Our Favorite 9 Feature Stories This Week: Pregnant Actresses, Elephant Poachers, And A Famous Finger

This week for BuzzReads, Max Blau profiles retired NBA great Dikembe Mutumbo and Ken Bensinger investigates the man who made soccer big in America. Read those and these other great stories from BuzzFeed and around the web.

1. How Dikembe Mutombo’s Finger Changed The NBA — BuzzFeed

Bob Stowell / Getty Images

Five years after his retirement, one of the greatest shot-blockers in NBA history is as visible as ever, thanks to a trademark finger-wag that helped him become an icon and clear a path for the league’s globalization. Read it at BuzzFeed.

2. Who Wants to Shoot an Elephant? — GQ

Photograph by David Chancellor for GQ

An (unsurprisingly) well-written, deeply depressing, provocative, candid, beautifully presented and generally unmissable story by Wells Tower, wherein he accompanies a few wealthy hunters on an elephant hunt and contemplates hunting's role in preventing poaching. Read it at GQ.

3. A Type House Divided — New York

Illustration by Sean Freeman for New York

Jason Fagone brings the story of typesetters Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, who together designed big fonts like Gotham, Mercury, and Archer. Now one is suing the other for millions. Read it at New York

4. Prematurity Rates Are Too High — And Children’s Hospitals Are Cashing In — Business Insider

Mike Nudelman/Business Insider

Alex Halperin reports on how premature babies have become hospital cash cows: "Insurance reimbursements are usually higher for inpatients and for procedure- and technology-intensive medicine. Premature babies check both boxes; from a revenue perspective, they are ideal hospital patients." Read it at Business Insider.

5. The Rise And Fall Of Chuck Blazer, The Man Who Built — And Bilked — American Soccer — BuzzFeed

Vladimir Rys/Bongarts / Getty Images

As the World Cup opens, Ken Bensinger tells a tale about winning dirty: How a swindling suburban soccer dad pocketed millions as he helped make the sport a booming success in the U.S. Read it at BuzzFeed.

6. Fire in the Belly — Los Angeles Magazine

Illustration by Sean Mccabe for Los Angeles Magazine

"Mad Men, Parks and Recreation, Bones, Girls — TV has been near to bursting with pregnant leads of late," Logan Hill writes, "These days, as the clout of certain female stars has grown, producers have perfected all sorts of sophisticated tricks to keep actresses working, at times even using body doubles and computer graphics." Read it at Los Angeles Magazine.

7. How Miss Info Became Hip-Hop's Ultimate Insider — BuzzFeed

Macey J. Foronda / BuzzFeed

Today, Minya Oh is the linchpin of Hot 97, rap’s most influential radio station. Getting there, Naomi Zeichner writes, only took 20 years. Read it at BuzzFeed.

8. Heart of the Emerald Triangle — The Believer

Photograph courtesy of Lee Ellis

Lee Ellis reports from a Humboldt County on the brink: "Legalization helps keep growers out of jail, but regulation slashes their profit margins." Read it at The Believer.

9. Being Gay in Iran — The Stranger

Ethan Folk for The Stranger

A simple but important essay by a gay Iranian who was outed to the world by a documentary. He's since had to flee his country forever. Read it at The Stranger.

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