Author: Don Yaeger

The biggest fireworks of the 4th of July didn’t officially happen on Thursday. Instead, they erupted late on Friday, July 5th, when Kawhi Leonard announced that he was signing a free-agent contract with his hometown Los Angeles Clippers. And he was bringing fellow LA native Paul George with him.

“I just felt like there’s been a weight on me.” Those were the words of Naomi Osaka after she lost in straight sets during the first week of the French Open. The loss dropped Osaka to number two in the world, a result that Osaka said, “was probably the best thing that could happen to me.”

It takes a lot of guts to do what Jill Ellis is doing. The US Women National Soccer coach has guided her squad into the quarterfinals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup with an enormous match today against host nation France. The winner will be one of four teams left. But that’s not the hard part. The hard part has been how they’ve accomplished getting here these last few years.

Of all my Sports Illustrated alums/colleagues, few have fascinated me like David Epstein. His path to becoming a writer at the magazine was very non-traditional, and the way he thought of subjects and numbers was even more outside-the-lines. So when his publisher sent me a copy of his new book and suggested it would make me think differently about my potential path to the top, I absolutely took notice. That book –...

Tonight, the Golden State Warriors will lace up for a make-or-break game against the Toronto Raptors. Down three games to one in the NBA Finals, the Warriors are on the verge of unexpectedly losing a championship many expected them to win. To be fair, the Warriors have dealt with untimely injuries, a part-owner who lost his mind, and the apparent ascension of Kawai Leonard into the annals of NBA legends. The one constant? Head...

When I sent a request to talk with a central figure of the biggest sports story of the weekend, his coach told me he’d have to wait until the player awoke to schedule a time. If I’d had the weekend Tim Becker had, I don’t know that I’d ever want to wake up. Unless you’re a diehard Florida State Seminoles fan or a rabid fan of college baseball, you likely have never heard of Tim Becker. And even the hardest of hard-core...

Let’s play a game: pretend for a moment that you’re the leader of a successful franchise, coming off four straight seasons winning at least 60 percent of your teams’ games. The greatest thorn in your side has just left your division, leaving you a pretty clear window to get to a championship game. You have your eye on a superstar you think could make a difference, but to get him, you’d have to give up your most popular...