just another American family.

Sports coverage outside of the NY/NJ area in the New York Times is actually interesting to me -- they have writers who find interesting and compelling human interest stories about athletes and their families, and UNLV forward Joe Darger's is no different.

Darger gets about six points a night in a little more than 13 minutes of action, but the NYT's fascination with him has more to do with his unorthodox family -- his father is a practicing polygamist, and the total number of kids is 19 -- and how they follow him around in games. (The article's tone is good -- I'm not a polygamy fan, but I think non-condemnation's a good way to go here.)

His story is interesting for the way we handle stories outside the accepted or common Judeo-Christian norms; Mormonism is one of the last few religious practices with a history banded about as "weird" in America (Islam is another; Buddhism has always seemed more of a philosophy to Americans.) Most of the stories we get about the old polygamist practices are about the ugly fallout -- see Warren Jeffs for the latest example -- but Darger's sounds highly all-American and pretty consistent with a strong, religious background, except for that one "deviant" aspect (it is worth noting that his father said he and his wives don't force their life choices on the kids.)

Darger's is a Rorschach test; we will read what we want out of it since the writer's tone seems neutral enough -- it's just an interesting backstory in college basketball, where there are plenty to be had, although many more of them have to do with rising above poverty, violence, etc. What will happen, though, if the NYT isn't exactly the last word on this? We may find out, depending on how UNLV performs in two weeks.