The Greatest: SI's Gary Smith is retiring from magazine writing

He pulled down his pants, sat on the toilet and put his head in his hands, heart hammering, each scream of the sirens. ... He had his misses. He had his

Gary Smith (right) interviews George Foreman and Muhammad Ali for his 1984 SI story "After the Fall" :: Courtesy of Gary Smith/SI

He pulled down his pants, sat on the toilet and put his head in his hands, heart hammering, each scream of the sirens. ...

Gary Smith in 1983 :: Lane Stewart/SI

He had his misses. He had his critics. Some were uncomfortable with Smith's psychologizing -- though his subjects almost never claimed that he got them wrong -- and others wondered if the personal demons he detailed could explain an entire life's twists and turns. But that's a shallow reading; Smith, indeed, found trauma others missed. But there's a reason the question mark, not the period, is his distinctive grammatical tic. He pursued answers but was delighted to find them less than clear.

Richie Parker: Cover date, June 24, 1996 :: Jeffrey Lowe/SI

In 2008, Gary Smith published an anthology of some of his best work -- Going Deep: 20 Classic Sports Stories.