What is it, really, about Connor Bedard’s shot — a shot that, though he’s just 18 years old, has for years been talked about as if he has patented it — that makes it so dangerous and unique?What’s the nerdy science of it, from his feet up to his knees, hips, hands and head? How does he prep, shape and let it go? What does it look like to goalies, and to professional shooting coaches, those who’ve taught him — or, more accurately, watched him after he taught himself — and had to stop him? The Athletic spoke with five NHL shooting and skills coaches, his teammates, past opponents and him to try to take apart, piece by piece, “The Bedard.”Their intel and stories help frame the NHL’s brightest young star’s signature skill.If there’s one thing Tim Turk knows, it’s shooting. A self-described “sh...

Josher Jesus Brito Diaz thought nothing of it when his phone began to ring.As the man in charge of his cousin’s charity — the Luis Diaz Esperanza Foundation — and part of the Liverpool winger’s immediate circle, life is always busy. Such is the reality of being in the first family of La Guajira, the remote region in northern Colombia that calls Diaz its most famous son.On Sunday, October 29, Josher’s uncle Gaby was up for election to a council seat in Barrancas, a town dominated by the Cerrejon open-cast coal mine where both Josher and his footballer cousin were born. The Saturday had been a day of frantic activity for Josher — driving, carrying and fetching. Diaz’s parents, Luis Manuel Diaz and Cilenis Marulanda, had also been assisting.“We were preparing for the elections the next day,” ...

Peter Seidler, a man who often walked around cradling a baseball in his hands, who dressed more modestly than his employees and who spent unprecedented amounts of money in a smallish media market, was unlike any other owner of a major-league franchise. He set himself apart from the beginning, with the manner in which he entered that exclusive club.In an interview two years ago, Seidler recalled being “locked in my house” in late 2011. That year, he had begun undergoing chemotherapy and other in-home treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He remembered feeling physically “OK” and “terribly bored.” A baseball team down the highway from the then-Los Angeles-area resident happened to be for sale. So Seidler, a successful private equity investor and a scion of the family that moved the Dodgers f...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Sixty minutes before the marquee game for Tuesday’s In-Season Tournament slate, the NBA’s newest tall boys are dribbling. Victor Wembanyama is near center court, going through his legs and back again, television cameras following, a team security member shadowing. Chet Holmgren simultaneously sits courtside, several minutes early for his scheduled warmup time, mindlessly yo-yoing beneath his knees.Most rookies warm up sooner, before fans even enter the arena. Veterans choose first, after all, and slots nearer to the game’s start go quickly. But these two are different. They’re starters, cornerstones and the league’s very future. First-year bylaws don’t apply in the same way to them, not even for traditionalist franchises like their own.On Tuesday, Wembanyama and Holmgren’s ...