Guardian reporter says Spokane city of desperation – except for Zags

SALT LAKE CITY – Heads up Spokane: you are a town of gloom and doom.

At least that’s how reporter Cody Delistraty would describe the city in which he once lived. In his article published on the Guardian’s website on Tuesday, Delistraty painted Spokane as a lowly, desperate town with only one silver lining – Gonzaga basketball.

Delistraty’s comments sparked backlash from mostly Spokane residents on social media almost immediately after the story was posted. On Wednesday, the article was brought to the attention of Gonzaga head coach Mark Few and a couple of his players.

Few, who has lived in Spokane for nearly three decades, said at a press conference on Wednesday that he hadn’t read the article and he didn’t know the reporter, but from what he had heard about the story, it must not describe Spokane the way he knows it to be.

“I don’t know who wrote it. It must be fake news,” Few cracked.

Few moved to Spokane in the 1980s when he was hired on as an assistant coach for the Zags. He has remained in the city ever since, raising a family of four children with his wife, Marcy.

“Spokane is a phenomenal place to live and call home. It’s one of the big keys to this ascension of Gonzaga,” Few said.

Nigel Williams-Goss agreed with his coach. The junior guard said he was surprised at how much he liked Spokane after moving to the east side of the state from Seattle in 2015.

“Just the people are so nice,” Williams-Goss said. “I think it’s been a real shock for me. I’ve been a lot of places and just the reception that you get when you walk down the street, not just as basketball players, but I feel like it’s a real sense of community in Spokane.”

Even Gonzaga’s big man piped up in defense of Spokane.

“There’s so many great things to do,” GU center Przemek Karnowski said. Some of Karnowski’s favorite things to do in Spokane, besides playing basketball of course, is hiking and fishing on the outskirts of the town.

“I’m an outdoor guy,” Karnowski said. “I think people can come here and experience stuff that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.”