Gary Smith

No, but I suppose my real point is that a young writer sent a story he was proud of to a writer he respected to get some feedback, and never heard a peep from Gary Smith. Then one day he hears that Smith is in town to do a story on Radio for SI. Shouldn't Smith have at least called Josh and offered to buy lunch or even used him as a source on the story he ended up writing, especially since he used anecdotes that Josh had witnessed? Of course, we've all copied ideas or read other stories for background and incorporated some of that information/anecdotes into stories. But I still consider this instance the ultimate in piracy. But yes, Smith is a master story teller.

 

Gary knows how to spin a yarn He may arguably be the best sports storyteller in the country.

 

When I was first starting out, I sent Smith a feature I had written, asking for feedback. He sent back a two- or three-page, thoughtful email, with suggestions on storytelling, reporting, how he goes about it, etc., etc. He even suggested some authors, both fiction and nonfiction, I check out. I wish I still had the email, but it was one of the turning points of my career - a new, manageable way to think about and approach this mysterious process that I had thought was all about writing beautiful sentences with big words.

 

Read the Shannon story. My problem with it is that there were numerous stories last season about Shannon's son playing for FIU. In fact, I remember something like his son has dinner at his dad's office every week and they watch films.

So it isn't as if his personal life is a complete mystery, especially as many of the Canes players likely played against Shannon's son in HS and knew him from his trips to the office.