We compiled a group of individuals (programming note: 30 entries, not 30 people total) who mean something special to SLAM and to our audience. Read the full list here and order your copy of SLAM 248, where this list was originally published, here.

John Wall has graced the cover of SLAM as a high schooler, as a college player and as a pro. Oh, and he has a KICKS cover, too. Trying to think of someone else who can say that? There ain’t one. This issue is dedicated to the most influential SLAM guys ever. All-time players, fan favorites, real hoopers. But only John Wall can claim that. (Bragging rights for that fun fact may come on a bit of a technicality, since legends like LeBron and Kobe never played college ball, but still!)

An athletic freak able to finish with power or finesse with either hand, Wall has always been a blur—faster while dribbling a basketball than 90 percent of other players in a full sprint without one. In the prime of his career, Wall’s athleticism made him an All-NBA player, but his relentless confidence and never-back-down demeanor made him a fan favorite. At points, he called himself the best two-way point guard in the League and the best shot-blocking PG in history. At a time when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were still going strong, John declared himself and Bradley Beal the best backcourt in the NBA, too.

Part of what’s made Wall such a magnetic force in basketball culture since he was a teenager is that he wears his heart on his sleeve. Like when he jumped on the scorer’s table after beating the Celtics in a legendary Eastern Conference Semis Game 6, celebrating with the Wizards’ faithful. Or when he broke down crying in a postgame interview after the tragic passing of 6-year-old cancer patient Miyah, with whom he’d developed a strong bond. Or when he returned to DC years later in a Clippers uniform and proudly screamed out, “This is my city!” to the arena he called home for five All-Star seasons. Wall has always been unapologetically himself, from the very beginning.

And yet, the eventual No. 1 pick in the 2010 Draft was virtually unheard of outside of North Carolina when he started high school. But after killing local competition at Reebok camps everywhere from Chicago to Philly, we highlighted his play at the ’08 Elite 24 Game in SLAM 122.

And it must be mentioned: John Wall has the GOAT high school mixtape. With over 10 million views and counting, it is four minutes of utterly breathtaking basketball—no-look dimes, ankle-shattering fastbreak spin moves, ferocious finishes at the rim with both hands. No disrespect to the HS mixtapes of Brandon Jennings, Aquille Carr, Seventh Woods or Austin Rivers, but John’s is still the best ever. [Ed. Note: This is Abe’s opinion. We don’t have time to debate this here.] In the year 2176, people will still have his mixtape bookmarked. The top comment on YouTube jokes, “Imagine having to guard John Wall after a long day of pre-calc and AP gov,” but that’s really how it was for the Class of 2009.

We dubbed John a future star on the cover of SLAM 128, alongside Lance Stephenson. Soon after, JW linked up with DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and the rest of John Calipari’s first No. 1 recruiting class at Kentucky. As a freshman, he won SEC Player of the Year, was a consensus first-team All-American and was front-and-center on his second SLAM cover, appearing next to his teammates and Coach Cal on the May 2010 ish that immortalized that iconic squad.

It got so crazy at UK that John had to take golf carts to class to avoid mobs of fans. Kids across the country were imitating his signature dance, flexing and twisting at the wrist. Believe it or not, “Do the John Wall” by Troop 41 has even more YouTube views than Wall’s legendary mixtape.

Fitting that John had his own theme song, since his passion for music has always permeated his style. Hell, it influenced us—go back over his cover lines and feature stories in the pages of SLAM over the years, and you’ll see not-so-subtle odes to the likes of DeJ Loaf, Shy Glizzy, Lil Durk and Fetty Wap. That love has always been reciprocated by the artists, too. Put it this way: John Wall is probably your favorite rapper’s favorite NBA player.

Which is why it was no surprise to us when John hit the Dougie during intros of his home NBA debut, immediately capturing the imagination of a new generation of basketball fans—and pissing off old hacks like Colin Cowherd. (The same guy who once scrunched up his face to try to shit on guys like Wall, Russ and Melo by telling a national radio audience: “SLAM Magazine will put on the guy that scores, and has style, and has got some juice to his game.” Word. And?)

Wall’s first solo SLAM cover dropped during his rookie year with the Wiz, followed by another in 2015 and then KICKS 18, shot by the legendary Atiba Jefferson. John’s SLAM covers have chronicled his rise from unknown kid to HS mixtape legend to college star to perennial All-Star with his own signature shoe. And he’s taken us along for the ride every step of the way, the #WallWay. 

Featured image via Getty Images. Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

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“Before Michael Jordan, sneakers were just for playing basketball,” writer Roy S. Johnson said in the Netflix documentary The Last Dance. “All of a sudden, sneakers became fashion and culture.” Indeed, MJ’s marriage with Nike would redefine the sport’s connection with style, creativity and the intersection between hoops and pop culture. And it all began with the Air Jordan I.

The AJ I is even more popular now than it was when it first came out. Nearly 40 years later, the classic silhouette is so special that you see it everywhere from weddings to NFL football fields. The I is made up of the iconic Air Jordan “Wings” logo, the instantly recognizable Swoosh, the leather upper and Nike Air logo on the tongue. The Jordan I got its first re-release in 1994 (one of the first-ever retros, mind you), and in recent years, collabs with the likes of Off-White, Dior and Fragment have kicked the Jordan I’s high-fashion game into overdrive.

It’s perhaps no surprise that the super-OG AJ I would be a favorite among disruptors in fashion and music. After all, this was a sneaker born to shake shit up. See, before the Air Jordan I, basketball shoes were all cookie-cutter, white-based colorways. Sure, maybe the three stripes of your adidas Pro Model or the Swoosh on your Nike Blazer had team accent colors, but that’s about it. When the Air Jordan I burst on the scene in 1985, it was among the first pairs with multiple colors to be worn in the NBA. That might sound funny to you now, but at the time, having so much color on the sneaker was so groundbreaking that it actually violated the League’s uniform policy. Yup, the original black/red colorway of the Nike Air Ship (the style Jordan wore until the I was available) earned Mike a $5,000 fine every time he stepped on the court, which only made the “Banned Is” even more legendary for fans of His Airness.

In 2023, between all the advanced technology available to serious hoopers and the “don’t crease my Js” mentality of most sneakerheads, it’s safe to say the Jordan I is more popular off the court than on it. But in 1985, the Air Jordan I was about as advanced a basketball shoe as you could make, with its newfangled Nike Air cushioning and plush leather quarter panels. And in March 1998, MJ’s final season with Chicago, he pulled out an OG pair of Jordan Is for his last game in a Bulls uniform at The Garden—and promptly dropped 42 points on the Knicks in the Bulls’ 102-89 victory, proving that they were always good enough for the GOAT.

BUY YOUR COPY OF SLAMKICKS PRESENTS TOP 100: THE GREATEST BASKETBALL SNEAKERS OF ALL TIME

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For the first time in a decade, you can read that sentence with a straight face.

And yet, coming into the 2021-22 season, talking heads pegged the Bulls as play-in tournament participants at best. Maybe worse.

The most optimistic prognostications all still had Chicago behind Milwaukee, Brooklyn and Philly. But ESPN’s panel of NBA experts picked Miami, Atlanta, Boston and New York to all finish with better records than the Bulls, too. The Athletic predicted Chicago would finish 11th in the East. The pessimism around the Bulls, from all those sources, seemed to center on an assumption that the team’s newest addition, DeMar DeRozan, and its franchise player, Zach LaVine, weren’t a star pairing that could lead Chicago to more than a .500-ish record.

“Fake experts” is what DeRozan calls them, making air quotes with his fingers. He’s sitting in front of his locker inside the United Center, leaning over into a laptop on Zoom. “Obviously, you hear it all, about how it’s not going to work, this and that. Just every negative. As competitors, you hear all that. That was one of the first conversations we had. I told him, It’s gon’ work. And he said the same thing to me.”

SLAM 236 is available now featuring Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan

They were right. It is working. It’s the first week of January in Chicago, so temps are in the single digits. But the Bulls are the hottest team in the NBA, riding a 9-game winning streak, during which DeRozan became the first player in NBA history to hit game-winning buzzer-beaters on back-to-back nights. At press time, Chicago’s 26-10 record was good for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference—2.5 games up on the Nets and Bucks. DeRozan (26.5 ppg, career-high 36 percent from behind the arc) and LaVine (26.4 ppg) are both top-8 in the NBA in scoring.

Deebo’s resurgence into the national spotlight as a bonafide All-NBA level player is one of the major headlines of this NBA season. DeRozan, now 32, hasn’t made the All-Star Game since 2018, but he leads all Eastern Conference guards in fan voting as of early January. (He’s seen all your “King of the Fourth” memes, by the way—”One thing you can’t miss these days is the internet,” he says with a laugh.)

“I’ve never played with somebody of his caliber,” says LaVine, who was still in Tokyo collecting a Gold medal with Team USA when he got word that a sign-and-trade which would bring DeRozan to Chicago was imminent. A first-time All-Star last season, LaVine is the longest-tenured player on the Bulls roster. Chicago hasn’t finished better than eighth in the East since 2015, and hasn’t won more than 31 games in a season since LaVine arrived in 2017.

At last, the 26-year-old star will get his first taste of playoff basketball this season. Because with DeRozan and LaVine leading the way, Coach Billy Donovan at the helm, and a supporting cast of contributors that includes two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic, playmaking PG Lonzo Ball and sixth man Alex Caruso, the Bulls have rapidly transformed into a top-5 offense and one of the most exciting teams to watch in the League. 

SLAM: How did this Bulls team develop chemistry so fast?

DEMAR DEROZAN: You have high character guys. Everybody respects each other. When you have that foundation, first and foremost, everything else is going to take care of itself on the court. I noticed that on the first day we were all together, it was that feel. Everybody on the team just got a cool demeanor towards ’em. No egos and everybody wants to win.

SLAM: Did you know you guys would find success so quickly?

DD: I knew it would get to this point, at some point, but I’d be lying to you if I told you I expected it to be this fast. We still feel like we haven’t gotten to where we know we can get, that’s the crazy thing.

SLAM: You dropped 38 in a win over the Lakers while Zach was out due to health and safety protocols. Do you circle games like that one and tell yourself that you need to have a big game?

DD: I texted Zach after that game saying, Man, god damn, I’ll be glad when you get back. And vice versa, in games I’ve missed, he told me the same thing. Every game, we lean on and count on each other. Every time I step out there, I want to step out there with him and dominate, and that’s the beauty of our friendship, our teamwork, and just the competitive nature that we have. We want to do it together. There’s never a moment where I feel like I want to go out there without him. I need him there every step of the way.

SLAM: What have you learned about Zach now that you’re around him every day?

DD: You would think he’s older than me. He’s mature. The confidence he has within himself is not arrogant at all, he just knows who he is. That’s a great quality to have, when someone has the utmost confidence in themselves but it doesn’t come off in an arrogant or pushoff way. He’s just one of those dudes that you can hang with, you can talk to about anything. He’s got an old spirit to him, and that’s dope to have. I’ve always been a fan of his, ever since he played in college at UCLA. I told him, I want to see him have everything he deserves. He’s too talented, he’s too gifted to not have the world really know who Zach LaVine is, on and off the court.

SLAM: What would it mean to win a championship playing in the city of Chicago?

DD: Everything. That’s why you go out there and compete. That’s why you figure out what team you could join, which city you could represent. It’s a historic franchise. It’s the team—outside of the Lakers—that I grew up watching. This city being the ultimate sports city that it is, and the love and appreciation that we get for competing for this city, the way we play and the way we carry ourselves is the epitome of what Chicago is. And for that energy to be reciprocated by our fans, it’s only right that we go out there and give them our best every single night. Playing for Chicago has been awesome.

SLAM: What is the ultimate goal for the Bulls this season?

ZACH LAVINE: If you don’t have championship aspirations, you’re selling yourself short. As an individual player, when I step on the court, I think I’m the best player. And I think that’s how your mindset should be, because you put the work in for it. It’s not a cocky thing, that’s just a confidence thing. So, if you don’t think as a team that you’re going to go out there and win every game that you play, or you don’t think you have a chance of winning a championship, there’s no reason to even play. We have championship aspirations, and we’re trying to build championship habits.

SLAM: Some NBA superstars would have an ego about other great players joining “their” team. How did you approach it?

ZL: I never understood that. That’s not me. I’ve been here in Chicago for the last five years doing everything I can to develop my game to get to a place of individual play where I wanted to be at, but it wasn’t resulting in any wins, and that’s very frustrating. To go out there, you put up numbers, you play against these guys, but you don’t have that winning behind your name. Having those new guys over here, we have a complete team now, and I have no ego with that. It’s not my team, or DeMar’s team, or Lonzo, or Vooch. We’re all leaders in our own way, and on any given night it could be one of our nights. Obviously, we each have roles, but our main goal we talked about was “do whatever it takes to win.” Whoever has it going that night, we’ll go through them and just try to help this team grow. We see ourselves as a championship-caliber team.

SLAM: What’s the vibe like in the locker room?

ZL: Everybody is close. Everybody has had to make sacrifices on this team to be successful. We all came from places where—Vooch was a No. 1 option, DeMar was a No. 1 option, I’m a No. 1 option, Zo was the second pick in the draft, Caruso came from championship habits—like, we’re all coming together and meshing our talents together. It’s been really fun to see everybody give a piece of themselves to help the team win.

SLAM: With your Bulls teams having struggled the last few seasons, what does it feel like to find team success this year?

ZL: I’m having the most fun I’ve had in my career. Over the last couple years, it’s been tough for me personally because I try to keep progressing my game, I try to do everything I can do to help the team win. But I feel like in the media, if you’re a successful player on a team that loses, you get criticized for it. It never made sense to me. It’s tough, but all I care about is winning. I want to be a winning player, and having this team this year, playing this well, has been the most fun I’ve had in my career, so I just want to keep it going. We have a bunch of dogs on this team. Practice gets scrappy, in games it gets real scrappy. That’s something I’ve really looked forward to this year because we haven’t had that in the past.

SLAM: You and DeMar have both talked about being doubted in the media. How did those preseason predictions motivate you?

ZL: I use a lot of things for motivation. I’m not the most outspoken person in the media. There’s certain things you don’t need to go out there and talk about, you just let your game do the talking for you. But there were a lot of things said about DeMar coming here. DeMar Derozan is an All-NBA, All-Star caliber player. He’s putting up MVP numbers this year. Obviously, I know who I am as a player, but there’s been a lot of critics about my game and the way I’ve played: Zach’s an empty stat guy because they’re not winning. I think this year, we’re shutting a lot of people up and making them really look at their basketball IQ and seeing how they’re just talking on TV for viewership. Sometimes I feel like that’s what it is.

SLAM: Did you know DeMar was this good before becoming teammates?

ZL: Yeah, DeMar has been this, and DeMar is still in his prime. Even when I was younger in Minnesota going up against him, they were the No. 1 seed in the East. [Toronto] ran into LeBron James multiple years in his prime, but DeMar DeRozan is a multiple-time All-Star guy. It’s not like that guy left. It’s weird how the narrative changes. So, when you have the chance to have a guy like that come to your team in the prime of his career, and me entering the prime of mine, I think it was a match made in heaven. 

SLAM 236 is also available in these exclusive gold and black metal editions. Shop now.

Portraits by Joe Pinchin.

The post Bull Market: DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine Cover SLAM 236 appeared first on SLAM.

He was done. The lasting image of “The Last Shot” was the perfect exclamation point to Michael Jordan’s legacy. The greatest player to ever pick up a basketball had ended his NBA career on the highest possible note any player could.

Thing about Mike, though. He had this itch.

A year after his second retirement from the League, Jordan popped up as a minority owner and president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards. As a front office exec, Michael was tasked with putting together a roster, managing the cap, making draft picks and whatever other paper-pushing the guys in suits do up there in the owner’s box. But every morning, he’d make his way down to the locker room or the trainer’s tables with his coffee. He’d chat with vets like Popeye Jones and Hubert Davis, shoot the shit. He was itching.

In September 2001, two weeks after the 9/11 attacks shook the nation’s capital, Jordan announced his intention to return to the hardwood after three seasons away. He divested his ownership stake in the team and showed up at Wizards media day as a 38-year-old player.

“It’s an itch that still needs to be scratched here and I want to make sure this scratch doesn’t bother me for the rest of my life,” he told the assembled reporters at the MCI Center. “What if I’m tired of playing in the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club and I want to step up to the elite competition?

“I’m just going to play the game of basketball that I love. I’m not about the money. I don’t care if I get paid a dime,” Mike continued. “I’m going to play the game because I love it.” (And yes, Jordan’s track record as a Wizards executive is well-documented. Just a few months prior, he’d famously selected Kwame Brown straight out of high school with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 Draft, a decision that can only really be described as a huge misfire. But let’s separate Jordan the player from Jordan the GM, at least for a few hundred words, shall we?)

Doug Collins, who’d previously coached Michael in Chicago, was installed as the Wizards’ head coach and Washington held training camp in Jordan’s hometown that October, at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Outside of Mike and budding star Richard Hamilton, the Wizards came into the ’01-02 season with a funky mélange of promising young talent and steady, if plodding, veterans. For everyone on the roster, those first few practices with Jordan were surreal. “He would get the ball and we would all just stand around and watch,” recalls Jones. “Whether I was on his team or not.”

Off the court, traveling with Michael Jordan also took some getting used to, as his god-like status precipitated a rockstar lifestyle on the road for an otherwise humdrum Wizards team. Then-rookie center Etan Thomas remembers fans who would fight through crowds just for a high-five from Jordan, then look at their hand like it was made of solid gold. “It was like traveling with Michael Jackson or something,” says Thomas. “I saw people look at him and just start crying, craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Jordan’s personal trainer, Tim Grover, traveled with the Wizards on the road, too. Every morning at 7 a.m., they’d find a health club near the team hotel to go work out, like clockwork. Every morning. Every city. Every practice. He was no longer doing it with the iconic black-and-red Bulls gear on his back, but as Davis puts it: “He was Michael.”

Davis and Jordan both played at UNC (where Davis is now an assistant coach) and had competed in heated Bulls-Knicks playoff battles during the ’90s. But seeing the daily work ethic, preparation and competitiveness up close was something different. Davis remembers his jumper catching fire one day in practice when the two were paired up on the same team.

“I was practicing really well, I was hitting everything. So Michael switched jerseys and went to the other team and he guarded me. For the rest of the practice, not only did I not score, I didn’t even get a shot off,” Davis says. “I just was like, What is wrong with you? We’re on the same team! You’re that competitive that you want to compete against me? I’m a role player. You’re the best that’s ever played. He said, This is no different than playing in Game 7 of the NBA Finals—competing is competing. Some people turn it off and turn it on. For him, he never turned it off.”

Jones, now an assistant with the Indiana Pacers, recalls a practice later on during the 2001-02 season when MJ was scoring so easily—looking like Prime Chicago Bulls MJ—that Collins stopped the scrimmage and instructed him not to shoot anymore.

“We started scrimmaging again,” Jones explains, “and Michael had the same aggression he usually had scoring the ball, but he looked like John Stockton or Magic Johnson. I was astonished that he had that kind of vision. He was still attacking, but he wouldn’t shoot—he was kicking it out for threes or dropping it off to the bigs in the paint for dunks and layups. I remember after practice saying to him, I had no idea you could pass that way. He just looked at me and said, Oh, I can pass. I see everything. I just want to score.”

And score he did. If you thought it would take Mike a few games to shake the rust off, you must be forgetting who we’re talking about here.

“I think it was one of our first preseason games, we were playing down in Miami,” Jones says. “We’re in the tunnel getting ready to come out, and he says, ‘I’m gonna show you boys how to get 20 points in a quarter and then I’m gonna go sit down.’ At the end of the first quarter, he had 18 points.”

When the regular season started, Jordan delivered six 30-plus point performances before the calendar flipped to December. Then he hung 51 on Charlotte and 45 on New Jersey in back-to-back games in December. Then 40 and 41 against Cleveland and Phoenix in back-to-back outings in January.

Pause for a second. Remember, this man is almost 40 years old. Out here dropping 40-and-50-burgers in back-to-back games in the National Basketball Association. Absolutely unstoppable. Dudes don’t do this. Ever. It cannot be done.

Bobby Simmons, a rookie second-rounder on the Wizards that season, says Jordan was like “a magician.”

Jordan was legitimately in the MVP conversation for a fleeting few weeks as the All-Star break approached. Hell, he had the Wizards hovering above .500 after winning just 19 games the year before. But a knee injury that required surgery effectively ended his season early. Playing in 60 games, Jordan averaged 22.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game, playing 35 minutes a night. MJ led the Wizards in scoring and made the Eastern Conference All-Star team. At that point in the season, Kobe Bryant was the only other player in the League averaging 25, 5 and 5.

“The year that I played with him with the Wizards, he dominated every practice and he dominated in every game,” says Davis. “It didn’t matter if we were playing Philadelphia with Allen Iverson, or the Los Angeles Lakers with Kobe and Shaq. Every game that I played with the Wizards with Michael—there wasn’t a game when he wasn’t the best player on the floor. We just didn’t have a very good team.”

The Wizards flipped Davis, Simmons and Hamilton for Pistons All-Star Jerry Stackhouse during the summer of 2002, and added swingman Larry Hughes in free agency. Jordan scored 40 or more points three times in that second Wizards season, becoming the first 40-year-old in League history to score 40+ in a game. He played in all 82 games, averaging 20 ppg and 6 rpg, but the Wizards failed to make the playoffs again, and it became clear that Mike’s knees wouldn’t hold up much longer.

Vince Carter gifted Jordan his starting spot in the 2003 All-Star Game, which morphed into a full-on celebration of MJ’s legendary career (shouts to Mariah Carey’s classic halftime show performance). Fittingly, he even hit an iconic clutch fadeaway jumper late in the game, too.

At his first press conference as a player in Washington, Mike had said he wanted to lock horns with the next generation of elite NBA players: “You say the young dogs are going to chase me around? Well, I’m not going to bark too far away from them either. I’m not running from nobody. If anything, it’ll be a great challenge for me. I’m not saying I can take Kobe Bryant, or I can take Tracy McGrady. You guys are the ones saying they can take me. All good and fine. I’m pretty sure they’re sitting back and welcome the challenge. Guess what, I’m sitting back and welcome the challenge, too.”

Set aside all the other bullshit, the revisionist history, the unraveling of whatever half-hearted Wizards rebuild was in progress, and that’s what Mike’s Wizards comeback was all about, at its core. Did he prove he was up to the challenge? Shaq said, “He still has it.” Paul Pierce said, “Jordan at this age is better than about 90 percent of the players today.”

The unfolding of Jordan’s second un-retirement doesn’t hold iconic status like his “I’m back” fax in 1995, or come with the hardware of his first dramatic return to the court. Without question, those two seasons in Washington will forever serve as curious punctuation to the most legendary career in NBA history. Mike’s longtime agent David Falk says that at the time, he didn’t want MJ to come back: “I just didn’t think it was a good dessert to a great meal.” It was a sentiment shared by many friends and fans. But the more years that pass, the easier it is to forget just how much of a killer Michael Jordan still was on the court, even at 40 years old.

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM PRESENTS JORDAN HERE

Abe Schwadron is a social editor at FanDuel and former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Photos via Getty.

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LIVE FROM MADISON STREET: Zach LaVine Talks Playing in Chicago

—

Freezing.

That’s the best way to describe Chicago in February, most years. We’re talking that long-underwear-wearing, seeing-your-breath, can’t-hardly-go-outside type cold that you feel in your bones. But in February of 1988, the last time NBA All-Star Weekend came to the Windy City, there was no hotter ticket.

The main event was Saturday night’s Dunk Contest: Michael Jordan vs. Dominique Wilkins. Jordan and Wilkins had squared off in the 1985 Slam Dunk Contest when MJ was just a rookie, with Nique taking home the hardware. But injuries starved fans of the much-awaited rematch for three years. Spud Webb won in ’86 with MJ sitting out, and Wilkins didn’t participate when Jordan won it in ’87. The drama built and built, as finally the high-flying duo would face off in Chicago. Mind you, these weren’t just the two best dunkers in the NBA at the time, but also the League’s top two leading scorers that season.

Of course, in 1988, there was no texting, no Instagram highlight pages to see NBA highlights instantly (horrifying, right?). For the players, short of checking the box scores in the newspaper every morning, All-Star Weekend was the only real time during a season to check in with your friends from around the League. That made it equal parts competitive basketball and fun-as-hell bonding session. Which is why, starting in Denver at the 1984 All-Star festivities, future Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson rallied the other perennial participants in the game to sit courtside during the Saturday night events, just to kick it and support their (freakishly athletic) peers.

“It’s funny, when we talk about the framers of the Constitution, in terms of Ben Franklin, John Adams, so forth and so on,” says Thomas, reflecting on the evolution of that tradition, “I look at what we did in the sport of basketball, particularly around the All-Star Game—Magic and I were kind of framers of that weekend, in terms of how people participate, look at it and play in the game.”

Best believe Zeke, Magic and the rest of the All-Stars were on the hardwood for the Dunk Contest in ’88. NBA Senior Photographer Nat Butler also had a courtside seat that night, from which he captured iconic flicks of MJ soaring toward the hoop, tongue hanging out, rocking the Air Jordan IIIs. “Anytime MJ did anything in that building, the old Chicago Stadium was just so loud and noisy,” Butler recalls. “And that night it was fans—it was not All-Star corporate suits and stuff. It was Chicago Bulls fans. Basketball fans.”

The atmosphere was set. Everyone was in position. And then the show began. Nique and MJ made quick work of the rest of the field to advance to the finals. Wilkins then promptly earned back-to-back perfect 50s for a tomahawk slam off the backboard and a ridiculous windmill from the baseline. It was like Nique really hated the rim and was giving that thing a beating with every monster slam. Mike’s first two dunks in the finals were equally jaw-dropping—a 50 for a double-pump between his legs from the left side, and a 47 for an air-walking jam from the right side that really made it look like he could fly.

“Had we not had the benefit of replay to watch it over, your eyes couldn’t catch in real time what they really had done in the air,” says Thomas, thinking back to the epic dunk display. “Your eye really couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.”

When Wilkins got a 45 for his third and final dunk, MJ suddenly had an opening to win it. But he’d need something special, something to cement his victory that night and his place in history as a two-time dunk champion, plus bragging rights over Nique. “I found the guy who started it all. Dr. J was sitting over there,” Jordan would say afterward. “He was looking at me and he pointed, like, Go back and do the free-throw line.”

Jordan actually missed his first attempt. But on the second try, he gave himself a running start the length of the entire 94 feet of the court, took off from the foul line, cocked the ball back midway through the air, and dunked it FTW. The Chicago crowd went apeshit.

“Michael was always very wise to the importance of certain moments,” as Butler puts it.

The enduring legacy of the greatest Slam Dunk Contest in history makes it easy to forget that another all-time NBA great delivered a signature ASW moment of his own on the same floor about an hour earlier. In fact, Butler remembers Larry Bird’s 3-Point Shootout performance as the more electric event that night.

“Obviously most people think of Jordan winning the Dunk Contest, and I’m a huge MJ guy, but for me, Bird winning the 3-Point Contest was crazy exciting,” he says. “Bird was talking shit like he always does beforehand, and the simple fact he never took off his warm-up jacket was so cool to me. And then walking off with the Joe Namath finger in the air, not saying a word, just the finger in the air. To me, that was such a Larry Bird moment.”

You see, Bird had won the 3-Point Contest—or the Long Distance Shootout, as it was still referred to in those days—in 1986 and 1987, the first two years the NBA ever held the competition. He owned this event. “Larry walks in and says, ‘I hope all you guys in here are thinking about second place, because I’m winning this,’” Lakers guard Michael Cooper famously told ESPN.

When All-Star arrived in Chicago, Bird defeated a field that included Danny Ainge, Dale Ellis, Craig Hodges, Mark Price, Detlef Schrempf and Byron Scott without even taking his warm-up off. No, really—dude did the whole contest with his shooting shirt on, like it was light work. (It was.)

He drained the last three shots from his last rack in the finals against Ellis, and on the last shot, he was already walking away holding one finger in the air, not even looking at the hoop anymore, when it splashed through the net. Cash.

“He didn’t take off his top yet. I’d hate to see when he takes off his top,” Jordan told the cameras watching backstage. With a third straight victory in dramatic fashion, it meant there was—at that time in history—still no one to ever win the 3-Point Contest whose name wasn’t Larry Bird.

“It’s a little bit harder than it looks,” Bird told the late Craig Sager on the TV broadcast afterward. No one believed him.

Sunday’s All-Star Game was icing on the cake. Jordan scored 40 points, including 16 in the final six minutes, to lead the East to a 138-133 victory. The West didn’t even get to within 8 until a couple cheap buckets in what was a meaningless final minute. But the way Jordan’s East teammate Doc Rivers remembers it, Mike was pissed it was even that close.

“The thing I remember the most about [Jordan] is the halftime speech at the All-Star Game,” Rivers, a Chicago native, told the Chicago Tribune in 2013. “Barkley was laughing; a couple of guys were joking around. He basically informed us that we were going to win the game. And whoever didn’t feel that way shouldn’t play in the second half.”

Thomas, always the competitor, finished with 15 assists—8 of them to Jordan. On the other side, Johnson had 19 dimes for the West squad. “Magic and I always took it upon ourselves to make sure that we had the hometown crowd involved,” says Thomas, who himself grew up on the West Side of Chicago before leading the Detroit Pistons to a pair of NBA titles. “If you look at any of the All-Star Games, we always tried to make sure the hometown person, whoever he was, we always tried to make sure that those players shined. It was very easy to play to Jordan, because he was the best player and he was the crowd favorite.”

Michael added 8 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 blocks and 3 assists in just under 30 minutes of court time, earning unanimous MVP honors in his home arena. “In a league of stars, in a game of stars, you were the star of stars,” the late David Stern told MJ during the post-game trophy presentation.

It capped off an All-Star Weekend consisting of the greatest Slam Dunk Contest ever, an iconic 3-Point Contest, and a Sunday game that featured the greatest to ever do it dropping 40 to win MVP.

—

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Abe Schwadron is a social editor at FanDuel and former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Photos via Getty.

The post ALL OF THE LIGHTS: Remembering 1988 All-Star Weekend in Chicago appeared first on SLAM.

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The merchandise mart in downtown Chicago is the largest privately held commercial building in the United States. It’s a building so damn big, it literally had its own zip code until 2008. The south side of the Mart overlooks the Chicago River, where tour boats float past year-round, kayaks come out in the summer and the water’s dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day. On the north side of the Mart, in the shadow of the El train between Franklin Street and Wells Street, there’s a famously delicious, but eminently inconspicuous speakeasy-style steakhouse called Bavette’s.

This is one of Zach LaVine’s favorite restaurants in Chicago. You might find him ordering a steak here on an off-day, if he isn’t at home playing video games with his boys or out catching a movie with his girlfriend. Since arriving in a 2017 Draft-day trade in exchange for Jimmy Butler, the Seattle native has made the Windy City his home—and we know this, because he knows about Bavette’s.

The streetwise Bulls star won’t turn 25 until March and yet, in his sixth season, he’s an elder statesman on a roster that features only two players (Thaddeus Young and Otto Porter Jr) with more years of NBA experience. “It’s just how the NBA works now,” LaVine points out, “but it is kinda weird saying that I’m a veteran.”

With a 19-33 record as of this writing, the Bulls look unlikely to seriously contend for a playoff spot in 2020, but LaVine is still having a great season. Yes, the out-of-this-world dunks are what he’s recognized for around the globe, but with the newfound responsibility of being the lead dog in Chicago, he’s worked on his D, his shooting and his leadership to round into much more than just a dunker.

To go along with a career-best 24.9 ppg in this, his third season with the Bulls, LaVine is averaging 4.9 rpg and 4.0 apg. Not to mention his alien-type bounce and that je ne sais quoi silkiness to Zach’s game that makes it look like he’s hardly breaking a sweat when he’s lighting someone up for 30+, often with a dazzling mix of long-range bombs and twisting finishes at the rim.

“As easy as it looks on TV, it’s that easy,” Bulls teammate Shaq Harrison says with a laugh. “It still amazes me how easy it is for him.”

It’s a Saturday afternoon in January, about a month before NBA All-Star Weekend descends on Chicago, and last night was one of those nights for LaVine: he erupted for 43 points against the Pacers, albeit in a loss. “I can’t say it enough, Zach LaVine is a problem,” Dwyane Wade tweeted afterward. “I can’t wait to watch him over the next few years blossom.”

The team landed in Detroit around 1:30 a.m., so LaVine slept in before heading down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. A few hours from now, he’ll lead the Bulls to a much-needed win over the Pistons with a game-high 25. In between bites of salmon and rice, LaVine reflects on the evolution of his game, how he’s matured since entering the NBA as a teenager, and what it’s like to play every home game in the stadium that MJ built.

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SLAM: How have you changed as a person since entering the NBA?

ZL: Tremendously. Coming into the NBA at a young age, at 19, the League grows you up. You can still be a kid, but you’re dealing with grown men, and you’re trying to be a professional. I feel like I’m in a different place now. I’m still young, I’m 24, I don’t have any kids, but I’ve got a really stable relationship, me and my girlfriend. I feel like a more mature person, not just with basketball, but in my personal life.

SLAM: What did you struggle with in your first few years in the League, looking back?

ZL: It’s all just learning experiences. There’s growing pains, there are ups and downs, especially as a rookie or in your second year. Playing the point guard position my first two years helped me out a lot. I don’t think I was, conventionally, an extremely good point guard, but it helped me make reads, helped me learn what to do with the ball. Me playing both point guard and shooting guard now, I feel like that experience helped me.

SLAM: How did you handle being traded from Minnesota to Chicago as a 22-year-old?

ZL: I had some help. My family is a big part of who I am and what I do. My dad was a professional football player [Paul LaVine played briefly with the Seattle Seahawks in the late ’80s. —Ed.], he’s been through the pro life, so I was a step ahead coming in, and I’m thankful for it. I understand it’s part of the business, and that it didn’t work out in Minnesota, even though I pretty much blew up there. But you understand how basketball works with trades and free agency and stuff like that. I was welcomed with open arms in Chicago, and I’m trying to do the best I can here.

SLAM: Your dad became an internet sensation last summer when you posted a video of him coaching you in a workout. How did he react to going viral?

ZL: He gets mad at me when we record sometimes. He was like, “Man why are you always making me look crazy?” He’s such a funny dude, he acts like that 100 percent of the time. My girlfriend was recording what we were doing, it’s just organic, that’s how we interact. He talks a lot, but that’s my best friend in the world. We’ve been through a lot together.

SLAM: On the court, what’s different about playing with the Bulls now as opposed to your first three years in Minnesota?

ZL: It was just a different type of opportunity coming here, being able to be a premier guy, a No. 1 option. In Minnesota, it was me, Karl [Anthony Towns] and Andrew [Wiggins]. I had to play a role—some games I was able to showcase my talents, but I was pretty much the third option, and I had to play my role on the team, and you have to understand that when you’re on a team. But I think here, I’m able to show my entire game.

SLAM: What would you say is the best part about playing in Chicago?

ZL: It’s just such a historic franchise. We’re in a little bit of a downslope right now, we started the rebuilding process and right now we’re underachieving to what we thought our goals for the year were. But it’s a great opportunity to help get this franchise back to a place where it should be—a top-3 franchise, a top-3 market in the world. The fan base here is incredible. What’s not to love? It’s a great city.

SLAM: What’s it like to look up in the United Center every night and see No. 23 hanging in the rafters?

ZL: That’s the best player ever. It’s inspiration to me. I feel like everybody in my generation was a big Michael Jordan fan. I watched all his videos—Michael Jordan’s Playground, His Airness—all those different VHS movies that kids don’t know about nowadays [laughs]. When I grew up, when I was a little kid, it was on a VCR, so we’d pause or rewind it and then go outside and try to do the same dunks, re-enact it. I think that’s what makes basketball so cool—there’s so many different things that can inspire you when you’re younger.

SLAM: How do you react when you hear people say you’re “just a dunker?” Does it bother you?

ZL: If you’re in the NBA, I think you know what I’m about. It’s funny, I remember this from when I was younger with Vince Carter. It’s just how fans see you. We’re not a team that’s on ESPN every day. We have some ESPN games, but the only time that global, regular fans are seeing you is the Dunk Contest. I don’t blame anybody, it’s not a bad thing to be known as [laughs]. People still don’t really understand how good Vince Carter was, or Dominique Wilkins, dudes that scored 26-27 points a game—All-Star, All-NBA guys. Because when you think of Vince Carter, you think of the Dunk Contest. It’s a little unfortunate, but I know what I’m about. I know how good I am. I know how much work I put in during the offseason. I don’t go out here and just dunk the basketball, it’s just one facet of my game. But I enjoy putting on a show for the fans.

SLAM: What career goals have you set for yourself?

ZL: I want to be a winning player first. I want to be in the playoffs. With that comes the All-Star selections, the All-NBA selections, being in the MVP conversation. I think it’s the same goals for most players, it’s just—can you achieve them? 

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Abe Schwadron is a social editor at FanDuel and former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Photos via Getty.

The post LIVE FROM MADISON STREET: Zach LaVine Talks Playing in Chicago appeared first on SLAM.

The legendary hip-hop producer—he’s made beats for Jay-Z, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and pretty much every other big rapper in the industry over the last 15 years—has also been a professor at Duke since 2010, teaching courses like “Hip-Hop History” and “Hip-Hop Cinema” in the African & African American Studies department.

Despite growing up in nearby Winston-Salem, 9th Wonder didn’t become a diehard Duke fan until the early ’90s, when the Blue Devils won back-to-back titles and reached the national championship game in three out of four years. Some 20 years later when 9th started teaching at Duke, he received a Twitter DM from the star of those Duke teams: Grant Hill. 9th invited Hill—a beatmaker in his own right—to come by his studio and kick it. Hill brought along his old friend and then-Duke assistant coach Jeff Capel, and through Capel, 9th eventually met Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

“He talks about my Instagram a lot,” 9th says of Coach K, who is now a friend. “Like he’ll say, Man, you put a lot of stuff on your Instagram. Because he’s a lurker on the ’Gram. Nobody knows this guy’s IG. He’s on there.”

Coach K is right—9th is constantly posting about Duke hoops on social media, bragging about his Blue Devils. “Arguably, we’re the most watched team in basketball,” the professor explains. “Probably the only team that’s watched more than us is the Golden State Warriors. Whether you are a Duke hater or supporter, you are watching us.”

Over the years, 9th has built relationships with future pros who have passed through the Duke program, from Jabari Parker to Jayson Tatum, and they stay in touch. But it’s always in his capacity as a teacher first and a fan second. Seth Curry and Miles Plumlee were among his first students, and this year he’s spotted Tre Jones and Zion Williamson in his classes, too.

“I may swing by a practice or two, just to see what’s going on and just say what’s up. I definitely go to the games. But the majority of the time, my interaction with those players is in my classroom,” he explains. “You gotta do my work, bruh. Like, Where’s that paper? What’s up with that presentation, though?”

The bravest Blue Devils have even shown up at 9th’s studio to rap for him. Marvin Bagley III could really rhyme, 9th says. There’s an unreleased track featuring Parker, Amile Jefferson and Rasheed Sulaimon all rapping stashed away somewhere in his studio. Grayson Allen stopped by once. And this past summer when 9th met high school stars Cole Anthony, Armando Bacot and Cassius Stanley at Nike EYBL’s Peach Jam, they all wanted to spit for him, too. “Everyone claims they got bars,” he laughs.

Bars or not, the door to his studio is always open. “I’m in academia, but I also care about the culture these guys receive. They’re already receiving an amazing basketball culture, but the other side of things, I’m very cognizant of giving them that.”

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Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Photo by Jon Lopez.

The post How Producer and Professor 9th Wonder Influences Duke’s Basketball Stars 🔵😈 appeared first on SLAM.

Bo Jackson was like Superman crossed with the Hulk. He was so good at baseball and football that he just said screw it and went pro in both—at the same time. Which, you may be thinking, is definitely impressive but not totally unheard of. You’d be thinking wrong. Consider: Bo won the Heisman Trophy in 1985, then was an All-Star outfielder in Major League Baseball in 1989 and a Pro Bowl running back in the NFL in 1990. The only cat in history ever to make it to the All-Star Game in both sports. His offseason was spent playing another professional sport at the highest level. And not just riding the bench, but beating everyone’s ass every single game, pulling off athletic feats that reached mythical proportions. Climbing up walls to rob home runs for the Royals and running over entire defenses to score touchdowns for the Raiders. Moments that would have broken the internet nightly, had it existed, were the norm for Jackson.

In 1990, at the height of Bo’s powers, an ABC 20/20 report noted that his “extraordinary two-sport career has made him the most recognized and sought-after athlete spokesperson today.” Pepsi and AT&T were cutting checks. The good people at the Swoosh were no dummies, either. As crazy as it seems now, Nike was No. 2 in the sneaker game in the mid-‘80s, trailing Reebok. And, before Bo came along, cross-training sneakers didn’t exist.

Given Jackson’s insane work ethic and training regimen, he was a natural fit to lead Nike’s foray into cross training. Never mind that he’d never play a single down in the NFL or dig in for one at-bat in the MLB wearing these shoes (although he was so damn good, he coulda traded his cleats in for sandals and probably still washed everyone). When Nike created the legendary “Bo Knows” commercials in the late ‘80s, it was the perfect storm of world-famous athlete and iconic advertising. Fittingly, the first “Bo Knows” ad aired during the ’89 MLB ASG, after Bo hit a homer in the first inning, and before he eventually took home MVP honors for the night. It’s a slogan so good that it became a part of mainstream culture, and remains a popular expression to this day.

With Bo the face of the effort, Nike singlehandedly ushered in cross-training as a category. And as soon as the kicks hit retail shelves—we’re talking instant classics like the Air Trainer 1 and Air Trainer SC—Nike immediately dominated 80 percent of the cross-training sneaker market, according to Ad Age. Thanks in large part to the contributions of Jackson and a decent hooper by the name of Michael Jordan, Nike rose to top dog in the sneaker world with a bang. Jordan and his sneakers enjoyed more long-lasting appeal, sure, but Bo’s sneakers got cameos in Spike Lee movies and even in The Simpsons.

“It’s a trendsetter,” Jackson said of the Nike Air Trainer SC during an event celebrating its re-release back in 2010. “In order to bring this shoe back 20 some-odd years after it first came on the market, there has to be something special about this shoe. To have my name and my reputation associated with this, it’s a blessing.”

Cross-training became Nike’s driving motif to kick off the ‘90s, as the company took hold of the industry by marketing itself as an overall athletic performance brand. Pitching the public on an all-around sneaker was a hell of a lot easier with the co-sign of a legendary two-sport star like Bo Jackson.

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Order your copy of KICKS 21 at our online store!

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post KICKS HALL OF FAME: Bo Jackson, You Already Know 🏆 appeared first on SLAM.

KICKS 21 is “The List Issue.” These rankings put an end (or beginning) to every hot debate in the world of sneakers. 

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Vince Carter. LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. Michael Jordan. Allen Iverson. Tracy McGrady.

The 10 most “2000s” basketball sneakers: 

1. AND1 Tai Chi

2. Nike Shox BB4

3. Nike Air Zoom Generation

4. Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2K4

5. Nike Hyperdunk

6. adidas The Kobe/Crazy 1

7. Nike Zoom Kobe IV

8. Air Jordan XVII

9. Reebok Answer IV

10. adidas TMAC II

Other lists from KICKS 21:
Michael Jordan’s 3 Most Influential Sneakers
The 20 Best Sneaker Commercials
The 8 Hottest KICKS of 2018 (So Far)
The 15 Best UA Colorways of 2017-18
The 15 Best LeBron 15 Colorways of 2017-18
The WNBA’s 25 Biggest Sneakerheads
Three Reasons Why Kyrie Irving’s Signature Sneaker Line Is Important
All 106 Sneakers That PJ Tucker Wore in the 2017-18 Season
Three Reasons Why Matters
The 13 Best Jordans of 2017-18 (That PJ Tucker Didn’t Wear)
10 Best Hip-Hop Sneaker Brand Collaborations

The post The 10 Most ‘2000s’ Basketball Sneakers appeared first on SLAM.

He played high school ball at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem, NY, and then in college at SUNY-Canton in upstate New York. After graduating, he worked at downtown apparel boutique AllSaints in SoHo and then as an elementary school program coordinator, before turning his attention full-time to music earlier this year.

That decision coincided, perhaps serendipitously, with another decision: that of LeBron James’ free agency.

“I’ve always been a huge LeBron James fan,” Khaliente says. “So when he signed with the Lakers, my block and my friends were like, ‘Oh you gonna be a Lakers fan now,’ and I jokingly said I’ve always been a Lakers fan. I ran with it and started calling myself ‘Big Laker.’”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq3Od7sAKTm/

Two of those aforementioned friends are names any fan of hoops, rap or both will recognize: Isaiah Washington and Sheck Wes.

Washington—the most prominent face of the JellyFam movement and now a sophomore point guard at the University of Minnesota—and Khaliente (whose real name is Khalid) have known each other since the latter was 15 years old, and collaborated to curate the 2018 Jelly Day event in Harlem over the summer.

Wes, meanwhile, is another young artist from Harlem who himself rode the wave of an NBA-inspired song (“Mo Bamba”) to newfound fame in 2018. Khaliente says they’ve been friends for three years now, and lists Wes among the artists who inspire him most, along with Drake, Tupac and YG.

In fact, the inspiration for “Big Laker” the song, produced by Fly Melodies, was sparked one night backstage at a Sheck Wes concert. “Sheck is a huge Kevin Durant fan,” Khaliente explains. “He was trying to argue that Kevin Durant is better than LeBron. Him and Ballo (Sheck’s childhood friend and current assistant) both started double-teaming me, so then I told them that I’mma make a Laker song and put they names in it. I wrote it that night.”

The track itself is an all-out LakeShow anthem. If nothing else, this song deserves to ring out at Staples Center for as long as the Lakers’ season lasts in 2019. At one point, he raps: “Like Javale McGee, I go stupid on this beat. And like I’m Ron Artest, how I gave the World Peace.”

Khaliente goes on to shout out not only current Lakers like Rajon Rondo, Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley and (of course) LeBron James, but also a handful of Laker legends, including Lamar Odom, Phil Jackson, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal—with the familiar “I been ballin’ like a Big Laker” refrain throughout. That the song is centered around one of the most legendary franchises in NBA history is no accident. Khaliente holds himself to the same gold standard when it comes to his music.

“I want to be one of the greats when it’s all said and done,” insists Khaliente, who promises that a full mixtape is coming Spring 2019, with more singles on the way even sooner. “But what’s most important to me is being able to give back to my community and inspire the youth.”

For more from Khaliente, follow him on SoundCloud and Instagram.

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Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post ‘Big Laker’: Rapper Khaliente’s New Track Is the LakeShow Anthem of 2019 🔊 appeared first on SLAM.

And yet, none of those things can erase one fundamental truth of life: moving stinks. Because for as great as Julius Randle’s summer was, and for excited as he is to start fresh in a new city, there was no escaping this most unenviable chore.

“Moving and packing up stuff sucks,” Randle says, laughing into his cell phone.

Today, about a week before his official introduction at Pelicans Media Day, he’s back in Los Angeles, grabbing the last of his prized possessions from his previous home before returning to his new one in New Orleans for good, along with his wife and infant son. “Putting stuff in boxes, putting it on the truck and finding the company to ship the cars and your stuff, that’s the part that sucks. Other than that, it’s exciting for us to have a new journey, a new start and to finally get there. It’s just the process of actually moving that sucks.”

During a summer full of headline-splashing signings, Randle’s move flew under the radar. After spending his first four NBA seasons with the Lakers, the 23-year-old signed a two-year, $18 million deal with a player option to join the Pels (he can choose to become an unrestricted free agent next summer).

Randle was caught right in the middle of a wild game of NBA musical chairs this offseason. The Lakers renounced his restricted free agent rights one day after LeBron James announced he was heading to Los Angeles, allowing Randle to sign with New Orleans. Rajon Rondo, who ran point for the Pelicans last season, joined LeBron in L.A. Meanwhile, All-Star big man DeMarcus Cousins was leaving New Orleans to ink with the world champion Warriors, despite facing a long road back from injury. Charting player movement this summer—even just between Hollywood and The Big Easy alone—was like that Zach Galifianakis math GIF IRL.

Once the dust settled, though, and the bigger names had landed in new locales, it was clear that Randle was highly (albeit perhaps quietly) sought-after around the League for his unique blend of skills. ESPN’s Marc Spears reported last week that at least 25 teams showed interest in Randle before he signed with the Pelicans.

So why did Randle land on New Orleans?

“It was a complete basketball decision,” he tells SLAM. “It had nothing to do with anything else. It was about me the basketball player, and where I see myself fitting long-term, to bring the best out of me as a player—and where I can win. They were building something pretty special before I got here. It was a complete basketball decision and that’s all I was really focused on.”

He’s right. When Boogie went down with an Achilles injury in late January, the Pelicans went all-in on running and spacing the floor, finishing the 2017-18 regular season as the NBA’s No. 1 team in Pace. After a surprising sweep of Portland in the first round of the 2018 Playoffs, New Orleans lost in five games to the Warriors, but along the way, Golden State shooting guard Klay Thompson called playing against the Pelicans “tiring” and “kind of like playing ourselves.” Of course, the Pelicans are not the Warriors. But the up-and-down style is one that Randle feels he can flourish in—and his new head coach agrees.

