Full Archive

Bowie Kuhn: The Death of a Baseball Reactionary

Resurrecting Don Barksdale: Basketball's Forgotten Pioneer

Who was the first African American to make NCAA All American in basketball? Who was the first to play for a US Olympic team? Who was the first to make an NBA All Star team? The answer all of these questions lies with the same man.

An Open Letter to Jason Whitlock

The Closets in the Locker Room

Folks - In my last column, I referred to former Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag as a "Neanderthal" and misrepresented his interaction with John Amaechi as being homophobic. Here is how their exchange is actually recounted in Ameachi's book: : "One night before a game, Greg Ostertag, with whom I'd become close, asked me point-blank in the tunnel, 'Ya gay, dude?' 'Greg, you have nothing to worry about,' I said. It was clear Greg couldn't have cared less. Looking back, I wish I'd confided in the gentle big man." To Greg Ostertag, and the members of the Greg Ostertag Fan Club,(of which I am now a member) I apologize. Dave Zirin

Out of the Closet and Onto the Court

Former NBA player John Amaechi's admission that he is gay exposed both the league's compassion and bigotry.

The Super Bowl: When Hawks Cry

Last night's Super Bowl was a Roman Vomitorium of odious spew. This wasn't the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was the dreary, the vile, and the insipid made only palatable by the thought of Mike Ditka in a dark bar drinking whiskey shots, chased with the salty discharge humans call tears.

A Tale of Two Coaches

Ali at 65: The Brand and the Man

Judgment of the Juiced: Why Mark McGwire Wasn't Elected to the Hall of Fame

Forget that McGwire never actually tested positive for anything. Forget that he played in an era where parks were smaller, balls were bouncier, and players for the first time lifted more weights than mugs of beer. Forget it all because the writers who were ready to nominate McGwire for sainthood a decade ago, have now decided that he was an artificially pumped scalawag who probably molested collies on his way to the park.

The Unraveling of David Stern

David Stern has made a series of decisions so brazenly bizarre, so proudly unpopular, it makes one wonder if Donald Rumsfeld hasn't secretly taken over the NBA.ling of David Stern