He asked that the current players at Simeon, his alma mater, be included in the shoot. And
not just the varsity squad—freshman and JV, too. And, so, after we finished solo shots with Rose, about 40-ish teenagers arrived to join the Bulls legend in a media day-type set up that included photo and video stations. Except, when they first arrived, they had no idea what they were about to partake in. 

Looking to surprise the kids, Rose’s team and Simeon varsity head coach Tim Flowers, who was Rose’s teammate and starting center when both played for the Wolverines in the mid 2000s, decided not to tell the players in advance why they were being asked to come down to the school on a Saturday afternoon. After Rose was done with his solo shots, he walked up to a classroom where the players had been asked to gather and surprised them with a visit. Rose made sure to go around the room and individually dap up every single player before stopping at the center of the classroom and delivering an impromptu, off-the-dome speech. A raw and candid talk with them about life, mistakes, obstacles and the challenges that they’re facing in the South Side of Chicago, all of which he could relate to.    

All of this to say, Rose’s post-playing career is primed to make an even bigger impact in the world than the one wearing a basketball jersey ever did. Or at least that’s definitely the goal,
as you’ll read below. This chapter of Rose’s life is about stepping out of the comfort zone and entering industries and sectors that once didn’t even seem likely or a match for him. And, so, we thought it was only right that we delivered our interview with the superstar to the world unfiltered, in Q&A format, for everyone to take in directly from Rose, as he looked back at his historic career while also looking ahead into the future.

SLAM: Aside from your social media post, your retirement announcement involved a letter to the game of basketball that ran in newspapers in all the markets you played in. Can you walk us through the thought process behind deciding to announce your retirement in that unique manner? 

Derrick Rose: I feel like it was a team effort. You know, when I first made the decision, of course, I told my two friends, Randall [Hampton] and Maddie [Ornstil] about it and they’re [now] working on my team with me. And Maddie mentioned, What about the newspaper? I didn’t answer right away. That’s something we kept ideating on, and it came together great. But we wanted to give something that was tangible for the fans to actually go out and purchase. Something to have, like a time stamp. I’m a collector now, but I know people that’ve been following my career for numerous years. I know they would’ve loved the opportunity to be a part of that moment. So, putting something out like that into the world, [that’s] tangible and giving you the old-school feel of how things used to be—like the fabric of things back in the day. 

SLAM: Your IG caption for the announcement read: “The psychological assumption automatically provides the means to fulfill the dream desire.” Why did you decide to go with that line for your announcement caption and how would you say that statement relates to your own personal journey?

DR: That’s something that I wrote on my mirror [and] I look at every day. It’s whatever you think you are or whatever you think of, you can actually become it or manifest it. So, it’s just a reminder. I got like five to eight quotes on my mirror that remind me every day. But that one is number one because in order for me to fulfill my dream and desire, it has to be on [my] mind constantly. It has to be an obsession. It has to be intrusive. You can’t just love it, you have to be obsessed with it. And I feel like this process right now is not only me, but my team being obsessed with the journey, the challenge, and just pushing each other to be great. So, we have a goal, [but] I don’t want to say the goal right now, but we have a goal and we have a vision that we’re going to complete. But there’s no point of my stating it right now when we still got a lot of work to do. 

SLAM: Where is that mirror located?

DR: It’s my personal mirror, my bathroom mirror. And I just started that like a few months ago…Like two months ago, recently…Just something that I heard through somebody. It was through a lecture or something like that. And I just tried it just to see how it would work. My wife was looking at me crazy, my kids were looking at me crazy, but, yeah, just pushing myself to be uncomfortable and living in the unknown. 

SLAM: You signed off your retirement letter by saying that the game will always be a part of you, no matter where life takes you. How do you anticipate the game will continue to be a part of you in your post-playing days? 

DR: I feel like being from Chicago is already ingrained in me. I gave my all to the game. That’s one of the reasons I could step away and be happy with stepping away and not feel any resentment or feel down about it. My son plays, my youngest son plays and it’s really me tailor-making their schedule, however I see it’s fit for them. Like, both of my kids play, but I don’t push them to actually go out there. I give them the opportunity to voice their opinion on certain things. So, we’re on the court, You don’t like this drill, what you want to do? And that relationship, it helps a lot with me and PJ, and with my youngest, him seeing PJ work out, too. So, basketball is always going to be a part of my life in general. But my goal, when these years pass, and I keep telling Maddie and Randall this, I want to remove myself from that imagery—where 20, 30 years down the line, I want young guys that play here or when I go visit places, I want them to not know that I played basketball at all because I want to keep completing my goals, and that’s to become a businessman and really to boss up in every area.

SLAM: Are there hobbies or personal interests that you’ve now been able to dedicate time to post-retirement that you maybe didn’t have time to do during your playing days? 

DR: It’s a lot to do with that camera right there. Figuring out if I want to be a director or producer, figuring out the difference between the two, because I always thought that they were the same. But I feel like I’m heading toward the director side, really catching the eye. I feel like I’ve put in the work, I’ve put in tens of thousands of hours in watching documentaries and films, weird docs and great docs. And now it’s all about taking the courage to actually be behind the camera and to voice my opinion. I feel like that’d be the hardest challenge. I’ve also been playing a lot of chess and hopefully somewhere down the line within the next couple of weeks, I’ll ink a chess deal [and] you’ll be hearing about it pretty soon.

SLAM: Where and when did that passion for storytelling originate? 

DR: I will say toward the end of my career, like five or six years ago, knowing that, first, I was into history. I then went from history to me questioning myself, Would you ever think about putting out a doc or putting out stories that are in books that people really don’t tell? And it went from that to me actually getting a camera, me being behind a camera, me being so uncomfortable being behind the camera, talking, multitasking, while I’m behind the camera, and trying to put it all together and being uncomfortable. That’s what I love about just holding a camera. How cool would it have been if it was Michael Jordan or Magic or Michael Jackson behind the camera and it was them shooting everything? It would make the doc a little bit more special, I feel like, instead of them having a crew to shoot it. You hear their voice, the little mess-ups, the errors, everything. I just love raw footage. 

SLAM: You mentioned you enjoy history. Is that something that developed while studying at Simeon or later in life? 

DR: As I got older, it came from my mom. The love of history came from my mom because my mom is big into history, not knowing that I would love it somewhere down the line. But with me figuring out who I was through self- knowledge, self-revelation and self-identity—figuring those three keys out—I started to realize, like, Hey, I’m obsessed with this. I just don’t love it, I’m obsessed with it. I started to cry about certain things that I read. I started to look up or daydream about certain things that I read. And at that moment, that’s how I knew that I was really passionate for it. So, it’s about now translating that over to what that looks like with me finding my eye for certain films or certain things that I want to shoot. And the next step is having the courage to put that out there to present it to the world.

SLAM: I’m sure you’ve had some time to reflect on your playing career over the past couple of months. Looking back, what would you say were your top three on-court moments? 

DR: I would say [winning] MVP. My first game as a rookie. And the third one would be the 50-point game in Minnesota. In that order. 

SLAM: Similarly, having had some time to reflect, what would you say is the biggest life lesson you took away from your playing days that you can now pass on and teach the kids at Simeon? 

DR: I would say to cherish the moment. When you look up the definition of cherish, it means to protect, too. Not only to remember, but to protect. All my best friends that went here, we still talk about Simeon to this day. And now that I’m thinking about it, that’s something that we protected in a way, where, for one, you’re not going to say anything crazy about Simeon when we are around. But also knowing that we now have people in powerful spots here, so that’s our way of being on the ground, always having somebody nearby to protect it. And just knowing that these days, you can’t get them back.

If I could tell the kids, I wish that I could have held on to the memories a little bit more because it was a blur. You win the first [MVP award], that’s already out the window. You want to get to the second [MVP]. I wish I would’ve cherished that first one a little bit more. I wish I would’ve took more pictures, I wish I would’ve had videos. I wish I would have just held on to it. 

SLAM: A big portion of your retirement ceremony weekend will be dedicated to community initiatives around Chicago and local kids. Can you tell us more about some of the initiatives you’d like to do on the community front moving forward? 

DR: For one, coming back here [to Simeon], we’re doing an all-star game event here. This came from—when we were in high school, on this random day, Cam’ron and Dipset had a game here, and it was unexpected. We were about to go home. We didn’t have practice [that day] and to see them pull up in Range Rovers—pink Range Rovers—back there and just had everybody come back to the school, pack out the gym and watch them hoop. I didn’t think of the idea, but Randall ended up asking me, Man, what do you think if we did something like that? And it was a no brainer, we for sure have to do that, but [this time] we’re going to play in it. 

It’s about activations, collaborating with the Bulls and Sloomoo, the slime company, and other partners, to move around the city and make it a real all-star weekend experience.  

SLAM: If 36-year-old Derrick Rose could have a conversation with 22-year-old Derrick Rose, what would you say to him? 

DR: Be patient. When I was younger, I always kept the mindset of like, keep it moving. I call it KIM: keep it moving. And once again, I didn’t cherish those moments because I’m thinking, like, Ah, I won one MVP, next year I’m about to win another one. I’m about to win three or four more. I’m about to win the championship. So, I don’t got time to really celebrate because you hear all the time, once you achieve something, you can’t really bask in it that long. If you do, you’re going to miss out on the next opportunity. I always kept the mindset of, like, keep it moving. But at the same time, looking back at it [now], [I would suggest] just enjoying it. Going to dinner, going to concerts more, events. Really, throwing myself into the matrix. But at that time, I wasn’t ready for that…It was the little things that I overlooked. My third or fourth year—I think it was my fourth year—that’s when I saw Kobe kind of relax. Once I saw that, that’s when I started to relax, because I knew that he wasn’t living the life that he portrayed. Not in a bad way—he wasn’t that intense, I would say.

SLAM: If you had to identify a couple of mentors who helped you stay mentally level-headed through all the ups and downs of your career, who would you say they were and how did they help you? 

DR: For one, my man, Harvey Hampton, that’s my best friend’s dad. He kind of took me in as his third child, [his] family took me in as like their third child. I used to spend the night over at their house almost the entire summer. When I first met him, he threw me for a loop because everybody in my neighborhood that was doing well or had families that were doing well, they were doing nefarious things. I remember being at his house and I asked him straight up, like, Do you sell drugs or something? He started laughing in my face and took me to his office, which is a part of the living room, and was just showing me, like, Nah, I work at a chemical company. I clean the water that you drink, that you bathe in. So, to assume that he was doing nefarious things and for me going there to hear the complete opposite, it kind of blew me away. 

Another guy Dre—Driller—lived in my neighborhood, another guy that was into nefarious things, but changed his life at the right time to help not only in the neighborhood but at Simeon and was one of the coaches at Simeon while we were here. I had another guy that coached along with Harvey, with us in AAU; his name is Lou Tops. And Lou was kind of like the wild card on the team, but taught us heart, bravery and just passion for the game. Coming here, Bob Henry, that was the varsity coach here before I got here. When I came here, I played JV and our coach was Robert Smith. But the varsity coach here, the same guy who coached Benji Wilson, he taught everybody a little bit of something as far as becoming a man, making sure you didn’t mess up in school, making sure that you did think things through, critically thinking and teaching you discipline. That’s the biggest thing I got from here and from all the people that I’ve been around—how disciplined they were.

SLAM: Your retirement weekend will have lots of activations that are meant to celebrate with fans in different capacities. What do you hope people take out of the weekend from an experience standpoint? 

DR: Peace and love, some type of peace and some type of love, or just a vibration. We never thought that we would have an all-star weekend here or host two days here. If we did think that, it was probably a thought that [it’d happen] while I was playing. But to do all of this after the fact, and to conflate everything together and come up with something that’s going to be special and that we could probably turn into an annual thing—you never know. We’re pushing ourselves and we’re getting the most out of every day. It’s a perfect place to be. I call it a great problem. Most people just got problems, but we got great problems. 

SLAM: Twenty, 30 years from now, when people talk to the next generation of kids about your career, what do you hope they remember most about it and the impact you made on the game and on the city of Chicago?

DR: I’d want the question to be, He hooped? I want that one question. I want them to be amazed that I hooped. That’s how far away removed I want to be from it.

The post EXCLUSIVE Derrick Rose Interview 🌹 Former MVP on his Past, Present & Future appeared first on SLAM.

The view provides a calmness effect after the ruckus from the previous hour, when both players found out the short list of teams that are most likely to end up drafting them in June. It’s been quite the journey for this duo—one that will have them stamped in college hoops history for eternity.

SLAM 250 featuring Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle is available now.

Clingan, a 7-2 center, won back-to-back national titles in his only two seasons at UConn. He averaged 13 points, 7.4 boards and 2.5 blocks per game this past season, earning him a spot on the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award Midseason Watch List, the 2024 NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team and a ’24 NCAA East Region Most Outstanding Player nod.

Meanwhile, Castle, a 6-6 freshman wing who averaged 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists while becoming a top perimeter defender for the Huskies, made his own imprint in the history books. He set a new Big East record with 11 Freshman Conference Player of the Week honors, surpassing Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. He was also the first Huskie since Rudy Gay in 2005 to win Big East Freshman Player of the Year.

We sat down with both projected top-10 picks after our shoot to discuss their historic run, their chemistry and their NBA outlook, among many other topics.

SLAM: It’s been a few weeks since you guys cut down the nets and made history, going back-to-back as national champs. Now that you’ve had some time to process it all, how do you put into words the accomplishment?   

Donovan Clingan: To win back-to-back, you know, for me personally, was something really special just because there’s not too many people that could go around saying that they’ve done something that special. We did it in such a historic program that has a lot of history, and it’s a place where it’s hard to make history. But to go out there and do some of the most historic things that have happened in the program was something really special. I think UConn is a special place that will always be home to me. I know Steph will say the same thing. I’m just super, super blessed to be able to have accomplished what I’ve accomplished, and I’ll be forever grateful for my two years at UConn.

Stephon Castle: I mean, honestly, it really still doesn’t even feel real to me. I only won once, I can only imagine what it feels like for DC. Just the whole experience was super, super fun.

It really was a blessing just to be out there with the great group that we had. We had a real special group. Like [DC] said, it’s definitely a second home for me.

SLAM: At what specific point in the season do you remember feeling like y’all had a really good chance to run it all back?

DC: I feel like when we went on our trip to Europe [UConn played in Monte Carlo and Spain last summer—Ed.], we saw the potential we had. To be honest, I feel like I didn’t know if a national title was a possibility again, just because I realized how hard it was the year before, and we were going to have a big target on our back, but when we got back from Europe, we had like two weeks off and we came back in for the start of practice in the regular season. And you could just tell the energy and the will of everyone on the team, everyone on the staff, everyone in the building, really, just wanted to go out there and win every game, every night.

SC: Early in the season, I didn’t know how good we were. I mean, we always talked about going back-to-back and chasing a national championship, but I feel like every school talks about going for a national championship. I feel like it was about the midpoint of the season, probably like where the Big East [season] really kicked off, when I kinda knew, like, we really had a chance at winning the whole thing over again.

SLAM: Donovan, your freshman season, you only averaged 13 minutes per game but played a major role in the rotation on the 2023 national championship team. What did you learn from that group that you were then able to apply to this past season, when you became a major focal point?

DC: Just realizing everything I had to give every single day. I played [in practice] against the most dominant big in the country in Adama [Sanogo], who went into practice and into workouts every single day knowing that he’s gonna get better and knowing that the team was gonna need him that year to make a big jump [and] lead us to where we wanted to go. I feel like that was something for me, coming into the season—I have to make a big jump. I have to be a leader. I have to dominate the floor on the offensive and defensive end. I just gotta give my all, day in and day out, just to make sure that this team wins.

SLAM: Steph, you got thrown right into the fire despite being a freshman—you were a starter from the very first game, and only came off the bench a few times due to an early season injury. What was the early challenge like for you?

SC: I mean, it was definitely hard at first. Definitely something that you have to really adjust to and really just embrace. But I feel like my teammates, they had a lot of confidence in me this year and they instilled a lot of confidence in myself. So, just going out there, just trusting my work that I put in and just knowing that the coaches believe in what I do.

SLAM: Donovan, you decided to return to college without even testing the NBA waters in 2023. A reporter afterward said that NBA scouts believed you could have been selected anywhere between 25 and 40 in the draft that year. Why did you think it was important to return?

DC: I knew I had to mature as a person, as a player. I had to expand my game in many ways. I only played 13 minutes a game last year. I wanted to go out there and be a starter, try to lead the team to another national title and I just wanted to go play for UConn. I love Coach [Dan] Hurley, I love that staff, I love the school, and I just wanted to try to be part of something really special and to be able to say that I did that means a lot to me.

SLAM: Steph, do you remember the moment when you realized that despite being a freshman who’s starting for the reigning national champs, you had what it took to hold your own at an elite level?

SC: I don’t remember the exact practice but I know I was frying though, that’s the only thing I do remember. I think I was on the second team at the time, too. So, that definitely gave me a lot of confidence going into it, especially coming back from an injury.

SLAM: Are there parts of your game that you didn’t get a chance to showcase in college because the team didn’t need you to, that you’re now excited to be able to show at the next level?

DC: Yeah, to be able to step out, shoot the three ball a little more, play off the dribble, really just working that midrange game and setting the pick-and-pops and just roll to the rim, lobs. You know, Coach Hurley had a great game plan for this team. He always put us in the best position possible and my team didn’t need me to shoot threes to win games. That’s something I didn’t have to do. [But] that’s something I’m gonna have to do to take my game to the next level and succeed at the highest level.

SC: I mean, probably just being on the ball more, taking more shots, like off the dribble and stuff like that. I feel like Coach had a great scheme for us and he asked specifically what he needed for us to win a championship. And I thought we got it done. But if there was anything, I’ll say shooting off the dribble, playmaking a little more on the ball and, you know, stuff like that.

SLAM: Steph, you set the Big East record for most Conference Freshman of the Week honors, and in doing so, you surpassed Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson. What did that historic feat mean to you?

SC: It meant a lot, just to put my name next to those high-level type of guys. You know, I feel like that meant a lot for my career and what my legacy was at UConn for that short time. But a lot of that credit goes to my teammates and my coaches. I feel like they put me in a great position to be successful in those games. I just had to go out there and just be myself. I feel like a lot of credit goes to them.

SLAM: You also became the first UConn men’s player since Rudy Gay in 2005 to win Big East Freshman of the Year.

SC: I wouldn’t say it was regularly just a goal for me, but it’s definitely in the back of your head as you’re playing. It’s something that you kind of shoot for. So, like DC said, it’s a pretty historic school. There’s been a lot of great names to come out of there, so just to have my name beside those guys and instilled in that history forever, it’s super special to me.

SLAM: Donovan, do you have an off-the-court story of Stephon that you’d say perfectly reflects his personality when the cameras aren’t rolling?

DC: I mean, Steph loves to nap. He loves to sleep. When we were on the way back from Europe, I remember before we left out of Barcelona—like, I don’t think everyone was even on the plane yet—he was already asleep, and he didn’t wake up until the lights turned on when we landed in Boston. It was like an eight-hour flight, and he did not wake up once. Not even to use the bathroom. Nothing. And I was just like, That’s Steph! Like, when he’s sleeping, he’s sleeping. But when he’s up, he’s just hooping. But he just loves to nap. Every time I see him, he’s napping. On the bus, on the plane—he’s napping.

SLAM: What about you, Steph—any good Donovan stories?

SC: So, it’s one day in practice—I think [Donovan], he wasn’t having the best practice. He was kind of mad at himself. I want to say he kicked something or he punched the backboard or it was something crazy like that, but he hurt himself. And we had a game coming up. I mean, we always called him “Cling Kong,” so I feel like that was one of his moments. He ripped his shirt in practice, punched the backboard, he started screaming. He was going crazy.

DC: I want to win [shrugs with a smile].

SC: It’s practice, though [laughs].

DC: It’s OK, I don’t lose.

SC: I don’t remember the whole story. I know you can tell the story.

DC: I mean, I get upset sometimes with how I’m playing, and if I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do on the floor, I take it out on myself. And I put a lot of pressure on myself. I do just get frustrated at times—

SC: [interrupting Donovan] You ever seen somebody punch the backboard without jumping?

DC: I just want to win [laughs].

SLAM: When people talk about the 2023-2024 UConn Men’s team 10, 20 years from now, what do you hope they say in terms of your legacy?

SC: I think we might be up there as one of the best college basketball teams ever, because if you think about it, our only games we lost were away games, and one of them, we didn’t even have our full team. [Actually], two of them—one game I was hurt and then one game [DC] got hurt.

DC: Just to be remembered as one of, if not the best college basketball team ever. There was a bunch of guys who gave it their all every single day for 11 months of the year. It’s a special group. We were a brotherhood. Everyone loved each other, and that’s going to be a special team. There’s no one that’s going to be left out forever. We’re all going to stay in touch, we’re all gonna be brothers for life, and that’s just something that’s really important to me.

Portraits by Joe Pinchin. Action photos via Getty Images.

The post After Winning Back-to-Back Titles at UConn, Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle are Ready to Make Waves in the NBA appeared first on SLAM.

Even when he turns his camera off, and despite being in the middle of a vacation, you can hear the passion in Noah’s voice when he begins to excitedly talk about the different community initiatives he’s currently working on, whether in Chicago or in Africa. It’s been years since he’s hooped on an NBA court, but the enthusiasm the former NBA All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year was always known for remains intact.

SLAM: Are there any new passions or hobbies that you’ve found during retirement that maybe you did not discover during your playing years, or just didn’t have the time to dedicate to while in the NBA?

Joakim Noah: Well, I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m on the top of a mountain right now overlooking—I’m on a ski slope right now. I just did three hours of skiing with my kids. My nephew just came for the first time from Maui. It’s his first time seeing snow. When you’re playing basketball in the NBA, you’re not allowed to do things like [skiing]. You don’t want to put yourself in a position to get hurt. So, I’ve been picking up skiing, that’s a good one. And just being able to travel and take time and not being rushed into getting back in playing shape. It’s a different kind of training. [Now] you train for health. Training for health and training for championships are two completely different things. I think that my nervous system appreciates it.

SLAM: Where’s your skiing skill level?

JN: Skill level, I would say I’m not comfortable going down heavy duty stuff. I’m not going down any black slopes. Or even blue slopes. I’m very comfortable staying in the green. You know, that’s seven feet, 260 pounds going down the slope. That’s a different animal.

SLAM: What new business endeavors have you been getting into?

JN: Being able to be an investor in the NBA Africa league, the BAL, has been a real blessing, because I’ve been able to travel all around the continent and just really learn from the best in the business with [President of the Basketball Africa League] Amadou Gallo Fall and [NBA Deputy Commissioner] Mark Tatum. You know, taking a leadership role in NBA Africa, and just really starting from scratch on the continent, and just watching this league flourish. We just came back from South Africa. It was packed, it’s a different energy. And we’re just getting started on something that I’m really excited about.

SLAM: What is your ultimate goal with the BAL? Where do you see it in 10 years?

JN: My ultimate goal is when you see African kids, like, doing a tween-tween hesi, then you know that we did something right. You haven’t really seen the African kids do the hesi-hesi yet, and that’s coming!

SLAM: It sounds like there’s a lot of untapped basketball potential in Africa, plus also a business model structure to enable the league to flourish.

JN: There’s definitely a business model structure. But the continent is 54 different countries and the fastest growing youth population in the world. So, the math adds up. But it’s also understanding that when you’re playing in systems in America, you get to play in a beautiful gym, you have your school’s high school rival, you have your little girlfriend that’s coming to watch you play, mom and dad are coming to watch you play. Like, these are all things that places around the world don’t have. So, the problem with Africa is the lack of—this isn’t a sport that’s part of African culture. So, it’s really starting from scratch. And understanding that the issues are lack of infrastructure and lack of basketball education, even when it comes to refereeing, when it comes to coaching.

A lot of people are putting in the time and making long trips and teaching, [running] basketball and coaching clinics, clinics for the referees. Just to see how far the growth has come in the last five years is just astounding, but we still have a lot of work to do.

SLAM: How did you end up connecting with the BAL?

JN: I think, for me, it was having a relationship with the president of the BAL, Amadou Gallo Fall, who was a dear friend of mine throughout my career. Even though he was the guy who was a scout for the Dallas Mavericks, [and] I never played with the Mavericks, [he] was just somebody that I always connected with. And I think that that’s something that I realize now that I’m done playing. You realize that when basketball is over with, all you have in the end is just your relationships and your memories. So, I think that’s just important to sometimes [remember], there’s so much money involved, and it’s so easy to get caught up in the business. Just make sure that you go out on your terms, and that you make solid, solid relationships and solid bonds.

SLAM: Are there some non-basketball endeavors that you’re into that you might want to put on people’s radars?

JN: I think that most of the work that I’m doing right now is basketball-oriented. The other endeavor that I’m really excited about is this One City Basketball League that we created in Chicago. We’re working with 28 violence prevention groups all around the city and having at-risk youth playing basketball against each other, getting state funding and being able to build a basketball league that’s much bigger than basketball. We have financial literacy courses, job education, job training, and all this. Things are moving fast. I’m really excited with the development of our One City Basketball League. We’re doing special things. We’re really hoping to be able to grow it in other cities, and hopefully other guys around the League get inspired and want to do things in their neighborhoods. I really feel like the future of this league can be a national program. I think that’s very important in our communities in America.

SLAM: You mentioned fatherhood earlier. How has fatherhood changed you as a person after retirement? What is Joakim Noah, the father, like these days and what have you learned from your kids?

JN: It’s teaching me that it’s not about me, ever, especially when the kids are around you. When you’re playing, sometimes you feel like it’s about you, and the lights are on you. But my kids, I can be watching my favorite show on TV, and they’ll turn that right off [and] put on Moana. They don’t care.

SLAM: What do you think about the current state of basketball? What are some trends or things you like about the game today? And what are some things that you feel could be improved upon?

JN: Well, I think that the game is definitely more skilled. I think one through 15, even the guys who are just coming into the game, are just so good at basketball. I think that, obviously, the spacing is different. A lot of people are putting an emphasis on [saying that] there’s no defense and stuff like that, but I don’t think it’s the players’ fault. I think it’s just the way that the game is ref’d, the way that the game is, it’s completely different. They’re not letting you have any contact with guys. The game is a lot softer because that’s just the way the game is called. It’s just less physical. And I think it’s just putting a lot of pressure on the defense when you can’t use your hands, these are all things that were part of the game even 10 years ago that they’re not letting guys do anymore. So, I don’t think it’s a question of guys not wanting to play defense. I think it’s just the way it is officiated.

SLAM: Is there one thing you didn’t get a chance to do or try, or maybe you just were
apprehensive about, during your playing days that you look back on now and regret not doing?

JN: I think that my mind would say that I wish that I had developed a three-point shot. I think that would have definitely helped. But, you know, at the time, I was a rolling big—you set screens and you roll, and that was my role. That’s just the way the game was played. And what I tell the young guys all the time is, it’s about being as effective as possible and trying to affect winning. And when your mindset is trying to score points for yourself, I think that takes away from the ultimate goal, which is to win the ball game. I don’t really talk about Xs and Os too much, I don’t talk about technique, because that was never my strength. My strength was always being as available as possible for my teammates and being a good teammate, and doing whatever it takes to help win a basketball game.

Photo via Getty Images.

The post Former All-Star Joakim Noah Talks NBA Africa, Community Initiatives in Chicago and Fatherhood appeared first on SLAM.

A first-generation Canadian whose parents migrated from the Philippines, Niko grew up around hoops ever since he could remember.

“Filipinos in general, we love basketball. That’s what I was exposed to very young. I got okay at playing. I played in the OBA—it’s almost like AAU but a Canadian version. I played for an organization called the Scarborough Blues, which made a lot of basketball players that play in the NBA right now—whether it be Corey Joseph, Kellly Olynyk.” Niko says. “My dad played college ball in the Phillipines and then when he came in the ‘70s to Toronto, he kind of found his love again for the game in these small adult leagues. He would bring me with him and that’s kind of how I fell in love with the game.” 

Eventually, the Toronto Raptors arrived to town, and Niko says he still recalls attending the franchise’s first ever youth camp. Like with most hoopers, though, he eventually came to the realization that it wouldn’t be something he’d pursue professionally. As fate would have it, it was the music industry he’d enter, helping his close friend Drake became a global icon. 

Nonetheless, Niko still found ways to keep himself around the game. He launched OVO Bounce, a local summer pro-am tournament that drew NBA stars from across the border. OVO Bounce blew up and became a summer hoops staple. For Niko, though, this was only the beginning of his journey with the sport. 

As his name and reputation grew—known for being Drake’s right-hand man since Day 1 as co-founder of OVO and for helping push hoops in Canada via his OVO Bounce tourney—he says he was eventually approached by the Canadian Elite Basketball League post-pandemic about helping establish a new professional team in Toronto. 

His initial response was that he’d only be interested if the team would be based in his hometown of Scarborough instead. As expected, his response raised some eyebrows at first but the league ultimately agreed and the Scarborough Shooting Stars were soon born, with Niko serving as co-owner.  

“I gotta shout out the commissioner, Mike Morreale, because initially when I brough that up, everyone was just like, Why? Why are we doing Scarborough? Scarborough is a small suburb, and they wanted obviously a Toronto team because it’s a bigger market and to capitalize off that. But my heart wouldn’t be in it if the team wasn’t in Scarborough. I’m passionate in what raised me… [Marreale] was like, there’s this guy that’s just as passionate about Scarborough as you are. I’m like, Yeah? Who is it? And that’s how I met Sam [Ibrahim]—he’s one of our partners that contributes greatly to this organization.” 

The Shooting Stars essentially serve two purposes: a culture of community and culture of winning. While the Raptors have become a global brand, and do in fact stay active in the community, their demanding schedules and off court obligations in many ways limit how accessible players can be to the community. That’s where the Shooting Stars come in. Niko says the goal has been to host some type of community event every week during the season—whether it be camps, clinics, or meet-and-greets. And that doesn’t just apply to the players, he’s applied that same responsibility of accessibility to himself as well.     

“When we made this team, I wanted to make it about the youth. For the kid that couldn’t afford tickets to the Raptors. I didn’t ever go to a Raptors game until I was probably 18 years old. The Shooting Stars is one of those things where it’s accessible,” he says. “Let’s reach out to all the youth basketball programs and high schools, and give them tickets. Doing camps and having them meet the players and meeting me. And going through a full day of what it’s like to be a professional basketball player. Just trying to find a way to inspire kids… I’m just trying to stay as connected as a I can with them and be personable with them. We’re not unreachable. I want Scarborough Shooting Stars to not be unreachable. You can reach out, you can shake hands. Us being a community team, we can do that.” 

The CEBL, which launched in 2019, is comprised of 10 teams across Canada that play about 20 regular season games and a single-game elimination playoff structure, where after the quarterfinals being played at home, the semis and title games are played at a rotating neutral site (last year was in Vancouver, this year will be in Montreal) during a championship weekend. The league, which goes from May to August, has unique rules that aim to prioritize local Canadian talent. For example, only 4 imports are allowed on each team—3 of them being Americans and the other being an international player from anywhere else. The rest of the roster is all Canadian hoopers. The league also requires for two Canadians on each team to be on the court at all times. If a team doesn’t follow that rule, it’s an automatic technical foul.    

The way the season is structured does bring some challenges, of course. The roster is made up of guys that play professionally in the EuroLeague and other top divisions across the globe, as well as NBA G League and Sumer League regulars. Some of the players on the roster in previous years included Jalen Harris, Isaiah Mike, Cam Chatman, Kasssius Robertson, Kyle Alexander, Cat Barber, Kalif Young…and Grammy-winner J. Cole. 

But with high-level talent comes obstacles. Some of the players arrive late if their season overseas goes deep into the playoffs, some have to leave early if their respective overseas teams start early, and some have even gotten invited to NBA Summer League in the middle of the CEBL season. It creates a roster puzzle that Niko and his staff have to constantly navigate through with precision, forecasting which players they might lose or start without and coming up with contingency plans. To Niko, navigating through the roster shuffles just means that his guys are experiencing upward mobility in their careers and that the Shooter Stars are playing a role in their development.  

On the court, though, those challenges haven’t affected the team’s success at all. In just two years of existence, the team made it to the championship game in their first year and won it all last year. The early success is of no surprise to Niko, whose ultra-competitive nature helped establish an expectation of claiming the top spot from the very beginning. He knew that the team would automatically have much more eyeballs and pressure on them (and naturally haters, too) than any other team in the league due to their affiliation with OVO and Drake. 

Whether being in the studio with The Boy, or on tour across the globe, or in business meetings talking strategy around the most-streamed male artist ever, it all prepared Niko for this very moment. 

“I learned from Drake a lot in terms of, he’s involved in everything of his creation—whether it’s concepts for his music videos, the beat production, writing, hooks, whatever the case may be, he’s involved in everything. And that’s what I did with this. On a regular day, I’m going to training camp, I’m watching film with the guys, I’m going to coaches’ meetings—I’m just learning and soaking it all in, and contributing with anything I can,” he says. “I just wanted to win or lose at my own merit, and I didn’t it want for it to be a thing where it didn’t work out but I was right. So, I wanted to be as involved as possible, so if I lost, it was on my own merit.” 

“The expectations are high. We’re repping a big city. We’re repping the east side of Toronto We’re repping OVO. We’re repping Drake. There’s a lot at stake here. I think that’s something I don’t take lightly. I want to be competitive here. I learned a lot from Drake, you can’t settle, you can’t be content. We cannot not have a successful season. We have to continue to find ways to stay on top somehow.”  

Beyond the wins and losses, the Xs and Os, and the championships, Niko’s story is a very relatable to the natural human experience. One that ultimately revolves around finding your true purpose and calling in life, living out your passion not just yourself but also ideally while pulling up those around you. It’s been quite the full circle moment for the Scarborough native. 

“Growing up, I wanted to be the starting point guard for the Raptors. But, obviously, being Filipino, I didn’t really grow much,” Niko says with a laugh. “I didn’t really know what [else] I wanted to be. I went to college for one year before Drake kind of snatched me and brought me on the road. I went to college to be a social worker. So, I always wanted to inspire and help the youth, troubled kids. I don’t want to say I was a troubled kid, but I wandered. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I always felt stuck. I never thought I could be a sports team owner, working in sports professionally. Now, I just want to inspire those that look like me.  

“It was tough, in terms of that feeling of being stuck—it’s a scary thing. That feeling of helplessness. Like, what’s next? Waking up every morning and being, like, Yo, what’s next? What am I going to do? Like, I don’t know what I’m going to do. There’s life after that. As long as you keep at it, good things will happen for you.”           

Photo credit: PlaceNEW.

The post Niko Carino, aka OVO Niko, Has Emerged Into a Successful Pro Team Owner After Transitioning From the Music Industry             appeared first on SLAM.

Less than 24 hours after suffering a foot injury at a CrawsOver Pro-Am league game in Seattle, Chet Holmgren had flown to Oklahoma City to get it looked at. And as he sat in the x-ray room in front of OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti, a wide range of emotions began to kick in. 

Hearing him describe it, it sounds like somewhere between guilt, pain, disappointment, sadness and distress. Probably a little hint of all of them. 

It was late August 2022, and the start of training camp was just about a month away. For Holmgren, that signaled the highly anticipated debut of his rookie season after being selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft earlier in the summer. Fans had already gotten a glimpse of his talent at Summer League weeks earlier. But it appeared that his real debut would have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future. The prognosis didn’t look promising. 

“I’m doing imaging, I’m sitting on the doctor’s table and I’m talking to Presti, and I’m just falling apart because he just drafted me two months, month and a half prior, and it’s like, you want to kind of validate his belief in you and the organization’s belief in you. And then you get hurt and you feel like you let everybody down, even though I wasn’t wrong for it, I was trying to get better and trying to hoop,” says Holmgren, who was ultimately diagnosed with a Lisfranc injury to his right foot. “But I just remember sitting there and just falling apart. Not like apologizing, because I knew I had nothing to apologize for, but I was just so hurt by it. And then he was giving me advice, and he’s a big, big process guy. So, he was just reminding me, like, the process is going to win in this. And that’s part of why I took everything so serious and didn’t cheat any corners or anything. Just because I had people reminding me that the process is always going to win in the end.”

SLAM 248 featuring Chet Holmgren is available now. Shop here. 

Nine days later, he’d have surgery. The recovery timeline meant he’d have to miss the entire upcoming season. And for the following eight weeks post-surgery, he’d have to wheel himself around on a scooter. Not like that was ever going to stop him from hitting the hardwood and getting up some shots. 

“I was out there on the court, standing on one leg with the other leg up on a scooter, just shooting as many shots as I could shoot before they made me go sit down—they’d be telling me, like, Go home!,” he recalls. “But when you’re just standing on a scooter, you’re not getting tired, so I was like, I can do this all day.”  

Setbacks help put things into perspective, and this particular one was no different for Chet. Mundane everyday tasks all of a sudden became the most challenging and time-consuming missions ever. But it’s the ability to reflect back on those moments, unpack them and articulate the frame of mind derived from the experience that makes it all worth it for the 21-year-old.  

“I was literally wheeling around on a scooter for the first eight weeks post-surgery. You know, it really makes you realize what you’re taking for granted when just the ease of life is taken away—I couldn’t drive anywhere, it was my right foot, so I’m pretty much relying on other people to get me around. Everything’s harder,” he says. “I gotta hop around, getting in and out of the shower, everything’s more difficult. So, it really makes you appreciate all the small things that you can really do every single day with ease. And I feel like I didn’t take it for granted before, but [I] definitely don’t now.” 

His first game back would be almost a year later at Summer League in Salt Lake City last July. A light 15 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks.

“I just remember I was so amped to get out there and play. And I was just so ready. And I remember the first time I touched the ball, I got so excited [that] I just put up a terrible shot,” says Holmgren, laughing. “It was an awful shot. And nobody looked at me wrong for it—cause I feel like everybody understood—but at the same time it was a terrible shot. I just wanted to make sure I came out aggressive, ’cause I was ready to play. I’d been waiting 13 months to play. I hadn’t played a game in 13 months. There was a lot of emotion around it. I had my family out there watching me and all my teammates were supporting me in that moment, but they’d been supporting me throughout the whole process.”

It wouldn’t take long for him to start turning heads in the regular season. In just his second outing, Holmgren set the franchise record for most blocks in a single game by a rookie with 7. This came as no surprise to anyone who saw him play at Gonzaga, where in his college debut, he matched the program’s single-game blocks record—which, coincidentally, was also 7.  

By the time Chet was one month into the NBA’s regular season, he had also become the first rookie in franchise history to have multiple 30+ point outings in the first month of his career. In fact, he dropped 30+ twice within a four-game window.    

To no one’s surprise, he was named Rookie of the Month in the Western Conference for October/November. And in December, he showed no signs of slowing down, averaging 17.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.5 blocks in 13 games on his way to yet another Rookie of the Month nod. 

He ranks top four in the NBA in blocks per game as of late January. 

In retrospect, trusting his foot wasn’t an issue at all upon returning. If anything, it became the least of his worries. 

“The biggest thing that I learned from injuries is, like, where you got injured, you’re working so hard to strengthen it, that part of your body is going to be good. It’s more all the things around it that get deconditioned so much when you’re sitting out and just letting your body heal,” says Holmgren. “So, your foot’s good now, but now your back’s weak, so your back is getting tight, and then now your knee hurts ’cause you haven’t been putting that pressure on it and keeping it as strong. And then you got shin splints ’cause you’ve been sitting out for so long that that needs to recondition. So, it’s like all the little things around it pop up. But if you’re able to manage that and then kind of stay on top of it, over time it’ll go away.”

The impressive early start to his career has him in a tight race with San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year.   

Not only has Chet put up big numbers—tune in to a Thunder game and you would think he’s been part of their rotation for a handful of years based on the way he’s been able to seamlessly fit in. The impeccable chemistry has helped propel the franchise to the top of the Western Conference standings. At a little over the halfway mark of the season in late January (as we head to printers), the Thunder find themselves half a game from the No. 1 spot in the West. 

“I mean, I don’t have expectations, but at the same time, I’m not surprised by anything that I do,” says Holmgren. “I feel like whatever I go out there and do is an accumulation of the work that I’ve put in. I know what I can do. I know what I need to work on. And what I go out there and do are things that I’ve been working on my whole life. So, am I surprised by what I’m doing? No.”  

It’s not often that a team has one player in serious contention for the MVP award while another one is doing the same in the ROY race, but that’s exactly where this OKC franchise finds itself with its duo of Chet and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Nor is it often that a team that didn’t even make the playoffs the prior season is now vying for the No. 1 seed in the conference. This is undoubtedly a new era for the franchise, and Chet is poised to help bring back that same aura that he remembers the Thunder having in middle school when Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook were all teammates during their early years in the League. 

“I remember watching their playoff series back in, like, ’11, ’12, ’13 and everybody’s wearing the same color shirt, screaming [in the stands],” says Holmgren. 

“We’re gonna get back to that point.” 

SLAM 238 IS OUT NOW! 

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.

The post Chet Holmgren Reflects on How He Propelled Past Season-Ending Injury to Assemble Historic Rookie Season appeared first on SLAM.

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.

An argument could be made that 2019 was an important peak in high school basketball. Hear us out for a bit. While 2017 and 2018 saw LaMelo Ball and Zion Williamson bring new levels of eyeballs into the high school hoops space, it led to newfound momentum and interest in 2019. And although this new group of kids may have not garnered the same type of attention that LaMelo and Zion did individually, as a whole—collectively—they were rock stars, too. More specifically: Jalen Green, Josh Christopher and Sharife Cooper. 

They checked all the boxes on and off the court—each one had the perfect combo of skills and flair that drew large crowds in person and made for some very fun highlight mixes online. And then, off the court, they also happened to be the cool kids of their class: swaggy and fashion-forward, they knew how to utilize social media (and build an audience) impeccably and were top-tier pros when it came to on-camera interviews.

Jalen, out of Fresno, CA, was a top-three prospect in the class. His speed, explosiveness and hangtime made him an automatic fan favorite. Then you had Josh, also from Cali, but residing in Los Angeles. His family was no stranger to the sport, with his brother Patrick having logged some minutes in the NBA with the Utah Jazz, as well as in Summer League, the G League (D-League at the time) and overseas.  

And then there was Sharife. While Jalen and Josh were shooting guards, Sharife was a pure point guard. And although he was smaller in stature, his confidence and swagger were on the very same level as theirs, or anyone else’s, for that matter. He hooped out of Atlanta and shared the court at McEachern HS with now-Cavs forward Isaac Okoro. Like Josh, he also came from a family of athletes; his sister, Te’a, hooped collegiately before joining the L.A. Sparks in the WNBA.  

All roads led to a mid-August weekend in NYC, when all three arrived in the Big Apple to partake in the SLAM Summer Classic Vol. 2—where the shoot for the iconic trio’s cover came to life. It’s one of those things where you look back and notice that all aspects of the aesthetics were spot on: the seamless backdrop color, their uniform colorways, their poses, their sneakers, their facial expressions. The most impressive part is that it took little art direction from our end to get them to execute the cover shot or any other flicks. We just put them in front of the camera and let them do their thing.

That’s what makes this trio so unique: it was all effortless. They understood media—both social media and traditional media. They understood branding. Despite their young ages, they had an impressive understanding of the game, on and off the court. And the hoops community took notice. This part isn’t subjective. It’s quantifiable. If you look at the view counts and engagement for video posts focused on this trio back in 2019, the numbers are as high as anyone we’ve ever covered.  

Speaking of coverage, another reason Jalen, Josh and Sharife hold such a strong presence in SLAM’s heart is that their rise came at a time when we were making a big push in the high school media space. Yes, SLAM had always covered HS hoops in some capacity—check our digital archive for LeBron’s HS shoots, our print HS Diary column, our beloved PUNKS section, and early in-depth coverage of the Ball brothers and Zion Williamson, among many others. But there hadn’t been a dedicated HS team internally focused on the space until then. By 2019, we had shooters attending HS games across the country on a nightly basis and dedicated social pages across Twitter, Instagram and YouTube that exclusively served HS hoops, and no one in the industry was churning out “Day in the Life” episodes with the top recruits in the country as consistently as we were. So, while we certainly helped raise the profiles of the trio at the time with our coverage, they also helped raise our profile in the HS space by allowing us in and trusting us to tell their stories.

And if we needed another reason to have Jalen, Josh and Sharife up in our rafters, they were also members of the inaugural SLAM Summer Classic Vol. 1 in 2018, and all three returned the following year for Vol. 2—a game and postgame celebration that our audience still talks about to this day. You don’t believe us when we say they were rock stars? Just check out the video online of kids running through the streets of New York City following the players’ bus after the game. For many blocks. 

Today, all three are still pushing hard on their NBA dreams—Jalen is playing a major role with the Houston Rockets (where he coincidently hooped with Josh for two seasons), while Josh and Sharife are still solidifying their places in the L. 

One thing is for certain, though: All three are legends in SLAM’s history.

All portraits by Jon Lopez.

The post THE 30 PLAYERS WHO DEFINED SLAM’S 30 YEARS: Josh Christopher, Sharife Cooper and Jalen Green appeared first on SLAM.

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.

The entirety of 2017 belonged to the Ball family. No one came anywhere close in the basketball universe when it came to media coverage and fanfare. And similarly, no media company came anywhere close to the access and trust with the family that SLAM received, and the result was a whole lot of incredible content.   

When the fam decided they wanted to take an unconventional route and challenge the status quo, it was SLAM they called to exclusively break each of their historic announcements—from launching their own signature sneakers to a first-of-its-kind semi-pro league. And while those happened in 2017 and 2018, it was technically in 2016 when SLAM and the Ball family first embarked on the wild ride. 

In the spring of 2016, right after Chino Hills High School (led by senior Lonzo Ball, junior LiAngelo Ball and freshman LaMelo Ball) went undefeated with a 35-0 record and was ranked No. 1 in the country, we took a cross-country trip to sunny California to produce the family’s first major magazine shoot. We did some stills at the school in their high school uniforms and then some stills at their home in…Big Baller Brand merch. This was almost a full year before BBB would become a hot topic of discussion. A little sprinkle of foreshadowing.  

A few months later, we reconnected for a fun YouTube video titled “Christmas Day with the Ball Family.” It was the reality show before the reality show, essentially, and helped demonstrate the fun but competitive personalities of not only the brothers but also their parents, Tina and LaVar. It’s amassed close to 13.5 million views on YouTube alone, making it SLAM’s most watched original content video of all time; and, FWIW, it has significantly more views than any standalone original piece from many of our competitors. 

And then came spring of 2017, when Lonzo, the most talked-about prospect in that year’s NBA draft, announced with SLAM exclusively that he was going to keep it in the family, turning down a traditional sneaker endorsement deal to launch his own signature sneaker with BBB. The momentous announcement went viral, of course, easily the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter that day, and the first of many announcements that SLAM helped break with the family. 

A couple of months later, just 48 hours after the 2017 NBA Draft, we did our first cover shoot with the brothers at their home: Zo wearing his new Lakers uniform, Gelo donning the UCLA colors and Melo with the Chino Hills threads. LaVar guest-wrote the cover story. WATTBA.

And then, two months later, we returned to Chino Hills to shoot another announcement. This time, LaMelo was becoming the first HS player ever to launch his own signature sneaker at just 16 years old. The video and photos (including Melo’s famous Lamborghini) from the shoot are forever etched in hoops history.

The following year, LaVar decided to launch his own professional league for HS players, the Junior Basketball Association, a historic endeavor that paid HS kids to hoop around the US and embark on a tour throughout Europe. LaMelo and LiAngelo both joined, and just like the other Ball family announcements that SLAM broke, it did numbers, as every sports talk show joined in on the conversation. In collaboration with the family, we also announced LaMelo’s decision to return to HS in the US later that year, when he joined SPIRE Academy in Ohio. 

All those exclusive videos and announcements aside, we’ve shot multiple other covers as well—LaMelo has given us time for two solo covers in the past four years. And we’ve also done some cool merch collabs with LaMelo’s LaFrancé brand over the past year.  

SLAM’s unique relationship with the Ball family has grown and evolved continuously, just like the family members’ individual careers. In many ways, our journey together seems like a fitting pairing. We both value family, loyalty and the fearlessness to do things in your own unique way.  

An argument could be made that many of those historic announcements helped pave the way for today’s HS landscape, which gives power to student-athletes like never before. For one, the family deciding to launch their own brand and profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL)—even though it risked LaMelo’s (and Lonzo’s) eligibility to play in college—helped drive the conversation around kids being allowed to make money without losing college eligibility. Today, thanks to new NIL policies, high school kids are allowed to do the same things that cost LaMelo the opportunity to play college ball. Similarly, LaVar’s JBA league drove conversation around the need for HS kids to have  alternative options to the traditional high school basketball experience, and lo and behold, there are now numerous leagues that offer to pay high school players.

The Ball family’s revolutionary journey has led to plenty of conversation and even planted seeds for new opportunities that weren’t there for HS kids at the time. SLAM is just glad to have played a small part in all of it. 

Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

The post THE 30 PLAYERS WHO DEFINED SLAM’S 30 YEARS: The Ball Brothers appeared first on SLAM.

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.

On June 12, 2015, we found ourselves walking the streets of downtown St. Louis with 17-year-old Jayson Tatum. At the time, though he was a five-star recruit who would soon commit to Duke, we were able to freely roam the streets without Jayson being bombarded by fans. Today, we wouldn’t be able to redo that shoot so seamlessly. But that day perfectly encapsulates the long-ranging relationship that SLAM has built with many of today’s NBA superstars.

The shoot was longer than our usual high school shoot: Jayson was about to become our HS Diarist for the following academic year, meaning he’d have his own column in the magazine for the following 12 months, which meant we’d have to capture plenty of images in different outfits so that we’d have enough options for all of the coming issues.

Jayson was accompanied by his entire family that day: his mother Brandy, his father Justin, his grandmother, his high school girlfriend and other relatives. We walked around taking photos in different parts of downtown St. Louis in the beaming summer sun. Although he had a cool, calm and collected demeanor, you could tell he already knew he was a star in the making. Going into the shoot, we asked him to bring whatever streetwear outfits he thought best reflected his personality. He showed up with a custom St. Louis Cardinals jersey that had his name stitched on the back, which he rocked for a photo in front of the iconic Gateway Arch. The second outfit he brought? A full gray suit, with a white dress shirt and a patterned pink/red/orange/white tie. He really meant business from Day 1.  

Through his diary entries in the issues that followed, we got a glimpse of his competitive side. He wrote about looking forward to playing against his dad during the season (Tatum attended Chaminade and his dad was the head coach of their rival school, Christian Brothers), and kept track of their head-to-head record. We also learned the impact that his mother had on his life, and even some of the school projects he enjoyed working on the most, along with any extracurricular activities. 

Toward the end of his senior year, Tatum was part of our annual HS All-American team shoot, where he posed alongside De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Harry Giles III and Josh Jackson in a conference room at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The SLAM All-American uniforms that year were sponsored by Jordan Brand and the shoot itself happened during Jordan Brand Classic week in NYC. Today, Tatum and Jordan have a very fruitful partnership. A full circle journey, indeed.

In the aftermath of his high school days, SLAM and Tatum have continued working together. In 2018, he appeared on his first solo SLAM cover, wearing a band-aid on his face in a nod to fellow St. Louis legend Nelly (the title of his HS feature—the spread where he’s wearing the aforementioned custom Cardinals jersey—was “Ride Wit Me,” a reference to Nelly’s hit single). In late 2022, he posed for his second solo cover. He’s also been a part of a couple of group covers. In 2023, he appeared on his first KICKS cover alongside fellow Jordan Brand athletes Zion Williamson and Luka Doncic. 

Point being, nine years later, Tatum and SLAM continue to collaborate on some top-tier shoots. He has not only played a major role in SLAM’s story and growth over the past decade—he’s also done the same for the game of basketball. Today, he’s one of the NBA’s biggest stars. A lethal scorer with a smooth flow to his game, he’s already been to four Conference Finals and got within two games of winning an NBA title in 2022. Off the court, he’s emerged as one of the most marketable figures in the game—you can always find him on TV, starring in commercials for Subway, Ruffles and Gatorade, among others. And, of course, he has his own signature sneaker with Jordan Brand—another TV spot to add to the list. He’s also become a model figure for fatherhood in the League—Jayson and his son, Deuce, are an elite duo in the hearts of all hoop fans and are frequently spotted together on the court and in the locker room after games. (And, for obvious reasons, we love when Deuce rocks his dad’s SLAM cover tee, which has happened a few times.)

Needless to say, as the headline of his high school story fittingly said, we’ve been riding wit’ JT for almost a decade, and we look forward to seeing all the destinations that lie ahead. 

Portrait by Chris Razoyk. Photo via Getty Images.

The post THE 30 PLAYERS WHO DEFINED SLAM’S 30 YEARS: Jayson Tatum appeared first on SLAM.

Population…roughly 3,000.                                                      

It is here where the epicenter of the biggest story in high school basketball originates.  

It is here where one of the most highly touted high school prospects in recent memory began his hoops odyssey.

A journey that technically can be traced back to the early 1990s. That’s when Cooper Flagg’s mother, Kelly, was turning heads on the hardwood at Nokomis Regional High School on her way to scoring 1,257 career points. Nokomis would become the same school where almost three decades later, one of her three sons would begin capturing the attention of the basketball universe.    

Kelly went on to play DI ball at the University of Maine from 1995-99, where she embarked on an incredible run that included four consecutive American East titles and making appearances in the NCAA Tournament all four years. Her senior year, when she was the team captain, Kelly was a starter and led the Black Bear over Stanford to the program’s first and only NCAA Tournament win.  

She was already a Maine hoops legend in the ’90s, but her contributions to the game were only just beginning. 

Enter…Cooper Flagg. It wouldn’t take long for Kelly to notice that Cooper—born seven years after her collegiate run and a minute after his twin brother Ace—wasn’t the typical elementary school kid. Looking to challenge him, she enrolled him on a 4^th grade rec league team—as a 2^nd grader. 

“I remember the ball was going out of bounds on the baseline, the other team’s end of the floor. He jumped up in the air and palmed the ball. Cooper didn’t just chuck it back inbounds to anybody, he kept it in play and found a teammate at the same time. Moments later, he sprinted down to the other end of the floor and caught it for a layup. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a 7-year-old have those kinds of instincts,” she recalls. “It was apparent to us that year when the rec season ended that he needed more. That is not what you normally see in a 7- or 8-year-old kid.

“There were a lot of weekends we went to play and they would only have five or six kids,” she adds. “As a second grader, he never left the floor and would just be exhausted because they would play two or three games in a day. The next year, we got him on a team as a third grader with fifth grade boys. That was a really good fit for him. Their team played more of a five in, five out style.”

“I remember the first couple of practices just being really tough. I would come out really tired and exhausted,” says Cooper. “I think I had a bunch of bruises. It was just really rough to start out because of how much older everyone was. I was also just as tall as them from a really young age, so I didn’t really feel out of place, but you could tell that they were more physically developed than me… That’s something that I look back on and I’m really thankful for. Both of my parents always pushed me to play against older competition. It helped me to develop a lot earlier.”

SLAM 247 featuring Cooper Flagg is out now. Shop here.

At the end of Cooper’s third grade year, Kelly was approached by Andy Bedard, whom she had gone to college with but had subsequently lost contact with. He had gotten her number from Amy Vachon, the current women’s basketball head coach at the University of Maine and expressed interest in having her sons join the youth team he was coaching, which also included his own son, Kaden. Andy had begun hearing rumblings that Kelly’s kids were pretty good at basketball. There was only one little problem: Andy was based out of Portland—an hour and a half away from where the Flaggs lived.

But with the family committed to the game (Cooper’s dad, Ralph, also hooped collegiately at Eastern Maine Community College) and the boys’ continued development, they decided to make the trip multiple times per week, on weekdays. At times, these trips even included numerous family members and car swaps. When Kelly wasn’t able to drive the boys all the way to practice, she says her father would take them halfway, where Ralph, who worked in Portland, would meet them. The boys would hop in his car, and he’d drive them the rest of the way to practice.

“We would then hop in the vehicle, and I would have already made lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sometimes we ordered a pizza ahead and grabbed it on the way so that they could get some food,” says Kelly. “We would get down there for practice at 4:30. We practiced until 6 or 6:30, and then we would head back home. There were a lot of [long] nights for 10-year-olds [where] we were getting home at 9 at night on a school night. It was a big commitment, and we did that twice a week, but it was all worth it.”

To help pass time in those long car rides, Kelly would have the boys watch recordings of the 1980s Celtics’ championship teams. It helped set the foundation for their basketball knowledge, serving as a way to learn the game’s history while also doubling as elite film study sessions… and three-plus hours of much needed in-car entertainment.

“We would always either have the ‘85 or ‘86 Celtics championship games on or the Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird movies. It instilled Bird’s mindset within me and Ace. How he was always the hardest worker, no matter what,” recalls Cooper. “Especially from that Celtics team that played against the Rockets, it was more about the teamwork and the ball movement.”

By the time Cooper and Ace were ready to attend high school, it was an obvious choice where they would go—Nokomis Regional, the same program where their mom starred in the early ’90s, and, well, the only high school in the city of Newport.

They entered their freshman year in the fall of 2021 under a unique set of circumstances. With the world still reeling from the effects of a global pandemic, Cooper, Ace and his teammates had to wear masks while playing. But more unique was the family affair that the opportunity provided. On the team was also their older brother, Hunter, who was a senior. But as the season progressed, the roles between the younger brothers and their oldest sibling began to shift.

“The team was really bad for years leading up to that year and that run they had,” Kelly says. “They were 1-17 for two years in a row. In Hunter’s junior year, they were 3-15. Hunter was a big who got a lot of minutes and was a starter in his sophomore and junior years. Early on in [Cooper’s and Ace’s freshman] season, all three of them started. Cooper averaged six dunks a game in middle school. The buzz that his name was generating in the state of Maine around basketball was extraordinary before he even played his first high school game. People just couldn’t wait to see him play. A couple of games into the season after a successful preseason, the coach had Hunter and another senior coming off the bench. The both of them handled it so well even though it was a tough pill to swallow. All the seniors were so gracious and were just excited to have a winning team. Even the parents of the senior boys were amazing.”

That season ended up being one for the ages. The team went 21-1 on their way to capturing the state title. Cooper began to show the same flashes of elite talent that the rest of the world has now caught up on. He averaged 21 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists that season as a ninth grader. The USA Basketball website highlights one particular outing where he dropped 32 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists, 5 blocks and 3 steals in an early January game.   

“[Having Ace, Hunter, and me on the same team] was always something we were excited about. It was a really fun year in general because it was going to be our last year with Hunter. We knew that we probably weren’t going to be going back to Nokomis after that year, so we had a lot of fun with it,” says Cooper. “Winning the state championship together was a dream we always had, and something we wanted to do together for the community… We knew what the team was going to be because we had a fall ball team that had been playing together since the summer. Ace and I had been playing up with the varsity [team] during the summer.”   

As if the Flaggs’ story so far wasn’t already a Hollywood-type script, the story behind the supporting cast of that championship team really drives home the point. When Kelly was a senior at Nokomis, she shared the floor with teammates Penny, Jaime, Katie and Amanda—fast forward some three decades later, and their respective sons—Dawson Townsend, Ethan Cote, Alex Grant and Madden White—were all now sharing that same floor with Kelly’s kids at the very same school. A reminder of just how small the Newport community really is.  

After the movie-esque season, though, came a difficult decision. The family had to decide between continuing their high school careers at Nokomis or making the sacrifice of relocating in search of a chance to take their games to the next level. In the end, the latter took precedence, and Cooper and Ace found themselves on their way to Florida for their sophomore campaigns, enrolling at national powerhouse Montverde Academy. Aside from featuring an unmatched alumni list that includes Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid (transferred out), D’Angelo Russell and RJ Barrett, among a plethora of other NBA players, the Eagles are renowned for their state-of-the-art facilities and playing a top-notch national schedule that competes against the country’s top talent. It’s been regarded as the closest thing to a DI program at the high school level. In fact, since 2021, Montverde has had 12 players selected in the NBA Draft. In contrast, during that same period, Duke has had eight and Kentucky has had seven.    

“There were these whispers about a kid that was potentially very good, from Maine of all places, and they were playing at The Big House, which is 30 minutes from our school in Florida in a Made Hoops event,” recalls Montverde head coach Kevin Boyle. “So, I went there to watch some of our younger guys and to see what kind of potential Cooper had. You could just see he had a competitiveness and athleticism that at minimally, he was going to be an outstanding player.”  

The move to Montverde helped raise Cooper’s profile on a national scale while also taking his game up a notch. In 2022, he became the youngest ever USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.

The competitive side of Cooper is no more evident than when you hear him talk about the driveway battles he’s had with his family throughout the years. Those would get really heated sometimes, and no one was safe from it, not even his own mother. 

“Countless hours spent in the driveway battling against both of [my brothers]. Too many fights to remember. Just a lot of fun we used to have playing against each other and just battling,” says Cooper. “Me and my mom used to battle all the time [too]. I think the last time we played was in fifth grade. She actually got hurt when we were playing, and we haven’t played since. So I never beat her. I was beating her that one time. I was up 9 to 8 in a game to 11, but then she got hurt.”

“That’s not exactly the way I remember it happening,” says Kelly, after getting wind of Cooper’s 1-on-1 recollection. “He may have been in the lead, but I’m sure had I not torn my meniscus, I would have come back and beaten him in that game. I drove to the left and did a hard jump stop. He went flying, and I would have scored and tied up the game. When I planted it, I just felt [like] something was not right. So, he technically has never beaten me.

“I didn’t play them that often,” she adds. “Every once in a while, I would get in there just to remind them who the boss was. All three of our boys had battles. Those occurred daily, or at least several times a week. Every single time that the three of them went out to play, we knew that it was going to end in some sort of physical fight or verbal altercation. There was usually someone bleeding at the end. The ball was chucked across the street. It didn’t end well. I attribute that to their competitiveness, especially in those early days of wanting to win.”

Stories of just how competitive Cooper is are rampant. When Coach Boyle is asked for a story that perfectly reflects Cooper’s personality, he laughs for a few seconds before recalling the time Cooper had to be separated from a practice scuffle…with his own twin brother.

