NBA
He Square Roots, He Scores
John Hollinger was an ESPN blogger. Now he's an NBA executive on a playoff run.
The Memphis Grizzlies entered this NBA season as a good basketball team living in the worst of all possible worlds. Coming off two consecutive playoff runs, they were bound to compile a record sufficiently strong to fail to qualify for a lottery-high draft pick, yet not improved or even different enough to be likely to emerge from the super-competitive Western Conference to play for the championship. READ MORE >>
"I'm Black, and I'm Gay"
Why the first half of Jason Collins' historic statement is as important as the second
This morning, NBA center Jason Collins became the first active athlete in a major American sport to come out. “I’m black. And I’m gay,” he wrote in the first line of an essay for Sports Illustrated. READ MORE >>
The Modest Heroism of Jason Collins
The gay NBA player isn't another Jackie Robinson, but he's brave in his own way
Upon hearing that Jason Collins, the journeyman National Basketball Association center, just became the first active male major-league athlete to announce publicly that he is gay, the mind involuntarily compares him to a previous sports trailblazer. When he donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform in 1947 (as chronicled in 42, the feature film that has grossed more than $55 million in its first three weeks), Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play Major League Baseball or any other professional sport. READ MORE >>
Tonight, the NFL Draft begins—in case you hadn’t heard. The cover of the most recent ESPN The Magazine is dedicated to it, and Sports Illustrated likely would have fronted it, too, had the Boston Marathon bombings not taken precedence. READ MORE >>
Basketball uniforms have gone through lots of changes over the years. The shorts have gotten longer, the socks have gotten shorter, and old-school cotton cloth has given way to high-tech performance fabrics. One thing, though, has stayed the same: Basketball jerseys don’t have sleeves. READ MORE >>
LeBron James, the Workingman's Hero
"The Decision" was the right move after all—and the fulfillment of the American Dream
LeBron James, who will make his ninth consecutive All-Star Game start on Sunday, is just 28 years old, which is all the more remarkable considering how many titles—not the National Basketball Association variety—he's held. READ MORE >>
Will We Miss David Stern’s Heavy Hands?
NBA Players Back Obama, But One Smart Exec Is For Romney
Since the 1960s, professional football has supplanted baseball as our nation’s favorite sport—generating higher revenue and better television ratings. And, as the past few weeks have demonstrated, college basketball has captured the attention and diminished the productivity of the American workforce in ways baseball does not. But let’s not confuse popularity with superiority. READ MORE >>
