Contents

24 The Best Team—Ever
Milwaukee's Bucks are headed for another title, and SI's expert says they may be the finest basketball team ever

28 Buried Under a Sea of Troubles
West Coast football offers no contenders for an Oscar this year, and it is losing its off-field hassles, too

32 New Slant on the Mod Sod
Astro Turf, Tartan and Poly-Turf are the subject of pratfalls, mustard stains and a congressional investigation

41 A Sawyer Takes the Pot Anytime
Only a fool tries to bluff the man who holds a sawed-off shotgun at a poker game; his is always the winning hand

52 Go East, Young Olympian
The Winter Games will be staged in the faraway world of Sapporo, a land of soy sauce, Coca-Cola signs—and beauty

84 Call It Catch-as-Catch-Can
The Chiefs' Otis Taylor has no peer at receiving the football—right-handed, left-handed or behind the back

90 My First Last Rites
Boston's Ted Green tells his story of the stick fight that could have killed him—and his painful comeback

The departments

13 Scorecard
71 College Football
80 Hockey
84 Pro Football
104 For the Record
109 19th Hole

Credits on page 104

Cover photograph by Neil Leifer

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Next week

A battle of unbeatens pits Auburn, with its high-powered offense that has scored 271 points, against a tough Georgia defense that has yielded only 53. Pat Putnam is on hand.

Bless 'em both, the long and the short, Minnesota's goalies are sizzling hot. Cesare Maniago is tall, Gump Worsley not; together they star in Mark Mulvoy's team report.

Five days in a canoe on the old, worn waters around New York City can lead to quite a few astonishing discoveries. How often, for example, does one paddle under an airport?