Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor joined the magazine staff in 1990. Prior to joining SI, Taylor worked as a sports writer and columnist for the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury News and the now-defunct sports daily, The National. He writes a regular column, The Hot Button, each Monday for SI.com.

Taylor ranks basketball as his favorite sport to both play and cover. He has won many journalism awards, including a 1987 Associated Press Sports Editors Award for Feature Writing. Taylor recalls the 1986 World Series as his most memorable moment in sports and ranks his 1995 cover story on the NBA's petulant prima donnas as the most interesting feature he has written for SI.

Taylor, a native of Queens, New York, received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College in 1982 and a Masters degree from Stanford University in 1983. He now lives in northern California with his wife and their three children.

October 2001