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Every year, I look forward to The Year’s Best Sports Writing anthology (known in a past iteration as The Best American Sports Writing). Each edition is shaped by its guest editor, reflective of that person’s tastes and preferences. Through the stories they select to be featured, you understand what kinds of writing they like, the narratives they are drawn to, and the voices they believe should be amplified. This, of course, also often reveals a person’s biases, and the collection of stories in each edition of the anthology inadvertently expose a lot about the person who selected them.
In the past, I have been let down by the selections of the guest editors. By that I mean that there have been times when I have been heartened by the announcement of the person who will be selecting stories for the year, only to be disappointed when the narratives they’ve chosen to feature reflect already existing hierarchies within sports media. The same names from the same publications, year after year.
That was not the case for the 2025 edition. Guest editor Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, essayist, and cultural critic, put together an anthology that feels like something entirely new. Abdurraqib’s most recent book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, was lauded for its ability to seamlessly weave together seemingly disparate themes of basketball fandom, sports history, cultural criticism, and meditations on belonging.
He brought that innovative lens to his approach to guest editing The Year’s Best Sports Writing 2025. As someone from outside the world of sports media, Abdurraqib was able to expand and redefine the genre, collecting the most diverse group of writers and stories I’ve ever seen in any edition of the anthology.
I am honored that one of my stories was selected alongside some of my favorite writers, friends of mine, and authors whose work I am excited to get to discover. Hanif was generous enough to chat with me about his process editing the 2025 edition of The Year’s Best Sports Writing.
Out of Your League: What was your reaction to being asked to guest edit The Year's Best Sports Writing? Had you read past editions and, if so, was there something specific that excited you about taking on this project?
Hanif Abdurraqib: I was overjoyed, I think because I’d spent so much time in the past editions through the years, and I think the common thread is that those editions echo the primary interests and investments of the editor in such a massively inescapable way. And so, through the joy I felt, I also felt a very large sense of responsibility, a bit of pressure. But ultimately I found myself incredibly eager to take on the work. “Best” is a tricky word to navigate, and I was trying to think and work outside of the binary of “Best/Worst” or even “Best/Good” and ask myself real critical questions about what makes a story intriguing or interesting to me. What can I find that I would be excited about showing to other people. What might re-shape people’s definitions of sport, of place, of devotion.
Photo credit: Kate Sweeney
OOYL: As someone who has been featured before, and has read almost every edition of the Year's Best Sports Writing anthology, this year's felt really different. The diversity of stories, the diversity of authors, was really exciting to see. I hadn't heard of many of the writers chosen and I was so excited to get to read their pieces. Was that intentional? What was your vision for this edition?
HA: Well, first and foremost, I was asking myself where I could look to find pieces. I mean, literally, what corners of the internet could I dig through to find things that might otherwise be overlooked. Because I have spent so much time with past anthologies, I’m aware of the places pieces generally get pulled from, and I wanted to expand that. I get easily obsessed with seeking things, and this felt no different. And so, I was looking on hyper-specfic blogs, I was trying to push the definition of what sportswriting could be, or what sports could be, depending on context. I also wanted, very specifically, to offer some writing and writers to the world that I think the world deserved access to, writers that I had to work to find, knowing that other people might not be willing or capable of doing that work. And once you do the work of finding the writers, falling in love with them is easy, at least that’s the hope.
OOYL: Was there something specific you looked for when selecting stories? What kinds of things stood out to you when going through submissions?
HA: Because there’s no proper submission process, you, as an editor, are straight up just doing a ton of reading, all across the internet. I think one thing I was looking for was specificity. I loved reading stories about a place, or about people surviving in a place, or people re-defining a place. I also loved stories that were invested in some interior world. Sometimes the interior world of a dancer or pro wrestler, grappling with their limitations, both physical and mental. But sometimes the joyful interior worlds, like a tennis club in Chicago. I was looking, first and foremost, for stories where sports were the jumping-off point to examine something greater about the human condition.
OOYL: You selected my story for SELF magazine called “Let's Hear It For The Dolls,” about an all-trans pickup basketball league in Brooklyn (ed. note: that story was assigned and edited by Rachel Miller, who I have interviewed about our work together). I was so excited to see that community highlighted in this way. What did you enjoy about that piece and why did you feel it was a good fit for this anthology?
HA: It’s a great piece, and it did fit all of these pre-existing interests and investments I had. Yes, it’s about basketball, broadly, but basketball is a gateway to the reclamation of place and space. It’s telling the interior story of people. And, beyond all of that, it’s the kind of story about A Thing That Is Happening Somewhere that I wanted the world to see, because I think that kind of thing can happen many somewheres, if it isn’t already.
Photo credit: Hunter Abrams for SELF
OOYL: I'm sure you loved all of the pieces you selected, but are there any in particular that stood out to you or do you have any favorites from the edition?
Oh, I love them all, truly. I think the most fun I had was seeing them sequenced, all laid out. There’s a great arc to them. I love that a WWE Superstar can have an essay in here next to an essay about ultimate frisbee in Detroit, an essay I just found on a blog. That’s cool to me.
OOYL: Anything else you'd like me to know?
HA: Gratitude for your wonderful piece, and I’m so glad to have it. Working on this was an absolute pleasure and I hope folks love the anthology.