ESPN

How executive Jeff David stole $13 million from the Sacramento Kings.

Over 17 years ago, Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins’ mom Sabrina Greenlee went blind after her boyfriend’s jealous girlfriend tossed acid in her face. After the assault, Greenlee avoided attending her son’s games, fearing people staring at her disfigurement. Today, she never misses a Texans home game from her spot in the end zone, where Hopkins’ sisters whisper game color commentary into her ear.

“It’s like finding out the Wizard of Oz is only this guy behind the curtain, and instead of getting courage, a heart or a brain, you found out he was a child predator and abused you 40 years ago.”

Tom Junod reflects on his father’s gambling habit: “…he made people think he was a gangster when really he was just a mark.”

In her fight to end sexual abuse, the Olympic champion is challenging the very institutions she led to glory.

Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, elevated both his team and America’s sport to all-time highs, but in this age of athlete protests and declining owner influence, can an individual with Jones’ stature—and arrogance—exist within modern-day football? Inside the growing crisis between Jones, commissioner Roger Goodell, and the NFL.

A compelling argument: Home teams are losing their advantage in the NBA because visiting players are partying less. ESPN’s Tom Haberstroh suggests players are using dating apps like Tinder to hook up without going to a club (and get more sleep), and they’re more serious about the detrimental effects of alcohol on physical performance.

On how the lowly peanut butter and jelly sandwich fuelled the 2007-08 Boston Celtics to an NBA title, becoming the sweet and salty stuff of superstitious sport legend that has since spread like an addiction across the league.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ president and owner, Jeanie Buss, is running the franchise the way she believes her father, Dr. Jerry Buss, intended, but off the court, the siblings who inherited stakes in the team from their father are playing some strong offense.

Musher and Ironman athlete Katherine Keith has known pain and suffering: her daughter died as an infant and first her husband was killed in a plane crash ferrying a neighbor to emergency medical attention in Alaska. Not one to allow grief and adversity to defeat her, Keith won the Yukon Quest’s Rookie of the Year award, placing seventh in the 1,000-mile dog sled race.