RIP Paul Arizin

One of the greats of the early NBA dead at 78.
A Philly guy all the way and probably the first great jump shooter.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-obit-arizin&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

I ran this today. RIP.

I know this probably belongs on the journalism board, but do many of you fret over the lack of recognition when it comes to obits?

I told several people today that we had to run the Arizin obit and they were like, who? The danger being that someone even more prominent is going to die and not make the paper sometime because of some people's ignorance of history.

 

Could have been worse; they could have misunderstood and started looking for file art from The Birdcage.

 

Lots of RIP threads today. Never a good thing.

 

Hunt, Boyle and Arizin.

Always happens in threes. Never fails.

 

Obits are a tough thing in sports.

1. The person is probably old, which means the youngsters on the staff have little or no recognition.

2. Of you want to run a full obit, space has to be taken away from elsewhere, since, of course, you do not plan space for obits.

3. Unless the circumstances were strange, other than "Joe Athlete died" there really isn't anything new to report. Just one sentence about the death, and then everything else is just rehashing all he did (usually) many years ago.

Put all that together, and unless the guy is truly a legend, it will tend to get underplayed in the paper.