Sports Illustrated

THE REPUBLIC of Sports is still reeling from the indictments against Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier, former NBA player Damon Jones and 30 other defendants on gambling-related charges in the fall. (Billups and Rozier have been suspended by the NBA; along with Jones, they pled not guilty to criminal charges.) Allegations of exploiting prop bets and undermining honest competition have become almost numbingly commonplace. The NBA, Major League Baseball, college sports …pick a sector and it’s been rocked by corruption, hardly surprising given the legality, ease and omnipresence of sports gambling. As one New York Times headline read in the wake of the indictments, “I’m Shocked, Shocked to Find That Gambling Is Going On in Here.” But the Justice Department’s allegations of a mafia scheme to…

GOLF HASN’T slowed yet on its post-pandemic heater. The sport that millions took up or rediscovered in 2020, enjoying the fresh air of wide-open spaces, has seen participation numbers grow by more than 50%. Many top resorts have lotteries for tee times and greens fees have creeped higher with demand surging. Weekend PGA Tour viewership was up 22% in 2025. The equipment industry remains robust too, with innovation continuing to surge and brands racing to one-up each other in the marketplace. In short: There’s a lot of golf to go around. 1. Golf Pride MCC GRIPS New grips are an easy, inexpensive way to freshen up your game, and Golf Pride’s industry-leading hybrid model performs in all conditions. 2. Srixon ZXIR IRONS “Game Improvement” irons are a smart choice for weekend…

BUST OUT the confetti from the plastic bucket. This year the Harlem Globetrotters are celebrating their 100th anniversary. Yes, it’s been a century of the best-known team in basketball staying true to its name and circumventing planet Earth, reliably generating smiles, winning the games and weaving WWE-style entertainment and highlight-reel hoops with a message of social justice. Still, it’s a curious time for the Globies. The strength of the franchise persists, but it’s had to update and adapt to the times. There is no longer the ultimate brand extension, a Saturday morning cartoon show to spread the gospel to a young audience. Half-court shots and behind-the-back passes are still cool, but you can find a bottomless trove of them on YouTube. More cosmically, when not only are the majority of…

MICHAEL ZHENG Sport: Tennis Hometown: Montville, N.J. Zheng, a senior at Columbia, defeated SMU’s Trevor Svajda 6–4, 1–6, 6–3 to win his second consecutive NCAA Division I singles championship, becoming the first men’s tennis player to win back-to-back titles since 2012. The victory also gave Zheng the record for the most career individual NCAA tournament wins (19). He cracked the ATP top 200 for the first time in October, having won his first Challenger title in August. ADALYNN BIEGLER Sport: Swimming Hometown: Big Lake, Minn. Adalynn, a junior at Monticello High, broke the Class A 200-yard freestyle record with a time of 1:46.93 to win the girls’ state championship in the event. She also took titles in the 100-yard butterfly (53.48) and the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, guiding the…

“TODAS LAS paradas, Jessica para y sigue.” Vincent Memorial High quarterback Azul Trujillo relayed the call—all stops, Jessica stop-and-go—in Spanish, and hit her favorite target, wide receiver Jessica Manriquez, for a 20-yard game-winner that delivered the Scots’ first CIF Division II flag football title in a 40–34 victory over Imperial High. That moment followed her back at school. “I was excited because everyone at school was looking at us, knowing that we won,” says Azul, a sophomore who set the national single-season record for passing yards (9,503). “They put our posters up.” Azul took up flag football in grade school when her father’s friend invited her to join a team to avoid a forfeit. For the Calexico, Calif., native, whose parents and grandparents are from Mexico, the sport has since grown…

LAST JUNE, with the confetti still being swept off the Paycom Center floor, a blue-clad crowd gathered inside the Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse to celebrate Oklahoma City’s NBA championship. Surrounded by friends and family (and a healthy number of their friends and their families), Thunder players, coaches and staffers partied deep into the night. Guests picked at buffet tables lined with steak medallions and crab cakes. Against a wall, the Larry O’Brien trophy rested as a prop for pictures. Champagne that went largely untouched in Oklahoma City’s locker room—what do you expect from a title winner led by a bunch of early-20-somethings who needed help figuring out how to pop the cork?—flowed liberally into glass flutes. A few freshly shotgunned beer cans littered the floor. In the middle of it…