For a quarter century, Gary Smith has left the readers of Sports Illustrated spellbound and speechless with his compelling long-form storytelling. A four-time winner and nine-time nominee of the National Magazine Award (magazine journalism`s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) , Smith writes just a handful of pieces a year for the sports weekly. Each is more than worth the wait: with his unparalleled ability to go both inside and outside his subjects, Smith is a modern master of nonfiction writing. It`s no wonder that he once drew the most votes in a national poll of sports editors as the writer they`d most want to hire. Smith`s stories have appeared in the annual Best American Sports Writing anthology series nine times over the course of the 16-edition series, the most of any contributor. Now comes Sports Illustrated: Going Deep: 20 Classic Sports Stories, by Gary Smith, a collection of Smith`s most powerful pieces. Handpicked by the author, these 20 stories showcase the richness of his reporting and the compassion of his craft. In " Shadow of a Nation" Smith depicts the struggle of Jonathan Takes Enemy, a young Crow Indian basketball player hoping to escape the reservation. In " Damned Yankee" Smith details the saga of John Malangone, the player who might have replaced Yogi Berra as the New York Yankees catcher until a terrible secret from his childhood unraveled his career. In " Blindsided by History" Smith tells the tale of the racial grenade flung in the laps of America`s best schoolboy team in 1957 and the absurd solution that segregationists cobbled together to preserve two Arkansas traditions: Friday night football and racial separation. This 416-page anthology - highlighted by all four National Magazine Award winners and a foreword by the author - is rich with heart and humanity.