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Top 5 #Longreads of the Week: Featuring Sports Illustrated, GQ, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Guernica, plus a guest pick from Los Angeles Times staff writer Carolyn Kellogg.
Top 5 #Longreads of the Week: Featuring Sports Illustrated, GQ, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Guernica, plus a guest pick from Los Angeles Times staff writer Carolyn Kellogg.
The search for Clifton (Pop) Herring, Jordan’s high school coach, and the truth about the NBA legend’s early days:
And so, over the next four years, as Michael Jordan became an Olympic gold medalist, a rookie NBA All-Star and the scorer of 37 points per game, Pop Herring went from suspended to unemployed to unemployable. As Jordan’s fame spread around the world, his old coach became a stranger in their hometown. Pop took to running, as if trying to shake out the sickness. His slender frame was seen on highways and bridges, north toward the tobacco fields and east to the ocean. Sometimes he’d come upon old friends and hug them, and other times they would call his name and he would keep running, looking straight ahead, as if they didn’t exist.
“Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?” — Thomas Lake, Sports Illustrated
Featured Longreader: Washington Post reporter Josh du Lac. See his story picks from the Post, Sports Illustrated, and more on his longreads page.

Ben Cohen writes about sports for The Wall Street Journal. In 2011, he also published a Kindle Single and wrote for Grantland, The Classical, Tablet, The Awl and Yahoo! Sports. You can follow him on Twitter at @bzcohen.
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I don’t know that I can pinpoint exactly what it was about these stories that compelled me to re-read them, over and over, but I do know that you’ll find yourself doing the same. In any case, you don’t need me to explain how to enjoy these stories, or why you should adore them. They speak for themselves. So, in the spirit of the season: gifts that keep on giving!
“‘It’s Too Bad. And I Don’t Mean It’s Too Bad Like “Screw ‘Em”,’” Jessica Pressler, New York: Lloyd Blankfein goes to a diner.
“Welcome to the Far Eastern Conference,” Wells Tower, GQ: Starbury goes to China.
“The Hangover Part III,” Brett Martin, GQ: Aziz Ansari, David Chang and James Murphy go to Tokyo.
“The History and Mystery of the High-Five,” Jon Mooallem, ESPN The Magazine: Hand goes high.
“Why John Calipari Can’t Catch a Break,” S.L. Price, Sports Illustrated: Coach goes to Kentucky.
“It’s The Economy, Dummkopf!” Michael Lewis, Vanity Fair: Michael Lewis goes to Germany.
“Danny Meyer on a Roll,” Sean Wilsey, The New York Times Magazine: Restauranteur goes… everywhere?
“Jennifer Egan on Reaping Awards and Dodging Literary Feuds,” Boris Kachka, Vulture: Jennifer Egan goes to Brooklyn.
“The Confessions of a Former Adolescent Puck Tease,” Katie Baker, Deadspin: Teenager goes to the Internet.
“American Marvel,” Edith Zimmerman, GQ: I’m not sure who goes where, or when, or why, but what!
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See more lists from our Top 5 Longreads of 2011 >
Share your own Top 5 Longreads of 2011, all through December. Just tag it #longreads on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook.
Gangrey.com is a site dedicated to the practice of great newspaper and magazine storytelling.
Some of these picks make it seem like we like each other. We do, most of the time. But we’re also intense critics. We get together in the woods in Georgia one weekend each year to tear one another apart. Physical combat is not rare. It’s in that spirit that you’ll find some cross pollination in the picks below. You’ll also see some good stuff that hasn’t shown up on the Top 5 lists so far. That’s on purpose. Hope you enjoy, and please know you’re welcome to come join us for last call over at gangrey.com. Drinks are on Wright.
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Wright Thompson
Thompson is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine, and he lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
“A Brevard Woman Disappeared, But Never Left Home,” Michael Kruse, St. Petersburg Times
“You Blow My Mind. Hey, Mickey!” John Jeremiah Sullivan, New York Times Magazine
“The View From Within,” Seth Wickersham, ESPN The Magazine
“Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America?” Tom Junod, Esquire
“The Real Lesson of the Tucson Tragedy,” David Von Drehle, Time
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Justin Heckert
Heckert is a writer living in Atlanta.
“The Apostate” by Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker
”The Bomb That Didn’t Go Off,” Charles P. Pierce, Esquire
“Could Conjoined Twins Share a Mind?” Susan Dominus, New York Times Magazine
“A Brevard Woman Disappeared, but Never Left Home”, by Michael Kruse, St. Petersburg Times
“Staying the Course”, Wright Thompson, ESPN
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Thomas Lake
Lake is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated living in Atlanta.