“It was Cooper and his brother swinging at each other in practice when they were on opposing teams,” Boyle says. “They got tangled up in a few plays and we had to break them up after throwing punches at each other. It’s a good story because it just shows the competitiveness in him because the family all love each other dearly, but when they’re on the court, they’re competing. It’s one of the few fights at practice we’ve had since I’ve been at Montverde. It brought a smile to my face, it brought me back to the St. Patrick [HS in Elizabeth, NJ] days.” 

As impressive as his game is, it’s the fact that he’s still only 16 years old that really hits. He’ll be 17 for his first four months of college since his birthday isn’t until December. Beyond the skill set, hard commitment to both ends of the floor, impressive athleticism, otherworldly confidence and poised demeanor, Cooper is barely old enough to be in his current grade. 

This past summer, though, Cooper Flagg-mania hit a new tier. Unless you spent the warmer months of 2023 living under a rock, you likely saw highlights of Cooper in your feed at some point while scrolling on your phone. His name would trend on Twitter periodically and videos of him absolutely manhandling his peers drew the attention of hoop fans and added fire to the frenzy. This all led to an epic run at the Nike EYBL Peach Jam.

Playing for Maine United, which earlier in the spring looked to be in jeopardy of even qualifying for Peach Jam, Cooper and company ended up going on a Cinderella-type run in the days that followed. Although they entered the U16 Peach Jam with a 9-9 record, the team went undefeated (4-0) in pool play on its way to the championship game, where they ultimately fell short. Flagg averaged 25.4 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists in the tournament and even had LeBron James approach him at one point to chop it up—an interaction that made the rounds online.

“It’d be tough for anybody to do a scouting report on me in terms of how they’re going to take me out of a game,” Cooper says. “They can take certain parts of my game away, but I think that I’m too versatile and too much of a well-rounded player that no team can take me out of the game.

“In terms of challenging, I don’t really know if I could say something that’s really challenging because most of the things that people would see as challenging are an outcome of some opportunity that I’ve been given. You have to look at it in that way.”      

For Cooper, though, it wasn’t just about shocking the world in leading an unbeknownst AAU team from Maine, of all places, to the title game of the most prestigious grassroots circuit in the world—all after barely maintaining a .500 record going into the final session. It was more about the fact that this very same AAU program was full of teammates that he met when he would travel 3+ hours for practice as a fourth grader. It was the culmination of an almost decade-long journey alongside some kids from The Pine Tree State with similar hoop dreams as his.        

Not long after, Cooper found himself having to make yet another high-stake, life-altering decision this past summer: stay in his current class and continue to the dominate everyone in front of him, or reclassify up and join the senior class of 2024, which would expedite his ultimate dream of going pro one day. He chose the latter, of course.

And although everyone watched his meteoric rise this year on social media, what they didn’t see was that behind the scenes, Cooper was taking summer classes when he wasn’t traveling around the country and tearing up every event he stepped foot in, all in order to put himself on track to have enough credits to reclassify up to the Class of 2024.  

“It was really tough because when I was home, the main thing I was doing was schoolwork,” Cooper says. “I had to focus on schoolwork over seeing my friends that I hadn’t seen in months. Trying to balance all those different things was tough but something that I had to do.”

All those previous decisions led to this current decision, his most important one yet. Deciding between UConn and Duke. Cooper visited both campuses in recent weeks, and when it came time to pick a destination, he went with his gut feeling, just like he has with every other decision.

“I think after I got on campus at Duke, I really started to feel it, to be honest,” he says. “That’s something the coaches definitely stressed to me, that once you get to campus, it’s something you have to feel. And [I knew then] I wanted to go to Duke and that’s where I wanted to play college basketball. What went into the decision, I mean, I was just looking for a coaching staff I was really comfortable with, but [also] a coach and staff that was really going to hold me accountable. Being on the visit, I got to see them in practice, and see how they were holding their guys accountable, and really pushing them to be better. For me, ever since I was a little kid, I always had dreams of playing Division I basketball at the highest level. Especially with a place like Duke, once we got to campus, we felt it.

“I’m honored that I have the opportunity to join The Brotherhood, and hopefully I’ll be one of the players that recruits are looking at some day and someone they can see themselves being. Especially from all the love I saw this last weekend when I was there, it made me really excited, all the [Cameron] Crazies and the fans. I think it’s going to be a really exciting year and [fans] should just get ready because I know that I’m all about winning, so I’m trying to keep that winning culture that Duke has.”

In Durham, after wearing No. 32 his whole life—a jersey number retired by Duke thanks to Christian Laettner—Cooper has chosen to wear No. 2 instead next year, in honor of his close friend Donovan Kurt, who attended Nokomis Regional back in Maine (he wore No. 2) and passed away last year after a long battle with brain cancer (visit here to support families of children fighting cancer in Maine).          

“[This] is something that I’m trying to carry with me. [I want to] prove that kids from Maine can make it if they put their minds to it and they really work hard enough,” says Cooper. “That’s something that I’m taking a lot of pride in. It’s proving to everybody from Maine, the rest of the country, and around the world, that kids from Maine can make it.”     

SLAM 247 COVER TEES AVAILABLE NOW.

Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

The post No. 1 HS Recruit Cooper Flagg Announces He’s Headed to Duke on the Cover of SLAM 247 appeared first on SLAM.

Roughly 24 hours after the Phoenix Suns land in Atlanta, having just flown in from New York following a game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center, Mikal Bridges is told that he has to hop on a flight back to Brooklyn. On a one-way ticket, that is. He’s been traded.

With no chance to grab any personal belongings from his home in Phoenix, Bridges simply gathers the bags he has packed for the five-game road trip (ATL was the fourth stop), says his goodbyes to his teammates and staff—after spending four and a half seasons in the desert—and returns to BK. 

He’ll be living out of a hotel near the Brooklyn Bridge waterfront for the next few weeks until he finds a more permanent spot. But as turbulent as the shift may feel, a change in scenery isn’t the only thing Bridges is going to have to get used to in the coming weeks. 

An entirely different role awaits, as well as an entirely different aura around his name.

In just his third game with the Nets, Bridges posted a career-high 45 points to go along with 8 rebounds and 5 assists in a win against the Heat. His career-high up to that point was 34 points. After having never touched the 40-point mark in Phoenix, he went on to drop 40+ points three times—including twice during a three-game stretch—in the last couple of months of the season with Brooklyn.

“Just having that game [against Miami] and winning, and just all that buzz and being fine, that feeling of being in New York for real and all the love and the publicity after that—I’ll definitely say after that Miami game [is] where I felt [it]. And I had a little [All-Star] break [after], so I went home and then when I came back it was like, Alright, let’s get ready for this, this little second gear,” remembers Bridges. 

With the Nets, he quickly began putting his name in the record books, again and again. He became the first player in NBA history to average 25 or more points while shooting 50/40/90 in his first 10 games with a new team. He also broke the record for most points ever scored in the month of March by a Nets player, which was good for the second-most points by a Nets player in any month in franchise history.  

After averaging 17.2 points per game in 56 outings with the Suns this past season, Bridges’ scoring average skyrocketed to 26.1 points with the Nets. Since the mid-February move, the former Villanova standout went on to finish with 30+ points on 11 different occasions in Brooklyn. Prior to the trade, he had only surpassed 30 points one time this season (and only two other times in his entire career).

He had suddenly gone from being a nice supporting player whose full potential remained hidden while hooping in the shadows of All-Stars like Devin Booker and Chris Paul in Phoenix to emerging as a full-blown bona fide star. A legitimate go-to first option on a playoff team overnight, it seemed.  

“I think the toughest thing was just not having everything, and everything [happened] so fast with the trade. Just had to leave where [I’m] at to come there. I just had my bags and went straight to New York,” says Bridges. “But it was dope. I always wanted to live in New York—came to New York a lot in college, just playing out here [in Philly], went to Villanova, so everybody lives in New York coming from Villanova. But it was great. I love the people here, and I love the vibe in New York and the city. So, I was very excited to come here.

Just being on the East Coast again, I love the East Coast people. Obviously, I love the people in Phoenix as well, they’re great people, but it’s just [about] coming back to the East Coast, to what I’m used to.”

After “blowing it all up” and trading superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant within a handful of days from each other, the Nets had found their new star much quicker than they may have anticipated. Bridges brought much-welcomed hope and excitement to a fan base that was in dire need of it. The franchise had found a fresh identity while in the dawn of a new era.  

But being the guy for any NBA team has its challenges, too. There are defensive schemes thrown at you that others don’t see. You’re scouted differently. And as a leader, expectations are higher than for anyone else in the locker room. The role has a few extra duties. It’s all been part of the learning curve for Bridges, one that he’s welcomed with open arms. 

“I think the biggest challenge is probably always leading, every single time. Even if I get frustrated, guys are kind of looking at me strictly just because, and I feel like that’s a struggle I just kind of [have to] get better at it ’cause it’s emotions in the game and I get frustrated a lot,” says Bridges of his sudden leadership role in Brooklyn. “Just can’t let my emotions bring anybody else on the team down, so, just got to stay positive, even if it’s tough—gotta push through it and try to be level-headed at all times. 

“It’s definitely a challenge, but, you know, it’s something I love and embrace and take on. It’s definitely different, being one of the go-to guys and defenses scout on you. Luckily, I had some time before I got traded—we had a lot of guys out in Phoenix at the time—where I was being that guy. And it was, trust me, a lot of growing pains. It was tough just being that focal point and everybody’s looking at you. But I feel like it’s been good—a lot of learning, still learning to this day—and there’s gonna be a lot more to learn. But I’m here to embrace it and go through the tough times just to blossom later.” 

The trade paved the way for Bridges’ return to the Northeast. He was born and raised just a couple hours south of Brooklyn in the greater Philadelphia area, where he spent his entire life until the Suns traded for him on draft night in 2018.   

“When I was in college, we came to New York a lot, just playing in the Garden [in the annual Big East Tournament] and then having events. Coach [Jay] Wright loved New York, so we had an event called Hoops on the Hudson,” Bridges remembers. “We’d come out here and be out here for a couple days while it was preseason. Just been around and visiting in college and in the summer, have friends who live out here—I just know the speed of New York and I was just super excited to come here.” 

The trade also allowed Bridges to reach an extremely rare feat: playing 83 regular season games. The last time this occurred was in 2014-15 when Josh Smith played for both the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets following a trade. In fact, Bridges hasn’t missed a single game in his five-year NBA career thus far. 

“He’s the iron man of the NBA,” Nets teammate Spencer Dinwiddie told ESPN earlier this year.  

It’s just another prime example of the kind of star the Nets got in February—a certified hooper who can be counted on to show up, whenever, wherever, with whomever.  

“I’m just trying to win, honestly, that’s the biggest thing for me. Obviously, just playoffs and hopefully eventually—the biggest is always a championship, but there’s a lot of steps to do to get there,” says Bridges. “So sustainably just winning and building a really good culture.”

Portraits by Marcus Stevens

The post Mikal Bridges is Ready to Embrace His New Star Role in Brooklyn appeared first on SLAM.

That’s the cocktail of emotions running through Paolo Banchero as he walks back to the locker room after a tough loss in Detroit—one that came down to the wire and was decided in the last couple possessions.

Banchero felt he had it. He was this close to putting the team on his back and leading it to a comeback victory in his NBA debut.

The final possessions went something like this: Down 3 with under 40 seconds to go, Banchero went coast-to-coast after grabbing a defensive rebound and finished with a strong right-handed layup. That cut the deficit to 108-107. After a corner three-pointer from Isaiah Stewart, Banchero responded by crashing the glass, drawing a foul and sinking two clutch free throws to pull the Magic within 2 with five seconds remaining. The sold-out crowd inside Little Caesars Arena was going berserk as the game reached its breaking point.  

But this one would end in heartbreak for the rookie. Despite his valiant effort and heroic baskets down the stretch (he even caught a poster earlier in the quarter when he dunked over Cory Joseph), Bojan Bogdanovic hit two big free throws for the Pistons at the end to seal the game. Pistons 113. Magic 109. 

And, so, that walk back to the locker room really stings. The mix of emotions are kicking in, and they don’t feel great. He’s just too competitive to “We’ll get ’em next time” it right now.

But then he’s greeted with a different type of energy upon reaching the locker room.

The future is Paolo. Get your copy of SLAM 244 featuring the Rookie of the Year.

“I remember just being genuinely pretty pissed off that we lost. And I remember getting back to the locker room, and our PR guy, his eyes were, like, lit up and he was hella happy,” Banchero recalls. “He was like, Yo, great job! He asked me if I realized what I even did, and I was like, Man, no—I don’t know. I knew I had a good game, but I wasn’t thinking it’d be this historic thing. I saw my parents after the game, and they were hella happy. I kind of saw the vibe, and it was like, I didn’t want to be happy, but, I mean, it was kind of hard not to [be]. Everyone who came up to me was like, Congrats! And I just was like, Man, we play in two days, let’s go, let’s move on. When you think back to it [now], you realize how big of a moment that really was, being your first NBA game. But not in the moment. I definitely didn’t feel the magnitude of the game or the performance, I just kind of wanted to move on. Especially since we didn’t win.”

The magnitude? Just a few decades- long NBA records being touched. Nothing major at all.   

Banchero’s NBA debut stat line—27 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists—made him the first NBA player to post at least 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in his League debut since LeBron James in 2003. Only three other players in the Association’s history ever have: Grant Hill, Willie Anderson and Ron Harper. In the points column, Banchero’s 27 were the most in an NBA debut by a No. 1 pick since Allen Iverson in 1996.

“Honestly, I think I kind of had that feeling during preseason—people always ask me, How did you come out [and] look so comfortable in your first game? For me, I got all the nerves out during preseason,” the Seattle native says. “My first preseason game, I was way more nervous for that than I was for the actual regular season game. Like, once I played those preseason games, I felt like I was already acclimated. So, going into that Detroit game, obviously it’s the first regular season game so everything’s getting turned up, you’re gonna play more minutes or whatnot. And I just remember feeling, like, raw emotions and being excited, but in my head, I just knew I was going to have a good game. I knew I was going to put on a show. Not gonna say I knew I was gonna go for 27 and whatnot, but I just knew I was gonna have a good game and come out strong, because the debut of your rookie year, that’s just a game where you got to be locked in, you got to be focused.”

In the days and weeks that followed, Banchero would continue to place his name in the history books. In his second game, he dropped 20 points and 12 rebounds, and then followed that up with 23 and 5—making him the first teenager ever to score 20+ points in his first three NBA games. In fact, he scored 20+ points in his first six NBA games, joining Grant Hill, Dominique Wilkins, Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain and Elvin Hayes as the only rookies to ever do so. In his 10th game, he dropped 33 points and 16 rebounds, joining LeBron as the only teenagers in NBA history to post 30+ points and 15+ boards in a single outing. Just 48 hours later, he became only the fifth teenager in NBA history to score 30+ points in consecutive games (the others are LeBron, Devin Booker, Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson). He joined Michael Jordan and Zion as the last three rookies to score 20+ points in 15 of their first 20 games. By the end of the season, he had dropped 20+ points in 40 total games, tying LeBron’s rookie mark. 

Banchero says his Rookie of the Year campaign, one in which he finished averaging 20 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists, really kicked off in the spring of 2022, when he made a decision that shocked many in the industry. The Duke star chose to bypass having a powerhouse agency rep him and instead decided to go with former NBA wing Mike Miller and his LIFT Sports Management firm, a rookie agency with a small client roster at the time.

“Obviously, [Miller] played with and against Hall of Famers, had a great career himself, so he knows what it looks like—he’s done everything I want to do,” says the 2023 NBA ROY. “He’s had teammates who, you know, went on to be some of the greatest of all time. If anyone knows what it looks like to be one of the best, it’s him. So when he said that and preached the importance of putting basketball first and making sure I’m the best player I can possibly be—putting that at the forefront—it really helped me make the decision.”

In Miller, Banchero felt he had not only found an agent, but a true workout partner, trainer and mentor. In fact, Banchero says that instead of referring to Miller as “Mike,” he calls him “Coach.” The ultimate sign of respect, and reflective of how he views Miller and their relationship. The “Coach” tag also makes sense when you factor in that Banchero first met Miller when the latter was an assistant at Memphis under Penny Hardaway a few years back (Miller spent two years with the Tigers). 

Banchero’s first pre-draft training session with Miller was in Miami, and the current Magic star still remembers everything about those early gym days.

“I still tell him to this day, those first three or four workouts we had in Miami, those are the best ones. Those are the ones I always think about—just how much fun they were, just the intensity that we were working at,” says Banchero. “I think, for me, working with Mike, it just has really been my shot that has been one of the biggest things. Him helping me with my shot. The difference between this time last year and this time right now, between just the way I shoot the ball, is night and day. I gotta give most of the credit to him just for helping me and making it easy…It’s just been smooth sailing. I would say my jumper is where he’s helped me the most. I could ask him about any part of the game, any situation or scenario, and he’ll know about it.”  

As fate would have it, a couple of months later, Banchero would get drafted by the Orlando Magic—the same team that drafted Miller in 2000, and where he also won Rookie of the Year (Banchero, Miller and Shaquille O’Neal are the only ROYs in franchise history).

But despite all the individual accolades and personal records set during his debut NBA season, Banchero has already turned the page to the next chapter. When we shot this cover in early May, as playoff euphoria was at its peak, the 6-10 forward said that being a spectator to the postseason has given him a whole lot of FOMO. Ultimately, he’s aware that, fairly or unfairly, his career will be judged based on how much winning he’s able to bring to his team—a challenge that he doesn’t plan on waiting much longer to start making a dent in.

“Watching the playoffs, it just doesn’t feel right that we’re not on that stage—I’m not on that stage. I just feel like that’s where I need to be. That’s where we need to be. That’s where we all want to be,” says the rising star. “So, obviously, it’s gonna take a whole bunch of work, and we’re gonna have to just be a lot better. But I think this year was a step in the right direction—the vibe we had, how competitive we were all year, the teams we beat, the teams we should have beat, it just left a specific taste in our mouth. And, you know, we gotta try and get it next year. I’m excited. I think we’re all excited.”  

The Magic saw a 12-win improvement from last season—the biggest win increase in the Eastern Conference and the third-most in the NBA behind the Sacramento Kings and Oklahoma City Thunder. After starting the season 5-19, Orlando went 29-29 in its remaining 58 games. During that 29-29 stretch, the team had the League’s sixth-best defensive rating (112.8), according to the Orlando Sentinel. The signs are there. A culture and identity shift are brewing. And if you ask Banchero, it’s given him and his teammates a lot of fuel heading into the offseason.

“I think this is the most motivated I’ve been heading into a summer,” he says. “And I think a lot of guys on the team would say the same. I think we all kind of have that same mentality where next year is the year where we kind of put ourselves in that conversation of being one of the better teams in the East, and then in the League.”

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Portraits: Marcus Stevens

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The post Following His Historic Season, Paolo Banchero is Ready to Take the Magic to New Levels appeared first on SLAM.

February 2, 2023. Evening.     

James Harden is in his hotel room hanging out with his newly appointed agent and longtime business confidant Troy Payne. The Sixers are playing the Spurs tomorrow, and the two Cali natives find themselves in deep conversation when the news breaks. Payne looks over at Harden. He notices the NBA superstar’s body language. That’s all he needs to see to know how Harden truly feels at this very moment. Natural human emotions and passion take over. Expletives may or may not be flying around. Payne steps in and offers some words of encouragement, and a new conversation ensues. One that’s very different from the one the two were having just a couple minutes ago. This one is about the next four months, about maintaining the tunnel vision strategy for the ultimate goal at hand, and about how to use the news that just broke as ammunition for it all. 

The aforementioned news? The 2023 NBA All-Star Game reserves were just announced, and Harden, after 10 consecutive All-Star selections, was not chosen for this year’s festivities. And while other stars try to play it off cool and pretend not being selected doesn’t bother them, Harden isn’t holding back how he feels. 

A few minutes later, he pulls out his phone, taps the Instagram icon and writes on his IG Story “The disrespect.” in white text on an all-black backdrop.

“I said it already, disrespectful!” Harden tells us of the All-Star snub. “Most of the people that understand basketball get my value, but some just get bored with my numbers.”

“[We were] hanging out, talking about some stuff, and then [the news] just came out,” recalls Payne of the night in San Antonio. “And I was like, Oh shoot, here we go. He didn’t get selected…But from a brother perspective, and as his agent, I [wanted to] encourage him to use it as fuel, to go out there and just prove everybody wrong. Let’s go out there and get All-NBA. And that’s the goal—play at a high level, finish top two in the East, push for All-NBA. I think he’s playing at an All-NBA level. 

“I saw his emotion [that night], but it was more hunger than anything. He wasn’t happy about it. He felt like he should have been in the game; he felt like he did enough to play, to be selected. I think it’s more of a perspective based on the years of his success. And it kind of hurt him. We were used to seeing James score at a high clip in terms of production in the basket, but he still was contributing in a different way at the same high level, it just wasn’t talked about enough.”

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When ASW came around a couple weeks later, Harden decided to spend some time in Tempe, where he got a chance to watch his alma mater Arizona State play, before returning to the home he built in Houston for a few days. There, Payne says, he watched Harden schedule out workouts…twice a day.  

Lil Baby tunes are blaring out from a nearby speaker on this Thursday afternoon in early March. We’re at the 76ers’ practice facility in Camden, NJ, for our cover shoot with The Beard. He rhythmically nods his head to the music while reciting lyrics in between shots. At one point, he takes the lead on creative direction and starts freestyling new poses, without our photographer even having to prompt him. He’s feeling it—the shoot, life, all of it.

And it’s easy to see why. This is Harden’s 14th year in the League. And yet, here he is, still putting up some of the best shooting numbers he’s ever had—yes, almost a decade and a half into his NBA career.

On the day of the shoot, Harden is shooting the best percentage he ever has from behind the arc. Last season, he had the second-best free-throw percentage of his career. And the season before that, he put up the second-best overall shooting percentage of his career. And this is despite having to deal with mid-season trades to Brooklyn and Philadelphia the previous two years. He leads the League in assists with an average of 10.8 dimes a night, as of late March. The only time he’s finished with a higher assists average was six years ago (2016-17), when he posted 11.2 assists and was second in MVP voting (and eventually won MVP the following year). 

“I’m a master of this game. This is year 14 for me—I adjust to how teams are guarding us and I pick and choose where to facilitate,” Harden tells SLAM. “My role on the Sixers is different from 2017. So yes, the approach is different, but I’m still the same player as 2017, my role just changed slightly.

“It’s a combination of the work I put in each summer, getting healthy and trusting the work when I am on the court. I have been a student of the game and have been coachable throughout my career. This season, I have been tasked to be a leader on the court and to get everyone involved and still maintain my aggression. If I said it was easy, I’d be lying, but I am committed to do whatever I need to do in order to help my team win.”  

The shooting efficiency and assist numbers are just a couple of metrics that one can utilize to measure Harden’s impressive career longevity and consistency at this stage. Even the sneakers he’s rocking on set, a blue colorway from his super well-received Harden Volume 7 collection (which, at the time, wasn’t set to debut for another month), are indicative of how good he’s been for so long. This is his signature line’s seventh model, and there have only been two other adidas athletes to ever reach that many signature sneakers in the history of the brand: Derrick Rose and Damian Lillard. That’s it. That’s the list.

I’m a master of this game.

– James Harden

“First off, I am thankful to have a signature shoe. Having a signature line is a nod to the work that I’ve put into my craft, and having 7 volumes and counting is a blessing and I don’t [take] it for granted,” says Harden. “HV7 is my favorite model to date and the response from my fans speaks volumes to me, so I am grateful for the support. I like to express myself through my fashion, so hopefully I did that with the colorways for Volume 7. This seventh shoe is up there on the milestones for sure!”

But as he says so himself, he’s been doing it for so long that people may indeed have just become “bored” with his output these days. He’s spoiled basketball fans for over a decade. The casuals only notice that he’s no longer averaging the 36 points per game he once did. (Fun fact: Only Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan have averaged more points in a single season than James Harden. Yup, that’s the list.) 

Numbers aside, though, his influence on a cultural level is just as impactful. It transcends statistics. His signature step-back move has been a hot topic on the internet for years. A quick Google search and you’ll find articles and message boards doing deep dives on the move and whether or not it should be allowed. One thing is for sure, Harden’s creativity has paved the way to a Hall of Fame career and introduced a move that seemed unimaginable prior to his arrival.   

“Biggest innovator to play the game!” says Harden, when asked what he wants to be remembered for the most when it’s all said and done. 

While some have tried to push a particular narrative regarding Harden’s work ethic in the past, Payne says that those who are really around know what it is. Harden has built a routine around postgame workouts, something that’s always done away from the cameras and fans. Home or away, with his game uniform still on, Harden has a list of exercises he likes to check off the list, explains Payne.

“Postgame workouts have been something that’s been prevalent in the past. I know in Houston he was doing that a little bit, working out postgame, where he’s running the stairs in the arena or lifting weights with a trainer—we’ve done a lot of that. And I’ve seen James do that a lot now,” says Payne, a former hooper at Santa Clara and overseas who’s known Harden since middle school. “So, when he has time, he’s there for three hours. He will sit there and work out with the training staff and get a workout in…I started seeing him do it during his MVP run when he was in Houston. And then I didn’t see it as much in Brooklyn.

“When the game is over, they’re in the back, they’re working out—squats, working on shoulders and RDLs. They’re getting after it, like, at least 20 minutes. That’s the quick twitch muscles when your body is fatigued, just trying to make the body stronger. So that’s something that he’s implemented with [this] team. And if you go and you look at the weight room postgame, you’ll see about six to eight guys in there getting after it. So I think that’s a testament to his leadership and just trying to keep the younger guys motivated and hungry.”

“Throughout my career, I’ve been coachable on every team I’ve been a part of,” adds Harden. “Whatever is needed of me for the team to win is what I will deliver.”  

Coachable is a term that Payne also emphasizes, pointing to the time Harden was asked to take over the PG position when playing for Mike D’Antoni in Houston. On the fly adjustments, wherever, whenever. 

“Credit to D’Antoni for putting the ball in his hands when he was in Houston. He came back home one day and was like, Man, Coach wants me to run point guard. He’s like, Point guard? I ain’t about to run no point guard, man. What is he trying to do? And after two practices, he’s like, Oh my God, this is about to work!” recalls Payne. “So it’s a credit to him being coachable. And then when he gets in that situation, [he’s] figuring it out, how to make his team successful, how to make himself successful. And the rest is history.”

With so much to highlight in his long, illustrious career, we asked Harden which accomplishment or milestone he’s proud of the most. But it’s a question he doesn’t have an answer for…yet.

“The one I want,” says Harden, “hasn’t happened yet, so let’s revisit when I win a championship.”

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Portraits by Alex Subers.

The post James Harden Opens Up About His Legacy and Being the ‘Biggest Innovator’ of the Game appeared first on SLAM.

Its name is a nod to the neighbor-y, community-driven aura it provides visitors—a time travel-like, nostalgic experience from the moment they enter. 

The Provo spot has already drawn plenty of high-profile names, including Clarkson, Sexton, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Royce O’Neale, to name a few. Clarkson randomly messaged them one day on social media and has been a loyal customer ever since. He recently scooped up a rare Jeff Hamilton All-Star Weekend jacket. 

“Thrifthood actually all happened by mistake. Myself and Alby [Alan Bostrom], the other co-owner…we were just friends who loved to get together, like, to do game night hosting, whatever, for fun with our friends,” says Krysten “Sissy” McDade of how it all originated. “And we also love fashion and somehow stumbled upon getting fits together and reselling and all these things. And it literally was just supposed to be for fun, and suddenly we’re like, Let’s just sell and see if we can make money to shoot ourselves a new pair of shoes, to whatever we wanted, really. And literally since that day in 2018 when we started, we never stopped, and so we actually sold out of a basement for seven months.”

After seven months of that basement, Thrifthood made the transition to a storefront, and like the  saying goes, the rest was indeed history. 

“The day that we opened the storefront, we had $22 in our business bank account, and we were like, This better work, let’s just make sure we can pay for rent month to month,’” says Sissy, who also credits partner Aaron and store manager Warren for the success. “And then slowly but surely our team started coming together.”   

It more than just came together; it’s now high on the to-do list of every hoops fan visiting the state this All-Star Weekend. 

Photos via Thrifthood.

The post Thrifthood is the Utah-based Vintage Store that’s Catching the Attention of Players Around the NBA appeared first on SLAM.

The team’s practice facility, located in Metairie, LA, just under 20 minutes from the Smoothie King Center, has two full-size courts, with one of the sidelines leading to an open-concept weight-room area. The three players are walking through the workout area and onto the court when we spot them from afar. But they stop halfway through the weight room and decide to turn to their right, where a wall mirror stands. 

Haircut check. 

Uniform check. 

Kicks check. 

Zion Williamson is busy making sure the blinged out jewelry around his neck is properly positioned for the looming photo shoot. 

All looks set now. 

SLAM 242 featuring Zion, CJ and BI are available now. Shop here.

The guys keep walking through the weight room and onto the court, where some team staffers await. Except, there’s only two of them now. 

Zion’s here. CJ McCollum is next to him. But Brandon Ingram, who was literally just with them a few seconds earlier, isn’t. 

Zion and CJ look around for BI and eventually realize that he stayed behind in the weight room area. There he is, still in front of the mirror, doing some standing bicep curls with dumbbells in each hand, going as fast as he can.  

Laughter ensues throughout the gym, from staffers to Ingram’s teammates. Zion and CJ shake their heads. They point out that he’s just trying to get a quick pump in so that his arms look swole for the photo shoot. 

Ingram is trying not to laugh. He can hear them teasing him from about 50 feet away—especially Zion. But he just stays focused on each rep, looking straight ahead at the mirror. Eventually, though, Ingram can’t keep a straight face anymore and begins to grin from ear to ear. He puts the dumbbells down and joins in on the laughter. 

The laughs set up the perfect mood for the 60 minutes that follow. It also serves as the perfect example of how this trio, and the Pelicans team as a whole, move in general, on and off the court, and how it’s ultimately contributed to the very joyful run they’ve embarked on over the past 11 months. 

See, we weren’t even sure if this shoot would happen just hours earlier. A couple of days before we were to be on set, it was announced that Zion Williamson would miss at least three weeks with a hamstring strain, which he suffered against the 76ers at the top of the week. If the shoot were canceled as a result, it would have been understandable. After all, two of our three cover stars were currently injured—BI had been out since late November after suffering a toe injury. But despite the bad news just 48 hours before the shoot, we were told everything was still a go. Even then, we were concerned about what mood the guys would be in, considering the sudden loss of a second All-Star right when the team was playing some of its best basketball.

Again, any kind of somber or toned-down enthusiasm from the guys on set would have been very reasonable, given the circumstances. Except, there was none of that. Jokes, laughs and even an early arrival is what we got. 

The symbolism in all of this? It appears that a major reason why this team was one of the biggest surprises to the start of the 2022-23 campaign—the Pels were tied for the most wins (24-14) in the Western Conference on the day of our early-January shoot and had a home record of 17-4, despite its elite trio of Zion-BI-CJ only playing 10 games together all season up ’til then—seems to stem from an overall culture of trust and true buy-in. Trust that the plan put together by the front office has worked to a T because the roster combo works to a T. There is nothing but smiles on set because deep down they feel like the best is yet to come. 

It’s easy to see that this group genuinely clicks by the way they speak of each other. 

“CJ is like the dude that knows everything, but in a good way,” says Zion of McCollum. “Like, if you need to get plugged in with somebody or you have questions about anything, CJ, really, I don’t really know how, but he knows everybody. He has a friend or cousin for everything. I’m like, Yo, CJ, I like these bags. [He’d say,] Yo, I know this dude out in so and so, met him three years ago. I got you. And you know what? He always comes through with it. And I respect that.”

Adds Ingram of Zion: “Z, [he] wake[s] up—basketball. He ain’t gotta come to practice, he gonna have 40. Can’t nobody stop him. He in his own lane, though. He his own person. He ain’t worried about nobody else and he just stay true to his self.”

CJ finishes it off by speaking on Ingram: “BI…works hard, cares about the game a lot, loves his teammates, wants to win [by] any means necessary. Basketball junkie. Wants to be great. He’s funny. He acts like he’s quiet and shy but he not, he not at all.”

Just 11 months earlier, it was looking really bleak in The Big Easy. Their franchise player, Zion Williamson, was out for the season, and the team had a 22-32 record (they started the season 3-16) as the trade deadline approached. And then came February 8, 2022. The Pels acquired CJ McCollum from the Trail Blazers in a trade that sent Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tomas Satoransky, Didi Louzada and some draft picks to Portland, while New Orleans also welcomed Larry Nance Jr (and Tony Snell, who’s no longer in N.O.).

New Orleans went 1-4 right after the trade, sinking their record to 23-36. According to ESPN’s BPI projections, they had only a 10 percent chance of making the playoffs at that point. But it was here when things began to take a turn. The team went 13-10 to finish out the regular season, earning a spot in the play-in tournament as the 9th seed, and then beat the Spurs and the Clippers (coming back from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit) to earn the final spot in the playoffs. 

Their performance in the first round against the No. 1 seed Phoenix Suns really sent fans of the League (and in New Orleans, of course) into a frenzy. The series went six games (at one point it was tied 2-2, and kinda looking scary for CP3, Book and company), as the Pelicans made the Suns work for every last one of their buckets. And that was all without Zion, of course.

“Two things. I think when you get a taste of something, you want more of it, and being in the playoffs last year, seeing our fans come out and how important the games were, it made it better to play,” Ingram recalls. “It got me up more going into the playoff games, just going out there. And two, you just look around the room, and the players that you’re playing with—like, we know we got something special, we know we’re talented, but we know we have to come in here and work every single day and continue to learn the game, so that’s where our confidence comes from. Just being around each other every single day.”

With the Zion-BI-CJ pairing making its debut this past fall, expectations and excitement around what could be, might be, should be, all ran rampant. In his media day presser, Ingram said that a “championship” was the ultimate goal.

CJ has clarified in previous interviews that when the trade happened last year, he and his wife signed off on it because they saw the potential that New Orleans offered. Nonetheless, even he’s been taken aback by how good and how quickly the results have been. 

“I knew we were gonna be special, I just didn’t know how quickly we would get there. That’s always the hard part about figuring out roles, figuring out how to coexist, figuring out how to maneuver in game situations,” say McCollum. “You can’t script it. Like, you could practice and play together but you gotta be in the fold to really figure it out. And I think that’s what normally takes longer than what’s taken [us]. But I would say that I knew it was gonna be a great experience, I knew it was gonna be a great situation. [It’s been] probably better than I thought, honestly, in terms of how well we’re playing, how deep we are. I knew we were a good team, I didn’t know we were this deep, you know what I mean?

“Having conversations with the front office, with Willie [Green, head coach], understanding what they want to accomplish, short-term and long-term. I would say both parties, you know, for me and my family, and then from the organization, I would say that they’d probably say the same thing—it’s probably going better than we all expected because of how well I was able to assimilate into this culture, but also how well the younger guys were able to develop, and how I was able to just kind of figure out where I fit in.”

After finishing 21st in scoring last season, the team found itself at No. 3 in the League when we shot these photos 38 games into the season. And following a 6-6 start to the ’22-23 campaign, the team went on to win 12 of its next 14 games (including 7 in a row) to stamp its name among the top teams in the West early on.   

“A lot of buckets out there, a lot of buckets,” says Ingram of this year’s high scoring offense. “You know, the funny thing is we haven’t had a chance to play together, but for like maybe 10 games, at that. We got guys that just step up in roles that can really legit be starters on other teams. So, I think it’s just the culture, you know, we set an example of how to work around here and how we treat each other. So, from that, guys just come in here and work and we see the results on the floor. Everybody’s confident, 1 through 13, how[ever] many players that’s playing a night, everybody [is] confident to do what they do. So, coaches make it easy for us and the people that we’re around every day make it easy for us.”

The team eventually hit a slump with the absence of both Zion and BI in mid-January, eventually hitting a 10-game losing streak. They’re currently on a three-game winning streak after defeating the Hawks last night.

There’s still lots to smile about, though. And we’ll probably see a lot more of those come spring when the trio is healthy and ready to outdo last year’s playoff run. 

“I think it’s frustrating for Brandon, frustrating for Zion, that they don’t get to play more,” Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon tells us over the phone a couple of weeks after the shoot. “For us, taking a holistic view, it’s, you know, somewhat of a silver lining because you do get to see these [other] guys develop more, have them play a bigger role. There’s times when all three have been out of the lineup and other guys have to step up and play a huge role. Play 32 minutes, play 28 minutes, when [they’re] used to only playing 18. Guys that you didn’t think might be in the rotation at the start of the year now get to play 10, 15 straight games. So, I think that is going to bode well toward the end of the year when we get everybody healthy, that these guys have had bigger roles in big moments and games. And so that’s not gonna be an issue if they have to play in the fourth quarter at a crucial moment—they would have already done it. And if these injuries didn’t happen, that opportunity might not have happened for that player or players during the year. So, we’re looking at this as a silver lining and when we get these guys back, like you said, we’re deep. But it’s gonna make us even stronger in our depth, hopefully in a late March, early April playoff push.”

CJ adds: “I think for us playing in the playoffs [last year] against the high seed, having to fight in, gives you an idea of, like, OK, what can happen now if we get a higher seed? What can happen if we get home court advantage? What can happen if we win 50 games? You start to imagine what that’s like and then you go chase it. And I think that’s the stage that we’re in now—How do we win 50 games? How do we get a high seed? How do we get home court? What does that look like? What’s that experience gonna be like? And I think when you go through those moments and those experiences, it creates a growth mindset.” 

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Portraits by Atiba Jefferson

The post Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum, and Brandon Ingram are Ready to Take the Pelicans to New Heights appeared first on SLAM.

The date was June 2, 2021. It was one of those “where were you when…” days for hoop fans across the globe. On that Wednesday, the world not only found out that the winningest coach in the history of college basketball was stepping away from the game for good after the following season, but also who would be taking over as Duke’s next men’s basketball head coach—the first time in over 40 seasons that the program would have someone not named Mike Krzyzewski at the helm.

For years, speculation around who would replace Coach K ran rampant. There were 2,000-word think pieces that broke down the list of suitors and aimed to predict this historic passing of the torch moment.

But when the day finally came, it was Jon Scheyer who was anointed as the chosen one. The former Duke guard, who was a McDonald’s All- American in 2006 before helping lead Duke to a national championship in 2010 (a season in which he led the Blue Devils in scoring with 18.2 points per game), has spent the past eight seasons as an assistant or associate head coach in Durham. He’s been a part of two of Duke’s five national titles—aside from the one he earned as a player, he also won a chip in 2015 as a coach.

In early October, we caught up with the new face of the program to discuss expectations, getting settled into his new role, hooping with alumni, tennis matches with the staff and so much more.  

SLAM: Being head coach at Duke must be a surreal experience. When did it start to feel real for you, and what was that “this is really happening” moment like?  

Jon Scheyer: I think back to when I got the phone call from [VP, Director of Athletics] Nina King telling me I was going to be the next Duke head men’s basketball coach. It was an incredible feeling, but I think the first time that it really felt real was the press conference that I had. Coach K had a press conference the day before, talking about his retirement and his plans. And then the next day, I had a press conference to announce I was going to be the next head coach. I walked out here and just seeing the crowd, seeing all the people that were there, it was pretty surreal, pretty special feeling, but that’s when it really felt real, like, this is happening.

SLAM: What was Day 1 on the job like for you? What was the order of tasks for that first day?

JS: Day 1, you’re trying to figure out, first and foremost, who you have coming back on the team, which for us this past year wasn’t many guys. So, hitting the ground recruiting-wise, but also figuring out who was coming back, because we had several players who had decisions to make, whether they were going to the NBA draft or whether they were coming back. And the second piece, which is happening simultaneously, is you’re figuring out your staff, and we’re really fortunate to have some great hires this offseason. There were discussions being had and timing, so both of those things were most important for me [on Day 1]. I always start with “who” before you think about “what,” and so getting the right people was really the biggest and most important thing that first day, and really for the first few months on the job. 

SLAM: What is the best piece of advice Coach K has given you during this transition period? 

JS: The best advice he’s given me is the same when he coached me when I was a player, but really on Day 1 when I found out I was getting the job, he just pulled me aside and said, Be yourself—know that I support you no matter what you do, how you handle yourself, what decisions you make, because he’s well aware that I’m not him, and if I try to be him, I wouldn’t be very successful. There’s only one Coach K, just as there is one Jon Scheyer. So, for me, the ability to be myself as a player here, it’s really been the same thing as a head coach—just to follow my instincts. I’ve been prepared for this, being alongside Coach K for a long time. I’ve worked for this. Really just trust yourself and trust your instincts. That’s something I promised myself I would do from Day 1 and I’ll always do that as long as I’m the head coach here. 

SLAM: Looking back on your playing days, what was your favorite moment or game while wearing a uniform at Duke?

JS: Probably the moment I’m most proud of is when we beat Baylor to go to the Final Four. We played a Baylor team that was really good—LaceDarius Dunn, Tweety Carter, Ekpe Udoh, Quincy Acy—they had a front line of 7-0, 6-10, 6-8. They were really, really good, and we beat them in Houston. It went down the stretch. We felt like once we won that game—you know, it took us three-and-a-half years to get to that point; we lost in the first round, we lost in the second round, we lost in the Sweet 16. So, for us, we were climbing a mountain. Once we beat them, I think all the pressure went away and we could just play. And we beat a really good West Virginia team in the Final Four, and we beat Butler in an incredible championship game. But for me, beating Baylor was a big-time win that I’ll never forget. 

SLAM: You were known as the “Jewish Jordan” back in high school—are there attributes that earned you that nickname back in the day that you hope you can now use as a head coach? 

JS: The thing that I’m most proud of when I played, [and] hopefully now it’s not going to change as a head coach, but for me I would say the determination to get back up. I lost many games, but each time I lost, I felt like I was getting back up to win the next one. I never felt defeated, I never felt like we were going into a game we couldn’t win. Whether that was in high school and we were playing Mike Conley and Greg Oden’s team or we were playing Kevin Durant in AAU, or whatever it was, I felt like we were going to win. That’s something I feel now as a head coach. We’re going to play in some tough games, but I believe we’re supposed to win regardless of the outcome of the last game or regardless of who we’re going to play the next game…I think the success I had in high school will show you that and also the path I took when I was a player here—proud of the ability to get up and fight and pursue championships, really. 

SLAM: Have your players seen some of your high school or college highlights? Are they aware of how nice you were? 

JS: I think they know. I’m not so sure if they know some of the stats. I do try to hit them with, I scored over 3,000 points in high school, just so you know. I think I got most of our players in that stat. [The] 52 points in a game. They end up YouTubeing me and they see the 21 points in 75 seconds, and they’ll usually talk to me about that, although it’s funny to me that that game is brought up more than any other game I’ve played, because we lost. I was heartbroken after that game. So, when it’s brought up to me, I kind of chuckle and laugh because I literally was a wreck after that game. But that’s usually the one they bring up and I’ll take it. At least I have YouTube. I could be like some of the other guys on the staff, and none of their highlights are on YouTube—I’m not gonna name names, but that is true [laughs].

SLAM: Whereas Coach K was much older, you’re still in your mid-30s. Do you get on the court with the guys and try to school them?

JS: Well, I don’t want to name names, but some of our NBA guys came back this summer. And I got out there and played some ones. I did win. It is on camera. I’m not going to name names, but I beat three of our guys. If they ever say anything bad about me, I’m going to put it out in the universe. But until then, I have to keep it a secret. I showed the film to our team. I think they were pretty impressed overall. But I may retire after those wins versus [the] NBA guys. 

SLAM: So, these were one-on-one games with NBA players?  

JS: One-on-one. Game to five. From the elbow. I’m just going to say, a couple of them are…you would know them. Let’s put it that way. You would know these guys. 

SLAM: Interesting. How similar or different can we expect th—

JS: Jayson Tatum [cough cough]. Sorry, what? Go ahead [laughs].

DUKE REP BEHIND THE CAMERA: Ask him one more time and he’ll definitely show you the footage!

SLAM: We definitely will after this interview.

JS: [laughs]

SLAM: How similar or different can we expect the style of play to be this upcoming season in comparison to how it was under Coach K? 

JS: It’s hard to say exactly what’s going to be different with the style of play. I think we have a different team, so we have to play differently. We don’t necessarily have a team where we’re throwing the ball in the post. We have some guards that can really play in pick-and-roll. We have an athletic team where we can get out in transition, but we definitely do want to play fast. Being a leader on the defensive end and pressuring the ball is important, but also protecting our basket. I can’t tell you exactly what the similarities are, and differences will be because there are some values I will always hold true to me that I learned here when I was a player. But, also, we have to continue to evolve and play to the strengths of our team. I think we have a very different group this year where we will play differently. 

SLAM: We saw you were playing tennis when we arrived on campus. You were telling us you picked it up for the first time this summer. 

JS: I’ve played tennis this offseason. I picked it up and the tennis coaches are nice enough to let me get out there. Now that the season is starting, that’s going to happen less and less. I’m not sure if I’ll even play during the season. For me, I’m big on getting outside, and fortunately we live in North Carolina and not in Chicago, where you can actually get outside in November and January and February. For me, playing tennis, going for walks, once in a while I’ll play a pick-up game—basketball—but those days are numbered for me. It’s mostly about getting outside, getting some fresh air, just getting my mind off of things. That’s been important for me to do. I’ll get outside here and there to make it happen. 

SLAM: Do you play doubles or singles?

JS: I play doubles. We have some staff games that we play. Jai Lucas is pretty good. Amile Jefferson is alright. I’m probably the second best on the staff next to Jai. We have some great competitions. Me and Jai are neck and neck, but he’s just barely above me—we have some battles. 

SLAM: Who’s usually your teammate?

JS: My teammate was Amile, but we go back and forth. I’ve never played with Jai because me and him are right there. But it’s Amile, Zach Marcus on our staff, Mike Schrage—those are some of the guys that have played with us. 

SLAM: Who would you say is your tennis player comparison?

JS: For me, I model my game after Rafael Nadal. That’s how I model my game [laughs]. I can’t even say that seriously. I do, though, I do. Yeah, Rafa for me. How he never gives up on a play. The games don’t go on long enough for me to rally back and forth, but I always try to get the point. I respect Rafa. He’s maybe the GOAT. Him and Roger [Federer] are my two favorites.    

SLAM: Some say Coach K is the GOAT. How are you dealing with all the expectations? Following him is no easy task. 

JS: I’ve learned in the short time I’ve been head coach that it’s important to take care of yourself, to have things that make you personally happy, where you get workouts, your mind is fresh, because how you are in a daily basis with your team, the person you [are], they can take on. 

As far as expectations go, nobody has higher expectations for this program than I do. I’m hard on myself. I always evaluate every single day what I could have done better, what I need to do to get better for the next day. And that will never change for me. I think when you are that way to yourself, it allows you to coach others honestly and with transparency, [with] toughness and with love. And that’s something we plan on doing. We know it’s not going to be smooth sailing. We know there’s going to be setbacks, but just staying laser focused at getting better, attacking each day and being present. I really think the expectations or the success we want to have will take care of itself. 

Photos by Matthew Coughlin.

The post Duke Men’s Basketball Head Coach Jon Scheyer Talks Advice from Coach K and Dealing with Expectations appeared first on SLAM.

June 17, 2022.

The morning after.

The iPhone is downstairs, on the counter. The screen lights up every few seconds as texts pour in. They’ve been rolling in for hours. Those will go unanswered for a while. If answered at all. 

It’s only been a few hours since the 2022 NBA Finals ended, and the gut-wrenching feeling of knowing that he was a couple of wins away from claiming an NBA title is starting to sink in for Jayson Tatum. 

He spent much of the night staying up trying to process what had just happened, lying in bed upstairs and replaying some of the pivotal moments of the series against the Golden State Warriors in his head. 

His mother, Brandy, who lives next door, spent the late-night hours after the game and the next morning at his home, trying to get him to snap out of the mental funk. 

But nothing seemed to be working that night, or the next day, or the day after that. 

“The day after [when] you wake up, it’s like waking up from a bad dream and realizing that you’re not dreaming and that you actually, you know, you lost. How mentally and physically exhausting the season was, the playoffs, that series was, and you just, you don’t want to do anything, you don’t want to go anywhere, you don’t want to be seen, you don’t want to talk to anybody,” says Tatum. “I was miserable. I never got my heart broken, but I could imagine if somebody got their heart broken, or anything like that, that’s how it felt. When I got home, I didn’t even want to eat. Left my phone on the counter downstairs. I had hundreds of messages, people checking in on me, I just laid in the bed—it took me a long time to go to sleep. I was just laying there. I was mad, I was upset, I was exhausted. And I just stared at the ceiling for hours until I fell asleep. That night and the next day waking up, like, Damn, we really lost the championship.” 

“Very uncharacteristic [of Jayson]. Jayson is known for having a short memory. He can shake whatever off, good or bad, high or low. He normally doesn’t hang on to anything like that. But this was different…Everybody knows, I’ve gotten up at two in the morning if he’s hungry, especially [for] tacos. He didn’t want that. That’s when I knew it was serious,” says Brandy of one of Jayson’s go-to meals, which up to that point he had never turned down. “He didn’t want to be bothered. He didn’t want to talk. He was devastated. I understood. I know firsthand how much work he puts in.”

Although the season was over, Tatum found himself on the clock the morning after. A decision needed to be made.

SLAM 241 featuring Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum is out now.

For the past few years, Tatum and his fam have flown out of the country for Father’s Day weekend. It’s become an annual tradition. A way to unwind with loved ones as the summer kicks off and before he starts ramping up his preparation for the following season. But this spring, with the Celtics making a deep run into June, the family had not made any travel arrangements for the annual getaway. They had decided to wait it out. If the Finals went all the way to a Game 7, the decisive game would fall on Father’s Day. And if the Celtics closed out the Warriors earlier, the parade in Boston could very well fall on that weekend. 

But once Golden State won Game 6 in Boston, Jayson had about 48 hours to make a decision before Father’s Day and plan out an itinerary in order to keep the annual excursion alive. Except there was one problem: Jayson had no desire to step out anywhere that weekend, let alone go on a trip. He had decided to call off the tradition. He just couldn’t get himself to go on a vacation so soon after coming so close to helping Boston get its 18^th championship banner.   

Brandy, concerned, wanted to make sure that Jayson didn’t get too caught up in the loss and that he took the proper time to clear his head and unwind before he transitioned to offseason training. She knew it was important for him to take the trip now more than ever. But since Jayson was adamant about not going anywhere, she deployed the one thing she knew would work when all others failed: Deuce. 

“I just let him have his moment, his time, but once I felt like enough was enough, we’re not gonna sulk all summer, that’s when I used my secret weapon,” says Brandy of Deuce, Jayson’s 5-year-old son, who has become a celebrity of his own. “Deuce can win him down with anything. Deuce makes all things good, so I used my secret weapon—sent Deuce in there to ask him. It always works.” 

“It took some convincing, because I didn’t want to leave the house for a couple of days. I was glad I did. I think that’s the best part about being a dad, taking your mind off things [and] going out [of] the country with him. He’s 4 [at the time], so he doesn’t really know or, for lack of better words, care that we just lost. He wants me to help him build a sand castle and go swimming with him. In the midst of all of that, he kind of took my mind off things, especially so close to us just losing,” Tatum recalls. “He’s spoiled, he gets whatever he wants. So, him coming and asking me, Daddy, can we go somewhere? I want to go to the beach! It’s hard to say no. He ultimately got his way.” 

And so off to the Cayman Islands they went. Brandy says they ended up booking travel just 24 hours before the plane took off. And although he was no longer stateside, there was no escaping the Finals chatter, as Jayson soon found out. 

“Everywhere I went this summer, somebody mentioned something about the Finals,” he says. “Being in the Cayman Islands, four or five days afterward, everybody—whether it was the driver, or the waiter, or the other guests at the resort—it was nonstop. And not that they meant anything wrong by it. They were just true fans and they saw somebody that played in the Finals. But it was something I had to deal with every day of the summer.”

When he got back from the trip, Jayson immediately turned his focus to the upcoming season. He knew he wanted to approach the offseason very differently from past years. A focal point became his diet. He admits that up to this past summer, he was never truly conscious about what he ate and didn’t follow any kind of regimented diet. He ate whatever he pleased and then just went out there and earned All-NBA First Team last season. But the deep playoff run in 2022 made him reevaluate everything. It had taken a toll on him physically and mentally. He logged 983 minutes in the playoffs last season—the most minutes played in a single postseason since LeBron James played exactly 983 in 2012. Tatum played the most cumulative minutes overall last season, too, when factoring in the regular season: 3,714. It’s a testament to his ability to stay healthy, to be counted on to stay on the floor and play through pain and fatigue.

And although he’s not one to make excuses, we’ll do it for him here. After playing exceptionally well down the stretch in the regular season and carrying his team to the Finals, the wear and tear started to become noticeable in certain moments against the Warriors. He had run out of gas. A feeling he vows won’t ever happen again.  

“I really had a different mindset [this summer]—I knew what it took to get to the Finals and I know how much more it takes to get over that hump. And I need to separate myself. I need to do something different. I need for my summer to be different than it was last year and the year before that. I need to prepare better. I hired a chef. I started to eat better. Started working on my body even more than I previously was because I knew playing until June, your body has to be prepared for that,” he says. “First, coming into the League, I didn’t really have a routine. I ate whatever I wanted to and I just went out there and played basketball. But now I’m very routine-based, and even though I’m only 24, I’ve played a lot of basketball, so [I was] trying to find the different ways to give me an edge.”  

Tatum spends part of every summer training in L.A. It’s his own six-week training camp before the start of Celtics training camp. And being in sunny SoCal, he’s always tried to have some fun while out there. But Brandy, who stayed behind this year, says word quickly got back to her on the East Coast that Jayson was using his time in L.A. much differently this time around. This summer, it was all business.

“Everybody that was there, trainers, any friends that visit, everyone, they were calling and they were like, It’s something different [this year]. This is like bootcamp! He’s so locked in,” she recalls. 

Jayson adds: “It was like, I didn’t really have time for other things. I love to play golf [but] I didn’t play golf not one time when I was in L.A. Just ’cause after everything we did every day, by the time we got back to the house and watched some film, did treatment, put ice on my legs, it was six, seven o’clock. The sun is going down, I’m exhausted, and I’m just preparing to get ready for the next day. The guys that were with me, they could attest to it that this summer was just different. I was determined to not have that feeling again of losing in the Finals…That’s all I cared about coming into the season—getting back to that point and not feeling like that again.” 

The 6-8 star’s first five seasons in the NBA have arguably been as successful as anyone’s first five years in the League over the past decade. Three Conference Finals appearances—including his rookie year in 2018, where he came within one win of reaching the NBA Finals. A trip to the Finals in 2022, where he fell just short of capturing a championship against a team that will go down as one of the game’s dynasties. He’s made the playoffs every year of his career so far. He surpassed 1,500 career playoff points earlier this year. The only player in NBA history to do that at a younger age was Kobe Bryant.

But Tatum’s definition of success is different from the rest of us. In his mind, when it comes to this, there is no glass half-full. His competitive side won’t allow him to find solace in the deep playoff runs or record-breaking numbers. If anything, it’s had the opposite effect. 

“And that was the toughest part this summer, everybody coming up and saying, You’ll be back. You were so close. You made it to the Finals. And it’s like, only one team won last year, right? We got to the Finals but you come to our arena or practice facility, we only hang up banners if you win. No conference champions or division champions—we don’t care about those. You either win or you lose,” says Tatum. “And that’s the mindset that I have and the group has. So, it’s not like a moral victory. We play this game to win, and you’re never satisfied until you do.” 

Despite the NBA Finals run, the Celtics found themselves with lots of question marks coming into this season. The drama around the offseason coaching change—Tatum’s third head coach in three years—was one. Then a couple of their core guys—Danilo Gallinari and Robert Williams—suffered major injuries before opening night, adding extra obstacles to the list. The result? The Celtics have the best record in the NBA and they were in the midst of a nine-game winning streak when we did our cover shoot with Tatum. 

“I think with having a new head coach, along with Gallo tearing his ACL and not knowing when he’ll be able to come back, and Rob missing the first part of the season until he gets back, it obviously didn’t look how we thought it would look coming back into the season. But I think all those things in a way made us buckle down even more, made us come together, knowing that there was a lot of things stacked up against us,” Tatum admits. “And we coulda chalked it up to a new coach, we have guys out, we played late into the season, or we could really buckle down because nobody is going to feel bad for us. We got a target on our back every night, we’re going to get other teams’ best shot because they know we went to the championship and they know the talent level that we have. So, every night is going to be tough regardless of whatever their record is, home or away. I think that has made us a better team.” 

As for Tatum individually, he’s enjoying the best numbers of his career thus far, averaging a career-best 30.5 ppg. He’s also averaging career-highs in assists and blocks. After a 43-point, 10-rebound performance the night before our shoot in Detroit, a common phrase started trending next to his name on Twitter: MVP season. It’s a sentiment that has been repeated a lot more since, including by TV personalities. A few days after our shoot, Vegas had him as an early favorite to earn the honor. “It’s something me and [my trainer] Drew [Hanlen] talked a lot about this offseason. He was telling me, I really want you to be MVP this season. And I think, of course, growing up as a kid, winning MVP was a goal. You know, I want to get to the NBA, win an MVP, win a championship, all those things,” Tatum says. “But I more so approached this season as, I just want to play at an MVP level, which means I’m playing as one of the best players, playing efficiently [on] both ends of the ball, and we’re winning. We got one of the best records and we’re on pace to get back to where we were. And all that matters is that we do that and get over the hump. I would love to win MVP, of course, but I just want to play at that level…And that we remember how we felt when we came up short, and that we’ll do whatever it takes not to feel that way again.”

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Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

The post Jayson Tatum is on a Mission to Handle Unfinished Business appeared first on SLAM.

But on this night, many die-hard hoops fans are glued to their television screens and phones while the NBA celebrates the culmination of the 2018-19 season. The third annual NBA Awards, live from the Barker Hangar in Los Angeles and airing on TNT, will reveal the winners of some of the League’s most prestigious accolades. Giannis Antetokounmpo is about to earn his first of back-to-back MVPs. Luka Doncic is picking up his ROY hardware. Superstar hoopers aside, though, the night also features celebrity presenters. Samuel L. Jackson. Tiffany Haddish. Issa Rae. Shaquille O’Neal. And then there is actor and comedian Hasan Minhaj, who takes the stage to let off a few jokes. One joke in particular is about to become a trending topic on Twitter. 

“In the past two months, AD got traded, Zion went first and LaMelo Ball got shipped to boarding school in Australia. I can say that joke—neither of us will ever make the NBA,” says Minhaj, as some laughs break through the crowd.

Comedians crack jokes. That’s the point. But whether Minhaj actually believed what he said, only he knows. 

The irony of it all (aside from the fact that Melo went on to become the third overall pick in the draft the following year and won ROY a few months later) is that here was a 17-year-old kid who had become such a staple of hoops culture that he was the subject of a joke on a night meant to celebrate the game’s current greatest.  

About 50 miles east from where the awards were taking place, it didn’t take long before LaMelo, at home in Chino Hills, reacted online. He posted a comment, which was later deleted, that essentially questioned if Minhaj would say that to his face. Normal teenager reaction. All harmless. 

Almost three years later, LaMelo is now sitting on a table in a Charlotte hotel conference room on a late February afternoon. He’s wearing a custom 1-of-1 LaFrancé-branded basketball uniform (his personal lifestyle brand, named as a nod to his middle name) while rocking a No. 1 jersey, which he says he expects to be his new number starting next season. And then there’s the humongous iced out double chain around his neck with a 3D UFO spaceship. Casual. 

We just wrapped up his cover shoot and he is comfortably lounging as he reminisces on his journey so far.

SLAM 237 featuring LaMelo Ball is available now!

He’s no longer that bubble gum teenager who many predicted was all internet hype and would eventually fade into obscurity. To be fair to Minhaj, he was probably just repeating what he had heard others say—some who even consider themselves basketball experts repeated those same sentiments back then, too. On the night of the 2019 awards ceremony, ESPN had Melo projected as a second rounder in the draft. The 32nd pick, to be exact. 

As Melo is reminded of the days when many doubted him, and specifically the night of the awards, he begins cheesing hard. It’s the smile of someone who knows he’s had the last laugh. He always knew he would. And he enjoys every bit of it these days. But as I remind him of his deleted comment from that night, he can no longer control his laughter.    

“Oh, I said that?! That was probably me on some young shit. I’ll smack that n—a, for real!” he says before breaking out into more laughs. 

“Nah, I don’t really give a fuck when people said stuff like that. It’s all jokes to me, for real. When you say something, I’m gonna say something back. You mean it? Eh, I don’t mean it. Could mean it. Probably don’t. Probably do. It’s whatever.” 

Melo ain’t really sweating it. He never has. His nonchalant demeanor has lowkey played a big role in getting him here. If anything, it’s probably what kept him sane when his notoriety was exploding in high school, and yet media outlets and online trolls alike refused to acknowledge him as a legitimate high-level NBA prospect. Talent is obviously needed to get here. But ask all of the cautionary tales and highly touted high school players who never panned out about their voyage, and the importance of mental strength will be a common theme. Goes without saying that being under a microscope and the type of spotlight that Melo grew up in is not for the faint of heart. 

Melo, though, shrugs and scoffs at the thought (technically, the question) that there was ever even the smallest of chances that all that noise was ever hard on him. That lowlight mixtape that accumulated millions of views online when he was only 15 years old? He’s practically offended at the thought that he would ever be offended by it. 

“I ain’t gonna lie, everything was just normal to me. I give a lot of credit to my pops, just the way he had us. Pretty much saying, If they not talking about y’all and they not hating on you, you’re pretty much not doing nothing. You feel me? If they not hating on you, you obviously not doing something. If they talking about you good, if they talking about you bad, they’re still talking about you,” says Melo. “I never really looked at it like, Oh, why are they talking about me like that? If you not really in my household, I don’t really care what you got to say. No disrespect, but it’s like that.” 

