late north carolina student mascot lives on

terrific, powerful work by my friend harvey araton in today's n.y. times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/sports/ncaabasketball/25mascot.html?pagewanted=1&ref=sports

i dare say as good as it gets for a newspaper piece; this has to have screenplay possibilities, no? i was in tears from start to finish; like harv, my sons are in the same age range as the two young men it features. if you're not moved by this you're not breathing...

 

Didn't ESPN or some other major outlet do a story on the same mascot donor and all the organ recipients a couple years back?

 

Yes ... on Oct. 12, 2007. It seems the NYT is a little late to the party.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope

 

yes, indeed. it was also an oprah show.

this piece comes with the ncaa tourney back in jersey again -- seen of the crime -- and the teenaged kidney recipient from newark, n.j. the espn piece was fine (kind of hard to do a 'blah' piece on this) but the timing, focus on the young men was just more exceptional, imo.

and the mag piece was, what, 7,500 words? most newspaper tales must be told in, what, 2,000 words, tops? i mean, i read the espn piece when it was published and thought it was fine.

this piece, however, i found to be extraordinary. and the fact it wasn't the first time it has been told in some form did nothing to lessen the impact, an extraordinary turn in and of itself... sort of like a film re-make besting the original effort. it's hard to pull off and rarely is, but this time it was simply sensational.

 

yes, heaven forbid anyone take on a story another outlet -- especially ESPN!! -- has told it in some form. no matter the timing. what unmitigated gall! call the journo gods!!!

'late to the party???' gimme a break...

 

I remember that I thoroughly enjoyed the original ESPN piece, and I also enjoyed this NYT piece. It was timely given the circumstances and added new info to the story without being a rehash. I've got no complaint.

 

Some of the best stories expand on, or tell in a new light, previous stories. Mike Bass wrote "Marge Schott Unleashed" before Rick Reilly wrote his excellent Sports Illustrated profile of her. That doesn't make Reilly's profile any weaker.

 

Agreed. Or did the poster miss the whole NCAA-back-in-Jersey angle? Yeah, it could have been done at any time, but right now it's most appropriate.