Vindication for an awkward art.

An ode to professional basketball players and why pro ball is the best ball of all.

The Penn State sex abuse scandal as told through a father, a son and “Victim 1.”

The untold story of steroids in baseball.

The controversy surrounding the death of Uche Okafor.

On conspiracy theories in sports, from the ‘85 NBA draft lottery to Michael Phelps’ gold medal performance in the 100-meter butterfly.

It’s a club “filled exclusively with people who do not want to be members.”

The political fight over a new football stadium in Minnesota.

One man’s stories from the early days of the NBA.

An investigation into the true identity of a high school basketball player.

The story of former Vikings linebacker Fred McNeill and the lasting impact of his concussions.

The alchemy of predicting professional success, from quarterbacks to teachers.

In 1999, “original superagent” Leigh Steinberg represented 86 NFL athletes. His life today:

At age 63, Steinberg -- for years hailed as the real-life Maguire -- now finds himself a bankrupt, recovering alcoholic, plotting a comeback from the bottom. And before 10 p.m. tonight, as mandated by the California Bar Association, he must show that his urine is clean.

The inside story of Pennsylvania’s governor and the fall of Joe Paterno.

How a con-man convinced Los Angeles that he was prepared to purchase the Dodgers from the now-bankrupt Frank McCourt.

An oral history of the Pacers/Pistons melee in 2004.

On the “unfair significance” of Jeremy Lin.

The story of a high school star who died minutes after hitting a game-winner to end an undefeated season, and the family and friends he left behind.

A former first-string tackle considers the green zone as a war zone:

Just as football has evolved in accordance with the evolving business ethic of American society, so has it evolved in accordance with the changing strategic assumptions about war. The development (or rebirth) of the T-formation in football coincided almost exactly with the development of a new era of mobility and speed in warfare best exemplified in the Blitzkrieg tactics of the German armies in Europe in 1939-40. The T-formation soon overwhelmed the “Maginot Line” mentality of traditional football, based as it was on rigid lines and massive concentrations of defensive and offensive power.

How the game gets made.

On Clifton “Pop” Herring, the then-26-year-old high school basketball coach who famously left Jordan off the varsity squad as a sophomore.

Bill Russell, race, and the NBA of the 1960s.

On the death of a high school basketball star in New York City.

A profile of Joe Paterno.

The Green Bay Packers are a historical, cultural, and geographical anomaly, a publicly traded corporation in a league that doesn’t allow them, an immensely profitable company whose shareholders are forbidden by the corporate bylaws to receive a penny of that profit, a franchise that has flourished despite being in the smallest market in the NFL—with a population of 102,000, it would be small for a Triple A baseball franchise.