Basketball
Best Indoor Basketball: Composite Game Balls for the Gym Floor
The best indoor basketball for school and rec league gyms, plus composite vs leather, which size to buy, how hard to pump it and how to make it last.
11 minKeep reading
Courtside reading for game nights
Tip-off, wings and a cold one. We cover the whole night.
Basketball you can follow from a bar stool, game-day cooking that holds up for a crowd, beer worth the second round and the culture of watching sports together.
Welcome to Hoops & Grill
For fans who care about the fourth quarter and the food on the table in equal measure.
We are a small crew of writers who have cooked on pub lines, poured beer through playoff runs and charted more games than we can count. Here we write about the things that make a game night good: reading the action on a screen, wings that stay crisp, nachos that survive a long timeout, the right beer for a three-hour broadcast and the rooms where strangers end up high-fiving.
Recipes are cooked before they are written. Basketball pieces are watched, rewound and argued over. New articles land in the Playbook most weeks.
The game-day food guide
See the full guideFresh from the Playbook
All articles
Bar Food & Recipes
Best Meat Thermometer for Grilling and Smoking: Instant-Read and Leave-In Picks
How to choose a meat thermometer for the grill or smoker, where to put the probe, how to check it in ice water, and the temperatures that make food safe.
12 minKeep reading
Bar Food & Recipes
Chicken Nachos for a Crowd: Sheet Pan Method, Best Cheese and the Rotisserie Shortcut
Sheet pan chicken nachos for a full room: the rotisserie shortcut, shredded chicken that stays dry, the best cheese for nachos and a two-pan game plan.
10 minKeep reading
Game Day
Best Cornhole Boards: Regulation Sets, Bags and Setup for Game Day
The best cornhole boards for game day: regulation sizes, how far apart to set them, which bags to buy and how to play fair in a tailgate lot.
11 minKeep reading
Bar Food & Recipes
Chili for a Crowd: One Big Pot That Holds Through a Long Game
A beef and bean chili and a vegetarian pot for twelve, how to hold both safely hot for four hours, a toppings bar and the cornbread question.
9 minKeep reading
Bar Food & Recipes
Smoked Chicken Wings With Skin That Snaps: Temps, Times and Wood
Smoked chicken wings with crisp skin: how long at 225, 250 or 275°F, which mild woods to use, a simple dry brine and the hot finish for rubbery skin.
9 minKeep reading
Pick a beat
The fan's calendarTip-off in October, March brackets, June finals and the long summer of trades: a year of games worth watching together.
Where to watchSightlines, sound, seats and the small clues that tell you a room will actually put your game on the big screen.
GalleryTaps, booths, walls of screens and the basement setups that rival them, in pictures and the notes that go with them.
