After the competition began two months ago, thousands of entrants were whittled down to 16 finalists who were judged on weekly assignments, and in the end Brandon Vogel defeated Brian Moore (MooreSports) to claim the crown.
Voting for final week 1. HiPlainsDrifter -- Avg rating this week: 4.10 2. MooreSports -- 3.16
Brandon now joins the winner of NGSI, Ty Hildenbrandt, in becoming a contributing writer to FOXSports.com.
Here are the pieces that HiPlainsDrifter wrote throughout the final rounds that helped win him the competition:
Congratulations to both Brandon and Brian, and all 16 finalists, for making it as far as they did, and thanks to everyone who entered and voted throughout the competition.
And it appears very likely that this competition will continue in the future, so please stay tuned.
With only a few hours left before the big announcement, here are the judges' comments on HiPlainsDrifter and MooreSports' final assignments:
Assignment No. 1
HiPlainsDrifter Peter: One of the first heavily personalized pieces you've written, and you pull it off with flying colors. It's the little things that make your writing such a delight to read. When you toss in a simple reference to the "tie-dyed Nets", hardcore NBA fans can't help but acknowledge you are one of us. We know those light, kinda-sorta columbia blue Nets uni's from the early '90s, envision Benoit Benjamin wearing one, and know the exact Jordan move from "Come Fly With Me" that you are referring to. Your choice of art worked pleasantly as well. It offers that 1990-1993 feel, puts you right in the place of Michael Jordan's career where Dwyane Wade is now, and is loaded with memories of a bygone era. All in all, this is a fabulously entertaining read, loaded with nostalgia, insight, and statistics. You pose an argument, back it up beautifully, and keep the reader entertained. This may be your best submission yet.
Dime: You took a topic that has been beaten to death in your first assignment (Flash = MJ) and put a solid spin on it that made it a much better read than most of the pieces penned around the country over the past few weeks. The Dime Crew worships at the altar of "Come Fly With Me" and to a man, pretty much all plan to have the eventual sit-down with our sons to introduce them to Mike and the greatest DVD ever created. For so many of us out there who have come up this era, there will never be another Jordan. But there is a Dwyane Wade. There is a LeBron James. And there will be more who will carve out their own unique legacy. The faster we get past looking for the next Mike and start to truly appreciate who we have today the better off we'll be. Nice work.
Tom: Writing heavily personal pieces is a very tough line to walk, and when I first started reading this I feared it was heading toward crossing the line. But you backed away from the personal stuff at the right time and offered good evidence and comparisons. I wasn't as enthralled by this piece as Peter and Dime, but still thought it was a very, very solid effort.
MooreSports Peter: I like the angle. Not enough pieces were written on Riley after these Finals. But there's got to be more analysis on the Van Gundy stuff. You mention it briefly, but don't discuss why you think the move was made. Remember, from what we know, Van Gundy stepped down to spend more time with his family. In this piece, you just say Riley decided to replace him. There's something that went on there that is very intriguing. That might have put this well-written post over the edge. I liked the White Chocolate/Starbucks decaf latte line as well. However, this puppy drags. This piece could have ended here: "In making them believe, he convinced an eclectic group of players with varying backgrounds and ages in a cynical league of selfish athletes to come together for the ultimate goal -- a championship." Instead, it goes on for a few more paragraphs. Knowing when to wrap a piece up is key, especially in Internet writing. All in all, this is a good article, just not sure this jumps off the screen.
Dime: We think that Riley was the most challenging subject of the bunch, so to come up with a solid, well-written piece that thankfully never once mentions Riley's hair, scores points with us. We feel that his was one of the best pieces you have submitted during this entire contest. It would have been pretty close to perfect if not for the played out "one kidney" Alonzo reference. Overall though, it was very good.
Tom: Riley was an interesting angle to take, especially given the other choices might have been more dynamic options. I think you gloss over the fact that this was an All-Star team of sorts with about six guys that had at one point been No. 1 scoring options on various teams. But you did hint at this at points and talk about how Riley got players like Antoine Walker and Gary Payton to shift roles, but I think it would have been a better piece if it delved into this angle a little more. Overall a decent piece though.
Assignment No. 2
HiPlainsDrifter Peter: Not sure I love this as your wild-card subject, but you still managed to entertain and inform. The intro is a tad on the repetitive side. In three separate paragraphs, you mentioned your summer was based on the U.S. Soccer team and the Cubs. This could have been done in one. Yet, the piece rapidly improves. Mets line is hilarious. The "AIG" commercial line was pretty good too. As opposed to forcing these quips, like so many of your competitors have done, you sneak them in craftily, adding to the overall comfort of the piece. The look for the future is a promising and humorous one. This entry is the perfect size too -- not too long, not too short. Well done.