“We’re excited about Julius because he can do some of the things as far as playmaking that DeMarcus could do. I think he can push the basketball,” New Orleans head man Alvin Gentry told reporters at Pelicans Media Day. “The pace is not going to be a problem. Obviously [Lakers head coach] Luke [Walton] is kind of from the same school I am, from a pace standpoint and [being recent assistant coaches at] Golden State. We’ll give [Randle] an opportunity to continue to play in the open court. I think that was the thing that was most attractive to him.”

Indeed, the 6-9, 250-pound forward’s full arsenal was on display on Sunday night in Chicago, as he racked up 15 points, five boards, five dimes and a blocked shot in 25 minutes of preseason action against the Bulls. “I think people sleep on his passing,” added Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday at Media Day, himself the beneficiary of a nifty Randle assist on Sunday. “I think it’ll be big for us. He’s an athletic big who likes to run.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrnzlbVXdow

For Randle, who averaged a career-high 16.1 points and 8.0 rebounds as the only Laker to play in all 82 games during 2017-18, seeking out a new team was a chance to pinpoint a system that suits his skills.

“Seeing the style of play, how they play fast—I feel like that really just fits my style and how I want to play basketball,” says Randle, citing the Pelicans’ top-3 finish in team assists last season. “Coach Gentry gives you a lot of freedom, lets you go and play. It says a lot when a coach gives you that kind of freedom but guys still play extremely unselfish and play winning basketball. That said it all to me.”

Holiday and Davis are the franchise cornerstones, and with Nikola Mirotic raining threes as a stretch-four, Randle bringing his versatility to both ends, and tons of depth in the form of E’Twaun Moore, Elfrid Payton, Ian Clark, Solomon Hill and others, the Pelicans look primed to ratchet things up a notch this season, determined to make themselves known as serious contenders in the West.

X’s and O’s aside, there was one other factor that may have swayed Randle during his brief free agency: A phone conversation he had with Davis, a fellow Kentucky alum who he’s known for a while now.

“That was the first person I called,” says Randle. What exactly was said during that phone call he won’t disclose, but Randle categorizes both he and AD as dynamic bigs. “So being able to get up and down the floor, play with speed and pace, and our skillsets, I feel like it’ll be a dangerous thing for opposing teams this year.”

Davis—one of the most dominant forces in the game right now—is happy to have Randle on board, too. “He’s very competitive,” Davis said at Media Day. “He doesn’t stop, so I’m excited about playing alongside him this year.”

For all the excitement about joining the Pelicans, it’s admittedly still a little bittersweet for Randle to leave Los Angeles. The Dallas, TX native spent the bulk of the summer there even after signing with New Orleans, flying back and forth for weeks at a time to get his new crib in order. And in doing so, he had time to think about the friendships built on what was a Lakers roster in flux—Randle spent his first two seasons playing alongside Kobe Bryant in his final years, and his last two on a squad treated as a total rebuilding project.

“When you go to war with guys, you establish relationships and bonds, friendships that are beyond basketball,” Randle says now of his former Laker teammates.

As for what it’ll feel like to return to Staples Center as a visitor, it’s clear he hasn’t thought that far ahead, because he breaks into laughter when the subject’s introduced. “It’s going to be fun,” is all he can muster after the laughs, sounding as if he genuinely hasn’t yet played that moment out in his mind.

It’s at once a charming, disarming response, but also sort of an unintentionally ominous one—fitting for a Black Mamba pupil, perhaps. Though what Randle learned most from No. 24 was how to approach his game preparation when no one’s watching.  Which is why he has, since the Lakers made him a top-10 draft pick back in 2014, always gone hard in the lab during the offseason.

“My summers I always try to make harder than my seasons,” Randle explains. “Every year, I work as if I want to be an All-Star—as if I know I’m going to be an All-Star. So coming off the season that I had with L.A., I feel like I’m really establishing myself, my game and my confidence. I’m excited to get this thing rolling, man.”

Randle wants to make one of the NBA’s All-Defensive Teams in 2018-19 and be up for Most Improved Player—an award he says he’s always wanted to win. For a guy who doesn’t turn 24 years old until November, coming off his best season to date with a little new money and a lot of new motivation, accomplishing those goals feels well within reach.

As for what new elements of his game we might see this year to get him there, Randle quips, “I can’t give you all the secrets.” Then he laughs. He mentions Gentry and emphasizes the word “freedom” again. He pauses. And then simply says, “You’ll see when the season comes.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post On The Rise: Julius Randle Is Ready to Shine in The Big Easy 💪 appeared first on SLAM.

KJ’s career is priority No. 1 in the Martin household these days. But as it turns out, the elder Martin’s career isn’t over yet either.

The longtime NBA power forward was approached to play in the Ice Cube-backed BIG3 last summer, and 10 weeks later he was raising the trophy as captain of Trilogy, the inaugural season’s undefeated champs.

We caught up with K-Mart following the start of season two, which airs on FOX or FSI, to discuss KJ’s rise through HS basketball, the college recruiting process, the recent NBA Draft and more:

—

SLAM: What’s it been like to watch your son develop as a high school basketball star?

KM: Oh, it’s great, just to see him mature over the last couple years, how serious he’s taking the game now with his work ethic, and things he’s doing to try to achieve his ultimate goal, which is to make it to the League. I’m a proud father. I thought me getting drafted and the birth of my kids, all that was great, but just to see your kid going after his dreams and him working at it, is satisfying. It’s not a complete process yet, but I’m happy for him—everything he’s doing is for him. I’ve been there, so I don’t want it for me. Everything he’s doing, he’s doing for him. I’m excited that he’s getting better and he’s learning—the sky’s the limit for him.

SLAM: How do you manage your son’s expectations, being a former pro yourself and knowing how hard it is to make the NBA?

KM: Just by being honest. I’m not the sugarcoat dad. I’m telling you the good, the bad and the ugly. There are no secrets about how hard you need to work. He’s got all the tools. So what are you going to do to make sure that you utilize all those tools? Do you want to be just a good high school basketball player or do you want to be elite? You’ve gotta do your schoolwork, if you don’t, you don’t play. You gotta pass your SAT, ACT—you don’t do that, you don’t go to college. No college, no NBA. It’s those things. I don’t sugarcoat it for him.

SLAM: Having gone through college recruiting yourself, how do you keep your son away from some of the pitfalls of that process?

KM: By being there every step of the way. Just being visible. People see you and they’re reluctant to do things knowing that they have to approach you first. There are no games or tournaments that he’s going to that I’m not there. I’m not missing one game all season long, all summer long—and if I’m not there, my wife is there. Once he walks off the court, we’re with him until he gets in the car to go home. Because kids are easy targets, they’re naïve and they look at the “right now.” But I’m teaching KJ to look at the big picture—and the big picture is, don’t do anything to jeopardize your future, on or off the court.

SLAM: You were the No. 1 pick in 2000. Is the Draft a special time of year for you?

KM: The Draft changes kids’ and families’ lives forever, so it’s a huge deal. I’ve got a picture of my draft day hanging in my man cave, as a constant reminder of that moment. People ask me what was the best moment of my career—Draft day was the best moment of my career. Everything after that was just basketball. Some of these kids, it’s their dream to make it, they grow up with that dream to make it to the NBA. That wasn’t a dream of mine, I just happened to be tall, athletic and played hard, and I put some skill to it after the fact because I was passionate about the game. But it wasn’t a childhood dream with me having posters on the wall. These kids have that, and it’s a great accomplishment.

SLAM: What was your dream growing up?

KM: I didn’t have a dream. I grew up in the inner city, man. My dream was not to die, not to be on drugs, but to be a productive member of society. Where I’m from, people don’t make it out, bruh. People don’t make it out. Very few. So for me to be here, talking to you and successful, it’s a blessing from the Lord, with hard work and a little luck along the way.

SLAM: Any players in this year’s draft class catch your eye?

KM: I like Miles Bridges, I think he’s slept on. I think Cleveland made a mistake by not picking Michael Porter, huge mistake. You don’t pass on that guy, I don’t care what his back is like right now, just sit him out for a year, everyone else is doing it. And I’m happy for Jacob Evans from Cincinnati going to Golden State. People don’t understand: That pick might have just helped them win another championship. [Andre] Iguodala’s a little older and banged up, and they gotta get rid of Nick Young, they’re not going to pay him. This kid Jacob Evans is tough as nails, he can do it all: defend, make shots, put it on the floor, athletic. Jacob can learn from [Iguodala]. I’m excited to see what DeAndre Ayton is going to be in this League, too. And I want to see if Trae Young translates.

SLAM: After your team Trilogy lost the 2018 season opener to Tri-State, there was some pushing and shoving that started with Nate Robinson and Rashad McCants going at it. How real is that passion?

KM: Last year we were waving and bowing after every game, and I told people last year that if you don’t want us to bow after the game, then beat us. That after the game stuff, that’s a product of us doing what we do, us getting under people’s skin. Rashad wore a crown to the combine, and wore a crown to the game. That’s just a product of us being successful and us letting everyone know how successful we were. And you gotta eat a little crow sometimes. We took that on the chin. But it’s all in competition, we’re not gonna mess the money up. It’s a new league, and people expect us to act that way, so we can’t do that.

SLAM: It looked like your mom ran on the court and tried to get in the scuffle. What happened there?

KM: Hell yeah, she ran her ass out there. Yeah, my momma ran her ass out there. It’s unfortunate that she thinks she still has to protect a 40-year-old man, but that’s mom. I was hot at her for running out there, because in those situations you never know, tempers flare and somebody could turn around and push somebody or arms flailing and hit my mom in the face, and then I’m going to jail. I can handle her, but if something were to happen to her out there, then I’mma lose my cool in a major way. It was just the heat of the moment, that’s all that was, my mom ran out there trying to protect me. I wasn’t the one involved in it, but she was just trying to protect her baby. Which, I get—but I’m 40 now, mom. [Laughs] I can handle my own.

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Kenyon Martin Talks Life After NBA, Son KJ, Draft Memories And More appeared first on SLAM.

Finally stateside, the 6-6 Serbian native and former 2014 NBA first-round pick started 53 games for SacTown in 2017-18, finishing with averages of 11.8 points, 3.3 assists and 2.9 boards. Truth be told, Bogi’s biggest challenges during his rookie year weren’t learning defensive coverages or growing accustomed to life on the road.

“The biggest problem was driving lessons, and getting my social security number,” Bogdanovic laments, with the sincere frustration of anyone who has spent an unending afternoon at the DMV. “That was like, Oh my god, I have to go through all of these procedures and sign all of these papers.”

Driving past defenders? Easy money. Driving around cones on the road test to get an official California-issued driver’s license? A chore. Bogdanovic already had an international license, of course, but the rules of the road are different in the U.S.

“There was a joke,” he explains, “I said like, OK I don’t know the rules, but Tesla has the auto-pilot, so I’ll just take my Tesla on the driving test and turn on the auto-pilot.”

In reality it doesn’t—so he didn’t—but he passed the driving test anyway.

Today, Bogdanovic is traveling by air. It’s mid-May, and for the first time in almost a year, he’s headed home to see his family and friends. His sister came over and spent the season with him in Sacramento, and his parents visited for a couple months, but nothing matches the feeling of being back home in Belgrade. He expects his childhood friends will ask how tough it was to check NBA stars like James Harden and Stephen Curry. He’s sure to tell them about the friendship he’s developed with Kings veteran Vince Carter, who they all used to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to watch on TV because of the six-hour time difference (when Bogdanovic had surgery after the season to repair a slight meniscus tear in his left knee, Carter was the first person to text him, both before and after the procedure). “I don’t even remember all the things that happened this first year,” he laughs. “But I have a lot of great stories.”

And yet, as Bogdanovic speaks into a cell phone—in perfect English, mind you— while chilling in an airport terminal, it’s abundantly clear that this guy was no ordinary NBA rookie. Sure, like most young guys, if he’s not in the gym, he’s glued to a video game screen or kicking it with his teammates. But unlike most, Bogdanovic entered the League as a polished pro.

See, when the Phoenix Suns drafted him with the 27th pick in the 2014 Draft, Bogi was just a prospect to stash. Sacramento eventually acquired his rights— a shrewd move by fellow Serbian hoop legend turned Kings GM Vlade Divac—and by the time Bogdanovic made his NBA debut, he’d been a starter on the Silver Medal-winning Serbian National Team at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, and he’d won the 2017 EuroLeague championship as the leading scorer for Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahçe. So when he hit the hardwood in an NBA uniform, there was no nervousness, no apprehension in his game. No moments that made him think, Oh shit, I’m in the big leagues now.

“I already had that Welcome to the NBA moment before I was even in the NBA,” says Bogdanovic. “That was in 2014, when I played in a World Cup game against the United States, my first time playing against them. I was like, Wow, NBA players. And then the second time, when we played in the Olympic Games, I felt the same. So when I came into the NBA, I wasn’t that surprised, like maybe others [would be]. I already had some of that experience, so I didn’t have Wow moments.”

There’s a pause. “Maybe the first time I saw LeBron,” he adds. “Maybe.”

Bogdanovic began his NBA career as part of an unusually deep rookie class in Sacramento that included top-5 pick De’Aaron Fox, college stars Frank Mason III and Justin Jackson, and Harry Giles III, a former top high school prospect sidelined by injury. But not long into the season, Bogdanovic separated himself as the most League-ready of the bunch, moving into the starting two-guard spot alongside Fox. He dispelled whatever mystery still surrounded his game in late November, when he hit a game-winner over reigning Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green to lead the Kings to a road victory against the defending champs. He drained similar clutch buckets to beat the Grizzlies, Bulls and Lakers later in the year, too.

“I think he might get stereotyped as a shooter, but he’s a very good playmaker,” says Sacramento head coach Dave Joerger of Bogdanovic, who shot 45 percent from the field and 39 percent from downtown during his rookie season. “He’s got a high level of maturity, and he’s a team-first guy all the way. He’s a joy to be around and a joy to coach. He picked up stuff quickly, and he showed that he’s worthy of all the accolades that he’s received.”

The list of accolades in Year One included MVP of the Rising Stars Challenge (26 points, 7 threes) during All-Star Weekend and a spot on the NBA’s All-Rookie Second Team. And while the young, rebuilding Kings limped to a 27-55 record, Bogdanovic proved to be a building block well worth the three-year, $27 million deal that made him the League’s highest-paid rook last season.

Which is kinda crazy, considering he was utterly exhausted most of the year. In the summer of 2017, Bogdanovic finished his EuroLeague season (championship: check) and his Turkish League season (championship: check) before coming to Sacramento to sign his deal in July, then returning home to train with the Serbian national team before turning around and heading back for the start of his NBA career, with hardly a moment to catch his breath.

“I know I’m a better athlete than I was last year,” promises Bogdanovic, who despite having no summer break to speak of played the most total minutes (2,175) of any player on the Kings roster in 2017-18. “I came in really, really tired. I couldn’t recover during the whole year. The NBA is really tough, and if you’re not fully fresh early in the year, it costs you in the end of the year.

“Even though I know how to be a professional,” he continues, “being ready to compete every night—it’s a different experience. The League is so tough. Every team has players capable to give you 40 every night. All teams.”

The prospect of getting his legs back under him and focusing a full summer on preparing his body for the rigors of the NBA is one that excites Bogdanovic. It should excite Kings fans, too. If Sacramento is going to break the League’s longest postseason drought any time soon—12 years and counting—Bogi will be a big reason why. He says he doesn’t ever take the time to chart out long-term goals for his career, or even numbers he wants to put up in his sophomore campaign.

Bogdanovic’s only goal for next season? “Make the playoffs.”

Given the highly competitive nature of the NBA’s Western Conference at present, a lot of folks will scoff at that notion. Reality is, Sacramento is probably several years and several pieces away from competing with the Western powers. Still, No. 8’s mentality hasn’t gone unnoticed by Kings’ brass.

“I feel he has the same mindset as Marc Gasol,” says Joerger, who coached Gasol for nearly a decade in Memphis, first as an assistant and later as the Grizzlies’ head coach. He admits the comparison might seem like an obvious one, since both have European roots, but insists that Gasol and Bogdanovic both “care so much about the team, and they care so much about the game. In those two regards, they’re very similar.”

Gasol’s a three-time All-Star and a franchise center. Bogdanovic’s a young guard who, for all his seasoning and experience, is still shy of his first full calendar year living in an American zip code. Starting this fall, though, there will be no more hiding behind the “rookie” label. No more NBA learner’s permit, no auto-pilot to steer Bogdanovic to the next level. But given his undeniable skills, his winning pedigree and his humble attitude—one person who knows Bogdanovic well calls him “one of the most grounded athletes you’ll ever meet”—Bogi is already a cornerstone piece in Sacramento.

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post On The Rise: Bogdan Bogdanovic Was More Than Ready for the NBA appeared first on SLAM.

100-51 
50-11
No. 10: Larry Bird
No. 9 Tim Duncan
No. 8: Wilt Chamberlain
No. 7: Bill Russell
No. 6: Shaquille O’Neal
No. 4: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
No. 3: Magic Johnson
No. 2: LeBron James
No. 1: Michael Jordan

Order your copy of the SLAM TOP 100 issue at our store. 

—

Kobe Bean Bryant entered the NBA straight out of high school and proceeded to play his entire 20-year career for the Los Angeles Lakers. That his career played out under the bright lights of L.A., for one of the most storied franchises in the League, only adds to the allure of his legacy. That he’s been retired for two seasons now almost doesn’t seem real.

A former MVP, five-time NBA champion, two-time Finals MVP, 18-time NBA All-Star, two-time scoring champion, two-time Olympic Gold medalist and 11-time First Team All-NBAer, Bryant finished his career with the third-most points in NBA history (33,643), sandwiched between Karl Malone and Michael Jordan. There are more accomplishments that deserve mention, like the nine NBA All-Defensive First Team nods, the Slam Dunk title he added to his résumé as a rookie that helped him burst on the scene, or the fact that he had not one, but two jersey numbers retired by the Lakers. The individual seasons were eye-popping, too, like his League-leading 35.4 ppg (WTF?) in ’05-06 or his nine consecutive 40-point games in ’02-03, to tie MJ’s record, just to name a couple.

And then there are the memories. Oh, the memories. The 81-point game. Sixty-two points through three quarters in another. Remember Game 7 of the 2000 Western Finals vs. Portland? What about Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals vs. Boston? Or that time he casually sank free throws on a torn Achilles tendon? There are dozens more in between, all with a trademark scowl on his face and the roar of a lion in his heart.

Later in Kobe’s career, the “Black Mamba” became a nickname, and then a mentality, which was equally intimidating to opponents and inspiring to the next generation of athletes. He’d work harder, be more tenacious, more of an asshole—he liked being the villain—than anyone else on the court at all times.

And it made him great.

“He pissed me off a lot,” Kevin Durant said in a Nike ad commemorating Kobe’s retirement. “He happened to say, You guys can’t even sit at the lunch table with me. I got five championships. What do you have?” Yup, an asshole ‘til the bitter end.

Kobe is inarguably one of the best players, and most prolific scorers, in the history of the game. His Hall of Fame induction is only a matter of time. Where he ranks on the all-time list of greats will forever be a debate. Should he be higher? Top-5, maybe?

“I would never put myself in the [all-time] starting five ever,” Kobe told Good Morning America in 2015. “I would put the people that I’ve actually learned the most from, being Jordan, Magic, Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon and Jerry West.”

It’s a nice sentiment from Kobe, whose enormous respect for the history of the game has never wavered. But we can all agree that deep down, the famous Mamba mentality would never allow him to truly believe any player was ever better than he was—right?

Photos via Getty Images.

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***

It’s early January, which means the NFL playoffs are in full swing, and the buzz floating through the Ochsner Sports Performance Center in New Orleans is all about the Saints. Team staffers are gearing up for Sunday’s Divisional Round matchup with the Vikings. It’s the only thing anyone is talking about.

After a light practice, a monstrous player with bulging, tattooed arms and a frame wide enough to make you wonder how he even fit through the door walks out in full uniform. He looks like he’d be a savage of a defensive lineman, or play tight end better than Rob Gronkowski. A few minutes after his arrival, in walks another player. This dude has the build of an all-time wide receiver freak like Randy Moss—only six inches taller.

But we aren’t even in the football facility. Adjacent to the Saints’ practice fields here at Ochsner are the hardwood practice courts that DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans call home. It’s here, inside these walls, where the two aforementioned Monstars lock horns in scrimmages, games that often get so physical that, honestly, they may as well be on the football field.

“The practices we do go against each other, it’s very intense,” Cousins, 27, says of his behind-the-scenes battles with the 24-year-old Davis. “It’s usually our best practices, because we try to bring out the best in each other. We already had a lowkey rivalry before we were teammates, just being brought up as the best two bigs, Kentucky, all of that. And the rivalry sort of creeps back out in the practices—they’re very competitive.”

Veteran Tony Allen—who has seen plenty of battles during his lengthy career—says he’s witnessed it in practice plenty of times. “To see two of the top premier bigs go at it pay-per-view style in practice, it’s fun to watch. But most importantly it makes them better, when they’re playing against other guys who aren’t as talented as them. It pushes them to be great,” says the Pels’ old head, who compares Davis and Cousins to Tim Duncan and David Robinson of the Spurs—only with a hell of a lot more shit talking. “I like when they jawing at each other,” TA adds. “The trash talk is at an all-time high when they play against each other. I approve.”

With Davis averaging 26.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game and Boogie’s numbers at 25.6 and 12.9 (both players are top-10 in the NBA in each of those categories) as we went to press, the modern-day Twin Towers had the Pelicans sitting in the 6-spot in the Western Conference (25-21) at press time. They are the only teammates in the history of the game to both average 25 points and 10 rebounds a night. Halfway through the 2017-18 season, Cousins already has 12 games with 20-plus points and 15-plus rebounds, and Davis has eight such performances. Charlotte’s Dwight Howard is the next closest on that list, having done it six times this year. Davis is even shooting a career-high 36 percent from three-point range, same as Boogie. Oh, and they’re both averaging career-highs in assists, too. Good luck trying to stop a pick-and-roll involving these guys together. In an era when small-ball is all the rage, New Orleans has something no other team does: two big men who are flat-out better than most guards, even at doing guard things.

Future’s “Solo” plays from a laptop as Davis (a five-time All-Star) and Cousins (a four-time All-Star) pose for photos sitting in the bleachers facing the near court of the practice facility. For a brief moment they look like your average kids at an AAU tournament waiting on their next game, joking and flipping basketballs in the air—just supersized. Their long frames unfold over four or five rows of benches. Their attention quickly turns to the far court, where Allen is running sprints, working his way back from a fractured left fibula. Today happens to be The Grindfather’s 36th birthday, and Boogie and The Brow are letting him have it.

“Hey, TA, go sit down!” yells Davis.

“How old you turn today?!” Cousins laughs.

Around these two, there is never a dull moment. Darius Miller, who played one year each with Cousins (2009-10) and Davis (2011-12) during his career at the University of Kentucky and is now teammates with both of them in NOLA, confirms that both former ’Cats are the same fun, goofy dudes they were in college. “They haven’t changed,” Miller insists.

The pair’s playful spirit manifests itself in constant bickering. Like an old married couple, they argue about everything. Who’s taller? Who eats more? Whose Kentucky team was better? Which one is Batman and which one is Robin? (“Two Batmans,” they finally agree.) But ever since the stunning All-Star Weekend deal last year that sent Boogie to the Big Easy, it’s been all love between the two.

Neither can believe it’s already been a year since that crazy-ass weekend. Davis won the All-Star Game MVP in his home arena, and after the game all hell broke loose on #BasketballTwitter (OK, and in real life, too) when the Kings traded Cousins to New Orleans for a package of players and picks. At the time, it was an unceremonious breakup for Boogie, who felt betrayed after Kings management went out of its way to publicly promise he’d stay in Sacramento. After all, he’d remained loyal despite never having the pieces around him to win more than 33 games in any of his six previous seasons in Sac. Now, though, that’s all in the rearview.

***

SLAM: What do you remember about All-Star Weekend last year, when the trade was finalized?

AD: When I found out, I went immediately to our GM’s [Dell Demps] office in the arena downtown, and I was like, Is this true? So then I texted Cuz, like, “Are you still in the arena?” He was like, “I just left. But it’s crazy…TEAMMATE.” He ended up coming back a few days later, and it was all surreal. Like, he’s really on my team.

DC: It was rough. It was tough to deal with. That’s supposed to be a weekend of celebration and relaxation, but it was the opposite for me. I wouldn’t wish that situation on anybody. But that’s the nature of this business. That’s the nature of the beast. I think everything happens for a reason. There’s a reason I was sent here. I’m the type of guy that tries to make the most of any situation I’m put in.

SLAM: The way things went down—in terms of your departure from Sacramento—didn’t sit well with you. How long did it take before you were able to put those feelings behind you completely?

DC: After I got a couple games under my belt, I was OK. Like, I’m back playing basketball. To say I was completely fine and it was out of my mind? No. And part of that is due to the storyline that everybody wanted. To me, it was over. It was time to move on. But to the outside world, they weren’t ready to let it go. Because of course they wanted the story. It took a while, it did. Time has flown by. I’ve gotten accustomed to the changes, to New Orleans, to my teammates. It’s a normalcy for me now. Last year it was kind of awkward walking into the building all the time.

SLAM: What was your guys’ friendship like prior to the trade?

DC: Me and him were cool before this. That was the bro before this. Our relationship hasn’t done anything but grow since. He made this transition easier for me. The coaching staff, Dell [Demps], they all made this transition easier for me—as easy as possible. They understand it was a tough time, a rough transition.

AD: I’d see him, we’d compete on the floor, during the offseason we’d meet up somewhere. All that. I had his number. It’s been fun so far getting to know him better on the floor—I know him well off the floor, but getting to know him on the floor—spending this time and sharing this experience with him.

SLAM: What’s the hardest thing about guarding one another?

AD: The hardest thing about checking DeMarcus is that he’s versatile. He can score on the block, he can score from three, he can take you one-on-one isolation. So trying to guard different actions, especially when we’re scrimmaging, you just don’t know what he’s going to do. He shoots the ball so well, but when you close out on him, he’s able to drive by you and get a layup or a dunk, so that’s the toughest thing. It helps us, for the simple fact that when we’re in a game and we’re guarding someone with his skill set, it’s easier to defend.

DC: The hardest thing about guarding AD? I would say it’s him in 2-on-2 action. When he’s in a pick and roll situation, if he’s popping or he’s rolling to the rim, it’s damn near impossible to guard, with his shooting ability and his ability to put it on the floor. And I don’t think there’s a big in the League that’s able to jump with him, so it’s kind of a lose-lose situation.

SLAM: What one skill would you take from each other’s game, if you could steal something?

DC: I’m taking his athleticism, all day.

AD: What I’d take from DeMarcus’ game is his passing. He’s a tremendous passer, sees the floor very well for a big.

SLAM: What’s something about DeMarcus that you’ve learned, that media and fans don’t know?

AD: He’s soft, man—he’s a teddy bear, honestly. Of course he gets this rep about being a certain type of guy, but honestly he’s really not like that. Off the floor he’s one of the coolest guys I’ve ever been around. He gets perceived as this angry type of guy. You really just gotta know him to know him, honestly. You just can’t go off what the media tries to perceive him to be.

DC: [AD is] that guy that they try to make me out to be! [Everyone laughs.]

AD: The roles are really reversed, honestly.

DC: He’s the meanest guy you’ll ever meet. He’s grouchy every morning.

AD: Everybody says I play too much.

DC: He plays all day. He’s a big kid.

***

The night after our shoot, New Orleans beats Portland 119-113 at home. AD goes for 36 points, 9 boards, 2 assists and 2 blocks, while DeMarcus puts up 24 points, 19 rebounds, 8 dimes and 2 blocks. Light work. Two days later at Madison Square Garden—with much of the city of New Orleans focused instead on that Saints playoff game—the Pelicans pull out a 123-118 OT win over the Knicks off the strength of 48 points, 17 boards, 4 steals and 3 blocks from AD. Meanwhile, Pelicans TV play-by-play man Joel Meyers mentions something about Cousins “just not having it today from the field.” And though he’s right (4 for 16), Boogie still finishes with a ridiculous 15-point, 16-rebound, 7-steal, 5-assist, 3-block stat line. How’s that for an “off” night?

Most recently, DMC hung 44 points, 24 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 steals and a block on the Bulls in double-OT, a performance the likes of which only he, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain can lay claim to.

And that’s what makes this duo the most underappreciated tandem in the sport right now. On some Batman-and-Batman-type shit.

“It’s fun,” Cousins says of suiting up next to a fellow top-10 player every single night. “It’s a pleasure to know I got one of the most talented players in the world as my teammate. It’s not every day you get a chance to play with a talent like that. I’m grateful for it, and I’m sure he feels the same way. We’ve both been in situations where we’ve been the guy on our team, and we go out and score 30 every night and go home with Ls. We’re past that part in our careers. We see the bigger picture, we want the bigger picture, which is a chance at winning a championship. We’re putting in the work every day, putting in the sacrifices to make it work. I think we’re growing and getting better every day. And eventually, things will click.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Additional reporting by Yaron Weitzman

Cover design by Pen & Pixel Graphics

Portraits by Rayon Richards

—

SLAM 214 is on sale in early February. More coming soon!

The post AD and Boogie Are On Fire appeared first on SLAM.

1996-97: adidas EQT Elevation

adidas threw big money at Kobe before he ever played an NBA game, even before he grew out his hair, and it paid off instantly. He became the youngest player to ever win the Dunk Contest with a pair of purple PEs on his feet.

1997-98: adidas KB8

Kobe’s first-ever signature was an instant classic. And when he laced ’em up in the ’98 All-Star Game—his first and Michael Jordan’s last as a Chicago Bull—it was as the youngest All-Star in history. Today, the Crazy 8 is still a favorite on the NBA hardwood.

1998-99: adidas KB II

Kobe’s first season as a starter was shorter than usual thanks to a lockout, but it signaled his breakout year. His second sig with adidas had the same proprietary “Feet You Wear” tech as its previous incarnation, only with a more wavy design.

1999-00: adidas THE KOBE

The KB8 III aka EQT Responsive came and went to little fanfare before adidas struck lightning with the KOBE’s futuristic, Audi-inspired silhouette. The Lakers steamrolled the Pacers in the NBA Finals, and Kobe’s star was reaching new heights with a slick new shoe.

2000-01: adidas THE KOBE

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Kobe and the Three Stripes decided to let the original KOBE design ride for another year. With it came another Lakers’ Championship, and the unforgettable yellow “Sunshine” colorway Bryant rocked during the All-Star Game in DC.

2001-02: adidas THE KOBE TWO

The evolution to the KOBE TWO was logical but jarring. The moon-boot look was maybe just one step too crazy, and it would be the last Kobe shoe built by adidas. But damn if that #veryrare American flag colorway wasn’t absolute, Shaq-approved fire.

2002-03: Air Jordan VIII PE

After his adidas deal expired, Kobe’s one season as a sneaker free agent included everything from Air Force 1s to Reebok Questions to Converse Weapons. Late in the year, he hung 55 on MJ and the Wizards, while paying tribute in a pair of purple and gold Jordan VIIIs.

2003-04: Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2K4

Kobe officially inked with Nike, and even before the sneaker-heads at the Swoosh could get his signature line started, he grew to love the Huarache 2K4. Simple, lightweight and fly as hell, Kobe made the 2K4s one of the most popular shoes in the L.

2004-05: Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2K5

The Lakers missed the Playoffs, but Kobe’s kick game didn’t disappoint. For the second straight season, Nike’s premier bball performance design didn’t have his name on it, but let’s be real: Kobe was the one making it hot.

2005-06: Nike Zoom Kobe 1

Kobe’s first signature sneaker as a Nike athlete coincided with one of the greatest individual performances in history—the January night in Los Angeles when he exploded for an unconscionable 81 points against the Raptors. Bryant won his first scoring title in the ultra-durable, ultra-supportive Kobe 1.

2006-07: Nike Zoom Kobe II

In ’07, Kobe won his second All-Star Game MVP and became just the second player in NBA history to score 50+ points in four straight games (word to Wilt Chamberlain). His revamped Kobe II featured the addition of a velcro strap.

2007-08: Nike Zoom Kobe III

After a hiatus from the Kobe II, legendary designer Eric Avar returned to create the sleek, ultra-lightweight Kobe III. The Mamba won his lone NBA MVP award after a summer of swirling trade rumors, and the Lakers lost to the Celtics in the Finals.

2008-09: Nike Zoom Kobe IV

Since the sport’s inception, high-top basketball shoes were the standard. Then the Kobe IV came along and changed the sneaker game forever, introducing a revolutionary low-top cut and all-new Flywire technology. The results? An NBA Finals trophy and one of the most beloved sneakers ever.

2009-10: Nike Zoom Kobe V

Fully committed to the low-cut look, Kobe wore the “Big Stage” V in the Playoffs, one of 33 colorways Nike would cook up for the Mamba. The Lakers won the title for a second straight season, and Kobe won the Finals MVP in back-to-back years.

2010-11: Nike Zoom Kobe VI

Wrapped in a reptilian skin, the Kobe VI was somehow lower, lighter and even more responsive. The Kobe line continued to represent the best-fitting sneaker on the court, and the most sought-after in the game, in unique colorways like “Grinch,” “3D,” and “FC Barcelona.”

2011-12: Nike Kobe VII System

Celebrities like Aziz Ansari and Kanye West were featured in a memorable ad campaign for the #KobeSystem, the first Kobe signature sneaker with two removable inserts. Dubbed “Attack Fast” and “Attack Strong,” the VII offered both low and high ankle cuff options.

2012-13: Nike Kobe 8 System

Inspired by the Chinese Year of the Snake, Nike designed the 8 to enhance Kobe’s quick first step. In April, before he went down with a devastating Achilles injury, he became the first player ever to put up 47 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks and 3 steals in an NBA game.

2013-14: Nike Zoom Kobe 1 “Prelude”

Kobe only played six games in 2013-14, returning in December from the Achilles only to go down again with a knee injury that would cost him the rest of the season. He wasn’t on the court to debut the Kobe 9, but he pulled out some heat from Nike’s “Prelude” pack.

2014-15: Nike Kobe 9 ELITE

An out-of-the-box departure from previous models, the Kobe 9 went super-high top but stayed lightweight thanks to the infusion of Flyknit, Flywire and Lunarlon all in one shoe. Once again Kobe was a year late to wear it on-court, and the Kobe X followed shortly with its namesake out for the season after rotator cuff surgery.

2015-16: Nike Kobe XI

With the X already a staple around the League, the XI was the perfect shoe for Kobe’s farewell season. Elegant but strong, simple but innovative, street but sophisticated, Avar but so, so Kobe. Billed as the perfection of Nike Flyknit in a basketball shoe, it was his final on-court sneaker. Peace, Kobe.

The post Kicksology: The Most Important Sneakers of Kobe Bryant’s Career appeared first on SLAM.

Tyler Ulis, Jayson Tatum, Jabari Parker, Markelle Fultz, Jahlil Okafor and Stanley Johnson are alums of the event, and the 2017 version once again promises plenty of nationwide starpower. This weekend, Whitney Young boys basketball coach Tyrone Slaughter’s and Simeon boys basketball coach Robert Smith’s teams play hosts to squads from as far as Kansas and South Carolina.

“It’s growing,” Smith told SLAM this week of the event, now in its sixth year. “People look forward to it now. You can start to feel a buzz around the city just before Thanksgiving time.”

The 2017 Classic is the first-ever to feature a pair of girls’ matchups, and the games span over two days (December 1-2) at UIC-Pavilion in Chicago. Leading up to the games, teams were treated to interactive sessions with key community members, including former NBAer Bobby Simmons, to learn about life skills and personal development beyond the basketball court.

“We wanted it to be for Chicago. We wanted to bring in teams from around the country to play, but this is for Chicago, something positive,” says Smith. “We just want [the visiting teams] to see our beautiful city. The real Chicago, not just what they see on TV.”

This year’s main event will see host Simeon open its 2017-18 season against Chaminade (St. Louis) Prep, a hoops program that boasts recent NBA alums like Tatum and Bradley Beal. Simeon star senior Talen Horton-Tucker, a 6-5 Iowa State commit who says he’s modeled his versatile game after a blend of Paul Pierce, LeBron James and Jabari Parker, will lead the Wolverines.

“Everybody is excited, especially for this to be our first game of the year,” Horton-Tucker says of this weekend’s Chicago Elite Classic, where the national lineup of schools participating means he’ll get to catch up with friends and foes from the summer AAU circuit, including four-star La Lumiere (IN) School point guard Tyger Campbell, whose team takes on Sunrise Christian (KS) Academy in a battle of top-15 ranked teams.

“Just to have that much talent in the building at one time is huge,” says Smith, whose team finished in the top-10 nationally last season. “We don’t ever back down from any competition. We just want to play, and show that we can compete with any team in the country. But Game One is a measuring stick to see how we’re going to look.”

Tickets for the 2017 Chicago Elite Classic are available on Ticketmaster or via any of the participating schools. For more information, follow the 2017 Chicago Elite Classic on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or visit the event’s official website.

The post 2017 Chicago Elite Classic Preview appeared first on SLAM.

“The crazy thing about it is, before that I was telling people in school that one day Shaquille O’Neal is going to hear about me somehow, because me and him have the same name,” remembers Baptiste, better known today as rapper ShaqIsDope. “And he’s going to be a fan of my music.”

Baptiste was right. Because when he picks up the phone today, a month shy of his 25th birthday, he matter-of-factly states he had to ignore Big Fella’s call to do so. “Shaquille O’Neal was just calling me as soon as we got on the phone, and I texted him like, ‘I’ll call you right back, I’m on the phone with SLAM Magazine.’”

O’Neal had taken notice to an early ShaqIsDope music video that gained traction on WorldStarHipHop. The Laker legend reached out on social media, got to talking and eventually the pair collab’d on a remix to Future and Lil Wayne’s “Karate Chop” in 2013.

“That was a big moment for my career,” says ShaqIsDope, whose list of all-time favorite players is mostly Raptors: Vince Carter, Alvin Williams, Muggsy Bogues, Chris Bosh and Allen Iverson. “That was the look that I needed to really introduce me to all the major hip-hop blogs.”

Right again. In the time since, ShaqIsDope’s progress as an artist has earned him plenty of attention, including a sponsorship from adidas Canada, a spot on the XXL Freshman Class ballot in 2017, millions of plays on Spotify and even spins on Beats1 Radio—not to mention continued shout outs from The Diesel, despite the fact that the two Shaqs have never actually met in real life. In October, the duo dropped a diss track aimed at another Shaq— Big Shaq, the rapper famous for the “Mans Not Hot” viral video. And ShaqIsDope’s self-titled EP, which he promises is a perfect blend of street and smarts, drops in mid-November.

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Brandon Seales

The post (I Know I Got) Skillz appeared first on SLAM.

There are two types of people in the world: People who know that statement to be true, and people who simply refuse to acknowledge it. (Don’t be friends with those people.)

Wall carried the Wizards to the brink of an Eastern Conference Finals appearance (right up until Kelly Olynyk turned into Larry Bird) on the strength of the best numbers of his seven-year career. He posted career-highs in Win Shares, points (22.9) and assists (10.5) in 2016-17, shot his best-ever field goal percentage and true shooting percentage, and was the only player besides James Harden and Russell Westbrook to post 20+ ppg and 10+ apg. His scoring jumped to just over 27 ppg in the playoffs, including a 42-point, 8-assist, 4-steal, 2-block performance to close out the Hawks in the first round. Meanwhile he led the NBA in steals, and once again cemented himself as the best chasedown block artist in the League not named LeBron James.

He’s always been an athletic freak, able to finish with power or finesses, with either hand. He’s always been a blur, faster with the rock in his hand than 99 percent of other guys are without it. And he’s always been one of the fiercest competitors in the game. Finally (!) he earned some much-desreved recognition in the form of an All-NBA nod last season. All that after having surgery on both knees prior to the 2016-17 season. And now, with the knee troubles in his rearview and a big new contract in his back pocket, he’s primed for an even more impressive 2017-18 campaign.

So, yeah, John Wall has had a lot to say this summer.

Called himself the best point guard in the East. Called himself the NBA’s best two-way PG. Mused in interviews about Kyrie Irving’s curious trade request, and on social media about the absurdity of superteams.

Well, damn, you may be thinking. But, OK, two things here:

One, John Wall’s been brutally honest with the media when it’s come to sharing his thoughts—and like most stars, extremely confident in himself—since he entered the NBA. Which is to say, if you’re surprised by anything he’s said this summer, you just weren’t listening until now.

Second, and more importantly, these aren’t just some outlandish empty quotes coming from a middling player. (Like, with all due respect, the ones made recently by Michael Beasley.)

You can’t clown Wall’s statements because you know deep down they very well could be true when we look back in a year. He could be ranked no lower—even by his biggest haters—than about 15th on a list like this. If you’re upset about Wall being ranked too high, you’ll probably cite his purported struggles in halfcourt offensive situations, or perhaps you’re among those still clinging to the corny ass “he can’t shoot” crowd (no, he’s not Steph Curry with the shot, and never will be, but he’s improved steadily and significantly).

You may be salty that Damian Lillard and Chris Paul appeared before Wall on our countdown. The way the Western Conference has transformed this summer, Dame’s team could very well miss the postseason, whereas Wall’s is realistically eyeing a trip to the East Finals (a round the franchise hasn’t reached since the ‘70s). And, in CP3’s case, just remember that this is a ranking for the 2017-18 season, not a lifetime achievement award. By the time the playoffs roll around, Paul will be 33 years old, not to mention he’s on a brand new team, and he’ll have to adjust to playing alongside Harden, who had one of the League’s highest usage rates last year. Wall, meanwhile, was top-5 in the NBA in minutes last year for a team that’s built around his talents, and he’s in the prime of his career.

Say it with me now: John Wall will be a top-10 player in the NBA this season.

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Previous Rankings:
2016: No. 17
2015: No. 12
2014: No. 18
2013: No. 24

The post SLAM Top 50: John Wall, No. 10 appeared first on SLAM.

Maybe it’s that he plays for Utah, a West Coast team that’s never been the kind of sexy late night appointment viewing on League Pass that even bad teams like the Lakers or Suns have been. Maybe it’s that so far all the attempts at nicknames for Gobert have been, objectively, quite awful. The Stifle Tower, The French Rejection, The Gobert Report, Gobzilla? You gotta be kidding me. I just rolled my eyes so hard my head almost fell off my body.

It doesn’t really matter what the reason is—the point I’m trying to make here is that nothing makes me want to hype up Rudy Gobert. Nothing really makes me want to sing his praises from a mountaintop.

But goddamn, he is good at basketball.

Remember when the Nuggets drafted him with the 27th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, only to be traded to the Jazz for Erick Green and cash? Of course you don’t, because then he was just some French guy we’d never heard of. Now? Denver looks pretty stupid.

Even at 7-1, Gobert’s 7-9 wingspan and 9-9 standing reach is freakish. He singlehandedly made Utah one of the three best defensive teams in the NBA last year with his ability to protect the rim. He’s not just a steady presence in the paint—he’s a dominant one. He can guard the NBA’s pet play, the pick-and-roll, basically by himself, making the ballhandler think twice about entering the lane, and using his length to keep the roller from receiving an easy pass. Meanwhile his teammates can stay home on the perimeter. That’s a long-winded way of saying he’s a game-changer on the defensive end.

His 14 ppg, 12.8 rpg and league-leading 2.6 blocks per game in 2016-17 were all career-highs, and he finished second in the NBA in Win Shares. Want more advanced stats? How about all of these:

.@rudygobert27 finished 2016-17…
1st in DRPM
1st in DWS
1st in BLK%
1st in DRtg
2nd in WS
3rd in DBPM
5th in RPM
6th in DRB%
8th in VORP pic.twitter.com/K9qhi6HD5o

— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) April 13, 2017

And here’s one more for you, perhaps most revealing: nERD is a metric developed by numberFire that measures the total contribution of a player throughout the course of a season, based on their efficiency, where League average is 0. Similar to win shares, you can think of it like, if dude played on a team with four league-average teammates, we’d expect that team to finish X games over .500 that season.

Last season, Gobert finished with a 17.8 nERD rating, second in the NBA behind only Kawhi Leonard (19.5). Which means over the full 82 last season, in terms of efficiency, Gobert contributed more to his squad than 48 of the other 49 names you’ll see on this countdown.

And, in the wake of Gordon Hayward’s departure for greener (I’m sorry) pastures in Boston, Gobert is all of a sudden a leading man. Hell, he’s already the Most Influential Person in Utah Sports. (No, seriously.) So while he’s never been a back-to-the-basket offensive playmaker who you can just throw the rock when you need a bucket, his efficiency in limited offensive touches is promising, especially for a 25-year-old who will be given every opportunity to become the man. Plus, he’s a criminally underrated passer:

Just @rudygobert27 droppin dimes pic.twitter.com/z0FbEFz7cd

— Adam (@prodigyJF) August 29, 2017

The Jazz were better when Gobert was on the floor last season—on both ends—and he was knocking on the door of an All-Star nod with career-highs across the board. His stock is pointing up for ’17-18. Way up. Like, most impactful big man in the NBA level up.

Et vous savez quoi? Je pense qu’après avoir dit tout ca, en réalité, je suis un fan de son.

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post SLAM Top 50: Rudy Gobert, No. 25 appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: OK, so it wasn’t really his last after all. But the Air Jordan XIV’s place among the immortals in sneaker lore will forever be linked to what we all assumed really was “The Last Shot.” Hence the nickname bestowed upon the most popular colorway of the XIV. Michael Jordan wore the black and red XIVs as he hung in the air and held the follow-through of his ’98 Finals-clinching game-winner in Utah. Damn if time didn’t freeze when Mike pulled up (or pushed off, if you ask Bryon Russell) and popped a signature mid-range J FTW. Pause it in your mind and you’ll see the XIVs—yet to be released—floating above the hardwood on his feet. Inspired by MJ’s love for fast cars, Tinker Hatfield and Mark Smith modeled the XIV after his Ferrari 550 Maranello, even down to the shield on the side panel with the Jumpman logo inside—one of 14 such logos found on each pair in different spots, like on the silver-tipped laces. The Jordan XIV was innovative, aerodynamic and breathable, too, with Zoom Air units in the heel and forefoot for a cushioned ride. Like the Ferrari, the last sneaker Mike ever wore as a Chicago Bull was world class.

https://youtu.be/8V_1ZxCN3nI

The Moment: In a pair of sleek black and red Air Jordan XIVs, Michael Jordan rose up to sink the jumper that won him his sixth title.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16
Air Jordan XX, No. 15
adidas Harden Vol. 1, No. 14
Nike PG1, No. 13
Nike Kyrie 2, No. 12
Air Jordan XXXI, No. 11
Nike KD IV, No. 10
AND1 Tai Chi, No. 9
Nike Hyperdunk, No. 8
adidas T-Mac 1, No. 7
Nike Shox BB4, No. 6
Nike Kobe IV, No. 5
Nike 2K4 Huarache, No. 4
Nike Air Zoom Generation, No. 3
Reebok Answer IV, No. 2

Photos courtesy of Tom Medvedich and Getty Images

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: Air Jordan XIV appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: Allen Iverson’s first signature sneaker, the Reebok Question, was an instant classic. The three models that followed—the Answer I, II and III—were cool and all, but they were far from the kind of smash hit shoe destined for future campouts anticipating its retro. The technology was there: The Answer IV had full-length DMX cushioning, plus a unique shrouded upper and an innovative lacing system complete with zipper. As for the cultural appeal, well, Iverson took care of that. AI wore the IV during his 2000-01 MVP season, and that same year carried Philadelphia to the NBA Finals against the Lakers. There in Game 1 of the biggest stage in his sport under the bright lights in Los Angeles, with the IVs still on his feet, he delivered one of the most iconic moments in basketball history: The Step Over. A moment so damn cool even the unflappable Marv Albert was taken aback on the air. And, thanks to replays and images captured of that move that include such a clear shot of Iverson’s black and white Answer IVs, the shoe’s legend has grown with AI’s, making it one of the most iconic moments in sneaker history, too.

The Moment: Allen Iverson punctuated his 48-point outburst in Game 1 of the 2001 Finals by walking over a fallen Tyronn Lue in a fresh pair of Answer IVs.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16
Air Jordan XX, No. 15
adidas Harden Vol. 1, No. 14
Nike PG1, No. 13
Nike Kyrie 2, No. 12
Air Jordan XXXI, No. 11
Nike KD IV, No. 10
AND1 Tai Chi, No. 9
Nike Hyperdunk, No. 8
adidas T-Mac 1, No. 7
Nike Shox BB4, No. 6
Nike Kobe IV, No. 5
Nike 2K4 Huarache, No. 4
Nike Air Zoom Generation, No. 3

Photos courtesy of Tom Medvedich and Getty Images

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: Reebok Answer IV appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: Boing. As the inspiration for a legendary Nike ad campaign, the Nike Shox BB4 will forever be known for their defining characteristic, the exposed heel Air-Sole unit. Jumps just looked a little bouncier in the BB4s, an idea helped by the fact that Vince Carter, the NBA’s most aerial player at the time (and perhaps ever), rocked them as a member of the Toronto Raptors and Team USA. Carter was wearing the BB4, which was inspired by rocket boosters and astronauts, when he leapt into the air and flew straight over Frederic Weis en route to a dunk that may go down as the greatest posterizaiton in basketball history. Boing.

