SI story on Darrent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Anyone else read it yet? Thought it was excellent. Lake isn't a guy who writes too often, but I know that I've enjoyed stories of his in the past.

I felt like he did a really good job trying to sort through the chaos of a drunken evening with multiple participants. It got a little hard to follow at the end, mostly because of what I just said. But overall a really nice piece of narrative sports journalism. I guess the key revelation is that the bullets were meant for an unknown Brandon Marshall that night (I don't think that's a huge spoiler).

I felt like Lake may have stretched a little bit trying to use the jewelry as a way to tie the beginning, middle, and end together. I thought it worked well as a symbol of athletes spending and showing off, but I don't think it had enough of a connection to the evening's events to use it as he did. Felt a little forced. I also thought he let someone off the hook at some point - I think it was Williams, but it might have been Javon Walker - for some past indiscretions because they didn't fit into the narrative of a good guy.

I was surprised that champagne spraying is considered so offensive that bars have to take all sorts of precautions before it happens. Seems so ridiculous to me. What would otherwise be a spontaneous act of a good time is instead just a calculated, ostentatious display of wealth.

After reading Lake's piece, I definitely feel a little bit better why guys like "Little Willie" get violent when that kind of wealth is being rubbed in their faces. I also think you get a sense that people who end up involved in things like this, particularly Williams and Walker and the woman who got shot, really are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Here's the link:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1184186/index.htm

I like Lake as well. I'd never heard of him until he did a story on Bobby Cox and all his ejections last summer (which might have been his first for SI):

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1172328/index.htm

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Lake is fantastic and has been contributing to SI for at least a couple of years. This story was included in a BASW edition.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1149384/index.htm

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

I read this last week when I got my copy, and I really thought it was tremendous. You had to pay attention, but I have no problem with that, and you're rewarded when a complicated story with action occurring in different spots simultaneously is all tied together in the end.

Dick, I agree with you a little bit on the jewelry angle being a bit of a stretch, but this is minor enough of a quibble for me that I was hesitant to even bring it up. The symbolism of the diamonds alone makes it worth whatever small flaw that angle may have had.

The cordoned-off champagne policy? Well, that was a surprise for me, too, as I do not roll in such circles.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Yeah, I guess I just thought it was going to play some role in the incident, and that it was built up that way. My first impulse was that Lake violated Chekhov's rule about a gun appearing in the first act.

Seemed like the entire story was constructed through court records, correct? I mean, that's fine with me. Amazing what you can get from court records as far as narrative. Lawyers seem to often have a great feel for narrative details. That and, of course, people actually have to talk to you.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Lake is a contributing author and has been for years. He's one of SI's most consistent authors -- everything he writes is worth reading closely. He writes a few stories a year and I'm pretty sure is an editor of Atlanta Magazine full-time.

I thought this particular article was stunning. The infatuation with the chain took it to heights few others could have reached. I completely disagree that it was a stretch -- I thought it gave brilliant insight.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

tremendous piece, start to finish. i can be as nitpicky as anyone, but imho any criticism is a stretch. i hadn't connected the dots regarding lake and all his s.i. pieces listed above. so now he's on my s.i. short list of 'must-reads' with gary smith and scott price.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Thomas is a terrific reporter and a great writer. Young, smart, hungry—a meticulous, meticulous dude. The guy puts in some serious work.

Versatile, you're right that he started at Atlanta, the magazine, but he's now at SI full-time. Busted his ass in Atlanta—which is a writer's magazine, from Tom Junod to Paige Williams to Justin Heckert—wrote a series of great stories, got noticed, made the most of his chance to break in at SI, and now he's there full-time, edited by Chris Hunt, who edits Gary Smith.

He's pretty much as good a role model as a young writer might find. I think he's going to do amazing things.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

That's definitely true. Hope I didn't seem like I was bagging on him about the jewelry and so forth. Just trying to spur discussion more than anything else.

Truth be told, I read a piece like that, and I want to go into a room somewhere and punch myself in the head 100 times for going into the safe harbor of newspapers instead of at least giving magazines an honest shot.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

No, no, Dick. A totally legitimate point of discussion. That's the kind of conversation that helps us all. It's the unrelenting shitting on each other that isn't so helpful.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Best thing I've read in months.

 

Re: SI story on Darent Williams murder (by Thomas Lake)

Dick, I agree 100 percent with your post. I marveled at how good the story was. Brilliant doesn't begin to even start. I also agree that the whole jewelry angle was pushing it, but, man, what a great tale. Arguably the best story I've read in SI this year. I always look forward to reading Lake's stuff.