Read & explore
Basketball stories & guides
Learn how the game works, then explore the teams, players and moments that give its records meaning.
A place to begin
Find the story behind the game
Start with the rules, examine a champion, or revisit a game. Each route connects an explanation to the records and further reading.
01 · 3 min read
Understand the season
Learn what a game changes: the standings, a playoff place or a series.
How the NBA Season Works: From Opening Night to the Finals →
02 · 3 min read
Read a team beyond its trophies
Use the 2004 Pistons to examine a roster, a playoff route and the evidence behind a reputation.
How to Read a Championship Team: The 2004 Detroit Pistons →
03 · 3 min read
Look inside a famous game
Meet the college teams behind the Magic–Bird headline, using the 1979 final's game record.
Magic, Bird and the 1979 Final: The Game Behind the Rivalry →
Understand the game
Rules, awards and ways to read a team. Each guide starts with a question you can use while watching.
NBA
How to Read an NBA Box Score Without Losing the Game
Guide · NBA
How to Read an NBA Box Score Without Losing the Game
Turn a stat line into useful questions: read shooting splits, check a scoring total and understand why minutes and plus-minus need context.
3 min read
NCAA Women
From College to the WNBA: Women's Basketball's Two Stages
Guide · NCAA Women
From College to the WNBA: Women's Basketball's Two Stages
How the NCAA tournament and the WNBA draft connect — told through Tina Thompson, Candace Parker and Breanna Stewart.
2 min read
NBA
How the NBA Season Works: From Opening Night to the Finals
Guide · NBA
How the NBA Season Works: From Opening Night to the Finals
Follow the NBA from standings to the Finals: what the Cup changes, how the play-in works and why a seven-game series can finish in four.
3 min read
NBA
MVP vs. Finals MVP: What Each Award Really Measures
Guide · NBA
MVP vs. Finals MVP: What Each Award Really Measures
One award covers a whole regular season, the other a single series. How the NBA's two most famous individual honors differ — and why the same player often wins neither, one or both.
2 min read
NBA
How to Read a Championship Team: The 2004 Detroit Pistons
Guide · NBA
How to Read a Championship Team: The 2004 Detroit Pistons
Detroit's 2004 title is a case study in roster construction, defensive evidence and the limits of a final score. Four questions for reading a champion.
3 min read
ABA
The Three-Point Line: How One Arc Changed Basketball
Guide · ABA
The Three-Point Line: How One Arc Changed Basketball
Born in rebel leagues, tried by the NBA on a one-year trial, moved in and back out again. The story of the three-point line and the distances behind it.
2 min read
WNBA
A Beginner's Guide to the WNBA
Guide · WNBA
A Beginner's Guide to the WNBA
When the season runs, how many teams there are, how the draft and the Finals work — and which stories to read first.
2 min read
Explore the stories by league
NBA
NBA
1999
The 1999 Spurs: A First Championship in an Unusual Season
NBA · June 25, 1999
The 1999 Spurs: A First Championship in an Unusual Season
A shortened schedule, a dominant playoff run and a one-point clincher: how to understand San Antonio's first NBA title on the terms of its own season.
3 min read
NBA · 1956–1969
Eleven Rings: Bill Russell and the Art of Winning
Eleven championships in thirteen seasons, the last two as the NBA's first Black head coach. How Bill Russell redefined what a great player is for.
4 min read
NBA · June 2016
Down 3–1: How the 2016 Cavaliers Pulled Off the Greatest Finals Comeback
Against a 73–9 Golden State team, Cleveland faced elimination three straight times. The block, the shot and the stop that ended a 52-year drought.
4 min read
NBA · June 14, 1998
The Last Shot: Michael Jordan's Final Act in Chicago
A steal, a crossover and a jumper with 5.2 seconds left. How Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals sealed the Bulls' second three-peat and ended a dynasty.
3 min read
NBA · January 22, 2006
81: Kobe Bryant's Night of Total Offense
Down 18 to the Toronto Raptors, the Lakers needed something. Kobe Bryant gave them 55 points in the second half alone. Inside one of the greatest scoring games ever played.
3 min read
NBA · June 2013 & June 2014
From Heartbreak to the Beautiful Game: The Spurs, the Heat and Two Finals
Ray Allen's corner three snatched the 2013 title from San Antonio. A year later, the Spurs answered with some of the best team basketball the Finals have ever seen.
4 min read
NBA
1962
100: The Night Wilt Chamberlain Broke Basketball
NBA · March 2, 1962
100: The Night Wilt Chamberlain Broke Basketball
No television cameras, barely 4,000 fans and a game in a chocolate town. How Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points — and why nobody has come close since.
4 min read
ABA
WNBA
WNBA · 1997–2000
Four for Four: The Houston Comets and the WNBA's First Dynasty
The WNBA's first four championships all went to one team. How Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson built a dynasty — and why the Comets no longer exist.
3 min read
WNBA · 2001–2002
Lisa Leslie, the Sparks and the First Dunk in WNBA History
Back-to-back titles, a historic dunk in 2002 and a career that helped define the early WNBA. The story of Lisa Leslie and the Los Angeles Sparks.
3 min read
NCAA Men
NCAA Men
1964–75
Ten Titles in Twelve Years: John Wooden's UCLA Dynasty
NCAA Men · 1964–1975
Ten Titles in Twelve Years: John Wooden's UCLA Dynasty
Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, an 88-game winning streak and a coach who started every season by teaching players how to put on their socks. A defining dynasty in men’s college basketball.
3 min read
NCAA Men · March 28, 1992
2.1 Seconds: Christian Laettner's Shot and the Greatest College Game Ever Played
A perfect shooting night, a 75-foot pass and a turnaround jumper at the buzzer. Duke vs. Kentucky in the 1992 East Regional final, minute by minute.
4 min read
NCAA Men · March 26, 1979
Magic, Bird and the 1979 Final: The Game Behind the Rivalry
Michigan State ended Indiana State's unbeaten season in 1979. The box score explains why the final deserves to be remembered as more than Magic against Bird.
3 min read
NCAA Men
1983
Survive and Advance: NC State's Impossible 1983 Run
NCAA Men · April 4, 1983
Survive and Advance: NC State's Impossible 1983 Run
A team with ten losses, a coach who believed in miracles and a final-second dunk against Phi Slama Jama. The story behind the most famous upset in NCAA championship history.
4 min read
NCAA Men · March 19, 1966
Texas Western 1966: The Championship That Changed College Basketball
Five Black starters against Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky. How a small school from El Paso won the 1966 national title and helped open the sport.
4 min read
NCAA Women
NCAA Women · 1974–2012
The Stare: Pat Summitt and the Making of Tennessee Basketball
She started coaching at 22 and finished with eight national titles and 1,098 wins. How Pat Summitt built Tennessee into a powerhouse and changed women's sports.
4 min read
NCAA Women · 2014–2017
111 Straight: Inside UConn's Unbeatable Streak
For more than two years, the UConn women did not lose a game. How Geno Auriemma's program built the NCAA Division I winning-streak record — and how it finally ended.
3 min read
Team USA
Team USA · Summer 1992
The Dream Team: How Barcelona 1992 Changed Basketball Forever
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and nine more legends on one roster. Why the 1992 U.S. Olympic team was assembled, how it played, and what it left behind.
4 min read
Team USA · August 24, 2008
The Redeem Team: How USA Basketball Rebuilt Itself for Beijing 2008
After a bronze in Athens and another at the World Championship, American basketball had to start over. The plan, the players and the gold medal game against Spain.
3 min read