Longreads Best of 2017: Sports Writing

We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们要求作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here is the best in sports writing.

这是体育写作中最好的。

***

***

Mary PilonContributor to The New Yorker, Esquire, and Vice.

玛丽·皮隆 (Mary Pilon) 《纽约客》、《时尚先生》和《Vice》的撰稿人。

Previously on staff at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

曾在《纽约时报》和《华尔街日报》工作。

Author of The Monopolists and The Kevin Show (March 2018)

《垄断者》和《凯文秀》的作者（2018 年 3 月）

## Is This the NFL’s First Female Player?

## 这是 NFL 第一位女球员吗？

(Lars Anderson, B/R Mag)

（拉斯·安德森，B/R Mag）

I’m a sucker for high school sports stories, but Anderson’s examination of Becca Longo isn’t just a showcase of a plucky talent, it also challenges long-held assumptions about the league’s recruitment pipeline.

我很喜欢高中体育故事，但安德森对贝卡·隆戈的考察不仅展示了她勇敢的天赋，也挑战了长期以来对联盟招募渠道的假设。

Longo is the first woman to earn a football scholarship to a Division I or Division II school, and Anderson offers a fascinating window into the training and psyche required to become be an ace-level kicker.

隆戈是第一位获得一级或二级学校足球奖学金的女性，安德森提供了一个令人着迷的窗口，了解成为一名王牌踢球手所需的训练和心理。

In lesser hands, the story could have been mawkish or puffy, but Anderson’s prose is sharp, layered, and will likely be reread when we see Longo in the Super Bowl one day.

如果是在普通人的手中，这个故事可能会显得伤感或浮夸，但安德森的散文犀利、层次分明，当我们有一天在超级碗上看到隆戈时，很可能会被重读。

## Nick Kyrgios, the Reluctant Rising Star of Tennis (Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker)

## 尼克·克耶高斯，不情愿的网球新星（路易莎·托马斯，《纽约客》）

Sports profiles are loaded with sepia-toned tropes about ambition: Most athletes are striving to be “the best,” “give it their all,” or “make the podium.” But in this profile of tennis prodigy Nick Kyrgios, Thomas shatters those conventions to explore the quirky and complicated relationship Kyrgios has with achievement.

体育简介充满了关于雄心壮志的深褐色调的比喻：大多数运动员都努力成为“最好的”、“全力以赴”或“登上领奖台”。但在这部对网球神童尼克·克耶高斯的描写中，托马斯打破了这些惯例，探索了克耶高斯与成就之间古怪而复杂的关系。

The piece is tied together with pearly quotes like, “I’d rather be doing that than working at Chipotle or something.”

这篇文章与珍珠般的引言联系在一起，比如“我宁愿这样做，也不愿在 Chipotle 工作或其他什么地方。”

## Teen Girl Posed For 8 Years As Married Man To Write About Baseball And Harass Women (Lindsey Adler, Deadspin)

## 十几岁的女孩假扮已婚男人长达 8 年，撰写有关棒球和骚扰女性的文章（Lindsey Adler，Deadspin）

This Deadspin tale is nothing short of bonkers.

这个《Deadspin》的故事简直就是疯狂。

(The site is owning the sports-catfishing beat.) Adler reports that at age 13, Becca Schultz assumed the false online identity of Ryan Schultz, a married father of two — and an aspiring White Sox blogger — who was studying to become a pharmacist.

（该网站拥有鲶鱼钓鱼运动。）阿德勒报道称，贝卡·舒尔茨 (Becca Schultz) 13 岁时在网上使用了虚假身份瑞安·舒尔茨 (Ryan Schultz)，后者是两个孩子的已婚父亲，也是一位有抱负的白袜队博主，当时正在学习成为一名药剂师。

While masquerading as Ryan, Schultz trolled women online, inflicting real pain on some, and was cradled by the “exploitative ecosystem of online sportswriting, which created the conditions for her to get her enviable opportunities without much interrogation from editors…” Adler’s tale illustrates the changing dynamics of sports journalism and online fandom, as well as the increasingly strange and odd ways in which sports communities develop.