The Moment: Both young and old agree that Le Dunk de la Mort is the greatest in-game rimrocker ever.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16
Air Jordan XX, No. 15
adidas Harden Vol. 1, No. 14
Nike PG1, No. 13
Nike Kyrie 2, No. 12
Air Jordan XXXI, No. 11
Nike KD IV, No. 10
AND1 Tai Chi, No. 9
Nike Hyperdunk, No. 8
adidas T-Mac 1, No. 7

Photos courtesy of Nike and Getty Images

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: Nike Shox BB4 appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: The T-Mac 1 almost instantly became the hottest basketball sneaker on the block when it dropped back in 2002. With an ode to the classic adidas shell toe—only this time with a rubberized version wrapped from midfoot to toe—it was like nothing else on the hardwood. As was its namesake, who led the NBA in scoring twice despite always looking like he was just out there jogging. Tracy McGrady oozed cool, and so did his kicks, which came to be created in almost every team colorway, even getting an on-court co-sign from LeBron James during his high school days with adidas.

The Moment: Tracy McGrady caught his first-ever 50-piece while rocking his first-ever signature sneaker.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16
Air Jordan XX, No. 15
adidas Harden Vol. 1, No. 14
Nike PG1, No. 13
Nike Kyrie 2, No. 12
Air Jordan XXXI, No. 11
Nike KD IV, No. 10
AND1 Tai Chi, No. 9
Nike Hyperdunk, No. 8

Photos courtesy of adidas and Getty Images

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: adidas T-Mac 1 appeared first on SLAM.

So when the Toronto Raptors drafted a kid from Mount Zion Christian Academy in North Carolina with the ninth overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft, nobody—outside of true hoop heads—knew a goddamn thing about him. Sure, he was a McDonald’s All-American and USA Today’s National Player of the Year. But back then, that didn’t carry as much weight. See, the crown jewel of  the ’97 Draft Class was  a four-year college starter who played high-level ACC ball in the same state—No. 1 overall pick Tim Duncan.

And after riding the bench during a rookie season that he’d later describe as “hell” and a second year shortened by a lockout, the kid’s Q rating wasn’t exactly skyrocketing. That is, until All-Star Weekend in 2000. There, on a Saturday night in Oakland, McGrady’s distant cousin and then-teammate Vince Carter put on perhaps the greatest Slam Dunk performance in the contest’s history. It was such a spectacular show that it’s easy to forget it was Tracy who threw him a perfect pass on one of VC’s 50s, earned a perfect score on one of his own dunks and reached the final round, too.

Tracy McGrady was, that summer, a 21-year-old who’d shown flashes of greatness but had never even been a starter in the League. And yet, the Orlando Magic backed up the Brink’s truck to make him their franchise player. Out from under his bouncy cousin’s shadow, over the next seven seasons T-Mac earned seven straight All-NBA nods and won a pair of scoring titles over time split in Orlando and Houston. McGrady joined the likes of Kobe, AI, Shaq, Jason Kidd, KG and Duncan as one of the unquestioned top-10 players in the NBA.

Meanwhile, adidas, too, banked on T-Mac becoming a bona fide superstar. Since his days alongside Kobe at ABCD Camp, McGrady was a Three Stripes lifer. In high school, he rocked the Top Ten, and early in his pro career, T-Mac laced up a myriad of adi models, including the Real Deal, the Silk, the Mad Handle, the KB8 II and the KB8 III.

In 2002, adidas introduced the T-Mac 1. It was a silhouette no one had ever really seen before: low-cut with a durable rubber shell toe, and perforated leather on either side of the toe box. McGrady slipped on a silver and black pair of his 1s for the NBA All-Star Game that season, during which he threw himself an alley-oop pass off the backboard in traffic and flushed it. The iconic All-Star Game moment helped propel the popularity of the T-Mac 1 to the masses. adidas made dozens of different colorways for specific teams and players—including the next HS phenom, a do-it-all kid from Akron, OH, named LeBron James.

For the ’04 All-Star Game, McGrady rocked a mismatched pair of T-Mac 3s—one red, one blue—and threw himself another of his signature self-assisted alley-oops. T-Mac graced the cover of KICKS 6, 8 and 9, and considering the amount of ink we’ve devoted to him in this magazine over the years, it’s about time he got the sneaker HOF recognition here, to go with the Naismith HOF honors he’ll be earning this September. Before debilitating knee and back injuries took away McGrady’s explosiveness late in his career (which ended with brief stints in New York, Detroit, Atlanta and San Antonio), adidas made six signature shoes to his name, and his on-court dominance led to massive sneaker culture influence.

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images

The post Legacy appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: The Tai Chi made its debut around the time folks were bugging out about Y2K, and by then, the AND1 brand was already rock solid. Between Stephon Marbury representing in the League and the AND1 mixtape series taking over in the streets, AND1 wasn’t some fledgling company—they were serious players. Yet not until All-Star Weekend 2000 did the brand finally get its legacy moment for its forever-iconic sneaker. A bouncy young cat by the name of Vince Carter pulled up in Oakland and promptly pronounced “It’s over!” with perhaps the single greatest Slam Dunk Contest performance ever. All with the Yin and Yang-inspired Tai Chis on his feet.

The Moment: While Vince Carter was hanging off the rim at the 2000 Dunk Contest, his white and red pair of AND1 Tai Chis were leaping their way into Hall of Fame sneaker status.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16
Air Jordan XX, No. 15
adidas Harden Vol. 1, No. 14
Nike PG1, No. 13
Nike Kyrie 2, No. 12
Air Jordan XXXI, No. 11
Nike KD IV, No. 10

Photos courtesy of AND1 and Getty Images

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: AND1 Tai Chi appeared first on SLAM.

Since the debut edition of KICKS hit newsstands in 1997, NBA Stars have graced the hardwood in countless fire sneakers. To celebrate KICKS’ 20th anniversary, we’re counting down the 20 best we’ve seen over the past 20 years—and the moments that defined them. At No. 11 is the Air Jordan XXXI, Jordan Brand’s high-performance nod to their heritage. –Ed.

The Sneaker: Thirty years before the Air Jordan XXXI, there was the Air Jordan I. Then, it was Michael Jordan who was the face of the brand. Now, it’s Russell Westbrook. “Thirty years ago, that’s me,” Mike said of Russ in 2016. Perhaps that’s why the brand decided—after a suggestion from MJ himself—that it was time to bring back the Nike Swoosh for a Jordan sneaker for the first time since the legendary Jordan I. Technologically speaking, though, the XXXI is lightyears ahead of its original incarnation. With full-length Zoom Air, FlightSpeed tech and Flywire construction, it’s a basketball performance beast.

The Moment: Russell Westbrook hit a nearly impossible game-winner and he broke Oscar Robertson’s single-season triple-double record in the same night. Why not, right?

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16
Air Jordan XX, No. 15
adidas Harden Vol. 1, No. 14
Nike PG1, No. 13
Nike Kyrie 2, No. 12

Photos courtesy of Nike and Getty Images

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: Air Jordan XXXI appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: James Harden was long overdue for a signature sneaker. Not to worry, The Beard’s patience has been a virtue. Finally trusted to be “the man” in Houston after years coming off the bench in OKC, he quickly proved himself to be one of the top players in the game. And finally entrusted with his own signature line, he’s done the same in the sneaker world. His first model’s mélange of full-length adidas Boost technology, Primeknit and tumbled leather shroud, plus an asymmetrical lacing system, made perfect sense for a player who prides himself on being different.

The Moment: Wilt Chamberlain’s numbers are next-level crazy. But James Harden, with 53 points, 17 assists and 16 rebounds against the NY Knicks, tied The Stilt for the most points ever put up in a triple-double.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16
Air Jordan XX, No. 15

Photos courtesy of adidas and Getty Images

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The Sneaker: By the 20th sneaker in the Air Jordan line, consumers were ready to be skeptical. Perhaps the public thought the Jumpman line had already innovated in every possible way—that there was nothing left to do. Plus, Mike was long gone from the League by 2005. But with Tinker Hatfield returning as the AJ XX’s lead designer (he’d last worked on the XV), something totally unexpected was born. Tinker drew on MJ’s love for motorsports and cycling to create a midfoot strap and heel ankle support designed for free range of motion, and he also introduced Independent Podular Suspension technology.

The Moment: Carmelo Anthony smoothly scored 31 points at the 2005 Rookie Challenge (now known as the Rising Stars Challenge) in an ice-cold Air Jordan XX PE.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18
Under Armour Curry One, No. 17
Nike LEBRON 8, No. 16

Photos courtesy of Nike and Getty Images

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: Air Jordan XX appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: When Stephen Curry joined Under Armour, there were no guarantees that he’d become a back-to-back MVP and a two-time NBA Champion. But what UA saw in the Warriors PG remains a plain truth in the sneaker industry: that a player like Curry, whose normal-guy stature is relatable and whose grounded personality makes him feel approachable, can move units. So with Chef Curry’s blessing, UA cooked up a debut model in 2015 that defied expectations, both in its technological advances (the introduction of Charged Cushioning and Anafoam) and its bevy of colorways (like the “Candy Reign,” “MVP” and “Dub Nation”).

The Moment: Curry seemingly came out of nowhere to sucker punch the League with a barrage of three-pointers that earned him his first MVP and his first NBA championship in the same season.

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas The Kobe, No. 18

Photos courtesy of UA and Getty Images

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: Under Armour Curry One appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: By the time he was 21, Kobe Bryant was already a two-time All-Star and one of the most popular young cats in the League. And while adidas had designed a couple models with KB in mind early on in his career, it wasn’t until the original KOBE that things really popped off. The Lakers beat the Pacers in the 2000 NBA Finals, giving Kobe his first of five rings and putting The KOBE on a pedestal. Modeled after the sleek Audi TT Roadster, The KOBE (now known as the Crazy 1) was both exceedingly simple and patently polarizing.

The Moment: Kobe Bryant averaged 29.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists in the 16 games it took to get his second consecutive ‘chip.

Previously
DaDa Supreme Spinner, No. 19
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20

Photos courtesy of Getty Images and Tom Medvedich

The post Top 20 Basketball Sneakers of the Past 20 Years: adidas The Kobe appeared first on SLAM.

The Sneaker: If anyone wore them now, you’d roll your eyes so far back into your skull your head might fall off. But there was a time, in the early 2000s, when there was nothing cooler than spinning rims. Rappers stunted with rims that kept spinning even when the expensive car came to a complete stop. DaDa figured why not bring the spinning rims to sneakers—literally. Between his IDGAF personality and his car customization business, Latrell Sprewell was the perfect endorser. As was Three 6 Mafia’s “Ridin Spinners” as the theme song for the shoe’s TV commercial.

The Moment: Latrell Sprewell was a veteran by the time he walked onto the court in his revolutionary DaDa Supreme Spinners. He still had enough bounce left in his legs to hang 34 on the Kings in a big Game 5 win in the 2004 playoffs. 

Previously
adidas adiZero Crazylight, No. 20

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

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“It felt like a real dream,” the Detroit rapper says of that moment. He first saw LeBron’s IG post when a flurry of fans bombarded his DMs with the link. “It’s one thing for someone like that to be listening to it, but for him to actually be rapping it, that’s what I’ve been working for—for it to get to everybody’s ears. It’s hard to get people to rap your music, to really feel it like that. So I was grateful for it. He did a lot for me, for my following.”

Later that day, Jay-Z mentioned the up-and-comer in a flurry of tweets where he named rappers who inspire him, even going so far as to call “First Day Out” the best song out. Yep, June 15 was a good day for Tee Grizzley.

Perhaps even better than the day a few months back when Miami center Hassan Whiteside invited him to hang out at his house on South Beach. “We had dinner and really kicked it,” Tee remembers. “Bro’s house was so cold. The food was cooked by a chef—that was the first time I had a personal chef cook for me. That house was crazy.”

Born Terry Wallace, the 23-year-old grew up rooting for the hometown Pistons teams led by Tayshaun Prince, Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace, but also for Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and the Celtics. And while Grizzley never played ball growing up (because, he jokes, “I was too good, I would never lose, so I just didn’t play”), these days he’ll never pass up a chance to shoot around while on the road, if the hotel has a court or there’s an LA Fitness nearby. He describes his game as a mix of Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird—“All three at once.”

In light of his new NBA fans, Tee’s added the Cavs and Heat to his list of favorites, and he considers LeBron the GOAT: “I think he is—him and Hassan Whiteside are the greatest players of all time. Because they rock with me, so I feel like they’re the greatest.”

His debut album, My Moment, picked up buzz during this year’s playoffs, with lyrical references to Draymond Green and Stephen Curry, among others. “Next NBA Finals,” he says, “I expect to perform at halftime.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Bobbi Digital.

The post First Day Out appeared first on SLAM.

Born Adolph Thornton Jr, as a kid he idolized local legend Penny Hardaway, but also lists Allen Iverson, Clyde Drexler and Kevin Garnett among his childhood heroes. Dolph never played organized basketball, but it’s always been his favorite sport.

“In the hood that’s what we did for fun—it’s like every boy in the hood’s hobby, to play basketball,” he explains. “I was like Hardaway. I was super cold.”

Dolph has been a staple on the mixtape circuit for nearly a decade and has already released a pair of projects in 2017. His latest offering, Bulletproof, is a not-so-subtle homage to the 100 rounds he survived in February, when his SUV was shot up in Charlotte, NC, during the annual CIAA Basketball Tournament Weekend.

John Wall and Russell Westbrook have attended performances in their respective NBA cities, according to Dolph, while Zach Randolph and Tony Allen of the Grizzlies have supported him since day one. So whenever the 31-year-old rapper is in town, he makes a point to return the favor, showing up courtside at FedExForum to support the hometown squad.

And yet, Dolph says he hasn’t had a favorite team since Michael Jordan retired, though he sees similarities in the career accomplishments of another No. 23.

“Jordan was the greatest of his time, and LeBron is the greatest of his time, no question. They’re two different players—both are the greatest of their time,” he argues. “LeBron is the greatest right now. He’s the coldest, the rawest in the League.”

As for his own game, Dolph remains as confident in his jumpshot as in his music.

“I’ll bet a thousand dollars a jumper with anybody in the world,” he insists. “You can put Stephen Curry on the three-point line and we can bet a thousand a shot.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Jordan Spencer 

The post Baller Alert appeared first on SLAM.

Today is an off day in Toronto, between Games 1 and 2 of the No. 3-seeded Raptors’ opening round playoff series with the feisty Milwaukee Bucks. Practice ended about an hour ago, and Serge Ibaka is back at the crib. His apartment in Old Toronto is only four blocks from Air Canada Centre, where the Raps play, but more like a 15-minute drive—sans traffic—from the team’s practice facility.

His game day routine has stayed the same for much of his career. Show up 45 minutes early. Shootaround. Extra shots. Stretch. Ice bath. Massage. Shower. His chef will have his pre-game lunch (always pasta) ready when Serge gets home, and he’ll take about an hour-long nap before getting dressed and heading back to the arena. The familiarity of that routine helped keep him focused during what’s been an unexpectedly nomadic year.

For the first seven years of his NBA career, Ibaka was in Oklahoma City. The Congolese native tore up the Spanish pro league as a teenager, attracted the eye of scouts and became a first-round pick of the then-Seattle SuperSonics. A year later he arrived in OKC. For his entire NBA life, until last summer, he called Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook teammates. Those Thunder teams made the Western Conference Finals four times, including a trip to the NBA Finals in 2012, and missed the playoffs just once. The legendary (in hindsight) OKC core of Durant, Westbrook and James Harden will forever be one of the NBA’s greatest what-ifs. And yet, the ever-common groaning about how that team was disassembled neglects to include mention of Ibaka, who was traded to Orlando on draft night 2016 for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and No. 11 pick Domantas Sabonis. He posted good numbers but was languishing away on a Magic team going nowhere until the Raptors scooped him up in a February deal. A season ago at this time, Ibaka was enjoying the long-term stability of OKC. Now, he’s moved twice in the year since—and he’s had to get used to dealing with big-city traffic.

“It’s getting easier,” Ibaka says over the phone from his new residence in the 6. He’s got the logistics down pat, but all the career changes have caused some disorder in his personal life. Ibaka’s 11-year-old daughter Ranie is still back in Orlando, where she was already enrolled in school, but she visits him often—like this past weekend, when there are a couple days between Raptors home games. When he’s not spending time with his daughter, for the most part Serge just shuttles between his apartment and practice or games. The 27-year-old prefers to stay home and chill during his personal time—he stretches his 6-10 frame out on the couch and watches TV shows like Bloodline and The Walking Dead.

Late in Game 1, with the Bucks out to a 19-point lead and the game no longer hanging in the balance, Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan drove the paint but was rejected—rather emphatically—by Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. DeRozan popped up off the deck with a look in his eye like he wanted to two-piece The Greek Freak a la Chris Childs’ two-piece on Kobe circa the year 2000. Before he could get to Giannis, though, Ibaka bear-hugged his teammate and got in his ear.

“It’s not Game 7,” Ibaka remembers telling DeRozan as he held him back from going after Antetokounmpo. “I was telling him, it’s OK, we might have six more to go. We got the next one. Because the one thing I’ve learned about this sport, especially in the playoffs, is you cannot celebrate the first win. We’ve got more games coming.”

That, Ibaka says, has been his message to the Raptors as a whole: “I’ve been in the position before where we’re two games down and we came back and won the series. All you have to do is learn from the last game, go back and practice hard and come back stronger.”

After not having won a first-round series since the Vince Carter era, Toronto broke through with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals last postseason, falling in six games to the eventual champion Cavaliers. At this season’s trade deadline, the Raptors acquired Ibaka from the Magic in exchange for swingman Terrence Ross and a first-round pick. The move signaled something simple but important, given the landscape of the Eastern Conference: Toronto is going for it, right here, right now, with this core. They were long in desperate need of a power forward (and sometimes-center) to play defense, stretch the floor and bring toughness to a talented, guard-heavy lineup. In Ibaka, the Raptors finally have that missing piece.

During the 2016-17 regular season with Orlando and Toronto, Ibaka put up 14.8 points per game (his highest ppg since 2014) to go with 6.8 boards and 1.6 blocks. His traditional defensive stats might not jump off the page anymore—as a younger player, he led the League in blocks with 3.7 a night—but his evolution as a player has made him more versatile, and thus more valuable. With the Raptors, he’s taking—and making—more threes (40 percent during the regular season) as exactly the kind of versatile, floor-stretching big man his new team needs. More importantly, Ibaka can speak to his new teammates from experience.

“That’s the dream, to make it back to the Finals,” Ibaka insists. “Because I know how hard it is to make it to the Finals.”

Beyond the adjustments to his daily life, and to the modifications to his game for the betterment of his new team, Ibaka’s also had to make a mental adjustment. He’s gone from playing in the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference, which means a whole new set of rivals. Instead of chasing San Antonio or Golden State, Toronto added Ibaka (and forward PJ Tucker from the Suns in another deadline deal) with the aim of taking down Cleveland.

“I’m used to seeing first round we’re going to play Memphis or Denver or the Lakers. Now my first playoff game here we’d play the Bucks or Indiana. So yeah, it feels weird, a little bit,” Ibaka admits. “But to me, it’s the playoffs. I keep doing the same routine, the same focus. And it’s basketball. It’s not that different, it’s another playoff series, but with my new team.”

As for what he brings to the Raptors, Ibaka mentions a winning mentality (check), a strong defensive presence (check) and toughness (ask Robin Lopez). Or, as he puts it hopefully, “the kinds of things that win championships.” Indeed, head coach Dwane Casey told reporters in April that Ibaka and Tucker give the Raptors “physical toughness that we haven’t had.” Serge is adamant, though, that he doesn’t want a pat on the back for bringing Toronto a damn thing until it results in wins. “We have to wait until after the playoffs.”

Playoffs. Even just hearing Ibaka say the word feels right. He’s far too classy to put it in crass terms, so we’ll say it for him: Getting traded from the Thunder to the Magic last summer was a gut punch. Which, in contrast, meant that getting moved mid-season from the Magic to the Raptors was nothing short of reinvigorating. The trade, which sent him from one of the East’s worst teams to one of its best, happened a few days before the All-Star break. That’s a week when most players without obligations to All-Star Weekend itself take the rare opportunity to go on an exotic vacation and get some rest, for once. Instead, Ibaka was in New York City, working out at the National Basketball Players Association’s gym in midtown. And when he finally hit the court in Toronto a few days later, he was celebrated immediately.

“It was so great to see all the fans who were waiting for me—they were so happy and excited to have me here,” Ibaka says. “It pumped up my confidence, just to see all that love, how happy they were to see me. The first game, when they introduced my name, it was crazy—like, crazy crazy. It’s love, man.”

The night after our chat, in Game 2 against the Bucks, Ibaka will prove why he’s worthy of such admiration, pouring in 16 points (including 4 three-pointers), snatching 7 rebounds, handing out 6 assists and swatting 2 thunderous blocked shots on Antetokounmpo and Thon Maker to help even the series. He is everywhere, making the plays we’re used to seeing Serge Ibaka make on a basketball court—only now he’s wearing Raptors red and black, not the Thunder blue we’d come so accustomed to seeing him in around this time each year.

And that’s the thing: Serge Ibaka is still Serge Ibaka, albeit a little older and a little wiser, following a sabbatical to basketball irrelevance for 56 games in Orlando.

Toronto won that first-round series over the Bucks, and now the Raptors are once again hoping to get over the hump against the Cavs. Should they succeed, All-Stars DeRozan and Kyle Lowry will (deservedly) be heaped with praise. Ibaka, though, would represent the key to Toronto’s breakthrough, both in attitude and output. It would be the culmination of sharing all he learned in OKC, and the epitome of his willingness to play a supporting role for the greater good of the team. In that sense, Ibaka’s been expertly navigating traffic his entire career.

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Portraits via Charlie Lindsay (@doncharleone); Action shot via Getty Images.

The post Up North Trip appeared first on SLAM.

Born Earl James Stevens, E-40 grew up in Vallejo, CA, where baseball was the main sport played around the neighborhood. He was a decent hooper, too, but eventually got cut from the high school basketball team along with childhood friend Tony Longmire, who went on to play outfield for the Philadelphia Phillies. 40, of course, became synonymous with Bay Area rap, with his third solo album In a Major Way putting him on the map and a never-ending list of mainstream hits coming thereafter.

It took years to earn his courtside seat, but once 40 began rubbing shoulders with the Warrior fan elite in recent seasons (“You gotta be around money to get money,” he explains), he soon became the face—and the voice—of Golden State’s fanbase.

40-Water is a fan of the League at large, too, and his list of favorite NBA players of all time includes Gary Payton, Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and, “don’t get it fucked up, I’m not a Laker fan, but I’ve always liked Kobe.

“One thing about me: I love the Bay Area. I love California. I got love for the Kings, too,” he admits. “When Mike Bibby and Peja Stojakovic and all ’em played for the Kings I would go to Kings games, too. I got love for the Kings too, because I’m Northern California, bruh. But I’m a Warrior fan to the heart. I been liking the team since I was a kid, since I was a youngster.

“I go back to Rick Barry and the boy Robert Parish,” says 40, harkening back to an era when the Warriors front office had a tendency to squander its homegrown talent. “Robert Parish, when he left the Warriors, he became a motherfuckin’ Hall of Famer, dude. They was getting rid of people and it was pissing a lot of people off. But now we have a great organization—the powers that be are doing a great job. I salute them and I take my hat off to them.”

At this point, 40 doesn’t have to defend his Golden State fandom. When he built his house 20 years ago, he made the basketball court Warriors-themed. His kids have Warriors posters in their rooms. He even released a Warriors-centric remix to his single “Choices (Yup)” during the Dubs’ championship run in 2015. And, as an OG fan of the team and “Ambassador of the Bay,” he’s willing to welcome the recent bump in bandwagon Warriors fans.

“It is bandwagoners, but so what? That’s OK. They turn two-face on rappers. When a rapper’s hot, they hot. When they not, they not,” 40 explains. “I feel like when the playoffs come, if somebody’s team didn’t make it, especially on the West Coast, I think in the back of people’s head, they’re like, I’m going for the Warriors.”

Which sounds a lot like 40’s explanation for why Kevin Durant signed with the Dubs last summer: “Who wouldn’t want to stay in Northern California, the Bay Area? The best place on earth, mayne.”

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images

The post Ambassador of the Bay appeared first on SLAM.

Tuesday night in Brooklyn, Jordan Brand athletes Ray Allen and Maya Moore helped kick off JBC Week by greeting the game’s participants with inspiring words—and lots of selfies and Snapchats. Allen, one of the first athletes to ever sign to Jordan Brand, urged the kids to savor the experience this week.  “Take the time to enjoy these moments,” Allen said on the mic, “because they go by fast. But what I want you also to know is, these moments are 10 percent of our lives. The other 90 percent, we’re grinding.”

It’s the fifth consecutive year the event will take place at Barclays Center, and the third event that will include a Girls All-American Game (a new tradition that Moore was instrumental in starting). And this time around, players will wear the Air Jordan XXXI “Flight Guy” colorway during practices and the games on Friday.

Inspired by Jordan Brand’s 30-plus years of transcendent style and pinnacle performance, Jordan has dubbed this year’s class of athletes the “Class of XXXI.” The “Class of” campaign matches up a player’s senior year of high school with that year’s Jordan release. For example, Russell Westbrook is Class of XX and Kawhi Leonard is Class of XXIV.

Before closing his remarks to the players on Tuesday, Allen (Class of VIII) mentioned SLAM in particular as a source of great motivation for his legendary career.

“SLAM Magazine is somewhere around here. When I got drafted—I don’t know if you guys have seen the cover from 1996, SLAM Magazine, it had everybody in my draft class,” Allen told the kids. “On the inside, it had a list of accolades. Most likely to win MVP, most likely to win an NBA Championship. My name was nowhere on there except for one spot, and it said Most Likely To Fade Into Obscurity. Now, I knew what obscurity meant, but I had to look it up in the dictionary because I had to make sure I knew what they were saying. That was one of the best things that ever happened to be. Because, basically, they told me I wasn’t going to be sh*t. Pay attention to stuff people say negatively about you. Not good. Good doesn’t make you work. Negative will piss you off just enough to make you work your ass off.”

Afterwards, we sat down with both Moore and Allen to talk about the Jordan Brand Classic experience, the Class of XXXI campaign, the NBA MVP race and much more. You can listen to those interviews below:

The national game of the 16th annual Jordan Brand Classic will tip off at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2 on Friday, April 14. Photos courtesy of Jordan Brand.

The post Ray Allen and Maya Moore Help Kick Off Jordan Brand Classic Week in NYC appeared first on SLAM.

“They didn’t believe that he could play. In Indiana, seventh grade AAU basketball is pretty strong. So Eric being a fourth grader, they go, ‘Fourth grade, are you kidding me?’”

That’s how the boy’s father, Eric Gordon Sr, remembers the scene that day at North Central High in Indianapolis. “They only had him come off the bench because he was a fourth grader and everyone else was in seventh grade. They won the state AAU title that year, and Eric came off the bench, but he was the leading scorer on the team and he led them in steals. I guess they didn’t want a fourth grader to start over a seventh grader.”

And that, before this season—his first with the Houston Rockets—was the last time Eric Gordon Jr came off the bench as a basketball player. So forgive him if it’s taken some time to get used to calling himself a reserve.

“When I signed with this team, I didn’t think I would be coming off the bench, that’s for sure,” Gordon says on the phone the morning after an early March loss to the Spurs who, along with the Warriors, are the only teams ahead of the Rockets in the West. “I never really came off the bench hardly ever. So yeah, I was a little skeptical at first.”

A few seconds later, EG adds, “But I definitely want to win Sixth Man of the Year, that’s for sure.”

Barring something crazy, he will. Gordon is averaging a shade over 16 ppg off the bench and hitting a career-high 3.3 three-pointers per game despite playing his fewest minutes since ’12-13. He only needed 49 games to break the single-season NBA record for most threes (180) off the bench. He’s now at 243 and counting—only the Splash Bros and teammate James Harden have buried more threes this season. (His fiercest competition for 6MOY, in fact, may come from another teammate: Lou Williams, acquired from the Lakers at the trade deadline. Lou Will actually leads the League in bench scoring this season, at 17.7 ppg.)

Yet not a single expert picked Gordon to win that honor before the 2016-17 season tipped off. In fairness, when the nine-year vet inked with Houston over the summer, he was expected to start alongside Harden. And he did, for a handful of games, before Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni moved him permanently into the sixth man role. As you might imagine, that’s not an easy conversation for a coach to have with a player who’s been a starter for the entirety of his high school, college and pro career.

The mental adjustment is nothing to scoff at. Gordon says, “You’ve got to let your talent override that. But it is an adjustment. You’re playing with different players, with more younger players and inexperienced players coming off the bench. And you’ve got to make a quick effect on the game.

“You gotta do whatever it takes to win. D’Antoni’s a good communicator, and when you’re a good communicator, that’s what players like and that’s what I like,” Gordon adds. “That made me feel more comfortable doing it, and hey, the results are—it just makes us a better team, and a deeper team.”

Gordon arrived in Houston after eight seasons in L.A. and New Orleans. With the Clippers, he was a top-10 pick and presumed franchise cornerstone. But his breakout third year was hampered by injuries to his shoulder and wrist, and that summer he was moved to the Hornets in the trade that brought Chris Paul to Lob City. In NOLA, the injury problems persisted—he had issues with one knee, then the other. He suffered a torn labrum. And just when he was finally given a clean bill of health, he broke a finger on his shooting hand.

Gordon Sr says that was his son’s lowest moment. Rehabbing a knee injury or repairing a torn muscle, that’s one thing. But a broken finger? You’ve gotta be kidding me, Eric thought.

He was down, but not defeated.

“It’s funny,” the 28-year-old guard says of being labeled injury-prone. “When people look at you when you deal with injuries, they almost forget that you’re still a basketball player.”

The Rockets hadn’t forgotten. Houston saw past Gordon’s injury history and signed him to a four-year, $53 million deal in July. Motivated by a fresh start in a new city, Gordon changed up his gym habits. He wanted to get stronger and build a more stable foundation so that he could hold up and stay fresh over an entire regular season and into the playoffs. So he started doing more Olympic weightlifting, focusing on his body’s functional movements. The on-court results speak for themselves: His minutes have been shaved down from a career average of 33.5 per game to more like 30, and with the fresh legs, he’s already played in more games than he has in any year since his rookie season.

Not to mention that Houston (54-27), with Harden playing at an MVP level and Gordon launching missiles off the bench, is all of a sudden a serious title contender. That part has surprised even Gordon himself.

“I expected us to be pretty good,” he says, “but to be a third seed and potentially make a really good run in the playoffs? Probably not—but I knew we would be a good team though.

“I think I made the right decision going to Houston,” Gordon continues. “It really let me be a big-time playmaker and not just a shooter. I think that’s what really helped me. They really care about you being successful.”

The camaraderie between star player and key sidekicks in H-Town has been evident from the start. When Gordon was moved to the bench, Harden, a former Sixth Man of the Year himself, pulled him aside. The message was simple: “He just said, ‘Come in and be yourself, do the things that need be,’” Gordon recalls.

In January, Harden publicly touted Gordon as an “All-Star for sure.” EG wasn’t named to the West squad, but he still had his All-Star moment.

The annual Three-Point Contest on All-Star Saturday night is often nothing more than an appetizer. But for Gordon and his family, this year’s competition was special.

“I’ve been with him since he first touched a basketball,” says Gordon Sr, who runs his own basketball academy in the Indy area. “So I knew he was a little nervous, a little anxious to get going. He walked in and started looking around, because he didn’t know where family and friends were. I stood up and put both hands in the air, and he saw me and shook his head. So then I said, OK, he’s ready, he’s confident. As a kid, he’d always acknowledge me. So as he got older, I don’t care if it’s college or pro or whatever, he would glance over. So when he looked up and saw me, and we made that connection, I knew he was ready to go.”

Watching Eric Gordon shoot five racks worth of three-pointers is, in NSFW terms, basketball pornography. If Gordon’s shooting motion is unique, it’s only because it’s so damn perfect, every single time. He’s made tweaks to his form here and there since the fourth grade, but it’s still pretty much the same stroke he developed while learning the game from his father as a toddler. On All-Star Saturday night this past February, it took two rounds plus a tiebreaker to beat Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving, but Gordon came away with the trophy. “I know that was a dream come true for him,” Eric Jr says, of winning it in front of his pops.

“It was an incredible moment, a special moment. Matter fact, it’s kind of crazy, I actually cried,” Dad admits. “Tears just came out of my eyes because I was so happy for him.”

The texts started pouring in, Gordon Sr says. Back home, restaurants and bars erupted. It’s no secret: The Hoosier State takes its basketball serious. And from No. 2 high school player in the country to potential Sixth Man of the Year, Eric Gordon Jr remains a source of immense pride.

“People loved him around Indiana,” says Pacers wing Glenn Robinson III, who won the Slam Dunk Contest later that same night. GRIII grew up near Gary, IN, about two hours from where Gordon played. He remembers the epic battles between Gordon and fellow local star E’Twaun Moore, now with the Pelicans. “It was pretty cool that we both won on that night and represented Indiana like that.”

Of course, for as happy as Gordon was in that moment at All-Star Weekend—in New Orleans, a city where he has some rough memories, no less—he can’t help but envision making an impact on Sunday, not Saturday, next year around the same time.

“You can’t really argue with the All-Stars that were there,” Gordon says of Harden’s declaration that he should have been one of them. “But this ain’t gonna be the only year. I’ll definitely have a chance, either next year or over the years. I’ll definitely have the chance as we continue to win—I had two years where I averaged 20 and all that, but the thing is, we didn’t win as many games.”

Should he continue his scorching shooting streak, the individual accolades will come. And, should he encounter more adversity along the way, Gordon’s proven this season that he can persevere. “He has a strong will,” insists Gordon Sr. “From a young age, he knew that he wanted to play professional basketball.”

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images

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2 Chainz is standing inside Jimmy Jazz in Harlem, in front of a wall lined with his new sneaker, a collaboration with Ewing Athletics. The 2 Chainz edition 33 HI, Ewing’s flagship model, which features a full refelctive upper, released earlier this week in select stores and online. The left shoe has the standard “33 EWING” branding on the heel, while the right on has “2 CHAINZ” stamped instead. The sneaker’s custom packaging even includes a keychain featuring his dog, Trappy.

And Chainz wants us to know that this isn’t some half-baked collab just to collect a check. He really watched Pat Ewing do his thing back in the day.

A former hooper himself (then known as Tauheed Epps, the 6-5 rapper played at Alabama State for one season in ’96-97), 2 Chainz eventually turned to music—Pretty Girls Like Trap Music is due out April 7—but he’s still a huge fan of the game. Even with the crazy schedule of a rapper, he’s been able to keep tabs on the hottest stories in the basketball world.

“I like everybody from motherfuckin’ Jordan to Lonzo Ball, fam. Is that a crazy radius? That lets you know I’m into it deep,” he tells SLAM. “I’m fuckin’ with anybody that uses their God-given talent to do good.”

He’s even a fan of Lonzo’s boisterous, headline-making father, LaVar Ball. “I love it,” Chainz says of Ball’s bold proclamations of his son’s talent. “I wish I could incorporate some of that same mentality into my son. I love it.”

Checking out the @EwingAthletics x 2 Chainz Meet & Greet at Jimmy Jazz in Harlem for the 33 HI collab that dropped today pic.twitter.com/Bd3wd5fMfh

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) March 21, 2017

Speaking of love, having spent the last hour-and-a-half or so signing autographs and taking photos with fans, Chainz is feeling a lot of it for his new kicks.

“We’re getting great feedback,” he says, noting the strong correlation between music, style and sports. “Make sure you get four pair.”

Photos courtesy of Ewing Athletics

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post 2 Chainz Talks Ewing Athletics Collaboration appeared first on SLAM.

With some help from NYC jeweler Mr. Flawless, and to the astonishment of hundreds of bystanders, Robinson shut down one of the city’s busiest streets and showed off his bounce in a pair of Li-Ning WoW All-Star Lifestyle kicks available only in China.

We caught up with the 23-year-old Robinson, who is averaging career-highs in minutes (21.2), points (6.2) and rebounds (3.6) in his second season with the Pacers, the next day to learn how it all went down. Plus, we asked him about his growing celebrity since winning the Dunk Contest, what it was like growing up the son of an NBA star and who he’s picking to win the NCAA Tournament.

* * *

SLAM: How did you dunk in the middle of 6th Avenue?

Glenn Robinson III: It was in between the red lights, we ran out there real quick and we had about a minute and a half. People from all over the street started to come out and watch and take videos. It was cool, I had fun doing it.

SLAM: Were you skeptical at first when you heard about the concept of the stunt?

GRIII: [Laughs] Yeah, I thought it was crazy, I didn’t think it was possible. It was cold outside so it was hard to jump, but we made it work and just had fun with it. It was a Range Rover that was wrapped with my name and “Slam Dunk Champion” and Way of Wade, so it made it real fun.

SLAM: Did you think about throwing down a crazier dunk? You kept it pretty simple.

GRIII: I kept it simple, we just wanted to get a good shot for the cameras. And not get hurt or do anything crazy with a game the next day.

SLAM: What was the reaction from bystanders?

GRIII: A lot of people recognized me from the Dunk Contest. And that’s kind of how it’s been everywhere. The Dunk Contest has really led to more publicity and more people recognizing me. So yeah they were stopping and taking pictures and videos. We had a great time.

SLAM: More people are recognizing you now, huh?

GRIII: Yeah, it’s been a lot of that. Going into it, I was like, the Dunk Contest is really the big stage. Everybody watches All-Star Weekend to watch the Dunk Contest. That’s the really exciting moment of All-Star Weekend. So to win it, and especially to be a surprise to a lot of people, it’s been eye-opening.

SLAM: Do any of your teammates give you shit now for being more of a celeb?

GRIII: [Laughs] They joke around with it. My teammates will joke around and be like, Man you won the Dunk Contest and now you’ve got all kinds of interviews and marketing to do. They’re like, It’s funny how quick things can change. But they’ve been great throughout the whole process and all my teammates, they were, I think, more excited than I was when I won it.

cashhh me outside when in #NYC #overlydedicated pic.twitter.com/egASk9Ejoq

— Glenn Robinson III (@GRIII) March 14, 2017

SLAM: How are you feeling about Michigan’s chances in the NCAA Tournament?

GRIII: I’m feeling good, I think we could be a surprise team. We surprised people in the Big Ten Tournament and came out on top of that, so hopefully we can continue to do the same thing and get pretty far in this.

SLAM: Your squad went to the title game in 2013. What do you remember about your first taste of the NCAA Tournament?

GRIII: The first time in the Tournament, I was a little bit nervous. But we had such a good team—me, Tim Hardaway, Trey [Burke], Mitch [McGary], Nik Stauskas, Caris LeVert. We just played aggressive and kept at it, and I think after our first game we really started rolling, we weren’t nervous, weren’t thinking about anything. But that’s a big-time stage—everybody’s watching. I remember getting to the National Championship and playing in front of 75,000. Besides winning the Dunk Contest, that was the best feeling in my career. Playign in front of that many people and representing Michigan.

SLAM: Who’s going to win it all?

GRIII: I have to go back and look at the bracket and fill one out. But I mean, I’m a Wolverine so I’mma take Michigan going all the way but I don’t know, I haven’t paid too much attention and I haven’t had a chance to fill out a bracket. I’m about to get on that.

SLAM: What’s the vibe in the Pacers locker room as you guys make this playoff push?

GRIII: It’s a tight race right now in the East with all the teams. We know every game counts. We’re not putting any added pressure on ourselves, but we feel like we’re playing our best basketball right now and getting our chemistry together. Knowing that we need all these games and we can’t afford to lose any or let tight games slip away, so I think our focus is really sharpened right now and we realize what’s at stake.

SLAM: Who’s the loudest voice in the locker room, leadership-wise?

GRIII: I think Monta, Monta Ellis is.

SLAM: Is there any specific message he’s trying to give the team on a daily basis?

GRIII: In the locker room, he’s kind of that leader who likes to take charge, but he also likes to lead by example. Same with Paul [George]. Monta is always trying to get us to play the right way. Move the ball, share the ball, not caring who scores but just really play together as a team, that’s what he always stresses.

SLAM: You’ve already played on a few teams so far in your short time in the NBA. Do you finally feel like you’ve found a solid foundation to grow with the Pacers?

GRIII: Yeah, I do. I think that coming to Indiana has been a great thing for my career and really got my name out, and shown what I can do. I think I’ve gotten a lot better and continue to get better, and I think as these years come, I’ll continue to get more minutes, continue to get better, and just keep proving myself.

SLAM: Being from Indiana, what’s it like playing for the Pacers?

GRIII: Jeff Teague, he’s actually from Indianapolis. I’m from two hours up north, by Gary. A lot of my family has to travel two hours, so I’m not too close to home, but not too far. So being an Indiana guy, it’s been great for me just to be at home and playing, and giving back and going out to the community, I think that it means so much more from someone that’s actually from there and wants to help the community that they were raised in.

SLAM: Were you a Pacers fan as a kid?

GRIII: I was more of a Bulls fan, because Chicago is only a 30-minute drive, rather than two hours. If we ever went to a city, we always went to Chicago.

SLAM: Your dad had a great NBA career. What’s it been like to carve out your own path in the League?

GRIII: My mom and dad, they never forced me to play. It was always because I wanted to. I think that was the biggest thing for me. I always wanted to take my own first steps, and take my own path with my career. I think I’ve been doing that.

SLAM: What’s the best part of having a former NBA player as a dad?

GRIII: Just getting that NBA experience, getting to see the lifestyle, getting to see the things that they do on that level, see how business is conducted. I remember going to some practices when my dad played with the Bucks, with Ray Allen and Sam Cassell. I don’t have a vivid memory but I just remember going to practices and going to the arena to watch them play. That experience was the coolest.

SLAM: Will your dad ever get on you if you have a bad game now?

GRIII: Nah, nah, he’s never been that type. If anything, he’ll give me advice. When I was coming up, he never forced me to play, never was trying to force anything on me, was always just supportive.

SLAM: You still see people wearing his throwback jersey every once in a while?

GRIII: Yeah, I see the Milwaukee Bucks or the Purdue jersey sometimes. It’s cool to see, my dad being as successful as he was in his career. I’m just hoping to be as successful or better. That’s what he wants: He wants me to be better than he was.

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post Glenn Robinson III’s Dunks Shut Down 6th Avenue Traffic in NYC appeared first on SLAM.

The plan: Go to All-Star Weekend and let a jury of Cousins’ peers be the judge. After all, when it really comes down to it, whose opinion would you want? The men in suits who make bad draft picks and stupid trades? The cranky overworked beat reporters who cover them? Or the best players in the NBA? You know, the guys who have to deal with Boogie’s terrifying blend of overpowering physical skills and supposedly unpredictable behavior on the hardwood, face-to-face.

Of course, that the weekend would end with Cousins staying in town was a twist. (We’ll get to that in a minute.)

Not every All-Star has a tight relationship with DeMarcus Cousins, you might be thinking. And you’d be right.

Utah’s Gordon Hayward really hadn’t spent any time with Cousins until All-Star, beyond facing the Kings over the years. “I think we realize that in the heat of the moment, things happen that maybe you wouldn’t want to have happen if it wasn’t competitive like that,” Hayward said of Cousins during his media session in NOLA. “For us, as players, everybody’s been in those situations and he’s definitely an emotional, competitive guy.”

He’s just saying that, you’re thinking, so Boogie doesn’t strangle him next timeout. Fair enough. How about some more All-Star opinions?

“He’s a beast on the court,” said Atlanta’s Paul Millsap. “Definitely a beast. His competitiveness can be taken out of context, so I think that’s really what it is. He’s so competitive, he wants to win so bad, sometimes you can take it the wrong way.”

Indiana’s Paul George used the word “misunderstood,” and echoed the sentiments of Hayward and Millsap. “Nobody really knows DeMarcus outside of basketball. He’s one of the best guys to be around, to be honest. I think what people don’t understand is just how bad he loves the game and how bad he loves to win. I think he gets judged off that, and I feel bad for him, because it comes from a good place, it comes from his heart. He plays with his heart, and I don’t think he should get criticized for it.”

The Warriors’ Draymond Green, who earlier this season called Boogie the “best big man in the game,” doubled-down on that statement, despite a recent ejection after getting tangled up with DMC. He called Cousins “one of the best players in the League” and “one guy you hate to see that you’re lining up against.”

Sunday night, Western Conference head coach Steve Kerr said he was delighted to find out over three days of being in a locker room together that “DeMarcus was hilarious.”

Likewise, Clippers center DeAndre Jordan called Cousins a “great teammate,” not the cancer that so many “sources” have pegged him to be. “He’s super funny, he’s a prankster, he’s always laughing and smiling and joking. And that’s fun to be around.”

They have to say that to the media, you may say, but they don’t mean it.

Starting to look like a group consensus, no? But let’s check in, lastly, with the superstars who know Boogie best. His real friends in the League. Guys like Isaiah Thomas, Anthony Davis, DeMar DeRozan and John Wall.

Thomas, who played his first three NBA seasons in Sacramento, told reporters that Cousins is “the total opposite of what people think of him.”

Davis called Cousins “one of my closest friends in the League” on Friday of All-Star Weekend. “People got their own opinions and their own perceptions of him,” AD said, “but I know the guy he is and what I see off the floor, just being around him and knowing him for so long—I don’t get that perception at all.”

DeRozan, whose friendship with Cousins dates back to playing in Nike camps together and against each other on the summer AAU circuit as teenagers, said, “People who don’t know him get their own perception of him, which is 85 percent of the time wrong. He’s always been a great dude from every aspect that I’ve known him.”

The brotherhood between Wall and Cousins, born in their one shared season at the University of Kentucky, is unshakeable. If you know anything about either player, you know this to be true. It’s why the pair is constantly asked about a hypothetical reunion in the League. So why is it, in JW’s eyes, that Boogie is so polarizing?

“For one, he’s already bigger than everybody—he looks like a bully. He plays with tenacity. He don’t back down from anybody, he plays with so much emotion. Sometimes he don’t get the benefit of the doubt and it goes the wrong way—like, certain people might get this call but he might not, and he reacts. When you get a bad rep, everybody keeps that and holds that toward you. Hopefully, he can keep trying to change it around,” Wall explains. “He’s a great person, everybody don’t see that unless you’re really around him. He’s one of those people that’s all about first impressions. If you don’t give him a first impression—if it doesn’t go well, you probably won’t talk to him ever again.”

That final point, about first impressions, is key. And in this instance, from Wall, it was downright prophetic. Because two days later, after the dust had settled and the West had taken home a 192-182 win in Sunday night’s All-Star Game, Cousins was no longer a frustrated King. He was a new, New Orleans Pelican.

Within minutes—hell, it might have been seconds—after the last of the players had wrapped up press conferences inside the Smoothie King Center that night, Adrian Wojnarowski dropped his biggest Twitter bomb of 2017: Sacramento trades Boogie.

So ended a long, strange, sometimes ugly marriage. And, should you choose to align your outlook on the divisive Cousins to that of his All-Star peers quoted above, the Kings had committed a colossal mistake.

“Sunday, it was a wild day,” DeMarcus said in his introductory press conference with the Pelicans, seated between Omri Casspi, the other player given up by the Kings in the stunning deal, and New Orleans GM Dell Demps. “Just a lot of mixed emotions. It was very unexpected. I sat in the airport for a minute and my mind was racing. I didn’t really know what to think. I’ve tried to understand the situation and what I came to is, this is a business.”

The business of basketball can be a cruel and unforgiving one in instances like Boogie’s. Of the trade, the 6-11 beast said he was initially disappointed, even going so far as to call out the Kings for the team’s “dishonesty.” Safe to assume that comment was pointed at the repeated public assurances from Vlade Divac, the team’s GM and vice president of basketball operations, that Cousins would not be dealt. Sunday, DeMarcus got the word from his agent, and while his mood quickly flipped to excitement once he got a text from Davis, he never had any contact with anyone from the Kings organization after his All-Star responsibilities were completed.

“I haven’t talked to anybody. Vlade, he tried to call after everything was done but, it’s done,” said Cousins, who is wearing No. 0 because it represents new life. “My concern is coming in, help building a winning culture. Myself, AD, Jrue [Holiday], help try to build a winning culture. My mind is still on making the playoffs, with whatever situation I ended up in, so that’s it. I’m here to win and that’s it. I don’t care about the rest of it.”

AD, for his part, didn’t believe the deal was real when he heard it. Boogie Cousins, in exchange for Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway, Tyreke Evans and a first- and second-round pick? No way. Thomas, observing from the East, even tweeted: “I don’t even think NBA 2K would let that trade happen even with the trade override option off LOL.”

https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/833729748832432128

For AD and the Pelicans, who entered the All-Star break with a 23-34 record that had them lingering a few spots out of the 8-seed in the West, acquiring Cousins’ services is a godsend. Davis and Cousins are the only players to average 27+ points, 10+ boards and 1+ blocks in a season since Shaquille O’Neal—they’re both doing it this season, and now they’re on the same damn team.

