As 2022 winds down, Sports Illustrated is looking back at the themes and teams, story lines and through lines that shaped the year. For this post, writers and editors recommended the SI stories from the last 12 months that they found most memorable. Here are their choices.
Illustration by Jonathan Bartlett
Inside the Fight Over the Fastest-Growing Sport in America
By John Walters
Pickleball’s popularity is patently absurd. Right? Walters, who lives in Phoenix, pickleball central, can both see it that way (John: “Wait, there’s a pickleball hall of fame?”) and not. Here he holds the perforated yellow ball up under a light and asks all the questions with fun answers: What happens when this thing grows? Who gets hurt? Who gets left behind? What he finds: a lot of bruised egos, a lot of pettiness … and a lot of money on the table. Walters’s story will inevitably end up a documentary on Netflix or Hulu or HBO, but you read it here first. —Adam Duerson, Executive Editor
For Years She Healed the Stars—But Now Cancer Is Forcing Esther Lee to Take Care of Herself
By Brandon Sneed
Many athletes have physical therapists on their behind-the-scenes teams, but I’ve never seen any have as profound of an impact as Esther Lee. Her work is described by clients like the Williams sisters and Shaun White as life-changing, going beyond muscles and into matters of the soul. This story by Brandon Sneed detailed Lee’s heartrending encounter with pancreatic cancer and her fight to stay alive, all while she continued to heal her star athlete clients. From raw emotion and inspiring physical strength, to familial struggles, to the importance of mental health and the power of companionship, this story has it all. —Jamie Lisanti, Assistant Managing Editor
Kylian Mbappe Takes on the Weight of His World
By Brian Straus
Kylian Mbappé was already carrying the weight of the world before the World Cup, and his performance in Qatar only went on to validate his status as the next coming. This is the story of how a kid from the banlieues in his early 20s has been able to command the spotlight—and dominate under it. —Avi Creditor, Assistant Managing Editor
The Return and Rebirth of AD
By Ben Pickman
Part of what makes the WNBA great is the diversity of its players. Pickman captured beautifully the story of AD, then with the Liberty and since traded to the Dream. They are the pro athlete face of long COVID, yes, but they are also so much more: someone who used a tough stretch of life to find themself and share that with the world. —Julie Kliegman, Copy Chief
Kohjiro Kinno/Sports Illustrated
Life After 7'6": Shawn Bradley, Paralyzed in a Bike Crash, Knows ‘It’ll Never Be the Same’
By Brian Burnsed
This story pulls you in from a verb-packed opening paragraph that juxtaposes the hurried action on the basketball court with the tragic stasis of Bradley’s situation. What follows is a deeply layered, intimately humane look at what the 7'6" Bradley has endured since a bicycle crash left him paralyzed from the chest down, and how his defining trait, his height, has cruelly become, as Burnsed puts it, “his primary hindrance.” Poignant pictures, both provided by Bradley’s family and taken by SI’s Kohjiro Kinno—especially, respectively, the hospital bed with McDonald’s and the haircutting ones—round out this emotional read. —Alex Prewitt, Senior Writer
Is 2022 the Year of Peak Sportswashing?
By Michael Rosenberg
Was 2022 the year of peak sportswashing? It sure felt like it. Between the Winter Olympics in Beijing, the yearlong emergence of LIV Golf and the astonishingly inhumane and corrupt World Cup in Qatar, it was hard to look at a major sporting event and not see it as some kind of attempt to make something or someone look less evil. But Rosenberg’s essay looks at the historical roots of the phenomenon and makes it clear that nothing in the history of pro sports is exempt from being at least a little bit about propaganda. —Chris Almeida, Editor
Scenes and Soul From Saudi Arabia After a World-Famous World Cup Upset
By Greg Bishop
Bishop taking us inside Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the country’s World Cup upset over Argentina—perhaps the greatest Cup upset in history, given what Argentina went on to do after that match—was compelling on several levels. Every soccer fan wanted to know how the heck this happened, and relative casuals like me had no inkling of the country’s strong yet starved passion for the sport. The fact Greg was able to coordinate the complicated (and quite risky) travel into Saudi Arabia, thoroughly report and turn this story around within 48 hours of the upset’s final whistle further proves his credentials as our industry’s best long-form journalist. —Will Laws, Programming Editor
Leaky Roofs, Disappearing Balls and Frozen Offices: Inside a Real Cinderella Story
By Kevin Sweeney
For two weeks last March, tiny Saint Peter’s was stunningly at the center of the sports world. We’ve seen NCAA tournament underdogs before, but this story examines why the Peacocks were perhaps the most unlikely Cinderella ever—and that was before they got all the way to the Elite Eight. —Molly Geary, Associate Editor
Thomas Lovelock/Sports Illustrated
Jeff Luhnow’s Next Act: Soccer
By Stephanie Apstein
