March 13, 2006 | Volume 104, Issue 11

On the June 23, 1969, cover of Sports Illustrated is the silhouette of an athlete surrounded by an assortment of pills--including anabolic steroids--and a hypodermic needle. The headline reads,...

Flying High

As recently as two years ago, when Shaquille O'Neal fell off the court during the NBA All-Star Game and into the only lap large enough to accommodate him--that of the second American Idol, Ruben...

A wild week of negotiating showed that NFL owners and players might not ever agree on some issues, but they will survive--and thrive

SI senior writer Alexander Wolff has founded an ABA team, the Vermont Frost Heaves (Dec. 19, 2005), which begins play in November. Last weekend he made a play for funding--as well as a little...

KIRBY PUCKETT came to Minnesota in a happy accident: During the 1981 strike, the Twins' assistant farm director went to watch his son play in a summer league and became so taken with the small...

Won By speedskater Chad Hedrick, the 1,500-meter World Cup title. Hedrick edged U.S. teammate Shani Davis, with whom he openly feuded in Turin, in the final race on Sunday to wrap up the season...

Ted Ligety follows up his unlikely Olympic gold medal with a GS win in South Korea

USA Basketball names its candidates for a different kind of Dream Team

The Desperate Housewives star is dating Spurs point guard Tony Parker

The way Sebastian Telfair sees it, Through the Fire, a documentary about his 2004 senior year at Coney Island's Lincoln High, is Hoop Dreams with a happy ending. Seeing the two protagonists in...

What to watch and watch for

Kyle Jones NORTH DELTA, B.C. > Hockey Jones, a sophomore goalie at St. Nortbert College, was named the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association's player of the year for 2005-06. He finished...

CLOSERS ARE just as indispensable to a fantasy squad as they are to a major league team, so the big-name firemen are always in demand. Here are a couple of new closers who might be a little easier...

METS CLOSER

Who's Hot Ohio State The men's and women's hoops teams won the Big Ten, the third Division I school that has won a conference in those sports and in football the same year. Said center...

Who's the NBA's best coach?

Raptors Forward

For some NHL players the Olympic break meant a chance to kick off their skates and pick up the tools of another sporting trade

Memphis forward Shane Battier packs his duffel with the comforts of home

ON MAY 22, 1998, the San Francisco Giants arrived in St. Louis for a three-game series with the Cardinals. That weekend, Giants All-Star leftfielder Barry Bonds got a firsthand look at the...

For video interviews with the authors and with Tom Verducci go to SI.com/bondsvideo.

Now Barry Bonds could wind up alongside Pete Rose in baseball purgatory

With an eye toward Augusta, Tiger Woods displayed his typical efficiency, finishing off challengers young and old for a ho-hum, one-shot victory at Doral

For more golf news, notes and analysis, plus Alan Shipnuck's column every Wednesday, go to SI.com/golf.

Nimble and ebullient sophomore Glen (Big Baby) Davis may keep No. 18 LSU dancing deep into the NCAA tournament--but that would hardly be his most impressive feat

Read more about LSU and Glen Davis in Luke Winn's NCAA tournament blog at SI.com/collegebasketball.

With more and more top teams barnstorming the nation to play in packed arenas for national television audiences, high school hoops has gotten bigger than ever. It's time to think about what it...

See Dave Krider's boys' and girls' hoops power rankings every week at at SI.com/highschool.

Baseball

Catching On

Self-help Group

An NBA scout evaluates the potential of Boston College forwards Jared Dudley and Craig Smith (right). In the regular season Dudley, a 6'7", 225-pound junior, averaged 16.3 points and 6.9 rebounds,...

REDICK NEEDS HELP

Darko Ages

On 6'8" power forward Marcus Fizer, the No. 4 pick of the Bulls in 2000 who is averaging 20.4 points for the D-League's Austin Toros:

THE HOTLINE

Down to Earth In characteristic elastic fashion, Camilo Villegas of Colombia gets as low as he can go to line up a third-round putt during the Ford Championship at Doral last Saturday in Miami....

I feel sorry for certain people. Leon Spinks's orthodontist. Bode Miller's agent. Anybody in a ham-eating contest with James Gandolfini.

Exclusively on Verizon Wireless V CAST and SI.com.

Regarded as an overachiever during a late-blooming career on the regular Tour, putter nonpareil Loren Roberts was transformed into a superstar the instant he turned 50

News and Notes

WHO: Tiger Woods

After watching Geoff Ogilvy win the Accenture Match Play and Jake Gyllenhaal vie for an Oscar for his performance in Brokeback Mountain, we couldn't help but notice the resemblance. Here they are...

Hall of Fame voters always seem to repeat three big mistakes

[This article consists of an illustration. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

Sports Illustrated recently polled 76 PGA Tour players--approximately the number who make the cut in an average week--to gauge their feelings on issues involving the state of the sport and various...