This story appears in the Sept. 9, 2019, issue of Sports Illustrated. For more great storytelling and in-depth analysis, subscribe to the magazine—and get up to 94% off the cover price. Click here for more.
An audience a few hundred filled the Egyptian Room of Indianapolis’s Old National Centre. It was May 2018, and renowned contemporary author John Green was appearing on a local NPR affiliate’s book podcast.
Green, lanky and bespectacled, clad in blazer and jeans, looked every bit the part of an author as he took the stage and settled into his red velvet tub chair.