Continuing to look back on his father’s words: “He said, Y’all destined for the League, type-shit. Made us really believe it. I came out the womb believing it. When you got that factor and really believe it, that’s really it. All you could do is make it, for real. That’s what our mindset was…I felt like I could play in the League when I was 14, 15. I probably couldn’t have, but that’s just how I thought. I was like, It’s just basketball. He could shoot, I could shoot. He dribbles, I dribble. From the beginning, I thought I was always—no one could really f**k with me. I just always had that attitude.”  

In late 2017, when Melo left Chino Hills High School at the beginning of his junior year and turned pro in Lithuania, he says that’s when he received his big affirmation—or rather, revelation—that there was nothing that could stop him. At the time, people criticized the move, saying it would hinder his growth and development, and ultimately obliterate any probabilities of him making the NBA.     

“Honestly, after Lithuania, I didn’t give a fuck where I got drafted to. The beds? You roll off to the left, you fall off. You roll off to the right, you fall off. Motherfucking calves hanging off the bed—not feet, calves hanging off the bed! It was bad, bro. Once you get through that, it was like, I don’t care where y’all put me in. As long as I’m in the States and I got water, I’m good,” Melo says confidently. “That whole shit, bruh—it felt like one big ass night! That shit was crazy. Food was hard to eat out there. Hella cold. Nobody around. That’s pretty much when I just locked in. I’m like, Yeah, I don’t really need too much. Just get it done and grind. That right there was big, I feel like. Sacrifice—you feel me? That’s what I looked at it as.  

“The mental shit goes back to Lithuania. Ever since all that, I aint gon’ lie, my mental has been straight. It ain’t nothing you can do. I even sat the bench there. I literally did everything out there.” 

LaVar still remembers Melo getting in trouble in preschool as if it was yesterday. One day, the teacher had asked the class what their favorite song was. Every kid took turns as the teacher went around the room. When it was finally Melo’s turn to speak, he excitedly shared with the class his favorite lyrics. 

“This dude starts reciting a DMX song with all the cuss words in it! His teachers said, Hold up, wait a minute! He had never been [in a situation] where someone would say, Hey, don’t say those cuss words! ’Cause I let him listen to rap when getting ready for the games. So he was always listening to DMX and what his older brothers were listening to,” recalls LaVar. In 2016, Zo did say that his five favorite rappers of all time were Lil Wayne, Future, DMX, 50 Cent and Tupac, so it’s easy to see where that came from.   

LaVar shares the childhood story to get to a bigger point. Being the youngest, Melo would always hang around his older brothers. Wherever Zo and Gelo went, Melo was there. That included the basketball court. Melo felt he could hang with them on the court, but then also invited himself to hang off the court, too. It got to the point where Melo was practically hanging with Zo’s and Gelo’s friends more than kids in his own grade. It was really just an extension of what was happening on the hardwood. LaVar had his boys playing up in age in AAU. Do some Googles and you’ll find videos of an 11-year-old Melo playing against high school kids next to his brothers at AAU events. Not just playing against high school kids at 11, giving them buckets.    

“We used to have movie night every weekend. I used to say, Each of you guys invite a couple of your friends. And Melo never invited his. He always invited Lonzo’s and Gelo’s. The older guys. Melo never wanted to hang out with no little guys,” LaVar says. “By the time we were playing in the high school leagues, and the boys were super young, I always had a couple of guys on the team that were 17 to balance that stuff out—needed some big boys to rebound. These dudes had tattoos and goatees and my dudes were barely in elementary. But they looked at [Melo, Gelo and Zo] as little brothers and protected them. [Melo] always talked crazy. He talked like them. You’d hear a little kid’s voice talking, and then you hear him talking about stuff that grown folks talking about. He was always like that.”  

But on-court development was only part of the plan. There was a whole other social aspect to it. LaVar decided to raise the family in the relatively affluent Chino Hills enclave, far away from the South Central L.A. streets he grew up in. He and his wife Tina would end up taking the boys back to W. Slauson and S. Van Ness all the time, though. After all, their grandparents still lived in the neighborhood. And aside from visiting family, he also wanted the boys to build up that same inner-city grit and toughness he had mastered. He wanted the boys to appreciate the unique situation they were in back in Chino Hills, and to also be cognizant and understanding of the different social conditions others less fortunate were born into. The routine trips to South Central ultimately became a major part of the boys’ development. 

Still, part of that preparation was also about making sure that Melo and his brothers wouldn’t get caught up in the glitz and glamour when they finally made it to the League. That the transition would be as seamless as possible because their lifestyle would be no different when that day came. Growing up around gated communities in Chino Hills was one thing. But Zo pulling up to high school in a new white BMW 7 Series and Gelo pulling up in a separate one—yes, to the same school parking lot—was just as much about preparing for the League as any drill was. When Melo finally turned 16, he famously got a Lamborghini gifted to him. Not many outside of the family understood the purpose of it all at the time. 

“If I wanted my sons to live the NBA lifestyle, you can’t dangle no fucking shoe in front of them, like you can do with the other superstars. You offered them some shoes, they were gonna be like, What am I supposed to do with these shoes when I got a BMW outside? You get to the League and now you can finally buy that BMW or Escalade you always wanted. [Melo, Gelo, and Zo] already had that in high school,” says LaVar. “Just like with Melo, when the media asked him if he was happy to have his own signature shoe [with Puma], he told them he’s had that since he was 16. He’s not gonna feel any different if we made sure that he felt those experiences at 16. Guys are out there breaking their neck trying to get a signature shoe. He’s been through all of that. You can’t re-do it. You can only have that feeling one time.” 

Adds Melo: “Right when I hit that age, everything started making sense. I had been through everything. Even with the whole playing on teams—I really started to see what my pops was doing. Even when we were younger, we always used to play on our own team under him, with just local kids. We wouldn’t go find the best teams. Then you look back at it and it’s like, Damn, that’s ’cause he wanted me to pass, shoot, rebound, steal. Damn near do everything. So, when you do get on those types of teams and you got that [NBA] talent around you [now], it’s way easier.”

So here we are today. Melo is now the face of an NBA franchise at only 20 years old. A franchise and a city that didn’t have much to cheer about prior to his arrival in 2020. The impact is evident in the significant increase of new season ticket holders that the team has reported since he touched down in the Queen City. In the fact that they’ve been in contention for a playoff spot the last two seasons after finishing almost 20 games under .500 right before he got to town. 

Some of his early accolades make his trajectory scary—in the best way. He’s already joined some elite company in his short time in the League. Fourth-youngest ever to be an NBA All-Star, behind only Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Magic Johnson. He finished with 18 points off the bench that night. There was a period earlier this season when he was the team’s leader in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game (Mason Plumlee has since taken over the rebounds category). The only other player in the League who was leading his team across all four categories at the same time this season was reigning MVP Nikola Jokic. Melo became the second youngest player in NBA history to reach 700 career assists in February, behind only LeBron. There’s a bunch of other similar milestones, where his name sits next to some of the best.

But it hasn’t all been peaches and cream. As we headed to press, the team had dropped 13 of its last 17 games. The Hornets are fighting tooth and nail to hold on to one of the last remaining play-in game spots. And while Melo is focused on securing a postseason opportunity, he’s also aware that it’s all just a process. Just like his road to the NBA. From Lithuania to LaVar’s JBA world tour (which took him across Europe) to Australia, he’s become confident in knowing that not much in his life has been a matter of if, only when.    

“When they really put them keys in my hand, I feel like it’s gonna be a whole new situation. But until then, I’m gonna keep doing what I need to do, just try to get these wins,” says Melo. “I ain’t gonna lie, every game I feel like I can do more than what I’m doing. It’s just [about] reading the whole game and reading the whole situation. And everybody being on the same page. The consistency part. Once all that clears, I feel like we’ll be straight. 

“The season isn’t successful until you win a championship. But it’s [also] pretty much always about being better than the last year. So, last year we were in the play-in. This year hopefully we get in the playoffs, win a first round, something like that. Just keep going up from there. I just feel we’re like a big away. One that can clog up the whole paint, rebound. Put that bitch in my hands [and] let me rock! That’s how I be feeling. And then we’re gonna be straight.”

SLAM 237 is available now in these gold and black metal editions, plus an exclusive SLAM 237 Cover Tee.

Portraits Diwang Valdez.

The post The King of Queen City: LaMelo Ball’s Ascension to the Top is Only a Matter of Time appeared first on SLAM.

He knows he has to take it to another level this spring and summer in order to avoid falling through the cracks. Even if that means thinking outside the box and making drastic changes and bold sacrifices. And, so, he does. 

Chandler ultimately chooses to leave his local AAU program and instead joins Mokan Elite, one of the top programs in the prestigious Nike EYBL circuit. The move requires him to hop on a flight every Friday so that he can practice with the team 450 miles away in Kansas City, MO, throughout the weekend, and then hop on a flight right back home every Sunday to return to school. The move would automatically place Chandler on the grand stage. All he had to do was perform, and the weekly travel sacrifices would pay off. 

“It was tiring. I had to do schoolwork when I was in Kansas City,” Chandler recalls of his Mokan days. “I missed school every Friday. I was like, Am I even going to pass? Because I was missing school [sometimes]—either I was going to school and checking out early or I flew Friday night. So it was a tough decision for me to make.

“My name was nowhere freshman year. I tell people I had doubted myself freshman year. Was this even for me? Because I was getting no looks. My name wasn’t out there. I was just a freshman point guard playing at a Christian high school in Memphis, TN. After I played for [Mokan Elite], my first game with Mokan, I picked up four offers in one day and that’s when I knew—like, Yeah, it’s coming. It’s starting. Four offers in one day, that’s more than the [total] offers I had before. I only had three offers before entering that first game in Atlanta for the first EYBL session.”  

He hasn’t looked back since. The offers began to pile up by the dozens. From Duke and Kentucky to North Carolina and Kansas, he soon became one of the most sought-after recruits in the Class of 2021. 

Mokan went on to win the EYBL title that summer—the program’s second title after winning it all with Trae Young and Michael Porter Jr a few years back—by defeating a Jalen Green-led Team WhyNot in the championship, capping off in grand style a summer for the ages for Chandler.

But going to Kansas City wasn’t the only sacrifice Chandler found himself making. A year later, the 6-1 guard boarded a flight again, this time to Wichita, Kansas; and it wasn’t a round-trip. Looking to take it up a notch once again, and willing to make the necessary moves in order to do so, the point guard left Briarcrest Christian after nine years—yes, he had been attending the same school since second grade—and enrolled in a school almost 600 miles away for his senior year. At Sunrise Christian Academy, Chandler had left behind family and longtime friends in order to join a program that competed in a challenging national schedule. He was simply looking to test himself as he prepared to make the jump to the collegiate level. 

And just like he did when he changed AAU teams, Chandler found a way to lead his newest squad to another championship game, this time taking Sunrise to the GEICO Nationals title game. They would fall short to Montverde Academy but nonetheless Chandler had left an even bigger impression on scouting services—he walked away from high school as the unanimous top rated point guard in the country on ESPN, Rivals and 247 Sports. 

“I never expected to leave all my friends and family not being able to see me because of the pandemic. This was the second hardest choice I ever made. Me going to a school 12 hours away from home. My family had to watch my games online,” says Chandler. “I loved the school, Coach [Luke] Barnwell, the team, the coaches, the players. I’m glad I made that move [last] year…I never been that far away from home. For Kansas City, I was just flying out of town every weekend, but this was like college. Waking up on my own, getting ready for college. Sunrise got me ready for it.” 

Next up is the University of Tennessee—a place that already felt right to him before he even got a scholarship offer or went on an official visit. Chandler tells the story of when he visited campus as a high school freshman for the first time. There was a football game against Alabama. “They got killed,” he says of Tennessee before he burst out laughing. But the unofficial visit made a lasting impression on him regardless.  

“When you go to a college, you want to see that it feels like home,” he adds. “And Tennessee felt like home on an unofficial visit. I had not [even] taken an official visit and I [already] felt comfortable with the coaches, compared to the other coaches I had visited.” 

He isn’t shying away from stating exactly what he’s chasing after this upcoming season. Chandler has a list he’s hoping to check off one by one beginning this fall and going straight through the winter and next spring. 

“At Tennessee, I want to come in and show them why I was the number one point guard in the nation—who’s coming into their program and why he should be here,” says Chandler. “I want to win a national championship at Tennessee. I set goals, and my goal is I want to make them come true, and my [ultimate] goal is to go to the NBA.”

He continues listing more: “SEC Player of the Year. Win the SEC Tournament. We got a really good chance, we got a lot of good players coming back and good players that’s coming in. And making it to the Final Four and winning the national championship. Those are my goals for next year.”  

Along the way he’s developed a tight-knit friendship with current Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant. He says that after Ja got drafted by Memphis in the summer of 2019, the future Rookie of the Year reached out to him asking where he could get some good runs in around town. Chandler pointed him in the right direction. The two remained friends ever since. When Chandler announced his college decision date, Morant quote tweeted “my brother” with a heart emoji in support. Trae Young also quote tweeted Chandler after he announced his decision, showing love and telling him to “go crazy.”

Just like Morant and Young, Chandler is a small PG by NBA standards. He’s studied how they’ve been able to succeed at the highest level of basketball, in hopes of one day replicating them. Another small guard he admires is Chris Paul. When Chandler was invited to the CP3 Elite Guard Camp, he took advantage of the opportunity and asked the NBA superstar how he’s been able to hold his own so well in the Association despite the size disadvantage. CP3’s response had a lasting effect on him. 

“He was like, You just gotta play physical. You have to play like a dog,” recalls Chandler. “And ever since then—he had shown us clips of him when he was in the NBA—I had learned from that and I’ve watched the clips all the time ever since.”

Chandler’s confidence is limitless despite his size. He’s seen how his meteoric rise over the past two years has been the result of betting on himself and sticking with his gut when it comes to decisions that require sacrificing much more than your average high school prospect. He’s aware of how far his confidence has brought him, and it’ll continue to be the driving force behind his success at Tennessee and beyond.     

“I’m a true PG and anybody would love playing with me. I get everybody involved. The game just comes to me,” says Chandler. “I can get around the rim, finish around the rim any time. People used to go under screens because I wouldn’t shoot the ball, but now you really can’t do that, so it’s hard to defend me.” 

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Portraits by Christian Quezada.

The post Kennedy Chandler is Ready Make His Mark at Tennessee appeared first on SLAM.

“Fort Greene [has] so much culture, but at the same time, it’s the trenches, too. That’s what makes it special,” says Gibson. “Ingersoll Houses were always rough. It was always a tough place to grow up. You had so many legendary guys that came out of Fort Greene. Growing up in Fort Greene taught me a lot of life lessons, and it built a lot of strong character. I remember my first day coming outside alone, I had like two fights. Two fights! As soon as I came out by myself, I was fighting. But the people I was fighting were the same people who grew into some of the closest friends I ever had in my life. That’s just kind of hood politics for you.”

As fate would have it, Prince and Gibson both ended up getting drafted to Chicago—Gibson to the Bulls in ’09 and Prince to the Sky in ’10. With the Fort Greene natives hooping in the same city once again, they connected often and reminisced on playing at the same school gym, PS 265. By the time the holidays came around in 2010, though, they decided it was time to return and look out. They launched the Taj Gibson and Epiphanny Prince Christmas Giveback that winter and ran youth tournaments in Fort Greene the following summer. Ever since, Gibson has been operating an array of programs in the area year-round through his foundation. Basketball tournaments, bookbag giveaways, bike drives, coat drives, computer giveaways, workshops, food delivery for the elderly. You name it. 

“What motivated me is, one of my best friends, Charles Wynn, when I first got drafted, he passed away tragically from gun violence. He was always telling me that once we get on, we gotta come back and do what’s right,” the 6-9 vet says. “At first, it just started out with tournaments, but as the years went on, it changed to something totally different, to where now I was raising kids that turned into adults. They appreciated the tournaments, the workshops, and it just took off. You’re dealing with kids that don’t have a father at home, a mother at home. You start making sure kids get home safe. You’re dealing with death in the family, where you might have to step in and be that newfound father they never knew they had.”

In August, the Taj Gibson Foundation helped put together the Ed “Booger” Smith Classic, named after the FG native and streetball legend who was featured in the Soul in the Hole documentary and appeared in the iconic He Got Game. In the summer of 2020, Gibson also returned to the same Ingersoll playground he used to hoop at and where he got his first dunk, and helped refurbish the deteriorating blacktop.  

“It was a great thing for the community because we were able to give people jobs while we were fixing the court, and actually pay them,” Gibson recalls. “That was the biggest thing for me. We’re trying to do more courts and developments around Brooklyn, and while we’re doing that [also] give people jobs.”

“I look at all the trials and tribulations it took to get here. A lot of good friends I lost growing up that I had a lot of good childhood memories with on that court,” Gibson adds. “It’s always bittersweet because you look at what you’ve gained and what you’ve lost.”

Photos via MarsMedia and Getty Images.

The post Taj Gibson is on a Mission to Give Back to His Community in Fort Greene, Brooklyn appeared first on SLAM.

In his case, it was about choosing to continue a family tradition or not. The Whiteheads were known as a football family through and through. All of Dariq’s older siblings played football. In fact, his brother Tahir enjoyed a nine-year career in the NFL as a linebacker with the Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders and Carolina Panthers. Yet, Dariq ultimately went with his heart and chose hoops instead.

“My [youth] coach Hass [Hassan Nix], I call him my uncle, he put the basketball in my hands. Never had no intentions of playing basketball until one day he said, You should come try out and see how you like it,” Dariq recalls. “I went to see how I liked it; it was cool. I kept going back, and that’s just when I started to like basketball. Since then, I’ve always thanked him for helping me pick which sport I was going to do.” 

An even tougher decision came in eighth grade when Whitehead decided to leave his hometown of Newark, NJ, behind and relocate to Florida—alone. At only 13 years old, the 6-6 wing left behind family and friends after deciding to enroll at Montverde Academy—a national basketball powerhouse whose alumni included D’Angelo Russell and Ben Simmons. The move allowed him to play on a national schedule while also putting him in a unique position to develop alongside a plethora of future NBA draft picks. At the Orlando school, Whitehead’s teammates have included RJ Barrett, Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes, Moses Moody, Day’Ron Sharpe, Filip Petrusev and Balsa Koprivica—all of whom have been drafted in the last couple of years. 

“I can definitely say that was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made in my life,” adds Whitehead, now a five-star senior recruit himself. “Just being away from my family, I was so used to being with them every day. Just going down there was like a rude awakening. I had to wash my own clothes. I had to be on my own. Just learned how to basically survive on my own—when to eat, stuff like that, just time management. So I can definitely say that was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made, but I’m happy that I did make it. It made me into the person I am today. 

“When I realized that I was a top recruit, it was my 10th grade year on the team with Cade, Scottie, Moses and them guys, and I was actually getting big-time minutes, playing 17 minutes a game. That’s when I realized, Alright, if I can play on this team, I feel like I got a shot to keep going and play anywhere I want.” 

If there was one decision that wasn’t too tough to make (relatively speaking), it appears to be his college one. He was thinking beyond basketball when factoring in all the reasons to choose Duke over Florida State, Kansas or the G League. On the hardwood, though, he’ll make up a historic class at Duke—the first class after the passing of the torch from the legendary Coach K to his successor Jon Scheyer.

“It was a lifetime decision—after basketball, it can help me. Just the relationship I had with the coaches and kids on campus. The campus was a great place, kind of reminded me of Montverde,” recalls Whitehead. “Beginning a new era with Coach Scheyer, I feel like Duke is going to remain the same. It’s still going to be Duke. Nothing is gonna change but the coach. I feel like he’s the coach that can come in and get the job done.” 

It hasn’t all been rosy for Dariq, though. In 2019, despite his stock rising while playing with the most talent-laden hoops program in the nation, he was cut from the USA U16 National Team that was headed to the FIBA Americas in Brazil that spring. The team’s decision became a turning-point moment for him and fueled the fire that has led to him becoming the No. 5 ranked prospect in the Class of 2022. 

“Honestly, that was the first time in my life where I felt rejected,” admits Whitehead. “Talking to [Montverde head coach Kevin Boyle], he actually said, obviously, he and myself thought I should’ve made the team, but when I look back on it, that was the best thing that happened to me. He saw my work ethic change in practice, he saw how dedicated I got to the game, how many hours I was putting in the gym outside of practice. He told me, That was the best thing that happened to you, as crazy as it sounds. I changed. I started not wanting to be rejected again or be left out of anything.” 

Portraits by Luther Schlaifer.

The post How Duke Commit Dariq Whitehead Followed His Own Path and Emerged as a Five-Star Recruit appeared first on SLAM.

Thirteen All-Star appearances. Eight-time All-NBA. Three-time NBA champion. One Finals MVP. One scoring title. Dwyane Wade arrived to the NBA on June 26, 2003 with little fanfare that night, relatively speaking, of course.

With LeBron James stepping into The Theater at Madison Square Garden (where the draft was held annually for 10 consecutive years, starting in 2001) touted as the greatest HS prospect ever and Carmelo Anthony having led Syracuse to a national title as a freshman, Wade’s buzz after an underrated collegiate career at Marquette was somewhere in their shadows at the time. By the end of his rookie season, though, he had proven himself as a tier-one hooper and a certified bucket-getter. And from then on, he rose to worldwide superstardom and is now a multifaceted entrepreneur (including an ownership stake in the Utah Jazz) and showman. 

We hopped on a Zoom call with Wade in early June to take a trip down memory lane, discussing his career, the impact the ’03 draft class had on and off the court as well as his most recent endeavors.    

SLAM: Your rookie season in Miami, you guys were able to make a run into the second round of the playoffs while you quickly became a household name after coming into the draft with not as much love. Looking back on it, what was it like, to experience that type of early—and maybe unexpected—success?   

WADE: We sucked when I first got in. The year before I got drafted, Caron Butler could’ve won Rookie of the Year. I think he came in second or third behind Amar’e [Stoudemire] and Yao [Ming]. They had won 25 games the year before Udonis [Haslem] and I came in. And we wasn’t good to start the year off. We started off 0-7. We were terrible. And eventually we just kept working. We kept believing in each other. We kept getting closer as a unit and started to figure it out. Lamar Odom was on that team. He was the star player on that team. Skip to My Lou [Rafer Alston] was the point guard on that team. Eddie Jones was a vet. Brian Grant. We had some guys on there that were good guys but we wasn’t that good. And eventually we worked it to a point where we started becoming dominant at home. We started really beating people at home and we learned how to win a little bit on the road. And so, we end up making it to the playoffs and end up getting a fourth seed because of how everything shaped out at the last minute. Shout out to Jalen Rose for making a shot in Milwaukee that gave us the fourth seed because they beat the Bucks on, like, the last night.

And I just remember going in there and was like, Yo, this is what I’ve always heard about. This is what I always wanted to get to! The playoffs is where you make your name. This is where it starts—I build. So, I just remember going into it, like, Yo, I’m about to give it everything I got! The first playoff series was against Baron Davis. I had to go against BD. I’m talking about a real good BD. In the prime BD. We beat them in seven, and then we went against Indiana, who at that time, the Pacers could’ve been champions. Everyone thought the Pacers was going to be champions if everything don’t go down the way it went with the brawl in Detroit. They had a team that can go. So, to take them six games, to average 20 points a game in that series, for me, I was like, Oh, young fella rise! I felt coming out of that series, like, Oh, I’m about to—I’m gonna be a good NBA player. I’ve seen it. I know. Now it’s just about putting the work in.

SLAM: Do you remember any specific game or moment that you can pinpoint as the exact time when you realized that you were in the midst of taking off that rookie season? 

WADE: I think what switched my mindset was after All-Star [Weekend]. I remember going to All-Star and that was the first time when I felt like the third wheel. When we were there and it was all about Melo and it was all about Bron. And no hate [or] nothing to them, because they deserved all of it, but I was sitting there and I was having a pretty good year at that point in Miami—I was exciting, I was doing some cool stuff—but nobody [was speaking about me], people were like, Hey, can you spell your name? I’m like, Still?! Like, I’ve been doing this since I was in kindergarten, spelling my name. I just remember coming back from that All-Star and I just clicked into, like, another person. I remember telling Lamar Odom, Yo, you’re going to see a different me this second half of the season. And so I started building that confidence. I started having games where I put up a couple of 30-point games back-to-back-to-back. I started doing all these things, it was just about trying to do it consistently. Once I was able to consistently do it, I knew I was going to be a pretty good player. But once I performed in the playoff level and against the teams and the talent—Ron Artest was guarding me in that second round; I remember one time I blew by Ron Artest and he was hitting me, he was doing all this, and I was able to take the hits. I was like, Oh. Oh yeah. You here! My confidence just kept going.

SLAM PRESENTS THE ’03 DRAFT AVAILABLE NOW!

SLAM: By year three, you had already captured your first NBA championship. At the time, LeBron had just made the playoffs for the first time, Bosh had not even been to the playoffs at all, and Carmelo hadn’t been able to get out of the first round yet. What was it like looking around at your ’03 peers and seeing how far you’d been able to go in comparison to their first three years?  

 WADE: It was just like, Let me try to beat these guys to it. I had the team that they didn’t have at that point. I had the team that was built to win a championship. Shout out to the Miami Heat and Pat Riley for making that big move to bring in Shaq. And then eventually Antoine Walker, Gary Payton, J Will, James Posey. We had a squad. Those guys didn’t have that kind of team yet. Bron didn’t have that. Melo didn’t have that. And CB definitely didn’t have it at the time in Toronto. So, for me, I was like, Let me get to this now! Before these guys come in and take it. Let me get me a ring first. So, I just had the opportunity before those guys, and I took advantage of that opportunity in 2006. It was a total team effort.

But as growing into the leader of that team, I had to do more than I knew I could do to help us achieve that. And shout out to Shaq, and UD, and Posey, and GP, and all these guys who played their role to a T that allowed me to be able to perform at that level—the defensive role, the leadership role, Shaq getting double-teamed, all these kind of things helped me go to a different level. I was just happy I got a chance to get that first championship before LeBron got in here and started hogging all the Finals appearances [laughs].

SLAM: A few years later, the three biggest names in the ’03 draft class decide to team up when LeBron and CB joined you in Miami. People coined it the start of “superteams” but in reality, it changed forever the way teams were put together and the way players went about it. How do you look back at that monumental time a decade later?

WADE: We knew it in that moment. We didn’t know what it was going to be or what it was going to look like, but we knew that we were shifting the culture. And it’s not even the superteams. Everyone wants to make this about superteams. It’s only the fact that players started controlling the destiny of putting these teams together because ownership was putting together these teams for years. And then we just shifted the power a little bit. Once again, a lot of credit goes to LeBron, and Leon Rose and my agent [and Chris’ agent] Henry Thomas for understanding this vision, and putting us in a situation where we all were set up to control our own destiny. We signed that three-year deal and that put us in a position to control our own destiny. From there, we knew we were shifting the culture. We just didn’t know what was going to happen—we didn’t know that Kevin Durant was going to go to Golden State later. We didn’t know these things were going to happen, but we did know that, Hey, we’re doing something special. And we knew in 10, 20 years we’d be able to look back and be like, Yo, that was a key moment, a pivotal moment. So, it’s great to see. It’s great to see players have power, because they should. They are the talent. They’re the ones. I’m on the other side now. And being on the other side [ownership], I still want players to have the power. I want them to understand what it means to have that kind of power, and use it for what it is that they want to get because organizations, we’re going to get out of the players what we want to get out of them. So you want the players to get out of this game what they deserve as well. So I’m all for it.

SLAM: Not everyone understood the vision at the time, though. There was a lot of criticism that came from it back then. What was it like adjusting to the newfound hate?    

WADE: We didn’t know the media, and the fan base, the hate was going to come the way it did. We definitely didn’t prepare for that. We knew it wasn’t going to be the most popular decision but didn’t know it was going to be the most unpopular decision. We didn’t really prepare for that. And we couldn’t. So, we had to go through all of that in real-time. We all went from being kind of loved—Chris ain’t ruffle no feathers in Toronto, he was quiet. I didn’t ruffle no feathers in Miami, I was quiet. And LeBron was LeBron and loved. And, so, we get all together, and everyone is like, Hate [it]! And you’re like, Wait a minute. Where is this coming from? But we still had a job to do…For us, I look back and I say, I’m so glad that three Black young men were able to sit down and make that decision. And by making that decision, shifted the culture.

SLAM PRESENTS THE ’03 DRAFT AVAILABLE NOW!

SLAM: There was that two-year period where you ended up playing for the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers. How do you remember that small but very different chapter of your life?

WADE: I remember it very well. It’s a part of it. You can’t just think about all the good and not think about anything else. And not saying that it wasn’t good because it was something I wanted to do once everything broke down in Miami the way it did. I never wanted to leave Miami. That was never my goal. But once we broke down in negotiations, I decided to do something for myself. And to go back home and play, that will always be one of my favorite moments. When I got called out and it said, Six-four guard, from Chicago, Illinois, Dwyane Wade—I will never forget that. That moment was so powerful for me. I grew up watching this team. I grew up wanting to be an NBA player because of this team. And now I’m wearing this jersey and I’m here. And also, too, that was the last time the Bulls went in to the playoffs. Shout out to us once again for doing our job and getting to the playoffs. [Rajon] Rondo don’t get that injury, we’re having a different conversation right now.

That year, it was fun. I had a great time. I built a great relationship with my brother Jimmy [Butler]. I got a chance to see my mom and [she] got a chance to see me play up close and personal every home game. I got a chance to be there the last year of my agent’s life in Chicago. If I was in Miami, I would have never got the opportunity to do that. So, there was a lot of great things that came out of me being there that last year. And then it led me to Cleveland.

Once Jimmy got traded and I got bought out, I decided to give it one last hurrah to try to go compete for a championship, and I wanted to do it with my brother who I competed for four other championships with. We thought we had a good chance. We know Golden State was unbelievable and it was going to be hard to beat them regardless. We thought we put together a good team to be able to do that, [but] management thought different, and so they broke us up before we had an opportunity to go compete for a championship together. But I enjoyed my time away from Miami because I got a chance to experience the NBA in a way—I only knew one team, I only knew one way, so I got a chance to get out there and kind of experience the NBA in a different way. I use those experiences til this day.

SLAM: You’ve mentioned your agent Henry Thomas a couple of times. He was the only agent you ever had for those first 15 years of your career before he passed away in 2018. How did his passing impact the tail end of your career?

WADE: That was hard. It’s still hard. Even right now, I get emotional just thinking about it. I remember not wanting to play basketball no more. At that time, things in Cleveland was going the way they were going—we weren’t riding that high wave no more. I was dealing with a loss, a potential loss, throughout that time, that I never experienced before. So, it was hard for me.

Me and Hank, we connected so much from the game of basketball. Our love of the game of basketball was our connection. And once I knew he wasn’t going to be around no more, I lost a piece of me from the connection to basketball. I really wanted that to be my last season. I really didn’t want to play another year after I got traded back to Miami. Shout out once again to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ management for putting me in a good place, knowing everything I was dealing with. When they decided to make the change with the team, they asked me did I want to go back to Miami. They had worked out a trade—if I accepted, I could go back. And it was the perfect thing for me at the time. I needed to be back with family. I got a chance to go back and it was great. It was great for me to get a chance to get back and bring some excitement and some life back to that community, [and] be home with my family. But basketball wasn’t the same for me no more. Even that last year, I played and did my one last dance, and it was incredible—to see the response and just the ovations and the love that I got—but the game was never the same. When Kobe retired, the game wasn’t the same for me anymore. When my agent passed away, the game wasn’t the same anymore.

SLAM: You have your own wine company. You’re now part of the Utah Jazz’s ownership group. You founded a multicultural marketing agency with CAA. And now you are the TV host of a primetime gameshow, The Cube on TBS. How did that last one find itself in front of you?

WADE: I dreamed of going to the NBA. I prayed many nights that hopefully I got that opportunity. But everything else since then has just been nothing but whipped cream and cherries and sprinkles. Once I retired, one thing I did do out here in L.A., I went to every studio, every streaming service, I went and sat down with everybody about, like, Hey, I’ve started my own production company. I really want to get into the storytelling space. I really want to get into the scripted, non-scripted space. And an opportunity came to me about The Cube. The Cube was successful in the UK for 11, going on 12 years. And they wanted to adapt the game show over here…We wanted to bring something that people can do stuff for communities with. And, so, I was like, Cool, I’m an EP! This would be my first thing, that I will be Executive Producer on for [my production company] 59th & Prairie. I’m excited! And they were like, So, yeah, we also want you to host it. And I’m like, Alright, stop. I don’t want to host [laughs]. And [eventually] I just decided to do it because the one thing is when I can control something and I’m fearful of it, I have to do it. I can’t sleep good at night if I know that I have the ability to control this but I’m afraid and I won’t do it. I was afraid of doing it because I’ve never done it before. And I just said, You know what? Let me give this a try. I put the work in and hopefully you guys get a chance to follow us.

Hopefully we’re on for 10 years. Hopefully we have as much success as The Cube has in the UK—whether I’m the host or not. Whether I’m good or not. Hopefully the show can continue to keep going and we can continue to change the lives of people’s families—and have some fun and some joy while doing it.

SLAM: You mentioned putting the work in—did that involve taking classes or extra training sessions?

WADE: I started putting the work in—I had my own vocal and speech coach. I started putting the work in on myself because there was a lot of things I needed to work on, a lot of things I needed to clear up. I’m from Chicago [and] my family is from Jackson, Mississippi—I had this real southern accent. Real thick. Where I come from in Chicago, we don’t follow through with our words. We may say a word and we say bet—we don’t say best. We don’t finish, we don’t follow through. So, I was like, If I’m gonna get on TV, I gotta work on myself. I did that first and then this opportunity came, and I was already months into that, then they gave me a hosting coach to teach me how to host…I spent weeks in my house, in the basement, going over what these games could be. Going over how to talk to the camera, going over the rules.

I put in a lot of work and a lot of hours to try to hopefully bring something to television that people can enjoy.

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The NBPA Top 100 Camp, though, has always been and remains the most “You had to be there” event on the calendar. It’s as super exclusive and private as it gets. Since its inception in ’94, the camp’s true vibes have only been experienced by a select few. If you haven’t played in it, are a parent of someone who has, or worked in it in some capacity, then “you had to be there” certainly applies to you.

With its sole priority and mission being on the development of its invite-only attendees, instead of self-branding, self-promotion or looking to push a product (sneakers, sports drinks—you get the picture), the camp has purposely never been open to the general public, nor have its games ever been televised or live streamed in the past. Instead, the camp has focused strictly on the kids it serves and on creating an atmosphere where they don’t have to worry about playing to the crowd or looking good on television. The result has naturally been an ultra-intense competitive aura, where the players get after it and are locked in on learning from and listening to their camp counselors. You won’t find many showcases or tournaments that have the same type of intensity from its players as the NBPA Top 100 Camp garners, and the exclusive, intimate setting is the main driver behind that.

Purvis Short, a former NBA player and currently Chief of Player Programs at the NBPA, has seen the camp grow from just a concept to now one of the most prestigious invitations a young hooper can ever get.  

“My second year, working as an employee at the union, NBA players wanted to create a camp that would really be unique. Something that would help future NBA players establish a better foundation—not just with basketball, but in the areas of life skills [too],” says Short, who played for the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, and the New Jersey Nets. “The mission was to create this basketball camp that would focus on life skills as much as it focused on basketball development. What we wanted to do and the way we started out, we actually started out on academic institution campuses. Our first six years, we were at Princeton University. The first year we had Kobe [Bryant], Jermaine O’Neal, Baron Davis—they kind of set the tone that this camp was truly unique and that it would be a camp for the elite players and that there was a serious undertone with it.

“I think in the early days, in the beginning, it was about creating this exclusive camp where everyone that came in knew that we were there for a purpose—we wanted to shut out a lot of the noise, if you will. At some point, we may open it up to the public, but we just felt that in order for us to create the foundation, the kind of atmosphere of a camp that we wanted to create on behalf of our players, then we should start out with no fans and really focus on what’s important.”  

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Aside from the effects of the ultra-exclusive-private atmosphere it provides on the hardwood (the basketball portion of the camp is composed of games officiated by NBA referees to go along with skill development drills stations), another factor that goes into the high intensity of the week-long camp is its coaches program. Made up of current and former NBA players—in the past it has included the likes of Rajon Rondo and Andre Iguodala— the coaches program provides mentorship directly from those who have already reached the same level that the campers dream of one day getting the opportunity to also experience.

And as if the intimate and exclusive vibe of the camp, along with an all-NBA coaches program, weren’t unique enough, what also separates the NBPA Top 100 from any other grassroots event out there is that it has a classroom/workshop component as well. And not just for the players. The parents also sit in on parents-only workshops, with topics including everything from handling expectations to going through the agent selection process. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the parent workshops will be done via Zoom this year while the players’ in-classroom component is also being altered.

“As much as [NBA] guys were committed to improving [HS players’] basketball skills, they were also committed to improving their life skills. And, so, over the years, it just kind of evolved. We were different in that we did a lot of life skills teaching and group discussions—trying to help these young men identify issues that not only are they struggling with but also understanding the resources available and how to deal with problems. Also, basic professional skills, basic etiquette skills,” says Short. “It was really our players’ mandate. They really wanted to create something that would stand the test of time and in some small way make a difference in the lives of some of these guys. And we’ve stayed true to that mission.” 

Another major change to this year’s camp is its location. After years on the campus of the University of Virginia, the NBPA Top 100—which actually will only have 60 campers this year as a precautionary measure due to the same COVID-19 pandemic that forced the cancellation of last year’s festivities—has relocated to the ESPN Wide World of Sports inside the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. The spacious 220-acre multi-purpose sports complex allows the NBPA Top 100 Camp to follow all necessary safety protocols—which for the players this year included testing upon arrival as well as a quarantine/isolation period before the start of camp (which runs from Tuesday to Friday this week). The large complex allows Top 100 to create a true “bubble” experience on the same site where the NBA finished its 2020 season last summer.

“There were a lot of things that went into that decision. Number one—just from a growth standpoint, we were very fortunate when we got into the University of Virginia; they had just opened that arena. [But eventually] we had really outgrown UVA and so in the process of looking for a new location, we were fortunate enough to land in such a luxurious, top-of-the-line place,” says Short. “There were certain standards of protocol that we wanted to be sure that happened. If we’re going to bring these kids in, we want to make sure that we’re giving them the best tests we could give them. That we’re as safe as possible. We feel like we have a robust COVID protocol. We’re going to see how it unfolds, but we’ve taken additional steps. We’ll have cohorts, pods, if you will. So, teams will stay together through the week.” 

Among the top players in this year’s camp are Keyonte George, Jazian Gortman, Brandon Miller, Jarace Walker, and Bryce Griggs. Additionally, there’s a slate of legacy players that will also partake in this year’s camp, including Juwan Howard’s son Jett, Larry Hughes’ son Larry Jr, Ricky Davis’ son Tyree and Ron Harper’s son Dylan, among a few others.

For those wondering if they’ll ever get the chance to experience the action at the most exclusive grassroots event on the calendar, this year might be your first chance at getting a glimpse. The NBPA is currently finalizing a deal to have its championship game live-streamed on Friday—the first time ever in its camp’s history that a game is broadcasted. More details regarding the live stream are expected in the coming days.

“We feel it’s time. One thing about Top 100, we don’t just do stuff just to do it. We really try to be particular about the things that we do. For the first time ever, we will be streaming our championship game. We’re really excited about it. And hopefully if we can pull this off and it comes out pretty good, we’ll expand it. But we do feel in this moment and time that it’s the right thing to do,” says Short. “When we had our camp in 2019, we had just been granted the right to have NCAA coaches and NBA scouts there. We had over 300 NCAA coaches that attended and over 30 to 40 NBA representatives that attended. For us, that spoke volumes. So, slowly, we’re starting to roll things out. There’s a lot of excitement about where Top 100 could be in five years. Top 100 was never designed to be out in the media. It was always this hidden gem.” 

As the camp soon approaches its 30-year anniversary, Short has accumulated endless stories of memorable moments throughout the decades. But one sticks out the most, which he finds himself retelling to campers often.

“As a player, I was known as a shooter. When I was a little younger, I would challenge all these good kids when they came through camp. I would want to shoot against them and I never let anybody win. When Kobe came to our camp, I use to shoot against him. We’re shooting and I’m killing it. Talking s**t to him. And he did something that I had never seen before. Typically, we just played H-O-R-S-E. I always felt, if I start off first, I’m not gonna miss. I’m gonna run the table; the game is going to be over,” recalls Short. “I missed, and Kobe had like an R or S. Kobe goes out to the three-point line and he starts shooting left-handed jump shots. Left-handed three-point jump shots. I had not been able to do nothing with my left hand other than eat with it. [Kobe] was in high school. I’ve seen Jordan, Magic, Bird, Kareem, and Dr. J, and these guys were just phenomenal. Kobe beat me. He really set the tone, he and the other guys that came in that first year. We were trying something new and we were just blessed to get probably one of the greatest groups of high school players that’s ever been assembled.”

You had to be there.

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“When I was about 7, in my first AAU tournament against players from across the country, [it made] me want to pursue a career in basketball. It was a tournament at Boo Williams [Sportsplex]—I’m from Virginia and back then that was the big thing, go to Boo Williams and play in tournaments there,” recalls Thomas. “I had 25 points playing up with the 9-year-olds when I was 7. That’s when it really made me be like, Well, I might as well just take basketball serious. I had, like, 25 points at every game that weekend.”

Turns out his intuition was correct. Today, Thomas enters the 2021 NBA draft as arguably the best pure scorer in the class. It’s a title he’s become used to holding on every team he’s ever been on since that tourney at age 7. When the 6-4 guard transferred to prep powerhouse Oak Hill Academy for his junior year, that team already had three top-ranked senior recruits in Cole Anthony, Kofi Cockburn and Christian Brown. Yet, by the end of the season, it was Thomas who had risen as the leading scorer for the Warriors, averaging a team-best 26.2 points per game. His scoring average surpassed 31 points by his senior year.

“My experience at Oak Hill really made me realize that I could be an NBA player,” he says. “Really, my junior year playing with Cole, Kofi, Christian—me playing and being the youngest in the starting line-up at the time.”

His scoring prowess was felt year-round, though. The VA native could always be found scorching the AAU scene just as easily. Take the summer of 2019, for example. Playing in the Nike EYBL circuit—always regarded as the most competitive and star-studded grassroots league in the world—Thomas led all 40 teams in scoring with 29.5 points per game. In his 13 games during the regular season, he scored 30+ in almost half of them.

College wasn’t any different. Thomas led all freshmen in DI basketball in scoring with 23.0 points this past season at LSU. He broke a few records in the process, including most 25+ point games by a freshman in the SEC. He had 16 of those. The previous record was nine by Malik Monk.  

Thomas has been doing his pre-draft training in L.A., where he got the opportunity to connect with an Oak Hill legend in June. A dinner with L.A. Clippers guard Rajon Rondo is where he points to as the source of the best piece of advice he received this spring while preparing to make the transition to the pros.   

“We were all eating out. It was a great chance to meet him, being from the same school, Oak Hill, it was really good. Just to sit around and talk to him for a little bit, it was a really good talk we had,” recalls Thomas. “The best piece of advice I got was from Rajon Rondo. He told me to just stay true to yourself, whatever you haven’t done before, don’t do it now—just stay in your comfort zone.” 

Cam’s been doing just that since he was 7.

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We initially figured this cover shoot would end up happening in his native city of Atlanta or maybe even L.A.—a popular offseason destination for many NBA stars. Yet Edwards is indeed in the Twin Cities as the Conference Finals get underway in late June. His commitment to the franchise, the city, his craft and the future all evident in his presence.   

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A facility employee mentions right before Edwards’ arrival that the NBA All-Rookie First Team honoree had actually been back working out at the gym just a couple of weeks earlier. The day after our shoot, Edwards is slated to represent Minnesota in the draft lottery—just another minor example of how invested he is in the franchise’s future. Therefore, right after our shoot, Edwards has to sit for a quick test shot with the Timberwolves’ digital team on the practice court, where he’ll be joining the live broadcast of the draft lottery the following night—due to COVID-19, all team representatives were remote for a second consecutive year. Edwards is patiently taking it all in, though. The test shots. The multiple takes. The summer days in Minneapolis—even if and when he’s the only player at the practice facility or maybe even in the city. 

One of the many reasons he’s in town during the summer is that he’s in the midst of getting settled in at the new downtown apartment he just moved in to. During a break in between shooting stations at our shoot, Edwards excitedly talks about the “top floor views” of the city from his apartment, a prerequisite he says played a major role during the home search process. 

At one point toward the end of our time with him, Edwards sits down and looks around at the empty gym. He begins to reminisce about his first few days with the franchise, his very first time scrimmaging on the practice court is still clear as day on his mind.        

“I think we got here around 9. Practice started at 10. So, I got here kinda early [and] got some shots up. Everybody did. We had a regular training camp and then we started scrimmaging,” says Edwards. “I don’t think I played since, like, January because of COVID. So, like, I thought I was going to come out here and be myself. I looked bad. I just remember I played real bad. And then as the days went on, then I finally found myself.”

It was actually March the last time he had played in a real game, but it might as well have been January—those days felt like an eternity. If anything, it’s indicative of what 2020 felt like for most people—all those months becoming one big blur.  

It all really happened so fast. Training camp began 13 days after Draft Night. The first preseason game was 11 days later. The first regular-season game was 11 days after that. No Summer League games in Vegas to get some reps in. No three-month summer window to get acclimated to a new city, to learn the team’s playbook, offensive and defensive sets, to bond with the coaching staff, to build rapport with new teammates. An abbreviated training camp with a grueling condensed regular season schedule awaited him instead. Edwards and every other rookie were thrown into the fire like no other rookie class in NBA history had ever been before.  

Edwards started the season coming off the bench during his first 17 games. But injuries and some line-up shuffling, as well as Edwards showing flashes of serious star potential during his first month in the L, led to him getting the nod against the Philadelphia 76ers in late January. 

“It was the day of. We always do a walk-through at four [in the afternoon]. So, at walk-through, I had seen my name on the board. You know, they always have the starting five versus the other starting five. And [former HC Ryan Saunders] was like, Ant, you gonna start today. And I was like, Alright, bet! And then just went from there…I was like, About time!” he recalls. “I gotta prove that I belong to start. This is what I need to be doing. So, when I got out there, I was just trying to do everything to show Ryan that I was supposed to be starting.” 

From then on, Edwards never looked back. He started every game for the remainder of the season. In reality, though, it wasn’t until the All-Star break when he reached a turning point. With the pandemic still fully raging in March, the NBA opted to nix all ASW festivities outside of the main game. And so, with the Rising Stars Game canceled, Anthony Edwards decided to head back home to Atlanta to recharge for the week. There, he linked up with two trusted trainers, and as the cliché goes, the rest is history. 

“I got these two trainers, Justin Holland and Kierre Jordan. And we was just watching film and I was just seeing every shot that I was missing. I wasn’t jumping. Most of the threes I was missing, I wasn’t jumping. Or I wasn’t doing something right. I just looked at film and it worked out. When I came back, it was a lot easier,” says Edwards. “I was watching film a lot during the All-Star break, for sure. 

“I never watched film, but now I watch a lot of film. It’s fun because you see, like, OK, if they giving me this shot, I’m gonna go to the gym and work on this shot. Ok, they’re giving me this midrange, I’m gonna go to the gym and work on this for three hours today. And then come back and work on it tomorrow until I feel like I perfected it.”

His post-All-Star break numbers soared. After averaging 14.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists heading into the All-Star recess, he averaged 23.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists after the break. Furthermore, his efficiency also saw significant improvement—he shot 37.1 percent from the floor prior to ASW but shot over 45 percent afterward. 

He ultimately ended up leading all rookies in scoring with 19.3 points per game. He scored 20 or more points 36 times—no other rookie even reached half of that. He was the only rookie to play in all 72 games. His 42 points against the Phoenix Suns—in his fifth game back from the All-Star break—made him the third youngest player in NBA history to have a 40-point night, behind only Kevin Durant and LeBron James. He dropped 42 twice.

“I think one of the fans had said something to me. And then it just got me going,” recalls Edwards of that night in Phoenix. “Most of those games where I played pretty good, a fan had said something to me. I don’t even remember what they said. I just remember they said something. And I was like, Oh, for real? Alright. And then I just started scoring the ball crazy.” 

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That night was actually part of a stretch in which he also finished with 34 and 29 in the two previous games. It made him the youngest player in NBA history to ever score over 100 points during a three-game stretch. 

“I feel like with me, once I find what I can do, a lot of people are in trouble. Once I find, OK, this is what I’m gonna do. This is how I’m going to score the ball every time. These are my three ways. Once I find that, it’s really nothing you can do ‘cause I’ma get there,” says the 19-year-old. “That’s kind of what I did. After watching all that film, I found there was three ways I’m going to score the ball. [And] I did that.” 

When asked about the three ways he speaks of, Edwards quickly responds, “Nah, I can’t tell the people because then they’re going to know how to guard me,” before cracking a laugh. He was kinda serious about that one, though.

Beyond the numbers, he was passing the eye test just as easily. That monster dunk on Toronto Raptors forward Yuta Watanabe was heard and felt worldwide. He accumulated jaw-dropping finishes like that one throughout the season. His candid post-game interviews, electrifying smile and ultra-confidence made him a fan-favorite beyond the state of Minnesota. And not just among fans. Edwards became an easy mentee for even one of the most respected veteran guards in the League.    

“Ricky Rubio was just like an uncle on the team. Ricky Rubio was always in my ear. On the court, off the court. He was always in my ear,” recalls Edwards. “The thing he always said was, Man, I wish I had your confidence. I had a bad game one time in OKC and we was on the elevator and I was still happy. I wasn’t mad. I was calling my friends, Let’s play the game. He was like, Man, I wish I had your confidence. He was like, ’Cause nothing bothers you. You’re the same every time. He was like, I love it. Ricky was the biggest influence on the team [for me] for sure.”   

Edwards understands that his rookie season is now a thing of the past, though. His focus has shifted to ensuring that there’s a Year 2 leap to remember, one that turns heads across the League even more so than any of the body-catching finishes from last season.  

“Winning as a team comes with individual accolades, I feel. KAT texted me and D-Lo texted me and we was just like, Playoffs! We want to go to the playoffs next year. So, if we go to the playoffs next year, the individual achievements gonna come because you’re winning. I don’t really even think about my individual achievements. I want to take my team to the playoffs, for sure,” says Edwards. 

“Throughout the whole summer, when we text, we just be like, We’re going to the playoffs next year.” 

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“I was at home, and I think I saw it go under the ticker on one of the news broadcasts: All park permits are canceled for the summer of 2020. I was like, Wait a minute, let me go check my email! And there it was in black and white. The Parks Department sent the email out,” recalls Stevens, founder and commissioner of the prestigious Dyckman Basketball summer leagues in New York City. “There was no point of fighting it. There was no one to email back, like, Nah, you can’t do that!”

It was a reality that every other summer league commissioner would also have to come to grips with. Beyond league directors, players (from pro-am to school level), entire communities of fans and everyone in between also felt the effects of it. Park fences were locked with chains. Rims were taken down. Images that will go down in history. The unthinkable happened: summer basketball was stopped.

Miles Rawls returned to his Barry Farms neighborhood in Washington DC in 1995 after 15 years in the military. He was looking forward to hooping in the Barry Farms Community Summer Basketball League that year. Only problem was that the league, after running annually since 1977—when Rawls himself played in it—had stopped functioning that very same summer since no one was available to lead its operations. Alarmed by the sight of the league no longer being a fixture in the community, he decided to take over the helm and bring it back in 1996. It was eventually rebranded as the Goodman League.

The league went on to not miss a single year ever since. Nothing could stop it. That is, until COVID-19 happened. For the first time since Rawls took over, there were no basketballs bouncing inside the gates at Barry Farms during the summer of 2020. And with it, life for so many changed.

 On the surface, there’s the obvious. Hoopers of all ages not having the chance to compete for an entire summer, nationwide. Yeah, sounds terrible, of course. Even more so psychologically for all who have found a sanctuary in the sport. But we all know that the game of basketball reaches far beyond those on the floor. Its impact transcends the 94×50. Leagues like Dyckman and Goodman reach the local communities they serve in ways that most could never realize.

 Some of the effects are more visible than others. Jobs. Seasonal. Part-time. Yet life-altering for many in the DC community.

 “The league provides jobs. It’s not much but it’s something—better than nothing. I’ve employed the kids to clean up after the game. The kids these days don’t want to do nothing, so I have adults, homeless guys, that’s from the neighborhood. Put them on staff,” says Rawls. “I have a six-to-eight man clean-up crew that sets up [and] cleans when everything is over. I also have my facilities guys—I have about a 15-20 person staff, solid—that’s down to work between the clock, bookkeepers, clean-up crew and parking crew. I got about a 20-member staff down there that gets paid, cash and go. The majority of them are homeless. I’ve had that same crew for the last 10 years.”

 In New York, Dyckman has become the entry point into the workforce for so many teenagers across the five boroughs. Stevens says that Dyckman partners with Children’s Arts and Science Workshop, an NYC summer youth program, to hire between 80-110 kids to assist with its many divisions annually. This group is separate from Dyckman’s internal staff. There are three different shifts, with kids rotating between table staff, signage, clean-up and stats, among other duties. While Dyckman has become known as a popular destination for NBA players looking to get a run in on any given weekday night while in the city during the summer, it’s also where kids in the community get the unique opportunity to learn some of the ins and outs of sectors like event management, facility operations and sports marketing.

“Myself, I’m a product of the summer youth program,” says Stevens. “My first job at 14 years old, when I got my working papers was [through] the summer youth [program]. And now all these kids that didn’t get an opportunity to work the summer—sometimes the kids are doing it to help feed their families, other kids are doing it to help pay for stuff for going back to school, or some kids are just saving. The kids were actually hitting me, like, Hey, is there anything we can do so that we can get on your books? But the city was just shut down.”

While most roles within summer hoops usually serve as secondary jobs for supplementary income—from the referees down to security staff—for many of the food vendors at Dyckman, it is their actual livelihood. Part of the experience of being at Dyckman is that you can take in the one-of-a-kind atmosphere while enjoying a versatile list of food options from local vendors. From pastelillos/empanadas to shish kabob and hot dogs, Stevens says there are usually about six-to-eight vendors at the park every day. Each vendor, usually consisting of a group of three or four people, has a station from where they deploy workers into the stands with food.

“I think those are people that are vital and a major part of [the] Dyckman [experience]. They took a hit bad because some of the people that work there are definitely using their money to feed their families, whether it is here in the States or back home in the Dominican Republic,” says Stevens. “That loss was definitely a big hit after having many years of being a big part of the summer basketball tournaments.”

Then there’s the social effect. Rawls noticed how crime went up significantly last summer in the local areas that the Goodman League serves. In 2020, Washington DC reached its highest murder rate in 15 years. He knew right away that there was a connection between the spike and the lack of hoops, a correlation he’s noticed for quite some time.

 “Back in my day, there wasn’t a lot of crime because we looked out for each other,” says Rawls. “When kids get idle with nothing to do—the league has been a crime deterrence for the past 24 years—that crime rate goes up. It goes through the roof. We definitely missed it from that aspect.

 “I’m in talks with the city. We’re trying to get this 25th year [going] because the city definitely needs it—we’re in an uproar as far as crime in the city. It’s a lot of the young kids that are committing a lot of these crimes. The Goodman League has been a safe haven and a place for them to come for four hours. That’s why we run the leagues six days a week—it’s not because I have to, I do it to keep the kids off the streets and try to keep the crime down in my city. That’s basically why I go six days a week.”

 Images of chained up playgrounds and backboards with missing hoops made the rounds on social media during the summer of 2020. Barry Farms was among them. Rawls remembers taking the call that gave him a heads up that his park was next.

 “I got a call the night before when a large crowd was out there. They chained the courts first. They chained the fence up. But that wasn’t going to work—they pop locks in the hood. So they knew the next best thing was to take the rims down altogether and that’s what they did,” he says. “I got a call from the city, one of the guys that’s in charge of one of the organizations. They were like, We gotta take the rims down. I was like, Hey, do what you gotta do! But riding around the city and not seeing any rims up on the outside courts was crazy.”

 There will be a summer 2021 season at Dyckman and Goodman. That much everyone knows. But what exactly it will look like is anyone’s guess. As of late April, both Stevens and Rawls have been in constant communication with their respective city agencies about the expected restrictions and health protocols. Discussions around a potential condensed schedule are ongoing and therefore the thought of participating teams being reduced is also a consideration. Many tough decisions are ahead. Both cities have informed the commissioners to plan for reduced capacity at the parks—at least to start the season. There are items that have never been a part of the operating budgets in past years that now need to be accounted for. From masks to hand sanitizers and even potentially a different-looking insurance policy, whatever it takes to bring summer basketball back.

 There is a silver lining in all of this. The extra downtime allowed for more conversation. Real dialogue among rival leagues. Talks about how to elevate even further, how to impact even more. Summer basketball being taken away for a year showed how its importance is truly immeasurable. And maybe it’ll be the source of an even more impactful era of summer ball moving forward. 

“Once we saw that [confirmation] email, all the summer directors got on Zoom and we were talking about it,” Stevens recalls. “We all were like, We need to try to find something to do to come together and start working more hand in hand with each other. That’s kind of where we’ve been. Everybody is talking with each other, trying to figure out how we can continue to service the kids and take care of the community. It gave me an opportunity to sit down and reevaluate how we’ve been doing things for years. Before, it was just regular business every year. One of the greatest things that it did was it gave me time to reach out to many of my different buddies in different positions and have conversations about how we could work together, because usually at a certain point, you don’t get a chance to talk to nobody once you get locked in that mold of summer ball—teams, schedules, location, uniforms. The pandemic gave us a chance to sit down and talk.”

Photos via Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images, Dyckman Basketball, and Goodman commissioner Miles Rawls.

The post The Summer That Wasn’t: How Basketball Leagues like Dyckman and Goodman Persevered Through the Pandemic appeared first on SLAM.

“It was really difficult for me to leave my family. My mom encouraged me to go to Italy to follow my path. She knew it would be difficult at first, alone on a new continent, but she told me, You need to go there and work hard! It was difficult when I first arrived in Italy, getting used to the cold weather was complicated but I finally managed to deal with it,” says Nzosa, in his native French, through a translator.

“Sometimes, after a tough practice, I felt homesick. I was thinking about my family and I needed to hear their voices. I was lucky enough to have some good people taking care of me, helping me.” 

“When he left for Italy, he was very emotional. He cried when I joined him one day after his arrival, because he told me it was something big for him to leave his country to go to Italy,” adds Joe Lolonga, a mentor from back home and now his manager, who is also communicating in French through a translator. “It’s a big opportunity for him to help his family and I told him, The way you can make us all proud is by playing really well and defend the culture and the color of Congo by staying self-disciplined, by working hard, by staying focused [and] by listening.”

Soccer is the main sport in the Congo and Nzosa grew up playing goalkeeper. As he got taller and taller, friends began suggesting that he give basketball a try. But he didn’t really have any interest. One day an elder from his neighborhood in Kinshasa offered to introduce him to a gentleman who runs a local basketball program. He suggested that Nzosa, 13 years old at the time, just give it a try. The teenager finally agreed. The hoops team was operated by Lolonga as part of his non-profit organization called New Generation, which serves over 100 kids.

“In my neighborhood, everybody was telling me how easy it would be for me to play basketball. You are so tall, you will just have to go under the basket and score…And that very first month, it was a struggle. I was stressed because I didn’t know how to play the game. I was on the bench all the time, just watching my teammates. I tried to do things but technically I was too limited. I was frustrated, really frustrated. People had told me basketball would come easily for me and I told myself, I have to train hard,” says Nzosa. 

“I wanted to emulate what [Serge] Ibaka is doing in Congo and help my people. When I was young, since I’m tall, people were calling me Mutombo Dikembe. If you are tall in Congo, they call you Mutombo Dikembe,” says Nzosa while laughing. “It’s not an easy thing to be tall in my neighborhood. People were making fun of me. But then playing basketball made me feel good about myself so I didn’t mind being tall anymore.”   

Among the biggest challenges for kids looking to pursue the game in the Congo is access to courts. Lolonga has begun implementing a long-term strategy that he hopes will ensure that future generations are able to train—or just play—on quality courts across the country.

 “We have no indoor basketball court in the [whole] country and most outdoor playgrounds are not safe and regulated. Their layouts aren’t proper. I’m the vice president of the Congolese basketball federation and we want to popularize basketball all over Congo,” says Lolonga. “The main focus is on the national basketball team—we need to win in order to gain followers. We are getting there slowly, and if everything goes according to our plans, we want to develop a pro league to keep our young players from having to go overseas. That way we will be able to get more sport grants, attract more sponsorship to build basketball courts all over Congo. That’s the vision we have at the federation and we are committed to growing our sport.”

Adds Nzosa, “I was lucky enough to play for Joe’s team; we have a court where we can practice. But playing basketball in Congo is difficult. There are many soccer fields and it’s easy to play soccer. Basketball is another story. You can’t really practice and play pickup games. It’s difficult to find basketball shoes, so we had to practice in our everyday shoes. It was a struggle to find a playground.”

After a couple of years in Italy, Nzosa relocated to Spain for the opportunity to play in the best hoops league in Europe, Liga ACB, joining Unicaja Málaga. Nzosa made his debut with the senior team in September of 2020 at the age of 16. After getting some minutes during the preseason, the 6-10 forward didn’t see the court until his third game of the regular season.

It didn’t take long before he was tying or setting new records, though. In his debut, he finished with 10 points after going a perfect 5-5 from the floor, to go along with three rebounds and a couple of blocks. He joined Ricky Rubio and Luka Doncic as the only 16-year-olds in the Spanish league’s history to score at least 10 points in a game. A couple of weeks later he became the youngest player in the prestigious league’s history to finish with at least 4 blocks in a game, surpassing Kristaps Porzingis’ previous record. 

