Ralph Wiley dead at 52

Ralph Wiley was one of my favorite writers. I haven't read any of his books, but his collumns on ESPN's Page 2 have always been excellent. His writing was provocative, intelligent, funny. He ALWAYS knew what he was writing about. He never settled for delivering sports writers' cliches. He challenged conventional thinking. He wrote about sports, and he wrote about culture, and he wrote about being a black man in America. He had an astounding wealth of knowledge, a clarity of voice.

I surfed to Page 2 tonight to find out what Wiley (who predicted Pistons in Six) and Bill Simmons thought about The Pistons being up 3-1. Instead, I read Simmons and others'
appreciations of Wiley.

I've never met Ralph Wiley. I'll miss him.