Mirin Fader

With a new son and a chance to earn her third Olympic gold medal, Griner is finding joy and healing after enduring months of hell

Injuries may have cut Budinger’s basketball career short, but they didn’t end his Olympic dream. How did the former NBA role player become an American beach volleyball star?

They waited with terror, not knowing what would happen. Ruminating on what could happen. Suddenly, they realized just how unpredictable life could be. How arbitrary it all seemed. How things could be fine one day, then twist into chaos the next. Back in 2016, Jrue Holiday’s wife, Lauren, a former star midfielder for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, underwent medical testing. She had been experiencing terrible headaches and was six months pregnant with their daughter at the time. Then, one…

The world is watching impatiently as LeBron’s oldest son tries to follow in his father’s impossible footsteps. But despite unfathomable pressure, Bronny isn’t crumbling. "It’s who he is as a person," says USC coach Andy Enfield.

Before every game, Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco takes a moment to himself, bowing his head and saying a quick prayer for his late siblings, Celeste Cannon and Travoise Cannon. They are always with him. Before the game. During the game. After the game. In his heart, his mind. He thinks about them often—and if they could see him now. See how far he’s come since he lost them. Pacheco was just a high schooler trying to find his way when Travoise was killed in January 2016, the victi…

There’s an urgency about Kara Lawson. You can hear it in the way she speaks, you can see it in the way she moves. Her eyes expand, her shoulders stiffen. When the Duke women’s basketball coach leans forward, you feel the power of her undivided attention. Each word has weight, a hidden parable. “There’s three things that can never drop,” Lawson says, “and that’s your work ethic and your focus and your discipline. Those have to stay high.” Her cadence begins to quicken. “There’s different things t…

Austin Reaves stood off to the side as cameras flashed brightly in the distance. He was just out of frame, watching his teammates pose during the Los Angeles Lakers’ media day earlier this month. LeBron James and Anthony Davis, with 27 All-Star appearances combined, walked in front of a white backdrop, getting ready to take a photo together. Then a cameraman called upon Reaves, a third-year guard who went undrafted out of Oklahoma two summers ago, and signaled for him to join in. Reaves tried no…

The Los Angeles Rams’ fifth-round pick seemingly came out of nowhere to become this season’s breakout star receiver, but he won’t stop working to prove he belongs

There’s more to Keyontae Johnson’s story than just the moment everyone remembers. “I don’t want to be remembered as just the person that collapsed,” he says.

Three back surgeries in five years changed everything for Porter Jr. and put his NBA career in jeopardy. But what the former phenom lost in athleticism, he gained in perspective, molding him into the Nuggets’ biggest X factor in pursuit of a ring. “It’s letting go of ego,” Porter Jr. says, “but that’s our whole team.”