Here’s how I got my job at the Herald-Leader. It was the Lexington Herald at the time, and the sports editor, Mike Johnson, had told me to give him a call when the school year ended at UK. I did. It just so happened, I did on the very day that Steve Aschburner, then the UK beat writer, had informed Mike that he was departing for another job (believe it was the Milwaukee Sentinel).
Mike then hired me for the summer to fill Steve’s spot, while the Herald searched for a UK beat writer. After my 90-day stint, the Herald then hired me full-time at Thanksgiving.
Anyway, Steve Aschburner is now writing for NBA.com, where he has filed this terrific story on the death of Melvin Turpin.
An excerpt:
Inevitably, in moving from the unnerving news of Turpin’s death, you think back to the highlights of his life, the man-child days as a four-year starter at Kentucky and his rapid bounces through the NBA. And that’s where the guilt creeps in, because when Melvin Turpin was battling a personal demon that would end the best professional dreams of his life, the basketball world — coaches, executives, teammates, rivals, media and fans — laughed, ridiculed, hollered, benched, fined and waived.
Turpin had a weight problem. And people thought it was funny.
That’s why thoughts and prayers to his family and friends seem kind of late now, surely too little. Restraint and compassion, in even tiny doses at the right time, might have helped. But it rarely was there for the big guy.
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