Old North Banter
Fansided

Old North Banter: But I Egress…(A Thank You)

By John Woodcock

Apr 3, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels forward Isaiah Hicks (4) bring the national championship trophy after the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the championship game of the 2017 NCAA Men's Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 3, 2017; Phoenix, AZ, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels forward Isaiah Hicks (4) bring the national championship trophy after the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the championship game of the 2017 NCAA Men's Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /
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This marks the end of a three year odyssey at the Old North Banter. The mission will continue, but it will do so without me.

Today marks a new day for the Old North Banter. Today is my last day here as its Site Expert. I just want to thank all of you who have decided the Banter was worth following. I also want to thank all of you who felt like you got a bit of insight in the local sports scene here in Charlotte, Raleigh, or even Greenville at times.

The Banter will remain, it’s just me that is going. The shop will likely be rebuilt or restocked and open again under new management. It might even be a coming Golden Age, and I hope that happens. It would be a comfort to be able to say that perhaps I helped planted the seeds of said Golden Age.

I am going out on a high note. April 2017 marks the single most productive month here at the Banter in terms of written work since my arrival in June 2014. I get to go out correctly saying that Daeshon Hall would be the Panthers’ third round pick and that Elijah Hood would end up on the Oakland Raiders late in the draft. The North Carolina Tar Heels managed to win a men’s basketball title (and lose another one in the final game) while I was here to comment on it.

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Mind you, I am not going very far away. I will be continuing to take up the pen for FanSided and focusing on college basketball affairs through the site Busting Brackets. Given the success of my last bracket, I will be well attuned already.

For me, the past three years has been an exercise in exploration. There is an element of putting one’s self out there in all of this, and I have tried to personalize things where I could. Whether it was my Tar Heel origins, my hometown Charlotte, or even my medical history (thanks, Bryan Bickell), I did want you to see where I was coming from. Sometimes that went in interesting directions (Calvin Johnson – Megatron critques) and sometimes it may not have gotten off the ground. Sometimes it led to places I never would have guessed – like the 1968 UNC basketball team defeating the 1982 team in a Tar Heel Final Four playoff bracket.

But I was never alone in all of this, I have to thank the writers who were with me over my time here and will continue to work the Banter. It seems like yesterday that Dan Dodson and I were trying to sell you on Lance Stephenson or that A. Zach Williams was doing various Wolfpack things. Or when Joshua Powell told you that the Carolina Panthers were a 14-2 Super Bowl team in 2015 well before the start of the season. I was honored that you chose to help me out here at the Banter.

Next: The North Carolina Tar Heels Bracket Challenge

I am grateful to have shared these last three years with you, and I do not wish you farewell (I am not going that far away), but fare forward in all the things that you do to make life worth living.

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