D'Angelo Russell turned some heads when the Lakers selected him as franchise cornerstone at the 2015 NBA Draft. Now it's time for the young guard to hit the league and prove what he can do. In this VICE Sports exclusive we ride through LA with D'Angelo, discuss whether the Mamba reached out to him over the summer and get a little tripped out talking about space.

The places represented in the Winter Olympics, and snowboarding in particular, tend to be pretty easy to predict - North America, Europe, Japan every once in a while. But never Africa. Brolin Mawejje is looking to change that. With some financial backing and a bit of luck - Brolin will look to compete for Uganda in slopestyle snowboarding in PyeongChang 2018. Throughout his journey from Kampala to Jackson Hole, Brolin and his buddies created Far From Home (available for pre-order on Vimeo on Demand [link to https://vimeo.com/ondemand/farfromhome] now) by documenting the whole journey.

Brent Grimes is a perennial Pro Bowler who started as an undrafted free agent. That might have something to do with the, ahem, support of his wife Miko. In this VICE Sports exclusive we talk to the Miami Dolphins cornerback and his better half about what it takes to make a roster, watching the Ray Rice video as an NFL couple, and making sure Brent is totally relaxed when he gets the field.

Rugby is back in the Olympics for Rio 2016, and team USA is looking to defend their gold medal from 1924 - the last time the sport was featured in the Games. Rugby may not have a huge following in the US, but it is the fastest growing team sport in the world. In this VICE Sports exclusive we hung with the US rugby team as they attempted to qualify for Rio.

Chess has often been regarded as a "man's game" but a group of girls from Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, NY - which has the best scholastic chess program in the country at any grade level - are out to change that old idea. This past year, four of the girls qualified for the 2015 World Youth Championship in Greece, two were nationally ranked as top chess players in the country, and the team has been dominating the local tournaments they've participated in. In this VICE Sports exclusive, we meet some of the members of the team to follow their journey to the U.S. Girls National Chess Championship as they prove that girls can play chess - and win.

Zack Hample isn't your typical fan at a ball game. He's there to snag baseballs, and do it with a studied, meticulous approach. In this VICE Sports exclusive, we hung out with the "Ball Hawk" in the days following his catch of Alex Rodriguez's 3000th hit. While in some ways it served as the pinnacle of his time in the stands it also brought with it a firestorm of media coverage and public opinion that wasn't always friendly. Life can be lonely in the bleachers, too.

You won't find siblings much closer than Johnny and Angel Collinson. During the summer, you can find them together in the house that they built, treating Utah's Cottonwood Canyon as their playground. The free-skiers grew up on the snow, but don't seem too bummed about about spending an off day in their hometown. Made possible by The North Face.

Jimmy Chin has accomplished it all in the world of action sports and he's had a camera in his hands the whole time. From skiing Everest to climbing some of the world's largest peaks, he has made a career of taking on incredible expeditions while documenting them through photos and videos. His unique expertise across various disciplines has led him to capturing moments that quite literally no one else on Earth could. With his new feature film "Meru" hitting theaters this week, we sat down with Jimmy to discuss the long strange trip that culminated in the making of this film.

In a two-part series we examine the effects of two atypical sports in one of Manhattan's most iconic neighborhoods. Made possible by The Dick's Sporting Goods Foundation.