Stories that take three thousand words to tell properly. Oral histories, reported profiles, business essays, and the occasional argument that earns its space. New piece roughly every two weeks during the season.
Five front-office voices on the bid wars that brought the league to fifteen — the GMs who chased Toronto and Portland, the league office that wrote the rules, the ownership groups who lost. The story of how a $250 million expansion fee became conventional wisdom in eighteen months.
Toronto’s and Portland’s expansion bids, told by five front-office voices who sat at the table. Why the league’s economics looked unrecognizable by the time the gavel fell, and what the next bidder will pay.
How a journeyman assistant rebuilt a perennial bottom-three franchise without trading for a star — trusting development, refusing trades, and ending up with the league’s most envied young core. A long profile of patience as a competitive advantage.
Why a top-paid WNBA salary is still a third of what a tenth man makes in the NBA — and what the next CBA negotiation, scheduled for late 2026, might do about it. With cap math, comparable-league benchmarks, and on-the-record players.
The places that built the W. Photographs of the original 1997 arenas — some still standing, some demolished, some renovated past recognition. Captioned by the players who broke them in.
How NBC won the Sunday-matinee window from ESPN—and why Disney let it go. The negotiation, the audience math, and the bet on appointment television in an on-demand era.
The strength coach who’s gone quietly from the Sparks weight room to the most-requested off-season trainer in the league. A profile of women’s-basketball performance training, told through the person players keep recommending to each other.