舒尔茨伪装成瑞安，在网上恶搞女性，给一些人带来了真正的痛苦，并受到“在线体育写作的剥削性生态系统的怀抱，这为她创造了条件，让她无需受到编辑的过多审问就能获得令人羡慕的机会……”阿德勒的故事说明了体育新闻和在线粉丝不断变化的动态，以及体育社区日益奇怪和奇怪的发展方式。

One of the reasons Schultz held onto her fake online identity so long was simply because “it worked.”

舒尔茨之所以长期保留自己的虚假在线身份，原因之一就是因为“它有效”。

Seerat SohiFreelance NBA writer for most sites on the internet.

Seerat Sohi 互联网上大多数网站的自由 NBA 撰稿人。

## Colin Kaepernick Has a Job (Rembert Browne, B/R Mag)

## Colin Kaepernick 有工作（Rembert Browne，B/R Mag）

Introspective, observational, heartbreaking, and absolutely scathing in its conclusion about racism in America, the best sports feature this year featured zero access to its subject.

今年最好的体育专题片对美国的种族主义进行了内省、观察、令人心碎和绝对严厉的结论，其主题的访问为零。

In a year where every aspect of our culture felt connected in ways that were either hard to understand or felt like a stretch, Browne got to the bottom of it all.

在这一年里，我们文化的各个方面都以一种难以理解或让人感觉难以理解的方式相互联系，布朗深入了解了这一切。

## Why President Trump Ignites Gregg Popovich (Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN.com)

## 为什么特朗普总统点燃格雷格·波波维奇（凯文·阿诺维茨，ESPN.com）

Popovich, the NBA’s curmudgeonly genius, as tactician, teacher, policy wonk …

波波维奇，NBA 脾气暴躁的天才，同时也是战术家、教师、政策专家……

and commander in chief?

和总司令？

One of the most interesting profiles on the NBA’s most interesting coach features anecdotes and insights that really give you a lens into his personality.

关于 NBA 最有趣的教练的最有趣的简介之一包含轶事和见解，真正让您了解他的个性。

Erik MalinowskiFeatures writer and editor; author of Betaball: How Silicon Valley and Science Built One of the Greatest Basketball Teams in History.

埃里克·马林诺夫斯基 (Erik Malinowski) 担任作家和编辑； 《Betaball：硅谷和科学如何打造历史上最伟大的篮球队之一》一书的作者。

## The Awakening of Colin Kaepernick (John Branch, The New York Times)

## 科林·卡佩尼克的觉醒（约翰·布兰奇，《纽约时报》）

There were many thousands of words published this past year on the NFL quarterback’s swift transformation into social activism icon, but Branch’s thorough, probing exploration into Kaepernick’s formative years in Northern California represented, for my money, the most illuminating of the lot.

去年，关于这位 NFL 四分卫迅速转变为社会活动主义偶像的文章发表了数千字，但布兰奇对卡佩尼克在北加州的成长岁月的彻底、探究性的探索，在我看来，是其中最具启发性的。

By focusing his narrative eye largely on the time before Kaepernick’s silent protests propelled into the national spotlight, Branch’s story produces not just a deeper appreciation of the player’s fascinating backstory but a realization that this moment in history has, in many ways, been years in the making.

通过将叙事视角主要集中在卡佩尼克的无声抗议成为全国焦点之前的那段时间，布兰奇的故事不仅让人们对这位球员引人入胜的背景故事有了更深入的了解，而且让人们意识到，历史上的这一时刻在很多方面都是经过多年酝酿而成的。

Like Muhammad Ali, much of the visceral divisiveness surrounding Kaepernick will wane and we’ll look back at this time with a clearer perspective.

就像穆罕默德·阿里一样，围绕卡佩尼克的大部分内心分歧将会减弱，我们将以更清晰的视角回顾这一时期。

When that time comes, this story should be required reading.

到那时，这个故事应该是必读的。

(In truth, it already is.)

（事实上，已经是了。）

Don Van Natta, Jr.Senior writer for ESPN Magazine, ESPN.com and the best-selling author of three books.

Don Van Natta，Jr. ESPN 杂志、ESPN.com 的资深撰稿人，也是三本书的畅销书作者。

Currently writing Powerball, about the NFL, with ESPN colleague Seth Wickersham.