“To be honest, I never really thought about breaking those records when I started to play this season. I didn’t even think I was good enough to play. When I see the names on that list, it makes me want to work harder because it’s an honor to be mentioned side by side with those great players who are way better than me,” says Nzosa. “I don’t really like it when people try to compare me to those guys. The only thing I know is that I’m working the right way and I need to keep on working to get to where they are—that dream of playing in the NBA.”

Two months later, what once felt like the wildest of dreams when he boarded that flight to Italy now began to look like a very attainable goal. ESPN dropped its first mock draft for the 2022 NBA Draft in late December. And there, listed at No. 5, was Yannick Nzosa. ESPN updated its list in April of this year and this time Yannick had moved up one spot to No. 4. Of course, those are just ever-evolving opinions. There’s still a long way to go between now and then. Nonetheless, it was a strong validation that all the sacrifices, relocations and countless hours were indeed paying off. Except, if you ask Nzosa about it, he’d tell you it’s one subject he isn’t invested in spending too much energy on at the moment. 

“To tell you the truth, I don’t really pay any attention to this. It’s great but I’m not really focused on that. They are just predictions. For me, not only do I want to go to the NBA, but I want to play in the League for a long time,” he says. “I want to work as much as I can so that when I go to the NBA, I can really show what I can do. A lot of friends keep on mentioning those mock drafts, and they tell me, Don’t forget about me when you are in the League. I don’t like to talk about this; the goal is to be ready when my name is called.”

Leaving home at such a young age has exposed Nzosa to so many cultures and languages. Only 17 years old, he speaks five different languages already. And he’s learning English, so it’s bound to be six very soon. He studied French back home, since it’s regarded as the official language in the DRC, but also grew up speaking Lingala, the native Bantu language. His parents also spoke to him in Portuguese growing up and therefore he understands it, although he says he’s gotten rusty at speaking it since it’s been a while. Then there’s Italian and Spanish, which he learned over the past 3+ years while kick starting his professional career in Europe. Not only does he have as much upside as anyone in that 2022 class, you also won’t find a prospect with as much of a well-rounded résumé away from the court either. 

Some of the international players in the NBA have begun to take notice of Nzosa. Pau Gasol called him one day and they ended up spending a good amount of time on the phone. The two-time NBA champ offered some advice and answered questions from Yannick, who was eager to learn more about him and his journey. Clippers forward Serge Ibaka, a native of the Congo himself, has sent messages of encouragement through Nzosa’s Málaga teammate and captain Carlos Suarez—Ibaka and Suarez were teammates when Ibaka played a few games for Real Madrid during the 2011 NBA lockout.     

Nzosa is already giving back to the kids of the same program he was once a part of as well. Lolonga points out that Yannick has been sending the basketball gear he’s gotten in Italy and Spain back home to the kids in the New Generation program—sending basketball sneakers, tees and shorts. He’s already a role model in the Congo to those closely examining his ascension while looking to one day follow in his footsteps.        

“Ibaka is the reference for me. He is Congolese [and] in Congo he helps people. He is an example to follow. I see a little bit of myself in him, in the way he plays defense [and] how he excels as a pick and roll finisher,” says Nzosa. “[I’m] a player who is fast and gives 100 percent. I’m good on pick and roll plays. I can defend the 1, the 2 and the 3. Physically, I’m not that great—I really need to build up my body, get stronger. I play with a lot of energy [though]. I leave everything on the court.”

—

Photos via Getty.

Additional Reporting by Pascal Giberne.

The post 2022 NBA Draft Prospect Yannick Nzosa is Ready to Make the Congo Proud appeared first on SLAM.

It is in this moment that 19-year-old rookie RJ Barrett, in a scenario very similar to a high school freshman entering the cafeteria for lunch for the very first time, finds himself looking around the plane for a place to sit. He eventually turns to Julius Randle, who is entering his sixth year in the NBA and therefore is already sitting in his preferred spot, and asks if he could join him.     

“He didn’t really know where to sit. He came and was like, Is it cool if I sit right here? And I was like, Hell no! Nah, I’m joking. I was like, Yeah, of course, man. I’ve always sat on the same place on the plane my whole career. He sat next to me and it’s just kind of been our thing…First day, and ever since then, hasn’t changed,” says Randle. “They have the table where the guys play cards. I’ve always sat to the left of the table—directly there. I sit there and [RJ] sits by the window.”

Julius, who knew exactly what it was like to be a top draft pick headed to a big city with tons of expectations and very little patience after being selected with the seventh pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, became the perfect mentor for Barrett. Whether fate or just pure coincidence, it’s impossible to trace back the grand return of the New York Knicks to relevance this season without looking at how Randle and Barrett sprouted in The Garden by developing a strong chemistry that extends beyond the hardwood. One that seems to have started on (or at the very least facilitated by) an October flight in 2019.

“We’ve been sitting beside each other since day one. Just cracking jokes…We can play cards, we listen to music, we do all that at the front of the plane. It kind of just happened and we just stuck with it,” says Barrett. “We’ve always just had an understanding with each other. Sitting together at the beginning kind of helped me because I was the rookie coming in. So, it was like [a] big brother just helping me out. We even watch film together on the plane, showing me little things.”

That plane seating decision may have not seemed like a big deal at the time, but it helped pave the way for the creation of the most important Knicks duo in recent memory. The Knicks are back. The most valued franchise in the NBA is making noise again. A real foundation is now in place, with Randle and Barrett at the center of it.

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It’s a Thursday afternoon in late April and RJ Barrett is sitting in his home office in White Plains, NY. The team is enjoying a day off, 16 hours after winning at home in overtime against the Atlanta Hawks in the second game of a back-to-back. Randle dropped 40. The Knicks extended their winning streak to eight—their longest streak in seven years. The team has moved up to sole possession of the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference on this day. With less than a month to go in the regular season, the thought of the Knicks being in the playoffs for the first time since 2013 seems like a real possibility. It’s been eight years. The city is buzzing.

There’s a lot to be excited about, and RJ is cheesing hard when he joins us via Zoom from his home.

“I feel like we were the only ones that kind of believed in ourselves. No one thought we were going to be here,” says Barrett. “No one thought we were going to be in this position except for us. Even making the playoffs, we’re very excited for that. It’s not just about making the playoffs. We want to go far. We want to try to win championships. That’s what we’re about.”

“From the media’s standpoint, I could certainly understand how we would be ahead of schedule,” says Randle. “For me—unless you’re, like, the Lakers or Brooklyn [where] it’s championship or bust in their minds, probably—I came to this season with an open mind. We had a new front office. Guys I was really familiar with were Wes [William Wesley] and Leon [Rose]. New coaching staff, different players. So, it’s hard to really put a cap on what you can be. I just tried to come into the season with an open mind. I wanted to improve as a player and really put my best foot forward as far as how I could help the team. Quickly, as the season started in training camp and as the season went on, I could tell things were a lot different [and that] we had a chance to be good if we just trust in each other, believe in each other and follow Thibs’ lead.”

It was in July of 2017 when Barrett first caught the attention of Randle. At the time, Randle had just completed his third year in the League and was enjoying his offseason in L.A. when one day he decided to tune in to the U19 FIBA World Cup in Egypt. The real draw for the former Kentucky star was that his former head coach John Calipari was coaching the American team. As a true Big Blue Nation supporter and overall student of the game, Randle tuned it to root for his guy. It was the tourney’s semifinals and Team USA was facing off against Canada. Barrett, only 17 years old at the time, ended up dropping 38 points, 13 rebounds and 5 rebounds while leading Canada to a shocking 99-87 upset victory over the United States.

It marked the first time that an American team of any age group had lost a game in international competition in six years, while also being the first time ever that a Canadian men’s basketball team had claimed gold at any level. Randle vividly remembers his thoughts after watching that contest.

“I watched that game. He went crazy. I remember he got a 30-ball,” recalls Randle. “I was like, That kid is going to be special! I could tell right away. You don’t just see that happening.”

Beyond the career-high production from Randle and the second-year leap from Barrett, there’s a visible overall culture shift with this team, one that everyone has bought in on. Head coach Tom Thibodeau’s teams have always been known for their hard-nosed defense and grittiness. As of late April, the team ranks No. 1 in the NBA in fewest points allowed (104.7 per game) as well as No. 1 in fewest made field goals by opponents (38.0 per game). For reference, the franchise ranked 17th in points allowed last season (112.3 ppg). In their largest margin blowout win in 25 years—by 44 points against the Detroit Pistons on the road—in early April, the orange and blue didn’t allow a single field goal to the Pistons starters in the first quarter; that hasn’t happened in 22 years.

“We’re a team that we go back to the gym at night. Almost every night. We’re always working before practice, after practice. Come back again at night. We land somewhere, we all go to the gym now. We’re always in the gym. That’s been showing out there on the court…This is a very special team. And I feel like we’re the start of something good in New York Knicks basketball again,” says Barrett. “I think our team describes New York. I think we’re tough, gritty, resilient. And we go in with our hard hat and work hard every day.”

Adds Randle, “After the first game of preseason, honestly, I saw it was different. And then I think the third game of the preseason, when we played Cleveland back-to-back, I was like, Oh, nah, we got a chance to do something or surprise people! We went to Indiana, played them tough—should’ve won the game. And from that point on, I’m like, Yo, just keep building! I really wasn’t focused on the wins and losses. We were just trying to focus on building our identity of who we were as a team. Confidence for a team is everything. That’s really what happened with us. Game by game, our confidence just grew to where every game we come in [and] we expect to win the game.”   

For Randle, the journey has taken him from four rebuilding years with the Lakers (tough years where the team finished 30 or more games under .500 in three of those) to then one season in New Orleans, where he enjoyed some of the best numbers of his career but nonetheless missed the playoffs. He opted out of the second year of a two-year deal with the Pelicans in the summer of 2019 and ultimately took a leap of faith in signing with the rebuilding Knicks. After a tough first season as a team in New York, Randle is now averaging career highs in points (24.2) and rebounds (10.3) as of press time. He’s been filling up the stat sheet, becoming the first Knick in over three decades to record multiple triple-doubles in a season. He got his first All-Star nod in March and is now gearing up for some playoff action—the first of his career.

“I had never seen [Julius] in person before, so when I [first] saw him I actually was like, This dude is 6-9, 250!” says Barrett while bursting out laughing. “My favorite stories are just him working hard. Us landing somewhere and [he’s] always going to the gym. He just became an All-Star, and he was in New York working after the All-Star Game before anybody even got back….As soon as he gets to the arena, he has his headphones on. He’s kind of just in a zone. He doesn’t really speak until we get on the court.”

For RJ, who’s still only 20 years old, his first 18+ months in the League have been a rollercoaster. As the third pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, which became the Knicks’ highest draft pick since Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing went number one in 1985, he saw his share of ups and downs as a rookie. The team was losing. A lot. The head coach was fired. The team president was fired. Although many jumped at the opportunity to critique his shooting numbers, he still showed glimpses of what could be. There were a couple of 27-point performances. He became the first Knicks rookie in 40 years to post a 15-15-5 stat line. He was third (behind only Zion Williamson and Ja Morant) in scoring among all rookies—and yet somehow was absurdly snubbed from the NBA All-Rookie Team.

Not only are his averages and shooting percentages up across the board this season (posting 17.6 points and 5.8 boards as of press time), there’s an aura and swagger to him. He’s become a fan favorite in the Big Apple.

“This year he’s just a complete—I wouldn’t say 180 [degrees], but as far as his mentality, he doesn’t let things affect him,” says Randle of Barrett. “He’s very steady, confident and knows who he is as a player, and he’s just been proving it.”

A few days after our Zoom calls with both guys, the Knicks winning streak came to an end following a loss to Phoenix at home. The streak topped off at nine—the team’s second best stretch in 25 years. The vibe in the city remained unchanged, though. This time it just feels different.

Yes, the Carmelo Anthony-led 2012-13 team did indeed make it to the second round of the playoffs, but that squad never had a sustainable young core to build a future around. Therefore, that era came and went so fast, still leaving the franchise with the worst record in the League over a 20-year span when Randle joined in 2019. This team, though, hasn’t even scratched the surface. From Immanuel Quickley having one of the best rookie seasons in the Association, to Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel becoming major defensive forces in the paint, it’s been a well-balanced mix to complement vets like Derrick Rose, Reggie Bullock, Alec Burks, Elfrid Payton and Taj Gibson.

Players on other teams, from LeBron James to Marcus Morris, have taken to Twitter to acknowledge the resurgence of the team. “And the league is simply better off when the Knicks are winning,” LeBron tweeted on April 22. Yet, being patient and realistic is very important here—one thing that Randle and Barrett constantly preached during our call.

“We’re aware of [the excitement]. We hear it. You can’t really escape it. We hear it but that’s not where our focus is. We have a game-to-game focus. Thibs does an amazing job of preparing us from game to game,” says Randle. “Our game to game attention to detail and focus, it’s different than any team I’ve ever been on.”

“[Thibs] came in and he was just very honest from the beginning. He told us, We have a long way to go but we’re going to try to turn this around. And that’s exactly what we’ve done,” says Barrett. “Honestly, I’m not really surprised. We worked too hard. We work so hard and we have no egos. I feel like we deserve everything that is happening right now but we know that we have a long way to go.”

—

Action photos credits via Getty.

Portraits by Niko Rodriguez and Kevin Clark at the New York Knicks. Follow Niko on Instagram @technicalbasis, and Kevin on Insta @kevin_clarkk.

The post Julius Randle and RJ Barrett are Bringing Toughness Back to MSG appeared first on SLAM.

It’s a freezing Tuesday afternoon in mid-February and a snowstorm has blanketed a good portion of southeast Michigan. So much so that hundreds of schools in the region have canceled classes. Yet, in the southeast outskirts of Ann Arbor, right off US Route 23, a couple of SUVs filled with student-athletes are pulling up to an empty parking lot in the back of a building, on the grounds of what’s become known to the high school hoops world as Ypsi Prep Academy—home to the most highly heralded HS recruit in recent years, Emoni Bates.

On a day like today, where school activities are halted by the city, Ypsi Prep perfectly exemplifies the power, flexibility and freedom that doing it their own way has given the Bates family.

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Emoni’s dad, Elgin, launched the program this past fall to provide Emoni with better resources and to avoid the limitations and distractions that attending a regular local high school sometimes brings. After two years at Lincoln High in Ypsilanti, MI, Emoni joined his father’s newly founded school.

“The school actually came to mind about, I want to say, around Emoni’s freshman year. Just the thoughts of being able to do something on a national schedule,” Elgin says. “Also, as far as safety reasons, a high talented kid playing lesser competition at times and when your dominance tends to get the best out of your opposition, things start to happen, as far as guys playing dirty [and] trying to undercut him, throwing basketballs at his head, things of that nature—where every night as a parent you have to worry about what’s going to happen tonight or who’s going to try to do something to get to his head or potentially harm him.”        

The program operates out of the back wing of a local public school, where a full-size court, locker room, classroom, coaches’ office and a large open area behind the court that one day might be transformed into a strength and conditioning space, all belong to Ypsi Prep.

This isn’t some setup where a program is just being allowed to use someone else’s space with little to zero branding presence within the facility’s confines. As soon as you walk in the building’s back door, you are met with a newly refurbished basketball court, fully decked out in Ypsi Prep’s red, black and white colors and emblems across the floor and walls. Emoni’s 2020 Gatorade National Player of the Year banner hangs from the rafters above the baseline opposite the entrance.

“I used to work out here back in the day. Even when I was in high school, this place existed. So we used to come here and have open runs with the guys. Once I saw that this facility was available, we decided to make it happen,” explains Elgin. “We used to have open runs and now we’re partnered up with Arbor Valley Academy and so that’s how this thing came to life. We got the [NCAA] accreditation through Arbor Valley. We got Ypsi Prep running but that’s our educational partner. They do the whole education component of Ypsi Prep.”

At half-court sits a gigantic logo. It’s the image of a young boy doing a two-ball dribbling drill with a large red basketball in the backdrop. The words “BALL BOY” are written above it and the school’s name below.

The half-court image is actually of Emoni when he was in middle school. It’s not some Emoni-inspired sketch, it’s from an actual photo that Elgin took on his phone one day while Emoni was doing a drill at a local gym, which he then turned into a graphic that serves as the school’s and team’s logo, and generally speaking, as a brand for Emoni and the family.

Aside from Emoni’s image sitting at half court, the Ball Boy logo is also on the team’s jerseys, across from the Swoosh logo.

A top prospect having his own AAU program formed around him isn’t too uncommon nowadays. An actual school, though? That’s definitely different. His own image as a logo at half court? Definitely a flex. And then that same logo on the team’s jerseys? Next-level flex.

As unique and trailblazing of a situation as Ypsi Prep may be, as it pertains to a top recruit and his family introducing a new path for others to follow, Emoni is so focused on what is happening on the 94×50 that he doesn’t really think too deeply about 12 other kids wearing his image on their chests or playing on a court that has his image right in the middle of the floor.

“It’s just another court…my teammates, we all coming in here to get better,” says Emoni. “That’s definitely a blessing for sure, but really, we all trying to do the same thing—we’re all trying to win.

“Seeing myself on the court, it’s like, I don’t really look at it like that. It’s just, I’m coming to play basketball in the gym, for real. My teammates, we all coming in here to get better.”

While the boss moves surrounding the school, the logo, the court and jerseys definitely add an extra flare to his name, the reality is that it was prompted by a desire to put Emoni in a situation where his development didn’t have to depend on outside forces. It was about giving Emoni as much control of his future as well as of his current surroundings.

For starters, as an independent school, Ypsi Prep isn’t beholden to the state’s HS athletic association regulations that restrict and dictate if/when schools are allowed to practice or partake in games, especially when pertaining to out-of-state showcases or tournaments, which ultimately limit the level of competition that a player can be exposed to.

And with a global pandemic having brought even more limitations to high school kids and their seasons, Ypsi Prep has been able to power right through it thanks to its unique structure. Comprised of 13 players, the majority of the kids live in the two team houses, which has essentially created a bubble for the program. So, while thousands of players across the country weren’t able to practice and play with their teams for months due to safety restrictions, it’s been business as usual at Ypsi Prep since the beginning of the academic year. 

While the Ypsi Prep structure has allowed the Bates family to have better control of situations that were once and usually are at the hands of other entities, when the team is on the road, things still tend to occasionally get strange. On a recent trip, the team arrived at their hotel and noticed someone was waiting for them in the lobby.

“As a parent, you definitely [see] people out here, they try to figure out your schedule, where you’re traveling to, what hotel you’re staying in—knowing your exact ETA,” says Elgin. “Hey, Emoni, can you sign this? Like, dude, all you’re trying to do is sell these memorabilia on the internet. Get outta here. Although, he was just being Emoni and decided to autograph the posters. But, just for you to pinpoint and figure out where we are—the kid at the time is 16—that’s weird. But it also raises your antennas as parents, as far as tightening up certain things because you don’t want people to have access to your child like that or know where your child is.” 

Emoni says he’s starting to notice more of it, too.

“After we get off the bus for practice or a game, they’ll be outside and then we’d have to wait [to] try to get them to move,” Emoni says. “It’s my room and people definitely find out what room I’m in, especially if they know what hotel I’m at. It ain’t hard, all you gotta do is follow me. That’s weird, though. It is what it is.”

The program—which includes kids from Ohio, Georgia and Mississippi—has enjoyed a national schedule that has made stops in Texas, South Carolina and Virginia without worrying about any state association restrictions. Every game is essentially a road game for Ypsi Prep, giving the guys on the team a distinctive high school experience.

From a structure standpoint, Elgin also made sure to strategically surround the program with personnel who assist players off the court. He mentions clinical psychologist Dr. Byron Douglas and team chiropractor Craig Stoller as playing major roles in the program’s inaugural year. The team also partnered with Daniel Roth of Blue Lion Fitness for its strength and conditioning program. Elgin, who named grassroots veteran Corey Tucker the head coach, says that while many may just assume that the program will cease to exist once Emoni has moved on to the next level, the plan is to continue to build and expand even further.  

Anointed the number one HS prospect in America regardless of class, Emoni has had to deal with expectations since day 1. The ranking has put a target on his back. He sees two, three bodies on him every night. He gets everyone’s best shot. He gets roughed up more than the average high school player. And then off the floor, there are the sky-high expectations. The cream of the crop comparisons. The nitpicky criticism on social platforms and in the media.

High school years are normally a whirlwind for just about anybody, but being the top prospect in America only adds some extra layers to it. Emoni, though, doesn’t shy away from explaining how the rankings have impacted his approach to the game.

“I don’t even like being ranked,” says Emoni. “Me, personally, I was having fun when I wasn’t famous. [Once] I started getting famous, it was like the love for the game started going away, for real. I had to learn how to make it fun again.”

Before anyone tries to take that quote out of context, it’s important to really understand the last sentence because, ultimately, it’s Emoni’s advantage over any other prospect (aside from the superb skill set, of course).

Many players might think they love the game, but truly, most really find out how much of a real passion they have for it when they hit an actual bump in the road later in their careers. For many top prospects, it’s smooth sailing until they make it to the pros, all fun and games until they’re in scenarios and circumstances they’ve never had to deal with before. Scenarios that aren’t much fun to be in. It quickly becomes stressful and starts to feel like a job. And then suddenly you find yourself having to decide whether you still love it, and if or how you can find that spark again (this could be applied to all professions, actually). Many struggle and never find that feeling, and you start to notice it eventually.

The expectations and early fame forced Emoni to face this same reality much earlier than the average hooper. And not only has he persevered through that phase, you probably didn’t even notice that he ever went through it.

He’s drawn comparisons to Kevin Durant, which he embraces and says he’s even linked up with the NBA All-Star already.

“I met KD in person…It was an off the court thing. I DM’d him, and it was just, like, he wanted to chop it up with me and we chopped it up in person,” says Emoni. “I still talk to him but I talk to Dejounte Murray the most. I been talking to him since I was young. We got a bond, I just ain’t linked with him yet.”

Emoni is committed to Michigan State. Although he’s listed as a junior at the moment, Elgin says that Emoni isn’t too far away from completing his credit requirements to graduate and could therefore theoretically reclassify to the Class of 2021.

“It might be two courses [left] before he could graduate, but Emoni is definitely in position to graduate early. Now, will he reclassify up or do anything of that nature? I don’t know. That’s his decision, but whatever he decides to do, I’m going to back him 100 percent,” says Elgin. “Right now, we’re just focused on the season. We just want to finish our season and then go from there, that way we’re not being pulled away from our focus.”

Despite his blue-chip status in the high school scene, Emoni says that his college recruitment process was a quiet one, mainly because a lot of people assumed that the NBA draft eligibility rules would change by 2022, allowing high school kids to make the jump straight to the League again. The majority of coaches assumed Emoni wouldn’t go to college as a result and therefore didn’t really recruit him. The new rule, though, was never passed.

“It wasn’t stressful for me,” says Emoni of the recruitment process. “Colleges wasn’t really looking into me because of the rule with the NBA, so they basically didn’t want to waste their time, I guess, or however they want to put it. Definitely [felt slighted], for sure, ’cause I been seeing everybody that I done played against and people that I done killed on the court and it’s like, how they getting offers and I’m not? At the same time, I realized what it was.” 

In Emoni, you find a 6-9 versatile hooper who can play just about every position on the floor, do severe damage from the perimeter, off the dribble and above the rim. A quiet, laid-back demeanor off the floor, Emoni’s entire persona changes the moment he steps foot on the hardwood. He’s the ultimate alpha in between the lines, trash-talking to his teammates at practice and letting out loud roars after a tough basket.         

“Off the court, I’m a chill dude. People don’t really know me. You know, everybody thinks I’m mean because of how I am on the basketball court,” he says. “So, it’s like when I’m on the court, I mean, it’s business on the court. I’m just trying to win.”

—

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Photos by Pier Nicola D’Amico.

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His bags were all packed. It’s the moment he had been waiting for ever since he visited the campus for a second time—the trip that sealed the deal and helped him make up his mind about attending Gonzaga. Jalen Suggs was ready to head out to the Northwest for summer workouts, to officially be on campus as a student. But then both of his parents tested positive for COVID-19. The health scare pushed his arrival timeline back. And so, while top recruits at many of the country’s top programs were already on campus, getting acclimated to the next level and partaking in newly implemented and individualized strength and conditioning regimens, Suggs found himself isolated at home for what felt like forever. 

“Everybody else got here like a month before I did because, first, I had to wait like an extra week and a half, two weeks, so I could get all my Invisalign stuff and get all of that figured out and my health stuff before I could come out here,” recalls Suggs. “And then I was getting ready to leave and my mom and dad got COVID, so then I had to quarantine before I could come out here. So that was a whole, like, extra month where I was just ready to leave. All my bags were packed and I was just at home. That was tough, but when I finally got out here, I remember I came off the plane straight to the gym. Everybody was in here working out. I put my shorts on and just a regular t-shirt and got in with everybody.”

Despite the late arrival, Suggs quickly found himself surrounded by hoops legends and NBA talent. It was a quick glance into the culture that has been built at the school. There weren’t any official practices happening yet but just the workouts and pickup runs alone gave him the sense that there could be something unique looming.

“I know that when I first got here, Payton Pritchard was down here working out with [John] Stockton, with David and John. You know, just pre-draft stuff and trying to stay right. So, he was out here and we were kind of playing, just open runs with the team and a couple of alumni out here. That was really fun for me ’cause I had watched him all last year. He had just won the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award. So, to come out and in my first couple of days here to play against him was a good experience,” says Suggs. “Everyone could go get a bucket, everyone was smart. Then once we got into practice, we kind of started to work our way and gel and you could see all the chemistry brewing. I think that’s probably the moment I realized we had a really good team here and a really special opportunity.” 

Suggs became the highest-ranked recruit to ever commit to the program when he pledged to suit up for the Bulldogs in January of 2020. At the time, he was still not completely ruling out turning pro and going overseas, telling ESPN that it was a “very serious” option during his college announcement. His home state Minnesota Gophers, along with Florida, Florida State and Iowa State made up his top-5 list.

The 6-4 guard’s athletic superiority has been evident for a very long time. He made his high school varsity debut as a seventh grader at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis. By eighth grade, he was already a regular starter averaging over 17 points per game. He went on to become a top-5 recruit, averaging 23.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 3.8 steals per game by his senior year while leading his team to a 26-3 record—good enough for No. 13 on the national rankings. For his high school career, he pieced together a 111-15 overall record on his way to three consecutive state titles. He would have likely made it four consecutive championships if COVID-19 hadn’t forced the cancellation of his senior year’s state tournament. 

As if his proven track record on the hardwood wasn’t impressive enough, Suggs did all that while simultaneously turning heads on the gridiron in high school, where he led the football team to a state championship as a junior. He emerged as a four-star quarterback prospect and racked up double-digit college football offers, ultimately becoming the first athlete in state history to be named Mr. Football and Mr. Basketball in the same school year. MaxPreps subsequently named him Athlete of the Year. 

Suggs, who has a long list of big-time athletes in his family, including cousins Terrell Suggs (two-time Super Bowl champ) and Eddie Jones (former NBA All-Star), knew that eventually he’d have to focus on just one sport—a decision that became much more difficult internally than the outside world would ever notice. 

“That was horrible. I’m going to be honest with you, it was terrible. That senior football season, the whole time we were playing, I was like, Man, I don’t want to give this up. This is going to be my last practice for week three, my last practice going into playoffs! [When] we got to states, This is my last state appearance! It was just something I found myself thinking, I don’t want to get rid of this right now. It’s not something I’m ready to give up. So, I went and had a long talk with my dad. Just a real man-to-man talk, just right in our kitchen. It was emotional, honestly, because I knew I was about to give up something that I loved a lot,” he recalls.

“I put a lot of work into it and I’ve been doing it all my life. But we came down to the decision and he brought up a lot of pros and cons, what would be the best for myself, for our family, moving forward. I mean, it was something that at the end of the day I always know I can go back to if I want to, but basketball was something that I had to lock in on.” 

As we headed to press for our Future Issue, Gonzaga was a perfect 23-0 and has held on to the No. 1 spot in the college rankings throughout the entire season (right now they’re 26-0). Suggs began his college career with a statement-performance against Kansas, dropping 24 points and 8 assists in his debut.

“I knew I felt really good and I was ready to go [when] we’re in warmups and I was jumping really good and I was feeling really loose,” says Suggs. “When the bigs started to do their individual stuff and we’re stretching, I was trying to stretch out and I asked our trainer to kind of stretch out my hamstrings and my back. And I felt too good. I couldn’t stretch anymore. I was just ready to go. Off the gate, obviously, I get the lob and a couple of good plays in the second half. I was doing my thing. But I knew from the warmup that I was ready to go and I was super locked in.”

Two weeks later, the Bulldogs took down No. 3 Iowa in Sioux Falls, SD, behind a career-high outing from their freshman star. Suggs put up 27 points—going 7-10 from behind the perimeter—to go along with 7 rebounds and 4 assists. That game actually marked the first time a good majority of his family was able to see him play in person wearing a college uniform. He estimates that number to be around “like high 20s, low 30s.” 

“That whole game and that two days [leading up], I had a bunch of family there. They’re in the crowd. I knew I had to play good in front of them because this was their first time seeing me play in a college basketball game [in person],” Suggs recalls. “I think the energy in there was really good; having them there helped. That was a really good day. I had my mom, my grandma in Florida [for the Kansas and Auburn games], but I had a bunch of [more] people there for that weekend.” 

He isn’t expected to be around Spokane for much longer. His name is being mentioned among the top-5 projected picks in the 2021 NBA Draft. There’s one mock draft site that has him listed at No. 2, as of late February. He sees it. He hears it. There’s no escaping it. No matter how much a prospect of his status today tries to avoid peeking at those lists, the internet and cell phones have made it pretty much impossible. In that sense, this season has been as much of a mental exercise as it’s been about continuing to show and prove on the court. 

“I think it’s impossible to ignore it, just with social media these days, and TV, and even with family and friends. I think it’s impossible to ignore it but I try to block it out as much as I can. [I] just try to stay focused on being here, being with my team, listening to the coaches and continuing to get better,” says Suggs.

“All that stuff will take care of itself. If I don’t handle what’s going on here in the present, that stuff, it’s all going to change and it might not be there [anymore]. So that’s kind of been my mindset with everything—just being as present as I can, giving my all to the team and trying to get better, and letting all that stuff figure itself out.” 

—

Photos via Getty Images.

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“That’s my takeaway—He doesn’t pop athletically.”

“I mean, he’s better than Ricky Rubio but he doesn’t look special to me.”

“Doncic, at 6-7, will get exposed for all of the inadequacies that Dirk had. Dirk is not a great athlete. Dirk doesn’t have explosiveness. Dirk isn’t physical. That’s what is going to happen to Doncic…I’m not saying Luka is setting the NBA world on fire—I’m not sure he’s going to be a dominating NBA player.”

“The athleticism, that’s a problem. The lack of athleticism.”

“I believe Luka should go to a good team. I don’t believe he’s a lottery pick. No, I don’t. I think he falls right outside the lottery.”

“I don’t give a damn about how this kid in Europe looked.”

“We tend to over-sensationalize European basketball. There [are] restrictions that cater to him. You can’t have nine Americans on the floor in Europe. There’s going to be nine bred Americans on the floor with you 95 percent of the time in the NBA. That changes the dynamics of the game.” 

—

These weren’t from randoms on Twitter purposely throwing out hot takes for some retweets and follows. These were hoops analysts on ESPN and FS1 talk shows (which, on second thought, sometimes spiel absurd hot takes for the same reasons as the Twitter randoms) giving their thoughts on Luka Doncic’s potential in the lead up to the 2018 NBA Draft. We’re not here to judge or air any of them out, so purposely not attaching any names to these. But you’ve probably seen some of these clips on your own social feeds or on YouTube already. Even Damian Lillard quote-tweeted an 80-second video compilation with some of these very same soundbites the morning after the Mavs star dropped a monster triple-double during last summer’s (still super strange saying that) playoffs. Dame’s caption was simply an “Lol”—which perfectly sums it all up in hindsight.

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Doncic had proven himself overseas—going pro at age 13 (he left Slovenia by himself and relocated to Spain to play for Real Madrid—his mom didn’t join him there until three years later), winning MVP of the Liga ACB, EuroLeague and EuroLeague Final Four at 19 years old. The accolades actually made him the youngest MVP in the EuroLeague’s history.  

But a lot of fans (and media, seemingly) in the States had increasingly grown skeptical of highly-touted international prospects after many had not lived up to expectations upon their arrival to the Association. For the sake of consistency, they shall remain nameless here too. There’s that dude from Eastern Europe that got drafted really high in the 2003 NBA Draft by that team that had just played in the Eastern Conference Finals a month earlier. Or that other guy in the previous draft class that went really high too but was never able to make it work in the Mile-High City. Or even three years prior to that when the Knicks drafted a player in the teens that ultimately never saw a single minute of action in the League. There are plenty of posts online attempting to rank which international players were the most disappointing.

Hey, it’s the NBA. It’s not supposed to be easy or for everybody. There’s a reason why the average NBA career length is barely four years. It doesn’t make any of the guys that weren’t able to take off in the Association are any less as hoopers. Luck, timing, fit, politics—whatever the case is, it doesn’t work out more often than it does. Nevermind the complexities in scouting and the challenges of evaluating players competing in leagues of various talent levels. 

Nonetheless, it happened. And will continue to. Can’t-miss prospects will miss when they finally get there. And many of those that were overlooked, underrecruited and slighted on social media (and on TV) will turn heads. 

It didn’t take long for the very same TV analysts to change their tune about Luka. Like, literally just a few games into his career. And now only two seasons in, the 6-7 Slovenian guard has accumulated a ridiculous amount of shattered records. Forget the two regular seasons worth of games (which include records like surpassing Michael Jordan for the most consecutive 20-5-5 performances since the ABA/NBA merger), just the very first playoff series of his career alone is enough to justify everything you hear about him. The six-game series against the L.A. Clippers dissipated any lingering doubts.   

Game 1: 42 points—most points in a playoff debut by any player in NBA history, first 21-year-old to drop 40+ in a playoff game since LeBron James, fourth player to do it in general (after Magic Johnson, Tracy McGrady and James).

Game 2: 28 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists—most points (70) by a player through his first two career playoff games in NBA history.

Game 3: first player in Mavericks history to record a triple-double in the playoffs, third youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double in the playoffs after Magic and LeBron.

Game 4: a gazillion records. So much that Mavs PR Twitter had to create a Twitter thread just to be able to list them all. And even then, there were others they missed. Media members soon chimed in with the additional data.

His 43-point, 17-rebound and 13-assist stat line, which included a buzzer-beater to tie the series at 2-2, made him: the youngest ever to record a 40-point triple-double in the playoffs, the youngest to ever hit a playoff buzzer-beater, the only player aside from Wilt Chamberlain to finish with 43+ points, 17+ rebounds and 13+ assists in a game, the only player aside from Jordan to put up a 40-piece to go with a buzzer-beater while trailing, the third ever 40-15-10 performance in the playoffs after Oscar Robertson and Charles Barkley, second ever 21-year-old to record a 30-point triple-double in the playoffs, the third player ever after Magic and LeBron to have multiple playoff triple-doubles by the age or 21. The list went on and on, but you get the point.  

Although the Mavs went on to lose in six games, they still managed to come away as the real winners in the grand scheme of things—in front of the whole world, they confirmed they had THE one.

In the aftermath of Game 4 and in the weeks that followed, players across the League reacted to Luka’s insane performances. Props were given by the biggest names around.

Even before Luka played a single game in the NBA, back-to-back reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo saw all of this coming from a mile away. In the summer of 2018, the Greek Freak, speaking with Marca, a local newspaper in Madrid, showed that he was better equipped than anyone else to evaluate Luka’s NBA potential as an international player himself. 

“He is the most exciting player that has appeared in basketball in recent years. This past year in Europe he has won every competition he has played. EuroBasket, EuroLeague, Liga Endesa. He has been MVP of the EuroLeague, of the Final Four,” said Antetokounmpo. “He has shown that he is more than ready to play, that he has matured faster than the rest. He has played against professionals, as Charles Barkley said. The other rookies played against schoolboys.

“People in the United States sometimes forget that in the EuroLeague they play very well and very hard, more than in the NCAA. You have to be very good to stand out in the EuroLeague, and Luka is. Doncic has a lot of talent. He will have a great first year and, if it is not in the second, he will explode in the third.”

Looks like that explosion may have happened in the second year after all. Unless, of course, that wasn’t the explosion Giannis was talking about. There’s a chance we’re about to witness a whole other level that Luka could tap into. It’s worth noting, as of mid-December, he is the betting favorite to win MVP, according to Caesars Sportsbook with a +400. Defending MVP Giannis is right behind him at +450. 

Giannis isn’t the only MVP who’s had high praise for the former Real Madrid star. The King himself, while appearing on Uninterrupted’s Road Trippin’ in early December, made it known that at one point he had intentions of starting a subset of his brand with Luka as the centerpiece.

“I wanted to begin Team LeBron and have Luka as my first signing with Nike,” said LeBron. “I don’t even know if Luka knows this, but he will know it now. I wanted Luka to be the first signing of Team LeBron when he was going through his situation…That’s how much I believed in him.”

In July, Paul Pierce went as far as to suggest that there’s already been a passing of the crown.

“You talk about a kid who made one of the biggest leaps in recent memory from a Rookie of the Year to MVP-caliber player,” said the Celtics legend. “He has won at every European championship that you can think of, every European MVP that you can think of. So, I expect special things from this kid. Clearly, he’s special. He’s a talent. To me, he is the most talented player in the NBA today. The lights are never too bright for him.”

The amount of individual records he’s been able to set and break are so many that his Wikipedia page has an “achievements” section specifically dedicated to that, where people have been able to create a list with 43 different bullet points detailing where his performances have landed him in the history books. Forty-three. Two years in.

“I just feel confident. I know I have the confidence of my teammates and my team, so I just feel confident [in] myself and I love taking those shots. I get motivated. I have to make the last shot,” Luka told Rachel Nichols in a sit-down interview in 2019. When he sat down with her again in 2020, he added: “Pressure was in my life when I was 13, when I had to move from Slovenia alone to Madrid. I live with pressure every day, so I just don’t feel it anymore.”              

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The post Live From the World: Luka Doncic’s Global Rise appeared first on SLAM.

The site was home to the century old Camden High School, whose classic castle tower structure was demolished a couple of years ago to make way for a state-of-the-art $133 million new facility that is expected to be ready for students next fall (classes have since gone virtual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic).

In the old building, the Wagner family’s imprints were four decades deep, where each hoop star helped propel Camden onto the national stage.

First, it was Milt Wagner, who led the Panthers to a state championship in 1979 and was a McDonald’s All-American in 1981. He and Camden teammate Billy Thompson went on to Louisville, where together they won an NCAA national title in 1986. Milt was then drafted in the second round of the 1986 NBA Draft, and ultimately reunited with Thompson while playing with the Los Angeles Lakers. Together, they won an NBA championship two years later.

They are currently the only teammate duo in history to win titles together at all three levels.

Milt’s son, Dajuan Sr. (above), donned Camden’s purple and gold almost two decades later and instantly became one of the Garden State’s all-time greats. He averaged 27.3 points as a freshman and 35.3 points as a sophomore. He led the Panthers to a state title as a junior (which included an 80-point performance) and famously dropped 100 points in a game against Camden County Tech as a senior. The All-American graduated Camden as New Jersey’s all-time leading scorer with 3,462 points. The career points and three-digit single-game performance are still-standing state records. After one season at Memphis under John Calipari, Dajuan would get selected with the sixth pick in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. His professional career, though, was cut short due to a series of injuries and health issues, including a battle with ulcerative colitis.

Almost two decades after the Dajuan days at Camden, his son, DJ, is now rocking the same purple and gold threads that his father and grandfather once did—all while being labeled  next heir to the city’s throne. Only a sophomore, DJ is ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2023.

DJ is ready to write his own story, to make his version of the Wagner legacy one for the books.

***       

Dajuan Sr. remembers when DJ wanted to play on a football team with his older brother. DJ was only 4 years old at the time, while his sibling was 7. Their football coach was a little uneasy with letting DJ participate in all of the activities with such a big age gap.

Yet, Dajuan Sr felt like DJ had that extra edge to his step.   

“When they got to their first day of equipment, they were contact hitting. The coach told me he didn’t want to let him hit, [but] I’m like, ‘Let him hit!’” Dejuan Sr. said. “ He was a big kid [for] his age. [DJ] wanted to hit. It was full contact. These kids were three years older than him.”

“The next day, we’re in the house around five or six o’clock. Practice was around six, seven o’clock. He came in the front room, ‘Dad, I got practice today?’ That’s when I knew he wasn’t no p—y! They were hitting him and they weren’t taking it easy on him either.”

Dajuan Sr. wanted to be careful when it came to introducing basketball to his kids. He knew the family name held a lot of weight in the sport, especially in Camden. DJ initially took a liking for football and so the family spent evenings and weekends on the gridiron instead, until his passion for basketball eventually surpassed all other sports.

“You have most of these parents, they live through their kids,” Dajuan Sr. said. “When I was coming up, because my dad played too, at the time I didn’t think it was pressure. But as a parent, you think about it. You’re overprotective of your kid. That was the thing about letting [DJ]  play football. Letting him start his own lane. Once he got old enough to hear stories and know that his family—we play basketball—he said he wanted to play basketball. We told him we’re going to do what we got to do to give him the best chance to fulfill his dream.” 

DJ indeed grew up hearing all the stories from around the neighborhood about who his dad and grandpa were. It was unavoidable. He eventually saw tapes of the older Wagner’s putting in work with the Camden moniker stitched in gold on their jerseys.

DJ studied those tapes. He memorized some of the stories. 

“It’s crazy watching my dad and grandpa play in high school because just to see them in the same situation I am, playing for Camden High, it’s just crazy,” DJ said. “I love watching their tapes. Just seeing the way they played in high school and how crazy it was because it was the same way when they were in high school—maybe even crazier…Seeing their old highlights, I think is pretty cool.” 

Even when DJ had his pick of neighboring private schools to choose from, attending Camden High was the destiny he wanted from the jump.

“I never really looked at it as pressure. I just always was excited,” DJ said. “I used to always just love to hear about the stories when my dad and grandpa were in high school, and how crazy the games used to be. When I was younger, I used to always go to Camden games, watch them play in States. I always thought about just playing for Camden High and how crazy it would be. I always wanted to play for them, seeing how passionate their fans [are]—that environment.”

His mother, Syreeta, saw just how much her son wanted to carry on the Wagner family’s basketball heritage and join the same culture that embraced their family years ago.

“All he talked about when he was younger was playing for Camden High School. That’s all he talked about,” said his mother, Syreeta. “For him to actually be living in this moment, playing for Camden High School, wearing his purple and gold… that moment is everything to him. That was one of his dreams, to play for Camden High after his dad and his grandpa. He’s living out one of his dreams already.”  

During DJ’s freshman season, it was looking like the youngest Wagner was on his way to breaking the 20-year drought for the Panthers. Camden — who  hasn’t won a state title since 2000, when Dajuan Sr. was in 11th grade—was ranked No. 16 in the country by MaxPreps this past March. Their record was 29-1 (they went on a 25-game winning streak at one point) heading into the NJSIAA Group 2 tournament semifinals, but then the remainder of the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The elusive state title run will have to wait. As for the upcoming 2020-21 season, the state association will allow teams to compete in league play, yet a postseason state tournament has yet to be confirmed and feels unlikely.

“I was mad. We were all mad because we were right there,”  DJ said about his freshman season ending abruptly. “We made it to States, and as soon as we got there, they just cancelled everything. It hit us pretty bad because we were excited, we were anxious to play in the states and hopefully win the state and then even winning TOC—that’s like the bigger version, that’s for the whole state. So, we were just upset when they cancelled it. Especially for the seniors on our team. We were right there, so it was crazy.”

Father and son McDonald’s All-American duos are a rarity, with only a handful in history: from Rick and Jalen Brunson (as fate would have it, Rick become the head coach at Camden in 2019) and Doc and Austin Rivers, to Ricky and Justice Winslow and James Blackmon Sr. and Jr. Of course, the fifth duo is Milt and Dajuan. But a grandfather/father/son All-American trio? That’s never happened.

At the NBA level, the father-son(s) list is a bit longer: Dell, Seth and Steph Curry, Joe and Kobe Bryant, Mychal and Klay Thompson, Bill and Luke Walton, Tim Hardaway Sr. and Jr., among many others. But a grandfather/father/son League trio? Nope, not at this level either. If DJ’s trajectory continues at this pace, the Wagner family can very well become the first family to achieve this feat on multiple playing levels. 

“It’s like a cycle going all over again. I think everything happens for a reason,” Dejuan Sr. said. “My dad was in Europe when I was coming up [and he] used to come home every summer.  I never got a chance to work on my game with my dad. So, me getting sick, I was here with [DJ] and I think that’s how he developed quicker skill-wise—he got way more skills than I had at that age.”

Regardless of what the future holds, living in the moment is all that DJ and the Wagner family are interested in. Forty years of basketball prowess across three generations, this journey isn’t new to them. Even DJ, with a No.1 ranking and all, is focused on becoming one of the best.

His father, on the other hand, thinks DJ could be better than he ever was.

“People think I’m crazy when I say it,” he continued. “I go off, you know, because I remember when I was younger [and] I played at a high level. I just think when I was his age, he’s better than me. [That’s] what I go back to—what I could do at that age. [He’s] more skilled.”

Portraits by Johnny Lewis

The post DJ WAGNER IS READY TO CONTINUE THE FAMILY LEGACY appeared first on SLAM.

This past spring, though, the neighborhood was known for being home to one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in New York City—right as the Big Apple was the epicenter of the global pandemic. Coney Island’s 11224 zip code had the second-highest death-rate in Brooklyn with a ratio of 1 in 240. Among those CI residents who passed away due to complications from the virus in the spring were Dan Turner and Erica Telfair, brother and mother of Sebastian Telfair and (we’ll explain) NYC hoops legend Jamel Thomas.

Thomas, who starred at famed Lincoln High and Providence College before hooping in the NBA with the Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors and New Jersey Nets, was actually a cousin and nephew of Dan and Erica, respectively. Yet, a series of life events beyond his control led to him being taken in as one of their own.

Thomas’ biological mother was murdered by her boyfriend when he was four years old. He never met his father. After his mother’s passing, Thomas was raised by Mrs. Telfair. He lived with them in the Surfside Gardens public housing complex. Eventually, the household added up to 10 people in a two-bedroom apartment.

“My aunt, Erica, she raised me and my brother. I was four, he was one and a half at the time. She took us in and she had four kids of her own already. This is before Sebastian was here. It was rough growing up. Her husband was in and out of jail a lot. He was on drugs. He didn’t hurt us physically, but just seeing what was going on was as painful as physical,” he recalls. “I was in a lot of pain back then. Nobody understood it. I don’t think too many people could understand your mother being shot by her boyfriend and never meeting your father. So, fast-forward to 13 years old, that’s when I started selling drugs in the streets.”

Despite the against-the-odds obstacles throughout his adolescence, the Brooklyn native went on to have an illustrious career at Providence in the Big East starting in 1995. He currently ranks sixth all-time in scoring at Providence with 1,971 career points. He helped Providence reach the Elite Eight as a sophomore, and then led the team in scoring as a junior and senior with 18.5 points and 22.0 points per game. He finished his career as a First Team All-Big East honoree. He then went on to enjoy a professional career that included shorts stints around the NBA and eventually hooping in Turkey, Italy and Greece.    

In Greece is where a couple of the most memorable scenes in the Through The Fire documentary take place. Bassy, in the film, goes across the pond in the spring of 2004 to spend time with Thomas before the NBA draft. The Friars legend, who was playing for Apollon Patras Carna at the time, trains his little brother while he’s in town and also plays in a league game with Bassy in the stands. By the end of the doc, Thomas and Bassy are embracing each other in tears at Jay Z’s 40/40 Club after Sebastian was drafted with the 13^th overall pick. Fifteen years later, the doc is still one of the most highly heralded in the hoops world and especially in New York City.

After the deaths of his brother and mother in the spring, Thomas admits that he wasn’t in the proper state of mind for quite some time. The sudden news made his world feel like it was crashing down. And the fact that we were in the midst of a nationwide lockdown didn’t make things any easier. It was weeks of the same. Unproductive hours when the sun was up, long nights overthinking when the sun came down. He didn’t tell his nine-year-old son about the passings for months. He didn’t know how to. And then one night he could hear the voice. It was her. She was speaking to him.

“I lost my mom. I lost my brother. It hit hard. But it didn’t hit me that hard [at first] because it didn’t seem like it was real. It took like a week for it to really settle in. I was really just losing my mind a little in bed. I was like, Damn, what am I going to do? I wasn’t busy. I wasn’t really focusing on my son. I was kind of yelling, talking loud, kind of scaring him. I needed something to do because I was just locked up in the house. [So] I just called my business partner and I said, Listen, I know we’ve been working on this for two years. Initially, we wanted to get started on the clothing brand in like September. But I said, We have to do it now. We have to put the line out now. In memory of my mother and my brother. Let’s do a soft launch now.” Thomas, aka 530, recalls. “I could hear my mother’s voice, Jamel, get up! It brings me back to 1999 when I didn’t get drafted. It kind of sucked the energy out of me when I didn’t get drafted. And during this pandemic, when she passed, I remember her saying, Jamel, get up, get up! You gotta move forward. It doesn’t stop here. So that’s what I did. I’m moving forward with her behind me

“My wife has been there for me and we’ve talked about a lot of the good times my wife and I had with my mother. My brother was my first basketball coach when I played on a team. I woke up and I was crying in my bed. My wife just said, Jamel, everything is going to be okay. I just saw one of my hats sitting on the bench beside my bed. And I just looked at my brand and I said, Fuck it, I’m calling my business partner. I told my wife, I’m gonna call him and we’re going to do it. And I’m gonna tell him that we’re going to do it now.”

The following morning, he called his business partner, a real estate developer. Thomas no longer wanted to wait. There was new found urgency and motivation. By all means necessary, he now wanted the brand to be out by the summer of 2020. And that’s exactly what they did. The Jamel NY clothing line was soon born.

A few weeks later, a handful of designs were ready to go into production. The first three designs were titled The Mecca, The Blueprint and The Pallacanestro. Each was meant to pay tribute to different chapters of Thomas’ basketball journey. The Mecca is a nod to his days starring at Madison Square Garden when balling in the Big East with Providence. The Blueprint is a reference to all the stages and levels of the game that serious hoopers have to experience along the way. The Pallacanestro, which is Italian for basketball, touches on his time playing in Europe, specifically Italy, while also acknowledging the true globalization of the sport.

“One of my favorite places to play at was The Mecca. Everybody says that’s Madison Square Garden. Lebron, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant—they’ve all said it’s The Garden. That’s where I got The Mecca hoodie from. I’m a New Yorker, so it’s not only about playing in The Mecca—I represent The Mecca. So, wherever I go, I put on for my city,” says Thomas, who is also a cousin of Stephon Marbury. “The Blueprint is for all basketball players. In order to play at any level, you gotta play in AAU, high school, NCAA, NBA or overseas—you’re going to play at one of those levels if you’re a hooper. And if you’re not a hooper and you just enjoy the game, you love one of those levels of basketball.

“The Pallacanestro—I use it for Europe. My first stop in Europe was Italy. They treated me so nice and I had a lot of fun there. I still have family and friends there. They honored me last year to be part of the Hall of Fame over there. It was just a great experience. They made me feel comfortable. I was always nervous about playing in Europe because I always felt like I didn’t belong there but my time in Biella was great. They welcomed me with open arms. I appreciated it and so that’s why I used [the word] Pallacanestro.”

One of the main emblems on the pieces is that of an adult extending their arm out to a child. The story and meaning behind it, though, tell a story that transcends basketball and even sports in general.

“The logo is me as a young boy that never met his father and lost his mother to gun violence, and just grew up in poverty—one pair of sneakers and one pair of pants. But the man in the picture is the older me, telling my younger self, Listen, everything is going to be okay. I know what you’re going through. I got your back! The logo is a sense of hope. I wanted to name it something else, but my partner said, No, let’s name it Jamel. Let’s name it after you and your son,” says the former 6-6 wing. “People probably don’t want to say this but if it wasn’t for Through The Fire, a lot of dudes probably wouldn’t have been inspired to play in Europe. I understand what the movie had done for a lot of hoopers since 2005 when it came out. I was in Greece at the time and me training Sebastian is part of my logo as well. It’s me giving back. I had a lot of information and had been through a lot of wars as far as trying to reach a certain amount of success, and so whatever mistakes I made, I tried to make sure that Sebastian didn’t do them.”

Aside from the clothing brand—which has garnered enormous support from the basketball community, with the likes of NBA legend Rasheed Wallace, Denver Nuggets Head Coach Mike Malone, former NBA player/teammate and current Dallas Mavericks player development coach God Shammgod, former NBAers Speedy Claxton and Quincy Douby, and even actor Hassan Johnson, all rocking the new line recently—Thomas has always been known for venturing out into different sectors. He published a book, The Beautiful Struggle, in 2008, which he then turned into a live play production in 2009 that was ultimately performed at the Helen Mills Theater in NYC on two separate nights.

“A lot of people don’t know, since I was fifteen, I was raised by a Jewish couple. The Bravermans in Rockaway, Queens. Lenore Braverman, she was my English teacher. I wanted to give people their flowers while they were still here,” recalls Thomas. “My mentor, Mr. Lou [Robert Williams], my [HS] coach [Bobby] Hartstein—a lot of people that helped me. I put my mom on there. I called her Wonder Woman in my book because I said that I wondered how she was able to do all those things and show no signs of weakness.”  

He also operates a training business that throughout the summer led workouts in schools in the mornings, with a group of kids in Harlem in the afternoon and then some more private workouts in downtown Manhattan at night.

“I have one kid, Jair Bolden, he’s my nephew through my wife’s side. He’s at Butler right now. He just transferred from South Carolina. I have another kid that’s at Harvard right now. He’s a coder. His brother just graduated from Yale,” says Thomas. “Wolfgang Novogratz—that kid worked so hard and had at least five Division I offers from UNLV to Wichita State, and he just decided to be an actor.”

Beyond the impact he’s had on the local hoops community—via his game, memorable scenes in the documentary, his book and subsequent play production, his training sessions, speaking engagements, and now his newly launched clothing brand—Thomas wants one of the biggest takeaways from his story to be the importance of having the right people around you.

“It seems, like, Oh, Jamel Thomas. He’s a strong guy. He could get through anything. But to be honest, I have strong people in my corner,” he says. “I have my wife and got my best friend back in Coney Island—his name is Andrew Lee. Those are the ones that keep telling me, Five—you gotta keep moving forward.”  

The post Former NYC Hoops Star Jamel Thomas Debuts New Clothing Brand appeared first on SLAM.

It’s the summer of 1994 and Shareef Abdur-Rahim is standing in line waiting to use a public payphone in Teaneck, NJ. The then rising HS senior had just finished another day at the legendary ABCD Camp—which was at the time widely regarded as the most star-studded invite-only high school basketball camp for elite recruits—and was now looking forward to calling his parents to tell them about how well he played earlier that day.

Unlike today, where parents can just check social media to follow their kids’ performances at tournaments and camps, it was all just word of mouth back then. And because smartphones weren’t a thing yet, all the campers had to wait in line as they took turns using payphones to call home.

As Abdur-Rahim eagerly awaited his turn, the kid in front of him was taking what felt like forever.     

“I remember being behind him and thinking, Come on, man, get off the phone!” he recalls. That kid in front of him, taking forever as he bragged to his parents about the day he just had, would go on to be known worldwide as the Black Mamba. Kobe Bryant. 

Abdur-Rahim continues: “And [Kobe] telling, which had to be [his father] ‘Jellybean’ or his mom, [about] the day he had and how excited he was. And at the time it didn’t mean anything. It was just a young kid. It wasn’t Kobe. It was just the kid that’s younger than me on the phone, excited about the day he had. It wasn’t until years later that you start remembering different things…I wanted to call my mom and tell her how I did. It was always interesting because by the time you called home, all the college coaches had already called and updated your parents.

“I didn’t know Kobe going into [ABCD Camp]. I had not heard his name; didn’t know him. I could remember having a good day in camp [though].”

The now-defunct camp, which was held on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University in the Garden State, featured many of the players that year that would eventually make up the historic draft class of 1996—including Kobe and Stephon Marbury, among others.

But whereas today all of the top recruits know each other thanks to social media (or at the very least know of each other due to the plethora of media outlets that cover high school hoops and the gazillion of mixtapes out there), and most even build up strong connections despite living on opposite ends of the country, that was not the case back in the ’90s. High school basketball was not as heavily covered nationally and highlight mixes were not even a thing. When you also factor in the telecommunication restrictions of the times, it’s understandable why top recruits like Kobe and Shareef did not really know each other or their respective games back then.

It was at this camp in 1994, though, where a good portion of the top names in the 1996 NBA Draft class really got to see each other play for the first time. And for Abdur-Rahim, it was here where he began solidifying his name among the best in the nation, which ultimately helped pave his way to the NBA a couple of years later. 

One of 13 siblings growing up in Marietta, GA, Adbur-Rahim was surrounded by a close-knit family that was also competitive and athletic. One of his brothers hooped at the University of Detroit, while another played collegiately at Southeastern Louisiana University. His father was an imam, and Shareef grew up as a devout Muslim with strong values and guidance that he would carry well into his professional career.  

“I thought it gave me a good foundation and base. I always had something pulling at me, calling me to a stronger or higher purpose. So I think the commitment and discipline helped me a great deal in my career in getting better. Obviously, it gave me a purpose of something that was bigger than basketball,” he recalls. “We were always reminded of that. Even in what you wanted to achieve. You wanted to achieve things for some purpose beyond just yourself. That was always a motivating factor for me.”

He ultimately opted to go across the country for college, choosing Cal Berkeley, where in his one season in the Pac-10 Conference (now the Pac-12) he became the first freshman in league history to win Conference Player of the Year honors. He also set single-season freshman records for points, scoring average, field goals and free throws, ultimately leading the entire conference in scoring with averages of 21.1 points and 8.4 rebounds. Despite all of the accolades and success in his first year, Abdur-Rahim actually withdrew his name from the draft boards in late May after having second thoughts about leaving school. He initially cited wanting “to stay a kid” during the shocking announcement. 

“I was so torn on whether to leave school or not. I didn’t go with the intent to leave in a year. I really outperformed my expectations,” Adbur-Rahim says. “And then I was presented with this decision. I had declared, then I had taken my name out of the draft, and then at the end it was so obvious that I had to leave for myself and for my family and so I put my name [back] in the draft. I didn’t do the Chicago combine or anything.”

He ultimately was selected third overall in the 1996 NBA Draft, picked right after Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby. Unfortunately for him, though, while many of his draft class counterparts were joining established franchises, Abdur-Rahim was drafted by a one-year-old expansion team in Canada. The Vancouver Grizzlies, who had joined the League the year prior, were as far as he could possibly be from his home state of Georgia. The excitement of joining the League would soon wear off once he began to realize that winning in the NBA isn’t easy, especially when you’re a young player on a newly-added team.

The Grizzlies finished last in their division in all but one of the five seasons Abdur-Rahim spent with the organization. They eventually relocated to Memphis after six rough years. From an individual standpoint, Abdur-Rahim held his own from Day 1. He averaged a team-best 18.7 points per game as a rookie, finishing third in the ROY ballots behind Iverson and Marbury.

After earning All-Rookie First Team honors, he went on to average between 20 and 23 points in the following four seasons in Vancouver. But with the team unable to climb out of the bottom of the standings every season—which led to Abdur-Rahim having five different head coaches in his five years with the franchise—his production seemed to go mostly unnoticed by the rest of the League.

“I was excited to be in the NBA. I think at that time we had some guys that didn’t want to come [to Vancouver]. But for me, I was just excited to be in the NBA. I remember a couple of days before the draft, I went there to visit. I remember asking my agent, Man, where is Vancouver? And since I played in the Pac-10, he was like, It’s next to Seattle. And I was like, OK! Being a kid from Georgia, I never thought of or looked up Vancouver,” he says. “In some ways, we introduced a country to basketball. Now, 20-plus years later, you see the effects of the NBA being in Canada.

“[Losing] was tough. That was the toughest part of my career. I won a state championship in high school. In college, we were good. [But] just getting beat like that was tough. Years later, my wife would tell me that I was no fun to be around during basketball season. You don’t enjoy that part. In those years, as much as you were a part of the NBA, you don’t feel a part of it because [with] all of the other special things that are going on—the playoffs—it’s hard to be celebrated. It’s hard to put you on national TV. So you feel a little removed. I had a great time [but] that part, especially being young, was tough. You saw the level we were at compared to other teams and you started to understand quickly that you were an expansion team and just how hard it was going to be.”

Not only was he beginning his NBA career in a tough situation, he was also watching the rest of his rookie class set the bar high.

“The one thing you did do is you looked at that draft and you looked at your peers and you were trying to keep up,” Shareef says. “And I think really early you could tell, Wow, we got a good group! Opening night, you see Allen getting 30. First year, as rookies, you saw Steph made the playoffs. Ray and what he was doing in Milwaukee. Quickly it picked up, just how well other guys were adapting, and you wanted to keep up. And it became harder and harder to keep up.” 

In the summer of 2001, Abdur-Rahim was traded to the Atlanta Hawks, a much-welcomed homecoming for him. In his first season in the ATL, he was selected to the All-Star Game. The following season, he became the sixth-youngest player in NBA history to reach the 10,000-career points milestone. No longer feeling like he was completely isolated from the rest of the League, the former Cal star was finally being recognized by the rest of the Association. 

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM PRESENTS ’96 DRAFT FOR EVEN MORE GOODIES FROM THE ISSUE

“For college, I almost went as far as I could from home. Then I was drafted even further. Then being able to come home and be connected in my community—my family and friends being able to see me play—that was exciting,” Abdur-Rahim fondly remembers. “That meant a lot to me. That was a special time.”

