#thanks: inspiring stories

The people that know me really well, know that baseball is my first love. They also know that I’m not the person to come to when the story is basketball related. It is extremely unlikely that I will read a basketball game preview or recap. I’m more likely to read a feature about a player or coach or about the challenges a team has overcome. Today, it was the story of Kentucky basketball fan Dick Gregory. The story titled, “Calipari’s Wildcats, Kentucky fans unite behind paralyzed fan” was written by Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports and is a contender for one of my favorite pieces of the year. In it he describes the love affair of a man and the game of basketball. The story starts out like this:

This is a love story, but it’s more than that. It’s a tragedy and a heartbreak, uplifting and crushing, and it has tears of sadness and joy from several of the people being written about, and maybe some from the writer. Not sure I’ll be able to get through this without crying on my keyboard. Maybe you’ll feel the same way. This is a story about Kentucky basketball and the Kentucky fan base and the powerful connection between the two. It’s a story about the coach at Kentucky, John Calipari, who makes wonderful gestures of kindness and asks me to keep them quiet. I’ll betray that request in a few minutes. This is a story about 10 or 12 Kentucky basketball players, most of them teenagers — half of whom could be millionaires in the coming months if they choose to enter the NBA Draft — being reduced to silence in the presence of a shy, 73-year-old fan. And this is the story of that fan. His name is Dick Gregory. He’s paralyzed from the chest down. The injury happened a week ago. At Rupp Arena. Where this love story begins.

The story continues and is written so beautifully that I was reaching for tissues within a few seconds of reading the first paragraph. If anything, I was thankful that I was hiding in my corner cubicle away from the rest of my co-workers so they couldn’t see my tears or hear me sniffle. I encourage you to read the entire story, Kentucky fan or not, basketball fan or not, because this is a story meant to be shared. Stories like this should always be shared. I am beyond thankful that the profession I’ve chosen to go into has the power to reduce a non-basketball fan like myself to tears. This embodies what true storytelling is, what journalism should be, an informative yet emotional tale. Today, I am thankful for the things I take for granted like driving my car, drinking a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks (my fall favorite) and being able to write.

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