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SAN ANTONIO — In the echo chamber of modern sports media, the debate over who holds the title of “Greatest of All Time” (GOAT) has become a daily ritual. It is a relentless tug-of-war between the statistical dominance of LeBron James and the unblemished mystique of Michael Jordan. For years, legends of the game have…

LOS ANGELES — In the high-stakes world of professional basketball, loyalty is the currency that buys championships. But for the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most storied franchises in sports history, that currency has just been significantly devalued. A firestorm has engulfed the team following the leak of explosive comments made by the Lakers…

  At 13:30 hours on November 23rd, 1943, Colonel David Shupe stood on a two-mile strip of coral called Betio, watching Navy CBS already surveying the airirstrip for American bombers. 76 hours earlier, Rear Admiral Ki Shibazaki had boasted to his garrison that it would take 1 million men 100 years to capture Tarawa.  The…

On the morning of August 17th, 1942, at 0917, Sergeant Clyde Thomasson crouched behind a palm tree on Makan Island, gripping a Winchester Model 1897 shotgun that his own officers had dismissed as a relic. At 27 years old, he was leading 12 Marines against 70 Japanese defenders who had turned every Hutton trench into…

On the morning of May 14th, 1945, at 0630 hours, Corporal Lewis Ha crouched behind a coral outcrop on Okinawa’s Wanidge, watching Japanese gunports 300 yd away through the smoke of a 48-hour artillery barrage that had accomplished nothing. At 20 years old, he was a machine gun squad leader in Company C. First battalion,…

On the morning of December 23rd, 1942, at 0800 hours, Lieutenant General Harukichi Hiakutake sat in his command bunker on Guadal Canal, drafting what would become the most damning admission in Japanese military history. His radio message to Tokyo was brutally simple. His 17th Army had essentially no food left and could not even send…

At 3:07 in the morning on August 21st, 1942, Colonel Kona Ichiki crouched behind a fallen palm tree on the east bank of Alligator Creek on Guadal Canal, watching the sandbar that stretched 50 yards across Black Water to the American lines. Behind him, 817 men of Japan’s elite 28th Infantry Regiment waited in silence,…

On the morning of August 21st, 1942, at 3:07 a.m., Private First Class Frank Pomroy crouched behind a 37 millimeter anti-tank gun at the mouth of Alligator Creek on Guadal Canal, loading a shell his marine instructors had never taught him to use. At 24 years old, he was a machine gunner from New England…

  Fuaktui Province, South Vietnam, March 17th, 1966. The Vietkong sentry never heard them coming. Nuan Vanam had survived 2 years in the jungle, learned to detect American patrols from half a kilometer away by the smell of their cigarettes and bug spray, could identify helicopter types by sound alone in complete darkness. But the…

  At 11:23 a.m. on September 19th, 1944, Private First Class Walter Kowalsski crouched inside his M4 Sherman tank near Araort, France with three German Panzer 4 tanks closing from 800 yd. His hands were shaking. The loader before him had been killed two days ago when a Panzer round punched through their turret. Walter…

  Oh, good girl. You want to hear the story about the deadliest IHOP employee to have ever existed? Yeah. >> Fire. Oh, boy. >> Alan Ace. Kazalio is quite possibly the most insane helicopter pilot of all time. I mean, the man went from cowboy to IHOP to helicopter pilot. And all of that…

  Today’s video is brought to you by the good people over at AG1. I told myself I wasn’t doing New Year’s resolutions this year, just like I do every year, [laughter] but I do like to try and just improve myself a little bit every year. And AG1 is something that has made that…

  July 1944, Aldershot, England. The summer air hung thick and warm inside the Red Lion Pub. Canadian soldiers sat shoulderto-shoulder with American gis around wooden tables worn smooth by years of use. Laughter bounced off the stone walls. The smell of beer and cigarettes mixed with the scent of the kitchen’s meat pies.  Outside,…

  October 1942, a General Motors Inland Division in Dayton, Ohio, George Hyde, a 52-year-old immigrant from Germany, was completely absorbed by a blueprint. It detailed specs for a submachine gun that seemed next to impossible to create. The Thompson submachine gun, often called the Tommy gun, was the go-to weapon for American soldiers.  But…

  July 25th, 1944. Western Guam, Our Peninsula. A narrow strip of land barely half a mile wide, shielding the most valuable harbor in the central Pacific. In the humid darkness, 2,000 Marines lay behind hastily dug positions, barbed wire, and sandbags. Rifles loaded, machine guns trained on open ground, artillery already zeroed in on…