But with the Hawks in the midst of an eight-year playoff drought, the front office opted to make some roster moves before the trade deadline during his third season with the team. He was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, where he spent a season and a half and saw his playing time and role decrease, before getting dealt to Sacramento.

Heading into his first season with the Kings, which marked his 10^th overall season in the League, Abdur-Rahim still had one dark cloud hanging over his head. He held the record for having played the most games in NBA history without competing in the playoffs. The 6-9 forward was finally able to check off that elusive goal in his first season in SacTown, as the Kings went on to face the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs, ultimately falling in six games.  

“It was so much fun. You wish you had those experiences earlier. And I remember thinking I had good years ahead of me,” he recalls. “The next year, I was injured a lot. And then next year, same thing. And then I was done. I never got to experience that. Coming off that, I couldn’t imagine not being in those situations again and even doing more. It’s bittersweet. I enjoyed it. I loved it. That level of competition is what I miss and what the NBA is about.”

As he alludes to, the following two years, he battled through injuries—mainly knee issues. And just like that, his body was telling him that it was time to move on from the game. Following the 2007-08 season, Abdur-Rahim retired at age 31 after 12 seasons.

“For me, it happened fast. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention. It’s not really until Sacramento when it happened. My body wasn’t responding,” he says. “I was getting sore, little nagging injuries. It was the end. It kind of ended quickly.”

He wasn’t quite sure of what to do next. The end of his NBA career had snuck up on him before he could even think about his next move. But as if fate had already decided for him, his post-playing career seemed to have chosen him instead.

“I was done. I was in Vancouver. Geoff Petrie was running the team. He and a guy named Wayne Cooper. When I told them that I was going to retire, they asked me if I would be willing to stay and coach, or help out with the team. It wasn’t something that I had spent any time thinking about,” Abdur-Rahim admits. “It wasn’t something I was sure I wanted to do. But I was like, OK, I’ll do it for this year and get basketball out of my system and then I’ll go do something else. And it just took off. They were so great about just allowing me to be included in the entire organization. Just learning; everything was accessible. It was a great experience.” 

After initially serving as an assistant coach for the Kings, he would eventually get promoted to assistant GM and director of player personnel. In 2013, he was named the general manager for the Reno Bighorns—the Kings’ G-League (D-League, at the time) affiliate now known as the Stockton Kings. The NBA office soon came calling, where he initially served as the League’s associate vice president of basketball operations, before being named the president of the NBA’s G-League in 2018.

Today, he is not only responsible for developing players and preparing them for the big leagues, but also for launching the historic pathway program, which sent shockwaves throughout the basketball world when it was introduced this past spring as an alternative to college and overseas for top HS recruits looking to be compensated before entering the NBA draft.

“The part that’s cool is now having an opportunity to serve and contribute to the game in a different way,” he says. “It’s [for] players that initially may not happen for, or young NBA players that need a place to grow and develop. Our young kids that are choosing this different path. It’s all of that. It’s exciting and humbling to be able to contribute in a different way.” 

While everyone embarked on different journeys since the days of standing in line waiting to use a public payphone in New Jersey—some enjoying longer NBA careers, while others seamlessly transitioning into post-playing endeavors—for Adbur-Rahim, the best part is being able to tell his loved ones all about it. 

“I’m proud to be associated with the class,” he affirms. “I’m a dad. I have an 18-year-old. To have something where I could be like, Yo, I told you I was good! I’m connected to these guys! That part is cool for me. I celebrate everything that the rest of the group has done.” 

—

SLAM PRESENTS ’96 DRAFT IS AVAILABLE NOW.       

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The impact of the series, though, transcended Basketball Twitter and become a cultural moment. One way to measure that in 2020? The number of memes that derived from it. Draft night was exactly six months since the airing of the last episode. And memes that use screenshots of different facial expressions and soundbite captions from MJ are still circulating the web on the daily. They seem to perfectly fit with just about any everyday-life scenario that people love poking fun at on the internet.

One meme in particular that has been ubiquitous is the “and I took that personally” meme. Throughout the doc, MJ touched on how he constantly found new motivation to be great—which mainly came from taking personal offense to even the smallest bit of doubt or slight casted by anyone around him. And while the different ways that the meme is used online is certainly hilarious, there is a whole lot of truth to it for the select few athletes who actually live by the words.

Which brings us to Anthony Edwards. 

The ongoing pandemic has led to people picking up all kinds of new hobbies, thanks to so many social activities being put on hold since the spring. Some people learned new skills. Others found new ways to remain occupied. Everyone tried new things. And that experience did not exclude Ant-Man. 

To kill time, his inner-circle decided to take up ping-pong. Edwards joined in. His brother, his trainer and a friend, along with the ATL native, would play up to eleven. The winner stayed on while losers rotated.

“My people brought me down to the ping-pong table where I stay at,” he recalls. “And they were beating up on me, so that was like for the first week. I took it upon myself to get better. Now they might get over a point, depending on how I’m feeling. I practiced.”

Yes, he pretty much MJ’d his own boys. And all because of ping-pong. You know you’re dealing with someone who is next level competitive when it’s over something that it usually wouldn’t be. But that’s what separates the good from the greats. Those who have a shot at getting there from those who force their way in there. Those who end up willing their way to the top pick in the NBA draft.

No, we’re obviously not comparing Jordan and Edwards in any way, shape or form. But we are telling you that they’re cut from the same cloth when it comes to competing.

While today he’s known as the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, for a while it looked like it was going to be on the gridiron where the 6-5 guard would be making the most noise. A quick Google search leads you to a video of Edwards on the football field as a member of the Atlanta Vikings 10-and-under team. He played cornerback, quarterback, and running back.

“I was really good at football. [For] 8-and-under and 10-and-under, I was like the number one player in the country,” he told SLAM just days before getting drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves. “I was the number one running back. I was kind of good in football—not gonna lie.”

He adds that he’d probably be a wide receiver if he would’ve pursed an NFL career.

Ultimately, though, he opted for basketball.

“To be honest, I didn’t really know that that was the right decision [at the time],” says Edwards. “Somebody told me to start playing multiple sports because [they said], Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. So, I just started playing basketball and baseball, and then eventually I just gravitated toward basketball. I just felt like it was the right sport because it was probably the most fun I had playing a sport as a little kid. So, I just started liking it more than the others. I was like 16—not that long ago.” 

Edwards’ rise to top prospect in his class was extraordinary quick, considering that he didn’t start focusing solely on basketball until he got to high school. But as he’s proven to be the case with anything he sets his full attention to—like, ping-pong during quarantine—once he’s locked in on something, he’s trying to be second to no one in it.

“I don’t really care about outside expectations for me,” he says. “I just have expectations for myself. So I never worried about what people would say about me. I worried about what I would think about myself. Whatever I wanted to do at that point in time, I’d just set my goal and I’d go get it.” 

The journey hasn’t been all rosy, of course. There were some soul-deep painful times along the way. Ones that could have easily and understandably derailed him from the path he nonetheless was able to stay on. Edwards lost his mother and grandmother to cancer in 2015 within an eight-month span. He went on to wear the No. 5 jersey in high school and college in their honor—they both passed on the fifth day of the month. For his draft night outfit on Wednesday, Edwards wore a black t-shirt designed by Don C that said “PEACE” in red lettering with two hands holding up a basketball-like globe with a dove in front of it. Each hand had a wrist bracelet with the words “YVETTE” and “SHIRLEY”—the names of his mother and grandmother, respectively. It was his way of ensuring that he was able to share this special chapter of his life with them. 

Despite the rough times, if there is one universal comment you’ll hear about Edwards off the court, it’s regarding the ear to ear smile he’s constantly sporting. That jovial personality becomes evident right away in just about any interaction with him.

“I feel like that’s just me. I’ve always been like that. It doesn’t really come from nowhere,” says the new Wolves guard. “I’m just always happy. Nothing can make me sad. I’m always happy. That’s just always been me—a joyful person.”

On the court, though, you’ll get a totally different side. The same one that took it upon himself to practice ping-pong earlier this year because he was not about to let anyone be better than him at something that involves a winner and a loser—didn’t matter if the ones on the opposite end were friends or family. In his one season at Georgia, he broke all kinds of records. He scored the program’s most points in a freshman debut since Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins did over 40 years ago. When he dropped 37 points against Michigan State, he became the first freshman for the Bulldogs to reach that mark since 1975. When all was said and done, he led all freshmen in scoring nationally with 19.1 points per game.

As he went through the pre-draft process, which is usually a 3-month ordeal but became an eight-month saga in 2020, Edwards says that staying locked in was actually easy for him, despite all of the uncertainty that surround him and everyone else.  

“It wasn’t challenging at all for me. I stuck to the script—just get better every day and don’t think about when the draft is gonna be. Luckily, I had a gym—I had it private, where I could work out by myself every day. So, I was free of Covid and I was just getting better.”

He eventually met with different teams. MJ even attended the workout he had with the Charlotte Hornets. In the end, his message to every franchise he spoke with was the same—short and simple.

“My message to them was probably just, Draft me. That’s just the easiest way I could say it,” recalls Edwards. “And I promise you I’m going to give y’all all I got. That was probably my only message.”      

—

Franklyn Calle is a Senior Content Producer at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @frankiec7.

Photos via Getty Images. 

The post My Time: Anthony Edwards is About to Show Why He was Drafted No. 1 appeared first on SLAM.

With the release of his second signature sneaker during the summer of 2020, Donovan Mitchell has continued to utilize his unique platform to bring awareness to a plethora of worldwide issues. We spoke with the Utah Jazz star to discuss his approach to his line with adidas, the design process, what he plans to implement in future editions and much more.

KICKS: You have always used your kicks to bring attention to different social causes. Before the pandemic shut down the NBA, you dedicated custom colorways to raise awareness for autism, the earthquake in Puerto Rico, the Australian bush fires and much more. You even auctioned the sneakers and donated the money to relief efforts. Can you talk about where that philanthropic spirit originates from?

DONOVAN MITCHELL: I think the biggest thing is understanding my role as an NBA athlete. On top of that, having my own shoe, it allows me to do things in a way that I would like. My biggest thing that I love doing the most is giving back to those in need—so being able to bring awareness, to spread awareness, to give back, those are things that I really pride myself on. So, for me, it was just like, OK, how can I go about doing it with my shoe? Because everybody looks down at these dudes on the court [to see] what shoes they are wearing. Spreading awareness—whether it’s gun violence, praying for Australia [due to] the fires, earthquakes in Puerto Rico—I just feel like we as athletes are a form of leaders throughout the country as well. I think any type of messaging is something that I will continue to spread using the voice and platform that I have. I think it also brings a lot of recognition and awareness to what’s needed.  

KICKS: On opening night of the restart in Orlando, you honored Breonna Taylor and others who have lost their lives at the hands of police by wearing a special colorway that had phrases like “Say Their Names” and “Ready For Change.” Tell us a little bit about the process of approaching adidas with this idea.

DM: Having gone to school in Kentucky, in Louisville, it hits close to home. For me, it was just like, OK, how do I find a way to honor her? We’re down here playing but the biggest thing is how we continue to keep her name and everybody’s names on the forefront of people’s minds. What better way to do it than on opening night, in the first game, with the shoes? I feel like they were a big hit. I loved them. I’m blessed that adidas was able to allow me to go express myself and have my back when I went out there with these shoes. Just continuing to find ways—there will be others for sure. But that was just something that was near and dear to my heart. I think there’s justice that needs to be brought that hasn’t come yet and myself and my colleagues who are also in the NBA are going to continue to speak on it until justice is served.

KICKS: You mentioned that there will be others. Do you have other issues in mind that you want to bring awareness to through your shoes?

DM: I think the biggest thing I want to do is I want to be able to create something where there are jobs or positions that can be filled in the company in my design process. Having kids from HBCUs, or having African-Americans, minorities, coming from different schools, to come and help me with my design process. There are a lot of talented African-American men and women out there who I feel can use this as an opportunity to propel themselves into that world. I think it’s something that for the 3s, the 4s and the 5s, that we can definitely work on and explore. It’s something that would be special.

KICKS: We know that you give away most of your on-court shoes after the games—whether at home or on the road. Can you tell us a little bit about that? What has motivated you to do that every night?

DM: I always wanted to be that kid. I always wanted to be the guy who got those. For me it was, How could I make a kid’s day? You never know what a kid may be going through. Seeing a kid wearing your jersey, it’s a different feeling. It’s an honor and a blessing to see that. To give them the same energy that they’re reciprocating to me, I think that’s something I really take pride in and it’s special to me.

KICKS: When you were a kid, was there ever a basketball player—or even a baseball player, since your dad has been with the New York Mets organization for decades—that handed you a pair of kicks or other memorabilia? How did that experience impact your approach to fans after you became a pro?

DM: Growing up around the Mets organization, I saw a lot of guys giving their stuff away. I don’t really have [an experience] myself that I could think of off the top of my head, but I think seeing guys do that and the look on kids’ faces and me always wanting to be that kid, I think that’s where a lot of it came from. Just being able to see it and the reaction, and [thinking], Man, I would love to do that now that I’m in a position to do that. I want to try to make sure that every kid that I possibly can [reach] has that feeling.

KICKS: In June, your SPIDACARES foundation gave away pairs of your signature sneakers to students at a charter high school in Bridgeport, CT. They each got two pairs as a graduation gift. How did that idea come about?

DM: My mom runs that foundation and we talked about it—How could we give shoes away to kids who worked hard and what better way to do it than with a graduation [gift]? Being able to say congratulations but also leave them with the message, like, Look, there’s a lot that can be done. There’s a lot to still be done, but congratulations on your hard work so far. To feel appreciated—that’s the biggest thing. You guys have done a great job. Your parents have done a great job raising you to get you to this point. But this is something to just be like, Look, there’s always a goal to reach, you never know who’s watching and you never know who’s going to be in your corner with you. I told them, I’m going to be there and be one of those people because I’ve seen all the hard work you’ve put in and it shouldn’t stop.

KICKS: Tell us about the D.O.N. 2s. What was your general vision heading into the design process? What were you looking for?

DM: We loved the look. We loved the layout. I think the biggest thing for me was just being more comfortable in my shoe. As the years go on and you get to shoe [number] two, three, four, and hopefully up to 12 or whatever, just understanding more about your foot—what my foot needs and how to maximize my shoe. Not just for myself but for other consumers as well. For me, I was not going to change the price point at all. I think for me the biggest thing was that I wanted everybody to be able to afford my shoe, but the difference is that we’re going to come out with more crazy color schemes. The tech is pretty much the same with the Bounce, but we just changed the design a little bit. Put the logo on the back. The partnership with Crayola. A bunch of different things to make it very exciting and I’m really excited for it to launch because I feel like it’s one of the best shoes and it’s very comfortable, obviously. I’m just very excited.

KICKS: Was there any particular storytelling you wanted to do with the designs of the 2s? Are there any particular parts of the shoes that have a deeper meaning or stories behind them?

DM: At the bottom of my shoe, I have the locations of where I went to school and up to where I am now. So, like, the longitude and the latitude of every place that I’ve been—Brewster [Academy], University of Louisville, now Utah. I think that [journey] really means a lot. My mom’s and sister’s birthdays are at the bottom of my shoe. Very subtle messages but I think ones that are very important to me and how I got to where I am today.

KICKS: Give us a timetable. How long ago did you start the process of thinking about the designs and features for the 2s?

DM: I started on the 2s right after the 1s [dropped]. The design process of the shoes goes much faster than I honestly anticipated. I feel like we [said], This is what we see on the 1s, and the biggest thing is, how can we improve the technology from the 1s and bring them to the 2s? And find ways to just become innovative. Who are we going to partner with? Obviously, Crayola is the big one. You have Spider-Man and Marvel, too. I really started not too long after the first one dropped. We were going through testing. It’s come a long way and I’m very blessed to be in this position. It’s a very fun process. You get as much out of it as you put into it. For me, it’s just trying to find ways to continue to put my time and effort into it because I know the people that are working behind the scenes are working day in and day out to help me. So, to give them the same effort that they give me is huge.

KICKS: Would you say it was easier or more difficult to go through the process for the 2s compared to the 1s? How different was the process this second time? On one hand, you were more familiar with the process going into the 2s. On the other hand, the challenge is making this one better than your last one.

DM: I think it was easier, honestly. The biggest thing was I was already used to it on my foot. We already had the mold. Just being able to give my input and know [more about] what my foot likes and doesn’t like. So I think it was easier to do the 2s because you already had a lot of the technology saved from the 1s to create a better and more improved shoe.

KICKS: Which D.O.N. Issue #2 colorway would you say is your favorite and why?

DM: I would probably say the “Camp” shoe, which is the most [colorful] one. For me, the biggest things are the messages on the inside. There were a lot of messages we got throughout the draft process, throughout my rookie year, of what I could and couldn’t do, and I put a lot of those wordings in there. And that’s what means the most to me just because of a lot of things people say I can’t do. For me, putting that in the shoes was another reminder of what people thought and how I’m here to prove everybody wrong.

KICKS: You’ve partnered with some major companies for your colorways. From Marvel all the way to Crayola, how wild has it been seeing major entities like those wanting to collaborate with your line?

DM: It’s a huge blessing. I never in a million years thought I’d be here but I am. And now the biggest thing is continuing my work on the floor to allow these things to continue to happen. None of this happens without the work on the floor and what I do during the games. So, for me, it’s like, How do I find a way to continue my brand in that way? It’s a huge honor and blessing to be able to work with these companies, but there’s more to do. That’s really where my head is at—continuing to find ways to build myself on the floor and then everything else will take care of itself.

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF KICKS 23

Franklyn Calle is a senior producer at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Photos by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images

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The SUV pulls up to the back entrance of a nondescript industrial-looking building in the Warehouse District of New Orleans. It’s the last Sunday of June and the downtown streets in The Big Easy are calm and quiet as the car drives up to the discreet door in the back of the building. Although the building is empty, there is no room for error when the city’s biggest star—and quickly rising as one of the main faces of the NBA—is pulling up to an unfamiliar location.

When the car doors open, though, the vibe changes completely. The necessary pre-arrival safety measures and planning is a far contrast to the feeling that suddenly takes over the building. Zion Williamson, sporting his trademark ear-to-ear smile, and accompanied by his family, arrives to his cover shoot with the same happy aura he’s had since his first SLAM cover shoot back in Spartanburg, SC, in 2017, when he was just a 16-year-old phenom with a plethora of “could he” questions around his name.

While a lot has changed since, the foundation still remains the same. For Zion, it’s always been about letting his game do the talking on the court, while not looking to draw any unnecessary attention away from it. It’s why he arrives at the shoot with just his family, as he’s done at both of his previous solo SLAM cover shoots. There is no entourage or large group of friends rolling up with him. No team of publicists or handlers on set. No stylists with suitcases full of designer clothes for him to show off in front of the lenses.    

In an era when many professional athletes, and especially NBA players, are expected (and many pressured) to be Renaissance men by proving their versatility and star value off the court, Zion is a refreshing change by continuing to do things his way. He isn’t trying hard on social media—there aren’t any fit pics or photos of him in front of expensive cars, in plush homes or any other behind-the-scenes testaments to the luxury of being a star on his Instagram account. In fact, out of the 63 posts he has on his IG grid as of early-August, all of them are either basketball-related or brand commitment posts, with the exception of a handful where he is just shouting out close friends.

Many would refer to the aforementioned flashy posts as part of a player’s “brand building” strategy, but Zion has chosen to not partake in any of that extra stuff. And yet, he’s one of the most followed players in the NBA with an ever-growing list of endorsement deals—Jordan Brand, Gatorade, Mountain Dew and 2K Sports, to name a few—without doing any of it. His personality and on-court performance have done all the brand building needed.

Therefore, it is only fitting that Zion opted to go with a modest look for his first solo SLAM cover as a pro. The plain workout fit perfectly depicts his outlook at this stage in life—focused on continuing to shatter records and cement his status in the League. All that other stuff is irrelevant.

After Zion makes his way up to the fifth floor, the photographer engages in some small talk to get the vibes flowing. Making it challenging and strange is the fact that everyone on the production side is wearing masks, gloves and keeping their distance from Zion in an effort to follow all COVID-19 precautionary measures with the Pelicans star preparing to enter the Orlando bubble in a couple of weeks. The photographer begins throwing out questions in an attempt to get Zion to produce different facial expressions based on his answers. One of the questions is about Zion’s mindset heading into Orlando. He grins and then responds, “Like, the summer is mine!”

When Zion suffered a bruised left knee in his Summer League debut, which sidelined him for the remaining Las Vegas games, and then a torn right lateral meniscus during the preseason, which resulted in arthroscopic knee surgery and a three-month rehab process, the chatter on social media and in sports talk shows was rampant and as loud as ever. Folks (mostly critics) wanted to take the opportunity to bring up his injury history and cast doubt on his body’s composition. They brought up the famous knee sprain at Duke and even the deep knee bruise in high school. Zion was seemingly being written off by many before he even got a chance to start.

“I did hear those things,” he admits. “My mom taught me to accept the things I cannot change, and to change the things I can and move on. So, I can’t tell them what they can think or they can’t think. Not everybody is going to agree with what you do or like my body make-up or how you play the game. It’s their opinion and that’s fine. I’m my own person. So, when it comes to worrying about things like that, I don’t.”

Debates around whether Zion should redshirt his rookie season also grew louder. Ultimately, he returned, just as he did at Duke, despite many arguing that he shouldn’t risk stepping on the hardwood again until he secured the bag. In both cases, his love for the game was just too intense for him to ever consider sitting. And so, he made his NBA regular season debut on January 22, 2020, in not quite the ideal circumstances he dreamed of growing up—thrown into the fire in the middle of the season after knee surgery, with the whole world tuning in and ready to critique.

But then Zion happened.

He set Twitter on fire by the end of the night after having one of the most memorable debuts in pro sports. After scoring only 5 points in 12 minutes of play through the first three quarters, Zion had a historic fourth quarter: 17 consecutive points in a three-minute span, which included four three-pointers and chants of MVP from the crowd. The Pels ended up falling short that night, after Zion single-handedly brought the team back from a double-digit deficit to within 3 before getting subbed out due to strict minute restrictions.

“When it comes to the whole ‘all eyes are on me,’ I feel like a lot of eyes have been on me since high school, so that feeling was nothing new. I don’t consider it being thrown in the fire because I’ve been playing basketball my whole life. But it was definitely a dream come true to finally get thrown out there and enjoy the moment,” recalls Williamson. “If I’m being honest with you, it was very frustrating at first. I’m in the game and I feel like I could maybe change the outcome and you hear the horn go off. You know it ain’t for nobody but you because your time is up. It’s one of those sickening feelings, because I’m one of those players that if I could do anything to help my team win, I want to do it. So it was very frustrating at first from that perspective. But outside of that, it was a blast.”

It certainly didn’t feel like the Pelicans had lost that night. If anything, it was probably the biggest win they’ve had in a long time. The franchise witnessed a transcending, generational-type talent. It was real. It was no longer just hype.

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 228 FEATURING ZION

The 22-points-in-18-minutes debut shattered all kinds of records: most points per minute in an NBA debut in the shot-clock era (1954-55), most consecutive team points from a rookie in the fourth quarter over the last 20 seasons, first player in League history to shoot 4-4 or better from behind the arc in his NBA debut and most points in a player’s debut in Pelicans history are just some.

As far as record-breaking performances go, that was only the beginning. He became the first teenager in NBA history to have 10 consecutive 20-point outings. He ultimately extended that streak to 13—the previous record was nine games by Carmelo Anthony in the 2003-04 season. His 28 points on 13-20 shooting against the Warriors made him the first rookie since Michael Jordan to have four consecutive games of 25+ points on 57 percent or better shooting from the floor. He dropped 35 points against the Los Angeles Lakers to start March. Zion ended up averaging 23.6 points and 6.8 rebounds in 19 games before the pandemic brought everything to a halt.

More importantly, though, Zion’s insertion into the Pelicans lineup brought the team into the playoff conversation. After losing its first two games with Zion, the team went on to win eight out of their next 11. All of a sudden, the young Pels were in contention for the 8-seed, which seemed unthinkable just a couple of weeks earlier.

“No, I was not surprised at all, if I’m being honest, because I play the game to win,” he says. “I consider myself one of the best competitors. It’s as simple as that. I feel like I’m a competitor. I came back at the right time. The team—we were finding ourselves. And then I got added into the equation. It just fit and we won eight out of the next 11.”

One week into the restart in Orlando, the Pelicans find themselves 2 games behind the Grizzlies for the 8th spot in the West and just 1 game out of the 9th spot–as they try to force play-in games. All eyes have been on them. It’ll be a very tough but not impossible task for the young squad. It’s been one of the biggest headlines going into Disney—can the Pelicans get into the playoffs, setting up a highly desired matchup against LeBron James and the Lakers in the first round?

The expectations and excitement have been through the roof. So much so that NBA Twitter has resorted to conspiracy theories around an alleged desire for the League to have the Pelicans reach the playoffs. Oh, and then there were all the debates surrounding Zion’s chances at winning Rookie of the Year—a race that Zion doesn’t shy away from discussing.  

“I have social media but I don’t let social media dictate my life. I will never let that happen,” he says. “But as far as winning Rookie of the Year and competing in that race, I’m a competitor. If there’s a chance that I could win it, I’m going to go after it. I’m not going to doubt that. Ja [Morant] has had an incredible season and he is the current front-runner, but it’s not over until they announce who it is, so, I’m going to keep battling for it. [A few weeks after our shoot, the NBA announced that performance in Orlando would not be taken into consideration for the player awards.—Ed.] But my top priority is getting into the playoffs first.”

Four days after our shoot, a photo of Zion at the practice facility circulates around the web. It’s the first image of him in months. It quickly goes viral as fans and media alike are taken aback by his physique and how “ripped” he looks post-quarantine. Numbers get thrown around—like, losing 25 pounds of fat and adding 10 pounds of muscle during the shutdown. Wearing a mask, he draws Bane comparisons. It’s a recurring topic on sports talk shows for the next 48 hours. While many wondered how players would stay in shape with team facilities closed, Zion made it his mission.

“I was focused on honing my game and my body and getting back to full strength,” says Williamson, who was granted access by the League to the team facility (among other NBA players) to continue his rehab. “When people asked me during the season where do you think I am [health-wise], I probably said something like 80-85 [percent]. But working out the past few months, I was way off. I was probably at, like, 60 percent. When I say I feel like my old self, I mean like high school and college, in the sense of having fun with the game. Yeah, basketball is a business, but I love basketball. Whenever I play basketball with that love I’ve always had, I feel like I’m one of the best.”  

Regardless of what happens in Orlando, Zion isn’t shying away from the noise. He’s learned to embrace it all—the good, the bad, the weird. He’s welcoming the expectations bestowed upon him—the chatter that comes with the territory. He’s as confident as he’s ever been. And that’s the part that should scare opposing teams the most.

“We’re going to compete. We’re going to try to win,” says Williamson. “The combination of my love for the game and me being an ultimate competitor, and some of my teammates having the same traits, it’s a bright future. I feel like we’re going to do the best we could do and we’re going to compete.

“I don’t struggle to balance that at all. If you want to know what’s going to happen, tune in!”

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 228 FEATURING ZION

Franklyn Calle is a senior producer at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Zach Wolfe.

The post New Orleans Pelicans Star Zion Williamson Covers SLAM 228 appeared first on SLAM.

GRAB YOUR COPY OF JORDANS VOL. 5

“I have no interest in going with Nike. I don’t even know what Nike is. No way I’m going.”

Those are the words that David Falk remembers Michael Jordan uttering to him when he approached MJ about hopping on a flight to Beaverton, OR, to meet with the sportswear brand to discuss an endorsement opportunity in the summer of 1984.    

Falk, a 33-year-old sports agent at the time who had served as a junior agent for the legendary tennis star Arthur Ashe and had also repped No. 1 draft picks like John Lucas, Mark Aguirre and James Worthy at the ProServ sports agency, had arranged the meeting.

“He didn’t know anything about Nike. He wanted to go with adidas. He had a friend named Gary Stokan, who had played at NC State and was [now] the local adidas rep in the southeast. He supplied Michael with adidas,” recalls Falk. “He couldn’t wear them in the games because they were a Converse school—Carolina. But he loved adidas.”

ProServ actually had a really good relationship with adidas. The sports agency had become known for representing some of the biggest stars in tennis who also happened to be adidas endorsees, including Ashe and Stan Smith (who has one of the most famous signature sneakers of all time with adidas). The agency’s relationship with the German company, though, went deeper than just representing athletes who had deals with the Three Stripes.

“Ironically, we had represented the owner of adidas—named after Adi Dassler, who is the founder of the company. His son Horst Dassler had run the company for 15 years. Probably the most powerful man in the world of sports, and we actually represented him. I didn’t, but there was a gentleman in our firm that represented him,” recalls Falk, who aside from the aforementioned names, has also represented Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Allen Iverson, Moses Malone and Dominique Wilkins, among many other NBA superstars. “They were just not in a position to execute a deal of that level—they told us that. The head of international marketing for adidas said to me, Hey, we really appreciate Michael’s interest. There is no way we could make this deal.”      

As a result, an official meeting between adidas and Jordan never ended up happening, says Falk.    

The agent had grown close with a few Nike executives over the years. At the time, adidas had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar while Converse had the likes of Dr. J, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and Aguirre. Although Nike was relatively new to the sportswear business, Falk had a few of his clients sign with the Swoosh in the years leading up to Jordan, including Moses Malone and Phil Ford. Falk had specifically developed a good relationship with Rob Strasser, who was the head of marketing for Nike at the time.

“So, I told Nike, Look, I think [MJ] can put you on the map in basketball single-handedly. He’s really exciting. Nobody knew he’d be as good as he is. But we all knew he’d be a very exciting player,” says Falk. “I told them, If you want to sign him, I want him treated like a tennis player. I want his own line of shoes and clothes. And they were open to that.

“We wanted to treat him like a tennis player. Tennis players and golfers typically use their own line of products. That’s the way it works in golf. That went against the grain of what everybody was thinking in 1984 in the NBA. Everybody thought that was a bad idea. Rod Thorn, who was the GM of the Bulls, said to me, ‘David, we love Michael, but if you try to treat him like a tennis player, you’re going to separate him out from the rest of the players.’ I said, ‘Exactly, because he is different than the rest of the players!’”

And so, while Falk had been able to talk Nike into considering giving Jordan his own line as a rookie, his new client didn’t seem to have any interest in a cross-country flight to the West Coast to meet with the brand. Frustrated, Falk went to Jordan’s parents to explain the situation and eventually got a Don’t worry, he’ll be on the plane, from the them. Jordan, forcibly, boarded a plane to Oregon.

At the meeting, Falk recalls Nike having prepared a music video-type presentation, featuring songs like “Jump” by The Point Sisters and “Jump” by Van Halen. But that was only after Nike execs struggled to get the video to play for what seemed like forever.

“The problem was that Strasser, who was about 6-3 and 350 pounds, could not get the machine to start. So, he’s sitting there and he’s trying to get the machine to start and it won’t start. And Michael is sitting there watching, not very happy. And Strasser is sweating like you wouldn’t believe. Like in the movies. He was sweating like a river,” recalls Falk. “There was only one African-American executive from Nike that was supposed to come to the meeting—it was Howard White, who ultimately became Michael’s service representative and who I had known for years; he was the point guard at Maryland before John Lucas. Howard shows up, like, 40 minutes late, and the machine isn’t working. You could have not scripted a worse start for an important meeting.”  

“They finally got the video going. Michael never cracked a smile. Then we moved it to the boardroom and Strasser made a presentation about a line of shoes and clothes that would be Michael’s line. And he still didn’t crack a smile. And I know that when this is over, he’s going to curse me out for making him fly six hours to Oregon to sign with a company he didn’t want to be with.”

Falk and the Jordan family went to dinner afterward before their flight back to North Carolina. During casual conversation at the restaurant, Falk tried to get MJ to give his thoughts on the meeting. It was then when the super agent saw that the Tar Heel star had what it took to become the business mogul he has transitioned into today.

“He looks at me and goes, I don’t want to go anywhere else. This is it. I almost fainted. And I realized at that time, which was my first business meeting with Michael Jordan other than meeting to present our services, this man is really smart—for a 21-year-old young athlete, he kept all his emotions in check. He’s at the table playing a big stage game of poker, not letting on what he has. It blew me away. I was stunned.”

GRAB YOUR COPY OF JORDANS VOL. 5

Throughout the years that followed, Falk looked at his role as that of a teacher instead of an agent. He set out the mission of teaching MJ the business—teaching him how the game was played off the court. Not only was MJ receptive to the knowledge, he sought it out himself. Falk has countless stories of the times Jordan would come up to his office or hit his line inquiring about the strategy behind certain deals. And eventually Falk wasn’t the only one that MJ approached with those questions.  

“He soaked it all in. That experience of managing his own brand as long as he played from 1984 to 1999—he met tons of corporate executives at very high levels, including Warren Buffett. I think that was all part of his ongoing business education. He took it very seriously,” says Falk. “On the investment side, he would sit down with the people in our office who managed his money and they’d give him a book that was an inch thick. He had studied that book and he would ask questions. Like, The return on this is supposed to be eight percent [but] looks like it’s only seven percent? It blew me away how prepared he was. But he took it all seriously because he’s a very intelligent person. He was very involved.”

The next three marketing deals after the Nike partnership were Chevrolet, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. Although MJ was known for his ultra-assertiveness on the hardwood, in the boardroom his approach was a bit different, according to Falk. He was more of a poker player, showing no emotion. In many occasions, he didn’t really say much during meetings, says Falk. He’d listen. He was very analytical. He simply had a good sense of what he was looking for in partnerships.

Despite MJ’s status and Falk’s extensive network and relationships, landing marketing deals for NBA stars on a national scale back then wasn’t as prevalent and easy as it is today. There were still racial prejudices and stigmas that the League dealt with.  

“[Back then,] no one had a brand in basketball. No one had any endorsements in basketball, basically. Magic Johnson—who had played five years in the NBA and was the Rookie of the Year, the [Finals] MVP as a rookie and an NBA champion—the only deal he had outside of Spalding and Converse shoes was a one-year deal with 7UP. One year and then it went away. Dr. J didn’t have deals. Bird didn’t have deals. Jabbar didn’t. Nobody had national deals because at the time, the feeling on Madison Avenue was that the NBA had two big problems—one, it was too black, and two, they thought it was too drug-infested. They estimated that 75 percent of the players were taking some sort of illegal drug. So it was not the darling of Madison Avenue that it is today.”

Just as influential as Falk and Jordan became in opening doors for NBA players through unprecedented off-court marketing opportunities, they also made waves by implementing clauses (or opt outs) in basketball contracts. They chose not to partake in the union’s group licensing program—betting on themselves that they could garner much more money doing their own marketing deals. They also added a unique clause in MJ’s first professional contract that allowed him to participate in competitive pick-up games during the offseason—which at the time wasn’t permitted.  

“We did some very controversial things early in his career. We opted him out of the NBA Player Association group licensing program. Only two players in history have ever done that—Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing—and then they changed the rule. We changed the contracts—created the Jordan ‘Love of the Game’ clause—that a player didn’t have to get permission to play basketball [during the] offseason. How do you stay in shape if you’re not playing? He had his own line of shoes and clothes. Almost everything we did, people said, You can’t do that; what you’re trying to do, it will never work. That’s what they told us with the shoes. You’re going to create a line of shoes for a rookie? It will never work! That’s what they told us,” recalls Falk. “And the first year Jordan sold $126 million worth of product. It outsold every other shoe company in basketball—as a rookie.”

It was then when Falk realized that they had built something historic by choosing to go with Nike through the golf player approach that ultimately allowed MJ to have his own line as a rookie. That’s something that rings truer today than could have ever been imagined back then.  

“Jordan sells $3 billion worth of product a year. He sells more product that if you took every player in the League that has their own shoes, and you added up all the sales together and multiplied it by three, they don’t sell $3 billion,” says Falk. “If I could do it again, and I knew exactly what was going to happen, I would have signed him with Nike for a dollar a year and a 50-50 royalty [split]. But I wasn’t smart enough to know that we were going to sell—when Nike told me their projections for Jordan sales were $3 million, between three and four, and they sold $126 million the first year, you realize that the guarantee is irrelevant.”

—

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Franklyn Calle is a senior producer at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Photos via Getty.

The post Exclusive Interview With Michael Jordan’s Longtime Agent David Falk appeared first on SLAM.

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 227 FEATURING THE RAPTORS

—

There is classical music blasting through the hallway that runs parallel to the baseline at the OVO Athletic Centre in Toronto.    

A whole lot of it. 

On this brisk and snowy weekday morning in late February, the Raptors players are scattered throughout the state-of-the-art practice facility. Practice is slated to start soon and some of the players are out on the hardwood stretching. Others are already getting some shots up while a couple of them are still in the locker room area.  

As the team gets ready to start, SLAM’s staff is simultaneously doing a location scouting walk-thru to prep for our cover shoot after practice. Between wheeling in equipment and figuring out the exact shooting location, we end up being led down a hallway, past a row of offices. It is there where we hear Beethoven’s greatest hits album being played loudly. We think nothing of the classical music at first, other than it’s much louder than you’d expect it to be at an NBA practice facility minutes before the start of practice.

But, hey, we’ve seen and heard weirder stuff on set at shoots. 

Then, all of the sudden, the music stops. And then it restarts for a few seconds before stopping and picking up where it left off once again. 

Turns out there isn’t a vinyl record playing inside someone’s office. Someone’s actually playing the keyboard. And after a quick glance around the hallway, we realize it’s coming from the office that says “Nick Nurse” in front of it. Wearing a black hat and sitting adjacent to his desk while facing the wall, the Raptors head coach is jamming away on the piano. 

No cap, he’s actually good. 

Last summer, just days after defeating the Golden State Warriors and subsequently leading the Raptors to their historic first ever NBA championship, Nurse joined Canadian rock band Arkells on stage during a concert in Toronto. He played the guitar with them that night, and so clearly has a thing for music.

Nurse playing piano right before practice while the guys are warming up is so fitting and perfectly reflective of where the Toronto Raptors stand in the post-Kawhi Leonard era—confident, and looking to broaden and strengthen an already impressive arsenal. 

Life is good in the 6ix.

—

When the annual preseason GM survey was released last fall, the Raptors were picked to finish fourth in the East (they were actually tied with the Brooklyn Nets for the fourth seed). Disrespectful for a team that was fresh off an NBA championship and bringing back most of its core? Or fair considering that the squad had just lost their Finals MVP to the Clippers? Are they actually better off being slept on once again? 

When we bring up the very same questions during our shoot, the guys point out that they had no idea about the GM survey.

“I didn’t see that,” Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Serge Ibaka say in unison. They sort of shrug at whether the preseason projection was a good or bad thing. It was irrelevant.

What they did see and vividly remember, though, is all the memes, jokes and tweets that followed in the aftermath of Leonard’s decision to leave the Raptors last summer. Lots of them had one common sentiment—the team was no longer even playoff-caliber, they foolishly said.

Yet, here they are on set at the cover shoot for our NBA Playoff preview issue. It’s late February and the Raptors are sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference.      

“I just think, overall, the stuff that came out about us not even being a playoff team, we laughed at that,” says VanVleet. “Other than that, we don’t really care.” 

Ibaka quickly jumps in: “The one that surprised me [was] when they said we’re not even going to make the playoffs. To me, that was kind of funny. We [use] that as a motivation as a team. But we don’t really try to worry about those things.”  

Regardless of the final outcome, the team has already accomplished some historic feats this season. They went on a 15-game winning streak, going a full month without losing a game. The streak not only marked the longest winning stretch in franchise history, but was also the longest winning streak by a Canadian-based franchise in the NBA, MLB, NHL or CFL.

The margin of victory during that stretch was a convincing 10.6 points (including 29-point and 27-point victories), while only two games were decided by a single possession. Even more impressive was the fact that the team went on that historic run despite many of its core players missing games during that same stretch due to injuries. Four of the team’s six players averaging double-digit points this season missed games during that period—Norman Powell missed five of them with a broken hand, VanVleet missed a couple, and Kyle Lowry and Ibaka missed one game each.     

While the historic streak gave local fans a lot to be excited about and definitely made those who swore the team had no shot at making the playoffs look silly, the players have a different perspective. 

“You want the real truth? [It meant] nothing!” says Lowry of the streak. “We hoop to hoop—to win every game. It didn’t mean nothing to us.

“You know what the goal is. That’s all that matters. We always know what the goal is. Now we’ve gotten there and we know what to do. We know what it takes. It’s never going to be easier. It’s going to be harder. But we know what it is and that’s what we want.”

For Lowry, this season marks his eighth year in Toronto. He’s the second oldest player on the team behind Marc Gasol, but the longest-tenured. As he sits next to his teammates while being filmed for the latest episode of our “Point ’Em Out” video series after the cover shoot [see above], the 6-0 guard notes that he’s seen every single player in the group get drafted by the Raptors over the past few years with the exception of Ibaka (Gasol had to dip after the photo shoot and therefore wasn’t around for this portion). He emphasizes that he’s witnessed the development of the team’s core first-hand.

“I think the team is just different because of OG’s growth, Fred’s growth, Norm’s growth, Serge—he’s gotten better throughout the years, and since he’s been here, he’s changed his game and adapted with us,” says Lowry, who had his Villanova jersey retired in Philadelphia the night before our shoot. “We all know about Pascal and what he’s done. I would just say the growth, maturity and the confidence of what they know they could do is the thing that’s different. We have a good mixture—I’m [one of] the oldest guys on the team and OG is one of the youngest guys on the team, but we all get together, we all can hang out, we can talk smack, we all can have fun with each other. We have a good mix of not being able to take things so serious. We know what our end goal is. We want them championships and we want everybody to be able to take care of their families.” 

The next oldest player on the squad, Ibaka, is actually posting career-best numbers this season. The 30-year-old is averaging 16.0 points (a career-high) and 8.3 rebounds per game as we head to press, while playing the third fewest minutes in his 11-year career. Despite no longer being the full-time starter he once was—he’s started in about half of the games he’s played this season—Ibaka seems as comfortable as ever. 

“Every year has been different for me. But being here, to me, really helped my game a lot. The way they play here really fits my style. The guys here, we don’t really have any egos. To me, it just motivates me. When I was watching my teammates play, the way they played, I was like, Man, if I work my game this way, it’s going to help me because the way our guys play [makes it] easy,” says the Republic of the Congo native. “I feel like 11 years I’ve been playing in the League—this is my first time I feel like I’m playing the way I want to. I used to be the kind of player where I had to play the way the system wants me to play. But since I got here, the way we play—the trust they give me—it forced me to work on my game in different ways. It’s been fun. It doesn’t feel like it was 11 years because I feel like it just started because of the joy of playing with those guys.” 

You can go down the roster list and notice how seamlessly players have adjusted to their new roles this season. VanVleet is now a full-time starter in the backcourt, averaging over 17 points and 6 assists per game, after a dominant postseason run last year. He’s a constant reminder of how gritty and fearless this team really is. In an era where many teams now run with big guards, the Raptors backcourt is occupied by two guys who barely even measure at 6-0. 

“You know Fred Van-De-le? You know him?” says Ibaka, purposely enunciating VanVleet’s name differently and drawing laughter from his teammates. “That’s a dog out there! Big Dog! He’s short but that’s Big Dog. He’s Big Dog Freddy. Can get a bucket anytime he wants—he don’t care what’s your size, he’s going to drive to you, hit your shoulder and bucket!” 

Then there’s Siakam, who just one year after claiming the Most Improved Player award is now a full-blown NBA All-Star. He’s averaging a team-best 23.6 points as of early March.

Another player who saw his role change completely this season is OG Anunoby. He became Leonard’s replacement as the new starting small forward. With big shoes to fill, the former Indiana standout has become the most important defender on the squad and is in charge of guarding opponents’ best perimeter players. Two to four, he can be matched up at different spots in the lineup. As we head to the printer, Anunoby is fresh off a then career-high 6 steals against the Hornets, which he followed up with a career-high of 32 points and a new career-high of 7 steals the very next game against the Nuggets. 

Gasol, the oldest player on the team at age 35, continues his steadily productive numbers as the starting center. Meanwhile, Powell has been a strong off-the-bench force for Toronto and has even stepped up and started a bunch of games this season because of injuries to the first unit. During one stretch, he finished with 20 or more points in eight out of nine games and is averaging over 16 points per game as of early March.

“I feel like every year we were doubted and left out, and every year we continue to change the view and prove people wrong. That’s what I think is so special about this group of guys,” says Powell. “Throughout their whole careers, they’ve been doubted and overlooked, and we keep working, we keep grinding, and we keep turning heads. We have a group of winners here.”

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 227 FEATURING THE RAPTORS

Franklyn Calle is a senior producer at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.

The post The Toronto Raptors Cover SLAM 227 appeared first on SLAM.

The made-for-Instagram space is only a reception area that eventually leads you into the video game room on the right side. The eSports room features four stations, each with a dual monitor display (240hz monitors), a tower with maxed out specs, and a gaming chair. Each computer has 20+ games. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is Ben’s current go-to. His favorite game mode is 2v2 Gunfight. He plays on a custom FaZe Scuf controller. 

Right outside the gaming room hangs a collection of framed jerseys, from his high school Montverde Academy jersey to signed jerseys of Magic Johnson and Lionel Messi. It’s a collector’s dream.    

The hall leads you to the pool room, where Simmons’ logo sits at the center of the table. A gigantic fish tank with neon blue lights above it sits across from the table. The 76ers guard quickly points out that one of the fish is poisonous. 

The pool room leads into a candy kitchen, where Simmons has collected and stored candy from tons of brands. You find the usual—Skittles, M&Ms, Sour Patch Kids, Kit-Kats, NERDS—but he also has a drawer filled with imported chocolate bars from his native Australia.

“I’m Australian so I like my Flake,” says Simmons when asked for his favorite candy, while pulling out a chocolate bar in yellow wrapping. “Those are my go-to. You gotta try them. These are my favorite. Growing up, we always had Flake.” 

On this day, he’s hosting FaZe Clan co-founder and renowned pro gamer Thomas Oliveira, aka Temperrr. The two connected online years ago and have remained in close contact ever since. 

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FaZe Clan, formerly known as FaZe Sniping, is an American eSports organization based in Los Angeles. They have teams in Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, FIFA and Fortnite Battle Royale.

FaZe is the most popular eSports organization to blend lifestyle and gaming. It has won 22 championships across all of its teams and became the first eSports brand to build out a physical house for its members, which is now a central incubator for content creation. [SLAM and FaZe have a merch collab dropping in late February.] 

Ben’s meticulously laid-out basement offers a glimpse into his off-court passions and business interests. While giving us a tour, it becomes clear that he takes gaming seriously and the lounge isn’t some vanity space he built just because it would look cool. Ben’s love for gaming can be traced back to when he was a youngster growing up in Australia. 

“He’s the youngest, so youngest goes last in any big family,” recalls his older brother, Sean. “Myself and my older brother, we were playing Mario Kart, NBA Jam—all that stuff. We would be playing for hours and Ben would just patiently sit there until we either gave up or we finally died, but then we would find some sort of excuse for why we needed to go again. He would have to wait for literally hours and he would just sit there patiently waiting, never getting a turn. That’s my first memory of him being a part of gaming.”

Eventually, Sean realized Ben was serious about it. On many occasions, Sean would wake up at 2 a.m. and head to the kitchen for some water. In the living room, he’d find the future NBAer playing video games with another Australian kid who had hoop dreams just like him.     

“He was gaming with Dante Exum,” adds Sean. “It was two in the morning, [they are] just up and bright-eyed, not going to sleep anytime soon. They’re playing Call of Duty at the time.”

Fast forward a decade and Simmons, now an NBA star, is connecting with eSports industry leaders, and he’s used those connections to learn more about the space and the different elements within it. 

“I don’t really try to do everything, in terms of who I am as a brand, but the one thing that has always come back to me that I’ve enjoyed and wanted to find out more about is gaming,” Simmons tells Temperrr. “Obviously when we started talking, that was one of the things I was so interested in. Building off that and seeing where it could go—connecting, talking more, and meeting everybody in the FaZe house. That felt like a family. It felt like home. I could relate to you guys. It wasn’t like a weird thing, which was cool.” 

While he doesn’t rule out business opportunities in the gaming sphere, it isn’t the driving force behind him networking with the biggest names in the space.  

“There’s a few other people I’ve talked to. Obviously, Hector of Optic. Hutch—Old Man of Optic. I grew up watching them, seeing them make their YouTube videos. It’s just been cool to be around that as a young kid and to still see those guys in the community, building off what they’ve been trying to do,” says Simmons. “There’s always opportunities in terms of investments with gaming. Every day there’s something new coming out. But that’s never really been one of the things I’ve been wanting to join for. It’s always just been because I’ve been passionate about it. To me, the best part of doing something is because you love doing it.”

“The beauty of gaming is that you’re always talking to someone on your headset, so he’s made a lot of relationships through the years,” says Sean. “They’ve been talking about how it’s been growing over the years and he’s been paying attention. So, conversations with me when I’m sitting there with him—Alright, we need to look into this, people are starting to get involved with teams, people are starting to get involved with creating content—all these things, which has helped me decipher where to help him invest his time and his energy into the gaming world. First and foremost, he’s an NBA player. But on the side, his hobby is gaming. He’s learning that business and looking to invest in that business.”     

Gaming is such a part of Simmons’ life that it’s built in to his game-day routine. Just like the pregame nap is a must, so is setting aside some time to game.

“It’s huge having that part of your routine, having something that relaxes you,” says Simmons. “If I’m at home, my routine usually was—because I used to live in the city—go shoot, come back and play a couple of games, take a nap, then go [to the arena]. That would just relax me. I was playing PUBG, Call of Duty.   

“If I’m on the road, I go on Twitch and watch somebody else’s stream. That’s something I enjoy, watching [people] play—which is funny, people laugh at it, but it’s something people love to do.” 

Along the way, Simmons has gained the respect and admiration of many of the biggest names in gaming. It has become well known that he is actively linking and trying to broaden his understanding of how it all works. One of those who has taken notice is Temperrr.  

“I definitely think you’re at the forefront of the gaming world as far as—you’re a real gamer but you’re a pro basketball player,” the FaZe co-founder tells him. “You know what’s going on when it happens. It’s a good place to be because anything could happen. Imagine hearing about Fortnite way before it was started and investing in it before the game goes live. You can invest in the next big game or help create the next big game. As long as you stay where you’re at, which I’m sure you will, we’re going to get this money! 

“I’m not trying to gas him but he’s definitely the best out of any athlete—honestly I was impressed when we were playing. He drops more kills than I do. I’m always using the sniper, granted, but he’s always fragging out.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Jonathan Pushnik.

The post Ben Simmons and FaZe Temperrr Featured on First Digital Cover of SLAM appeared first on SLAM.

One person who’s been front-row to all the growth—in Toronto specifically—is Mr. Morgan, a Toronto native and president of Drake’s label, OVO Sound.

“I remember sitting in the 300 level,” says Morgan of the Raptors’ first season in 1995, when they played at the 50,000-seat SkyDome. “But just the fact that we were there watching was just like, Wow, I’m watching an NBA game! I’d say the very large majority of the people there had never seen an NBA game before. 

“Canadian networks were not covering basketball at all. So you’d have to get it through US networks—you had to dig for it. But, also, it would drive the passion for it because you had to look for it. To see it reach those heights [in 2019], it’s unreal.”     

A DJ (under the “Mr. Morgan” moniker, which is how he’s widely referred to in the industry these days) in Toronto in the ‘90s that specialized in hip-hop as well as “old soul, brakes and sample tapes,” Morgan eventually moved to New York, where he became a consultant for Atlantic Records and then VP and SVP of A&R at RCA Records before taking the helm at OVO Sound.

“When I came to New York I was always an advocate for the fact that there were rappers in Toronto. At the time, for the most part, people were pretty dismissive about it,” he recalls. “I wanted to get music in people’s hands. I got to a place where I was offered a job at a label. But once I was inside an actual building, I realized there were so many pieces to it. A big part of it was being an advocate for trying to get artists exposure, as well as producers.” 

Aside from overseeing all operations at OVO Sound, Morgan also manages some of the biggest producers in music—including Noah ‘40’ Shebib, Vinylz, Supa Dups and Nineteen85—under his M3 Entertainment firm.

“Around 2008 was a crucial moment for me. It was the first true breakthrough success I had. I was consulting for Atlantic Records at the time, so I was working for Sean Paul at the height of Sean Paul. I was managing Kardinal Offishall from Toronto. He collaborated with Akon on ‘Dangerous’—which became a big hit at the time,” says Morgan. “I was part of signing Estelle, who was signed through John Legend. We did the record ‘American Boy,’ which became a worldwide hit. People were pretty dismissive of it having a real shot. We were reaching globally and it gave me a whole new perspective on how quickly things could go in that direction and build from there.” 

Despite moving to the Big Apple, he remained a die-hard Raptors fan for a decade-plus. But in 2013, he made a life-changing decision (for a sports fan, at least).

“I lived pretty much across from Barclays [Center] and watched Barclays be built—with my son, we literally watched out of our window Barclays being built. We said, When the Nets get to Brooklyn, we gotta rock with Brooklyn. We’re going all in. That’s the only time I made my shift over. Toronto is still in my heart but they’re going to be second to Brooklyn.”

They’ve been season ticket holders ever since and now hold courtside seats, where they often get a chance to chop it up with some of the League’s biggest stars—including Kevin Durant, who has become a family friend over the past few years.

The very first ever regular season game at Barclays Center was originally supposed to be against the crosstown rival New York Knicks, but it ended up being postponed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. As a result, the first ever game at the arena turned out to be against the Toronto Raptors. And then the following season, Brooklyn faced off against Toronto in the first round of the playoffs—a series that went to a Game 7 and saw Brooklyn advance.

“That was the first time I had everyone in Toronto saying, ‘How could you be a Brooklyn fan? How could you be cheering for Brooklyn?’ Drake came to Brooklyn for Game 6. I went to Toronto for Game 7,” recalls Morgan, who still cheers for the Raptors as his secondary team and even attended two games in Toronto and one in Oakland during last year’s NBA Finals. “Brooklyn and Toronto haven’t really faced each other to that extent ever since then.” 

While the Raptors took care of business on the court, OVO had its presence in the game felt as well. In 2019, OVO became the first music entity to have its name/logo on a major pro team’s jersey and practice facility when it entered into a new partnership with the Raptors. The famous owl emblem has been printed on the practice uniforms, and the Raptors’ training facility was renamed the OVO Athletic Centre. Throughout the years, there have also been multiple OVO-themed alternate game jerseys and merch.

“First and foremost, it really isn’t intentional,” says Morgan. “It’s just natural progression. It’s natural relationships. It’s really being fans of both—of music and of the sport. I think that’s the most powerful part. It doesn’t matter what realm you’re talking about—business, music, sports, whatever—if something doesn’t feel entirely natural, your average person and fan realizes that. Generally, when someone puts a logo on a jersey, [you say,] Oh, that’s paid advertisement. You realize that. But the branding on the court, the practice facility—those are things that go hand-in-hand. I think the main thing, and why it’s most impactful, is it’s truly natural.”

On the flipside, hoopers are creating music more than ever before. Damian Lillard, Lou Williams, Lonzo Ball, Lance Stephenson, Victor Oladipo, Marvin Bagley and Andre Drummond are just a few. LeBron served as the A&R of 2 Chainz’s Rap or Go To The League album in 2019. Agent Rich Paul reportedly served as a co-producer on Fat Joe’s Family Ties album.

The bond between hoops and music clearly seems tighter than ever. 

“The impact of both music and basketball—the energy, the excitement, the reaction to it—I think there is a little similarity in just the way people deliver on the court or on records. If you look back at even the AND1 Mixtape Tour—the freestyle and creative aspect of it,” says Morgan. “Just artists being fans of it all. You talk about @LeagueFits, that goes hand-in-hand with the music culture. Part of the connection is everyone on the music side is just as passionate about basketball as a lot of these players are about music.” 

—

Franklyn Calle is a Senior Content Producer at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Photos via Gemini Keez, Norman Wong and Getty.

The post OVO Sound President Mr. Morgan On the Intersection of Rap and Hoops appeared first on SLAM.

So no, he doesn’t recall much of his dad’s playing days. At least not to the extent that he could really describe the experience. But dad, the sports executive, he remembers and knows very well.

Shareef first became an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings in 2008, and by 2010, he was the assistant general manager. In 2013 he was named general manager of the Kings’ G-League affiliate squad—the Reno Bighorns, who have since become the Stockton Kings. He then served as the NBA’s associate vice president of basketball operations before being named president of the NBA’s G-League in 2018.

“I didn’t see that much of him actually playing. He retired when I was, like, 6. So I didn’t really understand what was going on. But once he retired, he became a coach and then general manager. I was around all that. So I’ve been around a lot and it’s been pretty cool,” says Jabri. “Just working out with my dad in the backyard—that’s what I’d really look forward to the most after school. We would just go out and shoot. My dad played in the League [but] he never forced me to play basketball. He just let it happen naturally. I always knew that basketball was the one for me, for sure.”

As the son of a former NBA All-Star who is now a C-level executive for the League, Jabri has been around a lot of hoopers and important figures in the sport. But perhaps no bond has been stronger than the one he’s built with Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown. 

“Jaylen Brown—me and him have a pretty good relationship. I look at him as a mentor. He’s always giving me advice. I worked out with him all summer. We played one-on-one every day. I can’t say that I won a game. He was going really hard. I was going hard, too. He definitely made me look at myself in the mirror that summer,” says Jabri of Brown, who just like Jabri’s dad, hails from Marietta (GA), attended local powerhouse Wheeler HS and then starred at Cal. “Going up against him showed me a lot and what I could do against guys on that level.”

A 6-7 senior wing at Blair Academy (NJ), Jabri has emerged as a top-40 recruit in the Class of 2020. After transferring in last season, he led Blair to the Mid-Atlantic Prep League championship and the NJISAA prep “A” state championship—marking the first time in school history that the varsity program claimed both the league and state titles in the same season. The Virginia commit led the Buccaneers to a 22-4 record after averaging 15.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, and was ultimately named Gatorade State POY in New Jersey. Hooping in the Nike EYBL circuit last summer with the New Jersey Playaz, who were coached by former NBAer Tim Thomas, Jabri was one of the league’s top scorers. He averaged 25.2 points per game, which included three 40-plus-point performances within two weeks. 

Despite not being around when his dad graced the pages of SLAM or recalling much from his hooping days, having his own feature in the magazine is a full-circle experience for Jabri and his family.

“When I was a kid, my mom bought a subscription to SLAM for my birthday. I was, like, 10 years old maybe,” he recalls. “I would rip the pages out and put the players that were featured on my wall, and just look at them because I wanted one day to be just like them—in a magazine, [having] all the accolades that they do. And that was just a goal that I had set for myself. And now to finally be one of the people in the magazine is pretty crazy to me. I could see a little kid maybe ripping my page out and putting it on his wall like I did.”

—

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Johnnie Izquierdo.

The post NEXT IN LINE: Jabri Abdur-Rahim Is Following in His Father’s Footsteps appeared first on SLAM.

We thought we were ready to start shooting. The strobe lights and C-stands were set in their proper positions. The seamless background paper had been unfurled, stabilized and secured to the ground so that when the three Heat players were to arrive inside our designated room (the old WNBA’s Miami Sol locker room), they’d be able to step right on set and begin their cover shoot immediately. It didn’t quite happen that way, though.

On this Monday afternoon in early November, the AmericanAirlines Arena in downtown Miami is bustling with foot traffic throughout its event level hallways. The arena operations crew is breaking down the stage equipment and seating that had been occupying the event floor all weekend when motivational speaker Tony Robbins came to town for four shows in four days. The Heat were on a three-game west coast trip during that period. Workers wheel out sets of chairs and stage equipment through the hallways, preparing the arena for tomorrow’s home game against the Detroit Pistons. 

In the midst of all the movement and clamor, we realize that the three official NBA game balls needed for our shoot have yet to arrive to the room when Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro begin walking in. The team’s PR representative quickly steps out to track down the basketballs. Without them, the shoot is on halt.

Jimmy, Bam and Tyler stand around waiting in the meantime. The players’ moods could understandably turn sour at any moment. They’re fresh off practice. They’re probably hungry and/or tired. And standing in the way of food and rest is a photoshoot that is currently on hold until three basketballs arrive on set. 

Yet, the mood in the room is everything but sour. Jimmy has decided to take over DJ duties, and now blaring through his phone’s speaker is country music. Lots of it. For the next 20 minutes, we listen to Edwin McCain’s “Walk With You” and Bob Carlisle’s “Butterfly Kisses” and everything in between. Jimmy would later go on to name Luke Bryan, Luke Comb, Jimmy Allen and Kane Brown among his other favorite country artists at the moment. The only time the music genre changes during our shoot is when Bam decides he’s had enough of Jimmy’s country tunes and counters it by playing music on his own phone simultaneously from the opposite side of the room.

“He listens to this one all the time though, bro,” says Bam while shaking his head. “Me? I listen to soul—soul!” He then proceeds to play Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison” while making eye contact with Jimmy and bopping his head. Jimmy smiles back. 

Back to the beginning of the shoot, though.

We’re all sitting there listening to Jimmy’s country music playlist while waiting for basketballs to arrive. Suddenly, Butler decides it’s time to begin the shoot—with or without the balls—and simply starts art directing.

He begins by laying on the floor on his left side, with his right arm on his hip and his left arm in a 90-degree angle while resting his head on his hand—encouraging the photographer to snap away. Bam, joining in on the joke, stands behind him and places his right foot on Jimmy’s leg. Tyler, unsure if he is really supposed to participate or just wait for the PR rep to return, decides to stay seated in a nearby locker. 

“Come on, T! It’s a photo shoot! Be a part of the team,” a cheerful Jimmy yells. 

Tyler gets up and walks over to him. Jimmy changes his pose. This time he lays flat on his stomach, both hands under his chin with his elbows on the floor and his legs kicked up. He sports a huge smile from ear to ear and faces the camera. Bam stands behind him, softly resting his right foot on Jimmy’s back. Tyler stands next to Bam with his two arms out holding peace signs.

