ESPN.com columnist and former Sports Illustrated writer Ralph Wiley unexpectedly passed away over the weekend at the age of 52.
I’m not going to pretend Wiley was one of my favorite writers; he did some good stuff in ‘90s for Sports Illustrated (“The Illy,” as he called it), but much of his later-period ESPN writing ventured into goofy ideas and bizarre slang, such as his reference to Sam Cassell as “the Fetus Formerly Known as the Space Baby From 2001: A Space Odyssey, Sam I Am Indeed ET.”
But regardless, I should say something nice: R-Dub was always a friend to Minnesota and its fans, and appeared to be one who appreciated all things “Minny.” For instance, he once stated that “If this was Minnesota, [LeBron James]'d be a combination of Jesse the Body Ventura, Prince, Randy Moss, the Wild, the Twins, ice hockey and fishing.”
Wiley’s final piece on ESPN.com- following a column in which he ludicrously referred to Luke Walton as “White Magic”- was an enjoyable chat with “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons about the NBA playoffs. Let that and the SI stuff- and not Wiley’s bizarro column output- be R-Dub’s lasting legacy.
Posted by Stephen Silver at June 14, 2004 09:54 PMRW: May 27 2004, http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=wiley/040527
The Pistons can win.
In fact, the Pistons, if of sound mind, have a better-than-even shot of exploding the Laker Myth...
Not a bad way to go. When he was good, he was real good. I'll miss him on Page 2
Posted by: paddy at June 15, 2004 02:15 AM