Jermaine O'Neal's career, viewed in hindsight, takes on the shape of a slasher film. He got the rawest cosmic deal of his generation. He sat in Portland, flourished in Indiana, and suffered through an aborted phantom season that could have seen him realize new heights. Then he started to get hurt all the time. Read more »

With the nation on lockdown during a pandemic, turning somewhere nostalgic with "The Last Dance" for their sports fix, this plague of cognitive dissonance is thriving more than it ever has. Read more »

Jason Kidd in his prime was a visceral experience, doubly impressive for the fact that it was also so intellectual: like math rendered miraculously athletic and cool, a peculiar brand of superstardom, manifested in a peculiar venue, at a peculiar time. Read more »

Most of us are, by definition, no more than average, but that doesn't mean we're average all the time, or average the same way everybody else is. Read more »

Jordaniacs galore have dived gleefully into the cracks of his veneer, reveling in the hidden humanity of the man with the perfect smile and the unparalleled on-court artistry, presented to them for so long as not-real. Read more »

It was hard to tell if Eric Snow's steadiness was real or invented. You are, especially in your work, as much what others believe about you as anything else. Read more »

Obi Toppin is viewed as one of those big men who might be special enough to escape the devaluing of the position, especially of those who probably need another big man with them in the lineup to anchor the defense. Read more »

It was a miracle that Steve Francis made it to the NBA, and that miracle was primarily self-delivered. In retrospect, Francis was fighting against a lot more than his id. Read more »

Vintage, high-flying Antonio McDyess in a Conference Final would have been a sight. But time gets away from us, decisions create consequences more permanent than we'd initially imagined. Read more »

For nine years, New York tried to figure out what to make of Allan Houston and unhappily reached the non-conclusion you arrive at when you've traversed enough of the whaling history parts of Moby Dick. Read more »

If asked to close out the season under the context of Las Vegas isolation, individuals would be flattened to one dimension to fulfill the single purpose of playing games: they are entertainers. We are the audience. The roles are explicit. Read more »

You could glimpse something spectacular in his sporadic effort, his brief spells of best behavior. Defenders couldn't contain him, he couldn't contain himself. An entire league of bosses, teachers, and allies couldn't hold him. Read more »

How will our relationship with players change when the game returns, now that they shared with us their most vulnerable moments? When are we allowed to care about the scoreboard and standings? Read more »

Kevin Garnett skipped college partially out of necessity, but also perhaps because he realized that it was just an extra, intermediate step toward his ultimate goal. Convention was the only thing holding him back, and when you're as gifted as young K.G. was, that's not much of an impediment. Read more »

It remains potently strange that Larry Bird, three-time MVP and something like the sixth-best player of all-time, breezed through Indiana, organized one of the best teams in the league, and then quietly walked away from a profession nobody knew he would be good at or even wanted to pursue in the first place. Read more »

Onyeka Okongwu has emerged due to his impact around the rim on both ends. His combination of coordination and smoothness moving around the floor offers hope he could someday be about as good out in space as well. Read more »

Sports are a resilient, lucrative business. It has room to fail, but millions of us will be suffering worse than before. Read more »