Dime: Your second entry was also solid. Almost all of us know what it's like to suffer with our baseball team (one of us is tortured on a daily basis by the misery of living and dying with the Phillies) and there isn't a sports fan out there, soccer zealot or not, who wasn't disappointed by Team USA's showing in the World Cup. This entry, like your first, had a deeply personal touch, which is always cool. And we loved the prediction for 2026.
Tom: Again, was worried about the overly personal tone, but it didn't cross the line, and there were some great, great lines in here. The AIG line, the wonders of capitalism and farm-raised turkeys lines were all some of the best of the entire competition and they were all in one piece. This was definitely my favorite of all four of the pieces this week.
MooreSports Peter: You could go with any topic and you did a "Why sports are great" piece? I feel like Simon Cowell, shocked at an "Idol" contestant's putrid choice of song. From the first paragraph, I read this, and think -- "Hmm ... a married Red Sox fan, talking about pop culture, and a bloody sock." Another writer on a pretty major site has made quite a career out of that, written a best-selling book on his personal connection with the Sox and sports, and is probably the most read guy in the world of Internet prose. So, why would I want to read this? How many die-hard Red Sox fan/I live and die with the Sox stuff have we read already? "Fever Pitch" was quite enough. I know your connection to the Sox isn't what this article is about -- but from the intro, one might think it is. As for the piece itself, it's a fine enough read -- safe, close to the cuff, even cute. But it's not exactly polished. It drags a bit too. You seem to recognize that, yourself, inserting the term "I digress" in a final-round assignment. Overall, this is a pleasant enough read. But I'm not rushing to read this on a Monday morning when I first get into work.
Dime: We cringed at the start of your second assignment. "More about the Red Sox???" "What sports means to us as a society???" Been there, done that about a million times by a million different writers. Thankfully, your entry wasn't all about the Sox. It was still a decent piece (the paragraph about teaching your 4-year-old to taunt Yankees fans instead of learning to read made us laugh out loud), but for the final assignment in the final round in this contest, you needed to come with a haymaker. Unfortunately, this just wasn't it.
Tom: I fear I totally agree with Peter and Dime on this one. This was by far my least favorite entry in the final round. Although the Red Sox stuff at the beginning didn't quite chafe me like it did the other judges, the intro read way too much like a "What I did on my summer vacation" essay. It was very preachy at points (the line about rising gas prices and alternative energy sources was so out of place in this piece that it made me shudder). And lines like "If you're reading this" and "But I digress" were painful. Addressing your audience like that is a very dangerous tactic. It tends to feel like we as readers are sitting in an audience watching you lecture us from a podium; not exactly enjoyable. And unfortunately, most of this piece felt like that.
Voting has closed for the final week, and just a reminder that we will be announcing the Next Great Sportswriter winner Wednesday at approximately 3 p.m. ET.
Judges' comments on the final assignments will be posted Tuesday.
(Note: Sorry for the delay on comments. They will be posted later today)
Thanks to everyone who voted, and congratulations again to HiPlainsDrifer and MooreSports for making it this far.
There are two assignments to start for HiPlains and MooreSports this week, with a third one depending on whether the NBA Finals reaches seven games.
If the Mavericks win Tuesday night's Game 6 to force a Game 7, check back here Wednesday morning for the third assignment.
But for now, on with the two assignments already in place:
Assignment No. 1
Pick one of the following six subjects and write a piece specifically on them. These are people who have been written about extensively over the last two weeks, so the key will be to find a new, original angle that someone will still be interested in reading after hearing so much about them already.
The six subjects to choose from:
Dirk Nowitzki Avery Johnson Mark Cuban Dwyane Wade Shaquille O'Neal Pat Riley
Now this assignment isn't due until Friday at noon ET, so there is plenty of time and plenty of possible ways to go with this. But one thing to keep in mind is that should the NBA Finals end Tuesday night, it might be tough to post a compelling read on one of these figures on Friday, three days after the Finals are over. This isn't to say it can't be done, it's just something to keep in mind. Also keep in mind, that if there is a Game 7, the deadline for that piece will likely be at a comparable time (meaning Thursday/Friday). I'm not telling you how to juggle your time or what angles to take, just something to keep in mind.
And you really can take this piece in any direction you want, but the piece must center on one of the six figures listed above.
