February 2012
2 posts
I wrote about why Super Bowl L might be more like... →
January 2012
3 posts
December 2011
7 posts
My favorite Longreads from 2011! →
Holiday Cheer
A few months ago, while looking through the magazines at McNally Jackson on a Sunday evening, I happened to notice one of the zines on a featured rack. It was about Tyson Chandler, the basketball player, and it was called “Tyson Chandler.” The zine cost $10. The next morning, I tried to track down Ari Marcopoulos, one of the two artists responsible for the publication. That took about...
I visited Gill St. Bernard’s for its basketball scrimmage last week against St. Anthony—yes, that St. Anthony—for a profile of the country’s most unlikely hoops powerhouse. The story’s on The Classical, the lovely and excellent new sports website that I trust you’re already reading. Hope you enjoy!
“He was the subject of a limited edition 100 copy zine titled “Tyson...”
– Career highlight.
My profile of Mike Krzyzewski, called The Art of Winning, was released as a Kindle Single earlier this month. Today he was named Sports Illustrated’s 2011 Co-Sportsperson of the Year with Tennessee’s Pat Summitt. Here’s a lightly edited and condensed transcript of a recent conversation with Coach K.
One early morning in October, I flew down to North Carolina and drove to the...
November 2011
6 posts
WatchBusy little week! (Also, if you don’t like my lyrics, you can press fast-forward, etc. This makes sense because of the police sirens in the background of my apartment.) Quick wrapup of all my Coach K things:
The Art of Winning
Coach K Sets New Standard With 903 Wins
Krzyzewski’s Drive to Win… Angry Birds
I spent the last few months working on a long profile of Mike Krzyzewski, now the all-time winningest coach in college basketball history, and it was released today as a Kindle Single in the Kindle Store.
What’s the Single about?
Coach K.
OK, but what about Coach K?
It’s a story of how the most successful coach in college hoops history is still winning the way he does, but also...
Some Favorite "Steve Jobs" Snippets
Isms
“You did the impossible, because you didn’t realize it was impossible.”
“The products suck!” he shouted. “There’s no sex in them anymore!”
“This is shit!” he yelled. “It’s advertising agency shit and I hate it.”
Jobs, who could identify with each of those sentiments, wrote some of the lines himself, including “They push the human race forward.”
“Deciding what not to do...
October 2011
6 posts
WatchRussellMania! Went on WSJ’s Lunch Break to discuss my story about Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson, who has Badgers fans tapping their kegs for one glorious season—but that’s it.
“Jobs exhibited his notorious attention to detail, telling venture capitalist...”
– Well, OK then.
“But the best meal I had on the job? It was in the garden of Frankies 457, on...”
– Sam Sifton’s last food column.
“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but...”
– This is the correct headline, too.
September 2011
10 posts
“Anyone paying attention would think, That guy might look like Arnold, but it...”
– Michael Lewis, because who else?
WatchI wore a jacket to talk about my story on the case for paying college athletes?
Priorities (BlackBerry Messenger, 2011)
B: Mack
A: ?
B: Stepping down
A: Brown?!
The Jets are the friend you call sitting by... →
“Here’s the deal, we’re doing the story with or... →
“Shouldn’t we talk about like books or the news or politics or football or...”
– Jon Hamm!
August 2011
13 posts
“Duke University All-American basketball player Jon Scheyer made aliyah Tuesday...”
– ‘Jewish Jordan’ Jon Scheyer Makes Aliyah.
“It was like hanging out with Elvis meets Muhammad Ali.”
– I talked to Dan Hill about the Manny Pacquiao single that’s kind-of-sort-of tearing up the charts.
“This is what makes the German case so peculiar. If they had been merely the only...”
– It’s the Economy, Dummkopf!
“With the Moneyball movie set to open next month, the world will once again be...”
– Daryl Morey.
“Most of what the monks eat they grow themselves within a short walk of the...”
– Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds—and beets, apparently.
July 2011
8 posts
“Thirteen thousand dollars a month is not the rent I was raised to pay. When I...”
– The Mansion: A Subprime Parable, by Michael Lewis.
“Smith was always blown away that someone with an undistinguished background like...”
– This whole story was completely bonkers—and that was before the Derek Smith cameo.