VONTAE DAVIS WAKES just after sunrise on a weekday in August and wonders how he'll start the day.
Traditionally, in sports broadcasting, a color commentator’s job is to explain to viewers what they just saw. But, during the past few weeks of N.F.L.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Team meetings at the Birmingham Marriott were winding down the night before Tennessee was set to take on top-ranked and unbeaten Alabama in 2009, and Ed Orgeron wanted everyone's attention.
In February 2018, Jeff Stoutland, an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Eagles, was a day away from setting off on a golf trip with some buddies from his high school days in Staten Island when he got a call from the team’s scouting staff.
NEW YORK — The beard is still lush and vibrant, an impenetrable forest of facial camouflage. The man behind it, also known as The Beard, is equally spirited and inscrutable. But his steel-wooled facade has just cracked, albeit slightly. So, about that 30th birthday you recently celebrated...
New tampering rules, a shifting salary cap, NCAA shenanigans, and a new Nets owner: Basketball will be back soon, but the sport is ever-evolving The middle of September usually marks a whole lot of nothing for the NBA. Content from players is limited.
Orlando picked up the point guard’s option and will pay him $12.3 million for the 2020-21 season, but how close is he to getting back on the court? Markelle Fultz is back in the news—this time, for a good reason.
By pledging his allegiance to Team USA for next summer’s Olympics, Curry is getting a head start on what’s shaping up to be a big year Two weeks remain until NBA players report for training camp, but Stephen Curry is getting a head start on setting his narrative for the 2019-20 season.
We spend way too much time talking about the officials. I don’t know what the solution is. The stories are huge this morning. Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees might really be hurt. The Bills and Niners might be good. The Patriots might be the Steel Curtain.
Eli Manning has been benched, Ben Roethlisberger is out for the season, and Drew Brees will miss at least six weeks. Many older QBs have been sidelined this season, while a younger generation is showing glimpses of a new future in the NFL The past is a foreign country.
We came across the following article by Stephen King a little while ago on a number of different websites. We believe it was originally published in a 1986 edition of The Writer magazine and republished in the 1988 edition of The Writer’s Handbook.
The Bag Man excuses himself to make a call outside, on his “other phone,” to arrange delivery of $500 in cash to a visiting recruit. The player is nationally #1 at his position and on his way into town.
How long does it take to become elite at your craft? And what do the people who master their goals do differently than the rest of us? That's what John Hayes, a cognitive psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, wanted to know.
What a loss to suffer, even if for years you knew it was coming.
It had been a good meeting as far as Perry Husband was concerned. The 15 minutes he had been promised to convince the Houston Astros' team brass to fundamentally revamp their organizational approach to pitching had turned into close to an hour.
We know we need to exercise for our health, but a lifelong exercise habit may also help us feel younger and stay stronger well into our senior years.
This article is an excerpt from Atomic Habits, my New York Times bestselling book.
Dry heaves racked Dan Stoddard’s body as he bent his 6-foot-8, 325-plus-pound frame awkwardly over a toilet, shaking as he vomited up the Gatorade and other fluids he had consumed in an attempt to stave off dehydration.
Every day of Joe McLean’s job, as the premier wealth manager of the N.B.A. elite, requires him to make the kind of purchases that most of us make only once or twice in a lifetime. He bought 25 cars on behalf of his clients last year, and he probably sold nearly as many.
On Thanksgiving night in 2009, Tiger Woods’s meticulously crafted image was shattered in a single-car accident outside of his home in Windermere, Fla.
IN THE WEEKS after the Los Angeles Lakers' 2016-17 season ended in mid-April, with the franchise failing to reach the postseason for the fourth consecutive year, more than 30 Lakers staffers -- largely from basketball operations -- gathered at the team's practice facility in El Segundo, California.
You’re about to go pro, and you’re pretty excited. Deep in your heart you know you’re eventually going to succeed. But believe me, it’s coming a lot sooner than you think.
