Lineup

NBA PREVIEW

66 |Superteams

Vince Carter (15)joins Dwight Howard as the best clubs get better

By Ian Thomsen

72 | Idan Who?

NBA stars swear byIdan Ravin, a trainer who barely played the game

By ChrisBallard

78 | SI'sPicks

Team-by-teamscouting reports, regular-season rankings and picks for the playoffs

Departments

4 Leading Off

14 Letters

16 Scorecard

L.A. and theNFL

26 Just MyType

Dr. RickyWilliams?

by Dan Patrick

28 Faces in theCrowd

30 Inside ...

• The NFL

The Jets' bigpickup

• FantasyFootball

Reliable (or not)backs

• CollegeFootball

Pitt's freshmanrusher

• NASCAR

Can anyone catchJJ?

132 The Vault

The 1973Series

136 PointAfter

L'AffaireLimbaugh

by SelenaRoberts

Features

38 | BASEBALL

The Yankee Way

Mystique and aurareturn to the major league playoffs

by JoePosnanski

44 | PROFOOTBALL

Brett Favre

There's still lifein the old arm and magic in his touch

by Jim Trotter

48 | Hockey

CaptainSerious

Jonathan Toewsleads the NHL's youth movement

by MichaelFarber

52 | COLLEGEFOOTBALL

TexasLonghorns

This year the Big12 power is winning with defense, too

by Albert Chen

58 | COLLEGEFOOTBALL

Joe Paterno

He's 82, and he'snot about to quit coaching. Deal with it

by JoePosnanski

ON THE COVERPhotograph by Chris Covatta/NBAE/Getty Images (Background by SI Imaging) Inset:Peter Read Miller

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PHOTO

GREG NELSON (HOWARD AND CARTER)

TWO PHOTOS