People & Stories
The human side of the game — profiles, comebacks, rivalries and the people behind the players. Data-driven narratives built to be read long after the result.
- Feature26 Aug 2026
Yao Ming: the bridge between two basketball worlds
A 7-foot-6 center from Shanghai became the NBA's number one pick, an eight-time All-Star, and something bigger than a player — the doorway through which a billion new fans found the game.
- Feature26 Aug 2026
The Miracle of Istanbul: Liverpool's impossible comeback
Three-nil down at half-time to the best team in Europe, Liverpool did something no one had ever done in a Champions League final — and turned one night into legend.
- Unsung Heroes26 Aug 2026
Red Auerbach: the architect of a dynasty
He lit a cigar when the win was certain and built the greatest dynasty in NBA history from the bench and the front office — a mastermind whose boldest moves were about people, not plays.
- Legends26 Aug 2026
Johan Cruyff: player and prophet
He was the finest footballer of his era and then, remarkably, its most influential thinker — a man whose ideas still shape how the best teams in the world play.
- Unsung Heroes26 Aug 2026
Herbert Chapman: the man who modernised football
A manager from the 1920s and 30s dreamed up ideas so far ahead of his time — from tactics to floodlights to shirt numbers — that we still live inside them today.
- Debates26 Aug 2026
El Clásico: more than a match
Barcelona against Real Madrid is the most watched club game on earth — but its real intensity comes from a century of history, identity and politics packed into ninety minutes.
- Debates26 Aug 2026
Celtics vs Lakers: the NBA's greatest rivalry
The two most successful franchises in basketball have met in the Finals more than any other pair — a coast-to-coast feud that has defined era after era.
- Legends26 Aug 2026
Bill Russell: the ultimate winner
Eleven championships in thirteen seasons made him the greatest winner in team sport — but Bill Russell's fight off the court may be the more important legacy.
- Feature26 Aug 2026
The Class of '92: the kids who won everything
A pundit sneered that you could not win anything with kids. A group of Manchester United academy graduates spent the next decade proving him gloriously wrong.
- Unsung Heroes26 Aug 2026
Tex Winter: the architect behind two dynasties
He wasn't the head coach and he never wore the crown, but the old assistant with a system in his head shaped the offences that carried Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to eleven titles.
- Legends26 Aug 2026
Ronaldo Nazário: the phenomenon who fell and rose again
For a few years the original Ronaldo was the most frightening striker alive. Then his knees betrayed him — and his comeback became one of football's great redemption stories.
- Feature26 Aug 2026
Muggsy Bogues: the 5-foot-3 giant of the NBA
In a league built for giants, the shortest player in NBA history lasted fourteen seasons — not despite his size, but by turning it into a weapon.
- Debates26 Aug 2026
Maradona vs Pelé: the debate before the debate
Long before Messi and Ronaldo, football argued about two other names — a Brazilian who won everything and an Argentine who dragged an ordinary team to glory almost alone.
- Legends26 Aug 2026
Kobe Bryant and the Mamba Mentality
Twenty seasons, five titles and an obsession with getting better that outlived his playing days — the story of a competitor who turned relentlessness into a philosophy.
- Debates26 Aug 2026
Bird vs Magic: the rivalry that saved the NBA
A cold-eyed forward from Indiana and a beaming point guard from Michigan spent the 1980s at each other's throats — and in doing so, pulled pro basketball out of crisis.
- Unsung Heroes26 Aug 2026
Arrigo Sacchi: the shoe salesman who reinvented football
He never played the game professionally, and critics said that disqualified him. Then his AC Milan tore up Italian caution and changed how the whole world thinks about defending.
- Legends26 Aug 2026
Zinedine Zidane: genius and fire
The most elegant midfielder of his generation carried both a magician's touch and a volcanic temper — and became, improbably, one of the great managers too.
- Unsung Heroes26 Aug 2026
The napkin that signed Messi: the scout who bet on a tiny kid
Before the eight Ballons d'Or there was a 13-year-old with a growth disorder, a doubtful boardroom, and a Barcelona official who guaranteed a contract on the only paper he had — a napkin.
- Feature26 Aug 2026
The 1992 Dream Team: the greatest team ever assembled
For the first time the NBA sent its superstars to the Olympics, and the result wasn't a competition — it was a coronation that carried basketball to the world.
- Debates26 Aug 2026
Messi vs Ronaldo: the rivalry that defined an era
For over a decade two players lapped the rest of football and dragged each other higher. Not a question of who was better, but of what their duel gave the game.