“A Brevard Woman Disappeared, But Never Left Home,” Michael Kruse, St. Petersburg Times
“True Grits,” Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker (sub. required)
“Diving Headlong Into A Sunny Paradise,” Lane DeGregory, St. Petersburg Times
“Could This Be Happening? A Man’s Nightmare Made Real,” Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times
“When A Diver Goes Missing, A Deep Cave Is Scene Of A Deeper Mystery,” Ben Montgomery, St. Petersburg Times
“The Beards Are A Joke,” Justin Heckert, Atlanta Magazine, April 2011
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Mark Johnson
Johnson is a 2010 Pulitzer winner who covers health and science for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and once played guitar for a Rockford, Ill., grunge band called The Bloody Stumps.
“Watching the Murder of an Innocent Man,” Barry Bearak, New York Times Magazine
“Punched Out,” John Branch, New York Times
“The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist,” Rich Schapiro, Wired
“Imminent Danger,” Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Diving headlong into a sunny paradise,” Lane DeGregory, St. Petersburg Times
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Michael Kruse
Kruse, a staff writer at the St. Petersburg Times and contributing writer to ESPN’s Grantland, won this year’s ASNE award for distinguished non-deadline writing.
“The Lost Boys” Skip Hollandsworth, Texas Monthly
The easiest-to-read hardest thing I read this year.
“The Lazarus File,” Matthew McGough, The Atlantic
Simple: suspense and surprise.
“You Blow My Mind. Hey, Mickey!” John Jeremiah Sullivan, The New York Times Magazine
My first reaction when I read this? Jealousy and awe. And when I read it a second time? And a third? Same.
“A man’s nightmare made real,” Chris Goffard, the Los Angeles Times
Riveting. The work of a master.
“God’s Away on Business,” Spencer Hall, Every Day Should Be Saturday
George Teague, college football and big thoughts.
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Ben Montgomery
Montgomery is an enterprise reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, and he lives in Tampa.
“If I Die Young,” Lane DeGregory, St. Petersburg Times
“The Guiltless Pleasure,” Rick Bragg, Gourmet
“A Lot To Lose,” Tony Rehagen, Indianapolis Monthly
“The Shepard’s Lamb,” Danielle Paquette, Indiana University Daily Student
“Voice of America,” by Coozledad, rurritable
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See more lists from our Top 5 Longreads of 2011 >
Share your own Top 5 Longreads of 2011, all through December. Just tag it #longreads on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook.

Geoff Van Dyke is deputy editor of 5280 Magazine in Denver. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Outside, and Men’s Journal.
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• “The Food at our Feet,” by Jane Kramer, The New Yorker
Kramer can almost make you smell and taste the stuff she’s picking: mint, asparagus, fennel, mushrooms. Plus, maybe my favorite lead sentence of the year: “I spent the summer foraging, like an early hominid with clothes.”
• “The Kill Team,” by Mark Boal, Rolling Stone
The disturbing investigation into an Army unit in Afghanistan that was killing civilians for sport.
• “Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts,” by Jonathan Franzen, New York Times
I kind of didn’t want to like this piece, but Franzen’s assessment of “consumer technology products,” and our fraught relationships with them, feels right on.
• “The Day that Damned the Dodgers,” by Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated
As a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan, it was heartbreaking to read this chronicle of how the Giants’ greatest rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have gone from one of the most respected organizations in sports to one of the most dysfunctional.
• “What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn?” by Edward Jay Epstein, The New York Review of Books
A fascinating investigation that suggests Dominique Strauss-Kahn was set up, perhaps even by people associated with French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
BONUS
Pretty much anything by Charles P. Pierce at Grantland, but especially his piece on the beginning of the end of NCAA sports and his unflinching essay on Jerry Sandusky and Penn State.
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See more lists from our Top 5 Longreads of 2011 >
Share your own Top 5 Longreads of 2011, all through December. Just tag it #longreads on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook.
Featured Longreader: Lou Dubois, social media editor for NBC Philadelphia. See his story picks from The Guardian, Boing Boing, Sports Illustrated and more on his #longreads page.
Doyle approached him and said, “Do you know there’s a retired number in Williams football?”
“Williams doesn’t retire numbers,” Quinn replied.
“Apparently it does,” Doyle said.
On the Monday after that game Quinn called Boyer and asked, “Williams has a retired football number?”
“I don’t know about retired,” Boyer said, “but there’s this box down here.
Doyle approached him and said, “Do you know there’s a retired number in Williams football?”
“Williams doesn’t retire numbers,” Quinn replied.
“Apparently it does,” Doyle said.
On the Monday after that game Quinn called Boyer and asked, “Williams has a retired football number?”
“I don’t know about retired,” Boyer said, “but there’s this box down here.
It’s been two autumns now since Russell last played a down of organized football. This fall, when capable quarterbacks have been in high demand and short supply, he’s gotten no calls. The Raiders lost his successor, Jason Campbell, to a broken collarbone on Oct. 16, and last week they acquired 31-year-old Carson Palmer, who had chosen to retire rather than play for the Bengals. Oakland sent Cincinnati a first-round pick in 2012 and a conditional second-rounder in ‘13, and will pay him a guaranteed $7.5 million over the next two years. Yet Russell still counts himself among Mobile’s legion of unemployed.
“The Man Who Isn’t There.” — L. Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated
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