No real one theme in this week’s Sports Illustrated. Even with the dramatic finish at The Masters®, SI decides to go with the NBA Playoffs on the cover. In addition, SI will review the strange Manny Ramirez saga. Let’s look at what’s in store this week.
NBA Playoff Preview: How Title Contenders Are Winning Big by Going Small
SI Predicts: The Lakers Will Threepeat and Tie the Celtics with 17 Titles
Two Frenzied Hours Turn the 75th Masters into One of the Most Exciting Championships Ever
Pass-Rushing Prospect Von Miller: The Ultimate Team Player
Manny Ramirez’s Departure Signals No End in Sight to the Steroid Era
Team Hoyt: How Much Longer Can the Inspirational Racing Duo Keep Rolling?
(NEW YORK – April 12, 2010) – Derrick Rose graces the cover of the April 18 issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands tomorrow. It is Rose’s first cover, and he is the first Chicago Bull to grace the cover of the weekly issue since Michael Jordan (1/25/1999).
Rose’s MVP-caliber season underscores a growing trend in the NBA: Teams are generating their offense from the perimeter rather than through the post. Being an NBA point guard wasn’t always so easy. Says veteran Andre Miller (page 42): “It used to be your smarts would get you through, but now it’s strictly talent and athleticism—if you’ve got that, you can play in this league. In college you’re forced to think, you’re taught how to play basketball. Get to the NBA, and you can just come in and run with your head cut off, and that’s what makes the league. When I came in, you couldn’t just run and jump all over the place. You were going to get hit eventually, or somebody was.”
Jason Kidd adds: “The game is becoming very simple. If you have a quick point guard who knows how to play, you’ve got the advantage because if there’s any bump it’s a foul on the defense. So you definitely give the 6′ 3″-or-under guy the advantage.”
To read the full online version of Small Ball, click here.
With the 2011 playoffs on the horizon, senior writer Ian Thomsen (@SI_IanThomsen) picks the Lakers to beat the Celtics for their 17th title, equaling Boston’s record. Other questions Thomsen asks and answers include:
- Who will be the Lakers’ main challenger in the West?
- Which higher seed is most vulnerable to an upset?
- How far can Derrick Rose carry the Bulls?
- Will the Heat peak in the playoffs?
On the Tablet: Ian Thomsen weighs in with his playoff picks on the Sports Illustrated Audio Podcast.
THE MASTERS: TWO FRENZIED HOURS – ALAN SHIPNUCK
Before donning the green jacket following his clutch final round at Augusta, the closest Charl Schwartzel had come to a Masters championship was when he was daydreaming on his family’s farm near Johannesburg. When he wasn’t tending to chickens and rows of corn, Schwartzel and his younger brother, Attie, created their own golf course on the family land. As Charl recalls (page 32): “I would aim at trees or make a hole in the dirt and say, ‘This is the shot to win the Masters.’ The Masters was always the tournament I dreamed of winning.”
Fellow countryman Gary Player had this to say: “The way he played, with those birdies to finish, that’s as good a golf as I’ve seen. I can’t get over how he finished. I really got a kick out of that.”
To read the full online version of Two Frenzied Hours, click here.
On the Tablet: A video interview with 2011 Masters winner Charl Schwartzel.
VON MILLER: Locked OUT and Loaded – Andrew Lawrence
When Texas A&M’s Von Miller was named as one of 10 plaintiffs in the NFLPA’s lawsuit against team owners, he was representing all the prospects in the 2011 NFL Draft. Doing everything he can for his fellow players is nothing new for Miller, who worked with teammates throughout his college career to help improve their games. Against his representatives’ wishes, he ran at A&M’s pro day so that three lightly scouted teammates could also work out for scouts (page 52).
Miller is in the unusual position of suing his potential employers, something that could be held against him if he weren’t the best pass rusher coming out of college this year. And he sees his inclusion in this lawsuit as an honor, saying: “The PA could’ve picked any rookie coming out this year. It’s a blessing that fell into my lap.”
To read the full online version of Locked Out and Loaded, click here.