The Boston Marathon course looks like it should be fast. You start out in the distant suburb of Hopkinton—elevation 490 feet above sea level—and then cruise steadily downhill until about mile 9. The finish line has an elevation of a mere 10 feet above Boston Harbor.
KOBE BRYANT SWEARS HE SAW IT—Michael Jordan's ghost, not two months ago, right there on the floor of Madison Square Garden. It took the form of DeMar DeRozan, working his mid-range magic against the Knicks. That fadeaway jumper from the elbow. The game-winner. The sly smirk.
In April, Beyoncé headlined Coachella, in what turned out to be one of those grand cultural moments that come around less and less frequently these days. Late on a Friday night, and word starts to travel: Find a way to watch this. I did, and man—Beyoncé.
The first person to receive an e-mail from the whistle-blowing organization Football Leaks was António Varela, a columnist at Record, one of Portugal’s three national sports newspapers. The message arrived early in the afternoon of September 29, 2015.
Even if you're not aware of it, it's likely that your emotions will influence someone around you today. This can happen during our most basic exchanges, say on your commute to work. "If someone smiles at you, you smile back at them," says sociologist Nicholas Christakis of Yale University.
An investigation into a surprisingly divisive question.
When Rebecca Twigg was 7, she rode a bike for the first time. There were no training wheels, but Twigg took off like she’d done it in a previous life. She fell only when she realized she didn’t know how to stop, and steered into a wall.
If you imagine the summit of Mount Everest, you might picture a quiet, snowy peak far from civilisation. But a striking photo, taken by mountaineer Nirmal Purja, shows how the reality can be a lot more crowded.
In 2017, the Hall of Fame Louisville coach’s career collapsed under a string of scandals, leading to his firing from the school he had coached for 16 years.
Howse Peak is a 10,800-foot twin-tipped spire rising from the Continental Divide between British Columbia and Alberta’s Banff National Park.
Updated at 11:33 a.m. Rocky Balboa sits in a Philly bar as Apollo Creed, in a three-piece suit, holds forth on a grainy black-and-white TV screen. The bartender complains about the “jig clown” on the screen, and asks where the “real fighters” have gone.
José Mourinho’s whole career seems to be one long revenge plot. Despite his great success, his various reigns have all ended in spectacular discord.
Jürgen Klopp was in his third week as Liverpool’s manager, in November 2015, when the team’s director of research, Ian Graham, arrived at his office carrying computer printouts. Graham wanted to show Klopp, whom he hadn’t yet met, what his work could do.
Manny Machado and Bryce Harper remain unsigned. One of the sport’s best catchers had to settle for a one-year deal. Kyler Murray might play another sport if he can’t get paid.
The world record for a marathon, set by Dennis Kimetto of Kenya in Berlin in September 2014, stands at two hours, two minutes, and 57 seconds. If that number means nothing to you, understand this: running 26.2 miles in 2:02:57 is absurdly fast.
There had to be a breaking point. An incident, an argument, a loss, a moment that doomed the football marriage of Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy.
The server is speaking to a man named Jeremy Threat -- and from the tone in his voice, something is clearly amiss. Threat hustles back to the main dining room of Spataro Restaurant & Bar, an Italian restaurant in Sacramento, California, that has been overrun by the San Antonio Spurs.
Last July, a few weeks before the New England Patriots started training camp, I got a call from Donald Yee, the agent in Los Angeles who has represented Tom Brady since he entered the N.F.L. in 2000.
Venus is hitting the ball, still, after all these years. Venus, the dutiful Williams daughter, who actually followed the 78-page playbook her father wrote even before she was born to make her a tennis champion.
Simon Ramo, a scientist and statistician, wrote a fascinating little book that few people have bothered to read: Extraordinary Tennis Ordinary Players. The book isn’t fascinating because I love tennis. I don’t.