The Astros’ 2017 sign-stealing scandal is so familiar by now that people have adopted a thimble-sized version of what happened, as in the steroid era: They all cheated, and cheating explains their success. Of course, the truth is more nuanced. Apstein deftly brings light to that nuance with the one last interview everybody wanted among the key players: former GM Jeff Luhnow. The best stories not only tell you something you didn’t know—and this does, given the news value of Luhnow giving an interview two years after the scandal broke—but also make you think. This one makes you think far outside your thimble. —Tom Verducci, Senior Writer
The Summer of LIV Was the Summer of Excess
By Bob Harig
Pro golf featured plenty of memorable on-course moments this year, but the launch of LIV Golf shook the game to its core. Bob Harig hit most of the events in LIV’s summer schedule and kept a running list of thoughts, anecdotes and observations along the way, which formed the backbone of this piece. I thought it captured what LIV had created at that moment in time, while also looking ahead to golf’s uncertain future. And like any good year-end read, it all still holds up. —Jeff Ritter, Golf Managing Director
Fuzzy Logic
By Hopi Hoekstra as told to Conor Orr
I figured this list might skew more toward important journalism than entertaining oddities … so I decided to select an important piece of journalism, as well. The great Conor Orr enlisted a Harvard mammologist to explain the specific reasons why just about every mascot in March Madness is depicted wrong. —Mitch Goldich, Associate Editor
History, Hellfire and The Cathedral: Milan Derby’s Past, Present and Future
By Andrew Gastelum
The Milan derby is steeped in tradition, and both Inter and AC Milan have returned to prominence. But the stage where future chapters will unfold is about to change with the destruction of the San Siro, taking one of club soccer’s great fixtures into the unknown. —Avi Creditor, Assistant Managing Editor
Illustration by Carlo Cadenas
Does the NBA Have a $@&!*% Problem?
By Howard Beck
I loved Howard Beck’s look at the NBA’s attempt to crack down on profanity. What a delightful mix of spotting a trend, reporting it out and finding experts able to weigh in. (Who knew there were people who professionally study the art of swearing?) And, of course, the language is perfect. Congratulations to Howard for getting so many swear words in print: I suspect it’ll be a long f---ing time before any other writer figures out a way to repeat that performance. —Emma Baccellieri, Staff Writer
Most Little League World Series Players Dream of the Big Leagues. He Dreamed of Dentistry
By Emma Baccellieri
When readers come to Sports Illustrated, the bottom line is that, yes, they look to relive action-filled games or get expert analysis, but what really sets the best pieces apart—the ones that serve readers most—is when they tell a story about people. This story about a random Little League player, that might have been lost completely if not for Emma, does exactly that. It’s endearing, relatable and unique, and most importantly, a reminder that many people start in similar places. The difference, at times, in where they might end up lies in the answer to the story’s main question: “What is the height of your ambition?” —Claire Kuwana, Associate Producer
Blue Man Regroup: Inside Duke’s ‘Great Succession Plan’
By Michael Rosenberg
While most of the coverage around Duke last spring centered on Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement, this story centered on his successor, Jon Scheyer. It gave an inside look at the school’s succession plan as it moved on from a legend and how Scheyer was preparing for the job during a season spent waiting. —Molly Geary
Adam Hunger/Getty Images
Will Mets Ace Jacob deGrom Get the Last Laugh?
By Stephanie Apstein
Today, athletes carefully curate most of the public information about themselves. They have their own social media accounts through which they can speak directly to fans, and they let team- and league-owned media outlets tell their stories for them. For these reasons, even the best sports profiles rarely provide us with a revelatory look at their star subjects. That’s what makes Stephanie Apstein’s Daily Cover story on Jacob deGrom stand out from the rest. She takes what we already knew about deGrom—when healthy, he’s the best pitcher in baseball, but he’s often injured—and uses it as the hook for a story about bullying, fear, power and dominance. —Matt Martell, Associate Editor
She Wanted a Scholarship. Now She’s the Face of Women’s College Basketball.
By Wilton Jackson
Aliyah Boston’s journey to college hoops glory traces from St. Thomas to Massachusetts to South Carolina. This story looks at her upbringing and her rise with the Gamecocks as she became the most dominant player in women’s college basketball. —Molly Geary, Associate Editor
The Beautiful Life of Vin Scully
By Tom Verducci
So much was written about Vin Scully in the days after his death, and so much had been written about him previously, in the decades covering his career and in the years since his retirement. But I found Tom Verducci’s obituary for him especially poignant. Even on a subject I had already read so much about—and spent so many hours listening to myself—I felt like I learned something new about his life and the connections he made with those around him. What a wonderfully fitting tribute for an icon. —Emma Baccellieri, Staff Writer
Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated
After Surviving a High School Shooting, He Was ‘An Empty Shell. No Emotion.’ Now What?
By Michael Rosenberg
I can’t think of another piece of writing on any topic that affected me as much as this one did. —Stephanie Apstein, Senior Writer