Jimmy then quickly gets ups and yells, “Oh, I got it! Look! Let’s do the cheerleading pyramid! I’ll be on top!”

No, the team’s PR rep isn’t back yet. It’s only been, like, a minute. But in the past 60 seconds alone the energy in the room has skyrocketed exponentially. It’s like when the teacher steps out of the classroom for a little bit and the kids in the room decide it’s party time.  

Jimmy places his hands on his teammate’s backs, motioning for them to get down so that he could climb on top to complete the pyramid. “Hell no!” yells Bam. A light-hearted debate ensues. Bam argues that Tyler should be on top since he weighs less. Jimmy insists that he wants to be on top—it’s his idea after all. They turn to Tyler to settle the debate. Tyler volunteers to be on the bottom. Jimmy raises both of his arms up, fists pumped in the air. “Ahhh!” Bam disapproves of Tyler’s decision and refuses to participate. Jimmy once again motions for both to get down. Tyler is ready to oblige and begins setting his knees on the floor. And then in walks the team’s PR rep. He’s holding the three basketballs but his attention quickly turns to what his players are trying to do. Jimmy says they must complete the pyramid before the real shoot can start. 

“Hey, don’t you remember what we just learned in media training?!” the PR rep tells them, smiling. “Really?!” 

“This is a great photo,” Jimmy responds. 

“This is not a great photo!” Bam says, laughing.

Jimmy agrees to be on the bottom and lets Tyler be on top, in order to get the photo to finally happen. “Give me an M. M! Give me an I. I!” Jimmy yells.

“I’m telling y’all right now, I do not approve of this,” the PR rep tells the trio while laughing and shaking his head. 

It’s a light-hearted moment and everyone gets a good laugh from it. The real shoot will now commence. But in between the jokes lies an obvious truth.  

The bond within this team is genuine. It’s not a front. They really click and they’re fun to be around. This trio, specifically, appears to have strong chemistry—especially when you consider that two of them just joined the team this past summer and that they’re barely one month into the regular season when this shoot is happening.   

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 225 FEATURING THE HEAT

They could have easily lost interest in the shoot while waiting for the basketballs to arrive. It would have been understandable—they were coming off practice after just returning from a west coast trip. They could have just chosen not to interact with anyone until the PR rep returned. They could have just kept to themselves, strictly business and formal, as many NBA shoots are.   

But Jimmy is just genuinely too happy at the moment for all of that, and so instead he figures out a way to keep everyone loose and engaged while we wait. 

Jimmy chose this destination and couldn’t look more pleased with the decision and where he’s at in life right now. After a couple of years of trying to find himself and where he fits within the team, Bam is primed for a breakout season and the national notoriety he rightfully deserves. And Tyler—after watching many teams on the draft board pass on him last spring, he’s landed in a perfect spot that has allowed him to flourish early on in the season.  

It’s a new era in Miami basketball, where the same tough-minded Heat culture continues to thrive, while new faces form a gritty but tight-knit environment that looks to take the franchise into its newest chapter. 

Butler raised eyebrows during the summer when he decided to sign with the Heat as a free agent. Miami has missed the playoffs in two of the past three seasons, and three of the past five. Playoff teams like the Clippers and Rockets were rumored to be in pursuit of him, along with the 76ers, who were looking to re-sign him to a max deal. But Butler chose the franchise that had finished 10th in the East last season instead. Haters claimed that winning wasn’t a priority to him and that he didn’t have championship aspirations.

Fast forward four and a half months and Butler has a lot to smile about. He’s already dispelled any of the narratives that his foes tried to spark during the summer. The Heat are 14-5, which is tied for the best start in franchise history through 19 games. Butler has helped bring back a winning culture to South Beach. And a championship is indeed the ultimate goal within the locker room. 

So yes, Jimmy Butler has every reason to be smiling from ear to ear while art directing pyramid poses during our cover shoot. He’s found the perfect home. Heat legend Dwyane Wade described Butler in early October as the epitome of “a Miami Heat culture guy.” The hard-nosed, demanding, no-nonsense culture that team president Pat Riley has built goes perfectly with Butler’s intense blue-collar work ethic. 

“It’s real and it’s not for everybody,” says Butler of the culture that attracted him to Miami. “But it’s for the three people that are sitting right here. We love it and it’s great to be in the trenches with all the guys we get to be in the trenches with. It’s tough, but when the times really get hard, we know what we can bank on to take us over the edge—whether it be the physical toughness, the mental toughness. Emotionally, we’re ready for any and everything anybody throws at us.”

He continues: “We got a lot of dogs. A lot of guys that feel like they got something to prove. That’s what I’m rocking with. We got people you can talk to, and it might be in a harsh way sometimes, but it’s never personal. You say what you have to say and you move on because y’all still have the same goal in mind and that’s to win. Everybody works relentlessly here. If you don’t, you wouldn’t come here or they wouldn’t bring you here. I think that’s why we all get along so well. We like being around one another because we all think alike, we all work the same, and that’s the common goal. Me and my guys.”

He arrived to the first day of Heat training camp at 3:30 am. The news went viral. For Butler, though, it was just another early morning routine. While appearing as a guest on Vince Carter’s “Winging It” podcast in early November, he noted that he usually goes to sleep at 7 pm on non-game days. When asked about it during our shoot, he confirmed. 

“I do, because I wake up so early to work. I don’t really do nothing at night. During the year, [because of] games we play, I go to sleep later. But if we just got practice or something, and it’s not a long day like today is, I’ma sleep,” he says. 

“I need my nine [hours of sleep]. It’s not a game. If I don’t get my nine, you can count me out.”

Tyler Herro, meanwhile, is new to all of this. The rookie found himself having to adjust to the Heat culture immediately. 

“Oh, we threw him in the fire—day 1! First day of pickup we made him guard Jimmy!” says Bam while bursting into laughter.    

Butler and Herro then proceed to debate who won the most games between their respective teams during that practice.

“I was killing you,” says Butler playfully, with a smirk on his face. 

“I wasn’t scoring?” Herro responds. 

“You weren’t scoring on me!” Butler counters.

The chemistry between the two teammates is glaring, despite the 11-year age difference. 

“I think both of them have really been like big brothers to me. Bam, just coming from Kentucky. We’ve had similar paths. And Jimmy, he took me under his wing since this summer and really pushing me and showing me the right ways, giving me confidence and really just putting me in the right spots,” Herro tells SLAM. “They threw me in the fire first day Jimmy was in Miami. Had to guard him in pickup. I thought I did pretty well but they just wanted to see how I would react. They were going at me but it was fun.”

Butler flew Herro into Chicago during the summertime to work out with him. The two quickly developed a bond. 

“To tell the truth, it’s been the same shit different day with this kid down here,” says Butler of Herro. “He’s always one of the first ones in the gym. Always one of the last ones to leave. And that’s the marking to the beginning of a true pro—a great player at that. He’s going to continue to be who he is and show why he’s going to be in this League for a long time.” 

The work has already paid dividends early on. In only the fourth game of the season, Herro exploded for 29 points against the Atlanta Hawks—the most by a Heat rookie since D-Wade. He’s been one of the most consistent rookie performers in the League thus far this season. 

And then there’s Bam—the only returning Heat player of the trio. He’s enjoying the best season of his career so far. As of this writing, he’s averaging 13.9 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks per game—career-highs in every single category.

He humbly brushes off the numbers. Butler intervenes. 

“Don’t be humble, tell them how you do everything well! Because he does. He won’t say it. I’ll say it,” says Butler. “He works super hard and he’s everywhere on the floor. You need him to pass it, he can pass it. He needs to shoot the corner three ball more. He rebounds, he handles the ball, he sets great screens. You can’t take him off the floor. He’s a key part to what we want to do and what we will continue to do. Spo [head coach Erik Spoelstra] knows—in order to win, you gotta have Bam out there on the floor.” 

Although the numbers are definitely welcoming for Bam, he’s more interested in discussing the dynamic of this team. He doesn’t answer the question regarding his career-high stats after Butler chimes in. Now in his third year with the Heat, Bam would much rather talk about the transformation he’s witnessed this season among the entire squad. 

“This team has more intensity around it. It’s more—I don’t know the word to describe the aura around it but it’s like a lot [more] hype around us. We enjoy each other’s success. I feel like that’s a big thing about us. We’re pure about it. And we’re not scared to talk to one another. Like Jimmy said, it might come off rude, but at the end of the day we all have one goal in mind. It wasn’t like that my first two years,” says Bam. “It was more like our team was kind of cliquey; like three people over here and three people over here. This team, everybody is one whole unit. And that’s how it’s supposed to be.”

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 225 FEATURING THE HEAT

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson and via Getty.

The post EVERYTHING LITTY: The Miami Heat Are On Fire 🔥 appeared first on SLAM.

Section 119. Row R. Seats 3 and 4.

It’s 2008 and the Seattle SuperSonics have just relocated to Oklahoma City and rebranded as the Thunder. Rayford Young—a former Texas Tech basketball standout who has now settled in the neighboring suburban town of Norman—has decided he’ll get two season tickets for himself and his 9-year-old son. The games will be played at the Ford Center, now known as Chesapeake Energy Arena. It’s about a 30-minute drive north from their home.  

They’ve had the same two seats as loyal ticket holders ever since. They’d pull up to every home game an hour and a half before tipoff to catch the League’s top players go through their warm-up routines. They’d study those different routines together. Rayford’s son, Trae, developed a game routine of his own, which he’d follow every time he was in attendance. At the end of the first quarter, he’d always go get his chicken strips. At halftime, he’d always go get his ice cream. And once the fourth quarter approached, there was nothing you could do or say that would get him to leave his seat. As the game came down the stretch and the intensity picked up on the hardwood, young Trae’s (no pun) enthusiasm went through the roof as well.

Other season ticket holders in the same section began taking notice of the kid who would arrive at the earliest permitted time in accordance with arena policy and who would stick to the same food routine every game. Trae became a favorite in Section 119. They’d buy him the chicken strips or ice cream sometimes. 

Meanwhile, dad always made sure to have his phone in hand and ready to snap away whenever photo opportunities came by. There’s that photo of Trae and Kevin Durant taken after a home game during the Western Conference Finals when the Hawks star was only 12 years old. There’s a gazillion more photos and videos as well. 

And then Friday, November 30, 2018 came. And it was quicker than any of them could have ever imagined. 

Trae, fresh off a record-breaking season with the Oklahoma Sooners and having just gotten drafted with the fifth overall pick, was back at Chesapeake Energy Arena for the very first time as an NBA player. They eventually glanced at Section 119. How could they not? That’s where the dream began. Countless hours there for almost a decade. That was the “it” moment for Rayford. That full-circle moment. The moment when it became real but felt surreal all at once. 

“He got to meet KD. He got to meet James Harden. He got to meet Russell Westbrook. And everyone in our section, they remembered this kid. It was the same routine every game,” recalls Rayford of their season ticket days. “We’d watch Steph [Curry] do his workout before the game. LeBron, when he came into town. So, as the years went by, this 9-year-old turned into a 15-year-old—when he started to make a name for himself. So the first time he went back to Oklahoma City [last season], we saw the same people that Trae had been sitting by since he was 9 years old. It was kind of surreal. He’s that little kid that grew up and now he’s on the court in Oklahoma City, getting ready to play against his favorite team [growing up]. I always tell him, Just always remember that there’s a kid somewhere in these stands that is looking at you the same way you looked at KD, Harden and Westbrook. And hopefully they’ll duplicate what you did.

“It was so amazing. I can give you the names of these guys [in Section 119]. Seeing the same people in our section that used to buy him ice cream and chicken strips—now they were watching him play against his favorite team.”

Fast forward some 11 years since the beginning of the Section 119 days and Trae is over 1,300 miles away, standing next to an infinity pool in Beverly Hills that looks out onto the scenic Los Angeles skyline. The heavy fog on this Friday morning in mid-November gives the backdrop a soft, moody effect. In town for back-to-back games against the Clippers and Lakers over the weekend, the 6-1 guard is at NBA superfan Jimmy Goldstein’s famous hilltop residence in the 90210 to shoot a promo video. The sleek and glassy estate, which has been the setting of many movies, music videos and celebrity parties, is serving as the set for a commercial shoot for lytepop—a startup popcorn company that Trae owns equity in. His co-star in the spot, Goldstein, is wearing his usual extra- flamboyant fit—diamond-encrusted designer shoes, jacket, black Balmain jeans and an animal-skin cowboy hat. They take turns shooting different scenes in different parts of the house: by the pool (both pools), in the living room and even on the outdoor tennis court.

Rayford is here. And just like in the old Thunder game days, he’s taking photos and videos of Trae. His son is trying to nail down his script. The director runs through multiple takes. Rayford turns around to film the large production crew behind the cameras and all the equipment laying around as well. And then there’s the L.A. skyline in the background, which is a must-get. The expensive décor and sophisticated layout are also nice. He’s soaking it all in. They both are. Trae may have made it, but the excitement and enthusiasm is still the same—just as genuine as when both were sitting in Row R a decade earlier.         

The tranquility at the Beverly Hills residence, as Trae lounges in one of the chairs by the pool while the production crew prepares for the next shot, is a stark contrast to what Trae’s first few days in the NBA were like. After becoming the first and only player in history to lead the NCAA in points (27.4) and assists (8.7) in a single season, Trae entered the League with lots of hype but also lots of haters. There were those who swore he wouldn’t be able to replicate in the NBA what he did at Oklahoma in his lone season with the Sooners. They said he was too small to hang. That he wasn’t athletic or explosive enough to make an impact against the big boys. That his numbers in the Big 12 Conference were inflated. That he’d be a “bust.” 

And so, when he shot two consecutive airballs from deep to begin Summer League play in Utah before going 4/20 from the field and 1/11 from three, Twitter exploded. Trolls rejoiced. Trae was the topic of discussion on social media and sports networks that night. The second night, he’d go 5/16. In three games in Salt Lake City, he shot 23.1 percent from the floor and 12.5 percent from behind the arc. Twitter fingers everywhere.

“It was crazy just how quick people were to make judgment. First shots were airballs,” says Trae, laughing. “And it felt like that was the biggest news on every television channel that night. People always say you want to block out the noise but it’s hard when you’re on TV all the time and that’s the topic of discussion. Those first couple of days in Summer League were tough.”

He adds: “Whenever you hear a lot of [bad] things, you definitely second-judge yourself sometimes. For me, it’s all about the people around me that helped me get through what I’ve gotten through over the years, especially these last couple of years with all the doubt and criticism. 

I know I’ve been blessed with great people around me that helped me get through those [moments]. It’s tough mentally. It’s not easy being 19, 20 years old and everybody is talking bad about you.”

Postgame talks with his dad helped keep him level-headed through the bumps. That’s been the routine since his high school days and still is to this day. After road games, once he’s done taking a shower and speaking with the media, Trae hops on the phone with Rayford as the team bus heads from the arena to the tarmac. They share game notes and the convo just flows from there.

“We get on the phone and we talk after every game. We just talk about what he saw on the floor and what he could’ve done better. There’s always something that he could’ve done better. That’s always my main role—to always be there. When he gets on that team bus to head to the next city for the next night, he knows that when he makes that phone call, I’m always going to pick up,” says Rayford. “We talk about different situations. My role now is more mental than physical. At this level, that’s where it’s going to make the biggest difference.”         

Trae quickly bounced back. He posted 21 points and 11 assists in his first game in the Vegas Summer League. Then he dropped 24 points, including 7 three-pointers. The next game he had 23 points and 8 assists. He was ultimately named to the All-NBA Summer League Second Team. 

Once the regular season came around, Trae really found his groove. In just the third game of the season, he posted 35 points and 11 assists. The following month he had a 25-point, 17-assist stat line. In March, he gave the Chicago Bulls 49 points and 16 assists. 

He ended up averaging 19.1 points and 8.1 assists during his first season—becoming only the third rookie in NBA history to average over 18 and 8. He’s the second rookie in League history to have more than 1,400 points and 600 assists in the same season. 

He had five consecutive 23-plus points and 8-plus assists games—only Oscar Robertson had a longer streak as a rookie. Trae became the first rookie to post consecutive 35-point games since Allen Iverson in 1997. 

All the doubt seems to have slowly faded, but Trae hasn’t forgotten any of your takes. And he plans on reminding you of what you said about him back in 2018. The hashtag “#AlwaysRemember” is plastered across his Twitter bio. 

He’s started his second season even stronger. As of this writing, he’s averaging 28.4 points and 8.4 assists per game, including a 49-point outing against Indiana and a 42-point performance in a victory over Denver. That same night he tweeted, “YOUR APOLOGY NEEDS TO BE AS LOUD AS THE DISRESPECT WAS…” An Instagram post after that same game instructed everyone to “KEEP THAT SAME ENERGY…” 

Trae is here to stay. And to those who swore he wouldn’t be, he plans on refreshing your memory every time he steps on the hardwood and even on the same social media platforms you tried to write him off on.

“I always keep a mental note. Especially if I was a fan of a reporter growing up. That’s the crazy thing—I’ve been a fan of some of these reporters growing up and then to hear them say something negative about me, it kind of hurt,” says Trae. “But at the end of the day, I know this is what they’re paid to do and it’s something that I have to go through if I want to be a high-level player. So, I definitely keep mental notes of who says what and I use it as fuel to get better.              

“Keep that same energy is something that I live by today. People that had that energy of just always talking bad or just not believing in me, it’s just something that has motivated me. Every high-level player has something that motivates them. And criticism is one thing that motivates me. It’s just something that I always live by. I just want people to keep that same energy.”

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 225 FEATURING TRAE

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.

The post SO ICY: Trae Young Is Proving All His Doubters Wrong 🥶 appeared first on SLAM.

The school’s walls depict the rich history of its basketball program, which dates back to when it was located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, under the St. Patrick High School label. Kyrie Irving, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Al Harrington and Samuel Dalembert are among the NBA players who came out of there over the years. But in 2012, amid an ongoing battle with declining enrollment, the school shut down all operations. The following fall, a group of faculty came together to reopen the institution as an independent program known today as The Patrick School, which now operates out of Hillside, NJ. 

Kuminga, sitting at half court and looking around at all the retired jerseys hanging above the gym’s large windows, reminisces on his journey, which has taken him from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to West Virginia to Long Island, NY, and now to the Garden State in a matter of just three years. It’s a path that has allowed him to truly experience both ends of the spectrum when it comes to access to resources.  

“First of all, there is no money. There is no food,” says Kuminga of life back home in the Congo. “When I started playing, we used to walk far away to find [a court]. There aren’t gyms all over like you see here. [Here], you walk down two blocks and you find a gym, a park. You gotta walk like 45 minutes to get to wherever you gotta go to play [back home]. And then after that, you gotta make sure you get back home on time because [there’s] so much stuff out there. You might even find some people that are just going to see you on the road and stab you, try to kill you. It’s kind of dangerous.   

“It [helped] me because I’m doing that walk every day. Even my team back home, I was the young kid on the team—they started taking me to every trip because they liked that I was motivated to do that walk to come play.”

Basketball is deep-rooted in his family’s history. His parents hooped. His cousin, Emmanuel Mudiay, plays for the Utah Jazz. His other cousin, Omari Gudul, currently plays professionally in Romania for SCMU Craiova after having also played in France, Spain and Bulgaria. His older brother plays at Texas Tech after transferring from UNLV last spring.  

Kuminga says that he’s had a basketball around him ever since he could remember. He hooped for a local team back home. Eventually, it became clear that not only did he have a passion for it, but also had the skills to make something out of it. He was told that he needed to go play in the United States in order for him to reach his full potential. And so, at the tender age of 13, Kuminga boarded a U.S.-bound plane to follow his dreams—even though that meant having to be thousands of miles away from his family.

“That decision wasn’t that hard because when I used to play back home, our team used to go all over but not out [to other countries],” recalls the 6-8 forward. “We used to go around the country, so leaving my parents wasn’t that hard. The last day I heard I was going to come over, I made that decision. I was like, I gotta man up. I gotta grow up. I’m going to see them one day, so I just gotta come over and continue to reach my goal.”

After arriving in the States and playing at Huntington Prep (WV) as a freshman, the five-star recruit began to draw the attention of scouts and college coaches. He transferred to Our Savior New American in Centerreach, NY, for his sophomore year and averaged 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, including an event-record 40-point performance at the Slam Dunk to the Beach showcase. He was ultimately named the MaxPreps National Sophomore of the Year, and after a strong showing in the Nike EYBL circuit this past summer, he is now rated as the No. 1 junior in America on ESPN’s rankings.   

“Back home they see me all over. It’s a big thing. They’re all happy for me. Everybody is super hyped, posting me all the time. That motivates me, too,” says Kuminga. “When I left home, I told my mom I was going to be number one in everything I do. I worked hard. That’s how I got to this point.”

—

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Jon Lopez.

The post THE JOURNEY: Jonathan Kuminga Is Living Out His Hoop Dreams 🙏🏽 appeared first on SLAM.

Yet, while everyone on the ground is excited about what has transpired this year, the response from locals is pretty much the same. 

We’re just getting started. 

There’s more where that came from.

Have you heard of Elijah Fisher?

Rated by many as the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2023, Fisher, a 6-5 wing, has begun capturing not only the attention of Canadians, but also of their southern neighbors. 

“When people say I’m the best player in my class, I really don’t take that as anything because I didn’t really accomplish [anything],” says a shrugging Fisher. “I’m still walking over to the river. I need to get my feet wet. It’s just a journey that I just started.”

But in order for him to garner the same level of respect and notoriety as typical top-ranked hoopers, Fisher would need to do what almost every other top Canadian hooper has done: transfer to a school in the United States. The family says that under the current system, in order for a prospect to be eligible to participate in the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game or be rated as the top senior on ESPN’s rankings, the player must be attending school in the U.S.

Yet Elijah Fisher has no plans of attending school in America. He isn’t interested in perpetuating the current system. The plan is to change it.  

“I think that he could be a trailblazer for many different things that haven’t necessarily been done before. Like, for instance, him potentially being the first kid to be a McDonald’s All-American [despite] going to a Canadian school and even being on the ESPN rankings, which is stuff that is in the works,” says Elijah’s father, Rohan. “Him being able to change that will affect [other] kids.”

Starring at Crestwood Preparatory in the North York section of Toronto, Fisher’s played on the varsity squad since the 7th grade. He averaged 23.5 points, 8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2 blocks per game last season as an 8th grader, and his team almost pulled off an upset over American powerhouse Oak Hill Academy (73-71). 

Crestwood schedules games against top U.S. schools regularly throughout the season. The Americans are well aware of the buzz coming from The North. Going into high school, Fisher has already picked up over 10 major college DI offers.

“These days I feel like the biggest obstacle I have to deal with is me being Canadian, ’cause not everybody looks at me the same. They look at me different, like I’m an alien or something,” says Fisher. “The Americans think that we are soft, that we don’t really come to play, no energy, none of that. That we’re just soft Canadians that will get pushed around. I want to change that narrative and make Canada something different. The mindset is to go down there and kill—kill everything I see on the court.”   

To point out just how intense Elijah can be about hoops, his father recalls a specific story. At home one day, Elijah asked his parents if they could connect his phone to the charging port near them. As his mother, Thelia, walked over to plug the phone in, a message popped up on Elijah’s screen. It read: “You suck!”

She turned around and pressed Elijah for an explanation. Who could possibly be sending her middle school son a message like that? Elijah’s dad soon began pressing him for an answer as well. Their son knew exactly who the message came from but hesitated to explain at first. Eventually, seeing how bothered and concerned his parents were about it, he did so.

“He’s like, ‘It’s a message that I put in there to remind me that I suck.’ So he sent a message to himself that reminds him every day that he sucks,” says Rohan. “It was because of an event that he played in last year and he didn’t perform so well. And because they lost that game, he put a message on his phone to remind him. And to me that was like, wow, that’s real big of you. Like, where would he get such an idea to do that? What screws do you have to have missing for you to do something like that? So every time he looks at it, it’s motivation for him to get up and to keep working.”

—

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Geoff Fitzgerald.

The post PRINCE OF THE NORTH: Class of 2023 Star Elijah Fisher Is For Real 🇨🇦 appeared first on SLAM.

They all said it’d be at least a few years before the League would come calling for him. And the mock drafts agreed.

Yet, here is Coby White, inside a gym in Thousand Oaks, CA, just one year after he began collecting those same screenshots. There are still three weeks to go before the NBA Draft, but he wastes no time reminding you just how inaccurate and flat-out wrong all those predictions were.

“It’s a great feeling because I used all that as motivation. Even people from my city that I knew, I was cool with—you have them on Twitter and personally I know them, talk to them a lot and I see them around the city—they’d say, Yeah, give Coby two or three years and he’ll be in the League. And Give him two years and he’ll grow and he’ll get better. I screenshot all that,” he recalls. “I just like to have it because on draft night—I’m not petty, but I’d want to send the picture to them like, Remember when you said I was…But I ain’t petty. I [just] used it throughout the season [for motivation], but now I had to clear storage on my phone. I had to get some apps. I be flying a lot so I had to download movies. I deleted a lot of them but throughout the season I did [look at them].”

At the same time, he does understand where the doubts stemmed from. A one-and-done guard out of UNC? When was the last time that happened?

When White arrived at Chapel Hill last fall, he was well aware of the stats. Only three hoopers had ever stepped foot on campus and become one-and-done players during head coach Roy Williams’ 16 years with the Tar Heels: Marvin Williams, Brandan Wright and Tony Bradley. None of them were guards.

The likes of Ty Lawson, Raymond Felton, Kendall Marshall, Marcus Paige and Joel Berry all came before him. All guards that came in as McDonald’s All-Americans but ended up staying multiple years at UNC.

Coby knew that history seemed to back those very same tweets he screenshotted coming into his freshman year. Yet he paid no attention to what the odds said.

“I think everybody was so fixated on saying, North Carolina holds people back, especially point guards or Coach Williams doesn’t let them play. This and that. I think that because they were so fixated and feeding on that, [they said], He’s going to be there multiple years,” says White in retrospect.

“I know how great of a basketball player Marcus Paige was. Kendall Marshall, Joel Berry, Ty Lawson. I know how great they were and they stayed multiple years. So you can’t help but to think coming in that maybe it is a thing that point guards go through. I think I helped change that and I think I helped set the road for it. I stayed me. I did what I did throughout high school. I didn’t change anything. Stayed in the gym all the time…And it got me where I’m at.”

He arrived on campus as a top-25 recruit who had just finished his prep career with over 3,500 points and North Carolina Mr. Basketball honors. Nonetheless, the starting position—or even just playing time in general—was never promised. But White, who committed to UNC when he was a high school sophomore, quickly earned it and ended up passing Michael Jordan on the Tar Heels’ all-time freshman scoring list by the end of the season. He was also named second-team All-ACC. He took the Tar Heels to the Sweet 16 with a 29-7 overall record and finished his freshman campaign averaging 16.1 points, 4.1 assists and 3.5 rebounds.

As impressive as becoming the first guard to successfully do a one-and-done year under Roy Williams at UNC is, it doesn’t come close to the biggest obstacle he found himself having to overcome heading into college.

White’s father passed away right as his senior year of high school was starting. His dad, Donald, hooped at North Carolina Central and introduced the game to Coby as a youngster. His passing had a profound effect on Coby.

“That was the hardest year of my life. A lot of things go through your head. Like, why? At that time I think I was 17. I’m saying, why me? I’m 17 years old and my dad is never going to see me play at North Carolina. He’s not going to see me on draft night. He’s not going to see me get married. It all comes with its trials and tribulations,” says Coby. “I had a choice to make. It was either keep going and stay on the right track or differ from that. “I was the only one at home with my mom. I had to take care of her and make sure she was straight. My dad wanted me to achieve my goal and he wanted me to go to the League. My dad was one of the realist people I’ve met. He was my best friend. It was hard for sure but I think it brought me closer to God.

“I had to grow up quicker than most my age because I had a lot more responsibility. Where I’m from is not the safest area. It still messes with me at night because I’m not there with my mom—she’s there by herself. When I went to college it was super hard for me because I knew she was the only one there.”

White couldn’t escape the “first first-round pick from North Carolina since Michael Jordan” headlines that dominated the local news cycle in the hours after the Chicago Bulls selected him seventh overall. He got there by not succumbing to all the social media projections that popped up along the way. Those will only intensify now as he prepares to help turn around such a historic franchise. Regardless of the outcome, confidence is one thing he won’t ever lack.

“When you have so many people doubting you—only a very small percentage get drafted into the NBA. For me to be one of those top guys is a blessing,” he says. “It also feels surreal. This is your dream but you don’t really think—growing up, I didn’t think I’d be here. But it was my dream. It still hasn’t hit me but I now know it’s all part of God’s plan for me. I still have a long way to go and I plan to be in the League for a very long time.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Video presented by AT&T.

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.

The post NEVER IN DOUBT: Coby White’s Unprecedented Journey to the NBA appeared first on SLAM.

That hasn’t stopped local hoopers from striving to place their local southern towns on the national stage, though. This past season, the Magnolia State was home to one of the top 25 recruits in the Class of 2019. And DJ Jeffries is well aware of the perception and skepticism that comes with hailing from where he does.  

“When they think about Mississippi, they probably think of farms, cotton fields and stuff like that,” Jeffries says. “Mississippi is not like that. There’s plenty of towns down here that like football and basketball. We don’t get to be seen by a lot of people. Mississippi, and even in Memphis, people don’t get the recognition that they deserve. I feel like there are a lot of towns that are slept on around here. They just question if I’m really good enough—if I’m really one-and-done. Stuff like that. I use it as motivation. I keep it in the back of my head. On days that I don’t feel like going, I just use that as motivation.”

Looking for the very best competition he could go up against in middle school, Jeffries enrolled at a school in Memphis (less than 30 minutes away depending on which part you’re traveling to) so that he could play with and against the city kids. And it turned out that this shy suburban hooper could hold his own really well—to the point where family members of opposing players started looking into his life, specifically his family car’s license plate.

“When I was in middle school, originally I stayed out [in Mississippi]. I didn’t stay in Memphis, so I’d be going to middle school and I was hooping from Memphis because out here you couldn’t play basketball in sixth grade,” Jeffries recalls. “They would follow me home and take pictures of my license plate to show the board of education that I don’t really stay in Tennessee and they would do a story about that. [For] my high school career, I just said that I was going to beat the trouble and just come out here where I stay.

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“We used to beat teams in Tennessee all the time. The fans would get mad. Some would follow us—if they felt we were going to beat them, they’d follow us and take a picture of the license plate and send it to the board.”

Although there was once a time when he was basically told he had no business hooping in Memphis, local college hoop fans now eagerly (and ironically) await his return to the Grind City this upcoming season. Joining top-5 recruit James Wiseman and former NBA All-Star/current University of Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway, the Tigers will have some lofty expectations come this fall.

“Me and James, we play well together. James can do so many things on the court. He can stretch out [and] dribble the ball. I can shoot [and] I’m pretty athletic—he’s pretty athletic. Me and James work well together so it won’t be a problem,” says the 2019 Gatorade Mississippi Player of the Year. “They can expect a lot of dunks. A lot of wins—just going out there and giving them my all and doing something special for the city. Hopefully, a national championship—that’d be nice.”

The 6-8 wing led Olive Branch High to a 26-8 record and a trip to the MHSAA 5A state championship game for a second consecutive year, falling short this time after taking home the trophy as a junior. He averaged 23.3 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game as a senior.

In the end, he credits his achievements to having a supportive tight-knit family that has been down for the ride since the beginning.

“Family means a lot to me. They’ve been motivating me and pushing me to keep doing better,” Jeffries says. “Ever since I started playing, they’ve always been there. They go five cars deep just to go to one game—no matter where, they were always there.”

—

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Jonathan Izquierdo.

The post OUT THA MUD: DJ Jeffries Is Putting On For His City appeared first on SLAM.

It’s the last Sunday of April, and with the 2019 NBA Draft less than eight weeks away, the League has recently announced the 233 early entry candidates who have thrown their names into the hat hoping to hear them called at Barclays Center in June.  

With the NBA draft early entry deadline in the rearview mirror, most hopefuls who submitted their paperwork to the League office have by now signed with an agent and have begun their pre-draft training regimen. The process usually involves spending the two months leading up to the draft at expansive training facilities provided by their respective agents, preparing for the looming combine and individual team workouts in the coming weeks.   

Yet on this warm spring day, the projected No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, the one who many consider the most highly touted prospect in the past decade, is actually still on a college campus preparing for finals week.

Yes, Zion Williamson is still on campus heading into May, and tomorrow he has a PowerPoint presentation as part of a group project in his “Sexual Pleasures of the Modern World” class. The topic is sex work and Zion and his classmates have spent the past couple of months researching the subject in the lead-up to the class presentation. 

“It’s only about six groups. PowerPoint, videos, a lot. There is no small part. You’re going to have to talk a lot,” says the 6-7 forward.

Seeing the undisputed No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft still walking around campus, talking about his upcoming class presentations while everyone on the internet attempts to project just how much the 18-year-old could potentially earn in endorsement deals is not really what you’d expect.

At Duke he has taken his interest in performing arts and creative industries and has pursued classes that further expand on those areas. With his face brimming in excitement, he begins to list off his favorite classes at the Durham institution.

“My favorite class was History of Hip-Hop, taught by [music producer] 9th Wonder and professor Mark Anthony Neal,” says the Spartanburg, SC native.

He wastes little time in explaining what he’s learned there.

“I love how people from today’s generation take samples from classics that people probably don’t even know [and] put it in their music and will call it a banger. One example for me would be with Alicia Keys—9th Wonder taught me this one—her song ‘You Don’t Know My Name,’ she got a sample from a song called ‘Let Me Prove My Love To You’ by The Main Ingredient. Nobody knew who The Main Ingredient was from today’s generation. That’s what makes me love music.”

Then there’s the “Copy of Writing 101: The Disney Version” class, which focuses on studying classic Disney films and then conducting semiotic analysis on them. It’s a course his mother, Sharonda Sampson, remembers Zion constantly raving about.

“You’re not watching it from a kid’s perspective,” says Zion. “You’re watching it [looking for] what signs is Disney giving away, what are they trying to promote here? From a racial standpoint, from a political standpoint—are they trying to prove something to the world? With The Princess and the Frog—a black princess…you don’t see that very often so that was a message.”

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning there was also “The Theater Today” class, where “basically we would watch clips about people performing in theaters and then we would go do it, too. I’m not good, but I had a lot of fun doing it,” he says, trying to contain his laughter.

As he walks you through some of his favorite classes at Duke, the genuine joy he gets from just talking about the courses is obvious. The irony of him still being on campus this late into the spring—as he prepares for finals week while most people in his position would have (and have) left right after the final buzzer, as is usually the case for a prospect of his status—is that just a couple of months earlier, the whole world was telling him that there was no reason for him to even finish off the basketball season with the team.

After the UNC game on February 20, when Zion’s left foot famously blew through his sneaker while spraining his right knee in the process, current and former NBA players encouraged Zion to shut it down for the season.   

Denver Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas tweeted: “Too much on the line to be messing with college if you got a legit chance to turn pro. One injury can change somebody career, Zion sit yo ass down lol and we will be ready for you in the big boy league #LookingOutForThePlayers.”

Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young tweeted: “Zion Need To Chill Out The Rest Of Season…”

Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen said: “I think he’s done enough for college basketball that it’s more about him personally now, and I think for him as a young player, I would shut it down. I would stop playing because I feel that he could risk a major injury that could really hurt his career.”

DeMarcus Cousins added: “My advice to him is do what’s best for you and your family. Obviously, college isn’t. It does nothing for you at this point. You’ve proven you’re the No. 1 pick coming out and proven your talent.”

Forget the typical leaving campus after the season ends move. Just leave the team in the middle of the season, they said. You’re too good to even be there in the first place, they said.

Little did they know that not only did Zion have every intention of playing with his team ’til the very last whistle, he also had every bit of intention to remain a regular student on campus ’til the very last final exam/presentation.

“At the end of the day, no matter who the person is, everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I appreciate the input. I really do. It gives me a heads up of where I’m at. But I made a commitment to my brothers. So if I was to sit out, that’d be very selfish on my part,” Zion says. “And I couldn’t do that. Sitting on the sideline and watching your brothers battle without you, knowing you can be affecting the game, it hurts. I made a commitment so I wasn’t going back on my word. So I knew I was coming back the whole time.

“I was very surprised ’cause it turned into something I didn’t even think—that’s the last thing I thought would happen. It wasn’t even a thought. It was probably something we looked at, somebody saying I should sit down—haha, that’s funny. I’m coming back.”

—

Just 48 hours after seeing his college career end in the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament, after a 1-point loss to Michigan State, Zion was not only back on campus being a regular student, he was also running pickup at the school’s rec center with regular students.

In a video that went viral, Zion lobs the ball off the backboard to himself for a two-handed dunk in a nondescript gym amidst an otherwise normal-ish pick-up game. (Minus, you know, a future No. 1 pick.) He slammed it so hard that the iron structure that holds the goal up and is attached to the concrete wall completely gave in and began dangling. He had broken the goal. Not the rim, but the entire actual goal that was attached to the wall.

It’s this kind of authentic approach to the game that has made Zion such a likeable and respectable figure. The love for basketball seems genuine. Money doesn’t appear to be the driving force. Otherwise, shutting it down midseason would have been a real consideration. It never was. Otherwise, waiting ’til that sneaker deal is signed and sealed before attempting to jump again (as many fans suggested when the rec center video went viral) would have gotten in the way of giving random Duke students at the Brodie Center a story they’ll tell their kids about one day.

“You get this college experience once,” he says. “If you’re in a situation like mine, where you’re one and done, I’m just trying to make the most of what I got. I love Duke, and honestly, I don’t want to leave. If I didn’t have as much at stake, I probably would stay for another year. But I can’t.

“Being at Duke was a dream come true for me. Everything about it. Looking to the sidelines, Whoa, that’s Coach K I’m playing for! Coach K is looking at me [and] telling me I’m built for this moment. I have a true brotherhood on and off the court. Everything was just a movie,” he says. “This was the best year of my life. So if I could come back for a second year I would, but unfortunately that’s just not the reality we live in. The reality we live in is [that] my ultimate dream is the NBA. It’s what I’ve been dreaming about as a kid so I have to pursue that. And I have to take care of my family.”

Zion announced that he was entering the 2019 NBA Draft on April 15, just six days before the NBA early entry eligibility deadline expired. He was the last member of the team to announce his decision. And according to his stepfather, Lee Anderson, it took some nudging from the family to get him to finally sit in front of the camera and announce his decision.

“He waited until the last minute to do it. He really, really didn’t want to say goodbye,” says Anderson. “But he knew that the time had come for him to do that. He was a little bit remorseful about doing it. He was just kind of sad. We kept calling him and saying, ‘Hey Zion, you have a deadline to meet. You need to make sure you get it done by this time.’ He’d say, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll get it. I’ll do it.’ He wasn’t in no hurry to get it done. So I just told my wife to let him be. Give him time.” 

Adds Zion, “When I was by myself, I was like, You know what? Maybe. What would be the worst if I came back for a second year? And my teammates [would] look at me and go, ‘We know you love this place but you gotta do what’s best for you and your family. Nobody is going to hate you for this.’

“I remember I was doing my video announcing I was declaring for the draft. And I didn’t want to do the video. I don’t want to leave. I love everything about Duke. If people think I’m BS-ing or not telling the truth—that’s them.”

In a historic campaign that will go down as one of the most dominating seasons ever by a college freshman, Zion averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks per game. He shot 68 percent from the floor. That’s the highest field goal percentage ever by a freshman. He joined Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis as the only freshmen to have ever collected over 500 points, 50 steals and 50 blocks in a season. He was the third freshman to ever win Naismith National Player of the Year. He became the first college player ever to win ACC POY, ACC ROY and ACC Tournament MVP. He became the first player to ever average 22 points per game while having an effective FG% over .700. His 40.8 PER was the best player efficiency rating in 20 years.

The NBA player comparisons have been nonstop. He’s heard them all. 

LeBron. Barkley. Blake Griffin. Shawn Kemp. Yet he hasn’t given it too much of his attention. Nor does he spend too much time thinking about what and whom he wants his game to resemble in the League. There’s just one lone goal in mind.

“It’s pinned on my Twitter. I’m going to shock the world. You can think what you want. You can look at the prototypical positions, you can do that, but I’m just going to be myself and I’m going to keep doing that,” he says.

“I’m just trying to be myself. I’m not trying to be the next nobody. I’m trying to be the first Zion and the last Zion.” 

—

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Matthew Coughlin and via Getty.

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In the 2011 book, The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy, music and advertising executive Steve Stoute writes about a story Jay-Z told him in which the Brooklyn artist recounted a recent trip to Europe. Per Stoute’s recollection, Jay spoke of the time he went over to then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s home for lunch, where they were eventually joined by the president’s son. Jay quickly noticed that the 23-year-old’s hair was fully braided, and Sarkozy explained that his son was an avid fan of Allen Iverson and had taken up the hairstyle in his honor.

That’s the kind of cultural impact that motivated Jai Manselle to join Bobby Bates and The Answer himself to bring the Allen Iverson Roundball Classic to life in 2017. 

“There are a lot of great NBA players, but there aren’t that many that have an original connection with the culture of basketball where it makes sense for them to be the figurehead of something like this,” says Manselle. “We just felt like this was a space that lacked innovation, lacked something new. So we said, What can we do that’s new, innovative and different? That’s not beholden to shoe companies and not beholden to politics. Just true competitive basketball.

“There are guys in this game that are more influential than starters in the NBA, so I think this is a growing market that was right for disruption. It only makes sense that our goals for the Classic would be to do something that has never been done before this way and to do it authentically different.”

Manselle goes on to explain that the Iverson Classic isn’t meant to be another end-of-season celebratory HS senior all-star game that comes at the end of a light week of activities. The mission, from the start, has been the complete opposite—putting direct competition at its forefront.

“It’s easy to put the top 24 players in a victory lap game. That’s not what this is. And in one-on-one you can’t hide,” says Manselle of the skills challenge competition on Day 1 of the showcase, which other major all-star events haven’t implemented yet. “We don’t set up our game to be a victory lap and we don’t just look at this game as a great honor. We like to think it is, and a lot of these young men are very honored to be in it, but I also think it’s about forging some of the authenticity and competitiveness that is fundamentally lost at this stage of the season. I think that’s a big part of what this game means to the culture of basketball. We’re not trying to build an environment where you come out and be divas for a few minutes.

“There was the All-American space before the Iverson Classic and there’s a new All-American space now that we exist. You’re already seeing the All-American games starting to adjust their strategy. You’re already seeing other games trying to integrate one-on-one [competition],” Manselle adds. “This impact is being felt already.

“In terms of goals year-to-year, one of the big things is growing the prestige and another is, how do we make people who don’t care about this space care? How do we get this game to a place where it’s not only one of the biggest nights in grassroots basketball but one of the biggest weeks in sports? That’s the goal. As far as I see it, we don’t have direct competition.

“Our goal isn’t running a race with anybody next to us, it’s a culture shift of what the All-American space is.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Photo via Iverson Classic.

The post FOR THE CULTURE: Why the Iverson Classic All-American Game Is Just Different appeared first on SLAM.

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While the Allen Iverson Roundball Classic has emerged as one of the most anticipated events on the high school basketball national calendar, the selection process as well as its outreach approach differs from other all-star games in the space. 

NBA Hall of Famer Allen Iverson not only serves as the face of the three-day showcase—the former League MVP and 11-time All-Star is also actively involved in scouting and selecting players year-round. And when we say scouting, we’re not talking about scrolling through social media and basing opinions off of highlight mixes. Iverson has made a concerted effort to roll up his sleeves and physically be on the ground at numerous grassroots events.

“People would be surprised—Allen [Iverson] goes to a number of high school games, tournaments, [just] different things throughout the year,” says Iverson Classic co-founder and partner Bobby Bates. “You won’t know where he’s going. Wherever he goes, he’ll relay the information back to someone in the circle—‘Hey, I like this guy’ or ‘I like that kid.’ From time to time he’ll say who he really, really likes. Last year, with Mac McClung, Allen was passionate about wanting him in the game because of what he was doing in Virginia and breaking his records and then going to Georgetown, so there are definitely guys where Allen says, ‘This is a kid that I definitely want at the game.’”

The selection process actually commences almost a year prior to the event, with the list shortening gradually as the event nears.

“We really start the summer before their senior year—really even the spring,” says Bates. “We have a number of guys from the East Coast to the West Coast—[we] respect their knowledge. We watch what the kids do in the spring and summer, and all the way to Christmas of their senior year. After the summer, we put together a list of 50 guys. We look at long-term upside, NBA upside, what they’ve done in grassroots/AAU basketball and their high school career, and then eventually start ranking them one through 24.”

Beyond having a Hall-of-Famer directly involved in handpicking the players, another way in which the Iverson Classic separates itself from other all-star games is in their outreach to the families and their involvement in the festivities.  

“We talk to [the families of the players] before we announce the roster. We do it a little different than the other guys,” says Bates. “We don’t just send some fancy package. We want to be more personable. I just feel like the families appreciate that more. We still give them certificates and some of the other things the other guys do, but in the end I want them to be more comfortable going in. I’ve had mothers break down on the phone crying when I’ve made that phone call. A lot of families leave after the event and say, ‘This was the best event that we’ve been to. Y’all treat us like human beings—we got a point of contact we can talk to.’ They feel like a part of it as opposed to just throwing them to the side where all we care about is your boys.”

With tons of national rankings these days, it’s fairly easy for any game organizer to simply pick the top 24 players listed and call it a day. Yet the Iverson Classic has decided to make it its mission to identify and reward top recruits that other games have often ignored because of their ranking placement.

“We don’t go after them just because they’re ranked one through 24. Obviously, rankings do play into it; we don’t have one kid that’s ranked outside of the top 50,” says Bates. “But some of the kids who get slept on for the other games—you look at a kid like DJ Carton, just from watching him at USA Basketball to high school, we felt like he was slept on. He’s probably one of the top two or three point guards [and] could end up being the top point guard out of this class. Look at a kid like Terry Armstrong and what he’s done. There are some great tournaments out there, but you look at the Grind Session where there’s a lot of high-level talent on a lot of those teams. Terry was MVP last year and Offensive MVP this year. And that’s a kid who didn’t get selected for any all-star games. But we selected him. EJ Liddell is another example.”  

With year three tipping off, the 2019 Iverson Classic hopes to continue keeping Allen Iverson’s legacy alive by selecting players who not only mirror the former Georgetown guard’s skill set but also his competitive spirit and personality. Check out the full rosters below:

“We select 24 young men who we think best represent the Iverson brand as a whole,” says Bates. “As Allen says, ‘I want this thing going 20 years, 30 years from now.’ Each one of these guys will forever have their name attached to Allen. And that’s an honor on both sides. We want young men who are going to represent that same cloth that Allen is cut from.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

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“I picked up a ball when I was 3,” says BJ. “My dad used to have me in the basement dribbling the ball through my legs with gloves on until my back started hurting and I used to start crying. The grind is never a job. I’ve been born with the grind. It’s just fun to me—to know that when working on it you can be the best at something.”

In his first two seasons at Norcross, Boston Jr helped lead the program to consecutive trips to the Class 7A championship game, ultimately falling short and emerging as the state runner-up on both occasions.

“He wants to win. There’s no doubt. He has a killer mentality. He feels like he has the ability to take over a game, and as a coach you want guys to have that confidence. He’s the ultimate competitor. You want guys on the floor that value winning over everything else,” says Norcross coach Jesse McMillan. “I think he values the opportunity to compete against guys that may be ranked higher than him and he wants to show everybody that he can be the very best player at his position—that he could be the best player in his class.”

The Blue Devils finished with a 28-4 record last season while Boston Jr averaged 16.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocks. He balled out again this year as Norcross advanced to the state Final Four, where they lost to Sharife Cooper’s undefeated McEachern squad by four points.

Boston Jr has shared the floor with USC commit Kyle Sturdivant, a 6-3 senior point guard, and Issa Muhammad, a 6-9 forward with a plethora of D1 offers.

“Georgia hoops, I think we have the most competition,” he says. “It’s a big state and [there is] a variety of people. People that everybody don’t [even] know about that come hoop every day.”

Highly touted for his smooth demeanor, versatile skill set, scoring prowess and ability to play multiple positions (1-3), the junior has gained comparisons to Lakers wing Brandon Ingram.

“I think he is underrated as a defender and I think he is underrated as a passer,” McMillan adds. “We ask him to do a lot of scoring for our program. He is an underrated passer and I think that’s something that will show itself in the coming years as his role changes within our program.”

He wasn’t even nationally ranked going into his sophomore year, but after a strong performance in the Nike EYBL circuit last summer while hooping with the AOT (Athletes of Tomorrow) Running Rebels (who also feature Cooper), for whom he averaged 16.5 points per game (including 21.6 points and 8.0 rebounds during the Peach Jam championship week), Boston Jr has skyrocketed into the top-10 national conversation.

“Two years ago, I was not on the map at all. It was maybe [after] my ninth grade summer—that’s when I blew up. I started getting in the rankings. I played on the EYBL circuit [and] just balled out in front of everybody,” Boston Jr says. “I’m blessed. I want to thank God, my family and my trainers. I just put in the hard work to be the best player—need that No. 1 spot.”  

For the hoops community in Atlanta, the annual tradition of producing elite talent continues, with the top spot within range. Once again.

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Ben Rollins.

The post Class of 2020 Star Brandon Boston Jr Is Putting on For the NAWF appeared first on SLAM.

Just a couple of years ago the school’s basketball program wasn’t even on anyone’s radar. U-School was mostly regarded for its football culture, yet that all changed last season when the hoops program, led by Vernon Carey Jr and Scottie Barnes, made a huge splash on the national stage. The Sharks finished with a 36-2 record, claimed the 5A state championship (the program’s first state title), won the City of Palms Classic title (arguably the toughest tournament in the national high school calendar), and then made it all the way to the championship game of the GEICO Nationals tournament, a run that included an upset victory over Oak Hill Academy in the semifinals.

The program ultimately finished No. 2 in the country in USA Today’s Super 25 final rankings for the 2017-18 season. It was especially impressive considering that the team’s two best players were both still underclassmen.

Carey Jr, a 6-10 senior center, committed to Duke last December. He averaged 26.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game as a junior. As a sophomore, before Barnes transferred in, he averaged 22 points and 8 boards per game while helping lead the Sharks to a 20-7 record and the district championship.

As a freshman, Carey Jr played football, taking after his father—Vernon Sr—who played football at the University of Miami and then the NFL with the Miami Dolphins.

“Defensive end and tight end,” says Vernon Jr of what positions he used to play on the gridiron. “Yeah—I had hands,” he adds, while sporting a huge smile.

Although choosing football over basketball would have easily made sense considering his dad’s background, something happened right before he entered high school that made going with hoops the obvious route.

“Eighth grade summer, I went from 6-3 to 6-8 in, like, over two months,” Vernon says.

Nothing has been the same since.     

“Vernon’s combination of size, athletic ability, power, the skill level that he has—it’s frightening. He’s a tough player, could score on just about anybody,” says University School coach Jim Carr. “Vernon is different. He’s a stoic guy. Quiet. He leads by example. He’s well-liked. He has a good sense of humor. I think the guys appreciate how hard he works on and off the court. It’s not easy being the biggest and baddest guy out there every time. He gets everybody’s best punch.”

For proof of his sense of humor, look no further than the “secret language” he uses to communicate with close ones.

“Something y’all don’t know about Vernon—he has his own language with his friend. And it’s, like, weird,” Barnes says.

“Sure, I hear it all the time. They communicate like whales back and forth to each other,” Carr says. “I have no idea what’s going on with that. But, you know, it’s Vernon. I’ve seen footage of whales communicating. It’s very similar.”

Carey Jr wouldn’t confirm nor deny the secret language.   

Ranked among the top 5 recruits in the Class of 2019, Vernon has already claimed two gold medals while playing with the USA Basketball program the past two summers. In 2017, while with the U16 National Team, he was named MVP of the FIBA Americas Championship in Argentina, averaging a team-high 14 points and 6.2 rebounds as the American team went a perfect 5-0 in the tourney. 

Last summer, while at the 2018 FIBA U17 World Cup in Argentina (again), he earned All-Tournament Team honors for averaging 11 points and 6.9 rebounds, helping USA to a 7-0 record. 

After considering his dad’s alma mater along with Michigan State, North Carolina and Kentucky, the future Blue Devil will be joining top 20 recruit Wendell Moore and top 40 prospect Boogie Ellis in Durham. 

“I think [Vernon] chose Duke because he likes that challenge,” says Carr. “They were an incredible team this year. They were must-watch TV. And they’re losing all those guys. I think Vernon saw what those guys did and wants to try to challenge himself and do similar things. He wants that challenge. He wants to step in and keep them exactly where they are at right now.”  

Barnes, a 6-8 wing ranked among the top 5 prospects in the Class of 2020, actually transferred into the program just last season as a sophomore. He attended Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach, FL as a freshman, where he helped lead his team to the 5A regional semifinals and a 19-8 record. Last season, after transferring to University School, he quickly emerged as a clear-cut blue-chipper. He played a huge role in University making it to the GEICO Nationals title game, averaging 21.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in the three games of the tourney (a significant increase from the 15, 8 and 6 he averaged throughout the season).

“I think Scottie is a great competitor, and that’s really an understatement. I think he has a great knack for getting everyone involved in the game offensively, defensively, the bench kids—he cares about his teammates in a really deep way and it shows on how he plays,” Carr says. “Scottie’s leadership—got great empathy for people, he holds himself to an incredibly high standard, and he has a charisma that people are attracted to [and] they want to be around him and his energy. He’s such a good athlete. His size—he’s able to attack the basket, but now he’s able to beat you in a number of ways. And defensively he just accepts every challenge on the floor, whether it’s guarding the leading scorer guard or a big kid.”

Aside from his skill set, Barnes has also been highly heralded for his ultra-assertiveness and confidence, which according to him can at times paint the wrong picture to others.

“People mistake me for being cocky,” Barnes says. “But when I get excited that’s not really coming from a cockiness standpoint. That’s just me being really locked into the game and my emotions just taking over.”    

While player comparisons for both have varied widely depending on who you ask, for their coach, having the opportunity to watch them so closely has narrowed down the list of suitors to just a couple.

“We were watching clips the other day when they were announcing the All-Americans and they were showing Penny Hardaway,” says Carr, referencing Barnes. “Penny loved to pass the ball. The flare. People say [they see] a lot of Ben Simmons in him, but I always go back to Penny Hardaway.

“Vernon is a little different because he really is unique. Especially being a lefty. I’ll go very old school—Wayman Tisdale. Vernon is very unique in his game. It’s really hard to find a great comparison for him.”

“I would say Giannis, because I’m very long, get to the basket, I’m athletic, and I could rebound the ball and do multiple things,” Barnes says.

The sudden national spotlight on the program has also been an adjustment phase for everyone at University, especially Vernon, who has always been more reserved and lowkey.

“You know what’s been great this year and even last year? We’ve been traveling and I’ve seen these guys grow and how they interact with the fans,” Carr says. “We just played a local game here and the kids were almost getting on the bus with [Vernon] and posing for pictures. The way he’s handling that, coming out of his shell—he’s really not comfortable in the public eye. He’s starting to learn and grow.”   

While Florida powerhouses like Montverde Academy and IMG Academy have been national staples for some time, Vernon Carey Jr and Scottie Barnes are responsible for placing U-School on that same level in just the past 18 months. They went 27-5 this season, finishing in the top 20 according to USA Today and once again making it to GEICO Nationals.

“They’ve built something really special here,” Carr says. “They had a chance to put on a jersey of an established program, [but] those guys chose to build something. They’ve laid the foundation for some great years.”

Adds Barnes, “Last year, that was unbelievable. We had a great group of guys and we devoted our time into becoming something big. I think we really put this school on the map.

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Joseph L. Sherman.

The post Vernon Carey Jr and Scottie Barnes Put University School ON THE MAP 🦈 appeared first on SLAM.

Isaiah, about 20 months older than Evan, is headed to USC—about two hours north of their current school in Temecula, CA—next fall. The looming relocation is the topic of discussion when the back and forth begins. 

“He’s not going to know what to do with himself when I leave,” says Isaiah. 

“What are you talking about? Every single time you go to L.A. I always do something else,” Evan responds.  

“Yeah, something boring!” Isaiah quickly hits back. 

“No! It was fun!” says Evan. 

“He’s not ready. Every morning I get up, and I gotta tell him that it’s time to leave—drive him over here, making sure his practice jersey is all clean!” Isaiah says. 

“You do not ever do that!” 

“Did I not ask you that this morning?!”  

“Where is your practice jersey?” 

“It’s at the house in the dryer—I ain’t worried.”

“Exactly! I already have mines,” Evan says, enjoying the last word—for now.

The Mobley brothers are the country’s best sibling duo and it’s easy to see why their on-court chemistry is second to none. Isaiah is ranked among the top-15 prospects in the Class of 2019. Evan is ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2020. Together the duo has placed Rancho Christian on the national stage.

The Mobleys come from a basketball family, with their dad, Eric, having hooped collegiately at Portland and Cal Poly Pomona before playing professionally in Portugal, Mexico and Indonesia. Their mother, Nicol, also hooped as a teenager.

“My dad created a team for us so I started playing with them,” Evan says. “I would always play up [in age] because [Isaiah] was older than me, so that always made me better. So when I played down, I was dominating my age group.”

Adds Isaiah, “Growing up we were always a close, tight-knit family. All basketball-oriented. My first word was ‘ball.’ I started playing very young. My dad played overseas and my mom played in high school so basketball was second nature to us.”

Family values have always played a large role in the Mobley household. Isaiah and Evan have had three other foster siblings throughout the years. One is a foreign exchange student from China named Johnny who needed a host family while studying at Rancho Christian. A second was a 5th grade student in one of their mother’s classes (Nicol is a teacher) who asked to be taken in and lived with them for about seven years—Isaiah and Evan were in elementary school at the time. The third one the family met through relatives when the boys were younger.  

Isaiah, a 6-10 senior forward, regards himself as the more talkative of the two, while Evan, a 7-foot junior center, is more of the silent assassin type. Their younger days were filled with competitive battles on an almost daily basis. 

“Evan would always want to play me one-on-one after practice because he would play against his teammates and would do real well,” recalls Isaiah, who says he was around 8 years old at the time. “I just remember that I was beating him [but] would have to try harder because he was getting better. His competitive drive—he would try to play until 100 until he could win. I think that rubbed off on me because when I was younger I played hard always and played to win, but not as intense as I do now.” 

Isaiah adds, “We used to [fight a lot] because he had temper tantrum problems, but now he got it under control so we don’t have no problems. It was good though—he was a sore loser, which is good [and] it plays into him now because he plays hard and he hates to lose. I used to beat him in 90 percent of stuff and he used to hate it. One-on-one, I’d beat him and he’d try to fight me. But, also, I think that’s why he is so good now.”  

Isaiah’s affable and social nature extends beyond the basketball court—a trait even his teachers notice through his time at Rancho.

“[Isaiah] was the student that every teacher would want in their class,” says Ms. Janine, an ASL (American Sign Language) teacher at Rancho. “He always would be the student that when something would be taken out of context—because you’re learning about culture—he’d be the one to say, ‘Alright, let’s bring it back and stop being immature.’” 

Evan, meanwhile, has always been the more reserved one of the two, though still an ultra-competitor, even as young kid. And while that extra assertiveness has helped him emerge as an All-American caliber talent who sits atop of his class, it did lead to some painful minor injuries growing up.  

“One time [Evan] was running up a wall to dunk on this 10-foot rim and he was dunking and dunking,” Isaiah says. “My dad told him to stop because he didn’t want him to get hurt because he was still young. He dunked it again. Ran up the wall and dunked it again. Fell on his wrist and broke it. It was his right hand—his predominant hand. Then he hurt his wrist again, and ever since then he’s been like almost left-handed. He shoots right-handed, writes right-handed, but on the court you’ll see him a lot leading with his left hand.”

Evan also points out that he chipped his tooth at his cousin’s house while playing WWE-style wrestling with Isaiah. “One time I went to go tackle him and he flinched—because he flinches at everything—and he put his knee up and so when I went to tackle him, he hit me in my mouth,” Evan says. 

Aside from helping bring Rancho Christian into the national spotlight, the duo starred with Compton Magic on the AAU circuit last summer, where they led the program to yet another adidas Gaunlet championship with a 20-2 record before a showdown against Nike’s EYBL champion, Team Takeover, where they came out victorious in an overtime thriller. Evan finished with 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, while Isaiah chipped in 9 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists that night.   

After leading Rancho Christian to the CIF Division I regional semifinals last year and falling short from getting there again this season, the Mobleys have officially finished up their final season together—until they inevitably reunite at some point or another at a higher level.

“Everyone always tries to split us up, but we always find a way to come back to each other,” says Isaiah, who will be reuniting with his dad—an assistant coach at USC—in college. “The only time we’re not on the same team is usually in practice because if we’re on the same team then it won’t be fair. Besides that we always try to play together, because it only does wonders for the both of us.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Sam Muller.

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In the summer of 2015, the Charlotte Hornets traded the 6-5 Brooklyn guard to the Clippers in exchange for Matt Barnes and Spencer Hawes. His time in Los Angeles would end up being quick and frustrating, as his playing time dwindled from the start and he never truly found his rhythm and role within the rotation. Eventually, by the time the trade deadline came around, Stephenson’s stint in L.A. had come to an end—he was subsequently traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Jeff Green. The short-lived tenure in the City of Angeles, which surely left a bad taste in Stephenson’s mouth, led to a three-year expedition that ultimately brought him back—this time in the purple and gold as he looks for a little redemption.

After he was moved to the Grizzlies, Stephenson’s time in the League got even rockier. Despite averaging a career-best 14.2 points in his 26 games with the team to finish off the regular season in Memphis, including a career-high 33-point performance against the New Orleans Pelicans and then a 26-point outing in the playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs, the franchise declined to pick up his team option for the final year of his contract.

