Winn produces brilliant longform piece on the Sabonis stories

As the college basketball season approaches, a new batch of ‘freshman phenoms’ enter the ring and become a part of the everchanging college basketball landscape. One of this year’s ‘freshman phenoms’ is Domantas Sabonis, of Gonzaga University.

In a longform piece done by Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn, Sabonis’s recruitment from Spain and his father’s long-lasting legacy are revealed in a riveting story that not only kept my attention, but also made me want to learn more about the Sabonis family.

Winn told the story of Domantas and Arvydas Sabonis (Domantas’s father) in a parallel structure; he alternated between stories of the two by section, and did so in a way that allowed the reader to fully understand the similarities and differences between the stories.

Another remarkable aspect of the piece is Winn’s reporting. The amount of people that he had to talk to, especially those in different regions of the world, is remarkable. He had to track down everyone from Arvydas, an introvert legend living humbly in Spain, to Rima Janulevicius, who is currently a U.S. Department of State public affairs officer in Lithuania.

Not only did he track these sources down, but he also got great information from them. I would imagine that some of these sources would not want to talk about some of the topics covered in the piece, especially because of how long ago most of the events occurred. Yet, somehow, Winn got them to open up, and it made for a fantastic story.

Given that Arvydas (a legend in his day) played most of his career in Russia, I would imagine that research on his career is also very difficult. Winn figured out how to extract enough information about Arvydas’s career so that the reader understood some of his playing background, which is an important element to the story.

I do not know how long it took for Winn to compile this piece, as it is not mentioned. However, the amount of information and stories that he gained to write this story is almost unimaginable. The effort that Winn put into making this piece makes it worth reading alone.

Add to that the fact that the story is told in a compelling way, filled with anecdotes and parallel structure, and the reader realizes that this piece is important to journalism. It is important because of its storytelling and its longform nature- it is important because it tells the story in a way that makes the reader feel as if they were a part of the story itself.