Will it work long-term, Xs- and Os-wise in New Orleans? Who the hell knows. So far, they’re 0-3 with Boogie in uniform. But still, to say the Pels are excited would be an understatement as big as their new Twin Towers.

“It’s been a crazy weekend,” Davis told the media once DMC touched down again in NOLA later in the week, this time officially as a Pelican. “Once I found out we got him, I was up all night thinking about how far we can go, and what we can do on the court together. I ended up texting him at like 3 in the morning, like, Bro, I’m excited. And he responded. I was like, Oh, he’s up, so we were texting back and forth about the team.”

“I think we can wreak havoc on this league,” Cousins added at his presser. “Will it happen overnight? Probably not, but the potential is scary.”

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images

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DeMarcus Cousins Scores 27 in Pelicans Debut
Kevin Durant: DeMarcus Cousins-Anthony Davis Pairing ‘Could Be Legendary’

The post Say What’s Real appeared first on SLAM.

Instead, at St. Augustine High School in NOLA’s 7th Ward, the second annual Jordan Brand Invitational was as good as it was simple: A high school basketball doubleheader, with real fans in the stands and real hoop being played on the court.

Sure, giant Jordan logos adorned the gym’s walls and every player was outfitted in Air Jordan XXXIs—which looked amazing glistening under the bright lights, by the way—but at its core, this night was about the ball. Crescent City faced off against St. Aug in the first game, while national powerhouse Oak Hill took on Baton Rouge’s Scotlandville in the second game, in what was billed as a matchup of top PGs: Texas commit Matt Coleman vs. Class of 2018 stud Ja’Vonte Smart. The specifics of the games were unimportant (though if you’re wondering, Oak Hill is utterly eye-popping to watch in person).

During a weekend that often feels forced, this felt organic.

Last year’s inaugural such event in Toronto had potential, but it lacked a level of authenticity that was apparent the moment you walked into St. Aug’s home gym this year. For the players, getting the chance to play in front of Russell Westbrook, Kemba Walker and Frank Kaminsky—all off whom sat courtside—was a thrill, even for a school whose alums include NBAers Avery Johnson and Kerry Kittles, plus former Oklahoma star PG Hollis Price.

“We’re going to enjoy this moment,” Westbrook told SLAM, minutes before surprising the packed-out gym and engaging the raucous crowd with an extended dance session, as the DJ blasted Cash Money and Lil Uzi Vert records.

When he gets the chance to be around high schoolers, Westbrook said, his message to them is simple: Be yourself. “I think that’s the most important part, especially at this age, because you never know what your life can turn out to be, what you can be. Everybody’s not going to make it to the NBA, but I think this moment and this experience is great for them, just to interact and have fun and be themselves.”

It was a breath of fresh air for Westbrook, who was about to have a whirlwind of a weekend himself.

“I’m just excited to see high school basketball,” Westbrook said before the Oak Hill game, “because I don’t get to see it that much. It’s great for me, to come back and be able to see kids and see how excited they are about the game of basketball, and enjoying it and competing at a high level, that’s something that I enjoy. Just seeing kids playing the right way.”

As for that aforementioned thrill for the players to potentially show out in front of an NBA player like him, Westbrook remembered the only time he had that chance as a high school player at Leuzinger HS in Lawndale, CA.

“Yeah, one time, Dorell Wright, because he went to our school, he came back and watched us in the playoffs one time, and I was shitty,” Westbrook said with a laugh. “So I know it’s tough, you want to play well. Hopefully all these kids have fun and enjoy this moment.”

They did. And so did we.

Related:
The SLAM Podcast Episode 42: All-Star Blowout Feat. Dwyane Wade, Devin Booker and Billy Preston
Jordan Brand All-Star Weekend 2017 Photo Recap
Jordan Brand x OVO All-Star 2017 Collection
Jordan Brand Announces All-Star Collection

—

Photos courtesy of Jordan Brand

The post Jordan Brand Invitational is the Hidden Gem of All-Star Weekend appeared first on SLAM.

Cam’ron knows this as well as anyone.

“There’s so much going on outside of the game: parties, people traveling from different cities, you get to meet girls, girls meet the guys—it’s a bunch of different activities. You might run into some celebrities,” he told SLAM on Saturday at “Classics in the Courtyard,” a pop-up hosted by Reebok and Footaction on New Orleans’ world-famous Bourbon Street, “so I just think the culture outside of all the All-Star activity is really big, and attracts a lot of people.”

The Dipset rapper is a veteran of All-Star Weekend now, but there was a time early in his career when he was too busy grinding to partake in the festivities. In 1998, with the All-Star Game in his backyard at Madison Square Garden, the Harlem native—and former serious hooper in his own right—was missing in action.

“My album came out or was coming out and I had to go on a promotional tour. I was so mad I missed it. I was pissed the fuck off,” he said. “But I went to the one in Philly [in ‘02] and I had a ball. That was the one that I really got to enjoy as being my first All-Star Game.

“To be honest, I only went to the game in Philly, so I don’t really see the players. I see all the rappers, and all the girlfriends, and all the hoes and pimps and crazy shit. To be honest, I never really see anything crazy a basketball player did, because I never really go to the games. I went to the Dunk Contest a couple times, but I don’t really get to see the players too much. I could tell you a bunch of shit that happened outside of the game—girls walking down the street naked, or when Uncle Luke was out, 25 girls twerking on top of a car outside the arena—a bunch of wild shit happened outside of the game, but I don’t really remember any basketball players doing anything crazy.”

That doesn’t mean Killa Cam has never been caught in a precarious situation of his own during All-Star Weekend. [Haven’t we all? —Ed.]

“I had a friend with one leg, and he was with us one year and we was at a party, and he wanted to fight everybody. Like, he was really drunk and he wanted to beef with people. We were like, Damn we might have to whoop somebody’s ass. He’s real self conscious about [his leg], so I remember getting in a lot of arguments at different places that weekend. And we was like, Yo, you gotta relax a little bit. But that scenario always sticks out to me. Other stuff, you know now that I got a girlfriend, I can’t really talk about what stands out the most most,” Cam said with a laugh.

Of course, Cam’s relationship with the NBA hasn’t always been great. Back in 2003, he lashed out when the League prevented him from joining Mariah Carey on stage for the All-Star Game halftime show in Atlanta. “I feel robbed,” he said at the time. Looking back, he’s glad that social media outlets like Twitter and Instagram Live didn’t exist that year, and he says he’d gladly perform if the NBA ever reached out again.

“Absolutely, I’d be down, 100 percent. I was more angry that Mariah was performing the ‘Oh Boy’ song that she got from me, and I wasn’t invited. So, I was rebellious and mad and did a bunch of ‘F David Stern’ posts. But that’s water under the bridge. It’s 14 years later, and of course if they asked me to perform, I would.”

Fittingly, Killa performed “Oh Boy,” among other classics, minutes later for the crowd on Bourbon Street.

—

Photos courtesy of Reebok

The post Cam’ron Talks All-Star Weekend Memories, Mariah Carey, David Stern appeared first on SLAM.

“Our first meeting, he told me, I’m going to make you point guard. I looked at him like, What are you talking about?” Harden says, laughing over the phone earlier this season. “He told me I was going to average 15 assists a game, and I looked at him crazy.”

Fast-forward to the present, and Harden is averaging an NBA-best 11.4 assists per game. OK, so it’s not quite 15, but Harden—an explosive shooting guard for the entirety of his professional basketball life until now—is all of a sudden No. 1 in the League when it comes to dimes, ahead of All-Star PGs you’d expect to see atop that category, like Russell Westbrook and John Wall. Which, in addition to his still-insane scoring firepower, makes Harden the most unique offensive weapon in the NBA, and a frontrunner for MVP.

Who’s crazy now?

* * *

The Rockets are at MSG for an early November matchup with the Knicks. A night ago, Harden put up 41 points, 15 assists and 7 boards against the Cavs, albeit in a loss. His individual numbers through the first handful of games this season had him on such a ridiculous historical pace that his name was flashing next to Magic Johnson’s on SportsCenter. And on this night, in New York, he’s determined to get Houston a W.

On the game’s first possession, Harden finds free-agent acquisition Ryan Anderson for a wide-open three. Assist. A couple trips down the floor later, he waits for Clint Capela to slide behind a backscreen, then lobs him a pass over the top for an easy 2. Assist. He finds Trevor Ariza next. Another one. Harden will finish with 15 assists, to go with 30 points and 6 boards, and the Rockets cruise to a 19-point road win.

That Harden, unequivocally one of the League’s top-10 players, would march into The Mecca and put up gaudy numbers is, in and of itself, nothing of extraordinary note. But the ease with which he’s taken to playing the point, the way D’Antoni’s suddenly turned him into the best set-up man in the NBA? That shit is scary.

Eight seasons into his career, we take the points (28.9 per game, top-3 in the League) for granted. Not to mention Harden’s 8.2 rebounds per game this season, a new career-high. The assist numbers, though, those are making The Beard’s ’16-17 campaign something special, something downright artistic, something new and utterly terrifying for defenders who coulda swore they just figured out how to check him as a 2-guard.

Consider: While Harden remains one of the League’s most efficient offensive players among those using at least 30 percent of his team’s possessions (1.18 points per possession, behind only Isaiah Thomas and Kawhi Leonard), he also has an assist rate of 51 percent. That would be the second highest in the NBA since ’99-00 (surpassed only by Westbrook’s ridiculous 57 percent this year, too). Only three players have finished a season with an assist rate above 50 percent since 2000: Steve Nash, Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo, all traditional, pass-first PGs trained to play the position their whole lives—a position Harden is picking up on the fly while simultaneously operating as one of the most unstoppable scorers in the modern era.

Harden would be the toast of barbershops and basketball Twitter—places he’s previously been hated on, whether for his annoying amount of trips to the free-throw line or his often overblown defensive lapses—were it not for Westbrook’s otherworldly triple-double count stealing the spotlight. With 14 of his own this season, Harden usurped Hakeem Olajuwon as the Rockets’ franchise record holder for career triple-doubles—he’s up to 23 and counting as of press time.

He victimized the Knicks again in December on New Year’s Eve, this time with a career-high 53 points, career-high-tying 17 assists and 16 rebounds—just the second 50-point triple-double in the last 41 years of NBA ball (joining Westbrook) and the first time ever a player has put up 50+, 15+ and 15+ in a game. His 53 points tied Wilt Chamberlain for most ever scored in a triple-double.

“It was like NBA 2K numbers,” New York’s Brandon Jennings told reporters in Houston after that historic triple-double, part of a three-game stretch over which Harden totaled an absurd 106 points, 39 rebounds and 37 assists. “I just told him afterward to just go and get the MVP and keep balling and doing what he’s doing.”

A month later, on January 27, he did it again: 51 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists against Philadelphia. Two 50+ triple-doubles in the same season? That’s a first.

James Harden has two 50-point triple-doubles in last 28 days.
The entire NBA went 15,258 days (from 1/19/75 to 10/28/16) w/o any such games

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) January 28, 2017

Rockets owner Leslie Alexander called Harden “one of the great players of all time.” Even immovable Spurs coach Gregg Popovich confessed to ESPN that he only watches one team’s game tape: the Rockets, because “Harden is ridiculous.” The numbers are astronomical, and D’Antoni is fully cognizant of both the player he inherited and the monster he’s since created.

“For James, my expectations are really high, so I don’t know if he can exceed them, but he’s playing terrific. He’s taken over as point guard and he understands what we want, what we’re looking for, and he’s really smart about understanding the game. He’s everything as advertised.” Joking with reporters before the November win in NYC, D’Antoni said he was “hoping for like 60 and 20,” when it comes to Harden’s numbers, but “I’m only getting about 40 and 15.”

Looking back, Harden says that despite his initial quizzical reaction, he trusted in D’Antoni’s offensive genius from the moment the coach was hired by the team this past summer, replacing interim head coach JB Bickerstaff, who took over for Kevin McHale when the Rockets stumbled out of the gates last season.

“He knows his stuff, especially on the offensive end. He knows what he wants, and obviously it works,” Harden says, with a chuckle, of D’Antoni. “I’m getting more comfortable in the role. I’ve always been a playmaker, but he’s making my job a lot easier, not having to come down and work for the basketball. I get the ball already in my hands. I just come down and make sure our offense is flowing and get guys in the right position, and try to make the right play.”

In the simplest of basketball terms, it makes sense—why disguise what everyone in the arena knows: Harden’s going to eventually get the ball, probably in a pick-and-roll right down the middle of the floor.

“The good thing about him, he sees the game like a point guard,” D’Antoni says, admitting that moving James to PG was mostly “just the acknowledgement of the role.”

Likewise, Harden’s teammates didn’t bat an eye when he moved to the 1. “I was like, Cool,” says Rockets swingman Corey Brewer. “James makes plays anyways, so to me I think it’s an easy transition for him, because he has the ball in his hands most of the time.”

The obvious question is: How in the hell can Harden keep this up? Will he continue producing eye-popping stats, all the while shouldering the PG duties? In the middle of a playoff race? Of an MVP campaign?

The “how” may rest with Houston’s training staff, charged with keeping Harden healthy, or with Harden himself, who will have to stay locked in mentally beyond the All-Star break. But the “will” seems almost assuredly to be answered with a resounding Yes. Because in an era when his superstar peers routinely take time off to nurse nicks and bruises or conserve energy for a postseason run, Harden takes a refreshing pride in playing all 82—a feat he accomplished last season and hopes to repeat again this year.

“I’ve been playing basketball since I was a little kid,” he explains. “It’s going by fast. I don’t want to take time off. I love being on the court. I love helping my teammates. I love playing the game of basketball. I want to cherish it and be out there as long as I can, as much as I can.”

He continues: “It’s probably the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been in Houston. Just the entire team, the coaches and everything. It’s a good feeling. We’ve got a really good team—the personnel just fits. We’ve got guys that knock down shots, guys that really play well together. It kind of makes everybody look good.”

And with Houston hovering just behind the Warriors and Spurs in the Western Conference (38-17), he’s right. Anderson is shooting 40 percent from three-point range. Eric Gordon is having a kind of career-redefining renaissance off the bench, so much so that Harden has publicly championed EG as a “for sure” All-Star. Only Golden State scores more points per game than Houston, and the Rockets rank in the top six in the League in both field-goal percentage. They’re No. 1 in threes made—the foursome of Harden, Anderson, Gordon and Ariza has combined to hit more threes than any other NBA team’s whole roster in 2016-17, save for the Cavaliers.

For a team that finished .500 last season with Dwight Howard, Donatas Motiejunas and other since-departed names playing key roles, the Rockets have completely flipped the script, emerging as real contenders. Harden is still the team’s best player, its leader and primary scorer. But his move to the 1, however obvious a change it may seem in hindsight, has ignited Houston’s title chances.

Whatever position he’s listed at, Harden maintains, “I’m a player. I’m a basketball player. Point guard, shooting guard, small forward, whatever. I’m on the court, and I just want to make an impact on the game.”

Technically, though, that “PG” moniker now precedes Harden’s name in every box score. And while that might still give everyone else in the League pause—just as it did Harden himself at first—D’Antoni is using it to unleash every ounce of his superstar’s offensive arsenal this season. So far, the joke is on the rest of the NBA.

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images

The post Turning Point appeared first on SLAM.

The Hornets are in town to face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden tonight, one of a handful of homecoming trips each year for Kidd-Gilchrist (9.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg this season), who played his high school ball at St. Patrick’s in New Jersey. So last night, with a large contingent of his family on hand, MKG walked select media members through a wear-test of the Jordan B.Fly, a sneaker he’s been wearing for the last month-and-some-change.

Jordan Brand’s latest performance sneaker (out now, $110) combines Jordan DNA and style, and MKG is its leading face. So when he settles into a back room at T23 to talk about it, surrounded by a half-dozen of his closest family members, he has a hard time not gushing.

“I’m honored and I’m blessed to wear a shoe that fits me and only me,” Kidd-Gilchrist says before adding, with a nod to his small audience, “my mom and my grandmom love it.”

The Jordan B.Fly has an injected phylon midsole with zoom air in the forefront, built to allow for quicker change in direction—something key for MKG’s game, on the defensive end in particular. The all-over woven material and asymmetrical lacing make for a snug fit and good lockdown. And with only a few trips up and down the court, you can feel the grippy traction and the bouncy support.

Expect MKG to lace up the B.Fly for the remainder of the 2016-17 season—and eventually, too, during the now-infamous summer pro runs that go down right here at Terminal 23, which have included names like Kevin Durant, Kemba Walker, JR Smith, Kristaps Porzingis and Carmelo Anthony. Being a local cat, Kidd-Gilchrist takes special pride in showing out at those runs, which he says he can enjoy more now as an NBA veteran. Even at just 23 years old, MKG is already a five-year vet in the League.

“At 18 or 19 years old, I was overwhelmed with a whole bunch of friends and family, and stuff like that,” he says. “But I’m older, and I know the people that are really here for me, and the people that are not. So it’s cool being home.”

A local HS hoops legend in his own right, MKG says he was pleasantly surprised when he saw the #JellyFam movement gaining buzz in the New York/New Jersey area and beyond thanks to social media.

“It’s weird because I went to school with Kyrie [Irving], so it’s not my first time seeing it,” he says of the showy finger rolls that have made players like Isaiah Washington celebrities in the area. “But it’s a name for it now. I would have never thought there would be a name for like, a layup.”

He pauses, laughs and turns to look at his family.

“We had social media, but it wasn’t like this. Because if I had a girlfriend in high school, and there was Snapchat and all that, I never would have had one.”

And the crowd goes wild.

Photos courtesy of Jordan Brand, Action shot via Getty Images

The post Family Man: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on the Jordan B.Fly appeared first on SLAM.

It’s a lesson not lost on superstar point guard John Wall. Which is why an aspiring rapper by the name of WallWay Pack deserves serious review.

Known to his friends as “Pacman” for as long as he can remember, he added the prefix and went by WallWay Pac for a time, but ultimately decided to add the extra letter to avoid any misunderstandings. “I had got a lot of people confusing it as being pronounced ‘Pac’ and I don’t ever want to disrespect 2Pac, so it’s Pack.”

Pack is John’s nephew, but he’s only one year younger than the Wizards PG, so their relationship is really more like two cousins. The pair lived under the same roof as toddlers in Raleigh, NC, until Pack’s mom—John’s older sister—got her own place. With time, they chose different paths as adolescents.

“He was into basketball. I took the wrong route,” Pack says. “I was into the streets and stuff. So while he was playing basketball, I took the whole opposite route.”

He kept in contact with his uncle, though, as J-Wall exploded onto the national landscape at Kentucky, went No. 1 in the 2010 NBA Draft, made his first All-Star Game and led Washington to the playoffs. Then, two years ago, John called Pack with an offer. He told his nephew to pack his bags and hop on the next flight to DC.

“He’s been living with me the last two years. I moved him up from North Carolina to keep him out of trouble, keep him out the streets as much as possible, just give him a pathway to show him he can be anything if he just puts his mind to it,” Wall explains. “Seeing me work every day and seeing how I compete and how much heart and competitiveness I put into what I do in the game of basketball, he does the same in his raps.”

The move is paying off. In late 2016, the 25-year-old released the single “Can’t Lose,” which began to earn some rumblings on rap blogs for its raw, guttural aesthetic laid over a bop beat produced by LeekeLeek, a name that will sound familiar to fans of Chief Keef, Lil Durk and Fat Trel. (And which you can listen to in the video at the top of this post.) Pack has since followed up with a visual for another song, “Lavish,” in the lead-up to his debut Real Rare album (available now on iTunes).

Wall, meanwhile, isn’t starting his own label, nor does he have designs on hopping in the booth himself. He’s just happy to see his nephew chase his dream, and hopes that lending him the WallWay moniker will serve as extra inspiration.

“I think it’s something that motivates him,” John says with pride, “gives him the motivation and determination to want to be great. In the rap game you have to take your time—it don’t come right away, and he’s willing to take the steps you have to take.”

Pack agrees: “It’s so much motivation. With him in the NBA, and still taking time out of his day to support me, it’s a great feeling. Just off the last name, people want to come and see what I’m talking about, and see what the story is.”

—

Photos courtesy of @wallwaypack

The post Can’t Lose appeared first on SLAM.

As Duece (yes, it’s spelled Duece, not Deuce) talks about the details of that morning’s flight itinerary from the baseline corner of one of the two practice courts, Danny disappears to take a phone call. Both are comfortably accustomed to being around the team, nodding to familiar faces. Soon, a wave of reporters engulfs their cousin (“Lil’ Damian,” is how Danny refers to him) for his mandated media availability, just a few yards away from where Duece is now showing off the new backpack he picked up during the trio’s last visit to New York City, which included an interview at SiriusXM’s “Sway in the Morning” (you know the YouTube clip, with Dame ripping another raw freestyle as none other than Gary Busey looks on, bewildered) sandwiched between road games against the Nets and Knicks.

Today, the first question in Dame’s media scrum is not about the next opponent or the mind-boggling three-point shooting display he just put on to end practice. Instead, a reporter wants to know if Dame is excited about J. Cole’s new album, which was announced the night before. Yes, Dame says, because “that’s my favorite rapper.” He then coasts through 10 or 12 minutes of the standard basketball stuff, before his allotted media time concludes with another music question, this time about his newly formed label, Front Page Music, Inc.

Such questions from otherwise bland basketball beat writers are a daily occurrence for Lillard now that he is—in addition to one of the best PGs in the NBA—a well-respected mainstream MC. Perhaps unbeknownst to the pool of local reporters in front of him, though, is the fact that the first two artists signed to Front Page are lingering just a few feet away. And, in a few moments, they’ll be posing with Dame for the photos you see in the pages of this magazine.

Damian Lillard is, by profession, a basketball player. One who is averaging career-highs in points (27.3) and rebounds (4.7) per game to go with 5.8 dimes a night and a career-best 45.6 field goal percentage. He’s on track to lead Portland back to the playoffs in the ever-competitive Western Conference and earn his third All-Star appearance in the process. (Though if we’re keeping it a buck, this year’s ought to be his fourth time getting the nod, as he rightfully notes on his song “Bill Walton”: “All-Stars, I should have three by the name.”) In the Blazers’ last game before our shoot, Lillard the basketball player put in light work against the Indiana Pacers at the Moda Center. Twenty-eight points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and just 1 turnover, part of an easy blowout victory for the home team.

Damian Lillard the basketball player is not “approaching superstardom,” as he’s often feted in long, gaudy feature stories like this one. He’s already there. I trust

that as you read this, you don’t need a step-by-step explanation of just how good Damian Lillard is as a basketball player.

But Damian Lillard is not this month’s cover subject. Dame D.O.L.L.A. is.

D.O.L.L.A. (which stands for Different On Levels the Lord Allows) released his debut studio album, The Letter O, in late October, with a list of features that includes Lil Wayne, Juvenile and Jamie Foxx. The album, so titled as an homage to Oakland (where he grew up), Ogden, UT, (where he went to college) and Oregon (where he plays now), debuted at No. 119 on the Billboard 200. It earned praise on social media from peers in both of his worlds, from LeBron James to Casey Veggies.

That dozens of NBA players in the past have made forays into hip-hop with varying degrees of critical reception and mainstream success never gave Dame’s project pause. Instead, he studied how his predecessors moved, and figured the best thing to do was simply to be himself, unapologetically.

“I think some just try to fit in with being a rapper. Like, completely take on a rapper persona,” Dame says, without mentioning by name any current or former NBAers turned rappers. He’s now sitting in a folding chair at the free-throw line on the Blazers’ practice court, having swapped his practice gear for jeans, a pair of adidas Dame 3s and a fitted long-sleeve tee with his winged “D” logo on the sleeve. “For me, I haven’t tried to do that. I know that I was never in the streets, I was never a bad person, I was never any of that. I worked hard, I went to school—I had some scuffles, and I got in some trouble. I just try to share my reality. I don’t try to take on something that’s not who I am, and I think there’s been times where an athlete might—to be respected, they might try to take a different route with their music. That was the one thing I didn’t want to do.”

The list of NBA players who have put out singles and freestyles for fun is basically endless. Even for Dame, that’s where this all started: his #4BarFriday movement grew from a hashtag into a community. But releasing a full, studio-quality album has opened him to scrutiny from the music world, and, given the platform and scope of his voice—he has 3 million followers on Instagram alone—he’s going to great lengths to prove he’s no gimmick.

“We always hear about basketball players rapping, so it wasn’t anything that I took serious,” says Charlamagne Tha God, national radio and TV personality and co-host of “The Breakfast Club.” That is, until a few friends sent him the links to Dame’s original freestyle on Sway’s show in 2015.

“Yeah, he got bars,” Charlamagne admits. “The thing is, I always wonder—are we grading these guys on a curve, though? Like, does he have bars because he’s NBA All-Star Damian Lillard? Or does he have bars just because he’s simply nice? From a straight skill level, he’s skillful with his flow. He’s not just doing it because he don’t got nothing better to do with his time, one of these multi-millionaires who’s got a lot of idle time in the offseason when he’s not practicing.”

Everyone that worked closely on The Letter O raves about Dame’s professionalism. And the overwhelming consensus from the album’s various producers is that he was ultra-focused. On the basketball court, that’s what we’ve come to expect from Dame. Making music is a horse of a different color. But by all accounts, his comportment in the studio was consistent with his work ethic in the gym.

“They switched the microphone at one time, mid-song,” recalls LIKE, the producer on “Misguided” and one-third of the L.A. rap crew Pac Div. Dame didn’t even flinch, he says. “He did a few takes and it was a wrap. He didn’t need much. He was on point, the flow was on point, the punctuation, everything was on par. He was definitely open to constructive criticism, but you know what, honestly, he didn’t even really need it.”

“A typical artist, they like to come in, kick back for a second, chill, sometimes they’ll smoke or whatever, and then they’ll get to work,” notes Swiff D, who produced “Loyal to the Soil” featuring Lil Wayne. “But as soon as he got in there, we shook hands and went straight to the studio. I’m sitting there and the beat comes on, and I’m anxious to hear what he does, because just off the type of beat it is, it’s like, he has to flow all over this record. As soon as he started spitting, I could tell the passion—he’s serious. He had bars, bars, bars, bars. I was like, OK, this is gon’ go. For sure, this is gon’ go.”

Whereas normally an artist on the level of a Lil Wayne might respond to a feature request from a rookie rapper by mailing it in, Swiff—whose producer credits include work with Dr. Dre, Snoop, ScHoolboy Q and 50 Cent—says on the contrary, the quality of Dame’s verse inspired Weezy’s. “Wayne came and bodied that track, because he actually thought that what Dame did was tight,” he explains. “If he got on a song with somebody that had no bars at all, I’m sure he probably could have thought to himself, ‘I don’t have to go as hard.’ That alone tells you, he’s showing us that this is good enough for you to bring your best as well.”

Dame has dreams of collaborating with Common, Andre 3000 and Mary J. Blige in the future, too. “So when I’m done with it and people talk about my NBA career, I’m going to be able to go in my mancave or whatever and say,

‘On this album I did a song with Mary J. Blige, and my mom used to play Mary J. Blige in the car when I was growing up. And in my neighborhood everybody liked 400 Degreez and I did a song with Juvenile.’ And I can just say, I had this NBA career, but I also did these songs with people that I’m a huge fan of.”

I grew up ’round love but we had a slower start

Hooping on the tree and fighting at the park

Lucky we had guidance, we was more blessed than others

We was the deepest family, nobody had more cousins

—“Loyal to the Soil”

Depending on who you ask and when you pinpoint it, there were upwards of 10 members of the Lillard clan staying at their grandmother’s house in Brookfield, the neighborhood in East Oakland where Dame grew up. There, daily battles with his older cousins made Dame stronger, whether it was basketball on the makeshift hoop hung up to a tree outside, or on the football field, or the baseball diamond.

“I’ll still give him 20 right now, give me a basketball,” Duece insists, scrunching his face up and looking over at Dame. He quickly flashes a smile. “We always had that competitive nature in our family. But the same thing applies with rap.

“This was something our whole family did. I’d have a rap and he’d be like, ‘Alright that’s cool, let me let you hear this, though,’ and we’d all go back and forth. He was always rapping. He was rapping long before he was playing basketball.”

Brookfield Duece is the oldest cousin, eight years older than Dame. Since he was the first to get his driver’s license, it was often Duece’s duty to drive Dame and his brother Houston around when their mom was busy. “In the car, he’d just be playing his own music the whole time,” Dame remembers, laughing. “We’d be like, Man, turn the radio on! The whole time he’s rapping his own songs and saying every word.”

Citing 2Pac and his mother as his biggest musical influences, Duece describes his sound now as “street conscious, emotional, reflective music with trap sprinkles.” And he says studio sessions with his cousins are “same as the basketball court: you score, I score.”

Keeping the mood light in those sessions is Danny from Sobrante, resident comedian of the group. He has Duece and Dame cracking up throughout our photo shoot, and when we ask him to spit a few bars afterward, he delights his cousins by responding with, “Do Beyoncé sing for free?”

“I have always been a magnificent storyteller,” Danny says of his style, “a person who is daring and not afraid to say stuff that other people may have been scared to say.”

Here, in the Blazers’ sprawling practice facility, as Duece and Danny flank Damian and a camera flashes every few seconds, it’s hard not to think about the fact that Lillard’s five-year, $140 million contract with the Blazers means he could afford to do this music shit all by himself. Maybe ink with a major label as a solo artist and record during the summers. He is, after all, the star of all this.

Which begs the following question: Why bring your cousins along for the ride?

“It doesn’t make sense for me to try to start a label and sign artists just as a favor. I’m doing it because I really believe,” Lillard says, steadfastly. “Them two not just being family, but being artists who I believe in their music, I feel like it’s only right that I do something like this, and we start this together and build it up together.”

That doesn’t mean he’ll be easy on his artists, though. And they know it.

“What’s good about Dame being the boss, the CEO of Front Page Music? He’s a real fair person,” Danny says. “He’s gon’ give you as much rope as you need. You either gon’ rope the cattle or hang yourself.”

Where Dame’s music career goes from here remains to be seen. He promises to continue putting out music every summer (“It might be a mixtape, it might be an album. I don’t know for sure, but I’ll continue to put music out”) but also envisions taking that “CEO” title to heart.

“I see myself growing more on the business side than anything else,” says Dame. “I’ll always write music, but that might mean, if I like the look of an artist, but maybe his lyrics could be better or something like that, maybe I go after him, because he’s got the right kind of swagger about him and the confidence and all that, but I’m on the business side and maybe I could be writing for him, and lead his career that way. I definitely see myself more growing into that side of it than just trying to be a full-fledged rapper.

“We’re going to learn as we go,” he continues—the “we” being Dame, his business partner A&R Derrick “Lottery” Hardy and Front Page—“and just try to make it unique, different than the typical label, where it’s beneficial more to the artist than it is to me because I’m not in a position where I need to gain anything from the artist.”

Once the sitdown interview portion of our shoot is over, and I’ve asked all the questions I came prepared with, Dame has one for me.

“What’s your favorite song off the album?” he asks.

Coming from most other pro ballers, this might just be polite cross-talk as they wait to be de-mic’d. And rappers, well, after a long shoot, few would stick around for any longer than they absolutely had to, let alone for the musical opinions of a basketball writer.

But Dame is, remarkably, genuinely curious. I respond, rather immediately, with “Wasatch Front,” the second track on the album, and the one that stands out most notably for its storytelling as it relates to Dame’s basketball career, detailing the ups and downs of his time at Weber State. He says he wrote the song in the Notes app on his phone (as he did every song on the album, save for “Plans,” which he wrote out on old school pen-and-pad because his phone died) during his annual summer retreat back to campus in Ogden. He says the memories flooded back so vividly that he wrote the whole song in one sitting, and then he pats himself on the back for the “Girls call me MCM, I’m tryna be Jerome” line in the track’s hook. “How many people you think picked up on that?”

Dame laughs. “It’s a lot of lines throughout the album where I’m like, Man, that was cold.”

Still, he says when he listens back to the album now, every so often he’ll catch himself wishing he’d written a different punchline to a rhyme, or altered his cadence just a hair. The kinds of revisions afforded to artists who spend years mastering a project down to every ad lib. He recorded The Letter O over just a few months.

“At the end of the day, I know that I do this for fun. But I also put the right amount of time into it. Obviously, I’m not going to just put out no bad product. When I’m getting whatever the criticism might be, from people that critique the Drakes and the Kendrick Lamars and Chance The Rappers and everybody else—when they critique my stuff, that lets me know that they’re looking at my music as if I’m one of them. That’s a step above what athletes usually get,” Lillard says. “I also know in my heart that this is not my primary job. I’m doing this with half the amount of time and half the mindspace to put into it than the people that’s doing it for a living.”

“If he took some time to really focus on music, I feel like he could go a long way,” says Cardiak, a co-producer on “Thank You,” which features Marsha Ambrosius. “I understand that he’s doing ball and all that right now, so it’s probably more like a hobby type of thing. But if he were to take it more serious, I feel like he would go far in this rap shit. I think he would kill it.”

$K, who produced “Bill Walton” and three other tracks on Dame’s album, puts it more succinctly: “He’s hip-hop, bro.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Portraits Atiba Jefferson

The post Damian Lillard: In A Major Way appeared first on SLAM.

It’s hard to call signing the No. 1 pick in the Draft a risky or bold move, but given the media stigma still attached to a young, brash AI, Reebok had to make sure they packaged his first sneaker just right. And oh did they succeed.

The Reebok Question, designed by Scott Hewett, was built to be flashy, to look fast, and to be recognizable all the way up in the rafters. Sure, Iverson could have played in bricks and still gotten love in Philly and beyond after the way he burst on the scene as a rook, including busting Michael Jordan with that crossover. But the Question was so perfectly timed, with its pearlized outsole, the instantly iconic honeycomb pattern, full-grain leather upper and Hexalite cushioning. Ooh wee, it was a beautiful thing. Iverson’s first signature sneaker was a phenomenon.

“I remember you showing me the shoe, and it didn’t really matter what it looked like,” Iverson told Global Vice President of Reebok Todd Krinsky during a Reebok retrospective video released in 2012. “It didn’t even matter. Just the fact of it being my shoe was enough for me. It could have been anything, basically. But then, seeing the shoe made it that much better. Because I liked the shoe off top.

“I remember, I used to talk to my teammates at Georgetown and they would ask me, ‘Man, do you think you’re gonna have your own shoe?’” Iverson continued. “I’m like, I dunno. Hopefully something like that would happen for me. But it was so far-fetched. I didn’t think nothing like that would actually come true.”

Krinsky and the Reebok team were confident that Iverson’s shoe would pick up buzz once he made an impact in the League. But perhaps even the biggest believers couldn’t have predicted the all-out rush that began immediately. Turns out, the streets couldn’t get enough of Allen Iverson.

“One of the things that was the craziest about it was when we put the first 5,000 pairs in Philly, and kids were driving up from Virginia, from DC to get the shoe. We only could put out so many pairs because we were going so fast,” Krinsky added. “This was before the Internet, so kids really had to find out where to go.”

Now in its 20th year, the Reebok Question remains as iconic a sneaker as there is in basketball, intrinsically linked not only to a player many consider to be pound-for-pound one of the best to ever do it, but essentially to an era—one whose doors are closing fittingly this year with the retirement of Kobe Bryant, another ’96 Draft class legend, and the Basketball HOF induction of this sneaker’s namesake. That the Question turns 20 in the same year AI will be inducted into the Hall…if it were a movie script, you’d say it sounded too perfect.

The “Red Toe” and “Blue Toe” OGs remain staples of both basketball and streetwear, while an influx of celebratory new colorways and collabs with the likes of Major and Bape have introduced a whole new generation to the iconic shoe. That—plus the internet, with its endless supply of Iverson highlight reels while rocking the Qs—has given new life to a sneaker simple in design but complex in significance. Bottom line is the Question is Allen Iverson, and Allen Iverson is forever.

“That’s the best part about it all. You got your own shoe, but seeing somebody else with them on is totally different. I’m not talking about your family, your friends, because they’re going to wear them regardless. Seeing the fans wear them, and to go even further, people that’s not even fans of you, but like the shoe. That’s one of the best feelings ever,” AI once said. “And then the fact that everybody still wants them this many years later, it’s incredible.”

Hopefully he’ll lace ’em up one last time for a certain speech in Springfield.

—

Photos courtesy of Reebok

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OG (a conveniently awesome nickname for his first name, Ogugua) threw down his first dunk at age 13, and he developed into a force in high school before suffering a wrist injury that took him off the D-I college radar. Story goes, Indiana head coach Tom Crean was in Atlanta to scout a couple of Anunoby’s AAU teammates the summer before his senior year. Almost immediately Crean was intrigued by OG’s raw athleticism and began the full-court press recruiting. The rest is, like OG on the court, a blur.

In the span of a few months, Anunoby went from an anonymous recruit to one of the hottest names in NBA Draft circles. He exploded onto the national college basketball scene during March Madness, one mind-boggling highlight after another. On one end of the floor, he threw down a 360-dunk against IU’s first-round opponent Chattanooga. On the other, he locked up Jamal Murray in a second-round upset over Kentucky, blocking more than one of the future top-10 pick’s perimeter shots.

The requests for selfies skyrocketed on campus, OG says, and while freshman-year averages of 4.9 ppg and 2.6 rpg for a team that won the Big Ten title don’t exactly jump off the page, that’s what makes him such a tantalizing prospect: OG hasn’t even begun to tap into his considerable potential.

In his even younger years, OG wanted to be like another player who rocked the No. 3: Allen Iverson. Beyond AI’s obvious skills, Anunoby says, “I thought his braids were cool, and the headband.” Funny, since the potential first-round pick in 2017 now models his game after another player with cornrows.

“Kawhi Leonard. He’s probably my favorite in the world right now. I mean, I like LeBron,” the 19-year-old explains, “but the player I try to be like is Kawhi.”

Considering OG’s role as a beast on D and Frankenstein-ish measurables—he’s 6-8 with a 7-6 wingspan—Kawhi is a reasonable comp, at least aesthetically. Factor in his quiet, man-of-few-words demeanor… On his hopes for the Hoosiers in 2016-17: “To win a Big Ten championship and then a National Championship.” And on what makes him special: “Versatility, being able to do a lot of things…” and it’s near perfect.

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images

The post Young OG appeared first on SLAM.

“Yeah, I’ll tune in. I’ll see what’s going on. Everybody knows how Russ feels,” Harden told us over the phone with a laugh earlier today, “so I want to see a really good game. I want to see Russ do his thing.”

Harden, of course, was once teammates with both Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, the two players who will be highlighted in Thursday night’s primetime game. The trio reached the NBA Finals with the Thunder in 2012, before losing to the LeBron James-led Miami Heat in five games.

Fast-forward to 2016, and all three are leading their own teams, all in the Western Conference. Is it weird, looking back?

“It’s strange, especially knowing where we came from and how we grew together early. But all three of us are doing our own thing and are successful.”

All eyes may be on KD vs. Russ, but Harden has been absolutely ridiculous to start the 2016-17 season. He’s averaging 31.8 points per game (4th in the League) on 50 percent field goal shooting and 12.4 assists per game (No. 1 in the NBA), plus seven rebounds and more than a steal per contest. And after a 30-point, 15-dime game at The Garden last night, he became the first player to post at least 30 points and at least 15 assists in back-to-back games since Magic Johnson did it way back in 1986-87.

While we had him on the phone, we couldn’t resist asking, too, about the most-talked about play from Houston’s victory over the Knicks at MSG on Wednesday night—second-year forward Sam Dekker’s epic fastbreak fail. You know, this:

“We were joking with him on the plane, on the bus. He got the steal, I turned my back because I thought he was going to dunk it, and then I just heard the crowd laughing, and I turned around and he was on his knees,” Harden said. “It was fun, but he played well overall.”

We were able to get a hold of the Rockets superstar through our friends at BODYARMOR, a natural sports drink which Harden endorses but also swears by. “The last few years it’s definitely been turning some heads, since it has Electrolytes, Vitamins and Coconut Water,” he told us. “It’s natural and it’s good for the body. It’s the best sports drink out right now, no competition.”

We’ll have much more from our chat with Harden coming later this season, so stay tuned.

For more info on BODYARMOR, click here. Photo via Getty Images.

The post James Harden on Warriors-Thunder Matchup: ‘I Want to See Russ Do His Thing’ appeared first on SLAM.

In a few minutes, we’ll descend into a dimly lit, dungeon-esque basement to do one of those trendy new “escape the room” adventure games. You know, where you have an hour to collect clues and solve riddles as a team in order to, well, escape the room. (In our case, pulling off a Mission Impossible-themed bank robbery before the fictional cops catch us committing the heist.) While we wait, we bullshit about the Nets’ fancy new practice facility in Sunset Park, about how Lin scored his new apartment near the Barclays Center after refreshing Zillow for days on end, and about the upgrades he still needs to make to the shiny black-on-black Maserati he pulled up in, including tinting the windows and replacing the rims. As a jackhammer pounds away at a construction site across the street, Fan finally appears, panting. Turns out, he took an Uber to Kent Avenue, not Kent Street, and had to run the last three-quarters of a mile here, which draws a laugh from Lin.

The last time he played professional basketball for a team in New York, Lin was crashing on his brother’s couch in a cramped Lower East Side apartment. He was, before what ultimately became one of the most memorable individual stretches of basketball in the history of the NBA, another anonymous New Yorker. The night before his “Linsanity” phenomenon began, Lin famously slept on Knicks teammate Landry Fields’ sofa. What unfolded thereafter, for the last two months of the 2011-12 season, established him not only as a full-time pro, but as one of the most popular basketball players on the planet.

“I’m definitely glad to be back,” says the 28-year-old, who after stops with the Rockets, Lakers and Hornets from 2012 to 2016, signed a three-year, $36 million contract with the Nets this summer. “I obviously have a special connection with New York fans because of everything we’ve been through, so to be back here playing in front of them again is…to me, I wish it happened earlier.”

During our faux bank heist in Brooklyn, Lin immediately takes charge. He’s responsible for solving most of the puzzles to unlock each new clue and he instinctively directs everyone else to pick up items we’ll need along the way. It’s corny as hell to say, but he really is point guard-ing the shit out of this. When we emerge victorious with 26 minutes to spare, Lin admits that he’s done this before. In fact, it’s his eighth or ninth time “escaping the room,” and he shrugs once we get back outside to daylight—this wasn’t as challenging as the versions he played in Charlotte and Los Angeles. Then again, dude went to Harvard.

J-Lin’s “regular guy” vibe is disarming, and yet there are brief moments when his status as an international superstar smack you dead in the face. As we casually talk hoops on the walk back to his (ridiculously nice) car after wrapping the interview portion of our shoot, for example, Lin points out that it’s kinda hard for big men to look cool in highlights, because nine times out of 10, Stephen Curry breaking a defender’s ankles and raining a three is more entertaining to watch than LeBron James muscling in 2 points in the post. It’s not an earth-shattering observation for a person to make until you consider the two players being compared are among just a small handful whose global following eclipses that of the person who made it.

But this story isn’t about Linsanity. Because that story’s already been written many times over. And, if you’re reading this, you already know what happened. The night it all started with Lin, then a little-known Knick, dropping 25 on Deron Williams and the Nets at MSG. The 38 and 7 he put up against Kobe and the Lakers less than a week later. The game-winning three on Valentine’s Day in Toronto.

The memories won’t soon fade. Walk the streets of New York City and you’ll still occasionally see his No. 17 Knicks jersey every so often. But the next chapter for Jeremy Lin will play out across town, where Brooklyn head coach Kenny Atkinson is handing him the keys. (Lin says Atkinson, who mentored him as a Knicks assistant during the Linsanity season, is “the only reason why I really considered the Nets in the first place.”) This year, on this team, Lin comes in as the starting point guard, not just some flash in the pan. With all due respect to former All-Star center Brook Lopez—whom Lin first met a decade ago on a serendipitous midnight visit to an IHOP during a high school tournament in California—it’s Lin who will be looked at as the face of the franchise, from the inside and out. And he’s definitely ready for the challenge.

“To have this role, I’m so excited I can’t even really explain just how happy I am,” says Lin. “There’s days where after we work out or play pickup or whatever, I’m just like, Man, it feels natural. I’m a leader. I’m a starting point guard. I run the show—and that’s something I’ve done my whole life on the court. So the last few years playing in a backup position, to me, that’s not who I was created to be as a player, that’s not natural. I feel like I wanna be the guy in the front. I wanna be the guy leading the charge, and I feel that here.

“Walking around Brooklyn, the vibe that I get is that they haven’t had a product that the people have been proud of,” he continues, noting the team’s 21-61 record last season. “I can tell there’s that disappointment from the past. No disrespect or no offense to anybody else who was here before, but that’s just the vibe that I get. So for me it’s just another challenge: How can we turn this thing around?”

Perhaps due to all the same lazy stereotypes that have followed Lin at every other stop throughout his career, it’s still hard for some to picture him in the role of the veteran leader. Time to get over it. The reality is, almost all of his new Nets teammates really do look up to him, and almost all for different reasons.

Like 21-year-old Nets rookie Isaiah Whitehead, who remembers watching every game of Linsanity as a sophomore at Lincoln HS in Brooklyn: “I was right in front of my TV watching every one.” Or Sean Kilpatrick, another New York-bred guard, who looks at Lin as a model of D-League-to-NBA-starter success. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen,” Kilpatrick says. “He’s always talking to me about staying hungry.”

Even Greivis Vasquez, who will be pushing Lin for that starting PG spot every day in practice, respects Lin for being “a fighter” who fears nothing on the court. “We want him to lead,” says GV, “and we want to win games with him.”

Meanwhile, Lopez is…actually, Lopez is just envious that Lin is being featured in a special edition of Marvel’s Totally Awesome Hulk comic book. “I was so jealous when I saw that,” Lopez laments. “He didn’t even tell me about it. Apparently it’s no big deal to him. I had to read about it on my comic book sites.”

Despite never having been an All-Star, Lin can sell comic books as a superhero thanks to his universal appeal. A week after our photo shoot in Brooklyn, at Nets Media Day, Lin is predictably swarmed by reporters despite playing on a team that beyond his presence is of lukewarm (at best) interest to the rest of the world. And, not unlike his teammates, Lin says his fans are as diverse as they are loyal.

“My story is so unique, and so there are people that always support different parts of my story. It might be that I’m Asian, or it might be that I went to Harvard, or it might be that I grew up in an immigrant family or the underdog story or the Ivy League,” he says. “For me it’s just something I want to be grateful for every day. I used to take my fans more for granted, and now I’m really thankful for them and I think I do a better job of showing that.”

On the court, Lin insists he’s shored up a lot of the parts of his game that were suspect during his first go-round under the bright lights of New York, including his jumper, his ability to go left and his defense. Last season in Charlotte he averaged 11.7 points, 3 assists and a career-high 3.2 rebounds per game in a Sixth Man role for a Hornets team that won 48 games and made the postseason. With increased minutes, expect to see his numbers jump across the board—a lot.

Friday night, Lin flirted with a triple-double as he led the Nets to their first win of the season in the team’s home opener, finishing with 21 points, 9 assists and 9 rebounds. Through the first three games of the 2016-17 season, he’s averaging 17 points, 7.3 assists and 5 rebounds per game.

Lin, though, says he’s matured as a person as much as he has as a player.

“Probably spiritually and mentally more than anything. I think when everything first happened I was a little scared and jaded, just because a lot of friendships and relationships and the way things worked out, I felt like maybe people betrayed me. I felt that sense of like, I don’t know if I can trust people,” Lin says. “Having gone through the last four years, I’m really in a different place. I’m not so concerned with what everyone else has to say about me anymore, whether it’s reporters or opponents or anybody, really.”

The Nets surely don’t have championship expectations in 2016-17. Competing for a playoff spot in a suddenly crowded Eastern Conference is probably a stretch, too. But Jeremy Lin is at long last comfortably stable, both in spirit and in his situation.

“I have a lot more fun through each day,” he says. “I smile a lot more.”

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos: Tom Medvedich | Special thanks to Komnata Quest

The post Moment of Clarity appeared first on SLAM.

I’m not suggesting Klay Thompson didn’t play as hard, or even harder, than everyone else on the floor during his first five seasons in the NBA. You don’t make two All-Star games, earn two All-NBA nods and win an NBA title as the second-best player on your team by coasting. Nor do you move up from 29 to 17 to 13 on this list, as he’s done over the last three seasons, which now ranks KT ahead of names like Jimmy Butler, DeMar DeRozan and Dwyane Wade.

Last season Thompson averaged 22.1 ppg on 47 percent field-goal shooting (43 percent from deep) and hit more three-pointers in a single season than any player in the history of the League not named Stephen Curry.

I’m not suggesting that he doesn’t show emotion, either, like a notoriously stoic Tim Duncan type. Klay is by his own admission the strong, silent type, but we’ve seen outbursts of passion at times during the Playoffs.

Still, if there’s a knock on Klay Thompson, it would have to be his temperament. Right? Because surely you can’t knock his game, with a jumper second only to his reigning MVP backcourt bro, and suffocating defense on the other end. (Shout out to all those begging us the last few years to re-shuffle these rankings with more emphasis on defense.) But maybe, just maybe, you can doubt his fire. Maybe, you’d say, he doesn’t demand the rock like other players ranked this high, or fire up his troops or play the part of vocal leader or assert himself aggressively enough at times.

