30 for 30 running thread

Poin - Correct me if I'm wrong, and it's an easy assumption to make, but I didn't get the feeling, then or now, that Wilson was involved in gangs or that his murder had anything to do with gangs. Just a chance dispute over nothing, really. Just a bunch of kids peacocking. Totally senseless.

 

Its a horrible tragedy, but how on earth do I know what the kid did or didn't do?

 

Poin, Love ya dearly, but you're off on this one. Bias's story is not Wilson's at all. In many ways, it's the opposite.

 

The shooter said he started to run with gangs — at least a little — before he shot Wilson. He started hangin' or bagnin' after his dad died. But it seems like, from what the shooter said in the doc, that he wasn't fully submerged in the gang lifestyle.
It was interesting to hear the shooter's take. Sad story all around.

 

It was a throw-away line, and I'm not fighting a Texas Death Match over it, but I'll count the similarities:

Early '80's high school baller who goes from a nobody as a freshman to phenom? Check.
Grainy early 80's footage of state championship games? Check.
He was a great kid? Check.
But with a couple of "character flaws" (cocaine use for Bias, Wilson decking his HS teacher/tussle with mother of his kid)? Check.
Minutes after agonizing minutes of young people crying their eyes out the morning of death? Check.
Minutes after agonizing minutes of young people crying their eyes out during funeral? Check.
Comparison to Michael Jordan? Check.
National news footage of reporting the deaths? Check.
Local news anchors interviewed for piece? Check.
Jesse Jackson at the funeral? Check.

 

It's all good. Like "30 for 30," I myself remember getting caught up in a "tragedy of the week" cycle of enterprise reporting for a while. Some good stories, though.

But, anyway, I honestly was wondering if perhaps you had seen or read something I missed about Wilson's case. That's why I was asking.

 

I'm pissed and I've got to get this off. You are a jackass to the 10th power. I remember this kid and he was just that, a good kid. It was senseless tragedy, much like your birth I'm afraid. If you don't know what you're talking about or posting, please don't post. There are many on here who remember this kid and what he stood for his downtrodden community and for you to post the crap you post, especially comparing him to Len Bias. WTF is wrong with you?

 

Oh, take a pill, drip. You didn't know this kid any better than anyone else here, so don't pretend you did.

 

Umm, so you're buying the shooter's bullshit changed story?

And what about the the fact that the shooter originally CONFESSED to police that he and his buddy were mugging and trying to rob Wilson, and shot him when Wilson tried to resist? He didn't recant his confession and change his story to the version about Wilson coming at him until the middle of his trial when he was trying to fit a self-defense claim (and, btw, it's worth noting that his partner is still serving a lengthy sentence for other armed robberies, so doesn't appear armed robbery was exactly foreign to he and his pals). Sorry, but I'm just a wee bit more inclined to believe the story he originally told police than a self-serving changed story told to TV cameras nearly three decades later.

And, regardless of whether you buy his changed story, these facts remain: one kid was associated with one of Chicago's most menacing gangs, had skipped school that day, and was wandering the streets with a loaded handgun in his pocket; whereas the other kid was unarmed and on his way to school. Basic common sense tells me which one of those two was looking for trouble that morning.

So forgive me if I'm not inclined to lay this on "just a bunch of kids peacocking." I lay it squarely on the one with the gun.

I'm all for allowing the shooter to tell his side of the story, but I did have some issues with the way the filmmakers allowed him to freely do so wthout confronting him with, or at least pointing out, some of the glaring holes in his story.

 

I don't pretend Stoney and this isn't about who along here knew Ben Wilson personally or anything like that. Poin made what I consider to be a stupid statement and I simply pointed that out. You don't have to agree, and since you changed your post, obviously you don't. I have no problem with that.
I realize that many here, like Poin, probably wasn't born or old enough to recall seeing this kid play. He was damn good. He had the makings of becoming a star and was a legend in his community.
But Poin's opinion to compare Ben Wilson to Len Bias was totally off base. Totally.

 

Excellent points. But that's not 30 for 30 style. They enjoy telling stories, no matter how outrageous they appear to be.

 

Forrest Drip Gump strikes again.