The SportsThink Weekly Read #2

October 15, 2021

The SportsThink Weekly Read highlights my favorite sport-related article of the week. On the last Friday of each month, I send out the Monthly Review, a longer digest of readings and other content of interest. Most articles are recently published, but some are not; the only rule is that I’ve read them within the past week (or the past month, in the case of the Monthly Review). Some are relevant to my day job as a professor teaching courses on the business, history, and philosophy of sports. Others are just plain interesting, relevant to my life-long obsession with the games we play. The newsletter is free, but comes with two requests. 1. I’m always open to suggestions, so send me the good stuff that you read! 2. If you enjoy the newsletter, please share it with other folks who might enjoy it as well. Finally, I try to focus on non-paywalled writing, but if you find yourself unable to access anything, just hit reply to the email and I’ll do my best to get you a copy. Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Read

He Rose to the Highest Levels of Business and Basketball—but With a Secret, by Howard Beck, via Sports Illustrated. A profile of Jordan Brand chairman, Larry Miller. As the title suggests, Miller has achieved great heights in the business of sports, but hid the biggest of secrets for the entirety of his professional life. Until now. A piece that confronts the darkness and goodness of humanity all at once; perhaps a bit challenging on an instinctual level, but worth your time. I briefly met Miller via Zoom earlier this year, when he served as a panelist for the Long Game Conference I hosted at UT. I found him to be kind and thoughtful and he was generous with his time and remarks as a panelist. For whatever it’s worth, I’d have him back.

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As always, thanks for reading!

See you next week,

Tolga