On the Tablet: Sports Illustrated’s picks for the single best linebackers drafted in each of the first seven rounds, alltime.
MANNY RAMIREZ: THE SHORT GOODBYE – TOM VERDUCCI
The sudden retirement of Manny Ramirez was a terse, disgraceful end to a once prolific and entertaining career. He leaves the game with 555 home runs, 1,813 RBIs, a .312 batting average and a reputation as a major participant in what will go down as one of the greatest—and dirtiest—eras of slugging the game has ever known. In light of Ramirez and the perjury trial of Barry Bonds, senior writer Tom Verducci is reminded that the Steroid Era never ends. It lingers in courtrooms, in record books and with players like Ramirez, in legacies of infamy (page 38).
To read the full online version of The Short Goodbye, click here.
On the Tablet: A photo gallery of Ramirez through the years, from his scorching debut with Cleveland to his final days in Tampa.
TEAM HOYT: THE WHEELS OF LIFE – GARY SMITH
Next Monday 70-year-old Rick Hoyt will push his disabled son, Dick, along the famed Boston Marathon course for the 29th time. It will be the latest of more than 1,000 road races and triathalons that Team Hoyt has competed in over the last 33 years. All those races have not only made Rick feel whole, they have also provided untold inspiration (page 56).
But as time bears down on Team Hoyt, how much longer can the duo keep rolling? Dick has three stents implanted in his arteries, carpal tunnel syndrome and injuries to his meniscus and hamstrings. A doctor has told him that he’s a stroke waiting to happen. But he refuses to cry uncle, as does his son. Rick says: “Stopping now is not an option. I’m not ready to throw in the towel and I pray to God every day that Dad is not ready either. Birds are free to fly anywhere they want at anytime, which is how I feel when we race. There are so many people who want to see us out there. I love the spotlight…. I have shown disabled people that they don’t have to sit back and watch the world go by…. To this day, I don’t know what kind of vegetable I’m supposed to be.”
To read the full online version of The Wheels of Life, click here.
POINT AFTER: WHEN MASTERS DISASTER STRIKES – JOE POSNANSKI
Rory McIlory had dreamed about the cheers on Masters Sunday since he was a seven-year-old boy living in Northern Ireland. Yet on a day filled with roars at Augusta, none of them were for McIlory as he struggled to an 80 after three days of sublime play. Senior writer Joe Posnanski (@JPosnanski) describes McIlroy’s painful final round (page 70): “People don’t just watch golf to be amazed. They watch to connect … to feel what the golfer feels. Haven’t we all had a moment? Haven’t we all felt the world spinning away from us? Haven’t we all hit golf balls into trees?”
To read the full online version of When Masters Disaster Strikes, click here.
Scorecard Essay: Time to Bury the Bullies – Michael Farber
In the history of modern sports, no team may have ever embodied its city’s personality as much as the Philadelphia Flyers’ Broad Street Bullies. They were loved so dearly that the city has had difficulty accepting any other style of play since that era. Many members of those teams are still highly involved with the organization and know that its time to move on. As former Bully Bob (Hound) Kelly said (page 14): “We’ve been honored, thanked, pedestaled. It’s time. New blood.”
To read the full online version of Time to Bury the Bullies, click here.
FACES IN THE CROWD: SPECIAL COACHES EDITION
Vito Montelli (Trumbull, Conn.) – Basketball Stan Woods (Emerson, N.J.) – Wrestling
Susan Guertin (Marblehead, Mass.) – Swimming Al Murdoch (Ames, Iowa) – Ice Hockey
Joe Lombard (Canyon, Texas) – Basketball Jennie and Jeff Salmon (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) – Fencing
THIS WEEK ON THE TABLET
- · “A Player for the Ages” – 23 years ago Larry Bird, in what may have been his finest season, got Red Auerbach’s vote over Bill Russell as the best Celtic ever.
- · Scorecard: “Images of Greatness” – A slideshow of images from a new Roberto Clemente bio in graphic-novel form.
- · Scorecard: “True to Norm” – A video preview of Norm Macdonald’s “Sports Show” on Comedy Central.
And that will do us for now.