An oral history of the most important deal in sports TV history, when Rupert Murdoch and Fox stole the NFL and John Madden out from under the Big Three networks, created the modern pregame show, invented a new way to see football, and launched a television empire Part 1: The Choking Point The strang
This article is published in partnership with Epic Magazine. The man in the baseball cap and sunglasses waited for the teller to notice him. The morning of May 26, 2000, was quiet inside the LaSalle Bank in suburban Highland Park.
At first glance, the classroom I was visiting at a high-poverty school in Washington, D.C., seemed like a model of industriousness. The teacher sat at a desk in the corner, going over student work, while the first graders quietly filled out a worksheet intended to develop their reading skills.
It took Steph Curry and the Warriors’ era-defining influence to clarify the lengths the King will go to catch up with Michael Jordan’s bulletproof NBA legacy There was a quaint period in the not-so-distant past when we’d imagine the fading days of LeBron James’s NBA career and give it a fami
A collection of Twitter accounts that has criticized Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz, disclosed sensitive information, and outlined team strategy shares eye-opening similarities. What does that have to do with the Philadelphia 76ers’ decision-maker?
BARCELONA, Spain — Still, they gasp.
IT'S OCT. 7, 2015, and the Cavs are hosting the Hawks in Cincinnati. It's the NBA preseason, a nothing game, really -- save for one detail: LeBron James is debuting his new, flashy signature sneaker, the LeBron 13.
Takes a man to admit that, I think. Let me tell you about one that changed my life.
When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Are you a generalist or a specialist? Do you strive for breadth or depth in your career, in your life? After all, you can’t have both.
Anthony Arillotta swapped out his black Ford Expedition SUV for his mother’s Nissan Maxima – less conspicuous, he thought – then started out on the two-hour journey to New York City. It was 11 August, early in the morning, but the sun was shining and it was already warm.
The 10,000-hour rule says intense, dedicated practice makes perfect – at that one thing. But what if breadth actually serves us better than depth? By Let’s start with a couple of stories from the world of sports.
Running, like cilantro or “What’s Luv?” by Fat Joe, can be a polarizing subject. Most people fall into one of two camps: those who love hitting a stride every morning, and those who would sooner do anything to avoid it. For most of my life, I was planted firmly in the latter camp.
James’s move to Los Angeles seemed predicated on the assumption that he could bend events to his will—that he’s too big to fail. How does the Lakers’ doomed season change our understanding of his transformative powers?
Theo Epstein overcame 108 years of history to build a championship team in Chicago. In the process, he ended baseball’s long-running analytics war by proving that an objective, data-driven approach can change the game.
There are slideshows on the Internet of the house, stately and fountained, where Stephen Curry lived as a boy — the house his parents built in 1996, the year Steph turned 8, on a 16-acre plot a few minutes’ drive from the center of Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s a big house, six bedrooms.
Iremember the exact moment I knew we were broke. I can still picture my mum at the refrigerator and the look on her face. I was six years old, and I came home for lunch during our break at school. My mum had the same thing on the menu every single day: Bread and milk.
HIS BOSSES WERE furious. Roger Goodell knew it. So on April 1, 2008, the NFL commissioner convened an emergency session of the league's spring meeting at The Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. Attendance was limited to each team's owner and head coach.
The extension the center fielder is reportedly close to finalizing with the Angels will shatter records, but it doesn’t come close to compensating him appropriately for his on-field performance Angels center fielder and divine baseball being Mike Trout is reportedly close to finalizing an extensio
IN LATE OCTOBER, owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam summoned all Cleveland Browns employees to the auditorium at team headquarters for a familiar meeting. It was to announce another major shake-up, this time the firing of head coach Hue Jackson.
EVEN THOUGH HE knew better, because he'd been in this same situation dozens of times before, Steph Curry, the consummate marksman and champion, who just 40 days earlier had been named the first unanimous MVP in NBA history, couldn't help himself.
No matter what else happens, remember the T-shirts. It’s easy for them to get lost in this whole saga. There are overwhelming distractions to come. But don’t forget about the T-shirts, because nothing else will matter when we’re done.
