Stare at the game long enough and the distance between everything—players, league, game, court, self, other—begins to collapse. Everything becomes a metaphor for everything else, the league and your life each generating infinite layers of meaning for the other.
Stories of African Americans playing in a city that has struggled with racism
Mountain athletes face death and grief more often than most of us. One therapist thinks he can help.
Investigating one of the deadliest maritime disasters in U.S. history.
A profile of Brooks Koepka.
How one Texas boxing match changed history.
A former NBA player describes his own unraveling.
“Wonder Boy” is heading to the NBA, and he’s out to change how we think about European imports.
Can the king of ultrarunning conquer a race as short as the marathon?
An amateur sleuth tracks runners who cheat. But how far should he go?
Skiing in the shadow of Mount Everest.
A Major League umpire learns that his children share the same deadly genetic disease.
An organ transplant recipient cycles across the country to meet the people who gave him his heart.
On the owner’s 20-year evolution from disruptive force to formidable constant.
Five years after his death, friends, family, and the athletes he covered reflect on the legendary ‘SportsCenter’ anchor and ESPN icon.
A woman told police she was raped by three New York Mets. They were never charged.
A profile of Mo Isom, a former goalie on the LSU women’s soccer team now trying to kick for the football team.
On the life and legacy of David Stern.
The world’s best ice climber is turning 50.
Antonio Carrion was headed for the NFL when the voices started and he drifted away. Then his estranged mother finished her time for robbery and saved him from a system that’s unkind to the mentally ill.
Can Jerry Falwell Jr. build Liberty University’s football team into the evangelical version of Notre Dame?
He sawed out the bottom. Nailed the crate to the telephone pole out in front of the house. New hoop. ... I’d be out there shooting until 10 at night. That’s when I started getting really good. The pole was round so you couldn’t bank the ball in. And you weren’t getting a friendly bounce on a square rim. You had to hit it dead-on, wet.
Can one agonizing defeat destroy a life?
Todd Marinovich was engineered from birth to be the greatest quarterback of all time. He ended up doing heroin in the locker room. A 2010 National Magazine Award winner, reprinted on Longform.
Knowing she had the legal right to die helped Paralympic gold medalist Marieke Vervoort live her life.
