Basketball writing from Sports Illustrated - by Jenkins & McCallum

There's been three pieces of basketball writing I've seen recently (all from Sports Illustrated) that struck me as particularly interesting.

The Feb 25 issue featured two of them with "Rondo" by Lee Jenkins and "Chaos Theory" from Jack McCallum. The Jenkins piece is a long profile on Rajon Rondo and does an excellent job delving into the extremely competitive injured Celtics point guard. The McCallum story was on the Los Angeles Lakers and what stood out in this piece was the construction of it. After an introduction in which he set the stage with expectations for the team going into the season measured against performance so far, McCallum threw down the sentence "Herewith, the main story lines and characters" and proceeded with short sections that had the following italicized titles...

No Country for Old Men - on former (and incorrectly assumed to become current) coach Phil Jackson
The Departed - on owner Jerry Buss who recently passed away
The Adjustment Bureau - on the team under new coach Mike D'Antoni
The Tao of Steve - on point guard Steve Nash and his play
13 Going on 30 - on mercurial (and perhaps immature) center Dwight Howard
The Dilemma - on the integration of all-star Pau Gasol into the offense under D'Antoni
The Italian Job - on Lakers guard (and one of the greatest players in the game) Kobe Bryant
It's Complicated - on the question of what exactly need be done to get the team playing as it should

Just a very innovative approach the story by McCallum and it felt to work perfectly.

The third piece of excellent basketball writing to mention here was also by Lee Jenkins and for the Sports Illustrated website. "Lakers' success a testament to best owner in sports history" was published online the same day Jerry Buss passed away and, in the same vein as he did on Rondo, Jenkins wrote a story which showed a great deal about the person it covered. Detail leading to with greater meaning all done with writing that flows well... very good stuff.

Writing on Joe Paterno and his passing

Perhaps not the most timely of blog posts given the short news cycle that rules the day, but there was some exceptional writing over the past few weeks on former Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

Shortly after his January 22 passing from lung cancer were two pieces from esteemed journalists, one of whom had conducted the last ever interview with Paterno just a week prior. Sally Jenkins wrote Joe Paterno dies, leaving a record for others to debate for the Washington Post and for Sports Illustrated, Jack McCallum penned Joe Paterno wasn't perfect, but legacy more than final chapter.

Over the next week there were two stories on Paterno that stood out for their depth in reporting on the man. Joe Posnanski (currently writing a book on Paterno scheduled for release this fall) did Paterno's final days: no bitterness, just marveling at his fortunate life for Sports Illustrated and Wright Thompson wrote for ESPN the ridiculously lyrical Bringing home Joe on son Jay Paterno and reaction of Penn State faithful to his father's passing.

Marc Buoniconti Sports Illustrated Cover Story

Great story in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated on quadriplegic Marc Buoniconti.



Written by S.L. Price, it's titled "Three Lives, Two Hits, One Happy Ending" and is about the impact that Bouniconti has had since his freak spinal-cord injury suffered on the football field some 24 years ago. In addition to his vast contribution to spinal cord injury research through The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, the ex-Citadel football player has individually helped both the person involved in the accident (through Buoniconti hitting him, not the other way around) and countless others.

Price gives a riveting tale that makes me both have tremendous respect for Bouniconti and wonder what the heck was going on at his school at the time he was injured. The article details how (incredibly) The Citadel didn't want to pay medical bills for or honor the scholarship of the athlete injured during a game... one in which there's question as to whether team doctors should have allowed him to play. It's a good postscript that the school and individual have since reconciled, but still... it just sounds to be bizarre behavior on the part of the military school.

Just a compelling read from an excellent author. Price has done several different SI stories I've linked to and is also the author of the excellent books "Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in the Minor League America" (which I reviewed here) and "Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey".

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Also from this issue is a memorial piece on Eunice Kennedy Shriver who passed away recently. Written by Jack McCallum, it remembers the tower of a woman who founded Special Olympics. Having volunteered at local Special Olympics events, I can say it's an amazing organization and the world is a better place for it.

From McCallum's piece, I love the anecdote he provides about Shriver prior to the founding Special Olympics...

"Everybody told my mother that mentally challenged kids would start crying if they lost," says Bobby Shriver, "to which my mother said, 'So what? That's what everyone does.' Her thought was, You compete, you exult if you win, you get sad if you lose, and you go back and try harder."

That's great stuff.