The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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IF YOU DON’T KNOW KEEGAN MURRAY YET, YOU WILL SOON ENOUGH

Keegan Murray calls for the ball. A sweat stain lines the back of his gray shirt. He’s been shooting jumper after jumper in a gym about 10 minutes away from downtown Chicago. Midrange off the dribble. Five spots of 3s. Jab left and pull up. He often won’t move to the next spot until he executes each drill perfectly. Until each release feels just right. It’s drizzling outside on this late-April morning. The sky is a deep gray-blue. A park sits across the street. This unassuming gym, which has a sign near its entrance that reads “To whom much is given, much will be required,” is where he’s been training for this week’s NBA combine in Chicago. Murray is one of the most intriguing participants in attendance. He leapfrogged from a barely recruited prep to a superstar sophomore at Iowa, to a projected lottery NBA pick in next month’s draft. Some mock drafts even have him projected to be a top-five pick.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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THE DRIVE BEHIND JABARI SMITH JR.

It was pitch black outside, but Jabari Smith Jr. didn’t need to see. He just needed to feel. His feet knew where to jump, his arms knew when to pump. It was 5:30 in the morning, an hour before Jabari, then in eighth grade, was supposed to wake up to get ready for school. But something tugged at him to hop out of bed and jump rope outside his home. To push himself harder. His mother, Taneskia Purnell, didn’t realize what was happening at first; she kept hearing a loud, persistent noise. It was cold when she went outside and found him, wiry body bouncing up and down, rope whipping in the wind. She wished he would let himself sleep just a little bit longer. But he was too determined. Too awake. “I’m OK, Mama. Don’t worry,” he told her. “I’m OK.”

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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There’s Heartbreak Behind Puka Nacua’s Sudden Rise to NFL Stardom

The words replay in Puka Nacua’s head, again and again: “I … AM … SPEED. “I … AM … SPEED. “I … AM … SPEED.” He borrowed the mantra from Lightning McQueen, the underdog rookie from Cars, and has repeated it to himself before every Los Angeles Rams game this season, convincing himself that he belongs on this NFL stage, despite falling to the fifth round of the draft in part because he ran too slowly in the 40-yard dash.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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The Twins Who Went From “Best-Kept Secrets” to Likely NBA Lottery Picks

Ausar Thompson is finding his rhythm. It’s just shy of 8:30 a.m., and he’s launching midrange jumpers, slowly inching back to the 3-point line. His workout hasn’t officially begun, but he’s already laser focused, tracking each make and miss. He wakes with that kind of concentration, telling himself before sunrise: “You’re not going to stop once in this workout.” On this morning in January, he makes good on his promise. Pat Quinn, his shooting coach, fires him crisp chest pass after crisp chest pass, and Ausar bends low, releasing shot after shot, finishing each with a silky follow-through.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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Amid the Women’s Basketball Boom, What Has Happened to the NBA’s Female Coaching Pipeline?

Jenny Boucek is huddled over her laptop, engrossed in game film. It’s a Friday morning in early April, and Boucek, an assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers, is analyzing clip after clip, hours before the team’s game against Oklahoma City later that night. She combs through statistical reports, hardly stopping for a beat to rest. Each hour is meticulously planned, and the morning quickly blurs into afternoon. Then she’s hustling through an on-court prep session at 2:20 p.m., meeting with her fellow coaches at 2:50, heading into a team meeting at 3:50, then back to the court for individual workouts at 5. After the game, a 126-112 Pacers win, she breaks down film and edits video late into the night, preparing not just for the next day’s practice, but also for Sunday’s game against Miami. Boucek is the defensive mastermind for a Pacers team that’s currently down 3-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Knicks. She’s responsible for in-game defensive decision-making and is constantly orchestrating split-second adjustments.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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Andrej Stojakovic Is Paving His Own Path to the NBA

