29.2016 ESPN 3

02.29.16

FORWARD

9 THE FBI VS. FIFA How federal agents used a corrupt official to infiltrate FIFA.

BY SHAUN ASSAEL AND BRETT FORREST

19 MAKING SOME NOISE To make a deep March run, the Terps need Melo Trimble to take the lead.

BY HALLIE GROSSMAN

24 THE WOW FACTOR A behind-the-scenes look at NFL owners’ fight for football in LA.

BY DON VAN NATTA JR. AND SETH WICKERSHAM

38 “I HAD TO DO IT” A Q&A with historymaking snowboarding phenom Chloe Kim.

BY ALYSSA ROENIGK

COLUMNS

6 NUMBERS You don’t need to be tall to ball. Length is far more critical.

BY PETER KEATING

84 THE TRUTH College sports need a revolution—just look at the numbers—but will anyone follow through?

BY HOWARD BRYANT

ANALYTICS

41 THE ANALYTICS OF THE NBA BODY ISSUE Changing how you view NBA players, from head to toe.

42 THIS IS YOUR BODY ON ANALYTICS The NBA’s biometrics revolution has created a monster—and an MVP candidate—in Kawhi

Leonard. BY TOM HABERSTROH

48 THE BEST WORST ANKLES IN SPORTS How an unorthodox trainer fixed Stephen Curry’s ankles— and changed NBA history in the

process. BY PABLO S. TORRE

60 EXTREME MEASURES Behold! The unfathomable physique of Giannis Antetokounmpo, owner of the NBA’s ideal body.

BY KEVIN ARNOVITZ

66 THE ANTI-LOGIC OF THE NBA SCHEDULE The impact of the absurd 82-game slog is felt far and

wide. BY TOM HABERSTROH

72 THE DAILY REANIMATION OF KOBE BRYANT It takes a personal pit crew to keep 37-year-old Kobe Bryant

on the court. BY BAXTER HOLMES

78 LARRY BIRD WILL DIE YOUNG. JUST ASK HIM Towering over the rest of the population is a curse for basketball’s biggest men.

BY JACKIE MACMULLAN

BEHIND THE PAGES

On the Catwalk

Contributing photographer Andrew Cutraro on shooting Kawhi Leonard: “Leonard rarely emotes on the court, remaining focused, almost stoic. To capture his subtle intensity in a new way, I pulled NBA photos from the ’50s and ’60s, when technology was far more limited—but the resulting imagery had a wonderful atmospheric quality. My assistant, Nestor Sanchez [left], and I flew to San Antonio, where the Spurs had back-to-back home games. The idea was to light the arena like the old-school days and shoot the action with a nonsports, large-format camera. The process was slow and unforgiving, but it forced me to look at the game in a new way, and as a result, we made a set of pictures of Leonard that are like nothing out

there today.” MORE ON PAGE 42

Sanchez helped Cutraro shed light on Leonard for throwback-style photos.

Senior writer Shaun Assael on tracking the FBI’s undoing of FIFA

“To tell the story of the FBI’s case against FIFA, I went back home to Queens, close to where Chuck Blazer was raised. Co-author Brett Forrest [right photo] traveled the world on the law-enforcement angle. Because the FBI continues to investigate and Blazer is incommunicado, this one was tricky for us. But I felt I had an advantage: Blazer graduated from Forest Hills High eight years after my dad, went to the same college I did and then moved to Westchester, where I live now.” MORE ON PAGE 9 Senior writer Pablo S. Torre on Steph Curry and his ankles

“When I first informed the Warriors that I was exploring how Curry finally fixed his infamous ankles, the team warned that he’d previously declined interview requests on the subject. “We don’t like to talk about those days,” Curry’s best friend, Bryant Barr, later told me. So when Curry decided to open up to me, patiently reliving those dark days, I knew we had a story—not only because of the details he shared but also because of the confidence with which he shared them. His ankles, I realized, are the lens through which this absurd rise must be understood.” MORE ON PAGE 48 Contributing illustrator HelloVon on merging art with sports

“I wanted to bring a fresh approach to the portraits placed throughout the Analytics Issue— something that would lend itself to the energy and strength found in sports imagery. I ripped up and pasted together different hand-painted tones and gestural, abstract marks to create the kits, balls and backgrounds. I then painted over those with sweeping marks that pick up on the athlete’s line of motion. Or in the case of Larry Bird, partly destroying the portrait to get across the sense of his influence fading away as new generations

come in.” MORE ON PAGES 42-43, 48-49, 72-73 AND 78-79

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