Hakeem Olajuwon
All-star, MVP, and now champion.
Robert Draper was a staff writer at Texas Monthly from 1991 until 1997, and he still writes occasionally for the magazine. He is also a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic. Draper is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times best-sellers Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush and Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives. A native Houstonian, he now resides in Washington, D.C.
All-star, MVP, and now champion.
A true post-boom-and-burst CEO.
The shocking story of Austin’s underworld, and how a state bureaucrat got in too deep.
In the wide-open spaces of Marfa, late sculptor Donald Judd’s immense legacy beckons West Texas travelers.
I went to Palacios to get away from city life, and I fell in love with the gracious but endangered ways of small-town living.
Around the state, a smorgasbord of stylish new restaurants defines the Texas bitegeist.
When Houston’s pro sports teams collapse late in the season—as they may do this year—faithful fans like me are never surprised. We’ve almost come to expect it.
Are the legendary lawmen necessary? Yes, but their inability to grapple with the modern world threatens to make them irrelevant.
Who cares if they dress differently, act differently, and spell their names differently? Brother Dick DeGuerin and Mike DeGeurin are two of the best attorneys in Texas, and for that they can thank their mentor, legal legend Percy Foreman.
What do Ross Perot and Bob Tilton have in common (besides dallas)? Publications obsessed with them.
By Robert Draper and Dan Michalski
Ph.D.’s (and other staffers) help UT freshmen move into their dorms.
The death of a thief in the Big Thicket has federal officials probing the conduct of local lawmen—and local lawmen complaining about a federal vendetta against the Texas prison system.
Larry McMurtry rallies Lonesome Dove’s geriatric survivors for a last perilous, meandering adventure in Streets of Laredo.
Scratch the surface of the Texas Lottery and you’ll find political opportunism, a cynical marketing campaign, and endless hype.
All across Texas, vandals are searching for ancient treasures by looting Indian campgrounds—including the one on my family’s ranch.
Phil Gramm’s unrelenting partisanship has changed Texas politics, but it may cost him the presidency.
WHEN I WAS A SOPHOMORE AT THE University of Texas in 1977, my grandfather, a prominent Houston attorney, came to Austin to give a lecture to the university’s law students. After his speech, my grandfather told me he wanted to introduce me to someone. He led me toward a large
Nothing about Lyle Lovett suggests he’d ever make it big. That’s precisely why he did.
Janis Joplin’s life was about music, rebellion, and excess—but she was influenced most by her tormented relationship with the people and spirit of Port Arthur.
Small-town Texas gets a taste of national politics up close.
El Paso author Cormac McCarthy has always shunned fame, but his latest novel may finally force him into the spotlight.
Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly—and some folks don’t feel alive unless they’re staring at a blank sheet of paper.
Sissy Farenthold’s family has long battled with its capacity for self-destruction. With the disappearance of her youngest son, the battle is once again joined.
Troubled boys at this Baptist youth home had to eat soap if they said the wrong thing. And that was one of the milder punishments.
But he’d rather not leave CBS to return to Texas, at least not yet.
When a rare disorder damaged his voice, Johnny Bush had to decide between singing and speaking.
Never before had a correctional officer been tried for the murder of an inmate—and never before had such chilling details been revealed about how our prisons really work.
When the IRS seized all that Willie Nelson had, it was a case of the man who can’t say no meeting the men who won’t take no for an answer.
A prisoner’s efforts at legal aid for fellow inmates could right wrongs—but is it good strategy to threaten a judge?
In a venerable Austin neighborhood, the laid-back residents are tormented by a menacing presence—neither they nor the police—can defeat.
A new private prison brought a belated boom to tiny Venus, but the state contends that the jailhouse is a bust.