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Jurassic World
Photographer Marcus Eriksson on shooting the Raptors’ star players: How do you capture genuine friendship in a still image on a set with lots of people watching? That was the biggest question on my mind while shooting Raptors guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. Prior to the shoot, I studied up on the besties by watching their postgame interviews. There’s something really organic—and goofy, so goofy—about their chemistry in those interviews that I wanted to portray in my photos. Once we got to shooting, it became apparent that DeMar wasn’t as comfortable with my direction, but all it took was for Kyle to push him a little bit and he loosened right up. Add an arcade basketball game to the equation and the rest is pure camera gold. MORE ON PAGE 42 Toronto’s Lowry (foreground) and DeRozan handled the East like it was child’s play.
Senior writer Tom Junod on how Mike Tomlin’s silence says it all
Contributing writer Emily Kaplan on fighting off the “Vegas Flu”
Senior writer Wayne Drehs on discovering a softball star’s tenacity
Tomlin is a talker. It’s the thing I didn’t know about him until the Steelers-Patriots game last December. I was in the press box but barely watched the game. Instead, I watched him, talking up one player after another. When I asked the players what Coach T had to say, the answer, in nearly all cases, was “plenty.” This came as a surprise, because he wouldn’t talk to me at all. Ultimately, his silence gave me my story, which explores the discrepancy between my experience and that of his players, all through the fulcrum of the one thing he can’t hide: his face. MORE ON PAGE 9
For their inaugural road trip to Las Vegas, the Minnesota Wild stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the Strip. They checked into their rooms at 2:35 p.m. By 2:48 p.m. the players were back in the lobby, giddily eyeing the casinos across the street. But Wild coach Bruce Boudreau wasn’t having it—11 p.m. curfew. “It’s like parenting,” he says. Minnesota, like the rest of the NHL, has been wary of contracting the “Vegas Flu.” But the league has realized that the Golden Knights’ surprising expansion-season success isn’t just because they play in a city of distractions. MORE ON PAGE 64
I’ve coached my daughter’s travel softball team for four years now, developing a deeper appreciation for the game. But meeting Georgia senior star Kendall Burton and her family took that to another level. We talked in a hotel lobby for more than five hours over a span of two days—Georgia game days, no less. It was emotional, exhausting. I kept looking for her scars. Not the ones on the surface but those within, left behind by all she’s endured. There were few to be found. Instead, there’s a story about a young woman who so many times could have or should have quit but never did. MORE ON PAGE 68
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PHOTO G RA PH BY MA RCUS ERI KS S O N FROM LEFT: JANET JUN O D; MELISSA RAWLINS/ESPN IMAGES; CHRIS BEAUCHAMP/ESPN IMAGES
