Rise and Scribe: Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated

Jan 9, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis (23) against the Memphis Grizzlies during a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans defeated the Grizzlies 106-95. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Rise and Scribe is back with a very special guest: Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Lee Jenkins. Today, Lee joins me to talk about two of his recent pieces, one featuring Nick Young, the other Anthony Davis.

Lee talks about the process behind the Young story: why, in a league full of stars and interesting stories, did he choose to write a feature about Nick Young? Was Young’s personality off the court and away from the limelight the same as his on court persona? We also get into player’s style, how a player’s personality will inform the way he plays on the court, and whether Lee has ever been completely wrong about a player when it comes to their on-and-off-court personalities.

From there, we jump to the Anthony Davis story. Whereas the piece on Young was more of a character feature, the Davis article was about a player’s rapid ascension to stardom. Lee talks about his goals with the piece, how he didn’t want to make it into another cookie cutter profile, and what he learned about Davis during his relatively brief time with him.

I also asked Lee about LeBron James. If you recall, it was Lee who broke the LeBron-to-Cleveland story with an article in Sports Illustrated written in James’ voice. I asked Lee about that process, what it was like writing in LeBron’s voice, and how tough it was to sit on such a massive secret.

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