On former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, who died Saturday, and his battle with dementia.

Irina Pavolva is trying to steer the Brooklyn Nets through a rough patch. Will she make it?

“I was in the visiting clubhouse waiting to interview one of the Oakland A’s this year when one of the players called, ‘Here, pussy’—as though he were calling a cat. But of course, he hadn’t lost Fluffy; he’d found a woman in his locker room.”

To save himself, a basketball recruit testified against his mother.

On LeBron James’s photographic memory.

A 2011 profile of LeBron James, originally meant to run in Port, that was killed by Nike.

How Javaris Crittenton went from basketball phenom to standing trial on a murder charge.

Eddie Griffin made it to the NBA. Then his life began to unravel.

How a bipolar diagnosis follows you from the top to the bottom of professional basketball.

The catfishing of Chris Andersen.

The story of a high school basketball star’s sexual abuse conviction and its aftermath, told from all sides.

An oral history of the 2002 Western Conference finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings.

Previously: Jonathan Abrams on the Longform Podcast.

A profile of the Los Angeles Clippers owner, an oft-sued real estate baron with a documented racist streak and a penchant for heckling his own players, on the occasion of him winning an NAACP lifetime achievement award.

On a basketball coach starting over at the lowest levels of the game after his ascendant NCAA career ended in a hazy tabloid scene at a Cleveland crackhouse.

A brief history of the world and the late 1990s Chicago Bulls.

"This is the version of him that has no future or past. No ex-wife or kids, no off-court life. He lives in the United Center. He doesn't fuss with food or water. There are whole months in the air, between the floor and the rim. This moment of quiet and loud gets stuck on repeat. Michael Jordan shoots, swishes, but a lot of times he just stands, lit. An occasional swivel. Rotates like a figurine. Television size. He could dribble his basketball in the palm of your hand."

The story of a very bad basketball team.

On the coach’s battle with retirement.

“His life with the virus would be his witness, his public testimony. Performance as life, and life as performance.”

How good is Julian Newman, really?

A profile of former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice, who was fired in April after a video of him berating players went viral.

The inspiring life and mysterious death of NBA player Bison Dele.

A basketball player, broke and without a Plan B, travels across the country for one last shot at glory.

Sex in the NBA in the wake of Magic Johnson’s HIV announcement.

The lost dream of Korleone Young, a high school basketball star who skipped college and flamed out after only one NBA season.

On not making the NBA.