For more than twenty-five years, The Best American Sports Writing has curated the year’s finest sports journalism. Continuing the tradition in a long line of notable guest editors is Rick Telander, acclaimed journalist, author, and champion of the written word. His choices are defined by one shared thread: effort, on the part of athletes and writers alike. The physical strength it takes to play professional hockey and football, or for a forty-two-year-old writer to learn how to dunk in six months. The mental and emotional toughness needed to turn around a losing team, or to speak out about a coach. The careful striving to make everything seem effortless. This edition encompasses it all. The Best American Sports Writing 2016 includes Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham, L. Jon Wertheim and Ken Rodriguez, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, Brett Popplewell, Alexandra Starr, Wright Thompson and others RICK TELANDER is a Chicago Sun-Times senior sports columnist and the Basketball Evangelist for Slam magazine. He has also written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine, and has been featured seven times in The Best American Sports Writing. He is the author of eight books, including Heaven Is a Playground and From Red Ink to Roses. GLENN STOUT, series editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception, is the author of Young Woman and the Sea and Fenway 1912.

For over twenty-five years, The Best American Sports Writing has been a showcase for the most exceptional sports journalism of the previous year, selected by an acclaimed guest editor. Represented in this year's collection are giants in the field as well as up-and-coming writers to watch--the only shared traits among the diverse styles and voices are the extraordinarily high caliber of writing and the pure passion they tap into.

Capturing the century's greatest moments in every sport from basseball to chess, these authors (Red Smith, Tom Boswell, John Updike, Jim Murray, Norman Mailer, W.C. Heinz, Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Dick Schaap, David Remnick, Ring Lardner, Gay Talese, William Nack, Frank Deford, George Plimpton, Jon Krakauer) and their subjects (including Joe DiMaggio, Secretariat, Bobby Knight, and Muhammad Ali) reflect the rising societal importance of sports in this century, showing how sports have been shaped by such monumental events as war, the civil rights movement, and the changing economyomy.

The latest addition to the acclaimed series showcasing the best sports writing from the past year.

Harper's Magazine has been America's preeminent monthly periodical for more than 150 years. Rules of the Game: The Best Sports Writing from Harper's Magazine takes a look into this storied magazine's unparalleled archive and uncovers funny, touching, exciting, intriguing stories of the sporting life, both professional and amateur, and what it means to us. These essays show that how we play and write about sports not only reflect our nation's character, but challenge it. Including stories from Mark Twain and James B. Connolly at the turn of the twentieth century, visiting with George Plimpton, Tom Wolfe, Bill Cardoso, and A. Bartlett Giamatti along the way, and continuing with Lewis Lapham, Rich Cohen, and Pat Jordan today, this collection is the definitive voice on sports-writing through the last hundred years. Edited by Matthew Stevenson and Michael Martin, with a humorous, insightful preface by Roy Blount Jr. (Fifth in the American Retrospective Series.)

For a quarter century, the annual Best American Sports Writing has showcased the greatest sports journalism of the previous year. This year’s guest editor, acclaimed author Howard Bryant, continues the tradition, seeking out writing that best captures the unpredictable journey of sports. Triumphantly and painfully, these stories reflect on that journey, asking difficult questions about who we are, as individuals and as a nation: What does it mean when a football player takes a knee during the national anthem, who decides where the remains of an American legend should rest, and how far will people go to reclaim dreams that have long slipped away? Spanning different sports, disciplines, and styles, these pieces are, above all, inspirational to readers, writers, and athletes around the world, proof of the bonds and breaking points that exist between and within us all.

A must-read collection featuring the best in sports journalism Richard Deitsch, a media reporter at The Athletic and a former Sports Illustrated writer, has curated an essential anthology showcasing incredible feats and diverse perspectives across the world of sports. Selected from a wide range of newspapers, magazines, and digital publications during the previous year, these stories capture enduring moments while celebrating the craft of writing at its most sublime. This extraordinary collection reveals the fascinating stories behind the sports we love, the competitors who push their boundaries, and the cultures they are ultimately embedded in.