目前正在与 ESPN 同事 Seth Wickersham 一起撰写有关 NFL 的强力球。

## Can Baseball Turn a 27-Year-Old Into the Perfect Manager?

## 棒球能否将 27 岁的年轻人变成完美的经理？

(Chris Jones, The New York Times Magazine)

（克里斯·琼斯，《纽约时报》杂志）

An irresistible profile of a prodigal baseball manager named Justin Jirschele of the Kannapolis (N.C.) Intimidators.

一个令人难以抗拒的败家棒球经理的形象，他名叫贾斯汀·吉尔舍勒（Justin Jirschele），是坎纳波利斯（北卡罗来纳州）恐吓者队的球员。

This isn’t just a story about the White Sox organization’s trust in a 27-year-old manager with “great baseball blood.” It’s about a son attempting to live up to his father’s expectations, a manager balancing his players’ hopes with his own, and about finding fresh ways to recover from baseball’s daily heartbreaks.

这不仅仅是一个关于白袜队组织对一位拥有“伟大棒球血统”的 27 岁经理的信任的故事。这是关于一个儿子试图实现父亲的期望，一个经理平衡球员的希望和自己的希望，以及寻找新的方法从棒球日常的心碎中恢复过来的故事。

Like everything Chris Jones writes, it’s a perfect gemstone of a story.

就像克里斯·琼斯写的所有作品一样，这是一个完美的故事宝石。

## ‘You Can’t Give In’: Monty Williams on Life After Tragedy (Chris Ballard, Sports Illustrated)

## “你不能屈服”：蒙蒂·威廉姆斯谈悲剧后的生活（克里斯·巴拉德，体育画报）

Former NBA Coach Monty Williams, now the head of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs, tries to cope with the loss of his wife, Ingrid, who died in a head-on car crash in February 2016 in Oklahoma City.

前 NBA 教练蒙蒂·威廉姆斯 (Monty Williams) 现任圣安东尼奥马刺队篮球运营主管，他的妻子英格丽德 (Ingrid) 于 2016 年 2 月在俄克拉荷马城遭遇迎面车祸，英格丽德 (Ingrid) 于2016 年 2 月在一场迎面车祸中丧生，他正努力应对丧妻之痛。

Ballard has given us an unforgettable piece about the power of forgiveness and love.

巴拉德给我们带来了一部关于宽恕和爱的力量的令人难忘的作品。

## In Jerry Jones v.

## 在杰里琼斯诉。

Roger Goodell, NFL Owners Should Choose Sides Wisely (Sally Jenkins, Washington Post)

罗杰·古德尔，NFL 老板应该明智地选择立场（莎莉·詹金斯，华盛顿邮报）

Sally Jenkins is America’s best sports columnist.

莎莉·詹金斯是美国最好的体育专栏作家。

Her analysis of the modern-day NFL is whip-smart, unsparing, and often prescient.

她对现代 NFL 的分析非常聪明、毫不留情，而且往往很有先见之明。

This piece, about the civil war between Jerry Jones and Roger Goodell, perfectly captures what the feud means for the embattled commissioner and his embattled league.

这篇关于杰里·琼斯和罗杰·古德尔之间的内战的文章完美地捕捉了这场争斗对陷入困境的专员和他陷入困境的联盟意味着什么。

## The Fairy Tale and the Nightmare (S.L.

## 童话与噩梦 (S.L.

Price, Sports Illustrated)

价格，《体育画报》）

Brazilian soccer player Helio Nampier Neto’s had a premonition of a plane crash followed by his own inexplicable survival.

巴西足球运动员赫利奥·南皮尔·内托 (Helio Nampier Neto) 预感到飞机失事，随后他自己却莫名其妙地生还。

Then a plane ferrying the player and his teammates to a storybook final match goes completely silent 11 miles from the runway before crashing.

然后，一架载着这名球员和他的队友参加故事书般的决赛的飞机在距跑道 11 英里的地方完全安静，然后坠毁。

Seventy-one people on board die, including nearly all the members of the Chapecoense team.

机上 71 人死亡，其中几乎包括沙佩科恩斯队的所有成员。

Neto is one of only six survivors.

内托是仅有的六名幸存者之一。

Diana MoskovitzSenior editor, Deadspin

戴安娜·莫斯科维茨《Deadspin》高级编辑

## A Team of Their Own (Jessica Luther, B/R Mag)

## 自己的团队（Jessica Luther，B/R Mag）

Luther’s feature on an all-girls baseball team is a great read — but the reaction to the story was just as important.

