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In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis is joined by Shea Serrano and Marcus Thompson to talk about the opening weekend of the NBA playoffs, whether the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers should be worried, and the burgeoning stardom of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Stefan and Josh Levin interview Nick Elam, a middle-school principal with a radical idea to fix basketball’s pedestrian endgame. Stefan and Christina Cauterucci talk to Becca Roux—the head of the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s players association—about the team’s new collective-bargaining agreement. Finally, Stefan talks about the Barkley Marathons, a grueling ultramarathon through the Tennessee mountains with no marked trails, no official start time, and sometimes no finishers that pushes competitors to the physical and mental brink.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- Follow Shea Serrano and Marcus Thompson on Twitter.
- Marcus’ new book, Golden: the Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, was published last week.
- Shea’s book, Basketball (and Other Things), comes out in October.
- Marcus’s column on the Golden State Warriors’ Game 1 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
- The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor looks at whether LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers teammates are an impediment to his hopes of a seventh straight NBA Finals appearance.
- FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver on whether the Cavs are overrated or underrated.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 28 points in the Milwaukee Bucks’ upset of the Toronto Raptors.
- ESPN’s Zach Lowe named Giannis his 2017 Most Improved Player.
- Jay Caspian Kang wrote about Giannis’ modern star potential for the New York Times Magazine in January.
- Zach Lowe’s ESPN article on Nick Elam’s proposal to fix NBA crunch time.
- The Basketball Tournament is showcasing the Elam Ending.
- The USWNT Players Association hired Becca Roux as its interim executive director in February.
- The New York Times story on the hard-fought negotiations between the women’s national team and the U.S. Soccer Federation.
- Read more about the women’s team’s new collective-bargaining agreement in the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and the Nation.
- The agreement comes on the heels of the United States women’s hockey team’s threatened boycott and resulting deal with USA Hockey.
- The hockey team received unprecedented support from the players associations of men’s sports leagues.
- The 2015 documentary The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young.
- In Deadspin, Sarah Barker wrote about “the brutality of the Barkley” and the trauma at this year’s finish.
- A video of the end of the race.
- Canadian runner Gary Robbins wrote a blog post on his heartbreaking finish.
- Robbins wrote a longer race report after his 2016 attempt.
- John Kelly, the lone finisher of this year’s race, wrote a brief report on completing the Barkley and running with Robbins.
- Leslie Jamison’s 2012 feature on the Barkley in the Believer.
- Sara Estes profiled Barkley founder Gary Cantrell in the Bitter Southerner last year.*
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Stefan talks with Marcus Thompson about Marcus’ new book Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry.
Podcast production and edit by Patrick Fort.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.
*Correction, April 26, 2017: Due to a production error, this page originally misspelled Sara Estes’ first name. (Return.)