A cacophony of whistles, buzzers, and sneaker squeaks permeates throughout a nine-court gym. A teenager with a familiar last name and a silver cross dangling from his neck clutches a basketball in one corner, far from the horde of cameras clicking across the court. He can see some of his Compton Magic teammates jockeying to get into the frame on this mid-May morning in Anaheim, California. The teen, standing a gangly 6-foot-7, doesn’t seem to hear any of it. He dribbles side to side, staring ahead. He doesn’t break a smile, doesn’t say a word. He is keenly aware that he’s in the spotlight. People know his name. Now they want to see if he’s any good, especially since he recently picked up scholarship offers from Kentucky, Kansas, and UCLA. Sometimes it takes referees a second to figure out who he is: “Stojakovic …” one will say. “Why do I know that name?”

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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Isiah Pacheco Is Running for Much More Than Super Bowl Glory

Before every game, Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco takes a moment to himself, bowing his head and saying a quick prayer for his late siblings, Celeste Cannon and Travoise Cannon. They are always with him. Before the game. During the game. After the game. In his heart, his mind. He thinks about them often—and if they could see him now. See how far he’s come since he lost them.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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Yunus Musah Is From Many Places, but Just Found His Home

Yunus Musah didn’t quite know how to answer people when they asked him variations of the same question. Where are you from? He was 16 years old, a budding football prodigy who had just left Arsenal’s academy to join Valencia CF in Spain’s La Liga in 2019, when the queries seemed to peak. He was suddenly out of his comfort zone, away from everything he knew. His world was moving quickly. He’d pause a second, trying to gather his thoughts. Of course, he knew the literal answer.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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ASHTON JEANTY’S LONG RUN TO COLLEGE FOOTBALL SUPERSTARDOM

For miles and miles, Ashton Jeanty peered out the window of the team bus, watching the European countryside float past him. It was 2018, and Jeanty was a ninth grader on the Naples Middle/High School Wildcats football team, traveling with his teammates from their small Italian farmland town of Gricignano Di Aversa, on the outskirts of Naples, to play a game in Spangdahlem, Germany. This particular bus trip would take 18 hours—one way. But for Jeanty, who had moved to Italy with his family two years earlier, it was thrilling to pass through Austria, Switzerland, France, and so many unfamiliar places, where a kaleidoscope of cultures awaited him. “You’re blessed,” Jeanty’s mother, Pamela, would tell him. “Some adults save their whole lives to get to see Europe.” The Wildcats team was made up of international students and American teenagers like Jeanty, the children of military families who lived near the U.S. Naval Support Activity Naples base, and they mostly competed against other American military schools. They flew to Spain to play, and once, on a football trip to Belgium, they had to walk an hour to meet their bus because a marathon in Brussels had closed streets and snarled traffic near the airport.

The Ringer by Mirin Fader
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Book Richardson is out of prison but he doesn’t feel free

When Richardson is in this mode, black dry-erase marker in hand, jotting down notes on the board, he feels most whole, most alive. Coaching, hooping, losing himself in the rhythm of a play. “He’s so passionate about what he does,” says 14-year-old Elijah Novotny, one of Richardson’s players. “I can just feel his energy.” It’s in these moments, Richardson says, that he forgets he’s coaching middle schoolers. It’s almost as if he’s back on the Division I court, back at the University of Arizona, where he served as an assistant coach from 2009 to 2017. He was known in college basketball circles as one of the top recruiters in the country, and he regularly helped his teams land top-10 recruiting classes. While in Tucson as part of Sean Miller’s staff, Richardson helped continue the Wildcats’ winning tradition; he was part of five Sweet 16s, three Elite Eights, four Pac-12 regular-season championships, and a pair of Pac-12 tournament titles. Sometimes, when he’s alone on the Gauchos’ court, long after his players have gone home, Richardson turns off the lights and imagines himself in another time, another place. Before the FBI investigation. Before he lost his job, his career, and his sense of identity. For a moment, his shame dissipates, and he allows himself to dream. “I find myself back on the college bench,” he says. “I find myself back in the college locker room. I find myself trying to get to a Final Four.”