Any driven athlete—any serious physicist or philosopher, for that matter—will tell you there is no such thing as perfection: there is only the ongoing pursuit of an ideal. In “The Perfect Issue,” ESPN The Magazine investigates not only what perfection is, but also how (if at all) it has been accomplished in sports over the years. Top pros Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Jimmie Johnson, Charles Woodson and Maya Moore all weigh in on what perfection means to them in “Meditations on Perfection.”
Also in “The Perfect Issue,” on newsstands tomorrow, The Mag writer Chad Millman looks at the perfect sports-betting tool: the Buckeye Database. “A Database of Dreams” features this pricey, exclusive gambler’s gem that provides statistical data for every NFL and college football game dating back to 1980, and every NBA and college basketball game to 1990.
PLUS… In ESPN The Magazine’s back-of-the-book poll, “Scale of 1 to 10,” athletes answer the question, “Did you pursue the right sport?”
- Carmelo Anthony, Nuggets: “Five. Sometimes I wish I had played baseball. I would have been a good pitcher.”
- Phil Hellmuth, poker player: “Ten. What other sport would I be good at? There’s not enough money in backgammon or chess.”
- Sergio Martinez, boxing middleweight: “One. I love soccer, but I want to be No. 1 and I wasn’t good enough to be No. 1 in soccer.”
“The Perfect Issue” Features:
From The Archives of Flawlessness
Tales from the Hall of Perfection. (Or as close as you’re gonna get to it.) By LaRue Cook
World’s Baddest Dude (For Now)
Cain Velasquez, newly crowned king of the UFC, is the planet’s perfect fighter. But with MMA evolving, how long can he hold either title? By Jeff MacGregor
Just What ____ Always Wanted
Finding the perfect gift takes thought and time. Unless, of course, you let The Mag do the shopping for you. By Amanda Angel
Ace of the Diamond
Forty-five years later, one pitching performance remains the most most perfect perfect game of all. By Peter Keating
The File
The nastiest rivalry in football isn’t on the field—it is the field. Inside the artificial-turf wars. By Shaun Assael
The Wizard of Odds
The growing sports self-help industryis all about big promises, high prices and, for most athletes, serious disappointments. By Tim Keown
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