Take it from me, this is not your father's Best Sports Writing book.
Come to think of it, I've probably read almost of these sports anthologies books - compiled by at least three different publishers over the years - since the early 1950s. This is not your grandfather's Best Sports Writing (or Best Sports Stories, as it was called in those days) book.
Way back when, most of the nation's sports writing came from newspapers and magazines - and it stuck to the traditional sports as a subject. The book's contents reflected that fact. Television changed the industry quite a bit, as more people could now see for themselves what happened in a particular game. Articles had to explain why something happened, as well as covering personalities and issues. The book reflected that.
In recent years, of course, newspapers and magazines have fallen on hard times in recent years, and the number of possible candidates from those outlets for inclusion into anthologies has gone down. In the meantime, some of the good writing has migrated to the Internet. That's been a frequent source of material for these anthologies in recent years. Along the way, the range of stories has grown wider. That can often lead to a pleasant surprise for the reader, who learns about some area that falls under the sports umbrella - even faintly.
That's brings us to the 2025 edition, in which Hanif Abdurraqib serves as the editor. Abdurraqib wrote a book about basketball and growing up poor in America that won some noteworthy awards.Almost any semblance of traditional sources has been thoroughly blown up. Taking a bow for their stories are such outlets as The Lever, Noema Magazine, Island, Block Club Chicago, Basketball Feelings, Flaming Hydra, The Contrapuntal, The New Arab, and Ultiworld. That's not exactly The Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated.
Meanwhile, the list of story titles brings to mind the slang definition of "woke." One side of our political divide uses it as praise for those who are aware of social injustice, while the other side considers it a putdown for those who are too politically correct. Consider a handful of entries from the table of contents. "Nothing is Gayer than My Love for Women's Basketball." "The Ballet School." "Death of the Hiker." "Imane Khelif: Refusing the Violent Fiction of Binary Gender." "The Worrying Road Ahead of Muslim Sportswomen Amid Hijab Bans and Discrimination." Not much traditional sports coverage is implied there.
I approached this book the same as I do with any anthology. I start reading every article, and see how long I last. That includes stories that would never appear in the sports section of a newspaper. Good writing is good writing, and some of the pieces kept me going right through the conclusion with ease. I hadn't heard about the controversy surrounding a San Jose State transgender volleyball player, but it's a fine recounting of a complicated story. The tale about a former drug addict who essentially has run his way to sobriety is a page-turner. "Scholar's Mate" takes a look at the game of chess in a very different way. A tribute to Rafael Nadal held my interest, although it has a bit more of an outside-in approach to the story.
But others couldn't lure me in. It's going to take some work to draw a more traditional reader into stories about recreational roller-skating, or ultimate frisbee, or walking/hiking, or ballet.
Therefore, "The Year's Best Sports Writing 2025" is more of a hit-or-miss collection than usual. There were too many misses for me to be very enthusiastic about the book's good-sized change in direction this year. However, adventurous readers might find some stories that that wouldn't find anywhere else, and take delight from the range. In short, see if you are up to the challenge before paying $21.95 plus tax for this. And I'll be interested to see what the overall reaction might be by the sports public.
Three stars.
Learn more about this book from Amazon.com. (As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.)
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