Around 10 A.M. on Friday, September 15, 2017, Ginger Chase-Watkins called the Old Town Bike Shop in Colorado Springs looking for her husband, Tim Watkins. She hadn’t heard from him in more than 24 hours.
In the 12 years since he became the youngest Argentine to score a World Cup goal, Lionel Messi has won more Ballon d’Or trophies, awarded to the world’s best player, than anyone before him.1 He has scored more official goals in a calendar year than anyone in living memory.
Some call him the greatest coach in history. Before retiring in May 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson spent 26 seasons as the manager of Manchester United, the English football (soccer) club that ranks among the most successful and valuable franchises in sports.
Joey Erace knocks pitch after pitch into the netting of his $15,000 backyard batting cage, the pings from his metal bat filling the air in the south New Jersey cul-de-sac. His private hitting coach, who’s charging $100 for this hour-long session, tells Joey to shorten his stride.
A baseball is a wondrous little thing. It weighs 6 ounces -- the same as an apple -- and is the perfect size and shape for the hand. It is the ideal home for the proudest autographs, so white and pristine, resting on the mantel or in the trophy case.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
ESPN broke ground on this $175 million, 194,000-square-foot facility, called Digital Center 2, in 2011. It was billed by executives as “future-proof,” capable of adapting to any possible change in the way people watch sports. At the time, ESPN looked indestructible.
Big-money quarterbacks like Kirk Cousins, Matt Ryan, and Aaron Rodgers are sitting at home during the playoffs, while the Rams, Chiefs, and Texans have built contenders around young starters still on their rookie deals. The lesson is obvious if NFL teams pay attention.
Every year, NBA players take about 200,000 shots. Each season, 30 teams combine to play 1,230 games, and at the end of the regular season, you can bet the sum total of shots taken will be very close to 200,000.
For the past two years, Nike has kept Colin Kaepernick on the bench despite an endorsement partnership that dates back to 2011.
The M-V-P chants shower Kyrie Irving as he toes the line for two free throws. The point guard is putting the finishing touches on a 35-point masterpiece against the Atlanta Hawks, and the crowd bellows with praise from every corner of the arena.
At 17, I won my first Grand Slam, and I knew I had more in me. In fact, I was so sure that when I packed up my life and left my dad’s house to move in with my sister Venus, I told him he could keep my US Open trophy. Don’t worry, I assured him. I would get another one for my house.
On Friday, the NFL and representatives for Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid announced that they had settled a grievance suit with the two players over alleged collusion to keep them out of the league because of their protests during the anthem.
"In the next 5,000 years there won’t be any more freckles or red hair," says Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller. "That’s the way humans are evolving." Miller is sitting in Venice, California, during an offseason in which he’s become one of the most famous athletes in America.
Michael Joyce climbs into his father’s station wagon on a Sunday afternoon, the light of southern California glowing soft and gold. Joyce is tiny and cherubic, his face freckled and full, his hair a shock of strawberry blonde.
All this week, The Ringer will break down its findings from the massive database of reports spanning 1991 to 2003 given to us by a former member of the Cincinnati Reds front office.
It was exactly a year ago when teammates first noticed a change in Stephen Curry. The Golden State Warriors had just witnessed Kevin Durant suffer a knee injury, which immediately cast doubt on the team's chances of advancing to the NBA Finals for a third consecutive year.
Editors' note: This story includes mature subject matter and language. FOUR DAYS AFTER the tweet, Johnny Manziel did what many boys do when they're in trouble. He went home.
This summer, JJ Redick wanted a reset. He had been telling himself that he would do it for several years but couldn't bring himself to follow through at first. Social media was his way of staying current with the news and keeping up with the reactions and the reactions to the reactions.
After a long summer of topless championship parades, free-agency meetings in the Hamptons, Snapchat mishaps, and gold medals, the NBA is finally, truly, really, almost back. The start of training camp marks the beginning of our NBA Preview. This is How Basketball Works Week.