A funny thing happened this summer, though. When Golden State made the biggest splash of the summer, adding Kevin Durant to a team that just made history in the regular season and has made back-to-back trips to the Finals, a lot of people were very, very excited. Everywhere, not just in San Francisco. Meanwhile Klay Thompson was, well, here’s what he told Shams Charania of The Vertical:

“I was sleeping,” Thompson said, “and my brother came to my room and woke me up to tell me that KD committed. I didn’t believe it at first when he told me, so I had to check my phone and verify it. I was like, ‘Seriously? KD really chose us?’ It was an incredible moment for our organization, and I was psyched. We had the final form of our team. […] And then I went back to sleep.”

He went back to sleep. WTF? That’s the Klay Thompson I’m talking about. Or at least, that’s the Klay Thompson we’ve known until now. Super chill, bra. This basketball stuff is cool, but anyone wanna hit the beach and surf later? Maybe eat some fish tacos? (I have no idea if Klay says these things, but like, he might.)

But then, he followed that up with this:

“I feel kind of disrespected that people keep using the term sacrifice to describe me and describe us,” Thompson said. “We all want to see each other do well. But I’m not sacrificing [expletive], because my game isn’t changing. I’m still going to try to get buckets, hit shots, come off screens. I want to win and have a fun time every game we play.

YO!

Sleeping giant = awake. Look at this shit, man:

Here's 75 seconds of Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant not missing until KD snaps the streak pic.twitter.com/6g3hUh57cQ

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 28, 2016

What I’m saying is, imagine Klay Thompson actually giving a fuck. Imagine Klay Thompson getting pissed off—at the rest of us idiots outside the Warriors’ locker room, or the potential idiots occupying the visitor’s. That is not a Klay Thompson any opponent wants to see.

There’s only one shooting guard ahead of Thompson on this list. It’s not exactly a secret that it’ll be James Harden. Then again, new Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni is now calling Harden a PG, so maybe it’s time to anoint Klay as the top 2-guard in the game.

(Not that he gives a fuck.)

KLAY THOMPSON SLAM TOP 50 HISTORY

2011: –
2012: –
2013: –
2014: 29
2015: 17
2016: 13

Rankings are based on expected contribution in 2016-17—to players’ team, the NBA and the game.

Follow the entire SLAM Top 50 countdown.

The post SLAM Top 50: Klay Thompson, No. 13 appeared first on SLAM.

“It was funny because I was always there, so then when I worked and I was on my lunch breaks, I would just go in the gym and play basketball, and then come back and scan the members’ cards to get in,” Thomas recalls with a smile. “Lunchtime was not really lunch to eat, it was to get more shots in.”

Skip ahead to a Sunday afternoon at present and here’s Thomas, still getting extra shots up at lunchtime. In this case, the setting is slightly more upscale than his humble beginnings at the Y. And, thankfully, he’s already eaten today.

It’s mid-August, and Thomas has just wrapped a two-day basketball camp with hundreds of young Celtics fans in Boston. We’ve linked up back at his brand new apartment complex in Cambridge, MA, just across the Charles River. Thomas shoots around for a few minutes on the halfcourt adjacent to the building’s in-house gym as we take some photos and roll video. IT flicks up consistent cash from deep, hardly breaking a sweat. Between reps, he talks about how freezing it was during February’s All-Star Weekend in Toronto, and how excited he is that next year’s festivities have been moved to New Orleans. This line of conversation, of course, has taken on new meaning for Thomas ever since he participated in the game himself. Beyond altering his schedule—you know, keeping the Sunday after Valentine’s Day weekend free on his calendar—the All-Star honors haven’t changed Thomas much. If anything, he notes, it’s outsiders who are changing their tune.

“Everybody I guess feels like they knew this was going to happen,” Thomas says, laughing. “So that’s the funny thing. In the basketball world, from high school to college to the NBA, you work with the same people, and you see how they treated you back then and you see how they treat you now—like they always knew that was gonna happen.”

Still, that faction of phonies is almost tolerable when you consider the incessant chorus of naysayers who remain, despite all of Thomas’ success. After joining the Celtics at the trade deadline of the 2014-15 season, Thomas scored a career-high 22.2 points per game in 2015-16 (11th-most in the NBA) to go with 6.2 assists and 3.0 rebounds, while starting 79 games and appearing in all 82. He led the C’s in points, assists, free throws (he was fourth in the NBA in FTs made) and threes. Boston finished with its highest post-season seed since 2012, and took two games off the Hawks in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. And yet, the Isaiah Thomas haters remain steadfast.

“Last season was an All-Star year, and a lot of people think that was given to me for whatever reason,” Thomas says. “A lot of people think that I lucked up, that I just had a pretty good year and that I won’t have another one. Those are the types of things that give me extra motivation, knowing that this is a big year and I’m gonna be an All-Star again next year and I’m gonna have a great year and I’m gonna lead my team to the Playoffs, hopefully even further than the first round. So I’m just gonna continue to do the things that I do and do it with a smile on my face.”

Recently, Thomas has devoted more effort to his mental focus. He often consults with close friend and champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. He scored a sitdown with Kobe Bryant, too, to get advice on how to lock in. He’s even become fascinated by the teachings of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. Even with all the added Zen, though, Thomas still openly admits to paying attention to what’s being said about him in the media, good and bad.

“I definitely read things,” he says. “I like to read who wrote the articles, just to see who it is, and then prove them wrong—kill them with kindness, try to make them eat their own words.

“They’re always gonna say something about my height. Even this summer around the Draft, some analyst said the Celtics should draft a point guard, and that point guard would be the best point guard on the Celtics,” Thomas continues, referring to ESPN’s Chad Ford, who suggested Boston ought to draft Providence’s Kris Dunn as an upgrade at the PG position. “It’s like, if anybody else was an All-Star and 6-1, you would never say that, and that’s what happens with being small. They always overlook you no matter what you do—unless you’re Allen Iverson.”

He’s right. Thomas is, at 5-9, the smallest player in the NBA. And his sub-6 foot stature makes him the only All-Star that any Average Joe would ever foolishly claim to be able to compete with. Even the biggest idiot at the rec wouldn’t claim they could post up LaMarcus Aldridge or Andre Drummond. But guaranteed there’s a bozo on every block who swears he could check Isaiah Thomas. (Such a claim is, obviously, so batshit insane it doesn’t deserve a defense here.)

Zeke chugs a bottle of Fiji water and we dip into an elevator. He presses the button for the penthouse, where from the roof, on this beautiful sunny day, the sprawling view of Boston is stunning. Thomas squints at the sunshine, and for a minute, watching him stare out at the city from high above, it reminds me of that scene from The Lion King when Mufasa tells Simba, “Everything the light touches is our kingdom.” In the foreground of the picturesque landscape, front and center from this vantage point 21 stories up, sits TD Garden. That arena is, without a doubt, under Thomas’ reign.

It only took one game for Thomas to endear himself to the Boston fans; he was ejected in the fourth quarter of his Celtics debut, an OT loss to the Lakers at Staples Center. Perhaps not prudent at the time, but Celtics head coach Brad Stevens can laugh about it now. “That was a little bit unique,” says Stevens of the first impression between PG and coach, “but I think the bottom line was, he has a passion and a fire for doing well and playing well for Boston—from the moment he’s gotten here.”

And as quickly as Thomas embraced Boston, the city embraced him back, as it so often does with its sports stars. Whereas during previous stops in his NBA career, in Sacramento and Phoenix, the average-sized Thomas might blend in with the normal human population, now even his young kids often get recognized by fans on the street.

“The biggest difference is, it’s Boston,” Isaiah says. “They love sports. They treat you like a god out here. If you give it your all each and every night, they’re gonna respect you. That’s the difference between anywhere else I’ve ever been, these people here, they really love their sports, they really love their team, and it seems like they’ll die for you out here.”

This season, Thomas will team up with some big new pieces, most notably No. 3 overall pick Jaylen Brown and free-agent acquisition Al Horford, a fellow All-Star who jumped ship from Atlanta. The Celtics were among the teams to meet with Kevin Durant, too, and though his well-publicized decision to join the loaded Warriors meant disappointment for Celtics fans, the fact that Boston was among the finalists points to an uptick in the team’s Q-rating, thanks in large part to No. 4. Thomas won’t divulge much about the specifics of the KD meeting, but he was in the room. He says it went well (“I mean, Tom Brady was in there”), but not as well as it could have gone, in his mind, had better timing allowed the C’s to show up with Horford in tow.

The dream of Durant deferred, Thomas isn’t afraid to take on the lion’s share of leadership duties once again for the Celts. His steady improvement is only surprising to those who haven’t been paying attention.

See, following Thomas’ breakout season with the Sacramento Kings in 2013-14, we had a similar conversation. He laid out two goals then: “I want to be an All-Star.” Check. “I want to get to the Playoffs.” Check. Throw in the fact that the 27-year-old also got married to longtime girlfriend Kayla Wallace a few weeks after our latest chat, and 2016 is already the biggest year of his life, by far. So what’s next?

“I want to be an All-NBA player—that’s an individual goal for me,” Thomas explains. “I know with having a good team and a Playoff team, all the individual success will come with the work that I put in. Maybe one day I’ll be at the MVP level. Those are the next goals for me, and I always like to speak stuff into existence.”

“I think the chip on your shoulder is contagious, if directed the right way,” adds Stevens. “There’s a pride that comes with being challenged—he constantly feels challenged and I think that’s a good, contagious thing for him and our whole team.”

One of Thomas’ favorite sayings is All gas, no brakes. “I just kept my foot on the pedal and I’m here,” he says. “I’m here today going into my sixth year, and I’m at a pretty good moment in my life.”

—

Abe Schwadron is a Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Portraits: Buck Squibb, Action: Getty Images

The post All Gas, No Brakes appeared first on SLAM.

Quick, without Googling—how old is Andre Drummond?

I’ll wait.

OK fine I’ll just tell you, he’s 23. Young enough that a few players older than Drummond were selected in the 2016 NBA Draft. I mean, the guy is literally still wearing braces. His age has a lot to do with why in July, Drummond inked a five-year, $130 million contract with the Pistons.

Youth though, in this case, isn’t an excuse to wait any longer on his potential—as it is for others in his rearview on our Top 50 list this year. Just the opposite, in fact—it points to him taking another gigantic leap in 2016-17, as he did last season.

Consider: when Drummond’s giant new deal with Detroit expires, he’ll be 28. Hassan Whiteside is, right now, 27. If Drummond’s career were a swimming pool, he’s just about to dip his toes into his prime.

Metaphorical bodies of water aside, physically, Drummond is nothing short of a savage. After being listed at 6-11, 279 pounds in 2015-16, he claims to have lost 20 pounds this summer, which would in theory make him quicker to get up for rebounds—as if he doesn’t gobble up enough already—and faster in the open court, where he likes to catch lobs for easy buckets.

Last year, Drummond averaged 16.2 points (career-high) on 52 percent shooting, a League-best 14.8 rebounds (also a career-high), 1.4 blocks and 1.5 steals in a career-high 33 minutes per game over 81 starts. And the Pistons made the postseason for the first time since 2009 (when Drummond was all of 16 years old).

Perhaps you got bored somewhere in the middle of that very stat-heavy graf above, so let’s try again: The man averaged 15 boards a game. (For whatever it’s worth, Kevin Garnett led the NBA in rebounding for four straight seasons in the mid-2000s while never eclipsing 14 rpg.) If you woke up one morning last season and Drummond didn’t have a double-double the night before, you had to do a “WTF?” double-take. In his preseason debut last night, Drummond pulled down 21 rebounds, 11 of them on the offensive end, in 24 minutes against the Nets (he had 17 points, too).

It doesn’t take a basketball savant to pick up on Drummond’s weaknesses. The statistics suggest that on the defensive end, he doesn’t protect the rim like a Dwight Howard. On the other end, the eye-test would tell you he often doesn’t roll to the rim quite like a DeAndre Jordan. And yes, his 38 percent career free-throw shooting is dreadful. DREADFUL. SO, SO BAD. (Although he’s been working on his foul shooting this summer with the aid of a virtual reality simulator. Seriously.)

But check out his wide-ranging top-10 plays from last season real quick:

They begin with him taking a pretty damn good defender in Tristan Thompson off the dribble with a crossover and pretty finish. There are dunks, hustle plays, blocks… Admittedly, there’s not a lot of aesthetic beauty to it all. But that may come, and for now Drummond can rely on outmuscling opponents to easy buckets and oodles of rebounds. Ranking him at No. 22 is an optimistic projection, perhaps, but unless he spent the summer eating donuts and hanging out by the pool and added absolutely nothing to his post game, he should easily produce numbers to back it up.

He’s already promised to lead the NBA in rebounding once again, and as the franchise center in Detroit, a return trip to the All-Star Game seems inevitable. *Whispers* Hey Pistons fans, it’s not a perfect comparison, but Dwight’s 23-year-old season, he led the Magic to the NBA Finals. JUST SAYING.

ANDRE DRUMMOND SLAM TOP 50 HISTORY

2012: NR
2013: NR
2014: 33
2015: 31
2016: 22

Rankings are based on expected contribution in 2016-17—to players’ team, the NBA and the game.

Follow the entire SLAM Top 50 countdown.

The post SLAM Top 50: Andre Drummond, No. 22 appeared first on SLAM.

So when LoBue says The Edition has “grown tremendously,” it’s an understatement. Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem showed up for the opening of the second store, and former and current Heat players Tyler Johnson, James Ennis and Mario Chalmers, as well as NFL running back Lamar Miller have come through to browse The Edition for sneakers, streetwear apparel and accessories. Even Raekwon stopped by recently.

In addition to carrying a wide selection of ASICS, adidas and Del Toro, The Edition Boutique is currently the only official authorized US retailer for Wade’s signature sneakers, the Way of Wade by Li-Ning. And while LoBue admits that was huge for driving customers in Miami to the store when it first opened its doors in 2014, The Edition brand itself has always been popping.

“Everyone loves our in-house brand. We always match stuff with the latest sneakers. We do stuff with ASICS, we do stuff with the Wades—whatever release we get, we try to have our own brand shirt to go with it,” LoBue says.

But all the collabs and athlete appearances wouldn’t mean a thing without the community spirit the business was built upon—something The Edition Boutique takes great pride in.

“Number one is our customer service,” says LoBue, who has visions of opening more stores in Florida and then franchising The Edition in other cities. “We share our personal numbers with our customers, so whenever new stuff comes in we can contact some of the loyal people from day one and see if they want anything. We like to take care of people and be hands-on and friendly.”

In return, Miami has taken care of The Edition.

Photos courtesy of The Edition Boutique

The post Live From the 305 appeared first on SLAM.

Freeney, 36, played on the basketball team back at Bloomfield High in Connecticut—he credits basketball for the footwork that goes into his signature spin move on the gridiron—before earning a football scholarship to Syracuse. (He says fellow ’Cuse alum Donovan McNabb is still the best NFL hooper he’s seen.)

He’s also a Jordan Brand athlete, for which he’s thankful beyond the player exclusive cleats he laces up on Sundays, since the now-Atlanta Falcon is a long-time Bulls fan.

With NFL season kicking off on Thursday night, we caught up with Freeney over the phone to find out what kind of game he had on the court, and which NBA players he roots for now.

—

SLAM: Who’s your NBA team?

Dwight Freeney: Chicago. That was the first basketball team I ever loved, back in the mid-’80s, during the Michael Jordan era. I stayed with them and I’m loyal.

Who are your favorite players now?

DF: Chris Paul, Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade—it’s crazy that he’s playing for Chicago now. Those are three guys that, they’re not the biggest guys in the world, but they play big for their position. I really admire what they do.

SLAM: What was your reaction when Wade signed with Chicago this summer?

DF: I was ecstatic. I wish it would have happened like four years ago [laughs], but he’s a special talent. He still has a lot of ability and I think he can still get it done, definitely.

SLAM: Butler said he could be an NFL wide receiver. What do you think?

DF: I 100 percent believe it. He’s a tough kid, man—he plays hard. He almost plays the game kind of like a football player. I don’t think it’s appreciated enough that he’s one of those guys that isn’t afraid to get hit.

SLAM: Do you have any friends in the L?

DF: I’m friends with CP3, and a couple guys like Al Harrington on the Pacers back in the day that I became close with. Carmelo Anthony and I have the Syracuse connection, so I’m always going to be a fan of his, too. JR [Smith], LeBron, I see them all from time to time. I know a lot of the guys.

SLAM: What was your bball career like?

DF: I would consider myself a Charles Barkley, without scoring that many points. If you gave me five or six inches, I could have been a problem. I would have had a real decision to make. But the problem is, you can’t be 6-1 playing power forward in college.

SLAM: What’s your game like?

DF: Man, my game is straight old man game. I’ll post up here and there, but I’m passing the ball mostly, and just trying to stay out of freakin’ trouble.

SLAM: What did you think of KD signing with Golden State?

DF: I didn’t have a problem with it. Unfortunately right now, when you’re a star like that, you’re defined by championships. As far as your legacy, if you want to be one of the best, you have to win a championship. I can understand it. It’s no different than what LeBron did, in a sense. I’m old school, as far as staying on the same team, but I understand him.

SLAM: Who’s the worst basketball player on the Falcons?

DF: About the whole offensive line. Of the linemen, I don’t think there are any great players. But, Bryan Cox, our D-line coach, he’s the worst basketball player I’ve ever seen.

—

Image via AP Photos

The post Spin Cycle appeared first on SLAM.

After spending the first seven-plus years of his career on Nike’s roster of NFL players, the Redskins wide receiver thought he deserved one. “Nike promised they were going to start my own shoe and take it to the next level,” Jackson says, “but I was never taken seriously I guess.”

So when a childhood friend linked him up with Brandblack founder and veteran footwear designer David Raysse, Jackson says the brand’s vision for his signature line intrigued him. A sneaker connoisseur in his own right, Jackson was impressed by Jamal Crawford’s signature line on the basketball side. Let’s do it, D-Jax decided.

Now, about a year into the partnership, Jackson’s first signature products are finally coming to life. The Brandblack DJX Trainer is on the way, and the South Central L.A. native couldn’t be more proud.

“Everybody’s on Jordans and Nikes, but it’s something about the Brandblack model,” DeSean insists. “It’s like you really don’t have nothing but foam around your feet. When you’re working out or running, it’s all about comfort. I’m a firm believer of, you can’t be in shoes where it hurts your feet, or they’re too tight, or they don’t have that support that you need. It’s the most comfortable shoe I have.”

The sneaker itself, like most of Brandblack’s offerings, hopes to straddle the lines between style and performance, fashion and function. It’s built for high intensity training (lightweight, ultra responsive) and a sock-fit upper, body-mapped exoskeleton and fell length jet-Lon midsole make it a smooth ride. With a high-tongued silhouette and “super scoooped out apex,” the DJX-1 doesn’t look like any other shoe in its category, and that’s by design.

Whether on or off the field, Jackson likes to make a statement with his footwear. The next step is getting the Brandblack DJX cleats he’s rocked as a Redskin (so far just samples) out to the masses alongside the trainer. “I’m the type of guy, I never like to be simple. I always want to throw something different on every week. When I go to training camp, I’ll have a new flashy colorway for the season.

“It’s going to be a big year for the Redskins and for myself, so stay tuned,” adds Jackson, whose DJX Trainer will hit select retailers on September 22 in three colorways (all black, grey and all white), with a Skins-inspired edition dropping in October. “With the DJX coming out, 2016-2017 is going to be a big year, so keep your eyes on me,” he says.

—

Photos courtesy of Brandblack x Estevan Oriol

The post Hit The Jaccpot appeared first on SLAM.

Yep, Michael Jordan just said those words about Russell Westbrook.

Thirty years ago, it was MJ and the Air Jordan I. This year, it’s Russ and the Air Jordan XXXI. Passionate, intense, athletic, brash, bold. The list of adjectives that describe both Jordan and Westbrook are indeed eerily similar. Fitting, then, that a sneaker that simultaneously pays homage to Mike’s first and most famous piece of footwear would in its 2016 reincarnation be designed for the gravity-defying, transcendent style of Westbrook.

During July, in the middle of a scorching hot summer, Jordan Brand took over the massive event space at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas for several days to host the Air Jordan XXXI launch event, plus give an experience of a lifetime to local fans and high school players in town for AAU tournaments. It’s the second straight year Jordan’s taken over this particular space, and everything was bigger and better in Year Two, from the interactive dunking and shooting competitions, to t-shirt customization, to the world’s coolest in-house barbershop and endless supply of free grub—and of course, the bowling. Jordan Brand athletes Jabari Parker, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony made appearances throughout the week to greet fans and hang out.

MJ’s words of praise rang out through a video on the big screen before Westbrook took to the mic during the official #AJXXXI launch to talk about the sneaker itself.

“When I first seen it, I think it was last summer, and I was like, Man, this is going to be crazy when everybody gets a chance to see this. And I was excited to get to wear it,” Westbrook told the assembled crowd of media and fans, later adding: “A lot of kids like to wear basketball shoes all day long, and I think this shoe can be worn with jeans, and obviously, on a basketball court.”

Already the face of the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise following the departure of Kevin Durant, Westbrook will also now be the public face of the AJ XXXI, a high honor not lost on the All-Star point guard.

“It’s a blessing,” he said at one point during the launch event. “Especially for me, growing up in the inner city of Los Angeles and now being here, talking to all you guys, man, it’s a blessing. Especially to be the frontrunner for this particular shoe, this particular story. It’s a great opportunity. It’s a blessing for me.”

https://youtu.be/9J75J2CYjzs

In almost every instance, the initial launch of a new Air Jordan is met with diverging opinions. That’s what happens when you go above and beyond to defy expectations and challenge the norm. Of course, there are the Jordan heads who will worship every new silhouette from the moment they lay eyes on it. Likewise there are the Jordan haters who will rush to social media to throw shade. Truthfully, though, the story of the Air Jordan line isn’t just about its individual models—though they are typically the best performing on-court kicks on the market immediately—but rather about the history, and where each new sneaker fits in the long line of supreme performance game shoes.

In reality, that commitment to pushing the limits of pinnacle performance has assured that Jordan Brand never plays it safe. As Jordan Senior Designer Tate Kuerbis put it to us, “Every Jordan has something on it that you just scratch your head and go, Wow, how did they do that?”

In the case of the Air Jordan XXXI, the head-scratchers start with the fact that the last time a Nike Swoosh appeared on an Air Jordan was the AJ I. The last time the “wings” logo appeared on an Air Jordan was the AJ II. The AJ XXXI bears both of those iconic marks. The side-by-side of the Swoosh and the Jumpman logo on the XXXI silhouette is admittedly jarring, but that’s by design: “That came from Michael,” Kuerbis said following the sneaker’s Las Vegas launch. “I like the fact that Michael was bold enough to say, Let’s do it. He really did have the idea, like, Let’s have the Swoosh, but let’s have it fade into the Jumpman. And after we did it, it made a lot of sense.”

And that’s just the aesthetics. The material changes in the Jordan XXXI start with a flexible Flyweave upper that transitions to synthetic leather at the toe as a nod to the Jordan I.

“It’s important for people to understand their history to get to where they want to be in the future,” Yuron White, Vice President of Jordan Footwear said after the launch. “The symbolism of the XXXI really led us back to the I.” Of the fusion of strong fabrics, Westbrook noted, “The transition from the Flyweave to the leather is a big thing.”

Technologically speaking, the AJ XXXI is a basketball beast. The result of a project that required the brain, design and concept power of about 100 people according to White, the XXXI has Flywire construction you know and love, plus an internal bootie that connects to the shoe’s tongue for better lockdown and fit. A modified herringbone traction pattern on the outsole has enough grip to keep up with the likes of Westbrook. The idea of getting the player as low to the ground as possible—as the AJ I once did in revolutionary fashion for its era of sneakers—is what led to perhaps the most important alteration in the XXXI: it features full-length Zoom Air, which would be a comfortable ride on its own, but combined with the FlightSpeed tech we’ve known since the XX8, it might be the coziest basketball shoe ever constructed.

Listen to the geniuses behind the sneaker and it’s clear that propulsion is the Jordan performance line’s No. 1 priority.

“We’re going to lead the industry as it relates to propulsion,” White said bluntly. “And this is something that comes from Michael. Michael was like, If you think about the [Jordan I], I love the forefoot containment, I love the underfoot and the heel support, and so I want you guys to take the lead and innovate there. And so that’s where you see the Flyweave material in the forefoot. Obviously Tate tried to do everything we could to get that competitive advantage, which means full length Zoom Air, FlightSpeed technology.”

Jordan’s design team wanted there to be no wasted motion in the athlete’s foot, since oftentimes players complain about sliding around inside their kicks. For a player as explosive as Westbrook, in particular, he needs to feel locked down, 100 percent, to tap into all his basketball superpowers.

“With Russ, half a second is all he needs from top of the key to dunking on you,” White pointed out, quite accurately. “He led his team in dunks, and most of those were blow-bys, so we wanted to make sure that we continue to give that competitive advantage to him, which ultimately leads to the consumers.”

The general public can get its hands on the Jordan XXXI on September 3, when the initial “Banned” colorway hits retail with a price tag of $185. (The matching “Banned” Jordan I will release the same day, for $160.) And given the silhouette’s nod to the AJ I, Kuerbis is confident the XXXI will resonate not only as the pinnacle performance product in its category, but also as a casual option for elite athletes, sneakerheads and everyone in between.

“The player is going to be able to wear this on-court and perform really well, but I think having a shoe that you can wear off-court and get that style aspect is not an easy thing to do. It’s a really hard challenge. So for me,” Kuerbis said, “that’s a gamechanger.”

Creating a sneaker that checks all those boxes off for the common consumer would be hard enough, but knowing that Westbrook, himself hurdling toward top-tier pop culture style icon status, would be the judge of the shoe’s overall artistic appeal meant the pressure was really on. Right?

“I just give them all the input I can on how it feels on my foot to help Tate and those guys that design the shoe, kind of give them a sense of direction. They do an amazing job,” Westbrook said before smiling and adding, “My job is to wear it and perform in it.

“It’s something that I don’t take for granted at all. To have an input on a shoe that the whole world is about to see, and have an input on a shoe that’s so iconic—I never take that for granted.”

OK, so you’re probably thinking that Russ is contractually obligated to never admit if he wasn’t a fan of the newest AJ silhouette. But something tells us he’s not the type to bite his tongue, either. If he were, you really think Mike would be drawing the comparison to himself as a youngin’? That’s high praise you rarely hear from the GOAT. And it’s precisely the reason that Jordan—the man and the brand—chose Westbrook to carry on the torch as the player that all performance kicks will be developed to support.

In many ways, the XXXI feels like a “reset button” of the Jordan line, beginning anew 30 years after it all began. The Swoosh logo, the embossed wings logo on the ankle collar, the red and black launch colorway, the reminiscent shape of the silhouette souped up with all the technology advances of the last 30 years.

While a common refrain from the aforementioned haters is that JB leans too heavily on its history, like it or not that rich history will forever be tied to every new sneaker, from II to infinity. The XXXI is not only a reminder of the revolution that its oldest ancestor ignited, but a reminder that there are still barriers to be broken, still risks to be taken, still room to crash the party and fuck up the norm with some out-of-the-box thinking. Call it bravado, braggadocio, swag or otherwise. Look no further than Westbrook’s tattered post-game ’fits that buck the so-far-gone NBA dress code.

“It started with Michael. We started as a basketball brand. Our obligation, and what Tate works to do is to put the best performing basketball shoe in the marketplace for the consumers to be able to play the game,” said White behind closed doors with both the I and the XXXI at his fingertips, at once acknowledging the past and seeing into the future. “What excites me more than today is where we’re going to take you guys tomorrow.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Images via Jordan Brand

The post New Flex appeared first on SLAM.

The three-time NBA Slam Dunk Champion last played for the New Orleans Pelicans in October of last year, before spending the bulk of the 2016 season tearing up the Israeli League. Earlier this month, ESPN reported that Nate was working with Odell Beckham Jr. and DeSean Jackson’s trainer to work on molding himself into an NFL wide receiver.

On Saturday, Robinson was in Austin, TX for the third annual Kick & Roll Classic, a sneaker-themed 3-on-3 charity basketball tournament hosted by the Kiel Colon Cancer Foundation.

He was rocking an iced-out Seahawks chain and a University of Washington hat (the college where he starred as both a high-flying guard on the basketball court and a ball-hawking defensive back on the football field). So we caught up with him briefly to see where his head is at in terms of the NFL vs. the NBA, and to get his thoughts on the biggest NBA storyline of the summer.

https://twitter.com/KickRollClassic/status/751907743900930048

On his tryout earlier this summer with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks:

I had a workout with the Seahawks. I just want to thank them, the whole organization, the coaches, everybody for giving me a shot to be on the field again. For me, just that alone was enough for me as a former football player—and a dream come true because you know, not too many people get to say they worked out at the Seahawks facility. Super Bowl champs at one time. Our city’s been dying for a team to be that good. We had the Sonics that were good, we had the Mariners that were good, now we have the football team, and hopefully we can just keep it going.

On whether he’s expecting another call from the Seahawks this fall:

Hopefully in August, some time, something happens. If not, right now my main focus is basketball, getting back in the NBA. Just trying to change a couple—tweak some of the things that they need me to tweak that they say is “off the court problems” or whatever it is. I just want to show them that I put in the work. I’m one of the hardest working NBA guys that’s out there, and I think I deserve another shot to show that I can be everything that people saw when I was in Chicago.

On Kevin Durant’s decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors:

I love it. I love how he stirred up the mix. LeBron did it, and a lot of guys are going elsewhere. The NBA is the NBA. You have a job. You’re always on the road, that’s how I look at it. I played on six or seven different teams, there’s only a few guys that get the opportunity to play for one organization their whole career. And you see it’s Kobes, it’s Tim Duncans, it’s the Dirk Nowitzkis, it’s guys like that who stay with one organization. For me, I just think when you play for multiple teams, you just get a bigger fan base. Some people will hate you for leaving but I think it’s a great move.

Look out for more from Nate, and from the Kick & Roll Classic, in this summer’s print issue of KICKS—coming soon.

The post Nate Robinson: ‘Right Now My Main Focus is Basketball, Getting Back in the NBA’ appeared first on SLAM.

On Tuesday night in SoHo at Nike’s “Unlimited Innovation” Olympic preview event, legendary Bulls forward Scottie Pippen was on hand to discuss all things red, white and blue—and Swoosh. But given his proximity to the team in question, we couldn’t resist asking Pip (whose Hall of Fame career also includes a pair of Gold medals as a part of Dream Teams I and II) about the newest man in orange and blue.

“I think it was a good trade for both sides,” Pippen told SLAM. “I was sorry to see Derrick leave, but I think it was time for the organization to start looking at their plans going forward. And I’m sure, looking at his past, he was probably not in the plans for the future for them, so I think it was a good deal for both of them. Derrick is coming to a great market where he can continue to grow in the game and do well.”

Pippen talked about much more earlier in the evening, including why playing in the Olympics connotes a much different feeling than playing in the NBA:

.@ScottiePippen on playing in NBA vs. playing in Olympics: “It’s a different feeling, having the flag wrapped around you, and that uniform.”

— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) June 28, 2016

And about his most famous sneakers, debuted during the ’96 Olympics:

.@ScottiePippen says he thought the giant “AIR” on the Nike Air More Uptempo he debuted in ’96 Olympics was “arrogant” when he first saw it.

— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) June 28, 2016

We’ll have much more from our brief chat with Pippen—and from Nike Basketball’s events leading up to the Olympics in Rio—in the weeks to come, so keep it locked.

—

Photos via Getty Images

The post Scottie Pippen on Derrick Rose to Knicks: ‘Good Trade For Both Sides’ appeared first on SLAM.

When I reached out to Steve, he was hesitant to do this interview. Since playing his last NBA game at age 30, the media hasn’t been kind to him. Over the last few years, unbecoming videos and photos of Francis began to surface repeatedly on the Internet, accompanied no longer by adoration but by slander. The headlines were predictably harsh, and the attacks on Twitter and in comment sections even more unforgiving. His positive efforts—like the Steve Francis Foundation, which has offered scholarship aid for at-risk youth for years—are rarely mentioned.

But Steve and I both grew up in Maryland’s Takoma Park-Silver Spring area, which borders Northeast Washington, DC. Steve spent the bulk of his younger years on Maple Avenue, a block home to Takoma Park Elementary School and a new-ish rec center (behind which sit the recently renovated Steve Francis Basketball Courts), but also to the Maple Avenue Crew, a well-known local gang. It is a uniquely diverse community, an intersection of crunchy granola-types and low-income housing.

So I told him about how as a 10-year-old I fell in love with his ’99 University of Maryland team, and about how I had a poster of him from the ’00 Dunk Contest on my bedroom wall. About how my little brother still brags to this day about the time Steve randomly sauntered into the local Boys & Girls Club and took a courtside seat at one of his AAU games. About how we’d drive down Maple in the summers and Steve would look up from his wings and mumbo sauce to wave from Peter’s Sub Shop as we shouted his name. About how both Steve and I attended Montgomery Blair High School—and though for vastly different reasons, neither of us played more than a handful of games in a Blazers uniform.

Satisfied that we—in Steve’s words—“speak the same language,” we agreed to meet up the next time he was back in DC (his primary residence is in Houston). A few weeks later, on a cool, drizzly late-April morning, I find Steve behind the Westin Hotel at the National Harbor, sitting on a bench facing the Potomac River. He’s wearing all-white high-top Air Force Ones, jeans and a navy blue windbreaker. We talk briefly about Drake’s new album, which he’s blasting from a portable speaker, then about mutual acquaintances from Takoma Park. He asks me who played quarterback for Blair when I was in high school, and who was coaching the basketball team.

I tell him I’m going to have to ask him some tough questions. Questions that frankly, I wish I didn’t have to ask. I feel obligated to ask, for example, about that viral video of him getting his chain snatched on stage at a rap show in Houston (“Ask the people who touched me how they feel,” is all he’ll say.) But I promise to let his voice ring out, unedited and unfiltered, no matter where our conversation goes.

It starts with me reminding Steve of his three SLAM covers. Of the one from May of ’03—which he shares with Yao and a cover line boasts, “The Dynasty and The Franchise,” he says, “When that one came out, I thought we’d probably still be playing today.” A few minutes later, Wink stares out at the water. “That wave,” he says, reflecting on the way coaching changes and injuries swallowed up what might have been of his too-short NBA career. “That’s what I’d have been doing, going against the current.”

SLAM: Do you regret retiring so young?

Steve Francis: This is the honest truth: the respect level was nowhere. From anybody. So what I do? I gracefully bowed out. If they wasn’t going to respect how hard I played, know what? Me and my wife and my kids are great with having a good career. Thank you Mr. Stern, respect. Respect, Mr. Alexander. Respect to Mr. Dolan in New York. Respect to Mr. DeVos, all the owners I ever played for. Not disrespecting the coaches or their staffs, but those are the people I played for. I’m not disrespecting no players, but I’m cool with the people who asked me to play. Was it hard as shit? Hell yeah. 30 years and no respect. I’m like, let me just chill out and figure out what I’m doing after this.

SLAM: When were you having the most fun playing basketball during your NBA career?

SF: Of course in Houston. I’m still there. Coach Rudy T—imagine a coach who won two championships, and is a Hall of Famer, and his jersey’s hanging in the gym, he’s like I’m going to give you the ball in my city where I played. The first day, I came in and there’s Olajuwon and Barkley. Who the hell would think somebody from DC, from Maple, would go from that block to play with them? In six years? I was like God damn, you really playing. After all the other hype, the draft, being able to buy whatever. After that shit settled down, it was real. This is what you signed up for.

SLAM: What happened when Tomjanovich stepped down and Jeff Van Gundy took over as head coach?

SF: The whole momentum shifted to “stop that ball,” buddy. Just dump it into Yao every single play. What Steve do? Dump the ball into Yao. Was Steve mad? Hell yeah. Did Steve say something? Hell no. Respect for that owner who gave me that money. He said, Here Steve, $100 million. Alright, I’m not going to disrespect that man’s business. That’s his business, not the coach who doesn’t know that the owner gave me the opportunity to have one stable home and a bag of money. So I’m cool.

SLAM: What do you remember about shooting your last SLAM cover, the summer you got traded to Orlando?

SF: That one right there was like, Man, this is my last run. This is the point where it’s going to make or break what happens to you the rest of your career. It was like, now you’re really a man. Your fairytale career, from the Vancouver thing to being the Franchise in Houston, it’s over. When you’re playing, it’s hard as shit to go back and try to look at what you really did. After All-Star Weekend, when I went there and just said, Hey guys, I’m really not going to play. That was it, this past one in Toronto—

SLAM: Wait, up until this year you were still thinking about playing again?

SF: Yeah, All-Star Weekend. Looking at the people out there playing, I’m like, Damn if I just really, really focused one year, one time for six months…I can probably still do it, but I won’t.

SLAM: What was the thing that made you say, OK I’m officially done?

SF: I love being with my kids [Shailyn, 10 and Steve Jr, 8]. That’s it. Seeing my son play baseball. I get dressed like a baseball dad. I’ve got all my son’s baseball stuff, and then my daughter is a gymnast, so we’re busy.

SLAM: Do you feel like you reached your potential in the NBA?

SF: Basketball wise? Nah, man. I was just starting. People are like, You did good. I’m like, That’s good to y’all? That’s okay. I never had two bad years. The years I didn’t have the numbers was that New York shit. There was so much shit in New York, it wasn’t even no injuries, it was coaches and players. I never wanted to get involved in none of it. Went back to Houston, and the coach benched me. So alright, maybe its just time for me to be a dad. These people don’t fuck with you like that. I was like, I ain’t going to argue with that.

SLAM: Was it a hard transition going from basketball being your whole life to not having it at all?

SF: When I finally said I’m not going to play, I was like, It’s party time. I traveled everywhere, I relaxed and rewarded myself. People said, He’s doing drugs—Hell no, I wasn’t doing no drugs. Did I smoke some weed? Hell yeah. Was I drinking? Hell yeah, I was partying, spending whatever I felt. That was my way of releasing like, Damn, this is the thanks I get? So I’m going to party and chill.

SLAM: Just to be clear, you are saying you never used drugs?

SF: Hell fucking no. Have I rolled a blunt or rolled some whiteboys up? Hell yeah. That’s it.

SLAM: Did the partying ever take you to a dark place in your life? Was it ever out of control?

SF: Dark as far as just getting tired of drinking? Hell yeah. It wasn’t like I was trying to kill myself. But was I getting fucked up? Who didn’t? Who don’t? When you get drunk, you get drunk. It’s the same drunk for anybody. Anybody that drinks, who gets drunk, you know what getting drunk is. It’s no different. I’m human. If it was out of control, I wouldn’t be right here.

SLAM: So you’re done with the partying?

SF: I ain’t saying done. Man look, I’m not no Johnny Manziel, that’s who the fuck y’all need to talk to. Ain’t none of that. So talk to Johnny Manziel about that. I ain’t no nigga getting in no fights or beating anyone up. But don’t get it twisted. If I want to get ten boats, I’mma get ten boats. I’m going to be Steve. I don’t care what nobody say. I told the NBA that, I’ll tell the public that way. Whatever I feel like doing, I’mma do. Do you, do your life.

SLAM: What about during your playing career, how much partying did you do?

SF: You come to Houston, every player in the League know they better call me. But I didn’t really go out that much on the road, on the days before games. Kelvin Cato, he wouldn’t let me go out. He followed me everywhere. Houston, Orlando, New York. I called every team I went to and I said I need him with me. He was the only person that could keep me sane, boy. And he a crazy motherfucker. Every team, every situation, that’s who I had to have. Nobody knows that.

SLAM: How does it feel when you see some of the negative things people say about you on social media now?

SF: Man, I don’t give a fuck. I don’t. Why the fuck do I got to answer to social media? I’ve got two kids. I can say it with a smile. You really think I look at this shit? I play on social media. This is my makeup for me not playing PlayStation. I don’t play Madden. This is my Madden. Social media, whatever. People do things to feel like their chest gets out there a little bit man, to each his own. Certain people get high off of certain shit, if that’s their high, stay high. My high is being Steve, just being me.

SLAM: From the end of your playing days to now—

SF: My life’s gotten better.

SLAM: Why?

SF: I’m more of a dad, I’m wiser. I’ve got two kids, I’m in the best place of my life. I lived my first dream. Tell me who can say they lived their first dream at 32? Who’s still alive and can come here to DC at 39 and do whatever he want, and his kids can do whatever they want. Who wouldn’t take that?

SLAM: In your eyes, what’s your legacy as an NBA player?

SF: Shit—he came, he saw, he conquered.

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Photos via Getty Images

The post Steve Francis Reflects On His Career appeared first on SLAM.

Idan Ravin was yelling at us.

A group of eight or nine bloggers—a few of whom consider ourselves pretty good athletes—were at the mercy of one of the NBA’s top trainers last week on the practice court at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. There, for the first Group Skills Session as part of an ongoing 8-week #LimitlessPotential journey (that started in Dallas, TX at the Michael Johnson Performance Center last month), we gathered to run through a typical workout for elite basketball players.

Sets of push-ups, jumping rope, full-court sprints and shuttle runs with some high-volume shooting drills to cap off the night? It was 90 minutes of hell, and it was awesome. Considering that Idan has worked with the likes of Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, quitting wasn’t really an option.

Plus, Nike had hooked us up with some brand new kicks to wear-test: in my case, the LeBron 13 Elite “Ready to Battle.” The sneakers were bouncy but strong, and didn’t flinch during any of the cutting required for Idan’s intense drills. Plus, they looked fly flashing across the Nets’ hardwood floor.

Scroll through the photos above to see highlights from the Idan-led session. We’ll keep you updated after our next Nike Basketball session with the man they call the Hoops Whisperer.

—

Photos courtesy of Nike

The post Nike #LimitlessPotential Basketball Training Session Recap (PHOTOS) appeared first on SLAM.

After a first quarter that saw LeBron James score exactly zero points, he poured in 14 in the second quarter, to go with his 7 assists and 6 rebounds for the half. The Warriors stretched the lead to 15 at one point before a 7-0 Cavs run to end the second quarter made the score 52-44 at halftime.

And then—Yo, what is it about third quarters?

Stephen Curry (18 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assist) spent most of the third on the bench with four fouls. Meanwhile his teammates continued to go ham, most notably Draymond Green (28 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists), and the Dubs won the stanza, 30-18 to take a ridiculous 20-point advantage into the fourth quarter.

With 8+ minutes left in the game, the Cavs rolled out the vaunted Mo Williams-Mozgov-Shumpert-Delly-James Jones lineup and well, that was the end of Game 2. Granted, Kevin Love missed most of the second half while being evaluated for a concussion. But outside of LeBron (19 points, 9 dimes, 8 boards, 7 turnovers) the only Cavs player doing anything at all was… Richard Jefferson? He had 12, Kyrie had 10.

This was yet another insane box score—like the fact that Golden State had 20 turnovers and only 10 free throw attempts—and it doesn’t look like Cleveland is any closer to figuring out how the hell to beat the defending champs than they were coming into the series.

The series shifts to Cleveland this week, where Game 3 is on Wednesday night. Thoughts?

—

Photo via Getty

The post Draymond Green Leads Warriors in Blowout Game 2 Win, 110-77 appeared first on SLAM.

Oracle Arena was going bonkers for the start of Game 1 of the Finals, ready for the Splash Bros to make it rain. Instead, it was the likes of Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala and Leandro Barbosa who got the fans fired up in the first half against LeBron James and the visiting Cavaliers.

At halftime, the Warriors led 52-43 thanks to a big advantage in field-goal percentage (52 percent for the Dubs, 36 for the Cavs) and relatively spread-out scoring from their starting lineup. Meanwhile, Cleveland’s Big Three accounted for 34 of their team’s 43 in the half—that despite a 1-11 second quarter combined for Bron and Kyrie Irving.

After a back-and-forth third quarter, we headed into the fourth with the Dubs up, 74-68. And that’s when Shaun Livingston happened. Dude went absolutely bananas, helping the Warriors break the game open while Golden State’s stars sat on the bench.

https://vine.co/v/iYblZZuHb75

Livingston finished with a career playoff-high 20 points for the game—the same as Steph Curry (11) and Klay Thompson (9) combined for in total. Seriously Livingston was everywhere. Along with Iggy (12 points, 7 rebounds, 6 dimes) and Barbosa (11 points), the Warriors’ bench just completely exposed the Cavs’ bench (10 points total).

Kyrie, LeBron and Love combined for 66 points but didn’t get much help in the scoring department on what was an awful shooting night for the Cavs. They’ll look to rebound in Game 2 on Sunday night.

The post Shaun Livingston Leads Dominant Bench in Warriors’ 104-89 Game 1 Win appeared first on SLAM.

A few years ago at a tournament in Hagen, Germany, Okulaja was finally introduced to a young player he’d be keeping an eye on for a while: a 17-year-old named Dennis Schröder.

“Dennis does not play like a typical German, and that’s what stood out. He was a 1-on-1 guy who could beat his man,” recalls Okulaja. “Give him the ball, space out and let him beat his man, either to finish or for the assist. He’s an incredible passer who sees the complete court. But he was criticized for passing too much. People said he was too flamboyant, that he’s trying to do Magic Johnson passes between the legs to 10 people. But it was just his style.

“He had a swag to him, but most people looked at that as a negative. I saw that as a positive. In basketball, you have to have self-confidence, but most guys saw it as arrogance. I liked it. I liked his swagger.”

The pair stayed in regular contact, and Okulaja made several trips to Schröder’s hometown of Braunschweig before eventually signing him as a client.

Fast forward to the present and Schröder, now 22, is sitting in the visitors’ locker room at the Verizon Center in DC. He’s getting set for a late-March matchup with the Wizards, with the pair of all-gold Air Max 1s he wore to the arena tucked underneath his chair and teammate Tim Hardaway Jr. blasting something vicious through his headphones at the locker to his right. On this night, Schröder will come off the bench to lead the Hawks to a 122-101 blowout win over Washington, his 23 points and 8 assists both team-highs in just 20 minutes of action. His irritating defense helps hold All-Star PG John Wall to just 2 second-half points. Late in the fourth quarter, an overserved Wizards fan in the lower bowl attempts to get his attention, bellowing, “17, you suck!”

Schröder’s back is turned to the fan, but it’s hard to imagine him not smiling if he heard it, since he’s familiar with the experience of killing the competition before they can even put a face to his name on the roster.

“Him being black in Germany and being a point guard, people look at him different,” explains Okulaja. “Schröder is a very typical German name. If you hear his name and you don’t know anything about basketball and then all of a sudden Dennis walks through the door, people are like, ‘Hold up. I thought Schröder’—they’re expecting a little whiteboy, just from the name.”

Schröder laughs about it now, remembering the confusion on opponents’ faces as he carved up defenses as a kid. But he admits that navigating the hoops culture back home was no joke.

“I didn’t have it easy. All the German people, like, white people, they didn’t say my name. They just came every time with, like, ‘He’s black,’” says Schröder. “It was terrible for me, but I knew, like OK, I just got to work.”

The son of a Gambian mother and German father, Schröder’s first passion was skateboarding, not basketball. The middle child of five, he didn’t play organized hoops until the head coach of the local club team’s youth program, Liviu Calin, recruited him straight off the skatepark as an adolescent. Schröder was fast, he was fearless and he took to the game with ease. But he says he didn’t really take basketball seriously until his father died suddenly of a heart attack.

“When my dad passed when I was 16, it became my goal to go to the NBA,” Schröder says. “Before that, I never could have imagined that I’d play in the NBA. But after 16 I knew, that was my goal. I need to make it, I promised him that.”

With a more disciplined approach, Schröder improved rapidly. He’d train all day, then stay up until 2 or 3 a.m. to watch live NBA games, paying special attention to his favorite players, Rajon Rondo and Chris Paul. By age 17, he was playing for both Braunschweig’s youth team and its pro team, simultaneously. He was a burgeoning star, but it was chaotic. Often, he’d miss practice with pro team when he thought he was supposed to be running with the youth team, or vice versa, and get unfairly blamed for the organization’s shortcomings in communication. Still, in a pro system where young players rarely get much playing time, Schröder showed scouts enough to get invited to the 2013 Nike Hoop Summit in Portland. He knew playing in the Hoop Summit was his only shot at getting the NBA to notice him for real, even if disappearing mid-season meant pissing off his club team.

The risk paid off. Dennis showed out, and two months later the Hawks made him the 17th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. (“For Dennis, everything went from 0 to 100 after the Hoop Summit,” says Okulaja.)

Schröder showed up in Atlanta a fish out of water. To ease the transition, his sister and niece, and later his older brother, came over from Germany to live with him. After practice, his sister would cook for him, or they’d go to the Cheesecake Factory or Benihana or Potbelly. Hawks fans were intrigued by the foreign import with the blonde patch in his hair (a fashion compromise between Dennis and his mother, who suggested he go full blonde) who’d shown flashes in Summer League, but he barely played during his rookie season, and even spent a couple weeks in the D-League.

