The Great Ralph Wiley

Never heard of him? Google is a good ally for you right now! Use and report back!!!

Ralph Wiley was a sportswriter for Sports Illustrated and ESPN.com until, tragically last year when he died of a heart attack while watching the Pistons play the Lakers. The ironic thing about it was that he had just written a piece for ESPN.com about how he saw the Pistons beatig the Lake Show. Folks guess that such a bold statement caught even the author of it, off guard.

Ralph Wiley was a good writer point blank. He could write his ass off and he really did appeal to me because of it. When I read his works, I thought that I could hear his voice as much as I can hear an older male relative or elder talking to me. Very personable and direct, but not intnetionally, I don't think.

I first read his works in a book I borrowed from one of my best friends, henry. It was entitled "Why Black People Tend To Shout". Knowing Henry, it was easily cutrious to see why he had this book. Henry, like myself, is unapologetically Black. We know the difference between niggas and Black people, and African-Americans. But we also know that those three labels are interchangable and still don't speak to the diversity within our culture. So I snatched it from his little library and read it. It took me one night to finish it.

I didn't return it for a year though....

After that I was hooked. I read his follow up to that book. I tried to find his biography on Eric Davis. I was hella elated when he signed on to do pieces for ESPN. I was a fan. A faithful reader and supporter. He could do no wrong. And what I mean when I saw that is his opinion was always respected. He was consistent with his thoughts and was never ever contradictory. He shed light on issues that many people would have only stopped at the surface, just when they thought there was nothing else to it. His essays ranged from John Thompson at Georgetown to why C. Vivian Stringer should be the next coach of a men's basketball team to how and why Oakland's Tim Brown-Jerry Rice combo was so efficient and possibly lethal. His articulated thoughts were so refreshing to me and fermented alot of thoughts I had tried to come up with myself.

You know how you feel about a situation or particular thing, but you can't articulate it or conjure it up into words to tell somebody else in an eloquent manner? Ralph Wiley helped me to overcome that with his words.