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I'm Brandon Sneed. This is my blog. It's basically an online notebook where I highlight good writing, storytelling, journalism and other acts of creativity, and explore how such things are made. 

I'm an author and journalist who writes about people, sports, science, nature, and more. I love learning, adventures, life, and stories. I've covered everything from a guy who played Division I basketball while battling cancer ... to golf courses that eat golfers ... to turkey vultures invading a town. You can read all those and more below. 

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Entries in Michael Jordan (4)

Wednesday
Aug152012

Helping Pop Herring

Update: Thomas Lake started a fundraising page for Pop Herring at IndieGoGo.com. Here's the link: click.

Pop Herring (from SI.com)

Back in January, Sports Illustrated’s Tom Lake profiled Pop Herring, the man who purportedly cut Michael Jordan from his high school team in Wilmington, NC, way back when. It was a fantastic story, and Tom was even kind enough to let me interview him about it. Tom had also hoped the piece would get Jordan’s attention, as Herring had not in fact cut Jordan and had even been incredibly kind and generous, opening the gym early for Jordan to work on his game, giving him rides and even loaning him his car, and the like.

Well, Jordan never responded, and Herring, who’s suffered from a debilitating mental illness, went from bad to worse. He recently landed in jail. Lake went back to Wilmington to check it out. What he found was that Herring had been drunk when police came looking for someone else, and that got him locked up. He’d stayed in jail for weeks because he simply had nobody to bail him out. Lake ultimately decided to bail Herring out, and then when he sat down to write about about Pop's latest developments, it took the form of an impassioned and powerful open letter directed at Michael Jordan, imploring him to help the man who in his most formative years helped him take those all-important first steps toward becoming the basketball player he is today.

Thomas LakeThe reaction has been loud and mixed. Lake (@ThomasLake on Twitter) has been equal parts praised and blasted. When I initially read his piece, titled “A letter to Michael Jordan: Shame on you for refusing to help Pop,” I thought what Lake had done was, on a human level, awesome. As a journalist, I was torn. There’s a fine line we journalists have to walk when it comes to advocacy, and it’s a safe argument to make that Jordan doesn’t really owe Pop anything. One could even argue that Lake overstepped his bounds as a journalist, as was argued fairly and thoughtfully by, among many others, Wilmington Star-News sports editor Dan Spears

I’d planned to ask Lake if he wanted to come on the blog and talk a little bit more about the situation, maybe explain some of his thinking behind these decisions and all that, but radio talk show host Scott Hennessee (@ScottHennessee) got to him first. It was a to-the-point 10-minute talk, and Lake was thorough in his explanation. You can listen to it by clicking here, or if you prefer to read, I’ve transcribed it for you below. It's a quick read, and well worth the time. 

Click to read more ...

Monday
Jan232012

Stories' Stories: Sports Illustrated's Thomas Lake on Pop Herring, Making It In Journalism, and More

Today I am totally stoked to bring you this interview with Thomas Lake. Lake is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is 31 years old. He wrote a good story in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated. ("Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?") Only by "good" I mean "phenomenal" and other such over-the-top adjectives. I asked him some questions about it over email. Which was great, because it let Lake do what Lake does best, which is write, and he writes—as always—really, really well down there. Lots of smart thoughts, lots of good sentences. Just good stuff all around.

Since it's pretty long, I'll shut up now and just let the interview go. So ladies and gentlemen, Lake on making it as a journalist, coffee, how and why to get yourself good at what you do, and, of course, Pop Herring. I'd say "enjoy," but I know you will anyway, because Lake responded to everything just amazingly, so I'll just stop saying things and let you finally get to reading.

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Jan112012

Missed Opportunities

I'm pretty happy with the way the past two years of my life have gone. I've gone from writing stories for $50 a pop for local papers to writing lengthy features for ESPN The Magazine. I've had a lot of great breaks, and I've gotten them by hustling and working my a** off. But a story came out this week that made me realize I definitely missed an opportunity, and I've been reflecting on it a lot today. Figured I could share. Might help some other young journalists out there.

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Monday
Oct042010

Excerpt from The Edge of Legend - Chapter 30: "Wilson"

At the corner of Nash and Pearson streets in Wilson there sits Dick’s Hot Dog Stand, a restaurant that has been a city landmark since it was founded in 1921. Back then, Nash Street was gravel and Pearson Street didn’t exist at all. Neither did Lee Gliarmis, who owns the place now. His father did, though. His name was Socrates, but everyone called him Dick.

The restaurant is a small building made of red bricks. It has parking space for about ten cars—although when at its busiest, cars line the sides of streets nearby—and it aptly personifies the city of Wilson.

Around 9 p.m. one Saturday, as he does most Saturdays around that time, Lee wiped down the last of about two-dozen tables. Around Lee, a mere mortal, are images of men whom sports have made godlike. Filling nearly every inch of wall are autographed pictures of countless sports legends. Some are heroes, some are notorious, and some are just famously comical—“Bob Uecker sat right there, right in this booth,” says Lee, pointing to the corner he just cleaned—but their memory will live on as long as sports last. Stan Musial. Harry Caray. Roy Williams. Jim Thacker. Arnold Palmer. Bones McKinney….and so many more. A storeroom out back holds more autographed pictures than Lee can hang up.

Lee wouldn’t change a thing about his life. He loves Wilson. He loves Dick’s. But this wasn’t his dream. 

Click to read more ...