Rather than sulk, Schröder put in more work. When the team plane landed on the road, he’d ask an assistant coach to come with him to the gym, to work out before he’d even dropped off his bags at the hotel. After home games, he’d make one of his boys (members of #SchrodersSwagTeam aka the #FlexGang—the hashtags he says he started on Instagram just as a way to have easy access to all their pics from summer trips to Berlin or wherever else) rebound for him late into the night, often with an early morning practice only hours away. Those close to Schröder characterize his work ethic as relentless. Almost ruthless.

Schröder is so obsessed with honing his craft in fact that even when he’s lobbed a lighthearted question about his musical taste, he begins and ends his answer with, “I just try to focus on basketball.” (For the record, he listens to a lot of Migos and, on off days, he will occasionally kick it with young artists from ATL who have become friends, like Solo Lucci and K Camp.)

In his sophomore season, Schröder worked his way into a role as a key reserve, pushing starting point guard Jeff Teague for minutes as the Hawks reached the conference finals, and in 2015-16 he’s become as scary a weapon as there is coming off the bench in the East, averaging career-highs in points (11.1), assists (4.4) and minutes (20.3) per game. And his growth in the NBA coincides with an international career that’s even more impressive. Schröder made his German senior national team debut in 2014, and last summer he led the team in scoring at Eurobasket with 21 ppg (Dirk Nowitzki was second, at 13.8 ppg). He is, without question, the future of German basketball. Just ask the dude who had to check him in practice every day.

“He’s got so many ways now to score the ball. You never know what’s coming next,” says Karsten Tadda, a backup PG on the national team who first met a teenaged Schröder after he shred Tadda’s German pro league squad. “Normally the goal is only to stay in front of him. You don’t have any chance of stealing the ball with his long arms protecting the ball.

“When he’s going to the basket, it doesn’t matter who’s trying to block him at the rim. Nobody’s got a chance to block him,” Tadda continues. “I haven’t seen anyone block his shot on the national team or in our games. When he’s going to the basket, I’m like, Damn, it looks so easy.”

In Atlanta, Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer has noticed the same thing. “Dennis, I think at times he’s just determined to get to the paint, get to the rim,” says Bud.

Yeah, like the time last season against the Spurs when he got a step on Kawhi Leonard and pounded home a dunk over Tim Duncan.

“He just opens up the floor so much for all of us,” adds Hawks All-Star center Al Horford. “His speed, when he attacks the basket, he’s either going to get a layup or one of us is going to get an open look. There’s not a lot of guys that can blow by you like that.”

For the Hawks to get past the Celtics and take serious aim at dethroning the Cavaliers in the second round, they’ll need Schröder to have more nights like the one in DC. Or like Game 3 against Boston, when Schröder erupted for a career playoff-high 20 points off the bench and wasn’t afraid to mix it up with C’s All-Star Isaiah Thomas. The Hawks lost the game, though, and the series now shifts back to Atlanta tied at 2-2.

Schröder already has a strong following in the US because he’s tough (when he got a tooth knocked out during a game this season, he put it in his sock and kept playing), and because he’s cool (he dyed his jersey number into the back of his hair, as you can see above), and because he can flat-out play. Being “different,” as Horford describes him, is what sets him apart.

In Germany, basketball is far from the national sport, lagging behind soccer and more traditional Olympic sports. Even when it comes to hoops, he’s hardly Dirk-level yet, but his star is rising. He landed a spread in GQ and the cover of NBA 2K16 in Germany, and Tadda says he had to pick Schröder in the first round of the fantasy basketball league he plays in with his German league teammates, just to make sure to get him.

“They said he would never be a good point guard, he would never be able to play for the national team, he would never lead a team—those were all comments that he had to face early in his career,” says Okulaja. “I think he is very happy now that all those people who criticized him and said he would never amount to anything, all of those guys are very quiet now.”

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad. Photos via Getty Images

The post Flex on Em appeared first on SLAM.

JBC week in New York is akin to the NBA’s All-Star Weekend, minus the extravagant alcohol-fueled parties and overbearing autograph seekers. It’s no match in terms of global cache, of course, but it’s undeniably one of the best events of the basketball calendar each year, for its combination of incredible basketball talent and “did that just happen?” moments with celebrities, legends and the players themselves.

Most importantly: it’s just genuinely fun.

The kids are in good spirits. The brand hooks them up. The media access is great. The fans are passionate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1gj8loLZW8

Like Tuesday, when after NBA legend and Jordan Brand athlete Ray Allen gave some remarks at this year’s “opening ceremonies” held at Terminal 23 in Manhattan, it became immediately apparent that, Yeah, these are still just high school kids. Within minutes of being set free at the tricked-out players’ lounge (pool tables, ping-pong, video games, the works), Michigan State-bound Miles Bridges and Duke-bound Jayson Tatum were performing a karaoke version of Future’s “March Madness” for their peers. A year from now, Bridges and Tatum will likely be lottery picks in the NBA Draft. Here they were, laughing and rapping and dancing—you know, being kids in a world where soon their every move will be tracked and every tweet turned into a bloggable news item.

Like Wednesday at 166 Flatbush, Jordan’s interactive retail pop-up space across from the Barclays and next to Shake Shack, where fans lined up for hours before it opened, engulfing the True Religion store with hopes of getting a glimpse inside the Jumpman shrine. With good reason: the Jordan Ultra.Fly, the Air Jordan XXX, the Letterman 1s and more were on display and on sale, not to mention a full-service barbershop, in-house bodega and virtual training station to track your skills. The players even got the chance to design custom t-shirts, like this one that Kentucky-bound Malik Monk created for himself:

Like Friday for the main event, the list of courtside cameos for which this year was strong, from JBC alums like Jabari Parker, Tyler Ennis, Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker and Jamal Murray (word to #BBN, again) to Giants WR Victor Cruz to Brooklyn rapper Desiigner—whose post-game performance of “Panda” had the Barclays crowd more energized than any Nets game in months—plus current All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Maya Moore. Fellow prospect Thon Maker showed up at one point and dapped up every player on the East bench during a timeout. Because, why not—after years on the high school hoops circuit, those are his boys.

It doesn’t take an expert to know that in 2016, HS basketball is big business. And sure, much of the glamour of the JBC can be attributed to Jordan’s emphasis on marketing the brand. But by letting the kids simply be kids, bringing in NBA ballers not just to make appearances and dip, but to actually be a part of the week, and allowing fans to participate in the week leading up to the featured games, Jordan’s been able to thread the needle: Jordan Brand Classic is cool. Still. In a culture where cool typically turns to corny as soon as a corporate entity seizes even the slightest control.

Scroll through the photos in the gallery above to get a sense of the week that was for the high school kids, from tourist attractions in NYC to gearing up for practice and the games.

The post 2016 Jordan Brand Classic Week Recap appeared first on SLAM.

Allen won a pair of championships over an 18-year NBA career with Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston and Miami. He last played with the Heat in 2013-14 and will turn 41 this summer, and yet as recently as January he was still getting calls from Miami about returning to play. In speaking with us, Allen declined to officially announce anything one way or the other in regards to his retirement, but he certainly took a reflective tone when discussing his career and the career of fellow ’96 Draft Class member Kobe Bryant.

But first and foremost, the man known to many as Jesus Shuttlesworth was in the building to spend some quality time with the next generation of great basketball players, preaching the importance of keeping a tight circle, urging them to treat their bodies as “high-performance sports cars” and encouraging them to simply out-work the opposition, like he did for so many years.

“I knew a lot of guys who guarded me, who didn’t want to guard me because they didn’t want to have to chase me,” Allen told the group of high school seniors, before indulging with a quick story: “We’re playing San Antonio in the [Finals], and Gregg Popovich is shifting lineups around, and Matt Bonner comes in the game. Matt Bonner’s looking around trying to figure out, like, OK, he has him, he has him… He sees me on the floor and he’s like, Coach! Who’s guarding Ray? I looked at him and said, You got me.”

“Pop took him out right then. He knows he’s already beat.”

Allen signed with Jordan Brand in 1996, just as the brand was beginning to branch out and sign athletes not named Michael Jordan (of his first NBA match-up against MJ, he admits, “I was scared shitless”). Since, he’s become one of the most recognizable faces of the brand in the sneaker world thanks to his smooth jumper and his incredible collection of rare retros and PEs. After spending some time with the kids at Terminal 23, Allen sat down with SLAM to talk about what message he hopes to impart on the youth, how he’s grown with Jordan Brand, his thoughts on Kobe’s retirement, the “best shooter ever” comparisons with Stephen Curry and more.

SLAM: When you have an opportunity to speak to young athletes like this, is there a specific message or piece of wisdom you’re hoping to impress upon them?

Ray Allen: It’s hard because you have five or 10 minutes to try to convey some thoughts that will hit home with them. So you just really want to be in front of them and talk to them about where they are and how they should just enjoy the moment. We’re not different—there’s a lineage from me to them, and they’re all heading down this path where ultimately they’ll be walking into a room like this and giving kids a speech themselves some day.

SLAM: How do you think being a high school prospect is different now than it was for you?

RA: I think each kid, back then, we felt like we were alone, we were on an island. But now, these kids, since social media they have a way to connect and create a brand for themselves. You don’t need a corporation or a marketing company to brand you now, you can do it yourself. You can establish who you are with a social media following. As these kids now grow from high school to college, think about the followings that they’ll have, deep into their college years, because kids have been following them for so many years.

SLAM: You went to things like the Nike All-American camp, but never something like what Jordan has in store this week for the JBC.

RA: No, but see Nike camp, we got gear and we were around other players, but it was very blue collar-ish. We didn’t have photo shoots and we didn’t have performances. I told one of the girls today, You guys are lucky, to be able to be here and do these types of things, and to wear Jordans on your feet. You’ve got to make sure you understand it, because it doesn’t happen like this. None of us got this type of treatment. So just remember that the fact that you worked hard and you played well, you got rewarded, and it continues to grow that way, each level you get to.

SLAM: You were one of the original Jordan Brand athletes, with guys like Randy Moss, Roy Jones Jr. and Derek Jeter. Is it crazy to see how much the brand has grown since you signed with them?

RA: I made a gamble when I was 21. I had a few contracts on the table, including one with another shoe company. I had to make a choice between two shoe companies. The other shoe company threw out all these criteria. Me and a few people on my team asked amongst ourselves, If I’m a great NBA player, which company would I want to be a part of? And then Nike came and said, Jordan is starting his own line and we’d love to introduce you as one of the new players to be a part of it. It was a no-brainer for me, just to be able to be associated with Nike, and then Jordan on top of that. I didn’t know what it was going to be like, but I was in. Being a part of it was incredible, because every player wanted to wear the shoes that I’ve worn. Even before I started wearing retros. My first couple years, I had shoes that everyone wanted, and the gear was different. Then when I started wearing retros in Seattle and Boston, that’s all other players ever talked about. It was always special for me.

SLAM: How often would guys talk to you about your sneakers during games?

RA: Every game. Guys were asking me if they could get a pair, if I could send a pair to their locker room, if they could get the pair on my feet.

SLAM: Literally the ones you had on?

RA: Mmhmm. Like, Can you send those shoes to me?

SLAM: Wait—to wear the ones you already wore, or to keep them as memorabilia?

RA: Both. I’ve had guys that couldn’t find the shoes, so they wanted the ones I had to wear. And then I had guys that wanted to auction them off for charity. It was always an honor, knowing that they were asking me, because I always felt like they held me in a high regard. That’s how I looked at MJ.

SLAM: You obviously have an incredible sneaker collection. You’ve seen it all when it comes to kicks. So what gets you excited in terms of sneakers these days? What sneakers make you perk up when you see them?

RA: Umm. I have seen it all. As much as I’ve seen, I don’t think anything like, sparks my attention. I think I have some shoes, too, that some people haven’t seen.

SLAM: Will we ever see them?

RA: I don’t know. I have shoes in my closet, some guys will come in and go, Where’d you get these from? I give a lot of shoes away, but there are some shoes that sometimes I’m like, I don’t think they ever even released these. Sometimes I don’t know what they’ve released. But sometimes friends of mine that work for Nike will visit and say, They never made these, so you need to hold on to these.

SLAM: What kinds of emotions have you felt watching Kobe’s farewell tour?

RA: It just gives me pause, thinking about the last two decades. We came in, got drafted together. Just thinking about the eras that we played in, the players that we played with. It was such a great ride, because he’s won championships, but I think he’d also tell you that some of the bad teams were some of the funnest times, too, because you learn a lot. That’s how you appreciate winning a championship. He was a pace setter in the game, and he ushered in a lot of young people into the game of basketball. You always have to bow to the end of an era.

SLAM: Is there one Kobe moment that sticks out for you?

RA: I don’t think of anything in particular. He and I used to go at it. We used to go at it pretty good, it was competitive. It was appropriate that I ended up in Boston. And we had those two Finals years, playing in the best rivalry in the NBA. That was definitely great for TV, and it was great competition. Those things I’ll always remember.

SLAM: Where do you rank Stephen Curry in terms of the greatest shooters in the history of the League? A lot of fans might argue that you hold that title.

RA: Based on what he’s done, I think he has to be—he’s on his way to being the best ever. It’s always arguable, based on who’s telling the story. One thing I always tell people is, it’s hard to compare generations. Everybody has something or somebody that makes him feel special about the game, or the way they saw and the way they appreciate the game. I’ve sat back and watched a lot, and listened to a lot of people talk. He’s creating a lane all of his own. People comparing him to me, to Reggie [Miller]. But I think Steph is in a category of his own. Just being able to have great handles the way he has with the ball, to be able to score at will by getting to the basket. Myself, Reggie Miller, Kyle Korver, Klay Thompson—we play a different game. We’re shooters. We come off screens, pindowns—Steph can do that, but he’s creating a different lane. Point guards haven’t been able to do what he’s been able to do, because he’s mixing that 2 guard-ish in there with having the great handles of a point guard. When I broke the three-point record, they (Steph and Klay) watched that and it became something they said in their mind, this is what I want to do. Now, there are kids watching him, saying I want to work on these things, I want to be just like Steph.

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad. Photos courtesy of Jordan Brand.

The post Q+A: Ray Allen appeared first on SLAM.

“I just go with the flow, man,” he says, smiling suddenly. “I go with the flow and Stay Melo.” The room cracks up. Melo’s uncanny ability to sidestep a tough question while simultaneously endearing himself to the insatiable horde of cameras and recorders allows him to breathe easy in a city where many players before him have suffocated.

The 6-8, 240-pound forward slithers through the 24/7 New York media cycle with guile not unlike the way he weaves his way to the cup through a crowded paint, but he’s also not afraid to speak candidly. During All-Star Weekend in Toronto a few days later, with the trade deadline looming, he addressed the gossip surrounding his future head-on. “It sucks. I’m tired of these rumors, man. I’m tired of ’em,” Melo told reporters. “It’s always something, man. Always.”

That Friday night, Anthony took a courtside seat for the first half of the Rising Stars Challenge at the Air Canada Centre to support his young teammate and Rookie of the Year candidate Kristaps Porzingis. You know, like a varsity player casually checking out the JV game. He smiled, waved into fans’ flashing iPhone cameras and exchanged daps with KP as if he were a proud older brother giving that public sign of approval to lil’ bro. (Melo is, unsurprisingly, quite familiar with eliciting hoopla just by walking into a gymnasium—a night earlier he caused a ruckus in the middle of the Jordan Brand Invitational, an All-Star Weekend high school showcase at nearby Mattamy Athletic Centre featuring his former school Oak Hill, as he meandered to his seat. It’s a scene that has also become an annual occurrence at the Jordan Brand Classic in Brooklyn, often producing the loudest cheers of the night at the Barclays Center.) At some point before halftime, Melo’s phone buzzed. A text message from a friend back in Baltimore read, “Is it true?” accompanied by a screenshot of the latest clickbaity headline attaching his name to a tantalizing blockbuster trade rumor.

“I looked at it, and I put it back in my pocket,” Melo said the next morning, laughing. “I actually don’t read nothing. No articles, I don’t go online to read, I don’t read newspapers.” But he can’t avoid the questions, and the texts don’t stop coming in from inquiring minds, despite the no-trade clause he says he’ll never waive.

“It’s just the accumulation of just always hearing, Melo trade, Melo trade, Melo trade,” he added matter-of-factly. “Eventually you get tired of hearing it. I think I’m just at the point where I’m getting tired of hearing it, tired of speaking on it. It just don’t make any sense at this point. Until something happens.”

Those rumors typically pick up steam on Twitter and in barbershops thanks to a loud chorus of undiscerning fans who view Melo as a lazy ballhog who can’t win. Even a few highly regarded hoop writers detest watching him play, and don’t hesitate to say so. But reducing the former No. 3 overall pick’s efforts to an ugly stereotype is highly unfair, and refusing to acknowledge the evolution of his game is simply ignorant. Ironic, isn’t it, the use of that word, “lazy.” The blunt injustice in all the Melo shade is pretty simple: He’s playing some of the best basketball of his career.

There are the surface-level statistics that point to his incredible well-rounded play—he’s averaging a career-best 4.2 assists and attempting the fewest field goals per game since he was 20, while still posting 21.8 ppg and pulling down 8+ rebounds a night for just the second season of his 13 in the League. There are advanced stats, too, like the fact that Melo is one of just five players who have logged at least 1,500 minutes this season to use 29 percent of his team’s possessions while assisting on at least 20 percent of his teammates’ baskets and blocking at least 1 percent of all opponents’ shots (the others: Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and James Harden). But numbers always ring hollow to haters.

“He’s going to get most of the criticism whether we win or lose,” admits Knicks forward Derrick Williams, who grew up watching Carmelo—he was 12 when Anthony was drafted. “If we lose and he plays great, he’s going to get most of the criticism anyway.”

See, somewhere along the line, hating on Carmelo Anthony became fashionable (not to mention easy, thanks to the Knicks’ top-down organizational woes). Petty Knicks fans decided they’d be better off without one of the best players in the League, turning their attention to far-fetched free-agent fantasies like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Fans of other teams watch a few highlights and read articles with titles like “Carmelo Anthony: Way Overrated” from major publications like The Atlantic and agree that yup, he’s washed. Announcing Carmelo Anthony is your favorite player no longer comes with the kind of instant cool it once did, when he was rocking the braids as a brash but unstoppable teenager in Denver. Or even when the “Welcome to New York” swag was still fresh during his first few months in the Big Apple.

Melo will turn 32 in May. Save for the icons like Mike and Kobe, rarely if ever does an aging star stack up to younger, flashier players in the “cool” department. Porzingis in fact is already pushing Anthony for the title of most popular Knick, not even a full 82 into his career—curious, since he also represents the best teammate Melo’s had since Allen Iverson. But superficialities be damned, Anthony is balling. Which is why no one flinched when he was voted an All-Star starter for the seventh straight season. Haters had to pay homage, huh?

Still, it’s maddening that even with the Zen Master at the helm, the Knicks, in their current form, are nothing short of a trash can emoji; a point guard-less, interim head coach-havin’ runaway train hurdling into infinite mediocrity, a fate mitigated only by Melo’s continued commitment to professionalism and the flickering hope of Porzingis one day becoming what Melo already is: a superstar.

Even if New York suddenly goes on a Derek Jeter-like hot streak, they’re still going to miss Playoffs for a third straight season. “That doesn’t sit well with me,” Anthony says.

***

On an early January day off between a Knicks loss in Chicago and a home win over Atlanta, Melo sits in a back room at Jordan Brand’s Terminal 23 space in Manhattan, where his own logo adorns the invite-only basketball court that has become, among other functions, his personal playground. He’s sipping Starbucks and going over some logistical details. In a few minutes, he’ll be surprising a lucky group of high schoolers from around the Tri-State Area to host an intimate Q+A session and lead a few drills.

If it feels like Melo has been more active in seeking out opportunities to impact youth lately, that’s because, well, he has. Last year he visited incarcerated youth at Rikers Island. This year he took a strong public stance against gun violence, first as part of an NBA-backed PSA, and again through the media after teammate Cleanthony Early was robbed and shot in the leg at gunpoint in December. When you consider that a decade ago Anthony, who spent his formative years in West Baltimore, found himself in hot water for a brief cameo in Stop Fucking Snitching Vol. 1, the DVD, it’s hard not to appreciate the personal transformation.

“It comes a point and time when you gotta sit back and be like, Alright, cool, let me figure this out,” Melo says of his own maturation process. “You have a voice now. I realize I have a voice—I want to be heard for certain things. I don’t want to just be heard when it comes to basketball. Like, real-life situations. There’s more to sports than just shooting the ball or throwing a football or hitting a baseball. It’s more to life than that. There’s real life things that’s going on out there that people like myself can use their voice.”

As he walks out to meet the high school kids behind raucous applause, one brash voice yells out above the others, “What took you so long?!” Having called New York his professional home since 2011, Anthony is no stranger to the city’s bold brand of trash talk. (In fact, he told VICE, “You’re not a New Yorker if you don’t wake up some days and be like, ‘Man, fuck this place.’”)

“I love that vibe,” he says of the fearless youngsters giving him a hard time. “That vibe, that’s what New York is about. That’s who I am. That’s authentic to who I am as a person.”

Carmelo was born in Brooklyn, raised in Red Hook until he was 8 and—despite recent reflections on his loyalty through the years—is dead-set on finishing his career in a Knicks uniform, no matter what your favorite sources say.

“I don’t want to run. I could have ran somewhere when I was a free agent. I came back for a reason. I came back because I wanted to be there,” Melo opined scrupulously at one point during his ninth All-Star Weekend. “Doing it in New York is better than doing it any place in the world. One in New York is better than multiple somewhere else. So that was the reason why I wanted to come to New York. That’s the reason why I’m in New York.”

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad. Images via Getty.

The post The Life of Melo appeared first on SLAM.

Ever since His Airness began banging backboards in the ’80s, Chicago has been a hub for breaking new basketball footwear. Make waves as a primetime player in Chi-Town and your kicks get respect. Enter Jimmy Butler. His simultaneous ascension in Jordan Brand’s ranks and on the Bulls’ roster means he’s next up to carry the torch when it comes to hawking sneaks in the Windy City.

With that in mind, Butler is helping Jumpman introduce its latest on-court offering, the Jordan Ultra.Fly. An innovative sneaker with a sleek design, the Ultra.Fly should immediately join its close DNA relative and predecessor, the Jordan Super.Fly—the fourth incarnation of which has been the go-to sneaker for Kemba Walker, Victor Oladipo and Blake Griffin this season—as one of the most popular sneakers in the NBA.

The Ultra.Fly is versatile, built to provide responsiveness and “out-of-the-box comfort” for two-way players, according to the brand. How? Multiple mesh materials make up the shoe’s upper for increased breathability and lightweight support. And the plush ride is a product of a nine-chamber Zoom Air bag in the forefoot. Butler himself is ready for a Playoff push in the luxurious but bouncy shoe, which is hitting retail the first week of April for $125.

“These bad babies is comfortable, man. This is one of the most comfortable basketball shoes I ever put on,” an animated Butler told us after posing for our SLAM 197 cover shoot. “And they look good. They might make me look a little bit more athletic. From the angles, they make my calf muscles look bigger. Overall, it’s very comfortable. I can’t wait to get back out on the court and wear them.”

Beyond the mythical muscle-morphing powers Butler promises, the distinguishing feature of the Ultra.Fly is the brand-new webbing pattern overlaying the mesh upper. It’s what Jordan calls Zonal Kurim, a flexible, durable material placed to act as a second skin for the foot, moving naturally with each step, whether you’re a pro or a pickup regular. Beyond its functional construction, the Ultra.Fly’s kurim has an aesthetic style deliberately aimed at mimicking the spots of a black leopard—a not-so-subtle homage to MJ’s “Black Cat” nickname. Now that’s fly.

—

Photos courtesy of Jordan Brand

The post Ultralight Beam appeared first on SLAM.

Raptors center Bismack Biyombo, meanwhile, grew up in Lubumbashi, a city located at the southeastern end of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Biyombo didn’t play AAU ball, and he never got free kicks. In fact, until he left the Congo as a teenager, he’d never even owned a pair of sneakers that someone else hadn’t worn out already.

“I didn’t get to wear a brand new pair of shoes until I left my country at 16, when I went to Yemen. It was always, you go to the market and somebody had worn the shoes, you can get those shoes. And my dad had to pay for it,” Biyombo says. That first pair of sneakers was a plain jane pair of adidas, which he wore at an international youth tournament that would get him noticed and begin his journey toward the NBA. “I was joking with my dad a year ago, saying it’s funny because you used to pay money every single time I needed shoes, but now I’m actually getting paid to wear the shoes, can you believe that?”

The No. 7 overall draft pick in 2011 is sitting courtside at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, watching a battle of two high school powerhouses in the Jordan Brand Invitational on the Thursday night of All-Star Weekend. He is now a part of Jordan Brand’s growing roster of players, which means he never has to worry about having the best sneakers on the market.

Biyombo, 23, is averaging career-highs in points (5.4) and rebounds (8.0) this season, his fifth in the NBA and first in Toronto after signing a two-year, $6 million contract last summer. He says his favorite sneakers since joining Jumpman have been the Jordan XX8s and XX9s, but he’s branched out and rocked the Super.Fly 4 and Melo M12s a bunch this year, too.

“It’s been great for me,” Biyombo says of being a Jordan Brand athlete. “When I came into the League, I was with Nike. When I made the transition from Nike to Jordan, I was just amazed by how they treat us as players and people. Obviously, the cool part about it is you get all these cool Jordans before other people get them, and you get all the nice clothes. It’s pretty exciting, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it. It’s something that, as a kid you grow up dreaming about wearing a pair of Jordans. But to have Jordan Brand sponsor you is even beyond…”—he pauses and realizes—”I got my first 20 pairs of Jordans when I got with Jordan.”

As in, he’d never had a pair of J’s in his closet. Ever.

Which is funny since now, on a team that’s earned a reputation as perhaps the League’s most sneaker-savvy thanks to the likes of DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, James Johnson and on down the line, Biz is one of the most respected when it comes to kicks. Even if on occasion he doesn’t even fully grasp just how sought-after some of his Jordans really are.

“My team, we love shoes. Sometimes I’ll wear exclusive shoes that I don’t even know are exclusive,” Biyombo admits, laughing—that’s when DeRozan or JJ will bug him, he says. “I can’t remember what pair I wore a few games ago, but I was on the plane with my feet up, and DeMar goes, ‘Man when did you get those, those don’t come out for months!’ I didn’t even know. DeMar is always the one who is competitive with the shoes. Since I’m the only player with Jordan [on the Raptors], when I walk into the locker room, everybody’s like, ‘So what did you get in your boxes?’ I always joke with DeMar when he asks me to hook him up with Jordans. I go, ‘Just look in those boxes!'”

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.
Photos via Getty Images.

The post J’s On My Feet appeared first on SLAM.

Such was the setup 548 Richmond Street West, where amidst the craziness of All-Star, Chang and other Nike designers were kicking it at the exclusive NIKEiD space, where customers were invited to customize signature kicks like the KD8, LeBron 13, Kobe XI, Air Force One and more. Not only that, but Nike unlocked new iconic graphics, All-Star color schemes, color-shift material options and more for the occasion.

Most notably, the “Best of” Collection on display at the loft was a creation inspired by legendary colorways of the past—a KD8 with a paint job inspired by 2012’s KD 4 “Galaxy,” a LeBron 13 reminiscent of the “Area 72” version of the LeBron X, and so on. So while you may have clicked on NIKEiD.com before and messed around, you’ve probably never experienced anything like this. It was all a celebration of what NIKEiD has meant to basketball sneakers since its inception, and a peek at where it’s headed now.

“This iD space helps to tell the story of where we’ve been and some of the celebrations that we’ve done in the past, and also it’s a nod to the future, bringing as much innovation to the consumer as possible,” Devon McKinney, color designer for Nike Basketball, told us at the loft, minutes before we were lucky enough to design our own pair of NIKEiDs.

“It’s one thing to pop it up on your phone or your laptop, but once you can get in to this environment, and have a 1-on-1, and really engage, that’s what this really represents. You, too can be a creator. You , too can be a designer,” added Charles Williams, the Nike OG who is now a senior product director for NSW Basketball. “This is something that we’re going to have to take to a lot of different locations.”

As in, future All-Star Weekends and probably more? We can only hope. Check out more from our conversation with Williams and McKinney below.

SLAM: In today’s world of basketball sneakers, what’s the importance of NIKEiD?

Charles Williams: For us overall, it’s really about putting it back into the hands of the consumer. I think we spend so much time trying to gather information and make sure we’re doing things that are of the consumer. Things that we feel they’ll be inspired by and appreciate. I think also, just the fact that they have the opportunity to become a signature athlete in their own right, to take it and flip it in a way that’s specific to them and their likings, things that they’re inspired by. This is a very DIY society, and we want to make sure that we’re offering that opportunity so they can feel as connected as we get to feel when we get to work on some of these sneakers.

Devon McKinney: Nike’s not just about making a product, it’s about making a meaningful product, and telling stories. We’re a storytelling company. I think what iD does is it bridges the gap between what performance is telling on the court, stories that NSW’s telling off the court surrounding the game and I think it gives the consumer an opportunity to bring those together.

SLAM: What makes one colorway more memorable than another, from a brand perspective?

CW: It’s the culture. It’s the consumer and the culture. Because we don’t own it, besides providing the opportunity. The consumers own it. They tell us what’s right and what’s not. And they do it in a lot of different ways. Take a story like Galaxy during the All-Star Game in Orlando. We felt very, very good going into that, but did we know that malls would be shut down and helicopters would be flying over and there would be a mad scramble outside of Orlando to get that product? So it’s really about the consumer and how they feel, and they let us know when we’re at our best. They also let us know when we’re not.

SLAM: More and more sneakers seem to be available on NIKEiD. How do you balance the demand for more versus keeping it limited to key products?

DM: We go back to the storytelling aspect—our job is to curate a story, and then the consumer can make their own. I think at times if you put too much out there, it’s going to become overwhelming, for anybody. Our job is to put together at toolbox that can help a consumer tell the most effective story.

CW: And in terms of actual models, we’re talking about the stars. I think the vetting process is pretty simple: it has to be something the consumer has said, and voted in many regards, that this is something that we truly respect and appreciate, and that we would like to see. That’s how it makes the cut and gets into NIKEiD.

SLAM: It seems like more and more NBA players are using NIKEiD to design their own kicks now.

CW: It happens a heck of a lot more now, only because when you understand that you can take control of this thing and have it become representative of the things that are important to you and the things that you truly like, more and more athletes are really starting to look at the signature athletes and see how they’re able to bring something to fruition that’s specific to them, that’s of them, and they become known for those things—they want a piece of that as well. You look at a guy like DeMar DeRozan who has been at the forefront of doing it, take people like Jarrett Jack, there’s a whole host of guys who have created their own NIKEiD signature identity just by going and doing such. I think there are a lot of consumers out there that are starting to do the same thing.

DM: I think a big misconception of our top-tier athletes is that they’re different than every day people. They like to stand out just like your average kid in Toronto or LA or wherever they may be. iD allows everybody to be an individual.

The post Doin’ It Well appeared first on SLAM.

The man he defeated in the Finals of that dunk contest, though, is predicting a different winner tonight. Magic guard Victor Oladipo told SLAM this weekend that he likes his teammate, 20-year-old Aaron Gordon, to win it.

“I think he’s going to do really well. He’s going to give Zach a run for his money,” Oladipo told us from courtside at the Jordan Brand Invitational inside the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. “I’m going with my man to win.”

After putting on a show opposite LaVine at last year’s Slam Dunk Contest but ultimately finishing in second place, Oladipo says he never really gave much thought to returning to the Dunk Contest this year.

“I’mma let my young boy go, I’m passing the torch,” Oladipo said. “I told him to have fun, man, and enjoy the moment. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to be in the Dunk Contest.”

Of fellow Jordan Brand athlete Andre Drummond—also participating in tonight’s Dunk Contest—Oladipo guaranteed that Dre would “do something that’s going to make the crowd go ooh and ahh.”

Who do you think will win the Dunk Contest tonight: LaVine, Gordon, Drummond or Will Barton?

The post Victor Oladipo Thinks Aaron Gordon Will Win Tonight’s Slam Dunk Contest appeared first on SLAM.

A friend tells Kam he’s just received a text message.

“Tell ‘em I’m waxing Melo in 2K real quick,” he replies, flashing a smile in the direction of his opponent.

He’s right. Sitting next to him is Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony, wearing a black, blue and orange “Stay Melo” shirt and one of his now-familiar high fashion hats. Kam’s Pacers are leading Anthony’s Knicks by 15 in the fourth quarter of the virtual matchup.

“Chef, you call me?” Melo shouts toward the kitchen, looking for an out. “I’m coming right now!”

Here, in a cozy apartment borrowed for the day that was once zoned in Red Hook, the neighborhood where Melo was born and lived until he was 8 years old, Melo’s chef, Courtney Harris, has been tasked with feeding 12 handpicked young people from the worlds of sport, music, art and beyond. They are rappers, photographers, journalists, athletes (David, for example, played high school ball with current Kentucky PG Isaiah Briscoe at Roselle Catholic in New Jersey, and is now an aspiring hip-hop producer) with social media handles you might recognize, like @TheRealTBlake, @8eyemedia and @IAMDJJUS. They’ve gathered here for some exclusive time with Anthony and his brand new sneaker, the Jordan Melo M12, on the day of its nationwide launch (January 2).

A few hours later, Anthony shuttles over to surprise a group of high schoolers from around the Tri-State Area at Jordan’s Terminal 23 space in Manhattan for a Q+A session and some on-court drills. As Melo walks out to raucous applause, one brash kid yells out above the others, “What took you so long?!”

Having called New York his professional home since 2011, Anthony is no stranger to the city’s unique brand of trash talk. (In fact he told VICE earlier this season, “You’re not a New Yorker if you don’t wake up some days and be like ‘Man, fuck this place.’”) In between appearances—and finally properly caffeinated with sufficient Starbucks on a day between a loss in Chicago and a home win over Atlanta—Melo takes a few minutes to chop it up about that NY state of mind and more during a sitdown with SLAM. Our apologies to his impatient young fan.

“I love that vibe,” he says of the fearless youngsters giving him a hard time today. “That vibe, that’s what New York is about.”

While it may come with added pressure, for obvious reasons New York has also afforded Melo a better fulcrum to leverage the growth of his sneaker line with Jordan Brand. And, equipped with a new mesh upper, FlightSpeed technology and a slimmer heel and ankle design, the M12 is the most playable Melo to date. The biggest (or at least, most noticeable) tech upgrade in the M12 is the introduction of four foam pads in the interior, which combined with two Zoom Air units provide a smooth, comfortable ride for the foot and a 1:1 internal fit system, even for an athlete as physically devastating as Melo himself. As the campaign’s official hashtag suggests, the M12 is #BuiltForMore.

“I wanted to try to play with the air pods on the inside. When your foot goes in, I wanted it to feel sort of pillowy. The upper is a little bit thinner than a lot of my other shoes, so I wanted something extra on the inside,” says Anthony. “You never know how it’s going to play out, but once I switched over from the 11 to the 12, I could just feel the difference.”

Went back to Brooklyn today to celebrate the #M12 with some of today's most influential young people. #StayMe7o pic.twitter.com/4UdcCQ3zNv

— Carmelo Anthony (@carmeloanthony) January 2, 2016

Kicking it with the kids who save up to cop his sneakers on the day of their release is Melo’s way of staying humble—while also keeping his ear to the streets.

“A day like today will always bring back memories of that feeling of being in the house, talking trash and playing video games with your friends, just chillin’ and hanging out and kind of just separating your mind from the things that’s going on in your life,” he says. “That’s who I am. That’s authentic to who I am as a person.”

If it feels like Carmelo has been more actively seeking out opportunities to impact youth lately, that’s because, well, he has. At 31 years old, he says he’s acutely aware of the potential disconnect between his generation and the next, and that sitting down with the kids that look up to him is the only way to bridge the gap.

“It comes a point and time when you gotta sit back and be like, Alright, cool, let me figure this out,” he says of his own maturation process. “That’s the connection that I’m trying to make, between the 17- or 18-year-old and a person like myself, who was once one of those kids. I always try to put myself in their shoes, and try to dig in and tap into their mindset and what they think.”

It’s why, for example, he made it a point to visit incarcerated youth at Rikers Island last year. And why he’s recently taken a strong public stance in regards to guns, first as part of an NBA-backed PSA speaking out against gun violence, and again in light of what happened to Knicks teammate Cleanthony Early last week.

“You have a voice now,” Melo explains. “I realize I have a voice, I want to be heard for certain things. I don’t want to just be heard when it comes to basketball. Like, real-life situations. There’s more to sports than just shooting the ball or throwing a football or hitting a baseball. It’s more to life than that. There’s real life things that’s going on out there that people like myself can use their voice.”

Back in Brooklyn, the Knicks’ star forward careens up a narrow staircase, surrounded by photos and memorabilia that represent his journey, from Red Hook to Syracuse to the League. A hardcover copy of Larry King’s When You’re from Brooklyn, Everything Else is Tokyo lays flat on a table between the kitchen and living room, a few inches from a Jackie Robinson figurine and one of Melo’s sneakers on display. He poses for a photo with the 12 invited guests, all selected for their up-and-coming status as tastemakers in the city’s culture.

“Being in New York, it’s so much going on from a creative standpoint that you almost have to be influenced or motivated to be greater,” Melo remarks, surrounded by just that, in the flesh. “Your creative mind gotta always be on.”

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post Coolin’ With Carmelo appeared first on SLAM.

“The NBA athletes are bigger, they’re stronger, they’re faster than they’ve ever been, and the game is more physical. If you look at apparel, a lot of these guys are wearing almost body armor, product with built-in padding for impact. So we’re recognizing that and using that same mentality as we approach the sock,” says Todd Craig, Senior Director of Innovation at Stance. “We’ve got to create a product that fits right, that feels good, it wicks moisture and it protects the players. That’s the driving force behind the product. We look at it not as a sock, but a piece of equipment. And I think that’s different from the NBA’s prior sock supplier.”

In fact, Stance looked at the existing sock market and found that the best performance socks were actually being made at the collegiate level, where sneaker brands outfit their schools with their premium products. NBA players, on the other hand, were playing in what Craig describes as a “basic” or “core-level” sock. And while they weren’t technologically advanced, they were liked by the players, simply for the fact that they were NBA socks.

Craig, who also helped create the brand’s new running sock and whose résumé includes a role at Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, says the brand’s design team knew right away what to focus on when word came down that they’d be making the official NBA sock from scratch. “For us, it’s about fit, it’s about comfort—that’s No. 1. We want these guys to put this sock on and forget about it. That’s the true mark of a great product, if when I put it on, I’m not thinking about it. Because if these guys are thinking about their socks, they get distracted, they’re not performing at top level,” he says. “The last thing you want is a guy jacking his sock up where the heel is coming out the top of the shoe or something. If these guys are wearing premium performance product but it doesn’t fit, they’ll notice.”

With that in mind, Stance used everything in its power to build the best basketball sock ever. You’ve got the saw tooth anatomical lateral compression—cushioning placed to match the anatomy of the foot and impact points. There is the Y-shaped seam knitted into the heel for superior fit and the seamless toe closure to prevent abrasions. There is the mesh on top of the foot for thermo-regulation and ventilation. There are the fusion fibers that fight blisters and bacterial growth. After a few in-house wear-tests with the Stance fam, their signed athletes and other pros (“We don’t want to see anything with our logo on it that we don’t feel good about,” Craig insists) the prototype was ready for the NBA hardwood.

Of course, there was room for one more critical detail: the instantly recognizable high ankle padding, designed to keep players’ feet from pains caused by other players (think getting kicked en route to the hoop or diving for a loose ball), the floor or even their own footwear. Unlike its predecessor, the ultra-high loft cushioning in the ankle padding of the official Stance NBA sock stands up to wear and tear. Plus, it stands out.

“The ankle is pretty iconic to us,” says Craig. “It was intentional. There’s a functional element there, but we did want to make something that was iconic. We wanted to link our brand identity to a functional element, not just an aesthetic.

“Stance, as a brand, we’re known for our designs and our style, but as we go into the performance category, the product really has to perform. That’s the driving force. It can’t just be the form, it’s got to be the function first,” he continues. “For us as a brand, when function and form collide—that fusion—that’s what our brand is about. So really it’s creating the functional element to be the best basketball sock in the world.”

One aesthetic that will remain forever is the legendary Jerry West NBA logo, now prominently flanked by Stance’s logo and in many cases, the individual NBA team logo, too. But while the socks have a distinctive look that’s already resonating with players and consumers alike, Craig maintains that for the pros, the goal is simple: “If these guys put this sock on and forget they’re wearing it, that’s utopia for us. That means we did our job right.”

—

RELATED: Here’s how the NBA x Stance deal came together.

The post Ayo, Technology appeared first on SLAM.

“He’s like, ‘Yup, men’s hosiery,’” Miyasaki remembers. “I just start laughing at him. I’m like, ‘Socks? Wow.’”

Eventually, Kearl convinced him to come aboard, not knowing that Miyasaki all along had his eyes set on getting Stance—at its outset an action sports brand with wavy designs that matched better with Vans than basketball shoes—onto the NBA hardwood.

There was only one problem for Miyasaki’s pipe dream: a company called FBF was already producing the NBA’s official socks. You know the ones—plain white and plain black, with the NBA logo on either side. For the better part of two decades, those were the joints, no questions asked. “We’ve had the same sock partner for a long time,” the NBA told Stance, in essence. “They’re great, we’re good.”

Undeterred, Miyasaki and Stance focused first instead on securing the license to produce Hardwood Classics products, which led to the wildly successful “NBA Legends” collection. With retail sales of the Legends socks popping off and the brand’s performance products getting better behind the scenes, Miyasaki decided it was enough of a foot in the door to revisit the on-court discussion with his connects at the NBA.

“We had this idea to do the Hardwood Classics and Legends, which went so well that I think we gave ourselves a license to ask for the on-court sock. I was doing a normal NBA meeting and I said, ‘Hey, I got one more thing for you guys. I wanna take over the on-court sock’,” Miyasaki remembers. “Laughed out of the room is a little strong, but…I was kinda laughed out of the room.

“They were like, ‘Oh, your little sock company in San Clemente that’s been around for 18-24 months? Riiiiight.’”

What happened at the next meeting is now a well-known piece of the brand’s folklore. At All-Star Weekend 2014 in New Orleans, Miyasaki handed Lisa Piken Koper, NBA Vice President of Licensing, a million-dollar check, hoping it would prove to the powers that be that Stance was ready to get down, whatever it took. Lo and behold, it worked. In April 2015, Stance and the NBA announced a multiyear partnership, installing the brand as the League’s official on-court sock provider.

“I for sure laugh at it,” Miyasaki says of the infamous million-dollar check story, with Stance now a few months into its first season outfitting the L. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, what a gimmick.’ It kind of was a gimmick, but at the same time, they had told me no at least three times, maybe more. So I needed something to say we’re serious. And looking back, it really did get the NBA to say, ‘Damn. These guys are serious—OK.’ It put us more on the map of, ‘Maybe they could pull this off.’ I really believed that we could do it, but it took about, at least a year, year-and-a-half of convincing for them to give us a shot.”

Opening night 2015, Stance socks were on players’ feet. “We wanted to innovate on-court and knew that Stance would bring a fresh perspective and create top-class, superior products for the NBA and our athletes,” says Piken Koper. Oh, and the NBA never cashed that check. Instead, they’re framing it.

During All-Star Weekend 2015, Stance gave the players a chance to test out their performance socks for the first time in a competitive NBA environment. Miyasaki and Co. were nervous—not because they doubted their product, but because elite athletes can sometimes be resistant to change. “These guys have been wearing the same socks for a decade or several years and it’s hard to switch, right? Whether it’s creatures of habit or they like the feel or they’re superstitious, or whatever it might be. No matter how much better we think our sock is, or a laboratory says our sock is, or we can say, ‘It wicks this percentage better than any other one,’ it’s different,” Miyasaki acknowledges. “A lot of credit to the players for being open-minded and giving it a shot.”

Now that Stance has been installed for real, the reaction to the brand-new partnership this season has been prodigiously positive. Jay Gaspar, longtime Head Equipment Manager with the Phoenix Suns, says he was “pleasantly surprised” when he learned Stance had inked a deal to become the League’s official on-court sock provider, and that just about every player he’s talked to has given the socks two thumbs up.

“It is quite a change,” Gaspar admits. “Usually, dealing with the socks in the past, we’d wear a home white and then black on the road, and then you’d plan accordingly. But with Stance, they changed the game. We go with four different socks this year, and we have six different uniforms, so we match up the socks with those uniforms.” Not to mention the special socks Stance already had planned for Hoops for Troops, Christmas and other special occasions throughout the year.

Stance’s out-of-the-box personality in turn inspired Gaspar to bring an idea to the League and the brand. With Suns legendary PG Steve Nash being inducted to the team’s Ring of Honor early in the season, Gaspar dreamt of outfitting the PHX players in a sock adorned with his image—much like the Legends socks Stance had seen success with at retail. With the League’s approval, Stance made it happen. Phoenix beat the visiting Blazers, all the while wearing the limited edition Nash socks with pride.

The reaction, from both fans and players, was overwhelming. Miyasaki says he couldn’t get away from the tweets, texts and pats on the back that night. “I saw Dirk Nowitzki posted a photo of the sock, congratulating Steve, and I was like, ‘Man, all this hype around a sock.’ It’s just so crazy to me,” he says. “I think what it’s done is just show me that it’s the tip of the iceberg on what we can do at the NBA.”

Not even a month into the brand’s first season in charge of the League’s socks, Stance is making waves at retail and in locker rooms. Perhaps it’s because of the company’s undying commitment to the game. “With that Nash sock, it just really showed that they’re second to none,” Gaspar says of working with Stance. “If you have an issue with any of the socks, they’ll come out and see you. They want our constant feedback, and we really didn’t have that in the past. I really think they’re going the extra mile to make sure it’s the perfect sock for on and off the court.”

For Miyasaki, the feeling is mutual. “It’s just cool that the NBA could share the vision with us,” he says. “If the first couple of weeks have taught me anything, it’s that the sock game might be even cooler than I thought.”

—

Images via Getty

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https://twitter.com/SLAMonline/status/678347945003999232/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

For the first time in the Chinese sneaker giant’s history, a handful of US retailers will have it in stock (specifically, six Champs Sports locations in the Bay Area). With a herringbone pattern traction, fuse upper, true sizing and a reasonable $100 price tag, the KT1 is going to be a hit with fans of the Splash Bros.

Big thanks to our friends at ANTA for inviting us out to the Bay to learn more about the sneaker. Scroll through the photos above to see more from the KT1 launch event, and read our brief 1-on-1 Q+A with Klay below:

SLAM: What’s one thing we need to know about the KT1?

Klay Thompson: One thing you want to know? Put it on, and you’re going to shoot the ball well. (Laughs) Nah, not really. But one thing I love is the logo. It’s got my number, my initials, and it’s very subtle. A lot of people look at the logo and just think it’s a K, but no, there’s a T and my number. I thought they did a great job with the logo.

SLAM: Do you feel like you have more international marketing opportunities being with a Chinese brand?

KT: A lot of brands are going global, they know how big the market is in China, so everyone’s trying to get in there, because there are so many great basketball fans over there. There are a lot of guys with ANTA and Peak and Li-Ning, so Chinese footwear is definitely getting big in the NBA. There’s just so much opportunity. My team has responded well, they think it looks good and they’re proud of me for getting a signature shoe. Not a lot of guys get to have that in their career.

SLAM: Any teammates giving you a bad time about your logo or anything?

KT: Oh yeah, of course. That’s what teammates do. They all poke fun and stuff. That’s just being around the guys.

SLAM: But that’s their way of saying congrats, right?

KT: Yeah, exactly. There’s a reason you get a signature shoe, you’re doing something right. So I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing, and it’s going to be a great partnership for years to come.

SLAM: What are you most excited about next with ANTA?

KT: New colorways, we’ve only got three right now but there are more great ones coming. And then, what’s the KT2 going to look like? We’ve already started working on it now, which is crazy. A lot of thought and creativity goes into this, so just to see how hard they work motivates me to make them proud and play well.

Photos via ANTA

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Los Angeles Clippers forward Josh Smith, better known to his fans as J-Smoove, officially signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Brandblack starting this season, the brand announced today.

Smith first got wind of Brandblack from former Hawks teammate and current Lob City super-sub Jamal Crawford. Intrigued by J-Crossover’s kicks, he inquired within. Soon thereafter, Smoove put ink to paper. Now, he’s bringing his on-court charisma and off- court fashion sense to Brandblack’s growing vision.

“When we spoke to Josh it was apparent that he has the same mantra of “look good winning,’” says David Raysse, Brandblack’s Founder and Lead Footwear Designer. “He said he always wanted to be different from the crowd, try new things or wear something different, so it only made sense to sign with the new guys in basketball doing things our own way.”

A longtime adidas endorser, Smith admits it took some convincing to leave the three stripes for a startup sneaker outfit. “I was so comfortable with wearing adidas, I’ve worn them for so long, I’ve worn them since high school, so you’re always kind of skeptical when trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone with any kind of shoe company,” J-Smoove says, which meant that whatever brand he signed with next “had to be a fit with my comfort, and how it would feel on your foot, and how it would look.”

Right away, he says Brandblack passed the test in every category. Smoove’s sneaker of choice so far this season is the Force Vector, both in mesh and an all-premium Nappa Leather—it’s a performance sneaker that features high-end materials unlike any other on the NBA hardwood right now.

