"Kareem, after the game, remarked that he would pay to see Doctor J make that play against someone else. Kareem's remark clouds the issue, however, because the play was as much his as it was Erving's, since it was Kareem's perfect defense that made Erving's instantaneous, pluperfect response to it both necessary and possible—thus the joy, because everyone behaved perfectly, eloquently, with mutual respect, and something magic happened—thus the joy, at the triumph of civil society in an act that was clearly the product of talent and will accommodating itself to liberating rules." This is phenomenal writing.

"Still, if you're going to watch a pair of zombies go at each other for eleventy-billion hours, far into the night, it might as well be these zombies. They were incredible, astonishing, indefatigable. They fell over frequently but they never stayed down. My hat goes off to these zombies. Possibly my head goes off to them too." Xan Brooks' live coverage of Isner-Mahut. Some great writing in there.

"I may not hear the Rocky theme song, or see the sunset anywhere, but for me, this may be a sort of conclusion." Delightful Murakami article on running.

Forty+ years of Sports Illustrated, all under one roof online, and free. Worth it for the photography alone, even if you're not a sportsfan.