Some of the best advice I got while earning a Journalism degree was to "write what you know," which I am sure was borrowed from the film "Orange County" starring Colin Hanks and Jack Black. While I see where the author, Cody Delistraty, was coming from with his article "How Gonzaga became the central hope for the struggling city of Spokane," it is clear he is no longer writing what he knows.
Based in Paris (according to his own about me: https://delistraty.com/about/) and New York, the former Spokanite is a little out of his element and probably should've eschewed from writing this "personal insight piece" about Spokane and Gonzaga. See, Don't have to go to Oxford to use big words, just saying.
I won't lie and say Delistraty is a hack... his resume proves otherwise. But he missed the mark on so many things about a city I came to love and still hold dear. Maybe if he visited home more often, or remembered his non-bourgeoisie roots, he wouldn't have slandered an entire city or trivialized people's lives down to the successes and failures of a college basketball team.
By the way, there is still a highly successful arena football team, it just moved to the less corrupt IFL and aptly changed its name to the Spokane Empire in order to honor the railroading past Delistraty touches on. Not to mention a sought-after marathon in Bloomsday, the largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament in the world in the Nike-sponsored Hoopfest, or some of the best golf courses for the price in the country. Another note that should be mentioned is the value of high school sports is seen here like very few places in the country. Fans turn up, TV stations cover all types of sports, and kids earn a chance for five minutes of fame (or more) like many student athletes cannot in other metropolitan cities such as Spokane or larger never get.
Gonzaga is important to Spokane, there is no understating that, but it isn't a struggling city, it is one thriving in Delistraty's absence and getting better every day.
I witnessed games in the McCarthy Athletic Center, and Zag Nation creates an atmosphere like few others in college sports. But the idea of sports fandom sweeping up the masses isn't a new one and isn't one that should be applied to a college team that is really offering an experience easily replicated by the success of a program. There are the Cameron Crazies of Duke, the Dawg Pound at the University of Washington, the Hoo Crew in Virginia, and so many more cheering sections that are even bigger and can sway a game by the sheer size of the student body chanting.
Is Spokane a worse place to be than Durham, North Carolina or Charlottesville, Virginia? I don't think so. I would argue the opposite. There's nothing like taking in a sunset from atop the South Hill, taking in Spokane Falls from any of the bridges, or simply taking in the view of the river driving to Joe Albi Stadium on a Friday before a high school football game. I would say there is nothing so American as those moments I remember in Spokane. Nor "dive" bars as great as the Park Inn or Monterey Cafe.
I love the Lilac City, and it loved me back during my two years there. Spokane was good to me, I tried to be good to it and its people, and I was rewarded with memories I will always cherish. Spokane is just as much a part of my past as it is a catalyst for my future, and I can't thank the city and the friends and former colleagues I still have there for that aspect.
I am angry with a news source I covet for its usual accuracy and journalistic integrity. I use the guardian regularly for sports and political purposes. But it's not like the editors of the site knew Delistraty was puffing smoke on an invisible fire. They're a world away.
You can read the piece here, just make sure you add a slant everything he claims: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/mar/14/gonzaga-basketball-march-madness-spokane-last-hope
The Spokesman-Review's Shawn Vestal adds a satirical take on Delistraty's piece. A great read here: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/mar/14/shawn-vestal-guardian-report-exposes-dreary-truth-/