路德关于女子棒球队的专题文章值得一读，但人们对这个故事的反应也同样重要。

To the surprise of nobody in sports media, it included flurries of tweets demanding the young women go back to softball, or hell, all the way back to the kitchen.

令体育媒体中的任何人都感到惊讶的是，其中包括一连串的推文，要求年轻女性回到垒球，或者地狱，一直回到厨房。

Thankfully that nonsense isn’t stopping girls travel baseball, but it’s a reminder why stories like this need to be told.

值得庆幸的是，这些废话并没有阻止女孩们参加棒球比赛，但这提醒了我们为什么需要讲述这样的故事。

## Colin Kaepernick Is Called A Distraction, But From What?

## 科林·卡佩尼克被称为分心者，但从何而来？

(Bomani Jones, The Undefeated)

（博马尼·琼斯，《不败者》）

After Jones’s piece was published in March, thousands of words would be parsed about Kaepernick’s protest, the reaction to the protest, the players who joined in, and Kaepernick’s sudden inability to find a job.

琼斯的文章在三月份发表后，数千字的内容将被解析，内容涉及卡佩尼克的抗议、对抗议的反应、加入的球员以及卡佩尼克突然找不到工作。

Some pieces are long, some pieces are very long, but none cut to the heart of the matter like this piece did.

有些文章很长，有些文章很长，但没有一个像这篇文章那样切中主题。

Every sentence is a dagger in the insidious heart of the favorite wiggle word of NFL leadership — distraction — and why its use to avoid Kaepernick is a load of crap.

每句话都是一把匕首，刺入了 NFL 领导层最喜欢的摇摆词——分散注意力——的阴险核心，以及为什么用它来避开卡佩尼克是一堆废话。

“Stop hiding behind code,” Jones tells NFL owners.

“不要再躲在代码后面了，”琼斯告诉 NFL 老板。

It’s advice that leaders in many walks of American life should heed right now.

美国各行各业的领导人现在应该注意这一建议。

Megan GreenwellEditor and writer, previously the executive features editor for Esquire.com and a senior editor at ESPN Magazine.

梅根·格林威尔 (Megan Greenwell) 编辑和作家，曾担任 Esquire.com 的执行专题编辑和 ESPN 杂志的高级编辑。

## The Search For Aaron Rodgers (Mina Kimes, ESPN Magazine)

## 寻找亚伦·罗杰斯（Mina Kimes，ESPN 杂志）

Every living sportswriter wanted a good Aaron Rodgers story.

每个在世的体育记者都想要一个精彩的亚伦·罗杰斯故事。

I got pitches for at least three during my time at Esquire, always with a long list of caveats about the topics his reps considered out of bounds (the most interesting ones, of course).

在《Esquire》期间，我至少收到了三个推介，其中总是包含一长串关于他的代表认为超出范围的主题的警告（当然是最有趣的主题）。

So when he finally agreed to a profile without restrictions, and insisted the interview be conducted in the writer’s home, it should have been a recipe for the type of bland mush that makes up so many athlete profiles.

因此，当他最终同意不受限制地撰写个人简介，并坚持在作者家中进行采访时，这应该是构成如此多运动员简介的平淡糊涂的秘诀。

Except the writer was Mina Kimes, so the story was filled with so much insight that I had to read it twice to catch all the perfect, tiny details.

除了作者是米娜·基姆斯之外，所以这个故事充满了如此多的洞察力，我不得不读两遍才能捕捉到所有完美的微小细节。

After describing Rodgers examining her bookshelf and her berries, she turns the odd circumstances to her advantage in a single line: “As he studies his surroundings, it occurs to me that when I write about this, I’ll have to describe my things instead of his things, and I realize that’s probably why we’re here.” She deftly avoids every cliche about one of the most cliche-saddled dudes in sports, making us understand far more than just what makes Aaron Rodgers tick.

