This Week's SI

This Week's SI

Walter Iooss Jr./SI

A three-time MVP, a Gold Medalist, an NBA Finals MVP and now an NBA champion, Lebron James is your 2012 Sportsman of the Year. Lee Jenkins delves into how Lebron has transformed both on and off the court -- and why he is the NBA's elite player.

Sports Illustrated

In 1987, SI bestowed its highest honor on a group of sports figures dedicated to helping others. A quarter century later, athletes are channeling the same passion and commitment to ever broader issues, on an even widening scale. Read this week's issue to see who the new crop is.

Robert Beck, Ray Carlin/Icon SMI

You want a showdown→ You've got one. The Crimson vs. Gold. Roll Tide vs. Shake Down the Thunder. Knute vs. Bear. Tim Layden looks into the biggest college football game in decades, a history-drenched showdown that embodies the essence of the game. Andy Staples and Stewart Mandel provide their cases for each team.

Robert Seale/SI

Johnny Manziel wasn't allowed to talk to the media until recently. So Andy Staples compiled the testimony of friends, family, coaches and some of Manziel himself to explain how he became the best player in college football.

Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI

David Beckham spent six years on the Los Angeles Galaxy and concluded his time in the MLS with back-to-back MLS Cups. Grant Wahl writes that the Beckham experiment worked for the MLS, and the league will thrive even after he is gone.

Manny Millan/SI

Rick Majerus could light up a room, humiliate a player, and see the game better than most college coaches. He took an unlikely team to the Final Four and made believers out of skeptics. Alexander Wolff writes a touching essay on the saddest happy man to ever grace college basketball.

Jessica Hill/AP

Jim Calhoun goes one-on-one with Seth Davis, reflecting on his complicated legacy and what he misses -- and does not miss -- about being an elite college coach.