This would lead to the toughest point in his career: the 2016-17 campaign. He signed with the Pelicans that offseason but after suffering a groin injury just two weeks into the regular season, which ruled him out for six to 10 weeks and required surgery, he was waived by the team just three days later. He waited around for a call from another team for three months before the Minnesota Timberwolves, who had lost guard Zach LaVine for the remainder of the season to an ACL injury, called offering only a 10-day contract. Yet less than a week after signing with the Wolves, Stephenson found himself battling another nagging injury—this time a grade 2 ankle sprain. He’d nonetheless earned a second 10-day contract with the team before being waived by the franchise after only appearing in six games.

“I had times when I felt like, Man, I don’t think I’m going to be in the League next year. But I always knew that if I worked hard and believed in myself and put God first, I’d have a chance,” Stephenson says. “I was controlling what I could control and that was being in the gym and just working hard because I knew my chance would come again.”

Less than two weeks later, in a rather surprising turn of events, the Indiana Pacers signed the former Coney Island prodigy to a three-year deal, marking the fifth team Stephenson had joined in less than two seasons. The grand return to Indiana, where he first earned his “Lance Makes Em Dance” and “Sir Lance A Lot” monikers, brought back his old swag while giving the Pacers a much-needed energy and confidence spark off the bench. Last season, he helped play a role in Indiana almost defeating the Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs, coming within 5 points of a Game 7 victory.

“It’s crazy because I went from getting hurt, to the team cutting me, to then doing 10-days with the Timberwolves and then signing a three-year contract with the Pacers,” he says. “It was like, unbelievable. It was definitely amazing and I think that was God answering all my prayers—and just all the hard work I went through to get the opportunity that I got. Just going from not playing at all and doing 10 days to being on a team that actually uses you as much as possible, and then helping the team win—that was amazing.

“I knew what I could do. I just needed the opportunity. I just knew that if I could get the minutes and the playing time to show my talent, I knew what I could do in this League. And so [the Pacers] gave me an opportunity as soon as I came back to the team. I mean, I worked so hard and everything was coming easy to me. When you have a team that believes in you and pushes you to be great, your talent does the rest.”

The Pacers declined their team option for the final year of Lance’s contract last June, which paved the way for him to become a free agent. A week or so later, an incoming call from Magic Johnson secured Stephenson’s return to Los Angeles, where he now looks to take care of unfinished business and redeem the short-lived tenure at Staples Center from three years ago.

“Definitely going through all the situations that I went through after I left the Pacers—being on five different teams—I just feel like it was a great experience through the ups and downs. I learned from all the ups and downs that I went through. I think it made me stronger and it made me the person I am now,” he says. “I learned that you gotta stay positive and you gotta stay hungry throughout the tough times when I wasn’t even playing or getting as much playing time as I wanted. I stuck with it. I learned that I could control only what I could control, and that was getting in the gym and working harder every day, pushing myself to be better and just watching a lot of film. Mostly it was keeping my body in shape because when you’re not playing that much you could get out of shape easily. So my goal was to always be in shape because you never know when your opportunity comes.”

His return to Hollywood has helped bring his flashy NYC-bred handles and off-the-dribble moves back to the national stage, and only five weeks into the season, he’s already become a fan-favorite. He’s shown flashes of the kind of impact and spark he can bring to a team. In only the second week of the season he dropped 23 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists against the Phoenix Suns off the bench, shooting 10-14 from the floor.

“I was at home chilling and I got that call from Magic,” he says. “I was like, No way! They want me on the Lakers? And with LeBron and the young fellas we have, I was like, I can’t turn this down. I’m just happy for this opportunity and I feel like as I continue to work, many [more] blessings are going to come.

“I was like, You think LeBron wants me on this team?!” he continues. “I definitely knew that playing alongside him I could help him and help bring in that energy and that toughness, that defense, and also a clutch performance in some games—I feel like I’m built for tough, close games. I knew I could help this unit. I’ve now played for Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and now Magic Johnson. Talking to those great players helped my game out, just learning how they think.”

A highly touted prospect since his early days at famed Lincoln High School, where he led the school to four consecutive city championships and was ranked among the top-10 players in the Class of 2009, the past eight years since his arrival to the NBA have given the former Cincinnati Bearcat a different perspective on the game and his role. The humbling experiences and particularly the obstacles of the past four years have set the stage for his return to L.A., where he now looks to prove why the Born Ready nickname rings true today more than ever.

“When you’re a rookie, you gotta understand that everyone is good. You might not get your opportunity when you first come in. I remember my first two years I was sitting in a suit behind the bench,” Lance says. “What I took from it was I learned as much as I could from the older guys and what they brought to the table that kept them on the court and kept them in the rotation. It’s not about talent. You gotta know the game. You gotta know the plays, every position, to get on that floor. Eventually you learn you can’t just go. You gotta do it with a team.”

—

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Ryan Young.

The post BORN READY: The Lance Stephenson Show Is Back in Los Angeles 🍿 appeared first on SLAM.

“Absolutely! Of all time!” says Lewis when asked if he’s part of the best duo in basketball. “We’ve lasted the longest. Can’t no one say they’ve been together longer. It’s like seven years now.”

Starring at the Ranney School, located just a few miles off the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County, the pair has brought into the national spotlight a program that wasn’t on anyone’s hoops radar prior to their arrival.

Just recently, both blue chippers, ranked among the top 15 recruits in the Class of 2019, announced their college decisions—signaling an end to their historic run sharing the court together at Ranney and with the Team Rio program during AAU season.

Lewis, a 6-5 guard, committed to the Florida Gators after also holding offers from the likes of Kentucky, Arizona and Kansas, among the dozens of other scholarships on the table. He ultimately chose Gainesville over Lexington.

Antoine, also a 6-5 guard, committed to Villanova in September after listing Duke, Florida, Kentucky and Kansas among his other final options. According to ESPN, he’s the highest-rated recruit to commit to the Wildcats since Corey Fisher, a member of the Class of 2007, did so over a decade ago.

The duo helped lead Ranney to a 28-5 record last season while reaching the Non-Public A championship, winning the Shore Conference Tournament and sectional playoff title (both achievements were a first in school history) and finishing ranked second in the state.

The Antoine-Lewis tag team show hasn’t just garnered attention for the results on the court. The jovial pair has also figured out how to stay in the moment and enjoy the experience they’ve created.

“Every game, we try to approach it as serious as possible, but the moment the ball tips off and Scottie takes the ball down the lane and dunks on somebody and everyone turns around hyped and screaming—that point is a balance of being serious and having fun,” Antoine says.

“I think that’s when it’s really going to hit us—when we have that first practice and Bryan is not there and I’m not there for him,” Lewis says of the pair’s inevitable split. “But we’ve been to so many camps [where] we haven’t been on the same team and we’ve practiced with new guys and faces, so I think that has kind of prepared us for that next level and being used to not having each other there.”

Antoine and Lewis are just the latest names on a long list of Jersey natives putting on for the Garden State on the national level in recent years. Just last season, NJ was home to three of the top 25 recruits in the Class of 2018.

Despite being a dynamic one-two punch and displaying an indestructible chemistry on and off the hardwood—which is even more evident when at times they finish each other sentences during our sit-down interview—the two hold vastly contrasting personalities and approaches to the game.

Lewis sees himself as more of the vocal leader and spends most of the time playing off the ball and doing a little bit of everything, while Antoine is more of the soft-spoken assassin and the primary ball handler and scorer. While Antoine has more of a laid-back, glass is half full mentality, Lewis admits losing isn’t something he deals with well.

Antoine averaged 21.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.8 blocks per game last season. Throughout his career at Ranney, he’s averaged over 20 points (20.7) per, piling up 1,745 points in 84 games.

Although today he is touted as one of the elite scorers in America, at one point in Antoine’s life, it was the diamond and not the hardwood that appeared to be his calling.

“When I was 4, I started playing basketball, but when I moved to New Jersey [from Florida] I don’t know why but I started finding baseball so intriguing,” Antoine says. “For like three or four years, that’s all I did. I trained. I played every position but I was mainly first base because I was a tall kid and had a long reach. But I ended up picking up basketball and everything blew up from there.”

Lewis has also surpassed 1,000 career points at Ranney but is known for filling up the stat sheet beyond just the points column, averaging 16.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.9 blocks last season.

A two-sport athlete, Lewis is also part of the track and field team at Ranney, where he says he’s run the 100 meters at a personal-best 10.6 seconds—which he says is the school record. He also runs the 200m, this year started running the 400 and does the high jump.

Lewis’ goal heading into college is the same as most kids in his position: to win a National Championship.

Heading into November, Florida had the fourth-best recruiting class for next season, according to ESPN. The Gators have already secured commitments from three top-40 prospects and are looking to add more.

Antoine is heading into a Villanova program that has won the National Championship twice in the past three seasons and has become the clear-cut top program in the legendary Big East Conference. Yet he isn’t approaching his college goals in the same manner we’ve come to expect for players of his stature.

“For achievements for next year, mine are a little more different than winning a national championship,” Antoine says. “I have the pleasure to be coached by Jay Wright and the stuff that he’s done to his players over the course of three-to-four years—they’ve turned out to be a finished product [that] he envisioned when he first started recruiting them. So I’d say my achievement for next year is to just soak up everything he has to tell me and learn from everything he has to teach me. I feel like if I listen to him and I pay attention to what he’s saying then hopefully if the whole team does the same we could probably end up winning a national championship.”

But before they take over college hoops on their own, they still have one more season together in which to add accolades and historic feats to their résumés. The two have already left their prints on a community that up to this point hasn’t been known for elite hoops talent. And it’s that kind of effect that the duo hopes to have on an even larger scale moving forward.

“I think we’ve been a lot more driven than motivated,” Lewis says. “I saw a quote one time that said, ‘Never be motivated but always be driven.’ Because an artist is always motivated—it could take them one year [to] do a painting, but that motivation only lasts however so long, and when you’re driven that’s skin-deep, that’s in your heart and mind, and so that’s something that lasts forever. I think we’ve been more driven than anything to be able to express and use our platform and voice to affect people near us and far.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Johnnie Izquierdo.

The post Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine Are One of the Best HS Duos EVER 🗣 appeared first on SLAM.

It would only take a couple of years before the now 6-10 five-star recruit rose to national stardom and began piling up scholarship offers from the nation’s top basketball programs.

In retrospect, Igiehon actually sees starting basketball “late” as his advantage.

“I started playing basketball when I was 13 years old—super late! As late as can be,” Igiehon says. “[But] I think it served me well. I was eager to learn. I was behind. I came here and people were years ahead of me. What happened was, I kind of kept this tunnel vision and just kept working and working, and when I stopped and looked to the side, I was like, Damn, I’ve caught up and I’ve passed people! [Because] my love for the game was new, I wasn’t bored.”

Another advantage? Being physically gifted. There’s a reason his nickname is “The Irish Hulk.” It is his natural physique as well as his experience as a former soccer player that he cites as the main reasons why the transition to hoops, especially once he arrived in the US, wasn’t as bad as expected.

“Honestly, my athleticism is God given,” says the explosive center, currently ranked among America’s top 40 seniors. “I could always run and jump. I always had a natural feel [for] the transition of the game because when I first came here, the game was so much faster than how it was [back home]. But the way I adapted—I adapted within a couple of months. A lot of taller guys that are my age and 6-10, 6-11—they can’t really run that well. Not a lot of them. I think it’s easy—I used to play soccer so I’m nimble. That kind of comes really easy for me.”

Known for his sturdy build and powerful drives to the rim, Igiehon has embraced the “Irish Hulk” moniker, especially now that it has become a part of his daily routine.

“That’s kinda what I’m known by now. It’s so funny how you pretty much get a nickname and that’s what you’re known by,” Igiehon says. “I remember I walked into a barbershop and they were like, Wait, you’re the Irish Hulk! And I was like, Nah, I’m Aidan, it’s me. And they’re like, No, you’re the Irish Hulk. I saw your video!”

In mid-October, Igiehon committed to Louisville after also considering Kentucky, Oregon and St. John’s. As of early November, Louisville’s 2019 recruiting class is ranked among college basketball’s top five. The Cardinals have already secured commitments from five top-100 recruits in the senior class. For Igiehon, though, his decision came down to the experience he had on his official visit down in the Derby City—both on and off the court.

“They made me feel like I was there already,” Igiehon recalls. “I came in straight to the center court and the spotlight was just on me. And [you hear], Coming in at 207 pounds, Aidan! So you’re just like, whoa! And, you know, the Yum Center is huge. It’s like 20,000 seats. So you’re just looking [around] as a kid, like, whoa! They put on the uniform and did a photo shoot. And I’m feeling good. Let me tell you, Jeff Ruby’s [Steakhouse]—Coach [Chris] Mack took us for the official visit dinner—that sealed the deal for me. That was like the best steak I ever had.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Johnnie Izquierdo.

The post From Ireland to Louisville: Aidan Igiehon Is Living Out His Hoop Dreams 🙌 appeared first on SLAM.

First it was Lonzo Ball opting to go the independent route by helping launch his family’s brand instead of signing a traditional sneaker contract with Nike, adidas or Under Armour. Then it was LaMelo Ball withdrawing from Chino Hills HS to be homeschooled. Then it was LiAngelo Ball withdrawing from UCLA to go pro overseas.

That subsequently led to Melo and Gelo signing pro contracts in Lithuania with BC Vytautas Prienai. Then this past summer LaVar Ball launched the JBA league with the premise of offering top HS players an alternative to college, offering to pay players and touring throughout the United States during the summer and now throughout Europe in the fall.

And now the Ball family has made another unexpected turn. Over the last couple of weeks LaMelo sat down with his family and after multiple discussions the decision was made for the 17-year-old stud to return to high school in the United States and rejoin his peers.

At the time Melo left Chino Hills HS last year he was ranked as the No. 7 recruit in the Class of 2019 and the clear-cut most famous high school hooper in the world.

“I’m excited to return to school and rejoin my class on the court for my senior year,” says LaMelo. “Playing in international competition was a great experience. I learned and matured so much. I appreciated the JBA experience my dad provided for me. I think it helped my development. I can’t wait to play with my peers.”

LaMelo will enroll at Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. He’ll be playing for the basketball program there this winter and is expected to make his debut on November 13 against national powerhouse La Lumiere in Indiana.

Because Spire Institute is a prep school instead of a traditional high school, LaMelo will be eligible to play against other top prep schools.

The thinking behind this decision is to show scouts just how good LaMelo is when placed among his own age group—especially with him being eligible for the 2020 NBA Draft. In his last JBA International Tour game against the London Lions, the now 6-7 point guard posted a 41-point triple-double (17 assists and 13 rebounds). He averaged 40.0 points, 13.8 rebounds, 11.0 assists and 3.6 steals per game during the inaugural domestic JBA season last summer. During the first seven games of the JBA International Tour he averaged 29.9 points, 12. 4 assists, 8.7 rebounds, and 5.1 steals.

LaMelo boarded a cross-Atlantic flight back to LA on Monday and is expected to start at Spire in the coming days.

The Chino Hills native was the talk of high school hoops just a season ago, with highlights from every single one of his games being dissected on online on a nightly basis. Expect it all to return this season to a social media feed near you.

The post LaMelo Ball is Returning To High School, Plans To Enroll at SPIRE Institute in Ohio appeared first on SLAM.

One of the biggest differences between this year’s edition and last year’s inaugural kicks is the pricing. The ZO2.19 comes in at a $200 price point–a significant drop from the $495 ZO2 Remix.

Additionally, this year’s kicks feature a whole new combination of materials. Among them is a forefoot strap made of full grain nappa leather, which the brand says will provide “incredible support in the most aggressive cuts and directional changes,” a reinforced spacer mesh that aside from providing ventilation also aims to be “strong enough to never blow out,” and a midsole that features “40% more rebound than standard EVA foam.” A couple of the ZO2.19 editions also feature suede throughout different parts of the shoe, include on the toe tip.

The brand will begin taking pre-orders today and is rolling out three different colorways to inaugurate the ZO2.19. One edition, titled “Madagascar,” is a multi-color collage that features different shades of red, blue, orange, white, green and black. Another edition is named “New White” and features gum soles. A third version referred to as “Lilac” has the pale violet tone found on the flowers its name after. Throughout the season the brand will be dropping a whole slate of new colorways, including a couple of Lakers-themed editions. Among those Lakers colorways is a black, yellow and white sneaker which Zo actually teases in one of the videos shot as part of this reveal. There will also be a triple-black edition among other single-color versions on the horizon.

Regardless of what you think of the player, the shoes or the brand, it’s becoming more apparent that the company has every intention to stick around for a while. And by the looks of how Zo and his manager “D-Mo” managed to pull off this year’s announcement, they’re also having all the fun in the world while at it.

—

Photos by Joseph Sherman /@Shermyszn

Video by Joe Krolick 

The post EXCLUSIVE: Lonzo Ball Reveals Second Signature Sneaker, The BBB ZO2.19 appeared first on SLAM.

“I find it kind of crazy that I get to play in front of everyone I love at home with my brothers,” Barrett says. “I definitely didn’t expect this. I was really excited because it’s right in my city—my hometown—[and] I wanted to show the guys Canada. Not a lot of people have been to Toronto.”

While Duke features one of the most star-studded, top-heavy recruiting classes in recent history—Barrett, along with fellow freshmen Zion Williamson and Cam Reddish, were ranked as the top three recruits in the Class of 2018 coming out of high school—R.J., as the hometown hero, is the main draw this week in The North.

Although the view from the outdoor deck provides a tranquil ambiance, it doesn’t mean R.J. doesn’t draw a crowd, even on a relatively quiet Tuesday afternoon. There are ESPN cameras trailing R.J. and the rest of the squad during the off-season as part of a docu-series expected to air before the start of the season. Nonetheless, R.J. and family seem to embrace it all, understanding the impact that his status at Duke will bring not only to college basketball, but to his native country as well.

The son of two former athletes—R.J.’s dad Rowan Sr hooped at St. John’s University, represented Canada in the 2000 Summer Olympics and is now the Assistant General Manager/Executive VP for the Canadian National Teams; his mother Kesha was a sprinter on SJU’s track and field team; his aunt (his mom’s sister) represented Jamaica as an Olympic sprinter in the ’92 Barcelona Games—R.J. hit the genetic jackpot long before he set foot on a court.

It also doesn’t hurt to have a two-time NBA MVP as your godfather, as in Steve Nash, who has been friends with R.J.’s father ever since the two played together on Canada’s U19 squad in the early ’90s.

But his rich background doesn’t just stop with his genes. R.J.’s upbringing also has versatility of its own. He lived in France, where his dad played professionally until 2008, and is fluent in French. So you have a hooper of Jamaican decent, who lived from 2003-2008 in France before relocating to Canada while making multiple trips to visit family (and hoop) in Brooklyn in between.

“When we started having children we wanted to settle in one country, get a language and some normality, and we decided on France,” recalls Rowan Sr, who also hooped professionally in Spain, Greece, Israel, Argentina and Venezuela. “We were in a town called Dijon, another called Chalon and another, Lyon, in southern France. It was a soccer country, so R.J. played both soccer and basketball and ran a little track, but his passion was always basketball.

“We had a huge playroom in one of our places and we had everything in there—soccer goals, etc.,” Rowan Sr adds. “We’d always hide the basketball goal because we were cognizant that we didn’t want him to gravitate toward it because he felt we wanted him to. But he’d go in there looking for it until he found it. He always had a love for it. When my team was practicing and we’d go shower [afterward], he’d go on the court and start shooting until we turned off the lights.”

Aside from his exposure to the international game, Rowan also made sure that R.J. received the proper mental training. Both Rowan and Kesha have family in Brooklyn, NY, and the family often made trips to the Big Apple to partake in the gritty hoops culture there.

“We’d go to see family and take him out to the blacktop. I went to school in New York so I’d just travel to Harlem and Coney Island. I had an understanding of what that was and how important it was for him,” Rowan Sr says. “The city game isn’t a lot of jump shots—it’s a lot of going to the rim, figuring out how to get to the rim. No one calls foul. All the trash talk, the chatter. Can you play while someone is talking to you? Don’t look over to the side. Daddy can’t help you. So we’d take him there in the summer and it was great for his development in terms of toughness. He learned the European way, and then he played in Brooklyn.”

Plus, after attending St. Marcellinus Secondary School in Mississauga for one year, R.J. did what almost every other promising Canadian hooper has done: he moved south of the border to match up against top-ranked players in the States.

In 2015, he landed at powerhouse Montverde Academy in Orlando, and it didn’t take him long to claim his spot among the best in the U.S. Head coach Kevin Boyle had heard some rumblings about the Canadian’s potential but had made no promises regarding playing time upon his arrival.

Just a handful of weeks into his first season at Montverde, when he was technically still considered a freshman, R.J. dropped 31 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists against a Lonzo Ball-led Chino Hills squad, a team that went on to finish undefeated and as the top team in the nation.

By his senior year, R.J. solidified his place as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2018. At Montverde, which counts D’Angelo Russell, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as alumni, R.J. was able to take the Eagles to a perfect 35-0 as a senior, claiming the Geico Nationals championship and the No. 1 spot in the high school national rankings.

Following the season, the shifty lefty who frequently draws comparisons to James Harden went on to claim all major National POY awards: Gatorade, Naismith, Morgan Wootten, All-USA Today, MaxPreps and Mr. Basketball USA. The last high school hooper to sweep these national accolades was LeBron James in 2003, which makes R.J. the single most decorated HS prospect since the King himself.

“I [knew I] wanted to take basketball serious at 11, 12 years old,” R.J. says. “That’s when I started writing all my goals and dreams out on a board in my room. And they’re all coming true one by one. Some things I wrote were become a McDonald’s All-American, go to a DI college, get drafted in the first round, No. 1 pick, All-Star, Hall of Fame—you know, anything a kid wants.”

But these milestones (at least the ones he’s accomplished thus far) aren’t even his biggest achievements to date. In the summer of 2017, R.J. represented Canada in the FIBA U19 World Cup in Egypt. After going 2-1 in pool play and defeating France by six points in the quarterfinals, Canada was matched up against the John Calipari-led U.S. squad in the semifinals.

Barrett, then 17, was competing against a U19 American squad that featured big-time collegiate hoopers. He dropped 38 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists in a shocking 99-87 upset victory. It was the first time the Americans lost a game in any age group in six years. The next day he dropped 18 and 12 against Italy in the championship game to capture the gold. It marked the first time ever that a Canadian men’s basketball team won gold in international play in any age group. The historic feat sent R.J. into legend status back home. Last year’s run also brought optimism to a country that hasn’t qualified for the Olympics in men’s basketball since 2000.

“It meant a lot for the country,” R.J. says. “Canadians are starting to believe. The kids now say they want to get a gold medal and do the things we did. That makes me happy, that we were able to put on for our country.

“Five years from now, we’ll have a strong group of guys for the Canadian National Team,” he adds. “I think we could form a pretty good team. I feel like NBA players are going to have to get cut because there is going to be so many of us. We’ll just see what the future holds.”

Beyond R.J., Canada is experiencing a basketball renaissance of its own. The country is expected to have a handful of players in the 2019 NBA Draft, with Barrett unanimously projected at No. 1. Aside from the volume of local players becoming high-profile recruits in the U.S., it’s this new level of competitiveness, assertiveness and intensity that is separating this next crop of Canadians from the generations before it. Just ask Duke associate head coach Jon Scheyer, who witnessed it first hand this summer when R.J. arrived on campus.

“I remember one of the first workouts, [Director of Basketball Operations] Nolan Smith and I were working with him, and we said you have to score a certain amount of points without us getting a stop,” Scheyer says. “And it was like a light switch turned on. He became a different person. Ever since then, when we do shooting drills or anything else, everything is either winning or losing. And if he loses, he’s as pissed as could be. He’s angry because he’s that competitive. It’s refreshing to have that.”

Adds R.J., “In my family we’re very competitive. Everyone is always trying to beat each other. Everyone is an athlete, so that’s where I get all my competitive drive.”

Duke’s Canadian Tour went as expected. Sold-out crowds. Blow-out victories. R.J. led the team in scoring with 30.7 ppg and 5 apg. Zion Williamson wasn’t far behind, averaging 29.7 points and 11.3 rebounds. The duo dominated that week’s SportsCenter and gave a glimpse of what’s expected this winter. R.J. already has all kinds of personal accomplishments on his résumé, and with high expectations bestowed upon him for the upcoming season, one would think he has a whole list ready to tackle. But that list is a little shorter than you might think.

“Winning that National Championship,” R.J. says, naming the first and last goal for the coming six months. “That’s the highest honor of being a collegiate athlete, so that’s all I want.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by John Kealey.

The post R.J. Barrett Is The Most Decorated Prospect Since LeBron James 🗣 appeared first on SLAM.

While release dates for those products have yet to be announced, AND1 is gearing up for the drop of its Attack 2, Tai Chi and Tai Chi Mixtape editions in September.

We recently caught up with KG to discuss what drove him back to AND1, his new role within the company and their goals moving forward.

SLAM: What prompted the move to AND1 this year? What’s the backstory?

Kevin Garnett: Bill Sweedler [founder and chairman of Sequential Brands Group, which owns AND1], is a dear friend. I was talking to him about some general stories and the AND1 conversation came up. And I didn’t even know at the time that Bill owned AND1. We just started going into some hypotheticals on some ideas. I think he was looking for some different ideas to revamp the brand. I think the brand had a lower tier business that they were very successful with. He let it be known that he was into it. And then he was like, That’d be a dope idea to put [you] with AND1! And I was like, I don’t know, whatever. He came back a couple of weeks or a couple months later and we joined up. It sounds inspirational. It sounds groundbreaking and things that stimulate me. That’s when I started to look at the opportunity of coming in here and [being] the creative director. Just being able to bring a different place to the brand that I didn’t see with the brand before I came here.

SLAM: How would you describe your position and role with the brand?

KG: My position here is just the overall picture of this brand and where we at with things. [From] the players we sign to the campaigns we’re coming out with—different content that we’re doing as far as in-house content. I’m very excited about the product that we’re putting out. I like to think that the things that were done in the past—I think people know AND1 to be some of that. I like to think that the things that are coming out for the future are new stuff—innovative stuff that people wouldn’t necessarily associate with the brand. I think it’s going to be different and eye-popping stuff that is needed.

SLAM: Are there any particular materials or style preferences that you had as a player that you’re now looking to incorporate into AND1’s future designs?

KG: Absolutely. Cushioning and comfort. You know, this is a professional’s feet. So we have to be very careful with that. A lot of the ideas are coming from me playing a lot of years—[so] extra cushioning, different systems that you can input to make the shoe lighter and efficient for your foot for when you’re out there. I’m not an engineer—I’m a visual person. So a lot of the ideas start from there.

SLAM: The first time you were with AND1, you did that classic commercial with Styles P. What do you recall about that time?

KG: My favorite memories of AND1, I go straight to Styles P. Styles P was and still is one of my favorite MCs of all time. The whole LOX—Jada, Styles, all that. I was super excited about meeting Styles. I thought it flowed perfectly. They understood my story—Styles and I coming from the same background. So we had a dope introduction and it just flowed. I like to think that Chris Robinson brought us all together for a dope visual. We did a couple of AND1 spots that were just to the attitude and to the rebel of the inside of what I was. I thought the stuff we shot was different. I think it spoke to the persona of what I was. Dope shoe. One of the dopest I’ve done.

SLAM: You shocked the game when you left Nike for AND1 in 2001. Now 17 years later, what drew you to the AND1 brand then?

KG: I left Nike wanting more of a creative outlet, wanting more say on my own product. I had a vision for how I wanted stuff to look. I had a feel for a lot of fashion input, where I thought I was connected enough to know where I wanted to go with certain looks and certain styles. And with Nike, it was kind of cut and dry as to what you were going to do. With AND1 it was more of a collaboration and partnership. The money was right and the opportunity was even more right. And [so] I went for it.

SLAM: Lately heritage brands like PUMA and New Balance have been trying to get back in the game. AND1, a heritage brand itself, has been linked to numerous players. Do you foresee this being a trend?

KG: I will say this, with all these heritage brands coming back, it gave it a little more of acceptance for everything to come back and say that those brands you named are equivalent to AND1 as far as culturally. But I’m also culturally biased in knowing that AND1 has a mixtape outlet, has different outlets of graffiti and art, has a music outlet. I can’t sit here and say that those other brands have those things. I can’t say that they have a street culture or that they have a cultural influence that they can reach to. It’s gotta be real for me. It has to be somewhere where it hits home to me. And the dynamic of the two work for me. Perfect time to come out as a retro brand, though. If you think about all the stuff that’s going on in our world, it all just flows with the story. Being innovative. Being original. Being different. It flows.

SLAM: Looking ahead, if you had to predict where you see AND1 being in two years, what goals do you have written down and hope to accomplish?

KG: I want a respect level [on par] with all the other brands. To be appreciated. I want to be able to be innovative and have new product and utilities out. I think everybody doesn’t make great utilities. I want to be able to be known as a quality utility brand. Get away from the lower tier business a little bit and start really talking about the mid-tier boutique business. I’m looking to have at least four to seven guys in the League wearing our shoe. Major players and major pieces that are in our League. Maybe one or two All-Stars in the brand. That’s the next two to three years.

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Photos by Ricky Rhodes. 

The post Kevin Garnett Talks New Role with AND1, Future Designs and Growing the Brand appeared first on SLAM.

The L.A. area is known as a hotbed for basketball talent, and next season Stanley will find himself at the helm of the crop. While local guys like Russell Westbrook, James Harden, DeMar DeRozan and Paul George enjoy being among the League’s biggest names, Stanley will be looked upon as next in line.

His dad, Jerome, has served as a sports agent for around three decades, so the Sierra Canyon HS standout has witnessed the ins and outs of what it’s like to be a star athlete from a very unique perspective.

Jerome has represented both basketball and football players and is recognized as the first black agent to ever represent the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. His list of clients has included Baron Davis, Chad Johnson, Brian Shaw, Keyshawn Johnson and Dennis Northcutt.

For Stanley, spending time in the gym with professional athletes has been the norm ever since he can remember. The soon-to-be HS senior, who says he’s been training with Paul George and Detroit Pistons guard Reggie Jackson the last couple of summers, would constantly find himself in the same room with future Hall of Famers.

“I remember one day early in middle school I was training for baseball with this pitching coach that my dad knew,” Stanley says, thinking back on practice sessions at USC. “It was the first day and there was like five or six of us. And then right next to me was Tom Brady. It was just so unreal because this is one of the greatest football players ever and for a week straight I was just training with [him].”

Not only has he been exposed to top athletes and their trainers, Stanley has also grown an interest for the business side of sports. Watching his dad negotiate deals with teams and brands, the top-15 national recruit developed an understanding and appreciation for the inner-workings of contracts.

“A couple of weeks ago I was just walking to the door and on the counter were five or six players’ sneaker contracts,” says Stanley, who adds he would like to become commissioner of the NBA once his playing career is over. “I was really just interested to see what it looks like. I wanted to see what these negotiations look like inside.

“I try to pick my dad’s brain all the time about contracts or sneaker [deals], doing ads for when he has his players doing commercials. I don’t even think he knows sometimes that I’m picking his brain. It just fascinates me.”

The five-star recruit has become highly heralded for his jaw-dropping athleticism. There’s a YouTube highlight mix of him that describes him as the “best athlete in HS since Vince Carter” in its title and has drawn over 1.6 million views. He was only a freshman when the video was posted online.

Additionally, playing for Sierra Canyon, which neighbors Calabasas and counts Kendall and Kylie Jenner and Willow Smith as alums, has provided an extra layer of intrigue. The team currently features two sons of former NBAers—Scotty Pippen Jr and Kenyon Martin Jr—who, along with Stanley, will be seniors next season. Kanye West and Drake were reportedly among the celebrity spectators that stopped by to take in games this past season. The Trailblazers went on to win the open division state championship this spring.

Stanley, meanwhile, finds himself looking to prove that he’s more than just a YouTube-made high-flyer. And with all eyes on him next season, the stage is set for him to make his point.

“People see my highlights and think I’m just a dunker and super athletic with no skill,” he says. “It used to really bug me earlier in high school and I used to really try to prove to other people that I was more than just a dunker. But then I started to realize that I’m just going to play my game. I don’t ever dunk in games, really. I realized that when people come to see my games they might be disappointed, because I’m all skill.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Photos by Cassy Athena. 

The post High-Flying Phenom Cassius Stanley Is the Next STAR to Come out of L.A. 🍿 appeared first on SLAM.

Having the film set in The Big Apple was fitting, as the city had become touted for producing prep talent on a regular basis—particularly at the point guard position.

Before Marbury, NYC birthed greats like Bob Cousy, Pearl Washington, Nate “Tiny” Archibald, Kenny Anderson, Kenny Smith, Lenny Wilkens and Mark Jackson. He Got Game simply served as another reminder that New York was at the top of the food chain when it came to talent. Yet the past couple of decades were a different story.

The city became the subject of multiple “What went wrong?” articles that tried to examine why the five boroughs no longer put out top recruits, specifically point guards, in the manner it was known for just a couple of decades prior.

The last few years, though, have brought a sense that the city was on the verge of a renaissance. The Class of 2017 featured three hoopers from New York City who were ranked among the top 100 seniors in the country: Mohamed Bamba, Hamidou Diallo and Isaiah Washington.

Bamba, the No. 6 pick in this year’s NBA Draft, and Washington, recognized as the mastermind behind the recent Jelly Fam movement, both helped bring a buzz back to the city. But this year it seems to have reached a new level thanks to a rising senior named Cole Anthony.

The Class of 2019 prospect is the first NYC player since Marbury to be ranked as the No. 1 point guard in the country. And just like the former Lincoln High star, Anthony also stands at 6-2 and is known for his tenacity and assertiveness.

“It’s just really an honor to be able to have this title. New York has been on a little drought recently, but it’s really a blessing to be in this position,” Cole says.

“I think the message is that basketball in New York City isn’t dead the way a lot of people think it is. I think it’s very much alive,” he adds of his hometown, which also has two other players ranked among the top 15 prospects in the Class of 2019: Jalen Lecque and Precious Achiuwa. “I think this class is a really special class. There are a lot of kids from New York that are highly touted. It’s special for New York. We definitely have a lot of kids now that are representing the city the right way.”

Cole is the son of former NBA guard and current Turner Sports television analyst Greg Anthony. For the past three years, Cole has starred at Archbishop Molloy High School, which also counts legends like Smith and Anderson among its alums.

Greg vividly remembers the day his son walked up to him to have “the talk,” an exchange in which his 12-year-old son had made a decision that would ultimately alter his adult life. He was looking to get his dad’s input before plunging into it.

“The first time he told me he wanted to take [basketball] serious, we were in a little league baseball game,” Greg recalls. “He had just finished fifth grade and was getting ready for sixth grade. He was playing baseball at the time. He had a good game and I’m there, excited and thinking, Well, maybe it’ll be baseball. At the time, he hadn’t really shown an affinity or any real ability in basketball. He came to me after the game and said, ‘Dad, I just want to tell you that I just want to concentrate on basketball. I don’t really want to play any other sports.’ It was a bit of a shock because at that time, he wasn’t really that good at basketball.”

Despite the absence of skills or talent on the hardwood at the time, Cole’s decision that summer would become the start of a run that has already made its mark in the history books of New York basketball.

Adds Greg, “I said to him that day, OK, if that’s what you want to do, these are the things that we’re going to have to do for you to get better. And I think it was when he took ownership at that moment that he started to get better as a basketball player. He started playing it more and his single-minded focus was just on playing basketball.”

“It’s just a blessing to have someone like him as a resource in my life,” says Cole of his dad. “It’s something that not many people have. He’s so knowledgeable of the game. The experience he has—just being able to acquire that knowledge from someone that lived my dream is huge.”

Cole has been in the varsity team’s starting lineup since his freshman year, and it didn’t take long for the buzz surrounding his game to reach the national stage. The same goes for his time on the AAU circuit, where he’s played and started on the 17U level since the summer after his freshman season. Hooping for the PSA Cardinals who play on the Nike EYBL circuit, Anthony shined alongside Bamba, Kentucky guard Quade Green, Arizona guard Brandon Randolph and St. Louis wing Hasahn French that first year.

“His basketball IQ has always been two years ahead of the rest of his class,” says Terrance “Munch” Williams, coach and executive director of the PSA Cardinals. “Right now, his mind, because of the resources he’s had with his mom and dad, he’s basically a freshman in college from a basketball IQ standpoint. That’s why the game is so slow for him.”

Adds Cole: “I’m just going to keep trying to elevate my game in every aspect. I see myself as a two-way player who can do everything. I’m a scoring guard who can do it all. I can get my teammates involved. I can shoot it. I can score from all three levels.”

While Cole’s status as the top PG in the Class of 2019 was pretty much cemented this past season, his performance on the EYBL circuit with PSA this spring has placed him in a different conversation. He averaged 26.9 points per game through the four weekend sessions, while in one stretch finishing with 30+ points in five consecutive games. Cole ended up being the leading scorer within the EYBL—touted as the toughest grassroots league in the world—while also leading the league in free throws made. And no, he isn’t just offense. Last year he was named the EYBL’s defensive player of the year.

“Cole started on that [PSA] team [in 2016] and averaged double digits, which is unheard of as a freshman in the EYBL on that type of team. Eventually he can look back in three-four years and say that he produced on a team that had a bunch of NBA players as a freshman,” says Munch, who’s also had New Orleans Pelicans forward Cheick Diallo and Washington Wizards forward Chris McCullough come out of his program in recent years. “Last year [Cole] was the defensive player of the year. This year he’s the offensive player of the year. Him considering himself a two-way player—that’s been proven in how he’s been able to affect the game in multiple ways.”

Cole was also his team’s leading rebounder with 7.6 boards per night, while leading the Cardinals in assists (3.5 dimes) as well.

Greg—who starred at UNLV, was selected with the 12th overall pick in the 1991 NBA Draft, and went on to have an 11-year career in the League that included stops with the New York Knicks, Vancouver Grizzlies, Seattle SuperSonics, Portland Trail Blazers, Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks—is well aware of what a journey to the League entails. And part of understanding the landscape is knowing the proper mental approach just as much as the ever-necessary work ethic and skill development. Therefore, while his son’s name has steadily risen up the charts, the focus has remained on controlling what can be controlled.

“My goal, once he showed that he had a chance to be a good basketball player, was for me to become Cole Anthony’s dad as opposed to Cole Anthony being my son,” says Greg. “But what we really try to do is stay in the moment. We don’t really think that far out in the future. We don’t talk about tomorrow a lot. We really just try to talk about today. That’s our philosophy and approach. It’s hard when you’re a kid in this world with all the distractions, especially for high school kids—they get so much attention—it’s hard to be able to just stay in the moment. I give him a lot of credit. He’s actually been really good at it, much better than I ever would have in the same situation.”

Cole’s performance this spring has brought him into contention for the top spot in his class regardless of position, with talk of him overtaking the No. 1 spot gaining traction as the summer progresses. And that’s one topic he doesn’t shy away from.

“Being the No. 1 point guard in the country means a lot to me, but honestly at this point, my goals are beyond that,” says Cole. “My goal is to be the No. 1 player in the country.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Photos by Rayon Richards.

The post COLE SUMMER: High School Point Guard Cole Anthony Runs New York🗽 appeared first on SLAM.

“He was projected as a one-and-done kid, and I [knew] Jalen wasn’t one-and-done,” says Rick, his pops. “The type of player he was going to be—he just wasn’t ready to be that type of kid. So we got here with a three-year plan. I told Jay Wright, ‘I have three years for him to graduate, for him to win his National Championship, and he’s going to get out of here.’ That was our plan the whole time.

“On our official visit I sat down with Coach Wright and the coach staff and I said, ‘This is the layout of how I believe Jalen can be successful and reach his full potential, his personal goals and his personal dream of playing at the highest level.’”

It’s a way different approach than what you’d expect from one of the McDonald’s All-Americans, whose goals are usually to get into the NBA as soon as possible. Yet for the Brunsons, the plan was to put Jalen in the best situation so that he could remain in the League for as long as possible.

Rick enjoyed a nine-season career in the NBA, where he bounced around as a journeyman playing for eight different teams. The former Temple University standout is now an assistant coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves. His post-playing career has included coaching positions with the Denver Nuggets, Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Bobcats (now the Hornets) and the University of Hartford.

Having a dad with over 15 years of experience in the NBA as a player and coach provided Jalen with a unique perspective. As a youngster, he would find himself hanging in NBA locker rooms and practices, surrounded by some of the game’s biggest stars. It created some memorable stories, like the time he got a chance to meet Michael Jordan but refused to let MJ sign his jersey.

“After the game, somehow, I got to go to the Wizards locker room and meet Michael Jordan,” recalls Jalen. “I walk in and I had his jersey on. Everywhere I went, I got a jersey from that arena. He walked up to me and said, ‘Hey, do you want me to sign your jersey?’ And I looked at him with a straight face and was like, ‘No, you’ll mess it up.’ Everyone in the locker room was crying.”

Fast-forward to 2018 and Jalen is now getting ready to enter the NBA draft with two National Championships under his belt and National College Player of the Year accolades to his name. The 6-3 guard was a freshman during the 2015-16 season, when Kris Jenkins hit a buzzer-beater at the National Championship game to help take down UNC. Although he was in the starting line-up that first year, older players overshadowed him.

By his sophomore year, Jalen had become a clear-cut leader of the team and was poised to make another deep run in the Tournament. After averaging 18.9 points and 4.6 assists this past season as a junior, he helped lead the Wildcats to their second National Championship in just three years.

Probably even more impressive, despite all his athletic accomplishments and responsibilities, the lefty will also be leaving Villanova with a college degree in just three years—somehow, he loaded up on classes while starring on the hardwood.

Despite his impeccable college resume, mock drafts and “analysts” have Jalen projected as a late first-rounder or even a second round prospect as of early May. His track record, though, paints a different picture.

“He’s heard—he’s human,” Rick says. “He’s heard and read about, ‘He’s not an athlete, he’s too small, too slow.’ He’s heard all of that. But like I keep saying to people, he’s one of eight people in the history of Illinois to win over 100 games in high school. He’s won over 100 games in college. He won two gold medals. At the end of the day, you keep doubting him—he keeps winning. You keep doubting him—he keeps getting Player of the Year. So, that’s the motivation.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Photos via Getty Images

The post A Hooper and a Scholar, Jalen Brunson is More Than Ready for the Next Level 🏆 appeared first on SLAM.

LaMelo’s debut will be on June 21 when his L.A. team faces the Houston-based squad at the Citizens Business Bank Arena. The league will run through September and will have teams representing 8 cities across the United States.

This fall and winter, the top players from the JBA will travel across the world to play in exhibition games against professional overseas teams.

The eight American host cities are Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles.

“As a family we’ve never been afraid to find new challenges and do things that others may be too afraid to do, and this move is no different,” says LaVar Ball. “Hundreds of people have come out to the tryouts and have showed that they want to be a part of something that is different and that will go down in the history books.”

LaMelo, the youngest American basketball player to turn pro at 16 and now standing at 6-6, played in Lithuania this past winter for Vytautas Prienai-Birstonas, where his minutes were sporadic throughout the season. His top performances came during the Big Baller Brand Challenge games, where he dropped 43 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds against Dzukija Alytus and even recorded a 40-point triple-double (40 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) on another occasion.

“Melo got the opportunity to play against international competition and experienced the game from a different perspective while in Lithuania,” says LaVar of Melo’s time overseas this past winter. “Now he’s able to come back to the States and remind people why he was the most talked about high school player in the world before he left. It’s time to take it to another level now.”

Earl Watson, Ed O’Bannon and Lonzo Ball served as the selection committee for the JBA tryouts in April.

Last month Earl Watson said in a statement, “The JBA model is the first of its kind that will offer young athletes an opportunity to develop life skills management while participating in a high level of competition. I am thrilled to be a part of this innovative new league that will not only engage fans, but provide a professional alternative for young basketball players.”

LaVar sent shockwaves last December when he announced the creation of the JBA, which would pay selected teenage hoopers between the ages of 17 and 19 and meant to serve as an alternative to college.

Despite doubts by many that it would ever get off the ground, looks like the league is certainly happening. Even more so, it seems to have found its star.

RELATED:
LaVar Ball Launches Pro League

The post LaMelo Ball Will Join The JBA League This Summer appeared first on SLAM.

The Junior Basketball Association has informed SLAM that it is bringing in former NBA players Earl Watson and Ed O’Bannon, and current Lakers PG (and BBB repper) Lonzo Ball, under its newly created selection committee and advisory board.

The trio will assist the JBA in identifying and selecting players for its upcoming league this summer. The league will begin a series of open tryouts in eight cities across the United States beginning April 7th in Seattle (Garfield HS). The following day it’ll conduct a tryout in the Los Angeles-area—A.B. Miller HS in Fontana, CA.

“We said three months ago that we were in it to change the game, and now we’re excited to finally get to work,” says LaVar Ball. “This movement shouldn’t just be about catering to top prospects. Any talented baller deserves the chance to get seen and recognized.”

The JBA says that all selected players will be flown into LA in mid-June for the start of training camp and that all lodging and meals will also be covered by the league. After touring America during the summer, LaVar is then planning to take the best players from the league on an international tour, where the top JBA players will compete against overseas teams during the fall and winter.

“The JBA model is the first of its kind that will offer young athletes an opportunity to develop life skills management while participating in a high level of competition. I am thrilled to be a part of this innovative new league that will not only engage fans, but provide a professional alternative for young basketball players,” said Earl Watson in a statement shared by the JBA with SLAM.

The other tryout cities include Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. All tryouts will take place on weekends throughout the month of April.

“I believe this is a great opportunity for young athletes to showcase their skills. According to Mark Emmert, athletes who want to focus on getting ready for the next level and want to be paid have no place in college sports,” said Ed O’Bannon in a statement shared by the JBA with SLAM. “The Junior Basketball Association will now provide an alternate option for them. I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Adds Lonzo Ball, “I’m proud to be part of the JBA League and what it represents. These players deserve to get paid.”

“I think having guys like Earl, Ed and Lonzo come in and support the movement shows that there’s people out there that care and see how important it is to provide these kinds of opportunities to guys who can ball,” says LaVar.

Hoopers between the ages of 17 and 19 are eligible to try out. The JBA says that aside from paying the players, they will also hand over luxury cars –“Mercedes, BMW, or Cadillac”—to the championship winning team.

For the past few months, the hoops community has been trying to figure out how could LaVar and the rest of the Big Baller Brand team possibly fund this entire operation. While the JBA has opted to not comment on the source of its finances, it says the operation is independently backed.

LaVar’s Big Ballers AAU program and his independent sports brand became hot topics in the summer of 2017 and the BBB crew is now hoping for the JBA to have a similar splash in summer of 2018. This time through another eyebrow-raising idea that, hate it or love it, will certainly have people talking.

The post JBA Announces Earl Watson, Ed O’Bannon & Lonzo Ball As Selection Committee Team, Reveals Tryout Sites appeared first on SLAM.

“Coach Williams is a winner; I’m a winner as well,” says the Chapel Hill-bound high school senior. “I think that one thing we have in common makes it a different type of relationship between us. Me and him—we both have certain things we want to reach. I feel like together we can accomplish all of our goals.”

Indeed, Williams and UNC have been doing a whole lot of winning lately. The Tar Heels have been to two straight National Championship games and claimed the coveted trophy in 2017. Under Williams, the blue blood program has won three national titles in the past 13 years.

Fittingly, Little took his official visit to UNC the same September weekend that the 2017 National Championship team received its rings at halftime of the Louisville-UNC football game.

A top-15 recruit in the Class of 2018, Little chose the Tar Heels over Georgia Tech, Duke, Miami and Arizona. He averaged 17.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last summer while hooping on the adidas Gauntlet summer circuit.

And with do-it-all senior wing Theo Pinson graduating from Carolina this spring, Little is expected to come in and play right away. Possessing great length, power and athleticism, he has the physical tools to reach new levels as his perimeter game continues to improve.

While he’s called many places home due to his parents being in the military, the five-star recruit points to a Jacksonville suburban town as his true “home.”

“I claim Orange Park, FL, [but] I have military parents so I moved around a lot and lived in a lot of different places and had a lot of different friends,” Little says. “[In] Orange Park, I feel like those years were really key in my development. I have some close friends that I still talk to. It’s kind of hard when you move away—you’re kind of distant a little bit, but they know I’m on a mission, so they respect that.”

But being a blue chip national prospect has come with its own set of obstacles.

“I think the biggest challenge for me was, with the publicity you get a lot of negative attention that’s not really deserved, but you’re just going to get it regardless because you’re considered good by other people,” Little says. “That was an adjustment for me because coming in, I kept my mouth closed. I didn’t really talk trash. So, when you see the negative comments you’re kind of confused as to why people feel that way toward you. I had to learn how to not pay attention to it. A lot of people are going to have their doubts. They’re going to say what they’re going to say, but I have to remain confident in myself and play my game.”

With his official arrival to the Dean Smith Center just months away, he’s keeping all the outside chatter at bay by remembering who he really does it all for.

“I just look at my family [and] see how much they’ve sacrificed for me,” he says. “Every day I just wake up with them on my mind. And I think about how I could change the dynamic of my family and kind of reach people and touch people in different ways. That’s what motivates me every day.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Matthew Coughlin.

Video by Marc Gomes.

The post Nassir Little Looks To Continue Carolina’s Championship Legacy appeared first on SLAM.

“I see guys like Shaq, players like that—they just motivate me,” Reid says. “They paved the way for me so I just want to be able to follow their roots and just get the job done.”

A 6-10 versatile forward out of Roselle Catholic in Roselle, NJ, Reid is one of the top-5 ranked power forwards in the Class of 2018. Heralded for his ability to put the ball on the floor and play facing the basket, the Asbury Park native stretches the floor and creates mismatch problems for opposing teams on a regular basis.

He credits his game to a late growth spurt, which essentially had him playing outside of the paint for a good portion of his childhood.

“I was smaller growing up,” he says. “I kind of grew out of nowhere. So when I started playing basketball I was forced to be a guard, and then I just hit a tremendous growth spurt. I expanded my game to the post and still worked on the
perimeter things, so that’s what put me at the forward today.”

Putting on for New Jersey along with Louis King and Jahvon Quinerly, the mobile big says the three have developed a strong bond over the years as they each emerged into five-star prospects. Hailing from the same state has motivated them to approach the competition with a similar attitude.

“My relationship with Louis and Jahvon is special,” Reid says. “Basketball puts a lot of things together, especially brotherhood. Us three having the same mentality, the same goal, it just puts us together. There [are] special moments that basketball brings to the table.”

He refers to the Garden State’s hoops culture as an aggressive one that prides itself on always being on the hunt and looking to seize the opportunity.

“What defines the New Jersey style of basketball is they don’t have it handed to them, so they want to go and take it,” Reid says. “They do anything they have to do and they bring anything they have to bring to the table.”

As a junior, he averaged 13.8 points and 9.1 rebounds for Roselle, helping the Lions reach the NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public B championship game.

In LSU, Reid found the program where he felt most comfortable. After visiting campus and spending time with the staff and players, the future Tiger pretty much instantly knew where he wanted to take his talents next.

“I was able to feel home,” Hollywood Naz says. “Even when I wasn’t home, the coaches and teammates—they made me feel [like] I was special.”

Having already cemented himself as one of the top recruits in the country, he now finds motivation in his family as he prepares for the next chapter of his young career.

“Some things that motivate me is my mom and my father working every day and my cousin [who just] passed away recently,” he says. “That motivates me to put everything on the floor when I’m playing.”

—

Related
Jahvon Quinerly Is New Jersey’s Next Great Point Guard
Louis King Is Ready to Put On For the Garden State

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Joseph Sherman. 

The above story and video was created in conjunction with Overtime.

The post LSU-Bound Naz Reid Looks To Follow In The Footsteps Of Another Jersey Great appeared first on SLAM.

“People should know that New Jersey started basketball,” says the Oregon commit. “I mean, without New Jersey, some of the prospects out there wouldn’t be as tough as they are right now.”

And while historians will disagree with King’s declaration of the true birthplace of basketball, we can all agree that the Garden State has indeed been producing some of the toughest prospects in the country as of late.

King, a 6-7 wing and teammate of Jahvon Quinerly at Jersey City’s Hudson Catholic, doesn’t shy away from letting it be known that New Jersey basketball is on a whole ’nother level right now.

“A New York City player, he wants to be more fashion, he wants to show off his handles,” says the future Duck. “Jersey players, we get straight to it. We get straight to a bucket. If we travel to Philly, New York or anywhere, we just want to show them that New Jersey is in the building. We don’t give up. We go right at you.”

Together alongside Jahvon Quinerly and Naz Reid, King is part of a senior class that is showing the rest of the world just how strong the talent pool in the state is. His school alone has three of the top 100 recruits when you include Luther Muhammad, a 6-3 guard heading to Ohio State in the fall. And New Jersey has more talent on deck. Two of the top 10 prospects in the Class of 2019—Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine—hail from the Garden State.

Even more impressive is the camaraderie this group of guys exhibits. For years, Lou, Naz and JQ played on the same AAU squad with Sports U. As the years went on, they each individually grew a name for themselves and ultimately chose different paths for college. Nonetheless, all three still speak highly of the influence and impact they’ve had on each other.

“My relationship with Naz and Jahvon, we’ve known each other since we were like 10 years old,” says King. “Back then I wasn’t really that good, so playing against them got me better. It just motivated me every day when we got in the gym that I had to compete and compete. It doesn’t matter where we are, we’ll still be brothers.”

Echoing, to an extent, a point that Quinerly also brings up, King credits his trips across the Hudson River to partake in the NYC summer streetball scene as playing a significant factor in the development of his game. He brings up one Jelly Fam member in particular.

“What molded my game is probably playing at Dyckman and all the street showcase games,” he recalls. “Going out there and playing one-on-one with Isaiah Washington and just showing how I could improve my one-on-one game.”

When it came time to make a decision for college, King ultimately decided to continue his career on the opposite side of the country, despite holding offers from over 20 programs, including many in the Northeast region.

“I chose Oregon [because of] Coach Dana Altman and the staff. The recruitment and the love they had, the support they had for me almost every day—I loved it,” he says. “I think it’s the best fit for me and my family.”

—

RELATED
Jahvon Quinerly is New Jersey’s Next Great Point Guard

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Joseph Sherman. 

The above story and video was created in conjunction with Overtime.

The post Louis King Is Ready To Put On For The Garden State appeared first on SLAM.

“I started in New Jersey, but I quickly went to New York to start playing basketball,” recalls the uncommitted senior. “That was because New York always has that New York toughness. But being able to combine both of those two—the flashiness of New York and just the Jersey toughness as well—that’s what makes me unique.”

Crossing the Hudson not only molded his style of play but also created a bond with a few local hoopers with whom years later he would start a movement. The former Arizona commit, who reopened his recruitment last October, is the highest ranked prospect of the now-famous Jelly Fam crew.

The influence of Jelly Fam, a group of NY-NJ kids who quickly became social media rockstars for being part of this exclusive invite-only basketball fraternity, spread worldwide. Membership prerequisites include being able to pull off multiple jellys—a finger roll with a creative twist—in-game.

This national phenomenon reached new heights during the 2016-17 season, when numerous NBA players replicated the move.

“I used to play against Isaiah Washington, Ja’Quaye James, Sid Wilson [currently at Minnesota, Teaneck High in New Jersey and UConn, respectively—Ed.], when I was, like, 10,” says Quinerly of how he met the rest of the Jelly Fam. “After a time we got to know each other. I was cool with these dudes. I was like the Jersey kid crossing the bridge to play the New York kids. We started the movement and it just blew up the last two summers—crazy. We just been rolling from there.”

With his flashy game and affiliation to Jelly Fam providing the fuel, JQ has developed a strong social media fan base among kids aspiring to one day become blue chips themselves. The attention has provided an extra sense of purpose that extends beyond hoops.

“Nowadays we can’t go anywhere without kids asking for pictures,” Quinerly says. “It’s crazy. I feel like I’m a celebrity and I’m still in high school.  We really have the youth and all we could really do is motivate them to keep playing basketball—books and ball—and to stay on the right path. It’s an amazing feeling.

“I would like to use basketball to really influence the youth to keep chasing dreams because I was in their same shoes before.”

And although he already has an impressive résumé, leaving his mark in the history books is the main objective as his senior year hits the final stretch.

“I’m at a point where if I don’t play hard, I shouldn’t be playing. I gotta go hard 24/7,” he says. “We made it to the state championship last year and lost to [The Patrick School]. I feel like it’s our time. We could lead these guys to something that our school has never done—really leave a legacy in New Jersey.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7. 

Portraits by Joseph Sherman. 

The above story and video was created in conjunction with Overtime.

The post Jahvon Quinerly Is New Jersey’s Next Great Point Guard appeared first on SLAM.

As the 7-1 center steps out of the back seat of a sedan and onto the blacktop of Horizon Crest Park in Henderson, a town about 16 miles southeast of Vegas, he has a brimming grin when asked about his holiday trip to the Peach State.

He wasn’t catching up with just any friends. He was out of town chillin’ with Migos, with whom he’s built a bond over the past year.

“I met Migos in 2016 at ComplexCon,” Bol recalls. “I saw them walking in the room, and then I just followed them, and then I asked for a picture. They knew who I was. And then from there we just became friends. Our friendship got better because they’re also friends with my good friend Shareef [O’Neal]. We all just hang out, go to the gym and stuff like that.”

If you’re one of Bol’s almost half a million Instagram followers, then you’ve likely seen him post photos and videos with not only Migos but also Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, PnB Rock and Lil Yachty. He’s essentially become your favorite rapper’s favorite hoops prospect.

“Honestly, I never thought that [our friendship] would get that far. I thought it’d just be a picture and move on,” says Bol, who credits Migos for the relationships he’s built with the aforementioned hip-hop stars. “I’ve been in the studio with PnB Rock and also Lil Yachty. Being around them when they’re making music is pretty cool because you get to hear the songs before they come out—like months before they come out. Or sometimes you hear songs that will never come out.”

Bol is the son of late NBA legend Manute Bol, who is still tied for the all-time record for tallest NBA player at 7-7 and is heralded for his humanitarian efforts and activism in his native Sudan. Manute played for four NBA teams throughout his 10-year career in the League, ranks second all-time in career blocks per game and is 15th overall in total career blocks.

Bol Bol was 10 years old when Manute passed away but clearly recalls the effect that his dad had on others.

“Growing up seeing how people saw my dad made me realize how great of a person he was,” Bol says. “The best advice my dad gave me was [to] never give up and always have a strong heart.”

With a 7-8 wingspan, impressive agility for his size and an ever-extending jumper, Bol has emerged as a top-3 nationally ranked recruit in the Class of 2018. Last November, he committed to Oregon after also seriously considering Kentucky.

Bol says he’s ready to separate himself from the pack and appears poised to prove wrong anyone who still isn’t quite sold just yet.

“Some of the bad comments I look back to is like, You’re good ’cause you’re tall, or, People only know about you because your dad played in the NBA,” he says. “The lazy comments—stuff like that. That motivates me.”

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SLAM 214 hits newsstands next week!

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Joseph L. Sherman.

The post Bol Bol Is Your Favorite Rapper’s Favorite High School Baller appeared first on SLAM.

In less than 24 hours in this very same building, he’ll drop 43 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists in a thrilling OT victory over TCU, which will make him a top story on the nightly highlight reels and once again have him slotted as the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter.

But on this early afternoon in January, the 6-2 point guard is enjoying the calm before the storm. It’s an arena he’s been familiar with for about 12 years now, when he first served as a ball boy for the Oklahoma Sooners’ men’s basketball team.

As an 8-year-old, Trae could be seen on the baseline during Sooners home games cleaning sweat spots off the hardwood while standing in the shadows of future NBA stars. A decade later and he’s now the hometown hero who has become the most talked-about prospect in all of college basketball.

From NBA stars tuning in to catch his games live on TV and then taking to Twitter afterward in awe, to putting up record-setting numbers in the midst of a skyrocketing climb up the mock drafts, Young unexpectedly became the greatest show in college hoops in the blink of an eye.

Unexpected to everyone not named Trae Young, of course.

“I definitely expected this just because of the hard work and preparation I put in this offseason,” Young says on that Friday afternoon. “I couldn’t tell you I was going to average 30 and 10, but I expected to do big things. I knew I was going to be able to put up numbers because of the way we play and the way my style fits Coach [Lon] Kruger’s game. My main thing was winning, because I knew winning would take care of everything.”

That weekend’s matinee victory over TCU at home pushed the Sooners to No. 4 in the AP Top 25 national rankings while improving the team record to 14-2 (4-2 in conference). The Sooners were picked to finish sixth in the Big 12 Conference preseason poll during the fall—and, of course, were unranked nationally. The Sooners now sit at No. 12 with a 16-5 (6-3) record and Trae has just put up another ridiculous 44-point, 9-assist performance against Baylor in a win.

Coming off a season in which the program finished second to last in the conference with an 11-20 overall record and 5-13 during league play, Trae’s individual success isn’t the only expectation that has been smashed in Norman, OK, this season. That a 6-2 freshman would come in and somehow lead the Sooners to a top-5 spot in the national rankings was beyond the wildest dreams of even the most fanatical OU follower.

But here is Trae Young gracing the cover of SLAM Magazine in late January after we swore that our preseason covers of Duke’s Marvin Bagley III and Mizzou’s Michael Porter Jr would serve as the only college covers of the season. Not only has he completely rearranged mock draft orders and the itineraries of NBA scouts, he’s also rearranged the media coverage of college basketball—this publication included.

Trae was born just before the start of his dad Rayford’s junior season at Texas Tech, where Rayford played PG and averaged close to 18 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game as a senior. Afterward, Rayford played professionally overseas, including stops in France, Italy and Portugal, with Trae by his side every step of the way. He ended up in Norman after landing a graduate assistant position under then-OU head coach Kelvin Sampson.

Trae’s tenure as a member of the Sooners can technically be traced back to 2006, when he joined the men’s basketball program as a ball boy. His duties included wiping the floor when a sweaty player hit the hardwood, cleaning the paint during timeouts and grabbing rebounds for players during warm-ups. His last year with the program was NBA All-Star Blake Griffin’s freshman year at OU. His role and responsibilities were simple and standard, but left a lifelong impact.