Warning: The following idea has often been ridiculed as the dumbest thing I ever proposed. However, a few people have told me it's brilliant. I present it again here, and will let you decide for yourself: What if every team in the NBA could draw the 3-point line wherever they wanted?
It was just supposed to have been a quick Saturday-morning errand to buy picture hooks.
Football is still well behind baseball and basketball when it comes to embracing advanced metrics, but teams have made significant progress in recent years. Those who do not adapt will be left behind.
At 24 years old, Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best basketball player in the world. He is the best offensive player on a top-five NBA offense. He's the best defensive player on the No. 1 defense.
Betting worth billions. Elite players. Violent threats. Covert messages with Sicilian gamblers. And suspicious matches at Wimbledon. Leaked files expose match-fixing evidence that tennis authorities have kept secret for years.
For some families, game nights are at the very core of who they are and how they live together.
Reprinted from The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds. Copyright © 2017 by Michael Lewis. With permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved
Most people have days they’ll never forget. For me, that day is April 26, 2011. It was my first time appearing on National Public Radio. As part of the program All Things Considered, host Michele Norris interviewed me about my research that suggested increasing narcissism in pop music lyrics.
There is no more exuberant winner than Serena Williams. She leaps into the air, she laughs, she grins, she pumps her fist, she points her index finger to the sky, signaling she’s No. 1. Her joy is palpable. It brings me to my feet, and I grin right back at her, as if I’ve won something, too.
Fantasy sports are more skill-based than real ones. Early one Saturday morning in Las Vegas, I sat down at a Texas Hold ‘em poker table with seven or eight other men, all middle-aged. Being 30 at the time, I was the youngest player by about a decade. A couple of them were wearing Hawaiian shirts.
When Charles Barkley's mother, Charcey Glenn, passed away in June 2015, Barkley's hometown of Leeds, Alabama, came to the funeral to pay respects. But there was also an unexpected guest. Barkley’s friends couldn’t quite place him.
Late one late March afternoon NBA player agent Rich Paul, 38, whose professional manner swings between stone-faced cool and startling focus, is chewing through his third tangerine and detailing how he’s been singled out as the reason that two franchises, the league at large, and—why not?—Ameri
In the battle for GOAT supremacy, Michael Jordan is still way out front. But the next big free-agency decision for LeBron James could determine whether he’ll ever have a chance to pass MJ.
He has made it very exciting tonight. With the Barons leading 5-1, Jordan steps in for the fourth time ... two of his three at-bats were near homers ...
The Worldwide Leader in Sports has been forced to reduce its ambition and, once again, its workforce. So if it isn’t a planet-conquering force, what is its goal? How should we think about ESPN after the carnage? It’s a tough question. ESPN isn’t “dying.” It’s not even losing money.
“I don’t know if it’s a fairy tale. But I hope it ends the way most of them end.” — LeBron James, on July 10, 2014, in Las Vegas.
Stephen Curry’s dazzling pregame shooting sessions have become a dynasty of their own throughout a half-decade of dominance for the Golden State Warriors. Dribbling two balls at once. Swish after swish from steps inside the half-court stripe.
This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's October 31 NBA Preview Issue. Subscribe today! Editor's note: This story contains explicit language.
This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Analytics Issue. Subscribe today! The gatekeeper of America's most popular nightclub is a 33-year-old man known to NBA players simply as "Purple." And tonight he's busy.
Eight years ago, in his raw and poignant autobiography, Open, Andre Agassi wrote: “My father yells everything twice, sometimes three times, sometimes 10. Harder, he says, harder. Hit earlier. Damn it Andre, hit earlier, Crowd the ball, crowd the ball. Now he’s crowding me. He’s yelling.
The controversial sports personality opens up about his acrimonious relationship with John Skipper, learning about being fired on Twitter, becoming a (gasp!) feminist and what he thinks of his former network: "Ask yourself this: 'Who could work there that you respect right now?'" Bill Simmons is mer