在描述罗杰斯检查她的书架和浆果后，她用一句话将奇怪的情况转化为自己的优势：“当他研究周围的环境时，我突然想到，当我写这篇文章时，我必须描述我的东西，而不是他的东西，我意识到这可能就是我们在这里的原因。”她巧妙地避免了关于体育界最陈词滥调的家伙之一的每一个陈词滥调，让我们了解的不仅仅是亚伦·罗杰斯的动机。

Matt GilesContributor and head fact checker, Longreads

Matt GilesLongreads 撰稿人兼首席事实核查员

## A Fifteen-Year Old (Sorta-Maybe) Basketball Prodigy (Chris Ballard, Sports Illustrated)

## 一个 15 岁（也许是）的篮球神童（克里斯·巴拉德，《体育画报》）

## ‘He Needs to Be a Kid’ (Jesse Dougherty, Washington Post)

## “他需要成为一个孩子”（杰西·多尔蒂，华盛顿邮报）

These two features tackled the rapid expansion and changing nature of recruiting in amateur athletics.

这两个功能解决了业余田径运动招募的快速扩张和不断变化的性质。

Ballard tracks Nico Mannion, a high school freshman whose dunks have rippled through social media, attracting countless followers and college coaches who believe the guard might be the missing piece for a Final Four run.

巴拉德追踪的高中新生尼科·曼尼恩 (Nico Mannion) 的扣篮在社交媒体上引起了轩然大波，吸引了无数粉丝和大学教练，他们相信这位后卫可能是进入四强的缺失球员。

Dougherty profiles an even younger prospect, Neiko Primus, the nation’s top-ranked nine-year-old, and examines whether that classification actually means anything to Primus and, more importantly, his mother.

多尔蒂介绍了一个更年轻的新秀 Neiko Primus，她是全国排名最高的 9 岁孩子，并研究了这种分类对 Primus 以及更重要的是他的母亲是否真的意味着什么。

Ballard and Dougherty successfully cover recruiting on both the macro and micro levels, leaving the reader with a nuanced portrait of the mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that hundreds of teenagers endure year after year.

巴拉德和多尔蒂成功地涵盖了宏观和微观层面的招聘情况，为读者留下了对数百名青少年年复一年忍受的精神、身体和情感疲惫的细致入微的描述。

Mike DangEditor-in-chief, Longreads

Mike DangLongreads 主编

## Pushing the Limit (Alexandra Starr, Harper’s Magazine)

## 挑战极限（亚历山德拉·斯塔尔，《哈珀杂志》）

Sexual misconduct scandals have recently ousted powerful men in Hollywood, media, and politics, but Starr’s story reminds us there has long been a legacy of sex abuse in youth athletics, where the “extreme power imbalance between coach and athlete” has created conditions where “secrets are kept” and “perpetrators are protected.” Institutions like the U.S. Olympic Committee say it’s impossible to investigate all claims of misconduct due to the number of private club teams and gyms that oversee youth sports.

最近，性行为不端丑闻驱逐了好莱坞、媒体和政界的有权势人物，但斯塔尔的故事提醒我们，青少年体育运动中长期以来存在性虐待的遗留问题，其中“教练和运动员之间的极端权力失衡”创造了“保守秘密”和“肇事者受到保护”的条件。美国奥委会等机构表示，由于监管青少年体育运动的私人俱乐部队和体育馆数量众多，不可能调查所有不当行为指控。

(A coach fired for misconduct at one gym can resurface at a new gym, re-starting the cycle of abuse.)

（一名因在一家健身房行为不当而被解雇的教练可能会在一家新健身房重新出现，从而重新开始虐待循环。）

Starr documents allegations of assault and abuse that span decades.

斯塔尔记录了长达数十年的袭击和虐待指控。

When asked about some of the scandals, head of the U.S.O.C.

当被问及一些丑闻时，美国奥委会主席

Scott Blackmun replies, “Honestly, it was not on my radar.” Pair with this quote from Marci Hamilton, head of Child U.S.A., an organization that works to prevent child abuse and neglect: “What always comes out, in the end, is that the institution knew more about abuse than just about anybody else.”

斯科特·布莱克门 (Scott Blackmun) 回答道：“老实说，这不在我的考虑范围内。”引用美国儿童组织（一个致力于防止虐待和忽视儿童的组织）负责人马西·汉密尔顿（Marci Hamilton）的话：“最终，结果总是表明，该机构比其他任何人都更了解虐待问题。”