It’s not football season . . . yet. But from basketball to the Belmont to the Bronx Bombers, sports are on our mind.

This week’s Sports Illustrated gets caught up in the storied rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers – at least at the top, with reams of coverage on the power struggle of the respective stars Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant. Game-by-game series analysis anyone? Another story on an American awakening to the beauty of soccer is weak and predictable, but the piece on Big Brown’s failure to capture the Triple Crown presents some insight into the future of horse racing.

ESPN The Magazine tracks the same territory as SI, but its basketball-finals coverage includes a quirky time-capsule look at the original 80s Showtime version, including period references to early Eddie Murphy comedy and the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry. Also interesting is the mag’s sharing of e-mails about Kimbo Slice, the street brawler who has recently emerged from obscurity to compete in mixed martial-arts competitions. The Kimbo coverage shows ESPN can do edgy in a way that can draw the attention of the untypical sports-mag reader.

Golf has a well-written piece on Sergio Garcia, professional golf’s last great player to have never won a major. Garcia admits that he doesn’t have the internal monster that his nemesis Tiger Woods has, which forces Woods to win every tournament he plays in. The article fails to mention that this is the very reason that Garcia has been a perpetual second-place finisher. Gary Player’s glowing praise of fellow countryman and Masters winner Trevor Immelman’s swing seems biased and cliched. He repeats age-old golf platitudes about keeping the back knee flexed and the left arm straight. Sadly, we learn nothing revolutionary or revelatory from one of the game’s all-time greats.

Golf Digest devotes most of its pages to involved golf road trips and profiles of fancy resorts. One article covers the Chambers Bay resort, and spends as much time discussing the décor of the modernist lobby as it does the course. Many of the technique articles seem to preach the same thing: keep your body still and smooth. Obviously, this is easier said than done, and suggests that the magazine’s editors are oversimplifying things for the casual golfer.

Time says our kids are suffering from a epidemic of obesity. The issue offers an obvious cure for our overfed kids: basically getting them up from sitting in front of the TV or computer and into sports and outdoor play. Useful articles in the package explain how fat begins, and breaks down a typical day in the diets of three American teens, as analyzed by a nutritionist. In politics, a how-to piece on picking a running mate for the candidates is a good read.

The New Yorker‘s Peter J. Boyer pens a profile of the controversial MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, which details Olbermann’s ascent in political broadcasting. In light of the passing of “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert on Friday, one might be forgiven for thinking that Olbermann’s odd antics and Bill O’Reilly stylings aren’t deserving of seven pages of prime real estate in the New Yorker. Inadvertently, the piece does a better job of discussing the evolution of news coverage in America in the age of the Internet. A report by Jon Lee Anderson on Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez as the new Fidel Castro offers some good insight into the political machinations that have pushed up prices at the pump.

Had enough coverage of Hillary Clinton’s failed bid to be the nation’s first female president? Well, neither has New York magazine. It’s hard to say what’s worse, the endless coverage of a candidate who tested the limits of her party’s tolerance by clinging to the chance she might still win the Democratic presidential nomination, or the unabashed lionization of her in the pages of this magazine. There are comparisons to Evita Peron, and a vision of Hillary as freedom fighter a la Che Guevara. Back in December, Hillary was a shoo-in for the nomination – a virtual incumbent in a field of sorry contenders. Where’s the extensive “How She Crashed And Burned” feature?

Newsweek gets it right this week. It’s chock full of timely news bits, including a well crafted tribute to “Meet the Press” host and well-regarded political reporter Tim Russert . The cover piece, “What Would Winston Do” channels the late, lionized UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Attempting to address the issues of escalating food and oil prices and growing political unrest across the globe now, the piece suggests comparisons between political mistakes made then and now, and explains how looking back might well help us cope with our dilemmas.