Sports Illustrated March 2023

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THE POINTS that broke the NBA’s most hallowed record came on a shot no one uses, in a gym built for college games, in a city with no NBA team, with just one league official present to commemorate the feat and a fledgling cable network there to broadcast it. The moment was magical, emotional… and over within minutes, hoops taking precedence over hoopla. Yes, dear reader, 1984 was a different time. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a towering figure, in every sense, when he swished the skyhook that lifted him past Wilt Chamberlain as the sport’s all-time scoring leader on April 5 of that year. But the NBA itself was smaller, less glitzy, less boisterous, less self-promotional, less everything than the league of today. As LeBron James closed in on Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring total (38,387 points)…

ONLY ONE PLAYER has won the Heisman Trophy more than once: Ohio State RB Archie Griffin, who went back to back in 1974 and ’75. So while history doesn’t favor Caleb Williams (below) in his quest to repeat, just about everything else does. The USC quarterback has the shortest futures odds, at +350, and with good reason: Only four times since 2000 has a signal-caller not won the award. And his coach, Lincoln Riley, has turned out three winners in the last six years. If you’re looking for a value bet, consider Oregon’s Bo Nix at +1100. The QB put up great numbers (3,593 yards, 28 TDs) after transferring from Auburn. And Sam Hartman is a good long shot, at +1400. The sixth-year senior shone at Wake Forest and will now…

READ SINCE ROCKY premiered in 1976, the iconic boxing franchise has produced eight sequels or spin-offs. The latest, Creed III, is the first film in the series that doesn’t feature Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa (though Sly serves as one of its producers). That puts the focus of the movie—which opens March 3—squarely on the character of Adonis Creed, who is portrayed by Michael B. Jordan, the film’s director. The 36-year-old recently talked to Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix about taking on new responsibility and what the future might hold. Sports Illustrated: This is your first gig as a director. Why did you want to do it? Michael B. Jordan: It really started during the process of finding a director for Creed II. [Producer] Irwin Winkler suggested I direct the next one. During Creed…

It has been more than a decade since EA Sports pulled the plug on its Fight Night franchise. “Probably got tired of dealing with fighter contracts,” says Todd Grisham, vice president of global acquisitions for Undisputed, the new boxing video game that soft-launched last month. Boxing has no centralized league. To use a fighter’s likeness, Grisham had to sign each individually. With more than 200 under contract, says Grisham, “We’re ready to rock.” Undisputed is the brainchild of Ash Habib, a British systems engineer. In 2020, Habib was internet surfing for a new boxing game. Finding none—EA’s last version is from 2011—he set out to build his own, forming partnerships with leading boxing brands like CompuBox and The Ring magazine. Authenticity was prioritized. “So Tyson Fury doesn’t fight like Timothy Bradley,”…

SADLY, GONE are the days when spring training included players willingly contorting themselves in ridiculous poses for photographers. In March 1955, Sports Illustrated sent Mark Kauffman to St. Petersburg, Fla., to photograph the Cardinals at their camp. Kauffman got in on the act, snapping a shot of the Redbirds’ outfielders leaping in the air. (That’s future major league manager Bill Virdon on the far left and Hall of Famer Stan Musial on the far right.) But Kauffman didn’t just focus on the players; he made sure to include his fellow shooters, giving more context to the somewhat ridiculous scene. In 1954, Kauffman gave SI its first cover; with this shot, he gave the magazine its its first meta cover. [FULL FRAME] To receive the Full Frame newsletter in your inbox every other week,…