s.i. yet but i'm sure it's as sensational as advertized. nut it's hard to imagine any other sports takeout piece topping tom's story-telling here.

 

Truly outstanding.

 

Glad you brought this up, DD. I had the exact same thoughts about the anecdote about the hands under the door. Initially, I thought it was too good to be true. After some thought, though, I came to suspect Zane told Friend about Kyle's parenting experience and mentioned it was similar to one he had with Nate. Friend, being a great reporter, pressed and spun gold.

Friend, being a great reporter, probably doesn't imagine fictional situations about other writers, either.

I read this at work the other day and was straight up bawling — at about six different points of the story. From the craft perspective, the story was money. From the perspective of a reader who likes to get lost in an incredible tale, it was flawless.