I’ve enjoyed following everyone’s blogs this semester, especially since this was a new experience for me considering I never had much interest in blogs.  Honestly, my favorite blog was probably Jonathan’s.  Sure, this could be because I love basketball (and just sports in general) and so the topic was reason enough to love it.  But his writing style and perspective on certain topics reflected a lot of my own personal beliefs, and thus is was a pleasure to read someone’s writing who voiced a lot of the things that I think about but never really have an appropriate forum to say them.  For example:

That’s one thing that I love about college basketball and about Duke. The team always comes first, period. It’s about the name in the front of the jersey (the college name), not the name in the back (the player’s name). When a Duke basketball team walks onto the court, there is no ego, only what is best for the team. In the 2008-2009 season, a senior Greg Paulus was benched for freshman point-guard Elliot Williams. This is the same Paulus that had started at the point guard position since his freshman year. But there was never a doubt that the coaching staff had faith in Paulus and was committed to improving him. Coach K was just trying to put the five players that gave him the best chance of winning any given game. Aside from transferring colleges, once you chose a college you were dedicated to that program until you left, and the program was dedicated to you.

I was a huge Greg Paulus fan (I watched him play in the state championship in football his senior year of high school… he was an animal), so this entry caught my eye immediately.  Moreover, Jonathan is able to convey his personal beliefs to his audience without getting to pushy or preachy, and without sounding like a snarky Dukie.  I loved the several comparisons between Duke and the Houston Rockets too, as I think it was great to try and bridge the gap between college and pro basketball, as there currently exists a rather large divide between the two.  To put it simply, though, Jonathan’s blog was a great combination of information and opinion… I actually would prefer reading his eloquent write-ups to some of those incompetent ones from the guys at ESPN!

One of my favorite individual posts that I’ve read, however, comes from Keturah’s blog:

I recently read that #Occupywallstreet may be running out of cash…Is it true? The social, grassroots movement that has spread to countries around the world may be coming to end. How unfortunate! I may not agree with everything #Occupy stands for but I certainly support the light it has shed on social inequality. I know, I know – #occupy has been characterized as unorganized, rogue and blatantly ineffective. In some ways, it is! But, honestly, I think that’s okay. Someone needs to stand up to the bankers who were able to walk away with millions while thousands of Americans lost their homes. I’m totally against any system that squeezes millions of Americans to cater to the 1%. It’s unjust and undemocratic.

Keturah takes on a rather controversial topic, and does so in such a succinct and manner-of-fact fashion that it’s almost impossible to argue her logic.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the occupy movement; I thought it was pretty stupid to think that sleeping in tents was going to change the economic status quo in our country.  But honestly, after reading Keturah’s post, I was able to understand.  Her precise delivery and honesty (“I may not agree with everything #Occupy stands for but…”) make it an effective message, one that can’t be easily brushed aside with simple counterarguments.  So thank you, Keturah, for giving me some perspective on something that I was so quick to write off.