Great reads

The Sports Illustrated issue (May 24, 2010) is one of the best issues this year from cover to cover. The main feature are the World Cup stories written by Grant Wahl (The Beckham Experiment) where he profiles Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba, Brazil's Kaka and they more serious game as espoused by Dunga, and USA's Clint Dempsey. The photo feature on different countries reminds me of what Der Speigel did for the 2006 World Cup. The photography is nonetheless good.

The feature on Drogba is especially riveting as Wahl depicts a man who through a simple game can change the fortunes of his country that has been wracked by civil war. If you saw Invictus then you'll know what I mean. Reading through the special features, I thought SI and Wahl nearly scored a game winner here except for the fact that he calls the game "soccer." C'mon, Grant. That's why the US hasn't really won anything. You can't even call the game right. Still that's just a wee bit nitpicking. Is it? Hahaha.

What I like about the mag now are the new gen SI writers. Only SL Price (his feature on Justine Henin is probably the best written about this enigmatic tennis player) is the only one left who's been around. Well, there's Phil Taylor who has taken the back page column from Selena Roberts (thank God she's out). Lee Jenkins has a great feature on Grant Hill while Albert Chen gives props to what Nolan Ryan is doing over at Texas with the Rangers. Thank God, someone noticed. Old school noveau!

Another mainstream mag with World Cup features is this month's Reader's Digest.

On the subject of magazines, SLAM has His Airness on the cover again! Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun Times and a Chicago Bulls beat writer contributed a story. Telander in case you're not familiar wrote one of the best basketball books ever Heaven Is A Playground. A tome about inner city hoops that has been reprinted once more. I saw a copy in Border's in Orchard Road. So if you're in the Lion City, you might want to pick this up. I think Telander eventually wrote a sequel and a movie was made based on the original book.

Telander also wrote Year of the Bull (about the 1996 NBA champs) and did the intro for the Chicago's 1998 championship video.