The Best American Sports Writing 2016

Rick Telander

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780544618466
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

For more than twenty-five years, The Best American Sports Writing has curated the year's finest sports journalism. Continuing the tradition in a long line of notable guest editors is Rick Telander, acclaimed journalist, author, and champion of the written word. His choices are defined by one shared thread: effort, on the part of athletes and writers alike. The physical strength it takes to play professional hockey and football, or for a forty-two-year-old writer to learn how to dunk in six months. The mental and emotional toughness needed to turn around a losing team, or to speak out about a coach. The careful striving to make everything seem effortless. This edition encompasses it all. The Best American Sports Writing 2016 includes Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham, L. Jon Wertheim and Ken Rodriguez, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, Brett Popplewell, Alexandra Starr, Wright Thompson and others RICK TELANDER is a Chicago Sun-Times senior sports columnist and the Basketball Evangelist for Slam magazine. He has also written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine, and has been featured seven times in The Best American Sports Writing. He is the author of eight books, including Heaven Is a Playground and From Red Ink to Roses. GLENN STOUT, series editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception, is the author of Young Woman and the Sea and Fenway 1912.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Foreword by Glenn Stout
• Introduction by Rick Telander
• MATT CALKINS. It’s Only a Few Words, but It’s Motivation from Lynch
• SAM KNIGHT. Follow the White Ball
• CHRIS BALLARD. Revenge of the Nerds
• STEVE FRIEDMAN. Spun
• KIM CROSS. The King of Tides
• ELI SASLOW. “Why Him, Why Me?”
• ERIC MOSKOWITZ. Her Decision, Their Life
• CHRIS WIEWIORA. Board in the Florida Suburbs
• MICHAEL MCKNIGHT. Learn to Dunk
• CHRIS VAN LEUVEN. Going Home
• JOHN BRANT. Zilong Wang and the Cosmic Tale of the White Dragon Horse and the Karmic Moonbeams of Destiny That Restored All Faith in Humanity
• WILLIAM BROWNING. A Long Walk’s End
• MICHAEL J. MOONEY. The High Life and Fast Times of Jim Dent
• L. JON WERTHEIM AND KEN RODRIGUEZ. Smack Epidemic
• STEVE FAINARU AND MARK FAINARU-WADA. The Most Dangerous Man in Football
• DAN BARRY. Meet Mago, Former Heavyweight
• SAM BORDEN. He’s the Last Boxer to Beat Floyd Mayweather Jr., and He So Regrets It
• BRETT POPPLEWELL. Stopping the Fight
• MICHAEL ROSENBERG. A Woman Fell from a Stadium
• JOHN BRANCH. Hold On, Boys
• ALEXANDRA STARR. American Hustle
• STEVE RUSHIN. Ruck and Roll
• CHRIS JONES. There’s Somebody Ruthless on the Way
• WRIGHT THOMPSON. The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived On
• DON VAN NATTA JR. AND SETH WICKERSHAM. The Patriot Way
• GRETEL EHRLICH. Rotten Ice
• HENLEY O’BRIEN. About Winning
• Contributors’ Notes
• Notable Sports Writing of 2015
• Read More from The Best American Series®
• About the Editors