Assignment No. 2
This one is a carbon copy from the final round of NGSI.
The topic is completely your choice. This one is probably the one I'll be looking at most closely because I'll be working with the winner on his 20 pieces for the site, and I tend to give a lot of freedom to what writers think are their strengths. And I want to see what's the best work the finalists can come up with when they are given complete freedom.
It can be any topic, any sport, any format, but has to be about sports and not something ridiculous akin to "Here's why I should win." I want the writers to think of it as something that really showcases the best possible work they can produce.
This one is due Saturday by 6 p.m. ET.
Congratulations on making it this far, and good luck.
Here are the comments for last week's deadline assignment on either Game 3 or Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The voting was very close, but overall the scores weren't as high as they have been in past weeks.
HiPlainsDrifter Peter: Well-researched and written in your distinct voice. I liked the "90 Cent" nickname. But "Dallas still trailed 42-46 and the Heat" seems off. All in all, not your best work. But still strong. Dime: Incorrectly hyphenating "six minutes" in the first three words is no way to start a piece. Other than that though, it's a solid post. We appreciate the stance - missed foul shots by NBA players make us nuts. Tom: This was not one of my favorites this week. It's just not a compelling read. It starts well with a good lead and a good transition into the heart of the piece, but fades very quickly after that. The "trailed 42-46" is a bad mistake. This isn't tennis, and putting the lower score first in any sports article will just trip up anyone reading it and cost the author a lot of credibility. Also saying "145 seconds" in the ninth paragraph seems a little random. Sure "nearly two and a half minutes" might be a little longer, but I think saying "145 seconds" is a lot more likely to trip up the reader.
MooreSports Peter: Really good angle. The line about Walker being like the " lazy friend with bad pick-up lines get a job, a haircut ..." wasn't bad, just not sure it works within the tone of this column. Article flows from start to finish, though, and might very well be your best effort of the competition. But the Dunkin' Donuts line wasn't funny and made no sense; jokes like that are not necessary in these types of pieces. Dime: A solid, well-written post. It's not spectacular, but in a week when no one seems to really be on top of their game, "solid" is decent. Tom: This was also not one of my favorites this week, as it just seems to be a kind of a ho-hum game recap that didn't really have a very original take. Talking about the momentum in a series is OK, but it's hardly original and the piece didn't take an angle that really made it very compelling. But I also liked the line about Antoine Walker.
nappytemple Peter: Fun angle with the Justice League stuff. Pretty nicely written and well researched. Would have loved if you parlayed this postgame report into a bit of a preview for Game 4. Also, I think the Hasselhoff stuff has been done quite a bit by now, and in this article, there was no reason to mention it where you did. Reads like a forced "hip" reference. Dime: We dig the Justice League, so we appreciate the angle and the creativity. But please, please, PLEASE no more about Hasselhoff. Tom: This was a pretty decent read, and I liked the Gary Payton "Glove/mitten" line and the stat about Dallas' record when Howard goes for more than 20. But a couple little things struck me like the Kobe reference is the first paragraph seemed unnecessary and following the good line about "Glove/mitten" with something as painfully cliched as "But when crunch time rolls around, ice water still flows in the veins of the Heat's 37-year-old point guard" made me cringe.
joshhoskins55 Peter: Great angle. Haslem's been one of the under-the-radar grit guys in the NBA his entire career. But it seems like you really forced the issue with the jokes and wisecracks here. The article was good enough on its own without that. Estefan joke was a major dud, and just didn't fit. The Jim Abbott line? Eh. If you're going to make that joke, which doesn't work in a serious postgame analysis, I would have gone with the drummer from Def Leppard instead. Dime: We like the topic -- Udonis is definitely one of the most important players in this series -- but the execution just isn't that nice. A lot of the humor feels forced and some lines just don't feel like Josh's usual work (Gloria Estefan, Jim Abbott, "the greasy-haired Riley"). He has set the bar really, really high over the past few weeks with great post after great post, so when one entry doesn't bring the heat, it's glaring. But even D-Wade doesn't always have his best stuff. Tom: This was actually my favorite piece from this round; a round when unfortunately I found almost all of the pieces pretty mediocre. This was a good example of finding what you deemed an underappreciated gem and calling it out and really using the details to support your argument. The Jim Abbott line is pretty touchy (especially since "Abbott" was misspelled) and if you're going to go that route when you know you're probably going to offend some people, you better make sure it's a great line that even those of us with somewhat twisted senses of humor will appreciate. I'm not sure this one was one of those lines.
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