Along with Smith, Brandblack also recently announced the signing of enigmatic NFL superstar wide receiver DeSean Jackson, expanding its budding roster even further. To learn more about how the deal came about and what it means, we caught up with Smith—read the rest of our conversation with him below.

SLAM: How did the Brandblack deal come about?

Josh Smith: I noticed Jamal was wearing a new shoe. I asked him who was he sponsored by and he told me. Then, when I signed to the Clippers, they showed interest, and they found my agent. That’s how things really got started. I recently had gotten out of my contract with adidas, it ran out. I was just weighing my options, and Brandblack came up. That’s how it started, at least.

SLAM: Brandblack is still pretty new in the performance basketball world. And you wore adidas for so long—did Brandblack pass the test performance-wise right away?

JS: Oh, for sure. They’re light enough. They have a style that I think can attract the young crowd. And there’s definitely a great comfort level to the shoes.

SLAM: After being with a huge brand like adidas for so long, what’s it been like so far as part of a smaller, underdog brand?

JS: It’s good, because it’s like they’re laying down the blueprint right now and it’s good to be able to be one of the first athletes that are joining this brand. Hopefully—and I think it will be—a brand that gets up there into competition with Under Armour, Nike or adidas.

SLAM: Have other guys on the court noticed your sneakers or made any comments?

JS: A couple of my friends, yeah. I told them, and they were like, Man, those are pretty nice shoes.

SLAM: Have you had any discussions with the brand about possibly getting a signature shoe down the road?

JS: Right now, we’re just conversating about the shoe that I’ve been wearing, about the different colorways I’m interested in that can go with our jersey colors.

SLAM: How cool is it to be able to share Brandblack with Jamal Crawford on the same team?

JS: I think it’s awesome. I think it’s even more awesome that Jamal has his own shoe, with another J. Crossover shoe coming out this year. Being able to meet him in Atlanta, having that friendship starting there and being able to reunite out here and be able to be two of the forefront basketball players that represent this brand. I think it’s historic. And DeSean Jackson is another guy I know, he’s a friend of mine.

Images via Brandblack, Getty Images

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“James was never like, the handsome guy. He was always like the Black Swan of the bunch. Definitely not the best-dressed,” Valencia says. “All the kids used to make fun of him. He wasn’t fat, but he was a bit on the chubby side. Not athletic at all. But everyone knew him. He wasn’t the most popular, but everyone knew who he was.”

“Sometimes his braids would be half-done, and the other half not, with the ’fro. We were in L.A., so that’s how it was,” remembers Lorenzo “Zo” McCloud, another childhood friend. Zo, a year younger than the other two, eventually followed Harden and Valencia to a small local travel team, the L.A. City Wildcats, and then to Artesia High School. Bonded by the game of basketball, the three became inseparable. They’d spend the night at each other’s houses and talk about making it to the NBA. They shared long car rides listening to Jadakiss. James’ mother, Monja Willis, would cook for them after school, or Zo’s mom would buy them McDonald’s between practices.

“Everywhere we’d go,” Harden says, “we’d just want to hoop.”

In junior high, Harden camped out in the corner and shot three-pointers, almost exclusively. But to the surprise of his boys, he made Artesia’s varsity team as a 6-foot, 150-pound freshman. “Me and a couple other guys were the nice-looking kids. We’d play games with a headband on—we were the flashier players,” says Valencia, who eventually joined his best friend on varsity as a junior. “But James had a more poised game. He never got sped up, he always stayed at his pace.”

Harden seasoned his game on the summer circuit. After showing up at ABCD Camp before his junior year in 2005 a fish out of water, uncomfortable at first with the me-first style of play that often clogs things up at such HS All-Star summer camps, he got acclimated and he got busy. “The year he came back from ABCD Camp, he came back a whole ’nother player in the summer,” says McCloud. “He came back like a whole ’nother dude. That’s when I noticed like, Damn, he’s on another level.”

His averages hovering around 19 points, 8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, Harden led Artesia to back-to-back California state titles in his junior and senior years. In between, he earned a rep on the summer circuit. An ABCD All-Star, Harden also piloted his Pump-N-Run Elite AAU team to the 2006 Las Vegas adidas Super 64 championship, leveling competition like Michael Beasley’s DC Assault and Kevin Love’s Southern California All-Stars along the way.

A two-year stop at Arizona State, a trip to the Finals with OKC and one blockbuster trade later, Harden is the leading man on a team that finished second in the vaunted Western Conference last season. His beard has its own Twitter account. And he can scream “Swag!” at 3 a.m. out the passenger side of an SUV with tinted windows in Hollywood because fuck it, life is good.

About an hour before a mostly meaningless mid-October home pre-season game against the Pelicans, some 30 rabid Rockets fans have assembled near where the home team’s locker room lets out to the court, hoping to get some attention from their favorite superstar. When he appears, Harden signs autographs for as many of them as he can reach. One kid wearing his No. 13 jersey even takes a shoe off his foot and hangs it over the railing—without hesitation, Harden scribbles his insignia and tosses it back.

When Harden’s fans are satisfied, he begins his pre-game shooting routine. Right away, he seems a little upset. Upset, as in, he’s shooting about 75 percent instead of 100. Even so, it’s a dazzling display—a kind of “Around the World” utopia. He floats from one side of the court to the other, stopping to hoist five or six shots from each of a half-dozen spots. When he gets to the left side of the floor, Harden breaks the monotony with some creativity, planting off his right foot, jumping back, dropping the ball between his legs and flicking a floater up from the baseline off one foot. Swish. His incredibly acute dexterity even when it looks so damn awkward conjures thoughts of Dirk Nowitzki. But the way he rocks the ball back and forth, toying with defenders, it almost makes you want to utter Rafer Alston’s name, too. All that, plus he’s left-handed with prototypical shooting guard size (6-5, 220) and he’s averaged 10 free throws (aka 10 free points) per game over the last three seasons, too.

On this night, about a week before the real games begin, Harden coasts to 20 points against NOLA, watching much of the fourth quarter of Houston’s blowout win from the bench. During one timeout, he tosses t-shirts into the crowd. Later, he jumps out of his seat to break out his signature cooking dance after Jason Terry drains a three.

The next day, Harden is on the set of an adidas TV commercial shoot at the Jerabeck Activity and Athletic Center at nearby University of St. Thomas, a Catholic school in the NAIA. The tiny campus is sleepy, save for the flurry of commotion in the gym, where bits of Drake and Future’s “Jumpman” boom out loudly each time a production assistant hurls open the metal doors. Harden didn’t make today’s playlist, but he may as well have. He mentions the #WATTBA collaborators along with Meek Mill, J. Cole and Nipsey Hussle as the most-played music in his iTunes.

As more than a dozen extras bomb threes and crack jokes during a break from filming, Harden walks from the basketball court through a narrow hallway at the south end of the gym and into a racquetball court that’s being used as a makeshift green room. Valencia gives a nod from his seat in a barber’s chair, where he’s getting a quick shape-up. Troy Payne, another longtime friend, leans against the wall next to Rob Pelinka, Harden’s agent (who also reps Kobe Bryant, among others). Aside from a small woven basket with a few snacks, two folding chairs and a clothes rack draped in more adidas gear, it’s empty. So when Harden speaks, his voice echoes through the room. He’s wearing an all-white pair of adidas Crazylight Boost 2015s, white compression tights down to his calves and a white and silver hoodie with t-shirt length cutoff sleeves. He slides his chair back a few feet, sits down and leans forward. He’s shuffling three different iPhones in his hands. If he’s overly fidgety, there’s good reason. Harden is eager, in his own words, to “get that bad taste out of my mouth from last year.”

“I feel like this year we can really win a Championship, and I’m not just talkin’,” he says of this year’s Rockets squad. “Last year, we had some really good pieces, we had a couple injuries that slowed us down. But we basically brought the same team back and added Ty Lawson, who’s another playmaker, which we struggled with in the postseason. That right there gives us more versatility, gives us better opportunities, better efficiency on offense, which is gonna help our defense out. We’ve got more depth off the bench. So we’re fully loaded. We just gotta stay healthy—that’s the main key.”

Multiple times per game during Houston home games, Dwight Howard’s voice bellows throughout the arena in a team video on the Jumbotron: “I don’t think we all came together just to make the Western Conference finals.” At every turn, it’s clear that Harden and the Rockets aren’t satisfied with the way last season ended—with their superstar guard dribbling the ball off his foot and out of bounds in a fatal Game 5 loss of the Western finals against the Warriors. After carrying the Howard-less Rockets deeper than anyone expected them to go, Harden had a total of 12 turnovers that night, and Houston was eliminated.

Looking back, Harden shrugs it off. “It’s over. We lost in the Finals and I didn’t dwell on that,” Harden says, referencing his 2012 Finals appearance with the Oklahoma City Thunder. “Then the next year I’m here in Houston. So I can’t worry about that. I had to worry about my new role and things that I had to. The summer right after you lose, it hurts. But then it’s time for you to get better and get ready for next year.

“A lot of people didn’t think we’d make it to the Western Conference finals, right? We’re not worried about what other people say or where we’re projected,” Harden continues, as he kicks off his shoes and begins unfurling his socks. “We’re not worried about that. That’s just people talking on what they think that’s gonna happen. But for us, we’re worried how can we get better and reach our potential.”

Last season, Harden posted 27.4 points, 7 assists and 5.7 rebounds a night, and he managed to maintain his efficiency despite being one of the highest usage players in the League. In 2014-15, he was the only player in the NBA to post an offensive rating over 115 and use at least 30 percent of his team’s possessions. In the last decade, LeBron and KD are the only other players to have accomplished that feat. And through the first two weeks of the 2015-16 season, Harden was already averaging career-highs in points (29.7), rebounds (5.9) and unsurprisingly, minutes (39.4, tops in the entire League). He hung 43 and 46 on the Kings and Clippers in back-to-back Rockets wins in November. Of course, for a team that won 56 games last year, no one’s getting excited until June. All offseason long, Harden asked for one thing from his teammates.

“Toughness,” says Lawson, the speedy PG whom Houston brought in to help Harden see more time off the ball in 2015-16. “We don’t want to get punked. On the offensive end or the defensive end. Just on the basketball court, period. You’ve got to be tough when you’re playing this game, when you’re down in the Finals or the Playoffs. You’ve got to be mentally tough to get through it, that’s what he’s tried to instill in everybody.”

It’s not difficult to trace the genesis of Harden’s mental toughness. When you grow up in Compton, CA, there’s only one place to really earn your stripes on the basketball court—the famed Drew League. Founded in 1973, the South Central L.A. league is the West Coast’s answer to Rucker Park (though at present, it almost inarguably has surpassed the Harlem park in cache). The first time Harden played there, he was, in Drew League terms, just a kid. To veterans of L.A.’s best summer league, he was nothing more than an anonymous high schooler.

“I was impressed with him, but to be honest with you, I wasn’t like, Wow, this is a can’t-miss guy!” says Dino Smiley, Director and Commissioner of the Drew League for 30 years. “I’ve seen them all come through the L.A. area, from Baron Davis to Paul Pierce. He didn’t have that ‘it’ factor then.”

Even after he starred at ASU and went No. 3 overall in the 2009 NBA Draft to Oklahoma City, Harden was afforded no special treatment at the Drew. That all changed during the 2011 lockout, when the NBA’s absence led to legendary exhibition showdowns across the country. The best was a surprise matchup between Harden and Bryant, the player he idolized growing up, at a packed-out Colonel Leon H. Washington Park. The crowd was so out of control, police helicopters began to hover above the gym. Here was Kobe in his prime, in East L.A., looking for a game. Harden stepped up and gave him 47 (or 44, depending on who you ask). Kobe went for 45 and the game-winner, but suddenly Harden had solidified his star status. A few months later, the lockout settled, he helped OKC beat the Lakers in a second-round Playoff series en route to the NBA Finals.

“I honestly feel that the Drew League has played a part of his style of play,” says Smiley. “Because the Drew League is a very physical league. It’s not dirty, but it’s just—you have to earn it. When guys step on the floor, they’re not in awe of James, or anything. They wanna go at him. And I think he takes that same attitude on the floor. His eyes didn’t get big when he first ran into LeBron and all these guys. He just wanted to go at them.”

More than anywhere else, basketball-wise, Harden is at home in the Drew League. There are no analytics, no trolls complaining about his penchant for drawing fouls. It’s put up or shut up. Get buckets or get booed. Just the way he likes it.

“That’s how I grew up. We’re basically in the hood. You have to prove yourself then,” says Harden, who won his first Drew League title this summer, outdueling Klay Thompson’s team in the first round of the playoffs, then leading LAUNFD past Nick Young and DeMar DeRozan in the finals on a game-winning three as Kevin Durant, Paul Pierce and Iggy Azalea sat courtside. “I’m not worried about having to prove myself because that’s how I grew up. For me, it’s just going out there and doing what I do. That’s how I was raised. That’s one of the reasons I still play in the Drew League, even though it’s my seventh year in the NBA. Because I will never forget where I came from and how I was raised to play the game. I always had to fight for what I got, I’ve always had to go get what I wanted. That’s gonna stay with me ’til I’m done with the game.

“It’s like the same mentality we have, though,” says McCloud. “When we didn’t have nothing to now. I think that’s why he’s still prospering. He didn’t change. He don’t change. His mentality is a hard worker, and it’s still there. Nothing’s changed with that.”

Beyond the fact that Harden is a cold killer between the lines, he’s also became a part of the League’s culture itself. It was Harden who convinced KD to play at the Drew in 2013. And these days, of the Drew League’s NBA regulars, Harden is by far the most celebrated. Smiley says even as a pro, before 2011 he would get recognized by the local cats, but generally James could “walk in the door by himself.”

That summer, Harden was still able to hit up his normal neighborhood spots, like Roscoe’s, and not get mobbed. This summer? It was bedlam every time he was in the zip code. “It was like a show in Vegas, man,” he says.

Harden has taken to his new stratosphere of celebrity with zest in spite of the burden it brings with it. “At first, he didn’t have paparazzi, it was just people coming up for pictures and things, but now he’s got paparazzi,” says Valencia with a laugh. “You know you made it, you doing something big, if the paparazzi is following you.”

When Harden travels internationally, hundreds of fans wait at his arrival gate. While on vacation in Australia this summer, one dude wound up stalking him for an entire afternoon, tailing Harden in a taxi everywhere he went. Then again, as Zo points out, “You can’t hide the beard.”

Perhaps the only thing harder to hide than Harden’s facial hair is his confidence. Does he think he should have won MVP last year over Stephen Curry? Yes. Does he think he’s the best player in the NBA? Yes. He’s repeated these things over and over. Like Kanye, or Donald Trump—whose private plane Harden once insisted on taking a selfie in front of for motivation—Harden refuses to bite his tongue, even if he knows the media is fishing for juicy headlines.

“It’s always been who I am. I’m not shy at all. Speaking my mind, being who I am, wearing what I want to wear, just being very confident in myself,” Harden maintains. “If you’re not confident in yourself, you’re not going to get anywhere in life.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post James Harden: Catch the Wave appeared first on SLAM.

But there is one thing that’s different. See, Greivis is on a diet.

“Sweets, I had to stop eating sweets. That sugar is not good for your body. I was eating a lot of sugar, now I’m done with that,” he says, nodding at a large plate of catered pastries set up around the corner from UA’s photo set on a September afternoon. “I feel the last two years, I’ve been doing the little things that are going to keep me in this League for a little bit longer,” adds the 28-year-old. “I want to play at least six more years.”

So instead, Vasquez is eating more organic, paying strict attention to nutrition and scheduling his meals with discipline—usually eating right after workouts, which have lately become a 3x per day occurrence. He has a personal trainer who’s with him 24/7, typically working on a dynamic workout to improve his conditioning, explosion and quickness in the morning, followed by a noonish core workout and a nighttime weightlifting session. Sticking to that regimen for the summer months, he says, has him in the best shape of his life.

“This year is so important for me. My goal is to establish myself on one team that can really give me an opportunity to display my game,” Vasquez says. “The good thing about it is, I’ve been traded [four times], but I’ve still played heavy minutes—everywhere I go, I have an impact, I have an important role. I know my role, and I’m realistic with what I can do.”

Drafted by the Grizzlies in 2010, Vasquez was traded to New Orleans after his rookie season, then to Sacramento two years later and soon thereafter to Toronto, where he spent the better part of the last two seasons. Now Vasquez, who will be a free agent next summer, is set to begin his sixth NBA season, with his fifth team.

Last season in Toronto, GV played in all 82 games and posted averages of 9.5 points and 3.7 assists per, mostly coming off the bench for a Raptors team that was bounced in the first round of the Playoffs. But with running mates including Greg Monroe, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jabari Parker, OJ Mayo and a young point guard to mentor in former ROY Michael Carter-Williams, Vasquez is looking to get back to his NOLA days, like in 2012-13, when he posted career-highs of 13.9 ppg and 9 apg as a starter.

“I feel like this year, I don’t have to do anything different,” says Vasquez, who over his career has alternated between rock-steady starter and top-notch backup. “I’ve just got to be solid, do what I do, and hopefully Milwaukee will be the team that offers me something so that I can stay for more than two years at least. Finally I want to break that habit that I stay on a team for only two years.”

Vasquez learned of his latest relocation while he was back home in Venezuela working out and watching the Draft. He remembers getting the call from Raptors GM Masai Ujiri.

“He was like, I don’t want to have to do this, but we’re making this trade,” describes Vasquez. “You know how this business works. I wasn’t surprised—I wasn’t surprised because the trade was to Milwaukee.”

Toronto flipped Vasquez for the rights to 46th pick Norman Powell plus a protected first-round selection in 2017. After grappling with the initial but not unfamiliar discomfort of being traded yet again, Vasquez connected with his new head coach, Jason Kidd.

“Having JKidd as a coach, to me, is a dream come true. It’s unbelievable because I grew up watching him play, I modeled my game after his game. I’m a tall point guard that can pass, and my shooting ability’s gotten better,” says Vasquez, who shot 38 percent from the three-point line each of the last two seasons—a slight uptick from his career mark. “He [Coach Kidd] is really going to make me the point guard that I want to be in this League. I’ve gotten the minutes, but this time I think it’s going to be not only the minutes, but that green light to just be free and play. I’m excited about this situation.”

Given that the Bucks (5-8) paid the hefty price of a first-round pick to get him, Greivis feels confident that he’ll get a legitimate shot to prove himself worthy of keeping around.

“That shows how committed they are. At least, whether they are committed or not, they’re telling me, Look, we want to see what you can do for us, and after that you’re going to be rewarded. That’s basically the message that I got,” he says. “I don’t want nothing easy, I don’t want them to give me anything. I want to earn every dollar that I make. But at least they’re showing me signs that they’re highly interested in keeping me for a long time. I value that.”

Still, Vasquez was heartbroken to leave the 6ix, and the Raps’ devoted fanbase, behind.

“Toronto was an unbelievable experience for me, I really loved the city. That city’s always going to be in my heart. The fans, I still believe those fans are some of the best in the whole world. But I’m looking forward to this new opportunity. I like Milwaukee as a city.”

Once they get to know him, Milwaukee fans should warm up to the passionate, playmaking point guard right away. He is, so far, coy about the possibility of facing his former team in the Eastern Conference Playoffs come springtime, but Greivis is hype to have gotten rolling in Trillwaukee, where he’s averaging 6.9 points and 4.7 assists in 24 minutes off the bench through the first 13 games of the season.

“Everybody that knows me, knows how loyal I am,” says Vasquez. “I just like to work. I feel like this team is a unique team where I can showcase my leadership skills, I can talk and display my voice. It’s a young team that can do some special things this year and throughout the next cycle, the next three years. If we keep everybody together, I think eventually it’s going to pay off where we can go to a Conference Finals or an NBA Finals.”

Over a 20-minute chat, the fiery Vasquez uses that word—loyalty—over and over. Considering his successful yet nomadic NBA career thus far, he feels a particular allegiance to the team in Baltimore that’s shown him unconditional love the longest.

“It all comes down to loyalty,” Vasquez says, again, this time pride swelling in his voice as he talks about Kevin Plank and other key figures he’s worked with at Under Armour—people he’s built strong relationships with since the prime of his college career at the University of Maryland nearly a decade ago. “This is family to me. I put my chest first for the company, for the people that work here, for the people that have done so much for me throughout my career.”

Greivis pauses, and smiles. “I’m living the dream right now.”

Never one to sugarcoat anything or censor himself, even in an industry in which every athlete is coached to stick to the script, Vasquez speaks honestly about the growth he’s seen in Under Armour’s performance gear since 2008, when the brand took over outfitting UMD’s athletic programs.

“I’ll tell you the truth: the jump has been tremendous. Since I wore the shoes for the first time in college to now, we’re at that level now,” says GV. “You can see it when you walk around in the world.”

Vasquez would know. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, he left home in the fall of 2004 (with some help from Ujiri) to play ball at Montrose Christian School near Washington, DC. In the years since, he’s played for NBA teams in the South, on the West Coast, even in Canada. And he’s back in Venezuela for as much of every offseason as he can manage. Bottom line, the Bucks PG is, uniquely, able to speak with a global perspective.

“I’m basically from DC, I’ve been here almost my whole life, and it’s crazy how Under Armour as a company has taken over the DMV. Everybody’s wearing Under Armour,” says Vasquez. “Then I go to Venezuela,” he continues, “and people ask me, How do I get access to Under Armour? They want more shoes, they want more clothes.”

In fact, Vasquez has eyes on helping the company grow internationally. He says he’s researched markets in South America, and has had conversations with the global marketing team at UA about opportunities to launch his signature GV products in Venezuela and its neighboring countries. His hands-on involvement, he says, comes from both a feeling of personal responsibility for UA’s success in the hoops realm and a genuine respect for the brand’s mission statement.

“My game don’t change,” Greivis says. “I’m not the most athletic guy, but I find my way. And that’s why I identify myself with Under Armour. We know our goals, and what we’re working for. That’s just who I am, too.”

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.
Photos via Getty Images, Under Armour.

The post Pure Loyalty appeared first on SLAM.

For starters, the sure-fire first-round pick wasn’t in New York. He woke up across the country in California, where he listened to music with some friends before hopping a car over to Hyde, a club on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.

Surrounded by family and more friends, he did something else unusual as the Draft began: He told his agent not to hand him the phone if it rang. “I told my agent, Don’t tell me nothing,” Wright says. “I wanted to find out when everybody else found out, because they were all asking me where I was going to get drafted. I said, Just leave me alone, we’re all gonna find out together.”

Instead, each time Commissioner Adam Silver walked to the podium, Wright said the words with him aloud—“With the first pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves select, Delon Wright…” And so on, until with the 20th pick, his words matched the Commissioner’s. The crowd went wild as Delon’s face flashed on the big screen with a Toronto Raptors logo beside his name.

So what was his next thought after the “I just got drafted” feeling wore off? “Drake,” says the 23-year-old. “Drake was the first initial thought.” What a time to be alive, indeed.

His agent handed him back his phone. He got a call from long-time friend and new teammate DeMar DeRozan. Then from Raptors GM Masai Ujiri and head coach Dwane Casey. “And then they told me I had two hours to get to the airport.”

Wright grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where his earliest basketball memories are of heated one-on-one games with his older brother Dorell, a first-round pick of the Miami Heat in 2004 who has spent the better part of the last 11 seasons as a sharpshooter in the League, and who currently plays professionally in China.

“He used to make me cry, I’m not gonna lie. He’s six years older than me, so when we’d play in the backyard, he’d always block my shot, he wouldn’t let me score,” Delon says. “He made me cry a lot. But I think it helped me as I got older, just in terms of competitiveness, and me wanting to be good enough to beat him.

“I can beat him now,” the younger Wright adds with a laugh. “He can still beat me, too, but it’s not going to be easy.”

When he wasn’t getting shots stuffed by his brother, Delon remembers being one of the best players at local St. Andrew’s Park, which sits near the corner of Manchester and Western—follow Manchester two miles West and you’ll hit The Forum, home to the Los Angeles Lakers from 1967 to 1999, among other teams and attractions. At the park, a 9- or 10-year-old Delon would dominate his peers. But, he remembers, “We started playing AAU, and I started realizing that I had a lot of work to do.”

With work and the help of a growth spurt that took him from a 5-7 ninth grader to a 6-3 junior, the self-proclaimed “late-bloomer” led Leuzinger High to a California state title in his senior season, and he earned CIF Southern Section Division 1A Player of the Year honors. But academics kept him from going big-time a Division I university right away.

“After high school, I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Wright admits. He headed off to Rise Academy, a prep school in Philadelphia, but it just didn’t feel right. So he flew home, and after consulting with his family, opted for junior college at City College of San Francisco the following season—to get his grades in order and be closer to Dorell, who was at that time a member of the nearby Golden State Warriors. There, while Dorell’s career kept Delon’s sneaker collection booming, he had to pay for his own books, gas and rent. But he shined bright enough on the court to attract the attention of D-I college scouts up and down the West Coast. (Seriously, pull up his CCSF highlight reel on YouTube and you’ll see why.)

Meanwhile, he was making the best of his summer vacations, too, often joining big bro and his NBA buddies at the Drew League. Delon remembers pros like DeRozan, Kevin Durant, Brandon Jennings, Josh Smith, Amir Johnson and JR Smith giving him words of encouragement during those summertime runs.

“Everybody would ask me ‘Where you going to school? Where you going to school?’ And I’m like, I’m in junior college still, man,” he recalls. “That gave me a lot of confidence, guys telling me I would kill it in college.”

Eventually, the bigger schools came calling. One Delon hadn’t ever given any thought to was Utah. After all, the Utes had won just six games in 2011-12, and were sub-.500 again in 2012-13. But his friend Jarred DuBois, who was finishing up his only season with the Utes as a grad student transfer, told Delon he could be a program-changing talent.

“He asked me, What would I think about Utah? At first I was like, Yeah, alright,” Wright says in an overly sarcastic tone. “I was getting recruited by a lot of big schools, so I’m like…Utah? But they recruited me really hard, they were one of the first big schools that offered me. I took my first visit there, I loved it, and I felt like I could make an impact right away.”

Ultimately, DW picked Utah over schools like Washington, Washington State and Gonzaga. And he was right about making an impact: His first season in Salt Lake, Wright finished in the top 10 in the Pac-12 in scoring, assists, field goal percentage, free-throw percentage, steals—even blocked shots. The Utes won 21 games.

“Utah was perfect for me because I flew right under the radar,” Wright says. “When I got there, fans didn’t even know who I was. I could go anywhere without getting recognized. I loved that part.” Of course, he admits that all changed by his senior season, when he won the Bob Cousy Award as the top point guard in the nation and led the Utes to a 26-9 record, a top-25 ranking for most of the year and trip to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t only fans taking notice, either. Suddenly, the slender 6-5 PG’s name was popping up in the first round of NBA mock drafts.

“The middle of my junior year, going into Pac-12 play, that’s when I felt I could get drafted, and potentially first round,” Wright remembers. “But I still had things to prove to the scouts, they wanted to see more from me. I was someone that just came onto the radar and they didn’t know anything about me. That’s why I had to come back for my senior year and kill it during the summer, kill it during the season and take us to the tournament. That’s when I knew I’d be a first-round pick.”

Having accomplished that, Wright remains overlooked by the masses given how little national exposure he’s received, even as one of the top players in the country at the collegiate level. And, with All-Star Kyle Lowry and free agent acquisition Cory Joseph in front of him on Toronto’s depth chart at PG, his early-season minutes have been pretty limited. Being underrated is nothing new for Delon, though. He thrives off it, in fact. Which is why, as he puts it emphatically, “Me and Under Armour works perfectly right now. I’m the underdog, I’m still a sleeper in the NBA, and they’re the underdog coming up into the sneaker game.”

Under Armour Basketball’s leading pitchman, Stephen Curry, welcomed Wright to the brand with an Instagram post over the summer. It was perhaps a simple gesture from Steph’s end, but it was a big deal to Delon, who saw an instant jump in followers for his recently reactivated social media handles (he shut down his Twitter and IG for stretches during school to help stay focused on the tasks at hand). Similarly, watching Wright take in all the sights at UA headquarters, the humble kid from L.A. comes out. He laughs when he sees a giant poster of Jennings hanging in one hallway, whipping out his phone to tweet a pic. When he smiles in front of the camera, he reveals a set of braces to go with his baby face.

“It’s still surreal, to be honest,” he admits of the whole experience, beaming with genuine, refreshing humility. “When my agent told me I’d be coming here to do a photo shoot, I didn’t realize how big it was. And now I’m starting to see, this is really a big deal.”

Then again, after hooping in their gear for two years at Utah, the decision to sign with Under Armour was an easy one. “I think they took the jump this year specifically, with Steph,” Wright says, pointing to his own recent college experience as evidence. “When I first got to Utah, the shoes were like, whatever. I’d wear any shoe because they all look the same. But last year, all the different colorways, I was switching up the colors of the Curry Ones. I’ve been wearing those all summer, too.”

The fact that UA sponsors a handful of players on his favorite baseball team, the L.A. Dodgers, is a nice bonus—Wright showed up rocking an Under Armour Dodgers hoodie. Because everywhere he goes, from Utah to Baltimore to anywhere in between, Delon Wright is repping South Central L.A. Next up? Taking things international in Toronto. Word to Drizzy.

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.
Photos via Getty Images, Under Armour.

The post Humble Hero appeared first on SLAM.

The latest chapter of the always-hilarious and entertaining “Uncle Drew” series from Pepsi hit YouTube on Thursday, to the delight of fans everywhere, not just in Cleveland. With that in mind, we hopped on the phone with Irving to catch up about the latest in the hit series, plus ask him about the limited-edition (only 150 pairs) Uncle Drew colorway of the Nike Kyrie 1 that has sneakerheads drooling, and also get an update on his health status.

SLAM: Did you ever expect this much hype around Uncle Drew?

Kyrie Irving: No, not really, man. The first one, shooting the first one in 2012, and now being on Chapter 4, it’s something I couldn’t have dreamt of, man. I’m glad it’s gotten the reception and I’m just so thankful for Pepsi allowing the creative to be behind not only me, but our production team, and having athletes that we’ve chosen be such great people to put in our episodes.

SLAM: When you’re out and about, how often do people call you Uncle Drew instead of your real name?

KI: It’s more often than I would think. It comes from the kids all the way up to the adults. They know about Uncle Drew and sometimes people’s first view of me has been Uncle Drew and then they started following my NBA career. It’s great to know that that dynamic goes both ways of them watching me on the court and then also knowing me as Uncle Drew. [Laughs] Yeah, my first name is Kyrie and then I have this alter ego, Uncle Drew. People dressed up as him for Halloween and kids just knowing about the story of Uncle Drew and the storyline and wanting more, man, it’s truly an honor.

SLAM: What’s it like when you have all that makeup on and the fat suit and everything? What’s that feel like?

KI: It’s tough, man. It’s tough. But it’s fun at the same time. I did a time lapse on this last one, Chapter 4. It took exactly 3 hours and 47 minutes to do my makeup. And I sat in that chair for three hours, putting on that makeup. Then you go outside and you don’t wanna sweat too much. There’s a lot of things to consider. But overall it’s a true appreciation of the actors and actresses that are in the business. And when they do movies and they have to put on makeup every single day, they have to do it for months. And I’m here talking about 3 hours and 47 minutes over one day. But overall the project that comes out of it is worth it.

SLAM: What was the funniest moment from filming this chapter?

KI: The funniest moment for me was being around Ray Allen as Walt, Louis, who was Baron Davis, and JB Smoove as Angelo. It was amazing, man. Baron and JB Smoove, they have that background of being a part of productions and then Ray has been part of movies as well. To bring that all together and tie in with their own voices and characters and their alter egos, it was an amazing experience. It was great.

SLAM: Do other NBA players ever comment to you about your Uncle Drew videos or ask to be in the next chapter?

KI: A few of them have. More or less, it can’t happen because those other guys have other drink obligations. But with Pepsi, they allow me to go out and get everybody that we can, and that we think would be good to shoot an episode. It’s pretty open with who we choose and who we want.

SLAM: LeBron said today, “It’s all Coke here.” Do you guys have any kind of Coke vs. Pepsi rivalry?

KI: [Laughs] Nah, man. It’s an appreciation for what he’s doing for his brand and what I do for Pepsi. It’s no competition.

SLAM: So I was one of the lucky few to get these Uncle Drew Kyrie 1s…

KI: Oh did you now? I know you’re feeling ‘em! You don’t even have to tell me, I know you’re feeling ‘em.

https://twitter.com/abe_squad/status/664535642110464004

SLAM: I’ve gotten some offers already.

KI: [Laughs] I can only imagine.

SLAM: How did that colorway come about? Did you have any say in the design?

KI: It definitely had to be designed for an older person, with the gum bottom, and also the lettering on the Nike sign that has a reflective hieroglyphic meaning under it, it says the “fundamentals” and everything that’s part of Uncle Drew. The all-white kind of mimics the socks and the grey that we had on the first one in Chapter 1. And the red and the blue goes with Pepsi and the collaboration that we all have together. To bring that shoe to life was an amazing deal and I’m glad that I have great partners such as Pepsi and Nike where we can come together on a project that goes way global and people have an appreciation for Uncle Drew and what he’s accomplished.

SLAM: Where does the Uncle Drew colorway rank in terms of your favorite colorways of the Kyrie 1?

KI: It’s probably top 3. I think the Veteran’s Day one that I just put on Instagram, Uncle Drew ones, and then the NBA Finals—the colorway that I wore in Game 1, I’ll always remember those—are probably my top 3 favorite Kyrie 1s.

SLAM: The Kyrie 1 was one of the most popular shoes around the NBA last year. What was that like for you to see?

KI: For me, I wanted to first of all earn the respect of everyone, of having my own signature shoe. That was the biggest thing for me. And then it extended to the stories that the different colorways told behind the shoe. To get the respect from my peers and to have them wearing the shoe, it was awesome. A lot of them have taken the creative to NIKEiD and I’ve seen their inspirations come to life. I’m not a selfish guy by any means, and I wanted them to have the same joy of creating a NIKEiD shoe that they can resonate with, and bring it to life. Whether that be the regular colorways of NIKEiD, it’s been a great collaboration and I’m glad that it’s gotten that kind of reception across the League.

SLAM: How often do you go look at the fans’ NIKEiD creations on your shoe on social media?

KI: I like every single picture [on Instagram]. I try to like every single picture, especially if it’s a colorway that’s just super, super, super hot. Like, dang, how did you come up with this colorway? They’re taking their creativity and bringing it to life, like I said about the guys across the League. The fans, they just have an appreciation of a great shoe, and a great story behind it. I want them to continue to follow it, and be a part of something bigger than all of us. I’ll remember the Kyrie 1, and the Kyrie 2 comes out soon. I’m excited for every shoe that comes out, but I want them to always have a story to tell about this shoe that they have. If it’s my shoe, I know that they have their own shoe and why they created it.

SLAM: What can we expect from the Kyrie 2?

KI: [Laughs] I think this is by far the most pictures that I’ve seen of any shoe that hasn’t yet been released by Nike. They have photos of colorways out now of my shoe that I didn’t even think that they would know about! It’s a gift and a curse. It’s an appreciation that people want to see my colorways, but also it kind of ruins the surprise of the shoe.

SLAM: What’s your health status right now? Do you have a timetable for your return?

KI: I have a date, but I’m not sharing it with anybody. I’m looking forward to being back with my teammates soon, and just doing everything possible to get back on the court. That’s the most important thing right now.

SLAM: What’s the single hardest thing about not being out there?

KI: The hardest thing is not being there for your teammates, and them playing. It’s tough watching from the sidelines. But you just learn a lot of patience, and your competitive drive never goes away. If anything it’s strengthened. The only thing is, you don’t want to rush back or do anything that’ll put you in a worse place. For me it’s just about being patient, doing everything I can to be back on the court.

SLAM: How much basketball are you watching around the League?

KI: I’m watching tons. Tons of YouTube clips, tons of live games on TV. Tons and tons of basketball, you’re just watching from a different perspective and you’re seeing players do their thing around the League. It gets your competitive juices going.

SLAM: Have you noticed anything different from LeBron this year, attitude-wise or basketball-wise?

KI: Nah, he’s being himself. He’s being the greatest player that’s playing our game right now. He’s going to continue to do that. He’s going to continue to lead our team, along with Kevin Love. And they’re going to continue to be themselves and lead our team every night. We have good pieces that are fitting in extremely well. We’re 7-1 right now and I couldn’t be happier for our guys.

SLAM: Have you listened to Iman Shumpert’s music?

KI: I’ve heard “Hotline Bling” and “Shumpman.” But I’ve heard numerous tracks before then, and have been a fan before I was his friend. I have an appreciation for guys that are comfortable with who they are and comfortable enough to know that they have a talent. He has so much story to tell in his words and what he does. Whether it be good reception or bad reception for what he does as an artist and as a rapper, it’s another release for him, and I appreciate that about him. It’s made us closer as teammates and as brothers. He goes out and while he’s hurt, he’s still making music—that’s a release for him. So I respect it, and I’m going to continue to support him.

SLAM: I noticed you posted about Justin Bieber’s new single on your Instagram. Are you a Bieber fan?

KI: I am. I’m a Bieber guy, I’m a Chris Brown guy, I’m a Kehlani guy. They’re dope.

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post Q+A: Kyrie Irving on Uncle Drew appeared first on SLAM.

When he was 15, Mills was faced with a decision: attend the prestigious Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in his home country’s capital city of Canberra on a hoops scholarship, or go pro in Aussie rules football. “There were a few teams with offers,” he says, imagining what might have come of his Aussie Rules career. “It was very tempting and I looked very hard into it.”

Luckily for hardwood fans both at home and abroad, Mills chose basketball. He spent three years honing his skills before becoming the youngest player to ever train with the Australian men’s senior national team, then moving to the United States to attend St. Mary’s College in California.

“I’m huge on my culture and my heritage, and to be able to represent and promote my culture,” Mills says of his ultimate decision. “Aussie Rules is an Australian sport, and it stays in Australia. But I think how I envisioned myself representing my culture and my people and my family is not just in Australia, but on a bigger stage. Thinking of the opportunity to do that in the States and in college is what I wanted to do. And then I’d have the opportunity to educate people on my culture in America, which is what I’ve done.”

If Mills’ perspective as a teenager seems abnormally profound, it’s only because you don’t know where he comes from. It’s not just that Mills is Australian—his mother is Aboriginal and his father is a Torres Strait Islander, heritage that Mills carries with him everywhere he goes. He describes himself in his Twitter bio as “a very proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.” He’s just the second indigenous Australian to play in the NBA and the first to win an NBA title. He didn’t spend his childhood in one of the country’s big metropolitan areas like Sydney or Melbourne. But he did grow up around basketball.

Mills’ parents founded and ran a basketball club called the Shadows that several family members played for. “It was kind of there from the beginning. The first time I picked up a ball and went on the court, I would have been not quite 4 years old yet,” he remembers. “I didn’t have zero clue what was going on, but just to be out on the court and run up and down with a huge smile on my face, that’s what it was all about for me.”

His parents didn’t push him. An only child, Patty played just about every sport you can think of. Even with basketball coaches for parents, it was just about “keeping them busy on the weekends,” he says with a laugh. “I played a lot of sports growing up, but basketball was the one that stuck all the way through.” And though he didn’t follow NBA players or standings all that closely, he always kept playing in the L in his mind as a goal, however lofty it may have seemed from half a world away.

But as far back as he can remember, Mills heard criticism. He was told he was too small, that he was too skinny, that being an indigenous kid meant he’d never be good enough.

“Every kid growing up playing basketball thinks about the NBA, but I think the reality, the sure feeling that it’s possible,” Mills says, “I don’t think that really hit me until St. Mary’s. You say it, but do you really feel it?”

Mills starred at St. Mary’s, leading the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament in his freshman season. His games were broadcast on national TV in Australia, despite a 19-hour time difference from the West Coast to Canberra. Still, his path to success in the NBA was no foregone conclusion. Patty broke his hand before the 2009 Draft. He wondered if he’d slip, or if he’d even be drafted at all, before Portland took him at No. 55, with only a few picks remaining. Shortly thereafter, on the first day of drills before Summer League, he broke his foot and needed surgery. He made the Blazers (“I signed while I was still on my crutches,” he says) but bounced back and forth between Portland and the D-League, spending most of his NBA time throwing up “three goggles” for teammates from his spot on the end of the bench. When the lockout hit in 2011, he picked up pro contracts in China and at home in Australia. The experiences opened his eyes to basketball—and people—around the world.

His big break came with a vote of confidence from legendary coach Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, who inked Mills in 2012. Finally given the opportunity to shine, Mills became a key cog in San Antonio’s second unit. In 2013-14, he played in 81 games and posted 10.2 ppg, 1.8 apg while shooting 43 percent from deep. The Spurs went all the way to the NBA Finals, and in a series-clinching Game 5, he scored a career Playoff-high 17 points to help defeat the Miami Heat. Given his global basketball journey, Mills has only one word for the feeling of hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy in ’14: “Unbelievable.”

“You dial in a lot more, knowing all that you went through. All these injuries, you’re in this gray area, hanging out trying to get on a team,” he says. “Once you win, that’s all you think about—all the adversity that you went through. It was unbelievable, winning a championship with the guys I won it with, it was absolutely perfect.”

Mills signed a team-friendly three-year, $12 million deal last summer, which allowed San Antonio the cap space to make a rare splash in free agency this offseason: landing four-time NBA All-Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge. And after fellow reserve point guard Cory Joseph signed with Toronto this summer, Mills’ role with the Spurs is already expanding in 2015-16—the 27-year-old is playing a career-high 21 minutes per game through the first two weeks of this season.

“Being in San Antonio, I’ve learned a lot more than from being anywhere else in the world,” Mills explains. “It’s given me an opportunity to grow up. Not that I wasn’t growing up, but to grow up and learn about everything else but basketball… I don’t know what other professional sports team allows you to do that. It’s incredible.”

Fitting for a team that’s traditionally revered for its wealth of diversity, Mills joining Under Armour prior to the 2014-15 season also meant San Antonio had five different shoe brands represented on its opening day roster last year.

“I’m loving what we’ve both been able to bring to the table and accomplish,” says Mills, who is now in his seventh NBA season, his second as an Under Armour athlete. “The values that Under Armour has as a company—to be able to build and become what they are now, and where they are going, and how they got to this stage now—matches my values and what I’m about as a person and as an Australian and as an indigenous Australian and who I represent, being on this stage. I felt there was a great deal of values being matched. It was a no-brainer, it made sense.”

From UA’s vantage point, outfitting a vital member of what’s become the most consistently successful franchise in the NBA was, too, a no-brainer. Not to mention the international exposure that comes from forging such a partnership with Patty. All that said, Mills wouldn’t play in the kicks if they weren’t a peak performance product, too.

“Last year, I played in the ClutchFit Low, and they’re great,” says Mills, who laced up a few wavy PEs during the season, including a green St. Patrick’s Day colorway. “Growing up and knowing what Under Armour was about and knowing that it wasn’t basketball to where it is now, it’s impressive. Playing in them last year, that’s what I’d think about. You sit down and talk about where they’re going with the shoe, it’s incredible. ClutchFit is what I wore last year, and I’m excited to see where it goes this year.”

Mills has become a lightning rod in the shoe game back home, since having a player of his stature in the League and as an integral face of a sneaker brand is rare. Patty says Australian ballers are just as passionate when it comes to kicks.

“They’re sneakerheads, for sure,” he says of the Aussie population. “They’re gasping to have an athlete that’s in the NBA that they can represent. It’s a great opportunity for me but also for everyone in Australia.”

And now Mills can call another recent Aussie import his brand teammate: San Francisco 49ers rookie running back Jarryd Hayne. Mills welcomed the Australian rugby league star affectionately known as the “Hayne Train” to the UA family in a tweet a few days before dropping in at the brand’s HQ to pose for the photos you see here.

Maybe in Hayne, Patty can see what his alternate universe might have looked like. But even if he could travel back in time, we’re guessing Mills wouldn’t change a thing.

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.
Photos via Getty Images, Under Armour.

The post Worldwide appeared first on SLAM.

His uncle, Horace, played 17 NBA seasons, winning four titles with the Bulls and Lakers. His dad (and Horace’s identical twin) Harvey played 11 years in the L, with stops in Washington, Portland and Philly. Jerian’s older brother Jerai is a pro baller overseas. His younger brother Jerami was a second-round pick by the Sixers last season. And youngest Jaelin just finished another great Grant career at storied DeMatha Catholic HS in the DMV.

Now Grant, 23, is entering the family business. He was born into it, and ever since, he’s been around basketball 24/7—from trips to see his uncle and his rings to competing in every sport under the sun against his siblings. “That’s really what helped my competitive drive—trying to be better than my brothers,” he says.

For the Grant brothers growing up in Bowie, MD, driveway battles were a daily routine. Teams were always the same: oldest Jerai and baby bro Jaelin against the middle two, Jerian and Jerami. Often they’d push and shove with Harvey looking on.

“We would lose a lot,” admits Jerian. “But it made us real competitive. Those backyard games went a long way.”

And today, the team that lost those family 2-on-2 games is in the NBA. Together. “Once a month, we text each other, like, We’re here!” Jerian says of Jerami. “We’re brothers and our dreams have come true, and we’re doing this thing together. Our family is back in the NBA.”

Of course, Jerian’s game has evolved since his adolescent days. New York swapped former first-round pick Tim Hardaway Jr. for the rights to Grant on Draft night because he’s a savvy, 6-5 point guard who led Notre Dame to a 32-6 record and an ACC Tournament Championship while averaging 16.5 points and 6.6 assists per game in his senior season. His Irish damn near beat Kentucky in the Elite Eight of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

“Back when you play 2-on-2, it’s kind of just, whoever gets the ball is gonna go score. My game has evolved to where I can make plays for everybody on the court,” says Grant, who is expected to compete for a starting job with the Knicks. “I think being in New York now, having more playmakers on the court will definitely help the team out.”

JG has already gotten acquainted with his new teammates—he’s living in White Plains, across the street from fellow Knicks first-rounder Kristaps Porzingis and about 10 minutes away from the team practice facility, he’s studying the triangle in hopes of mastering it the way his coach, Derek Fisher, did as a PG in L.A., and second-year NY native Cleanthony Early has already taken him out shopping in Manhattan.

In five Summer League games, Grant averaged 11.8 points, 4.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds per, as New York went 4-1. Through his first three career pro regular season games, he’s playing 25 minutes a game and posting averages of 7.3 ppg, 4.0 apg and 3.3 rpg.

A four-year starter in college, Grant rarely turns the ball over and he’s comfortable in pick-and-roll situations, which has already translated immediately at the next level. With a revamped roster for 2015-16, Grant will play a big role for the Knicks right away. Which is why he was present at every single “optional” team workout this summer. And why he’s not backing off the goals he set before he was even on an NBA roster.

“My personal goal is definitely still Rookie of the Year,” Grant says without hesitation. “As a team goal, I think getting back into the Playoffs would be a huge thing for New York. To be able to be the point guard on a team that’s in the Playoffs, in New York, and eventually build from there to get back competing for championships.”

The Knicks haven’t been to the postseason since the 2012-13 season, when Carmelo Anthony and company fell in six games to the Indiana Pacers in the second round. In New York, that kind of Playoff drought makes for a deafening chorus of restless fans.

If you thought for even a split-second that Grant would shy away from the pressure, you needn’t look any further than his choice of jersey number: 13. Knick fans will forever remember another great young point guard who rocked the same number: Mark Jackson. Nearly 30 years ago, Jackson won Rookie of the Year donning the same digits in New York, and he may make the Hall of Fame one day yet. Grant didn’t choose the number 13 by accident. He’s ready to take on comparisons to the lead guards that came before him, and ready to accept the challenges he’ll now face at the position every night.

In August, Grant tweeted, “No question PG is the deepest position in the league. So much opportunity,” and he stands by that statement now.

“As hard as it is being a point guard in the League, you have that much more opportunity. You get to go against players that are All-Stars almost every single night,” Grant explains. “The position is so deep. If you’re out there playing well, you can make a name for yourself really quick. Having an opportunity every night, not taking a night off, it’s going to be great.”

He’s right. In the Eastern Conference alone, he’ll face stars like John Wall, Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry and Jeff Teague. Grant says his favorite player growing up was Tracy McGrady, but given his own position and skills, he gravitated to his local NBA team’s original point god from that era. “When I really started learning the game, Rod Strickland was the point guard that I watched,” he says. “I think that’s how I came to love the guard game.”

Born and bred in the Bronx, Strickland was a teammate of Grant’s dad Harvey in Washington. An elite playmaker, Strickland created for others as much as he looked for his own shot, and did so with some flair, not unlike the way say, Irving does today. As a young kid, Jerian got the chance to be a ball boy for the Bullets/Wizards, hanging around Strickland enough to earn a nickname from him: “Bam Bam” (an ode to Jerian’s general rambunctiousness). On Draft night, Grant nearly followed in Strickland’s footsteps. His name was announced as a Wizards’ draft pick, before a series of trades quickly sent him to the Knicks. Hooping for the hometown squad would have been a dream come true. And actually, Grant never even worked out for the Knicks, so the move came as a surprise. But with some reflection, he says NYC is the perfect place to kick off his NBA career.

