All year long I’ve been reading great sports journalism
online to recommend to the followers of my podcast’s (Basement Sports) Facebook fanpage. I’m a writer and a huge sports fan, so the two mingling together to
form great journalism has always mesmerized me. The year has truly seen some
great sports writing, and I wanted to share the best of the best that I’ve read
from 2013.
Over the next few days I will be unveiling the ‘25 Best
Sports Writing Articles of 2013’ from the many that I have read. While I’ve
read more than 100 fine pieces this year I’m sure that some truly fantastic
online sports writing has slipped through my grasps, so I do apologize if an
obvious piece of great sports writing has been omitted.
In part three of this five-part list are fine writings on
Major League Baseball’s lack of a game-changing superstar, a boxing match that
left one opponent dead and the lives of others changed forever, the hall of
fame case for a former NBA superstar that on first look might not seem worthy
of enshrinement, and two stories on the competitive drives of legendary
(Michael Jordan) or volatile (Kurt Busch) athletes.
As an
Orlando Magic fan there have probably been few NBA players in my lifetime who I’ve
enjoyed watching play basketball more than Tracy McGrady. But, despite being a
great player for a good amount of time, McGrady was never viewed as a winner
(having never led his team past the first round of the NBA Playoffs) and thus
never viewed as a potential future hall of famer, even by myself. However, Bill
Simmons’ wonderful post-career analysis of McGrady’s career for Grantland.com
this year did something that rarely happens … it made me take a second look at
a player and change my opinion. After reading Simmons’ piece, I now believe
McGrady should one day be inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame.
USA Today’s
Jeff Gluck gets my award for most interesting article idea of 2013, because he
had the audacity to ask the always-volatile, uber-competitive NASCAR driver
Kurt Busch to go mini-golfing with him as a part of a story on the irascible
driver’s attitude and drive to win at anything and everything he does, no
matter how trivial the event. The outcome pretty much proves that Kurt Busch is
always going to be Kurt Busch when it comes to competition.
When boxing
legend Emile Griffith died in late July it instantly sent The New Yorker’s
Jonathan Coleman back to the night that he witnessed his first prizefight
between Griffith and Benny Paret as a kid in 1962. It was a night in which one
man would not survive and the lives of a few others would be changed forever.
Coleman’s telling of vivid memories from the night recalls the horror of the
event and the tragic side of the sweet science.
Wright
Thompson’s fantastic “Michael Jordan Has Not Left The Building” for ESPN.com in
correlation with “Outside the Lines” for Jordan’s 50th birthday
(which ESPN way overdid with coverage) is very similar to Jeff Gluck’s "Kurt
Busch Shows Drive to Win Away From Track" in that it shows things haven’t
changed since MJ’s final retirement. Depending on your feelings toward Jordan
you might feel differently, but the intriguing part of Thompson’s piece to me
is how pathetic Jordan really looks when it comes to his personality, attitude
and his general sense that the world revolves around him.
There has
been a lot of talk in 2013 about how baseball has a massive problem in that it
doesn’t have a “face of the sport,” a la LeBron James or Peyton Manning, though
others (myself included) don’t feel it to be a big issue. Jayson Stark’s excellent
piece for ESPN.com on the topic was among the best (and most important)
baseball articles of the year, as it gets to the point (or issue) as to why it’s
so hard to develop one superstar or “face” of the game that stands out above
all the rest and how that may need to change or risk hurting the sport.
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