Sports

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A baseball glove holding dices — Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty.

Risking Everything to Lose Money

Why do professional athletes keep putting their careers in jeopardy just to bet on sports?

Keith O’Brien

June 19, 2024

A dais with a "vote" sign sitting atop a winner's podium on a running track — Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty.

Born to Run

More and more athletes are entering politics. Why?

David A. Graham

June 18, 2024

A collage of Bill Russell playing basketball — Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani. Sources: Bettmann / Getty.

Boston Should Rename Its Airport for Bill Russell

It’s high time the city properly recognized its greatest sports champion, a civil-rights hero who endured horrific racism during his time with the Celtics.

June 14, 2024

Illustration of streakers with colorful blots covering them — Illustration by Joanne Imperio / The Atlantic. Source: SSPL / Getty.

The Decline of Streaking

Naked runners used to disrupt events seemingly all the time. Why’d they stop?

June 13, 2024

Black-and-white photo of silhouetted people playing basketball on an outdoor court — Millennium Images / Gallery Stock

The Secret Code of Pickup Basketball

The game presents a social problem: How does one find comity among a group of jostling strangers?

June 13, 2024

A silhoutte of a batter against a pie-graph background — Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani. Source: Getty.

Negro-League Players Don’t Belong in the MLB Record Books

And neither do white players from the segregation era.

Malcolm Ferguson

June 13, 2024

A photo of Team USA celebrating during a game in the T20 Cricket World Cup. — Tony Gutierrez / AP

America, Cricket’s Next Frontier

Team USA’s historic win in the current global tournament was a shot heard around the world. Now it just needs a domestic audience.

Joseph O’Neill

June 11, 2024

Series of Rafael Nadal playing tennis in slightly different positions — Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani. Source: Stephane Cardinale / Corbis / Getty.

The Most Beautiful Stroke in Tennis

The value of the single-handed backhand lay not in a player’s strength but in his creativity.

Thomas Chatterton Williams

June 4, 2024

Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley from TNT's "Inside the NBA" — Brandon Todd / NBAE / Getty

The One Downside of Gender Equality in Sports

The WNBA’s newfound popularity has triggered a boom in commentary from men who have no idea what they’re talking about.

June 3, 2024

An illustration of a baseball player and baseball statistics — Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Sources: Mark Rucker / Transcendental Graphics / Getty; Ernest Sisto / New York Times Co. / Getty; Charles 'Teenie' Harris / Carnegie Museum of Art / Getty; Bettmann / Getty.

The Real Value of the Negro Leagues Can’t Be Captured in Statistics

The players found a way to navigate the injustice of segregation, turning it into a means of self-empowerment.

June 2, 2024