“I knew, like, right before,” Grant says of the moments before he was drafted at No. 19 overall. “The Wizards pick was coming up, kinda hoping I would get to be home, thinking that would be cool. But when I heard I was going to New York, it’s a close drive or train ride. And being in New York, you can’t ask for better than that.”

Normally, Grant would indeed take that quick train from NY to MD. But he drove down to Under Armour HQ in Baltimore today, a cloudless mid-September day, so that he could drop off his six-month old Husky puppy, Ice, with his family. He talks about how he hopes that Ice will re-join him in New York during the season after downing an omelet and posing for some photos around the UA campus. For a kid who grew up in the shadow of the University of Maryland and a stone’s throw from BMore, the significance of being a featured athlete with Under Armour is hardly lost on him.

“Growing up, it’s cool to wear the shoes. But when you’re actually a part of what they’re building here, it’s real special,” he says. “You get to help build a brand.”

Grant remembers the curiosity amongst his college teammates when Notre Dame agreed to a new long-term partnership with Under Armour in 2014. “Guys were like, Under Armour, isn’t that only a football thing? What kind of basketball shoes do they make?” But once Grant and the rest of the Fighting Irish slipped on the newest UA kicks, there was no looking back. “I’ve seen them grow,” says Grant of UA. His preference last season was the Curry One Low. “You put these on, and they’re fly. They feel good. And with all the new releases, you realize the brand has come a long way.

“The off-court stuff is really catching up quick, too,” he adds, sneaking a quick glance down at his UA x Muhammad Ali “People’s Champ” tee. “You can go out and look fly in some Under Armour gear.”

While Grant is no stranger to the NBA life, his uncle and Pops taught him that success is earned, not served on a silver spoon. Likewise, as part of the Under Armour family, Grant realizes that to help push the brand into a bigger spotlight—and onto more players’ feet—he’ll have to work twice as hard. Good thing it comes naturally for the second of four humble brothers.

“Being the underdog, you have to work.”

—

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.
Photos via Getty Images, Under Armour.

The post Family Ties appeared first on SLAM.

“Media day is always crazy, but I’ve never experienced it as the reigning champs,” Stephen Curry says with a laugh. “As I sit on the phone right now there are 10 cameras pointed at me off the corners of the court.”

That’s what happens when you win regular-season MVP and the NBA title in the same season. You get 10 cameras in your face at all times, plus an international tour with the trophy, appearances on every late night talk show, sneaker releases, video game parties, award shows and hundreds of media requests every day. Oh, and his second daughter, Ryan, was born over the summer, too.

“From the time last August when we won the World Championship for Team USA ’til June 16 celebrating the Finals, a lot has happened,” Curry says. It’s quite the understatement. “On and off the court, expanding my family too this summer with a new daughter, so, like, all this stuff is happening at once. I just try to stay appreciative and thankful for all the good stuff that’s going on. Obviously there’s a lot of hard work that goes into it, but it’s been a special year. I’ll remember it for a long time.”

His list of life achievements both personally and professionally over the last year alone probably deserves its own book. He was the overall leading vote-getter for the 2015 All-Star Game. His jersey overtook LeBron James’ as the top seller in the NBA. High school kids worship him. Old heads respect him. An Uber driver in Baltimore told us he owns six different pairs of Curry’s Under Armour sneakers. Curry is adjusting to a new class of superstardom. The kind where NBA players call you their favorite NBA player.

A couple days before the Lakers made Ohio State point guard D’Angelo Russell the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, he stopped by to chat with us. We asked him to name his favorite player.

“Steph Curry.”

OK, which current NBA player do you liken your game to?

“Steph Curry,” Russell repeated. “I don’t want people to take it the wrong way when I say Steph,” he adds quickly, in case anyone thought he was promising to win an MVP any time soon, “but when he first came into the League, he wasn’t the player he is now, and I see similar characteristics on the floor.”

OKC Thunder rook Cameron Payne called Curry his favorite, too. In fact, only LeBron, KD and Kobe got more votes for favorite player than Curry on NBA.com’s annual Rookie Survey. And it’s not just rookies, either. In September, a fan tweeted Curry’s former Warriors teammate Jordan Crawford, asking him to name his favorite player in the L. “Right now gotta be Mr. Curry,” Crawford replied, before adding with the help of a few emojis, “Steph Curry is the only player around my age when I see play he makes me want to get in the gym immediately.”

Milwaukee Bucks point guard Greivis Vasquez, who worked out with Curry a few times before the Warriors made him the No. 7 pick in the 2009 Draft, echoes Sizzle’s sentiment. “Steph has become an idol for a lot of young kids, but also for a lot of guys in the League, too. I look up to Steph,” says Vasquez, who is a year older than Curry, “because at first, people were doubting him—‘Oh, he’s got an ankle problem,’ or about what he signed for. And then all of a sudden, he made himself into the player that he is right now.”

Seriously, it seems like everyone has a Steph Curry story. Raptors first-round pick Delon Wright met Curry when his brother Dorell was playing for the Warriors. He gushes remembering when Stephen would take time to chat with him during warmups back then, and now he admits “I’ve watched so much film on this guy.” Before doing battle as Western Conference foes, fellow UA endorsee and Spurs PG Patty Mills faced off against him in what would be the final game of Curry’s illustrious collegiate career.

Fifty years from now, when your kids’ kids read about Curry’s ascension to MVP and champion, it might make sense on paper: Former NBA player’s eldest son is better than he ever was. But when you look at Stephen Curry, at 6-3 and not even 190 pounds, dominating the 21st Century cyborgs that modern-day athletic training has produced, it’s astounding. So often our basketball heroes are just that: Superheroes. LeBron, KD, Anthony Davis. They’re athletic freaks of nature, born with one-in-a-million genes. You can’t dunk like LeBron, move like Durant does at 7-feet tall or stuff a puny drive like AD. Physically, Steph won’t ever either (“I don’t know,” he says, “maybe I’m finally hitting my growth spurt!”). But it doesn’t matter.

“The one word that comes up all the time is fearlessness,” says Mills. “The stature, and his size, he’s been told a lot of times that he can’t do it, but then he comes out and gets better. It’s like a beast has been awakened.”

Word up. Over 80 regular-season games in 2014-15, Curry averaged 23.8 points, 7.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds and a career-high 2.0 steals per game, shooting 49 percent from the field, 44 percent from the three-point line and 91 percent from the free- throw line (best in the League). And the Warriors won 67 games, easily the NBA’s best record. In 21 more Playoff games en route to the title, he bumped his scoring to 28.3 ppg, while his other numbers hovered around the same. In the Finals, he guided the Dubs to a 4-2 series win over LeBron and the Cavs.

To get even nerdier, Curry finished last season with a usage rate over 25 percent, an assist rate over 35 percent and an offensive rating over 120, with a true shooting percentage over 60 percent. To put that in historical terms, the only other player to put together a season like that over the last 15 years is LeBron, who did so in 2012-13. Throw in Curry’s top-5 steals rate, and it’s one of the most well-rounded seasons ever, unique to him.

So with an MVP and a ring in the bag at 27, does he keep a running checklist of career accomplishments?

“Nah,” he says. “I don’t, really. I mean, it’s about winning. Like, whatever it takes to make that happen. For me, I don’t want to lose focus on what’s important. So yeah, winning MVP was amazing and something that I’ve worked really hard for. But that wasn’t the goal, to come into the season and say, I want to win MVP. You come into the season and say you want to be better than I was the year before, be smarter than I was the year before, more consistent than I was the year before. I think that’s the motivation I need to go out and play well every single night. I’m not really putting the pressure on myself to say, I need to go out and earn an MVP award. That’s where I lose focus, so that’s my approach. I think it helps me just stay in the moment.”

Every appropriate adjective in the English language—and probably others—has been used to described Curry’s game, in the pages of this magazine and others. They range from mesmerizing to unstoppable to revolutionary. Boil it down and it’s pretty basic: No player in the game today is more fun to watch flow. Look no further than the Dubs’ first pre-season game of their title defense, when against Toronto, Steph whipped the ball behind his back twice on a fast break, swung the ball, sprinted to the opposite corner, received a cross-court pass, launched a three and turned to dap up Andre Iguodala on the bench before the ball even went through the net. (Which it did, obviously.)

With his theatrics, Curry has become not only one of the three or four best players walking the planet, but a worldwide pop culture icon. Of all the opportunities that came his way post-Championship, Stephen points to his round of golf with President Barack Obama as the highlight. Nevermind that the rest of the foursome included his pops and Ray Allen.

(Recognize, dude played golf with Obama. Which means if you don’t like Stephen Curry, you’re not only a fun-hating loser with no appreciation for the aesthetic beauty of basketball, but you’re now officially an un-American fun-hating loser with no appreciation for the aesthetic beauty of basketball.)

Hitting the links with the POTUS was oddly appropriate, since Stephen and the Currys have quickly become the First Family of Basketball. There’s his father Dell, the OG who played for five NBA teams in the ’90s. There’s his younger brother Seth, who lit up Summer League and could finally break through with Sacramento this season. There’s his daughter Riley, who has almost as many fans as her dad, and who will probably run for President some day. His wife, mother and sister can’t be shown during a TV broadcast of one of Steph’s games without a flurry of Twitter screencaps accompanied by heart-eyes emojis. Everyone wants a piece of the Curry crew.

Like in September, when Curry—in the midst of a stretch that saw him travel from New York to Baltimore and back, then New York to North Carolina and back in a half week’s time—planned what he thought would be a low-key trip back to his alma mater, Davidson College, about 25 minutes outside Charlotte. The plan was to catch up with a few of his former coaches and teammates who still live or work in the area. But when word got around that he was scheduled to be in town, the school asked if Curry would mind doing a short Q+A with some students. Of course, Stephen obliged.

The event, scheduled for 11:30 on a Thursday, wasn’t announced until the night before, in hopes of keeping hordes of his fans around the state from descending on the typically quiet college campus. By 7 a.m. the next morning, there was already a line twisting out the door of the school’s Duke Family Performance Hall. And before he could even make his way from the parking lot across campus, Curry’s presence sent things into a frenzy. Flanked by security guards, including one assigned solely to protect the Larry O’Brien Trophy, and a shrieking herd of kids peppering him with pictures, it was like something out of a One Direction tour stop.

The fireside chat was hosted by Steve Rossiter, a teammate of Curry’s on the 2008 Davidson team that captured everyone’s imagination during March Madness by making the Elite Eight as a 10-seed. Curry reminisced about his early Davidson days (like his 13-turnover collegiate debut, a win) told stories from his celebratory summer and laughed as a group of girls in the front row playfully cheered his every response. Afterward, when Rossiter and the rest of Curry’s old bball buddies headed over to an on-campus cafeteria for lunch, he says so many people wanted face time, it took Steph 45 minutes just to take a bite of his food.

Global celebrity status notwithstanding, Rossiter insists that Curry is “the same exact person that he was when I first met him.” Steph’s just, you know, a little bit busier now.

“It’s like, is he gonna respond to my text or return Obama’s call?” says Rossiter, without even a faint hint of facetiousness, despite how ridiculous it may sound to say aloud about a kid whose oversized No. 30 Davidson jersey used to look so big on his tiny frame it almost resembled a cape. “It puts it in perspective when you’re around him again. He gets pulled in so many directions, and he has all these obligations now besides basketball, with sponsors and appearances. It amazes me every single time, just how much stuff he has on his plate, and how he handles himself.”

After the Finals, Curry called his trainer in Charlotte, Brandon Payne of Accelerate Basketball. Knowing the kind of summer he was about to endure, Curry told Payne he needed him to move out to the Bay for the offseason. So Payne packed up and headed west, tasked with keeping Steph’s basketball schedule on point throughout all the craziness that was to come.

“Sometimes I don’t even know how we fit them in. But we always find the time,” says Payne of the off-season workouts, which the pair have been doing together since linking up during the lockout in 2011. “Sometimes that’s at 6 o’clock in the morning, sometimes that’s at 10 o’clock at night. We find time to get on the court, to get in the weight room, no matter where we are.”

Payne even sent Curry detailed workouts to complete during his five-day UA promo trip in Asia. At times the workout plans are atypical, designed to include neuromuscular or cognitive benefits, because Payne says, Steph is too good at normal basketball drills.

“I have to come up with things to keep him engaged, because he masters things so quickly,” Payne admits. “It’s difficult to come up with enough things to keep him stimulated.

“With him, there really are no boundaries,” he adds, speaking in particular about his scoring ability. “He has such tremendous shooting mechanics and he has great balance, his hips are always in the right place. So for him it’s just really about trying to find that extra six inches to a foot to get an even cleaner look off, and doing it in different ways that defenders haven’t seen before.”

At one point during his visit to Davidson, he was asked about the single most creative play from his historic 2014-15 season, when he careened through traffic against the Clippers, dribbled backward, turned and fired what for any other player breathing would be as ill-advised a three-pointer as you can chuck up with plenty of time left on the shot clock. For Curry, it was pure cash. ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy called it “the greatest move I’ve ever seen.”

Curry re-traced his steps for the crowd but couldn’t explain the shot choice other than to say simply, “creativity got the best of me.”

It’s hard to contain the MVP’s creativity. That’s the terrifyingly fucked-up part for his opponents: Stephen Curry is going to get even better. Keep in mind, dude doesn’t even have a go-to move yet. But maybe he likes it better that way.

“I have some things that I do well, like a stepback and you know, pull-up threes and behind-the-backs, all that stuff, but I don’t really know if I have a signature move like, Alright give me the ball, I’m going to do this move. It’s all about just being creative,” says Steph. “You can always get creative, and I don’t know exactly what that will mean once I get out on the floor, what might come out.”

And like any supremely gifted artist at work, Curry is always drawing inspiration from others.

“I’m a fan of the game, so I watch everybody. I pulled a move from a high school kid that came to my camp this summer,” Curry says. “I’m always learning.”

That high school kid was Dennis Smith Jr, a five-star Class of 2016 NC State commit who attended Curry and Under Armour’s SC30 Select Camp. During 1-on-1 drills, Smith pulled a move combo that finished with a dunk so ferocious that Curry looked up from his phone, jumped off his perch on the baseline bleachers and demanded to see a replay from a nearby cameraman. A few weeks later, Steph busted out a series of mind-boggling new moves at Team USA Camp in Vegas—including a between-the-opponent’s legs dribble into a stepback jumper that he cannot be seriously thinking about busting out in an NBA game—and acknowledged they were inspired by Smith.

“It’s just little stuff like that,” Curry says. “Watching basketball, I can always pick up something, no matter who it is.”

This year, of course, all eyes will be on Curry and his Golden State teammates. Given the absurdity of his summer, Steph can’t wait. “I’m looking forward to the season to kind of slow down and be back in the grind of the day-to-day schedule of the League, practice and stuff like that,” he says. “I know there is going to be pressure. But my mentality doesn’t change, nor does my team’s mentality change. It’s not going to be easy, we’re going to get everybody’s best shot as the Champs. We’re sitting where everybody wants to be, so we have to keep that hunger and just take everything in stride this year. It’s not going to be a perfect journey, we know that.”

—

Abe Schwadron is the Managing Editor at numberFire and a former Senior Editor at SLAM.

Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post Stephen Curry: What A Time To Be Alive appeared first on SLAM.

That alone should tell you how big his move from Portland to San Antonio already is, without him even suiting up for a regular-season game yet.

It’s rare to sign a free agent as good as Aldridge, and his arrival will not only keep the Spurs’ championship window open, it already has them as one of the top two favorites in Vegas to win it all in 2015-16 (behind only the Cavaliers, who re-signed the summer’s top free agent, a guy whose name you’re probably familiar with and who has yet to appear on our list).

After considering several teams, like the Suns, Lakers and his hometown Mavs, the Dallas, TX, native signed a four-year, $80 million contract with the Spurs in July, the same month in which he turned 30 years old.

A four-time All-Star, LA averaged a career-high 23.4 points per game in 2014-15, to go with 10.2 boards and 1 block a night for the Trail Blazers. He led the League in field goals made (659) and was named to the All-NBA Second-Team for the first time in his nine-year career.

He finished in the top 10 in the NBA in rebounding, points, usage rate and PER for a Blazers team that limped to a five-game ousting in the first round at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies.

And oh yeah, Aldridge did all that despite tearing a ligament in his left thumb in January, which he elected to not have surgery on in order to keep himself on the court and keep his team in the hunt.

Aldridge is arguably the NBA’s best post-up player, with a deadly mix of fadeaways, dunks, floaters and more at his disposal. And you cannot leave him open, ever, anywhere, since he can pop the mid-range jumper with consistency, too.

As if that weren’t enough to deal with for defenders, Aldridge made 37 of his 105 three-point attempts (35 percent) in 2014-15, which is more than he’d ever even attempted in any season prior.

He’s underrated on the defensive end, where he’s quick enough on his feet to stay with stretch-4 and bigger than most traditional ones—plus he’s actually proved to be pretty hard to get past for smaller guards in pick-and-roll situations.

He’s admittedly not an amazing rim protector but he is, if nothing else, a big body (6-11, 240) near the basket who can rely on his length to affect shots.

OK, so LA cares about his numbers. Speaking with Sam Amick of USA TODAY, Aldridge recounted a conversation he had with Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka that eventually convinced him to sign with San Antonio:

“Everybody was making this big fuss about how I’m not going to be able to take shots anymore, or be the scorer that I am, and he was just telling me, ‘We need a guy to score down there. Tim (Duncan) is older, and we need a guy to command a double team down there.’

 

“So I was like, Maybe I’m not a Spur, because I’ve been averaging 23 (points per game) for the last three to four years, and maybe I don’t fit into y’all’s system of let’s all average 17 (points per game).

 

“And he was like, ‘No, we’re not trying to change who you are and make you average 16 or 17. We want you to be you, because you’re going to help us be better and vice versa.’

 

“He kind of reaffirmed that they didn’t want to change me, and that who I am is OK.”

The argument against Aldridge having an as-good or better season than his last one centers on the fact that he might not fit perfectly into the Spurs’ system—that the conversation referenced above kind of flies in the face of everything that we’ve become accustomed to hearing out of San Antonio since Gregg Popovich’s arrival in 1996.

But, “I see a lot of easy shots,” Aldridge told the San Antonio Express-News in August. “Pop’s really good at misdirection, and the team is so unselfish that the ball moves around.”

Earlier this summer his new Spurs teammate Danny Green was quoted as saying: “Our game is not as much Xs and Os as people think. It’s just playing in the flow of the game. He’s going to make it a lot easier for us.”

Translation: no matter what LA is used to, the Spurs aren’t going to lob the ball in to LA and stand around. It just wouldn’t be Spursian.

Grantland’s Zach Lowe has a good primer on the potential fit. But when you boil it down, Green is right—sets and playcalls aside, it’s still about the players on the court playing ball. Are you really going to sit there and argue that one of the game’s top players is going to somehow get worse with Pop as his head coach?

Aldridge is all of a sudden surrounded by the most unselfish group in the NBA. Duncan will slide over and play center to appease the new acquisition. Tony Parker will get him easy buckets. And Pop won’t hesitate to cuss him out if need be.

Aldridge, for whatever his desires, signed with the Spurs because he knows he’s in good (the best) hands. Pop will undoubtedly take Aldridge’s otherworldly physical gifts and help him grow the cerebral part of his game.

At this point, he’s had basically all summer to get situated with the Spurs. Barring something out of left field, it’s difficult to imagine Aldridge not living up to his No. 10 ranking.

At his position, Chris Bosh and Kevin Love have question marks, Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol are getting older and the Serge Ibakas and Paul Millsaps of the world just aren’t on his level. Aldridge isn’t a physical freak like Anthony Davis, but we take his consistent fundamental greatness for granted.

For transparency’s sake, I had Aldridge at No. 8 on my ballot. Yeah, he’s going to be that good this season—even if it doesn’t show up in the traditional statistical categories (I think LaMarcus will get over it when he sees the Ws piling up). In Pop we trust.

Rankings are based on expected contribution in 2015-16—to players’ team, the NBA and the game.

The post SLAM Top 50: LaMarcus Aldridge, No. 10 appeared first on SLAM.

Back then, CP’s game was, in his words, “all about speed.” These days, Paul’s game is still quick, but he’s a savvy vet with eight straight All-Star appearances…and eight more signature sneakers. Jordan Brand officially unveiled the Jordan CP3.IX last week—the “Emerald” edition is available now, with more colorways coming on November 1.

“I’m sure you’ve done a ton of interviews with guys talking about their shoe and every guy will say that they like this shoe better than the shoe they wore last year. But for me, I definitely feel that way,” Paul says. “And it’s one of those things where these shoes were almost done a year in advance. There’s a few tweaks here and there but I’ve had an idea of what the IX was gonna be and look like ever since I was wearing the VIIIs last season. I was so excited about this shoe.”

CP3 would know, since he laces up a brand new fresh-out-the-box pair of kicks for all 82 games + playoffs every single season. Sound like another legend?

“I wear a different pair of shoes every game. Every single game. It’s something that I took away from MJ, having conversations with him years ago,” Paul says. “A lot of times when people wear shoes, they’re like, ‘Oh, I gotta break them in, I gotta break them in.’ Well I wanted to try and create a shoe that you could just wear straight outta the box.”

After we had the chance to wear-test the CP3.IX ourselves (you can see a recap of our run at Terminal 23 in New York City above), Paul joined a phone conference with a handful of sneaker outlets, including SLAM, to discuss his brand new shoe, and where it fits in his signature line. Read it below.

Q: This is your ninth signature shoe. Is it crazy to you that you’re now nine signatures deep?

Chris Paul: Yes, it’s very crazy to think that this is my ninth shoe. To love sneakers and shoes as much as I do and have since I was a kid… You dream, as a kid, you dream that one day you could possibly have your own shoe. To actually have it, that’s where the tough part comes. This is what I always tell people: Everybody has their favorite shoe. It may be your favorite Jordan or whatnot. You may say the [Jordan] XI is my favorite shoe, or the IV is my favorite shoe. But then when it’s time for you to create your own shoe, you can’t just make the XIs and say, “Hey, this is my shoe.” So the hard part comes in that aspect of it, in figuring out exactly what would you like on your shoe and the designs and the aspects. And now I think about my 1s, and I was telling someone earlier that when the CP3 1s came out, I thought it was like, God’s gift to mankind. Like, “Man, here’s the shoe. This is the best thing going” Now I look back to the 1s and I say, “Man, those were some bricks! How did I play in those? How did I function?” It’s just been an unbelievable process and I’m so grateful to see how it’s all evolved. The materials, the cushioning, to how it good it feels.

It’s something that I don’t take for granted. If I’m out on the street and I see someone with my shoes on, I may roll down the window or, it’s been times where I’ve been some places and I see someone with my shoes on and I tell them “Nice shoes.” And sometimes someone’ll take a double-take and realize it’s me. And then it’s crazy when you really start to understand consumers and some people don’t have a clue and they’ll just be like, “Man, I really liked the way it looked in the store.” And they don’t know that they’re your actual shoes, so it’s a very humbling experience.

Q: During the design process, are looking for tweaks to your most recent shoe’s design or are you looking back through your whole catalog and trying to take bits and pieces that you liked throughout your whole sneaker line?

CP: That’s exactly what I’m tryna do. I always look back at all the different shoes, and sorta take some of the things that I like. One of the things, and probably the reason why I had Podulon for so long, is that the cushioning is something that I don’t really like to play with, as far as the integrity of the shoe. Like the cushioning, that’s the comfort level of the shoe. While you may play with the design aspects and different materials here or there, one thing you want about your shoe is that you want it to be comfortable. When people go play in it, you want people to say, “Man, this shoe is comfortable to play in.” If the shoe looks great but nobody wants to wear it, then what are you doing?

The different designers that I’ve had the opportunity to work with, we have very in-depth conversations. One thing about this project, it’s not always pretty. All the different guys who helped us with the shoe—I’m always looking for feedback, always. One thing that I remember with my earlier shoes is that I may see the first run or first take of it and I’ll be scared to speak up. Sometimes you see something and you’re like, “Oh, I like that.” But you really don’t. Now I think we’re at a place where I can say, “No, I don’t like that. We should change that. We should move that. We should put this there. We should put that there.” It’s all so collaborative.

Q: Why should the everyday consumer play in the CP3.IX, versus any other basketball shoe on the market right now?

CP: Exactly, exactly. And that’s the thing, too. Like I said when you guys got on the phone, you guys hear these stories all the time. Most people have no idea about the nine-chamber zoom bag or the lightweight breathability and all that different type stuff. So for me, I would more so tell them about actually playing the game. Playing basketball. For me and my shoe, I look at all the videos and the process of making my shoe—thankfully it’s not me that wears the shoes initially when they’re wear-testing—to see how much your ankle rolls over, or how much it catches and different things like that. I look at that throughout the entire process. Just like the spot on the inside of your right toe or your left toe, you’re always feeling these little ridges on the inside of my shoes. It’s because of a favorite move that I like to do, or really for any guard who likes to stop on a dime. If you ever see a lot of times I drive right and I pull the ball between my legs. A little crossover between my legs to get off a jumpshot. And what that does on the shoe is, it helps and enables me to stop on a dime. I really believe that, and I know that when I’m driving and I stop on a dime, I know that my defender, very rarely is his shoe made for him, because there’s other guys that have signature shoes in our league, but I know that my shoe is made for me to be able to stop on a dime. I don’t have YouTube in front of me, but I could show you some clips where guys, like, keep going. I always tell my brother, “The shoes weren’t made for him.”

Q: Your signature sneakers have always been known to have secret nods to your family or hometown. What are some of those in the CP3.IX?

CP: You guys see the little wing strap in the back? I don’t know if I could tell you guys this, but I’ll tell y’all anyway. On iD, you’ll be able to put anything you want to on the inside of those. For me, I have a few things that I say all the time during the game. It’s funny—I’m always locked into the game, but any time I hit a three, I usually yell “BANG!” Me and my brother been saying that for years. “BANG!” Anytime I hit a three, I say it in the game. That’s initially what was supposed to go back there, but I don’t know. Lawyers, something like that. I don’t know. [Laughs] Something that’s over my head. A lot of times in timeouts, when we in close games and whatnot, guys on my team know that when we break the huddle, I always say “It’s winning time.” Like, we played the rest of the game, whatever happened happened, it’s winning time. So you can see that written in the back. And then every now and then, in practice or in a game, you get a guy that’s talking junk, trying to block your shot, and usually if I shoot a fadeaway or something, I’ll say “Holdat.” You can see that there in the back too.

That, along with, if you look at the inside of the heel, it almost looks like a ring, right? But then it almost looks like stadium seating and it’s supposed to be for me and my wife—when I proposed to my wife, it was at the [Lawrence Joel] Coliseum [at Wake Forest] where me and her met for the first time. And that’s where I played my college basketball at. So if you look at the shoe, it’s not just a design—there’s a story to it. And as usual, you guys might have looked on the bottom of the shoe and found it already—there’s always a Chevron logo on every shoe, starting 1 thru IX, representing my grandfather.

Q: There are only a handful of guys that have a signature. Do you guys ever talk back and forth about who has the better shoe?

CP: I don’t think it’s “My shoe’s better,” but we’ll talk about, “I seen this shoe” or “I like this colorway” or something like that. Or we’ll even snapshot a picture or something. Like, Bron, “Man, I like this colorway,” or something like that.

Abe Schwadron is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. He’s on Twitter @abe_squad.

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It’s also exactly 382 days since the man some dubbed the best two-way player in the sport suffered a gruesome compound fracture of both his tibia and fibula, the two bones in his lower right leg, during a Team USA scrimmage in Las Vegas.

A compound or “open” fracture is when the broken bone is literally sticking through the skin. The kind of stomach-turning sight that doctors typically see only in violent car accidents or falls from several stories high.

George’s came on a routine hustle play that started with chasing down James Harden on a breakaway, and ended in a crash-landing so horrifying that the game was stopped.

“It felt like gasoline was on my leg and someone lit a match,” George described in his first press conference after surgery to repair the damage, a procedure that put a permanent pin in his leg. “Just internally, my leg felt like it was in flames.”

Today, thinking back, he remembers looking down at his leg and seeing his career flash before his eyes. “When it first happened, that was the only thing I was thinking about,” George says over the phone. “Will I be the same? Is this career-ending?”

After the most grueling year of his life, all George wants to do is prove he can play basketball at a high level again. And he can’t stop thinking about it. The Pacers superstar forward is already back in Indiana, at least a month earlier than he’d normally return to prep for the season.

“I’m completely itching,” he says.

“I’m extremely motivated,” he says a few minutes later.

At the moment, he’s also a little distracted. Because today, George is on daddy duty. He’s looking after his 15-month-old daughter, Olivia, who can be a handful. Caring for her, Paul says, has changed him.

“Before, I was a young kid trying to find my way, and you get into stuff kids do, young guys in the League do,” says the now 25-year-old native of Palmdale, CA. “But now it’s different. I know my purpose, I know who I’m doing stuff for, who I represent now, who I have looking up to me. I just have a whole different perspective on life now.”

Sidelined for the first 76 games of his fifth NBA season, George had plenty of time to consider his career, often during countless hours on the training table.

The rehab was repetitive. When the Pacers were practicing, Paul would be getting treatment. He was uncomfortable, always. From being away from his team, from the pain. He’d have a good day, then his leg would feel like shit the next. Mentally, the grind was long, and exhausting. Physically, it was at times excruciating.

“They had to pull the skin off of the bone, because the way it was growing, the skin was starting to stick to the bone that was forming. It was so much painful stuff I had to go through,” George recalls. “On those days where it was tough to walk, tough to move on it, I was really thinking like, It’s going to be like this, like this is the new me, I was never going to get that back.”

For some players who come down with catastrophic injuries, “getting back” just means suiting up again. For Paul George—who’d never done more than sprain an ankle his whole life prior—it means returning to an elite class of players. LeBron, KD, Curry, Harden, Westbrook. These are Paul’s peers. He was in New York City for 2015 All-Star Weekend, but says it felt funny experiencing it from afar after playing in the Game the last two years. He went through the motions, making a few appearances to fulfill his sponsorship obligations. But being on the outside looking in at the All-Star festivities eventually wore thin for him.

“After the first day or two, I was like, Man, I don’t even want to be around this at all. It just didn’t seem right.” So that Sunday morning, PG inconspicuously hopped a flight to South Beach to get his mind off everything. “It’s hard to think about just basketball when you’re in Miami,” he says with a laugh.

Less than two months later, on April 5, a little more than eight months removed from his horrific injury, George stepped back onto an NBA court for the first time. With the Pacers hosting Miami, he checked into the game with 5:34 remaining in the first quarter to a standing ovation that included his parents, sister, brother—even little Olivia. He scored 13 points in 15 minutes, helping Indiana cruise to a 112-89 win over the Heat that pushed them closer to a Playoff bid.

But George was hesitant, and he was rusty. Near the end of that first quarter, PG deflected a pass, came up with the steal and found himself alone on the fastbreak. A season prior, he made a similar play in January against the Clippers, and finished with an elegantly thunderous 360 dunk that only a handful of players in the L could execute with such ease. This time, he did something even more rare for the average NBA player: he missed the point-blank look altogether.

“I don’t know, it was weird,” George remembers of that sequence. “I couldn’t slow down, I was trying to get my feet right, get my steps right. And that’s something I’ve never—I naturally just know how to dunk the ball, but for that particular time, there was just so much stuff going through my mind on how to get ready to finish to where, when I got to the basket, it was too fast, and I just blew the whole layup.”

Despite hardly practicing and playing limited minutes, his return provided an emotional boost to his Pacers teammates, like veteran swingman CJ Miles, who spent the bulk of the 2014-15 season filling in for George. “It was chilling to see him get out there that first night, and to make his first shot. Obviously he didn’t look like Paul George. But his body language, his big shots,” Miles says, “it looked like he was supposed to be there.”

Still, Indiana fell short of a Playoff bid (38-44), and the blown layup was a microcosm of the six games that George appeared in to finish the season. “It was really awkward,” he admits openly. The 6-9, 220-pound dynamo—who took his team to within two games of the NBA Finals a calendar year earlier—averaged a pedestrian 8.8 points (on 37 percent shooting), 3.7 rebounds and 1 assist per game over that stretch, playing about 15 minutes a game off the bench. A far cry from his 22, 7 and 4 per-game averages in his monster 2013-14 campaign. “It was awkward because I was coming off the bench, and I wasn’t thrown out there to just play. Coach was drawing plays up for me, so I had pressure to score and be a playmaker. I was fully healthy, but I wasn’t myself.” And more importantly, the Pacers’ season was over in April.

“I’ve never been done so quick. That was rough for me. One of the promises I made to myself was I wanted to always be in the Playoffs,” says George. “I didn’t want us to have to go through the Lottery again. That was a big reason why I wanted to come back and try to help this team last year, just because of that commitment.”

Part of the reason he placed such importance on playing at least some last season was more simple: Getting on the court for live game action was the last step in the rehab process. Paul had to know what parts of his game needed work this summer, which areas to focus on going into the most important season of his career to date—“what was going to be on the bulletin board for me.” Having gleaned that information (only some of which he’ll share: Working on his post moves and his conditioning, in particular), George has diligently and relentlessly prepared his body this summer, even leading midsummer morning track workouts with the Pacers’ rookies, like the one that concluded shortly before our chat.

“It’s night and day in terms of how my body feels, how my confidence is right now. I feel just about as good as I did when I was 22, 23 years old,” says George.

When he showed up to meet with Coach K and others at Team USA mini-camp in Las Vegas, Paul was excused from drills and practice. But being around all that talent again, he couldn’t help but issue a warning: I’m back.

“Without being cocky, I let ’em know,” he says of conversations with Team USA teammates in Vegas, “I’m feeling good as new, and it’s going to be some troubles when they come to Indiana.”

George is returning to a Pacers team that hardly resembles the one that faced Miami in consecutive Eastern Conference finals. Gone are names like Stephenson, Hibbert and West—guys Paul refers to as “brothers.” Now the longest-tenured player on the roster, PG understands that it will take time to jell with a new cast of characters. Still, he wasn’t happy when earlier in the summer ESPN projected the Pacers to finish ninth in the East this season. He famously tweeted his displeasure, and isn’t backing off.

“We got Monta [Ellis] joining the team, myself coming back healthy, and they predict us to be ninth? That’s a joke to me,” he says. “I seriously think this team has a chance to be in the top four.”

Add ESPN to the list of those adding more fuel to George’s fire by doubting his comeback. As if he needs it.

“I think it’s just added another edge to him. People are counting him out, saying they don’t think he’ll be the same,” Miles says. “I think he’s taking all that and bottling it up. He already works hard for the love of it, and now you give him more gasoline by saying he can’t do it. That makes him dangerous.”

To the doubters, expectations might not be very high for George and the Pacers. But he insists that winning an MVP trophy and taking Indiana to the Finals are still goals within reach. Hardware or not, expect to welcome one of the best players on the planet back to the forefront of the NBA landscape. Or as Miles says simply, “Expect him to be Paul George.”

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post The Catch Up appeared first on SLAM.

“Nerlens was always quiet. He would slowly move around campus and would sometimes struggle to keep to his schedule,” says Marcus O’Neil, head coach at Tilton (NH) School, where the Everett, MA, native played his final two years of high school ball. “Then we would get into a highly tense and competitive situation, and he became a different person. We would be in a timeout and I would catch a glimpse of Nerlens’ eyes and I could feel the competitive fire.”

After hurriedly answering two or three questions from a pack of beat reporters in the visitors’ locker room at Madison Square Garden following an April loss to the Knicks—a few days before his 21st birthday—Noel takes a few minutes to sit down with SLAM, and the fire is there.

“Year Two, I want to be an All-Star, clear as that,” he says point-blank. “I want to work on every aspect of my game, I want to get stronger, just come back a lot more dominant.”

After sitting out all of 2013-14 while recovering from a torn ACL, Noel averaged 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.8 steals and 1.7 assists per game in his rookie season, finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting (behind Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins and Chicago’s Nikola Mirotic). After the All-Star break, in particular, Noel was phenomenal. In March, the kid put up 14.3 ppg, 11.2 rpg, 2.4 spg, 2.1 bpg and 1.8 apg—numbers no player, let alone a rookie, in League history has notched in any one month since Hakeem Olajuwon in December of 1994. That included a notably beastlike 30-point, 14-rebound performance against a formidable Clippers frontline.

“I thought about it the whole break,” says Nerlens, who is uniquely looked at as a leader on the rebuilding Sixers despite having just finished his first season in the L, “about how I needed to assert myself and finish strong. I think that was my turning point.”

Usually, there ain’t much to celebrate from an 18-win season. But Noel’s rapid development was diamond-in-the-rough stuff. In the words of Sixers head coach Brett Brown, Nerlens is “a complete game changer.”

On offense, he’s still a work in progress, having mostly relied on hustle points during his rookie season. “My game is different. I’m slender. I’ll get stronger, but I like to use my quickness,” says Nerlens, whose favorite player is still Kevin Garnett. “I definitely see myself bulking up and being able to be out on the perimeter and shoot that 15-footer with more consistency. That’s going to be one of my main focuses going into this offseason.”

But for Nerlens, it all starts on D, where he’s already one of the NBA’s premier shot blockers. No one is safe: James Harden and Russell Westbrook were among the victims of Noel’s 142 rejections last season.

“If people get to the rim, he punches it. It’s to the point now where, if someone gets to the cup, we know Nerlens is going to go get it,” says Sixers guard Hollis Thompson. “Someone tries to dunk it, he’s gon’ block it. That’s what we’re used to. It’s a lot of fun playing with him, because Coach says, ‘Just go get it, I don’t care if you get a foul, just go get it.’ So he’s trying to block everything.”

Asked if he’s ever had his shit swatted in practice, Thompson laughs. “He’ll be on the wing, you’ll go by him, think you’ve got a dunk, and he’ll come behind and just beat it out of bounds. It’s crazy. He’s just crazy athletic and he’s passionate about getting stops.”

Veteran teammate Jason Richardson says the only comparison that comes to mind for a defensive anchor so effective and yet still so young is three-time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard—with whom J-Rich played in Orlando from 2010 to 2012.

“Dwight came in so raw, came in as a defender, a rebounder, blocking shots,” Richardson says. “I look at Nerlens like that—he has the ability to be what Dwight is now. I have no doubt in my mind that if Nerlens continues to grow, he’ll be a Defensive Player of the Year in the next five years. No doubt in my mind.”

Noel was the only player to finish in the top 10 in both steals and blocks in 2014-15. He posted a block rate of 5 percent and a steal rate of 2.9 percent—the only other full-time player in the NBA to match those statistics in both categories? Anthony Davis. Individually, Nerlens was top-10 in Defensive Rating, better than Davis. And despite Philadelphia’s dead-last ranking in Offensive Rating last season, the Sixers were 13th in the NBA in Defensive Rating.

“To build a program, and grow a program, I think you have to do that through defense,” says Brown. “Especially in the city of Philadelphia.”

In Nerlens, the Sixers are doing just that.

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

Images via Getty

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Fuller, adidas’ Basketball Design Director, took that comment to heart, pouring over every minute detail of Rose’s sixth signature sneaker with care to make it a perfectly constructed vessel for Chicago’s finest to do damage in on the court this season, thinking about the word “craft” the whole way. There are of course technical changes, aimed at improving on an already insanely comfortable and playable signature line. And there are big-time additions to the overall silhouette and aesthetic of the D Rose.

As always, there are the ever-present nods to the city Rose has always called home, which makes the D Rose 6 so Chi-Town’d out we’re willing to bet it flies off shelves in the Windy City. We’re excited to see Rose rock out in it. So let’s meet the next evolution of the adidas D Rose signature line.

“Everything.” That’s how Fuller describes what’s different, technically speaking, in this iteration of the DRose signature line versus last year’s model. For the first time, the D Rose 6 features exposed Boost in the forefoot, bringing a full-length Boost experience to the foot. Boost technology has been a staple of the D Rose line since its inception, at the request of Rose himself: “As soon as Derrick put Boost on his feet, he told us, ‘Alright, it’s this forever,’” says Fuller.

With Boost at its core, the D Rose 6’s upper features a brand new execution of sprintskin, too, which combines multiple lightweight layers that are strong enough to provide elite-level lockdown during Rose’s elite-level cuts on the court. The outsole, meanwhile, features a grippy herringbone pattern inspired by woodgrain textures that Fuller found in one of the high-end luxury vehicles in Rose’s garage.

Perhaps the most striking innovation in the D Rose 6 is the adaptive Fitframe heel cage. Built with strong, non-stretch woven webbings, it serves to create a perfect fit around one of the most critical parts of the foot. “I was inspired by seeing Rose on the court, and he was getting some taping on his neck—I actually thought it was like he was wearing some kind of Y-3 taping,” Fuller says with a laugh, “but I saw that and I just thought, Oh man, these kind of bands that are wrapping around him on the court right now, I think we can do the same thing for the Rose 6.” The performance benefit, when combined with the upgraded lining that feels like a sock, is undeniable.

“I took that shoe on the road, and I was passing it off to people and getting their first reaction and everybody was, like, blown away by this new lining, that you can really tell helps hold the foot down in the heel so you don’t slide around and maximize performance,” says Fuller.

The most important stop on that initial tour, The Chi, is repped everywhere in the D Rose 6. Fuller says he designed the shoe with “Rose as the Chicago star” in mind. Beyond the raised D Rose logo at the heel and Derrick’s signature at the forefoot of the outsole, there is the double-stacked logo of his name at the front of the shoe. The diamond patterned upper and sharply detailed eyelets represent the city’s bold architecture. You can see the six-point star of the Chicago flag at the base of the lacing, and it’s no accident there are six reflective lines in the heel, too. That reflectivity means increased visibility at night—important for kids who, like Derrick once upon a time, are out on Chicago playgrounds working on their game until after dark.

Fuller puts in similarly long hours to work on his craft, too. He, the marketing team, the design team and others from adidas even met up to watch game film last season, studying the way Rose moves around the court—whether the physical, like how forcefully he flies around a pick-and-roll, only to turn, jump and fire an overhead pass to the opposite corner; or the mental, noticing how calculating he is while scanning the floor for an opening to the hoop.

“It’s kind of cool thinking that he was watching game film, already planning what he was going to do, and we did the same thing as a product team—we sat around and watched video of him and built a plan about how we were going to bring the Rose 6 to life.”

The D Rose 6 is, like its namesake, both crisp and rugged. It’s detailed down to the smallest specs, but it’s ultimately built to be a pinnacle performance shoe, not a collectible. After all, it’s only right Derrick’s kicks be as dialed in as he is.

Abe Schwadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @abe_squad.

The post Kraftwerk appeared first on SLAM.

We even had the chance to test out the technology ourselves, after gearing up and entering a 32-degree temperature workout room. During a brief but intense workout, the tech stood up to sweat, kept body heat flowing and was super comfortable. Of course, it didn’t hurt that everything looked fresh, too.

Scroll through photos above to see the Nike Therma-Sphere Max Men’s Training Jacket, the Nike Therma-Sphere Max Men’s Training Pant and the Nike Therma-Sphere Max Women’s Training Vest, all of which have a three-layer composite material that Nike says is “specifically designed to help keep the wearer warm, comfortable and dry without weighing them down or sacrificing style.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6qFucSpuJE&feature=em-uploademail

 OK, but how does it apply to basketball?

For starters, bball is a year-round sport, not just for NBA ballers but also for cats who are on the local blacktop even in the cold months of the year. Rather than fight the cold with a big poofy jacket, Nike’s using cutting-edge technology to cut down on layering and free up the body for movement.

The pros are training year-round, too, whether in the gym or not.

“Knowing that guys like LeBron, KD, Paul George, they’re training year round and not just indoors,” Parker Mangum, product line manager for Nike Pro Combat told SLAM following our live wear-test of the technology, “so HyperWarm is equally as relevant in their training in the outdoor realm.”

Not to mention that many pro ballers prefer to rock HyperWarm tights under their shorts, no matter what the environment.

Check out the video below featuring Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, no stranger to kicks and hoops himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckWKgYVprKQ

The Nike Therma-Sphere Max Men’s Training Jacket, Nike Therma-Sphere Max Men’s Training Pant and Nike Therma-Sphere Max Women’s Training Vest will be available September 1 on Nike.com and at select retailers.

The post Nike Introduces Therma-Sphere Max Technology (PHOTOS) appeared first on SLAM.

Long before the adidas J Wall signature line ever made it to retail shelves, its namesake insisted that his sneakers be both functional enough to withstand his physical intensity on the court and fly enough to match his fashion sense off it.

Watching John Wall meander from the edge of the reflecting pool on the National Mall and up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial for the photos you see above, that versatility is as apparent as ever before. He’s wearing a pair of the J Wall 2s for the first time. A navy blue pair, unlaced. He’s radiating with the kind of casual but killer swag that’s lowkey made him one of the most popular players in the game from coast to coast. But he never breaks stride, never looks like anything but an elite athlete, as he bounds up the steps, photographers and adi brass in tow.

After the successful debut of his signature line last season, Wall came back to the design team with two key insights: Keep the cut and improve the grip. So as John led the Wizards on another Playoff run in the J Wall 1, adidas Basketball Design Director Robbie Fuller imagined tweaks to his sneaker. He watched Wall’s highlight-reel spin moves and crazy-but-now-iconic 360 layups, and asked himself, “How can we create a product that can handle that kind of movement on the court? What kind of fit does he need?”

The answer was a Quickframe upper and full-length adiprene+ to give John the ability to be as quick as possible but also as flexible as possible. The J Wall 2 keeps the foot lower to the ground than before, with the aim of making Wall’s lightning-fast first step even more devastating. On top of all that, the sneaker’s 3-D molded topline provides more stability and more lockdown than in the J Wall 1.

“We really wanted to focus on more a 360 fit through the midfoot,” Fuller adds. “That’s why you see this element that kind of wraps up that’s more of a support feature, even a little higher on the shoe than what you would normally see in shoes.”

Don’t let the higher cut deceive you. A powerful point guard, Wall prefers it that way and says it actually makes him quicker. And as Fuller points out, “It’s not about how flexible it is in hand, it’s about how flexible it is in foot.”

Personal touches on the J Wall 2 are etched into the inner tongue liner and the crossover JW logo on the outsole traction pattern of the sneaker. The inside tongues pay homage to John’s mother, Frances Pulley (with whom he’s extremely close), and his father, John Sr (who passed away when John was just 8 years old). Meanwhile the outsole has small inscriptions, with references to other important places and people in Wall’s life. The words “Great Wall” appear, a nod not only to his nickname but also to his deeply impactful trip to China last summer, when John was admittedly taken aback by how fans all the way across the world so openly embraced him. Of course, he still reps hardest for the place that built him, which is why there are multiple engravings of “Raleigh,” “919” and his “Five Deep” crew.

Fuller had no trouble incorporating Wall’s North Carolina roots into the sneaker, since he too spent formative years in Raleigh. “As soon as I saw 919 I knew exactly what that was,” says Fuller, who, coincidentally, attended NC State for college.

The Wolfpack will surely be among those interested in the white colorway of the J Wall 2 this season, one of the launch options that features a fresh graphic design. The navy colorway that John debuted on Periscope back in July has bold blocking, but also a texture and tactility to it that player and brand agree makes for just the right amount of shimmer and shine to match JW’s game. Like last season, expect adidas to come correct with brash limited-edition colorways for Halloween, Christmas, All-Star Weekend and more—just to keep up with the Wiz Kid.

“John’s style is always leading and it’s not just conversations about the footwear,” says Fuller. “It’s also about the apparel and the entire outfit.”

Or outfits, plural. The evolution of Wall’s signature line includes not only the J Wall 2, but a wide array of performance and lifestyle gear, too. Wall wears everything from his full Wizards uniform to loungewear fit for a pimped-out hotel suite and sunglasses during a full day’s worth of shooting. The only thing consistent for every look is his kicks. Mission accomplished.

The post adidas Officially Unveils the J Wall 2 (KICKS) appeared first on SLAM.

Portraits via Getty Images

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Plus, Kawhi told us why he loves to play in the Air Jordan XX9 now for performance reasons. Catch much more from the DPOY in KICKS 18, which hits newsstands later this month.

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“I was just a freak athlete. I didn’t know anything about the game,” says the native of tiny Tomball, TX. “Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be an NBA player. Never in a billion years did I think I’d be a part of the Jordan Brand.”

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Oladipo says he wants to “Play with a confidence that’s unshakable. That’s what I’m going for—honestly not caring to a point.”

For much more from our conversation with Vic, pick up KICKS 18 on newsstands later this month!

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For much more from our chat with Aldridge, be sure to pick up KICKS 18, coming to newsstands later this month.

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Lacing these up, right away, the webbed straps close to the foot, which integrate with the laces, provide a nice, snug fit. The familiar full-length Flightspeed (formerly known as FlightPlate) provides a smooth ride whether sprinting straight ahead or cutting laterally. The Zoom Air Unit in the forefoot is cushiony, but still springy enough to launch you toward the rim when you go up for a layup or a rebound.

Even after playing five straight games—winner stays on, and you know we’re competitive like that—there was no blistering, no give anywhere in the sneaker, and they’re impressively light for being a quote unquote “big man’s shoe.”

Check out the highlight reel from last night’s media run at Terminal 23 in the video above. The Jordan Super.Fly 4 hits retailers on August 5 with a $150 price tag. See more detailed photos of the shoe here.

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