“I was able to see [Blake] up close and personal. I fell in love with the game even more just being able to see him perform,” recalls Young.

One of most memorable moments from his time as a ball boy wasn’t necessarily taking a picture with a future NBA player nor taking home some autographs. Instead, it’s the time a minor mishap on his part ended up helping OU.

“This may not be a good memory but I remember during a game—I think it was against Iowa State—someone fell and I went to clean up the wet spot, and then two plays later someone slipped and got injured from Iowa State,” Young says. “That’s not necessarily a good thing, but it’s something I remember.”

Although he stepped away from ball boy duties in ’08, Trae remained around the program, even before he became a highly coveted recruit. Not only was home less than 15 minutes from campus, he also happened to be good friends with the sons of an assistant coach at the school.

“Ever since Coach Kruger was on campus, we had a relationship then ’cause I was always up here—the assistant coach [Chris] Crutchfield, his sons are my age and so I was always good friends with them,” says Young of the coaching staff that arrived in 2011. “So when Coach Crutchfield got the job and Coach Kruger got the job, I was always in contact with them. But then it started to get serious probably my sophomore year.”

That’s when OU formally offered Trae a scholarship. In the years that followed, he would evolve into a five-star recruit ranked among the top 25 prospects in the Class of 2017. He led the nation in scoring, averaging almost 43 points per game as a senior at Norman North High School. He ranked second in assists per game with 10.2 during the 2016 Nike EYBL circuit, regarded by most as the top grassroots league in America.

All the top collegiate programs were vying for his services, and all of a sudden the McDonald’s All-American was left with a tough decision. Should he stay home and play for the program he’s been around pretty much his entire life? Or choose one of the blue blood schools that players of his status frequently attend?

“I got an offer from Duke my junior year. Kentucky, Kansas, they all offered me my junior year,” Young says. He also took official visits to his father’s alma mater as well as Oklahoma State. “Any high school basketball player would want to get an offer from those schools, so it was a dream come true—I always wanted the opportunity to play for them. But in the back of my mind the whole time I wanted to be different. I wanted to make my own legacy. I wanted to pursue a different route than a lot of the other guys that were five-star players.

“With me having the opportunity to play for a [future] Hall of Fame coach and play in my backyard and represent my city and state—it was something that I wanted to do and to take a different route was something that I took as a challenge.”

By deciding to stay local and try to help carry the Oklahoma program, Young was definitely taking up one tough challenge. In recent years, other five-star recruits opted out of attending top-rated schools in favor of programs that were coming off rough seasons. Ben Simmons tried to right the ship at LSU, Markelle Fultz at Washington, and Dennis Smith Jr at NC State. All three failed to lead their teams into the NCAA Tournament.

Nevertheless, the Norman native was ready for the road ahead, despite the risk.

While he had accumulated an impressive résumé—with all the accolades and leading stats—before he ever stepped foot on a college campus, his name was nowhere to be found in NBA mock drafts coming into this season. And Trae certainly took notice.

“A lot of people say they don’t look at social media and stuff like that. But I’m not gonna lie to you: I’m a 19-year-old kid, I look at Twitter, I look at Instagram, I look at the mock drafts,” Trae says. “I noticed in the summertime that I wasn’t on anything. But I’ve been blessed enough to have people close to me who have been through this process and kept me leveled headed.”

Just three games into his college career, Trae posted his first 30-point game. He dropped 43 the next night against Oregon. The following month he tied the NCAA record for most assists in a game with 22 dimes (he also finished with 26 points, becoming the first DI player in 20 years to finish with at least 20 points and assists in a single game).

He posted 20 or more points in all but one of his first 17 games. He posted 10 or more assists in nine of his first 15 games. The aforementioned outing against TCU made him the only major-conference player in the last 20 years to finish a game with over 40 points, 10 rebounds and 10 three-pointers made. No freshman in the last 20 years has reached 500 points quicker than Trae. As of mid-January, he led the nation in both scoring and assists, averaging 30 points and 10 dimes per outing.

“Oh, it’s ridiculous. If I told you that I would’ve expected all of this, I’d be lying. I knew he would have a really good year because I know how hard he works and I know how much he wants it, but to be leading the country in points and assists—that’s just unheard of. As everyone is saying, it hasn’t happened in the last 50 years,” Rayford says, referencing when Pete Maravich averaged over 43 points per game his first year of varsity ball at LSU. Pistol Pete reportedly scored or assisted on 51.8 points per game that year. Throughout the first couple of months of this season, Trae had scored or assisted on 52.6 points per game.

In a matter of two months, he went from not finding his name on mock drafts to being slotted as a likely top-5 pick.

“It’s crazy because I don’t think I’ve played any different than I did in high school. I just think that maybe what they saw in high school is something that [they thought] couldn’t be done at this level,” Trae says. “I’m doing the same thing I was doing in high school, just at a different level. It’s always been there, it’s just that people didn’t see it or didn’t believe it at the time. Now they do.”

He has a valid point there. In retrospect, it’s difficult to pinpoint the reasons why Trae was so slept on coming into the season. He’s leading the country in scoring just like he did in high school. He’s leading the country in assists just like when he was averaging over 10 dimes on the Nike EYBL summer circuit.

Maybe scouts were deterred because he isn’t the biggest or strongest guard on the court. Maybe it’s ’cause he isn’t the most explosive or athletic prospect on the hardwood. Or maybe he just wasn’t taken seriously because he came from a relatively tiny town in Oklahoma instead of one of the usual basketball hotbed regions of America or a national-traveling basketball academy. Whatever the reason, he finally has the attention of the hoops world. And even NBA stars like LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook have publicly shouted him out.

Beyond the numbers, his style of play—particularly the volume of very deep threes he sinks on a nightly basis—have drawn him wide comparisons to Curry.

“I’m humbled by the comparisons. Who wouldn’t want to be compared to a two-time MVP and champ? It’s awesome,” the 19-year-old says. “But at the same time I feel like I try to be a mixture of multiple point guards. I’m just trying to be the best version of myself and so hopefully I can start a new wave.”

Specifically, there’s one retired player whom Trae says he studied and watched the most tapes of growing up.

“My main guy, my favorite player of all time, is Steve Nash,” he says. “I just love his all-around game. His touch—he was able to score from all three levels on the court, and he was able to get all his teammates involved.”

Young credits the advice from his inner circle for helping him choose this path and staying on course when not many believed it was his time just yet.

“One of the main things is to just enjoy this time. This is supposed to be fun. Because at the next level, that’s a business. I’m so happy I made this decision because I don’t know where I would be at if I went anywhere else.”

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SLAM 214 is available on newsstands next week!

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Travis Shinn.

The post Trae Young Is The Most Exciting Show In College Basketball appeared first on SLAM.

BBB also says that the league will be composed of 8 teams that will carry 10 players each, with New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dallas serving as sites.

LaVar has shared the following statement with SLAM:

We have officially launched our own pro basketball league called the “Junior Basketball Association,” sponsored by Big Baller Brand.

 

The JBA is the very first junior pro basketball league of its kind.

 

The JBA will cater to the top ranked high school basketball prospects in America.

 

All nationally ranked high school seniors, whose main goal are to reach the NBA, will be offered an opportunity to join the JBA, turning pro straight out of high school and bypassing the usual college pit stop.

 

The participating players will be paid up to $10,000 per month, as they prepare to enter the NBA Draft the following year.

 

The JBA league is for basketball players who intend to pursue the sport professionally.

 

With the introduction of the JBA, allowing the NCAA to regulate and control the eligibility status of top basketball prospects will no longer be an issue.

 

There is no need to partake in an institution that claims its purpose is not to help you prepare for your professional career.

 

The recent statement from the President of the NCAA Mark Emmert when commenting on the recent withdrawal of LiAngelo Ball from UCLA sums it up:

 

“Is this a part of someone being part of your university as a student-athlete or is it about using college athletics to prepare yourself to be a pro? If it’s the latter, you shouldn’t be there in the first place.” -Mark Emmert

 

And we agree!

 

For decades, the NCAA has run a business that has exploited thousands of teens, while college institutions, coaches, media conglomerates, and corporate sponsors have all profited from the model.

 

The JBA is a long-awaited solution to this ongoing problem.

 

Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

 

For updates visit jbaleague.com

The post LaVar Ball Launches Pro League appeared first on SLAM.

That was the quote John Calipari gave us this past summer when asked to describe the recruiting pitch to potential University of Kentucky point guards. While it may not be the exact words he tells HS prospects when handing out scholarship offers to the nation’s top recruits, the point is clear. Coming to Lexington as a highly touted PG means you’re in for the ride of your life, and that you understand that you’ll be expected to move at a different pace than anyone else on the road.

Enter Immanuel Quickley, a top-15 national prospect that has already given a pledge to the Wildcats. The 6-3 senior out of Havre De Grace, Maryland, will be arriving on campus next fall following in the footsteps of John Wall, Devin Booker, Tyler Ulis, Jamal Murray, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk as the next five-star guard to join Big Blue Nation and hoop under Coach Cal.

Quickley credits Calipari’s “track record with point guards” as one of the factors that went into choosing Kentucky: “What he’s done for people like me that have [played] the same position,” says the point guard. “I think the biggest thing was going to Midnight Madness at Kentucky. John Wall came back. DeMarcus Cousins came back. Seeing all those guys and where they are now, and seeing them on TV—you see them [in person] and it’s like, Why not me? I can do the same thing.

“I know it’s not going to be easy,” he adds. “I’m ready for that challenge. Trusting the process and embracing the grind is probably the biggest thing for me. “

Today, Quickley is highly regarded as one the best in the prep hoops scene, but he was once just a bench player looking to get into the rotation. He came off the bench his freshman year at The John Carroll School in Bel Air, MD. In front of him were two senior guards on their way to playing DI ball—Elijah

Long is now a junior at Texas and Kimbal Mackenzie is a junior at Bucknell.
“Earning a role as a freshman in high school is a humbling experience,” Quickley says. “You have two people ahead of you, you’re trying to battle for minutes just like them. I just [saw] them coming in early and staying in late, so that kind of clicked for me.”

Nonetheless, despite not starting as a freshman, it wasn’t long before college coaches began taking notice of his talent. The summer after his freshman year, Quickley drew offers from Cincinnati and Washington.

He earned a starting spot his sophomore year, in which he averaged 17.7 points per game and was named Baltimore Catholic League co-Player of the Year and Baltimore Sun Metro Player of the Year. Last season as a junior, he took it up another notch, posting 23.7 points and 7.2 assists.

“I would describe the journey as unbelievable,” Quickley says. “Looking back at my freshman year, I would have never thought I would have been anywhere near here. That’s just a testament to hard work, dedication and staying faithful to the grind. That’s all you can do.”

—

Portraits by Jared Soares

Video by Rob Migrin

The post Let Me Ride appeared first on SLAM.

In 2015, he was one of the last to be cut from the Men’s U16 National Team that would later compete at the FIBA Americas Championship in Argentina. With a chip on his shoulder, he returned to Colorado Springs in 2016 and tried out for the USA Basketball Men’s U17 World Championship Team that was headed to Spain later that month.

Reddish was one of 18 finalists for the 12-player roster, which had been whittled down from an initial list of 36 hopefuls. He appeared to have pretty much secured a spot this time around. But an unexpected turn happened less than 24 hours before the finalized roster was to be announced.

“Literally the last practice before they made cuts, I made a very slight move and I tore my groin,” Reddish recalls. “I went to get an MRI—they said I had to get emergency surgery. I guess there’s a few muscles in there, and there was one hanging. They said if the one hanging tore, my career would have been over.”

He returned to Colorado Springs for a third consecutive year this past summer, ready to handle unfinished business. He ultimately earned a spot in the U19 World Cup Team that competed in Egypt, where he went on to average 10.7 points, 4.3 boards and a team-high 15.7 PER.

“I knew this year I had to go out there and make a statement,” says the Duke University commit. “Getting cut my first year at USA [U16 tryouts] was definitely motivation for me. But the injury [in 2016] really refocused me and pushed me. I realized the game of basketball could be gone just like that.”

After spending his freshman year at The Haverford School (PA), Reddish, whose dad hooped at VCU from 1989-91, transferred to Westtown School (PA) for his sophomore season, where he helped achieve a 28-5 record and a league and state championship.

As a junior, he helped the Moose to a 32-2 record and a second consecutive Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association state title. Along the way, Reddish averaged 16.2 points per game and earned first team PIAA Class 3A All-State honors.

Headed to Duke next fall, Reddish says he’s envisioned himself at Cameron Indoor Stadium for a while.

“I will never forget the day they offered me—it was April 25 of 2016,” says the senior. “I knew I wanted to go to Duke probably since going into my 11th grade year. I [first] had to make sure I checked all my other schools out.

“For the longest of time, I just really liked [basketball]—I loved it—I was just playing for fun. But now it’s kind of like my job.”

—

Portraits by Ricky Rhodes 

Video by Joe Kramer    

The post Grindin’ My Whole Life appeared first on SLAM.

This past summer the 6-6 Canadian native led his country to the U19 FIBA World Cup gold medal in Egypt. It was the first time that Canada ever claimed a gold medal (in basketball) in international competition. Canada has been producing top-notch hoops talent for the past few years and Barrett is expected to be the next one up the pipeline.

We recently spent some time with him, his coaches and family in Orlando for a two-part mini-doc in anticipation of his long-awaited college announcement. Check out Part 2 above. For Part 1 see below.

The post RJ Barrett: The Announcement, Part 2 appeared first on SLAM.

This past summer the 6-6 Canadian native led his country to the U19 FIBA World Cup gold medal in Egypt. It was the first time that Canada ever claimed a gold medal (in basketball) in international competition. Canada has been producing top-notch hoops talent for the past few years and Barrett is expected to be the next one up the pipeline.

We recently spent some time with him, his coaches and family in Orlando for a two-part mini-doc in anticipation of his long-awaited college announcement. Check out Part 1 above. See below for Part 2.

The post RJ Barrett: The Announcement, Part 1 appeared first on SLAM.

Regardless of how you feel about his defense, it was one of the best single season performances the League has ever seen on the offensive end.

And if it weren’t for his former teammate Russell Westbrook having an even more otherworldly season, claiming the MVP award seemed very probable.

It was a season filled with all types of career highs, despite a coaching change as well as a position change.

Mike D’Antoni took over the helm for the Houston Rockets last year and one of his first executive decisions was to make James Harden the new point guard of the franchise.

And the rest is history. The numbers speak for themselves.

Harden went on to average 29.1 points per game—a career-high and only second in the League to Westbrook’s 31.6—and 11.2 assists per game—also a career-high and a League-best for 2016-17. He also finished No. 1 in both free throws attempted and made for the third consecutive season.

The 6-5 guard joined Oscar Robertson as the only players to average at least 29.0 points, 11.0 assists and 8.0 rebounds (he averaged 8.1 boards) in a single season. The Big O reached this feat three times throughout his career.

Additionally, he became the first NBA player to ever record at least 2,000 points, 900 assists and 600 rebounds in a single season.

Coming into last season, Harden had accumulated nine triple-doubles throughout his career. But then he posted 22 triple-doubles in 2016-17 alone, which is the sixth-most ever recorded in a single season. His 53-point, 17-assist, and 16-rebound performance on New Year’s Eve against the New York Knicks made him the first player in NBA history to ever record at least 50 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists in a single game.

After leading the Rockets to the fourth-most regular season wins (55) in franchise history, Harden became the only player to be unanimously voted (all 100 ballots) into the ’16-17 First-Team All NBA selection.

And then June 28th happened. In a blockbuster trade that sent shockwaves throughout the League, the Clippers sent nine-time NBA all-star Chris Paul to the Rockets in exchange for Patrick Beverly, Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, Darrun Hilliard, DeAndre Liggins, Kyle Wiltjer, a protected first-round pick and $661,000.

Adding a superstar point guard to a backcourt that already featured the NBA’s reigning assist leader immediately made Houston one of the most intriguing line-ups in the Association.

Yet, the billion-dollar question remains: Can Chris Paul and James Harden coexist in the backcourt? And how will his numbers be affected by the move?

The two ranked among the NBA’s top four players in assist rate last season (Harden 50.7% and Paul 46.8%). On paper the opportunities seem bountiful. But executing it and meshing on the hardwood is another conversation.

The season-ending loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals this past spring was everything but representative of Harden’s season. He was held to just 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting to go along with six turnovers before fouling out. The LA native just seemed to have ran out of gas after putting the team on his back throughout the season. And this is where adding a player of Paul’s caliber can make a difference by now possessing another all-star guard to carry the load on nights when things just aren’t clicking for the other.

Harden broke the all-time single-season record for turnovers last season with 464. The previous all-time record was set by Harden himself just a year prior when he had 374 of them. With Paul now also running point, the turnover totals should decrease this season.

D’Antoni has said Harden and CP3 will both share playmaking responsibilities for the squad this year, to which Harden has described as very promising thus far.

After a practice session a couple of weeks ago, he told the Houston Chronicle of sharing the floor with CP3: “I’ve had more catch-and-shoot opportunities, he has as well, in these four days of training camp than we’ve had in a few years,” Harden said. “It hasn’t been tough because we’re willing to share the ball … and make plays for our teammates and ourselves. I’m going to have that same mentality to score and create, but I don’t have to do it as much because we have another guy that can do it on a high level.”

He was asked to make an adjustment in the backcourt last season and went on to have a historic year. Now he’s being asked to do so again. But this time he’s being asked to mesh with one of the best pure point guards in the NBA.

When it comes to making adjustments, we think Harden has earned the benefit of the doubt that it’s something he can do rather quickly.

Previous Rankings:
2016: No. 7
2015: No. 6
2014: No. 9
2013: No. 5

The post SLAM Top 50: James Harden, No. 6 appeared first on SLAM.

Although the natural light fails to reach the hardwood floor and lower seating bowl, it does shine over a portion of the upper deck. Porter, looking up while sitting to the left of the scorer’s table, notices the coincidental angle in which the sunlight comes in.

He begins smiling while pointing to an upper corner of the arena, where the sun’s reflection shines brightly on a wall, illuminating a couple of signs that bring back clear memories of 2010.

That’s the year Porter first set foot in the arena.

“I remember sitting all the way up there in section 208 with two strangers sitting next to me,” Porter says. “Since my dad worked here, we’d get free tickets and I would come by myself sometimes. I remember coming to these games and Mizzou Arena was packed.”

Porter’s dad, Michael Sr, accepted a Director of Basketball Operations position with the Mizzou women’s basketball program in 2010. And so the family relocated from Indianapolis, IN, to Columbia, MO, just as Porter Jr wrapped up fifth grade.

He wasn’t feeling the move at first. Like the majority of his seven other siblings, Porter Jr was homeschooled up until high school. And so the challenge with relocating at that age wasn’t necessarily about adjusting to a new school system, new teachers or new classmates. Instead, unlike in the Indy area—a hotbed for basketball—finding friends through hoops in Columbia turned out to be very challenging.

“It took a couple of years for it to feel like home—to meet new friends, because I was homeschooled,” he recalls. “Back home my friends were my basketball friends and then coming here, there wasn’t too many basketball players in the area. So I found myself alone a lot. But then that also worked to my advantage because I found myself in the gym a lot because I didn’t have many friends. That was a tough adjustment, but eventually Columbia became home.”

While Columbia didn’t have the same kind of hoops culture that Indiana offered, with his dad on staff, Porter Jr did have access to Mizzou’s facilities, basically at will. He’d shadow the team around the facilities, experience the home game atmosphere from section 208, and would work on his jumper on the arena’s hardwood.

“I was able to come here whenever I wanted to, really. The strength coach for the women’s team would put me through some strength training at a very young age,” he says. “I was able to get in here and shoot on the gun. I remember shooting a thousand shots a night. I just loved it. I loved basketball. I couldn’t think of anything better. I felt like I had everything here to reach my goals.”

One night—while still in the sixth grade—after Porter Jr finished his usual shooting workout at the arena, then- Mizzou men’s head coach Frank Haith offered him a scholarship on the spot. Only fitting that the Tigers would become the first D1 program to offer him a scholarship, right?

But his journey to wearing a Tigers uniform was anything but a simple one. The hometown hero will suit up for the state school this season only after initially committing to playing for Washington in the Pac-12. That was until a series of March events led him back to where it all began.

After three years as Director of Basketball Operations, Michael Sr was promoted to assistant coach of the women’s team at Mizzou in 2013. The following year, the oldest of the eight Porter siblings, Bri (a 6-3 forward), joined the Tigers’ program. In 2015, Cierra, a 6-4 forward and the second oldest Porter sibling, also joined the Tigers. With dad on the bench and Bri and Cierra on the floor, the Porter family appeared to be on their way to a full-blown Missouri hoops takeover.

“We’ve been naturally gifted and realize that you can make change if you have a platform, and basketball is a great platform,” Cierra says. “That’s what drives us.”

Meanwhile, after being homeschooled up to that point, Porter Jr enrolled in Columbia’s Father Tolton Regional Catholic HS for ninth grade in 2013. There he led Tolton to its first basketball state title as a junior, averaging 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists that season.

But in 2016 a new opportunity was presented to Michael Sr. Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar offered him an assistant coaching position with the Huskies’ men’s basketball program in Seattle. Senior ultimately decided to accept the offer and the Porters found themselves relocating once again.

Romar and Michael Sr had actually known each other since the 1980s, when the two were teammates for Athletes In Action, the sports arm of Cru (then called Campus Crusade for Christ) a non-profit, non-denominational ministry organization. Romar eventually became Porter Jr’s godfather years later.

While Bri and Cierra stayed put in Columbia, Porter Jr transferred to Nathan Hale HS in the Emerald City for his senior year and committed to the Washington Huskies soon after.

In Seattle, Nathan Hale had just hired former NBA All-Star Brandon Roy as its new head coach. Joining MPJ at the school was his younger brother, Jontay, who was coming in as an 11th grader, and their younger brother, Coban, who was entering his freshman year.

The prior season, Nathan Hale had a dismal 3-18 record, but with MPJ and Jontay (who was a top-30 national recruit in his class and had committed to the Huskies for 2018) coming in, and with Roy bringing in other pieces like top-50 Class of 2019 recruit PJ Fuller, expectations were high.

The results? Nathan Hale went undefeated for the season, finishing 29-0 while capturing the state title and the No. 1 spot on MaxPreps’ national team rankings. The sharp-shooting MPJ averaged a ridiculous 36.2 points, 13.6 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 3.2 steals and 2.7 blocks, ultimately earning National Player of the Year accolades.

While the Porter brothers enjoyed a perfect season, their father had a completely different experience at Washington in his first year. The Huskies went 9-22, losing a school record 13 straight games and finishing 11th in the Pac-12 with a 2-16 record in conference play—missing out on the NCAA Tournament for a sixth consecutive year. The tough season ultimately cost Romar his job at Washington, where he coached for 15 years.

Call it fate or pure coincidence but on the very same day that Romar was fired at Washington—March 15—Mizzou announced the hiring of Cuonzo Martin, who had just resigned as Cal’s head coach a few hours earlier. Mizzou had fired head coach Ken Anderson just 10 days prior.

And so with MPJ’s godfather no longer at the helm, the Porters saw no reason to remain committed to the Huskies and thus found themselves looking for a new home immediately.

After some talks with Martin, both Michael Jr and Michael Sr had announced that they were coming home—returning to Columbia to join the Mizzou men’s basketball program. Two months later, Jontay announced that he’d do the same by reclassifying to the Class of 2017.

The grand return to Columbia is a family reunion of all sorts. Bri and Cierra are now in their junior and senior years, respectively, and still members of the women’s basketball team, while MPJ, Jontay and Michael Sr (men’s assistant coach) will look to take care of business on the men’s side for the Tigers.

Oh, and for those keeping score of the Porter family tree within the Missouri program, you can add Robin Pingeton, the women’s basketball head coach, to the list. She’s the Porter siblings’ aunt—sister of their mother, Lisa.

“It’s been surreal so far,” Jontay says of his first month on campus with his brother and sisters. “Not everyone has the opportunity to be in college with three other siblings. So it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Adds Bri, “This is probably our last year all in one place, kind of living life together, and so that’s what we talk about. The basketball [side], everyone obviously has an expectation to succeed and excel in that area, but I think what we’ve focused on more is having fun together.”

MPJ and company will look to turn around a program that hasn’t been able to surpass 10 wins in each of the last three seasons. The team has also failed to get more than three wins in conference play in each of those three years. The Tigers haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament in four years and haven’t been able to get out of the first round of the Big Dance since the 2009-10 campaign.

“As time went on, the men’s team just wasn’t what they used to be,” MPJ says, comparing the last few years of the program to when he first sat in section 208 in 2010. “The crowds just got smaller and smaller until this past year they didn’t really have too much of a crowd at games. And so when I left Seattle and committed here, I was really just looking to renew the Mizzou atmosphere that I knew was possible. Coming back here, it was basically a dream come true. I kind of viewed it as God putting the pieces in for me to come back here. It was the perfect situation.”

If anyone has recent experience in turning around a program it’s MPJ, who, along with Jontay, helped flip Nathan Hale into the No. 1 team in the country just a year after the Raiders won three games in the whole season. And Porter Jr already sees some similarities between his new team and his old one.

“The thing about Nathan Hale is Brandon [Roy] was the coach and he brought people in with him to play with us, and I kind of view this as the same situation,” Porter Jr says. “It wasn’t just me turning that program around. Brandon had other players coming with him—and so here, after I committed, I was able to pull in more pieces with me.”

He’s referring to top-50 recruit Jeremiah Tilmon, a former Illinois commit, and top-100 recruit Blake Harris, a former Washington commit, who both agreed to join the Tigers this spring after MPJ came on board. When you add Jontay to the mix, that’s four top-100 recruits that Mizzou welcomed just this fall.

With many considering MPJ a candidate for the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, mostly due to his super versatile scoring arsenal and deadly shooting touch from just about every corner on the floor—leading to plenty of Kevin Durant comparisons—there are some very high hopes this season in Columbia and beyond for the freshman stud.

If you ask Porter Jr, though, none of those expectations mean too much.

“For me, I don’t really try to impress anyone. I honestly play for God and then I play for myself,” MPJ says. “I have my own standards of how I should play. It’s never for anybody else. It’s because I’ve been given a gift and I want to show it—but I don’t do it for other people, I do it for myself. There is some pressure sometimes—living up to the hype—but honestly I know if I keep working then there’s no one that can stand in front of my path.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Jonathan Zizzo

Video by Fathom Studios

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The post Family Over Everything appeared first on SLAM.

Averaging 25.1 points per game last season, which ranked No. 1 among centers and tied Kevin Durant for 12th overall in the League, the Piscataway, NJ, native proved that he was indeed everything he was touted to be when he was selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Points aside, he also finished top 10 among centers in rebounds (12.3 per night), assists (2.7 per game), free throws and field goals.

Last season he became the first player in NBA history to reach 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 100 three-pointers in a single season while also breaking Kevin Love’s single-season scoring record. He stood behind only Pau and Marc Gasol in three-point shooting percentage among centers.

KAT finished with a double-double in 62 of last season’s 82 games.

Following two years of steady progress and growing into the team’s go-to option, this season will bring KAT into new territory. After being the leader (at age 21) of the youngest team in the NBA last season, some offseason acquisitions by the Timberwolves have suddenly brought in playoffs expectations upon Towns and company. The veteran additions from this summer include all-star Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague, Jamal Crawford and Taj Gibson.

Despite averaging 25 and 12 for the season, Kat was snubbed from the All-NBA team selections in the spring. Clippers center DeAndre Jordan beat him out by just four points. The seven-footer took to social media in the aftermath to say that “being disrespected is nothing new” to him. And in an interview with Sporting News a month later regarding the snub, he added:

“You know what, it did a little bit, it did a little damage to me. But that’s all right, because it is all about team success. You’ve got to win. You’ve got to win to be respected in this league. You have to do little things, there are things we can do as a team. We have to come back as a stronger team and win in the playoffs, because the playoffs are the most important thing.”

The playoffs are a milestone that Minnesota fans have been looking to claim for over a decade. The franchise hasn’t played in a postseason game since 2004. After only winning 31 games last season, Las Vegas has the Wolves at over/under 48.5 victories this year.

The impact this summer’s additions ultimately have on KAT’s production will be interesting to watch unfold. There are some that fear it might lead to him having fewer touches and shots. Will there be spacing issues that could arise? Is ball sharing a concern?

While those may be some of the trepidations, there are plenty of positives as well on the flipside. The Timberwolves were known for not being all that great on defense last season and having added someone like Butler can certainly help in that department. Also, adding some veterans will certainly help out a young team that in many occasions couldn’t close out games last year. The new pieces will also be taking a load off KAT’s shoulders on both ends of the floor.

In the end, as is the case with just about any of the League’s star players, KAT’s career will be judged on just how much winning he ultimately was able to accumulate. And so while we can debate all day on the impact the additions will have on KAT’s stat lines this coming season, it’s the wins and losses column that may ultimately decide where he really ranks among the League’s best.

Previous Rankings:
2016: No. 20
2015: Not Ranked

Rankings are based on expected contribution in 2017-18—to players’ team, the NBA and the game.

No. 50 – Dion Waiters
No. 49 – Ben Simmons 
No. 48 – Brook Lopez
No. 47 — Harrison Barnes
No. 46 — Jrue Holiday
No. 45 — Lonzo Ball
No. 44 — Myles Turner
No. 43 — Goran Dragic
No. 42 — Andre Drummond
No. 41 — Al Horford
No. 40 — LaMarcus Aldridge
No. 39 — Kevin Love
No. 38 — Paul Millsap
No. 37 — Hassan Whiteside
No. 36 — Andrew Wiggins
No. 35 — Marc Gasol
No. 34 – DeAndre Jordan
No. 33 — Bradley Beal
No. 32 — Kemba Walker
No. 31 — CJ McCollum
No. 30 — Devin Booker
No. 29 — Nikola Jokic
No. 28 — Joel Embiid
No. 27 — Mike Conley 
No. 26 — Kyle Lowry
No. 25 — Rudy Gobert
No. 24 — Gordon Hayward
No. 23 — Kristaps Porzingis
No. 22 — Carmelo Anthony
No. 21 — DeMar DeRozan
No. 20 — Blake Griffin
No. 19 — Draymond Green
No. 18 — Chris Paul
No. 17 — Klay Thompson
No. 16 — Jimmy Butler
No. 15 — Isaiah Thomas 

The post SLAM Top 50: Karl-Anthony Towns, No. 14 appeared first on SLAM.

You had the all-day news ticker at the bottom of ESPN’s live feed, which as ridiculous as it sounds, gave the latest information on what sneaker Lonzo Ball wore the previous night and would then update itself hours before his next game. Then there were the social media posts from LeBron James after Zo wore Nike and from James Harden after Zo wore adidas. It quickly became clear that the League and even its biggest superstars were paying attention.

And then of course you had all the speculation regarding what sneakers he’d wear next and the debates about how much of it was calculated and part of a larger marketing plan.

While Summer League was supposed to be simply offer a slight glimpse of what a young player could bring to the NBA, for Lonzo Ball and Big Baller Brand, it ended up being much more.

It brought into center stage just how fascinated people had become with Zo’s unprecedented decision to go the independent route and rock his family’s brand on the court.

After wearing the ZO2 Prime by Big Baller Brand during the first two games of Summer League, the Lakers rookie began wearing other brands for the remainder of his time in Vegas. Fans, as expected, wondered why.

With Lonzo having not worn the ZO2s since Game 2 of Summer League (July 8), the speculation carried over into August. But with training camp now just a handful of days away, the No. 2 overall pick is officially putting any remaining rumors to rest.

In the video above, he reveals a complete redesign of the original ZO2 Prime silhouette while touting it “the lightest basketball shoe ever made.”

Keeping fans on their toes and taking unexpected turns has seemingly become a staple of the BBB team’s strategy. From the rollout of Zo’s and LaMelo’s signatures, to Zo wearing random other brands out of the blue in Vegas, the brand has thrived on these kinds of sharp turns.

And so as surprising as the cancellation (and replacement) of the original ZO2 Prime silhouette may be to some, in retrospect, a change of plans on the design of the sneaker shouldn’t come as a total shock.

Those who already pre-ordered the original ZO2 Primes can expect this “remix” version to still arrive by the original November shipping date. The Showtime edition and the “Independence Day” colorways will also be converted into this new silhouette and shipping dates for pre-orders of those will also remain the same. There is a refund option for those who pre-ordered the original ZO2 shoe and would rather not receive the newer version.

The shoe itself features a carbon fiber heel cap, while the upper has a three-texture combination— haptic 3D printing in the high abrasion areas, monofilament rip-stop mesh that originate from the “America’s Cup” racing yachts, and a semi-sock construction fabric that leads in to the tongue to provide support and a snug fit.

The outsole is touted as featuring the “newest revolutionary foam” with “40 percent more rebound than standard EVA.”

Pre-orders for the new ZO2 Prime commence today, with the four other colorways expected to be rolled out within the next few weeks.

Lonzo has been weartesting the sneakers since late July and has been making final modifications for the past two months.

The Lakers first preseason game is now nine days away. Expect to see this BBB ZO2 silhouette make its NBA debut then.

Related
LaMelo Ball Unveils the Big Baller Brand MB1
LaVar Ball Writes About Big Baller Brand Came Together

The post EXCLUSIVE: Lonzo Ball Reveals New Design for the BBB ZO2 Prime appeared first on SLAM.

LaMelo Ball, who just turned 16 last week and is the youngest of the three Ball Brothers, is now debuting a sneaker of his own. He is the first high school basketball prospect ever to have a signature shoe at this stage.

The low-cut MB1 features a two-tone woven textile with a camouflaged one-piece knit upper. BBB is touting it as one of the lightest basketball sneakers on the market. The red heel, black upper and shoe tongue are all made up of suede material. The tongue is a distinctively thin layer, which came at the request of Melo to provide him with less weight and more freedom around his ankles. The MB1 comes in priced at $395 and is slated to reach homes during the holiday season.

A 6-3 guard who became a household name this past season for his ridiculously long-range three pointers, ankle-breaking moves off the dribble and his 92-point performance, the Chino Hills HS star is still only an 11th grader.

During the 2015-16 season, Melo and his two older brothers, Lonzo (who is now the new star of the Los Angeles Lakers) and LiAngelo (who will be entering his freshman season at UCLA this fall), were all in the starting line up at Chino Hills. Zo was a senior, Gelo was a junior and Melo was a freshman. Together they were the top three scorers on the team and went a perfect 35-0 to ultimately claim the state title and No. 1 spot in the national team rankings.

Melo, who is ranked among the top-10 players in the Class of 2019, had been helping design the shoe and his personal logo since March. He will suit up in the MB1s this upcoming season. New colorways are expected to be revealed closer to the season.

With 2.4 million followers on Instagram alone, Melo already has a much larger following on social media platforms than the majority of NBA players. Although people in the prep scene knew of Melo since his freshman year, it was last season when his notoriety reached new levels. At times he would have to be escorted out of side doors after games due to large crowds lingering in hopes of getting a picture or autograph.

And no, the family hasn’t forgotten about LiAngelo. BBB has purposely been extremely careful to not include Gelo in any brand initiatives that may put his NCAA eligibility at risk while he’s playing at UCLA. Thus, he has noticeably been missing from brand activations and promotional images over the summer, which has led many fans to inquire on his behalf. The BBB camp says that they do have a plan for Gelo and are merely waiting for the NCAA limitations to be in the rearview mirror.

As for the background track in the video above—yes, that’s Zo behind the mic spitting verses in support of his younger brother and the BBB movement.

And the Lambo? No, it wasn’t rented for the shoot. Melo actually owns it. It was LaVar Ball’s gift to his youngest son for his 16th birthday.

So yeah, at age 16, Melo already has a signature shoe in the market and a Lamborghini to get around.

As he says in the sneaker reveal vid, “life is sweet” for him, indeed.

—

Photos via Ryan Young
Video by Joe Krolick

—

RELATED
Lonzo Ball Debuts the ZO2
LaVar Ball Writes About the Inspiration Behind BBB

The post EXCLUSIVE: LaMelo Ball Debuts The MB1 By Big Baller Brand appeared first on SLAM.

He chose the latter.

Stephon Marbury became AND1’s first-ever NBA endorser. And it didn’t take long for him to prove he was a trendsetter—by 2002, AND1 had gone on to sign dozens of NBA players.

The Brooklyn native and the Philly-based sportswear outfitter were a perfect match. Marbury, who grew up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and spent one season at Georgia Tech, was a highly heralded NYC point guard known for his grit, flare and hard-nosed demeanor. Meanwhile, AND1 had already begun building some momentum in the basketball community with its famous “trash talk” tees prior to signing Marbury; up to this point, the brand was mostly regarded for its streetball influence more than anything else.

“People knew us for our apparel,” recalls Dexter Gordon, AND1’s Director of Player and Grassroots Development. “This legitimized AND1 from streetball to the League, so this was a big step for the brand.”

And so the signing of the 1995 McDonald’s All-American would officially bring them onto the NBA hardwood. When the Marbury 1s were introduced in 1996, their TV commercial showed Marbury dribbling through a subway station and in and out of a train car while putting moves on straphangers. The only words uttered by him are “all day long” in the ad’s final seconds. Serving as AND1’s first-ever basketball shoe, it became the silhouette that paved the way for the legendary Tai Chi, which Vince Carter would bring into prominence just three years later at the forever-classic 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest in Oakland. It was also the prelude to what would become an international offseason phenomenon—the AND1 Mixtape Tour.

Marbury would go on to earn an NBA All-Rookie First Team nod before being named an NBA All-Star in 2001 and 2003. He averaged a career-high of 9.3 assists with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1998-99 season, and his best scoring season came with the New Jersey Nets in ‘00-01, when he put up 23.9 points per game.

The shoe’s 2017 return was the result of a continuous outreach from loyal fans who were there from the brand’s inception and still share memories of what it was like to own a pair in the ’90s. With fans flooding AND1’s social media channels over the years with inquiries into the possibility of a retro version of the historic shoe, the brand both realized that there was a high demand for them and that such a release was long overdue.

Rebranded as the “Coney Island Classic,” the latest version pays homage to its Brooklyn roots. Not only was AND1’s first NBA endorser and the subject of the shoe that expanded the brand into the footwear category a Kings County native, their current lead pitchman, Indiana Pacers guard Lance Stephenson is, too (and coincidentally attended Lincoln, the same high school as Marbury). It just goes to show that two decades later, the brand has remained true to its identity and tradition.

The Coney Island Classic features a full-grain leather upper recreating the original Marbury 1 pattern as well as a translucent rubber outsole with multi-directional herringbone for traction when cutting laterally. Its EVA (ethyl vinyl acetate) foam midsole is also recreated from the original. The most obvious difference from its original version is the missing ‘S’ emblem on the heel, which featured a basketball in the middle and served as Marbury’s logo at the time.

And while the release of the Coney Island Classic was a nice treat for nostalgic hoop fans and sneakerheads alike, it looks like AND1 has something bigger up its sleeve for 2018.

“We just had an overwhelming [amount of] requests from fans and sneakerheads to bring it back,” Gordon says. “It was just something that kept coming up and we had been talking about it for years. Last year, talks ramped up and we decided to do it as an introduction of things to come for our 25th anniversary in 2018.”

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Photos via Getty Images

The post New Classic appeared first on SLAM.

Just 15 miles east, a lanky, 7-foot teenager is putting up shots on a concrete playground in Hollis, Queens. His goal is to one day be in the same spot as those other guys who today are just a few subway stops away.

But on this sunny summer Thursday, Moses Brown, a rising senior at Archbishop Molloy HS, is just another inner-city kid keeping the dream alive while watching from afar with his father by his side.

The duo has been inseparable ever since Moses’ dad, Malcolm, got sole custody when his son was only 9 years old. As a single parent, Malcolm has experienced his share of challenges. And with Moses emerging into a top-10 national recruit in the Class of 2018, sacrifices have become inevitable.

“After I got custody, someone illegally stole the house that we lived in,” recalls Malcolm. “We moved to The Bronx, where the living conditions weren’t the best. Me being a carpenter, I did the best I could do. I hooked it up with Sheetrock and painted it, so that when the ACS people came, they would see that Moses had a decent place to stay.”

But as Moses grew older, Malcolm realized that he needed a better home setting to raise his son in. So he took out his annuity money, packed their bags and moved into an old home that his father once had in Queens. Things were finally looking up. Housing was no longer an issue and Malcom’s mother was staying with them to help out with Moses, who by his freshman year of high school had emerged into a promising prospect.

But then life threw another curve ball at them last year. On September 23, 2016, Malcolm’s mother passed away. Soon after he was faced with a tough predicament: How to go about taking care of Moses alone moving forward. He decided to quit his job in order to look out after Moses full-time.

“Cooking, cleaning, washing—I’m just making sure he’s 100 percent right when he steps out that door,” says Malcolm. “It’s been hard and we’ve had to sacrifice a lot.”

“He’s always there and drives me everywhere,” adds Moses, who runs with New Heights on the AAU circuit.

Regarded as the top senior prospect in the Big Apple, Brown faces lofty expectations. He’s showcased some impressive mobility at his size to go along with his physical impact in the paint, and his high ceiling still hasn’t even been scratched yet—it’s the ultimate potential and continuous progress that have skyrocketed him up the rankings.

“Nothing has really changed as far as my mindset,” says the 7-1 center of his national emergence. “Just gotta keep working because at the end of the day, being a top-10 player in high school is not really going to matter at the next level.”

If Moses maintains that same mentality and his skillset continues cruising in the same direction, it could only be a matter of time before he finds himself 15 miles west on a Thursday morning in June, knowing that housing conditions will be the least of his worries moving forward.

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Ricky Rhodes. 

The post Grateful appeared first on SLAM.

And then June 22 happened. Lonzo Ball walked across the stage at Barclays Center and shook NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s hand while rocking a Lakers-themed colorway of his signature sneaker, the ZO2s by Big Baller Brand. LaVar? He wasted no time before donning a Lakers-themed BBB hat just seconds after the commish uttered Zo’s name.

It was months in the making. Maybe years. Despite having less than a 50 percent chance of landing a top-3 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, LaVar did indeed speak Lonzo to the Lakers into existence.

Less than 48 hours after Draft Night, SLAM was in LA with the Ball family to shoot this month’s cover. As part of our new issue—The Future Issue—LaVar writes an open letter about the motivation behind his family’s movement and what he hopes everyone keeping tabs on them takes away from it.

After the shoot, we had a chance to chop it up with LaVar about a variety of topics, including the vision he has for his two younger sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo. After all, he did manage to correctly forecast Lonzo’s path to the League.

Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo played one season together in high school. With all three in the starting line-up during the 2015-16 season, Chino Hills HS went a perfect 35-0, shining a national spotlight on the California school. The Huskies would end up as the No. 1-ranked team in the country, averaging almost 100 points per game (in eight-minute quarters). Then this past season, LiAngelo was California’s leading scorer, while LaMelo became a household name for pulling up (successfully) from halfcourt and dropping 92 points.

This coming season Melo will have the reigns at Chino Hills, while Gelo will follow Zo’s footsteps by heading to UCLA, where he’ll play for Steve Alford’s Bruins squad.

“With Gelo, he’s the middle guy, but he’s in the best situation,” LaVar told us. “I’ve told him, I wish I was in your shoes, man. You’re one and done. He’s coming in with more expectations, but also less expectations. More expectations because you’re Lonzo’s little brother, but also less expectation because everybody thinks you’re a three-star recruit. So whatever you do is good. Average 30 points? You’re a top-5 pick. Suck? You’re still one and done. Good, no one picks you. Good, you can come into the Lakers as a free agent. And now watch Lonzo play with his little brother. Get him for nothing. When I say championship, championship, championship—when all three get on the [Lakers], you saw what they did in high school, and now see what they do as grown men playing together.”

The likelihood of the scenarios through which all three could end up on the same Lakers team as rookies is anyone’s guess. But we gotta admit, just the thought of it happening—we’re very much here for it.

“The Ball Dynasty,” says LaVar, smiling. “See, my boys are never going to go, ‘Hey, I’m scoring 30 points. I need 40 mil. I need more than Lonzo or I’m leaving.’ You’ll never have contract disputes. That’s how you win championships. They only care about winning. They’d stay together for the rest of their careers. The chemistry they have, you’ve seen it already. That’s why I see that far ahead: All three of my boys on the Lakers at the same time. Put them together and watch what they do. It’ll be magic. Lonzo knows where his brothers want the ball, where to kick it to. We’ll have our own Big Three.”

Over the holiday weekend, Big Baller Brand shared an illustration on Instagram that portrayed all three Ball brothers in Lakers uniforms with a the caption simply saying, “Imagine,” accompanied by a thinking emoji.

Could a Ball Brothers reunion in the League really be in the cards?

As LaVar says in his essay in our newest issue, “Without the vision, you have no precision.” And in the Ball household, there’s a whole lot of that.

—

Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson; Family/Lakers pic via Getty

—

RELATED:
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The post LaVar Ball Envisions Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo Together On The Lakers appeared first on SLAM.

“Stewie was my host when I visited the first time,” says Walker, referring to WNBA rising star and Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, who was a junior at UConn during the 2014 visit. “It was kind of crazy, but you can’t act like you’re star-struck. She said it’s going to be tough as a freshman. So she said, ‘Just listen and take everything in that Coach tells you—don’t deviate.’”

Little did young Megan know that just a few years later she’d be arriving to Storrs with almost identical expectations as her hostess once did. Just like Stewart did in 2012, Walker is setting foot on campus ranked as the No. 1 HS prospect in her class. Stewart claimed the Gatorade National HS Player of the Year and Naismith National HS Player of the Year awards after her senior campaign. Walker? She too claimed the same prestigious awards this spring.

Others who claimed the Naismith award as HS seniors: The Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi, the Minnesota Lynx’s Maya Moore and the Seattle Storm’s Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. And then they all too went on to play at UConn later that year. That’s the elite company in which Walker, a 6-1 wing, finds herself, as she gets ready to start her own journey at Connecticut.

“It’s just an honor to be held to the standards of those other great players,” says Walker. “I feel like it just kind of sets the standard of what my career could end up being like at UConn.”

She’s arriving to campus fresh off a (fittingly) perfect 30-0 season and having led Monacan High School in West Chesterfield, VA, to state titles in the last three consecutive years. As a senior, she averaged 25.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.2 steals.

Her final HS game will go down in the history books as a memorable one in the Richmond area. Walker scored her team’s last 16 points, including a game-winning shot with 15 seconds left, to erase a double-digit fourth quarter deficit and squeeze out a 60-59 nail-biting victory. She walked away with a stat-line of 35 points, 11 rebounds, 6 blocks and 5 steals.

“I hope it left a mark and legacy behind,” Walker says of the aforementioned championship game performance. “We wanted to do something that no one else had done in our school’s history. The 30-0 and the three-peat was a school record. It just meant a lot to be able to accomplish those things and leave a mark.”

UConn is clearly the pinnacle of women’s college hoops, holding the record for most National Championships with 11 titles. The program is also responsible for the two longest winning streaks in college basketball. Just this spring the Huskies’ 111-game winning streak was snapped by Mississippi State in the Final Four. The program was looking to claim its fifth consecutive national title. Despite the end of a historic run, there’s reason for optimism. Walker is part of an incoming recruiting class that features four top-30 prospects.

“What we were doing, Coach said it wasn’t normal,” Walker says in late May after arriving to campus for summer school. “So we’re here, ready to work hard and get ready for next year. We have a chance to do something special and start from scratch.”

—

The post Like A Star appeared first on SLAM.

“If you’re doing your pre-draft workouts right, you should be able to go and impress teams,” he says after a workout while his agent begins coordinating exact dates for those individual team auditions in the weeks ahead.

As small as they were, the odds have seemed to be on his side since forever. Well, since middle school, to be more exact. It was in junior high when the now 6-3 point guard first started getting college recruiting phone calls and even picked up a high-major DI scholarship offer before he ever set foot in a high school classroom.

“I remember it vividly. Some friends of mine were having a garage sale. It was a Saturday morning and I went to help out,” recalls De’Aaron’s mother, Lorraine, about the first time a college coach reached out looking to recruit her son. “My phone rings and it was [assistant] Coach [Jerome] Tang from Baylor. [De’Aaron] was in seventh [grade]. And I’m like, Where did you get my number from? That’s what I’m thinking. I was listening to Coach Tang and he was like, ‘I came to watch De’Aaron in PE.’ And I’m like, OK, alright. And so when I got off the phone with him and I’m talking with my friends, I’m like, That was a coach from Baylor calling about De’Aaron! I was shocked.” (Lorraine has some hoops pedigree herself—she played basketball from 1986-88 at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, where she holds the single season school record for her 92.8 free-throw shooting percentage.)

By eighth grade, Baylor had already offered the young teen a scholarship. Word quickly started circulating that there was a kid out of suburban Houston who could really hoop. And so when it was time for high school, making him the starting point guard on the varsity squad from day one was a no-brainer.

“He already had an offer coming in and he could play at that level,” recalls Cypress Lakes HS (TX) head coach Emmanuel Olatunbosun. “He didn’t look like it physically but at the same time I don’t think people thought, physically, he could play at Kentucky his freshman year. He was skinny, but he was strong. His skill set was so defined at such a young age that he could play because he could score the basketball. His freshman year, he led us in scoring—he averaged 23 a night as a freshman. So we didn’t even fool around with it when he came in as a freshman. He was our starting point guard—there was never a debate.”

Choosing to attend the neighborhood’s local public school, which was just five minutes from his house, instead of going with the plethora of schools in the region that were known for athletic dominance was all part of the plan. Cypress Lakes was a relatively new school when De’Aaron came in as a freshman. It had only been in existence for four years. The school had no notable alumni and not much of a history on the athletic side, either.

As with any new program, the expectation was that it would take a while before the sports department would get rolling. And so when Fox arrived in the fall of 2012 as a highly touted local prospect, the star in the making had a fairly good idea of what he was up against.

“I told him, bless your own path,” remembers De’Aaron’s dad, Aaron, who played football at Fort Hayes State University in Kansas. “You don’t have to follow nobody else. He bought in to it. It was more of a thing of, Why leave the neighborhood when everybody can watch you play here? He learned to bless his own path.”

Adds De’Aaron, “It was difficult but I felt it was nothing I really couldn’t handle, so that’s why I didn’t go the prep school way. I was fine going to a school in my backyard.”

De’Aaron took the program to new levels, pretty much carrying the team on his back for much of the four years. But it was the summer before his senior year when De’Aaron realized that he actually had a shot to play for college basketball’s cream of the crop.

While playing for Houston Hoops in the 2015 Nike youth travel circuit—better known as the EYBL—which is annually regarded as the most star-studded grassroots circuit, he led the league in both assists and steals. At the annual Peach Jam, the EYBL’s season-ending session in North Augusta, SC, Fox picked up interest from Kentucky head coach John Calipari. A couple of weeks later at another tournament in Las Vegas in late July, the Hall of Fame coach would formally offer the Katy, TX, native a scholarship. But it wasn’t until a couple of months after that when Calipari made a recruiting visit to De’Aaron’s school and home that the coach realized the then-17-year-old’s unselfishness went beyond the court.

“I go to his school and he kind of parades me around,” Cal says. “He wanted everyone to be involved. He wanted everyone to enjoy this moment. He didn’t make it just about him.”

De’Aaron specifically wanted a classmate of his, Seth Barnett, to meet Coach Cal. Seth, who was born in Eastern Kentucky, went to Cypress Lakes but suffered from cerebral palsy. He was in a wheelchair, and the biggest Kentucky fan De’Aaron knew, always rocking Big Blue Nation gear.

“When I went to the home, the mom brought the child there and we got to interact,” says Calipari. “And that’s when I said, This is about more than just himself. He’s a gatherer. He wants to use his position to help others. Bang! I was locked in. I knew this is the kind of guy you want running your team.”

To be the starting point guard at any high-major DI program is a tough task. But to be a freshman and the starting point guard for the Kentucky Wildcats, where kids play under such a large microscope and scrutiny every single night, is not for the faint of heart. And to add to the expectations, Fox was being compared to Washington Wizards All-Star John Wall, a former Wildcat himself, before he even set foot on campus.

Speaking of expectations… Kentucky came in this past season with the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in all of college basketball. Lexington has actually been home to either the nation’s No. 1 or No. 2 recruiting class every year since Calipari took over in 2009. (And, yes, they have the No. 1 ranked recruiting class again this upcoming fall.)

With five top-30 recruits entering the program last fall, expectations were sky high. And not just within the media and the BBN fan base, but also inside the locker room. That explains the raw emotional reaction that went viral after the Wildcats were eliminated by the eventual champs, the UNC Tar Heels, in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight. Fox wound up crying uncontrollably in the arms of fellow freshman star Edrice “Bam” Adebayo while reporters stood by attempting to ask questions. It was only the second time his mom had ever seen him cry after a loss.

“Just knowing that was my only opportunity to win a National Championship—competitiveness spilled over,” says Fox about how hard he took the loss. “Just knowing that we were up 5 with like two to three minutes left, knowing that we could have won that game is what really [hurt]. Just losing that game the way we did. It was tough losing like that. It’s not the same when you have another chance to win it. That was the part that hurt the most.”

While he didn’t reach the ultimate goal, De’Aaron did manage to make a few statements. He lived up to the billing in every facet. Actually, surpassed it. Whether or not he’s the second coming of John Wall, the Lone Star guard showed why there’s even the thought of his potential reaching that level. He famously exploded for 39 points on the national stage to help his team eliminate UCLA in the Sweet 16. Along with the team victory, Fox also won the highly anticipated individual match-up against fellow potential top pick Lonzo Ball. He also became only the second player in program history to ever post a triple-double by finishing with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against Arizona State in the first month of the season. And he eventually forced his way into the top-three overall draft pick conversation after finishing out his college career with such force.

An explosive guard with lightning speed and feisty defense—where he is constantly swiping the ball from opponents with ease, hence his “swipathefox” Instagram and Twitter handles—Fox’s potential is as promising as it gets. But it’s his off-the-court personality that really separates him from the pack. He’s a “personable nerd,” according to his HS coach. While known to the hoops world for his high motor and intensity on the hardwood, De’Aaron has mastered the art of balancing life on the court with knowing when to turn the switch off away from it.

Known as a hardcore video gamer and avid anime enthusiast, Fox spent many nights of his childhood on a couch upstairs, where he turned the space adjacent to his bedroom into a multi-screen game room. He now credits that setup for helping him develop a specific set of skills that he utilizes on the court.

“At my house it was set up where I had a TV on the floor and then a TV above it,” Fox says. “I’d sit on the couch and have a laptop and iPad. The TV, honestly, you probably couldn’t hear the volume all the time, because if there’s a game on, I don’t need to hear it. I could just watch it. I could have that on and be playing a video game [on the screen below it], and then [on the laptop and iPad] watching the show that I want or be on YouTube. I don’t know how I do it but I can literally process all of it. I’ve gotten so used to it that it’s normal now. I do feel like multitasking off the court does translate to doing things on the court. As a point guard, you basically have to remember five positions. You gotta see everything. If you’re a point guard and can’t process stuff quickly, it’s going to be tough for you. I do feel that helped me to be able to process more than one thing at a time.”

It’s all led him to a unique mental state, one he hopes gives him an edge at the next level, where simply being good isn’t good enough.

“Great players just have a different kind of mentality,” he says. “Being great is difficult. It’s not all that hard being good—there are a lot of good players out there. Some people are good and don’t even try. But being great is different.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Ricky Rhodes and Chris McPherson.

Video by Shoot To Kill NYC

The post True to Self appeared first on SLAM.

Miami Heat president Pat Riley waived Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway in order to sign free agent Luke Jackson, who didn’t even last two months with the team before being waived himself.

Neither Hardaway nor Jackson would ever play in another NBA game. But for Hardaway, it was the final stop in a career that included four NBA All-Star selections, two All-NBA First Team nods and an NBA Finals appearance. He was the face of an iconic Nike ad campaign and one of the most recognizable superstars in the League.

He was 36. He’d made upwards of $120 million playing basketball, but couldn’t do it anymore. He was facing a crossroads in life. Now what?

“I didn’t really end my career the way I wanted to,” Hardaway tells us over the phone in late March, “but I knew that it was over. When I first stepped away from the game, I really was just trying to relax and then figure out what I wanted to do next. I was just trying to take a deep breath and really just go on vacations and just be carefree about everything and not really get too involved with anything.

“It was a grind for 14-15 years straight so I finally had a chance to say, OK, now it’s time to move on and do something else—but I never thought it would be coaching. I wanted to see if maybe I wanted to do TV.”

Penny’s NBA career began in dramatic fashion. The Orlando Magic won 41 games during the 1992-93 season and only missed the playoffs because of a tie-breaker. Yet Orlando defeated all odds to win the No. 1 pick in the 1993 NBA Draft Lottery, despite holding the lowest chances of landing the top spot (1.5 percent). It was the team’s second straight year with the No. 1 pick.

That spring, the Magic’s young center Shaquille O’Neal had earned Rookie of the Year honors, and the front office’s plan was to pair him up with Michigan’s All-American power forward Chris Webber, creating a frontcourt that could dominate the League for years to come.

But O’Neal had other plans. He and Hardaway spent the summer of 1992 on set filming the classic basketball drama Blue Chips. The pair built a strong bond during the production of the movie and so at the request of Shaq, Penny—who had already worked out with the Magic earlier that spring—was invited for a last-minute private workout the day before the draft.

“We brought Penny in for a workout and interview, but it was kind of a cursory one,” Pat Williams, the GM of the Magic back then, told the Chicago Tribune three years later. “We had a definite need for a power forward.”

But that workout changed everything.

“He scrimmaged for an hour and I remember thinking, Oh, boy, are we in a mess. We had a tough 24 hours ahead. We just knew we had a very special player,” Williams said. “He looked like the next Magic [Johnson], the next Oscar [Robertson].”

Although there’s no footage of that legendary workout, the fact that Williams compared Penny to some of the game’s greatest paints a pretty good picture of what took place that afternoon.

Penny wanted to play for the Magic so badly that he reportedly sent a life-sized cardboard cutout of himself to team officials. “He kept tracking us down and making calls,” Williams said in ’96.

A 6-7 point guard with the toughness, skills and persistence that Hardaway exhibited—who could say no to that?

The Magic took Webber with the first overall pick in the draft but traded him minutes later to Golden State for three future first-round picks and Penny, who the Warriors had selected two slots later.

There was uproar from many fans in Orlando who believed Webber was the better choice, but it wouldn’t take long for Penny to win them over. As a rookie, he averaged 16.0 points, 6.6 assists and 5.4 rebounds to go along with 190 steals (sixth most in the NBA), helping the Magic clinch a 50-win season and the first playoff berth in franchise history. He finished second in ROY ballots behind Webber and won MVP at the inaugural mid-season Rookie Challenge.

The following season the Magic won a franchise-record 57 games, with Hardaway averaging 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals over 77 games. He earned a trip to the All-Star Game, was named to the All-NBA First Team and helped lead Orlando past Michael Jordan and the Bulls to the NBA Finals, where the Hakeem Olajuwon-led Houston Rockets swept the Magic. Penny averaged 24.5 points, 8 assists and 4.8 rebounds in the series.

In the ’97 playoffs, Penny averaged 31.0 points per game, second only to Michael Jordan’s 31.1.

Penny made the All-Star Game in four of his first five seasons in the League, but a serious left knee injury in the ’97-98 season slowed his meteoric rise. He needed surgery and missed 63 games. He never quite got back to his old self, and wound up needing five more knee surgeries within a 10-year period. As his explosiveness deteriorated, he bounced from Orlando to Phoenix to New York to Miami.

When Riley waived him in 2007, Penny faced what, eventually, every former NBA player faces: the rest of his life.

After about four years of kicking back and enjoying the lifestyle he worked so hard to achieve, he got a call from an old friend. That call would steer his post-playing career into an unexpected lane.

Penny knew Desmond Merriweather from growing up in the rough Binghampton neighborhood of Memphis. In 2011, Merriweather called to see if Hardaway would be interested in getting involved in an alumni game at Lester Middle School, their old school.

“I went in like two days later and the rest is history,” says Hardaway. “I’ve been coaching from that point on.”

Penny became an assistant coach under Merriweather at the middle school that fall. A handful of games into the season, Hardaway took over as head coach for Merriweather, who had been battling colon cancer since 2009.

“Once the chemo started getting stronger, he couldn’t sit on the bench anymore because he didn’t have the energy after chemo, so he asked me if I could take over full-time, and of course I stepped in right away,” recalls Penny.

In that first season at Lester, Penny helped lead the school to the city and state championship. Then he did it again the following year. And then again the year after that. Three consecutive city and state titles in his first three years as a coach. His friend Desmond, despite the circumstances, was there to celebrate in the locker room and on the bench through it all.

“Me and Desmond had a talk when we were at Lester,” Penny recalls. “We had a group of kids that were sixth graders. We were like, OK, let’s see them through middle school until they graduate from middle school and then let’s see them through high school until they graduate from high school and then on to college. We kind of had that planned together.”

After three consecutive titles at Lester, East Memphis High was where their master plan was destined to continue (the vast majority of Lester players attended East). This time, Desmond took the helm once again, as Penny took a break to go back to Miami and spend some time with his kids. But later in the season, just as their plan seemed to be rolling along perfectly, life took a sharp turn once again. On February 8, 2015, Merriweather passed away after his battle with colon cancer.

Penny was back in Memphis and he watched from the stands as East battled in the state tournament. After they were eliminated in the state semifinals, the former superstar vowed to pick up the torch and ensure that Desmond’s vision lived on. That fall he became the head coach at East High, with one goal in mind. Under Hardaway, the Mustangs went 32-2, claiming the Class AAA state title and finishing with a No. 21 USA TODAY ranking in the country. This past season, East repeated as state champs after going 33-3, this time finishing No. 2 in the country on USA TODAY‘s list.

In his five seasons as a head coach (three at Lester and the past two years at East), Penny has won five state titles and propelled East High into national notoriety.

“My schemes and how we think and play has worked,” Hardaway says of his impressive coaching résumé so far. “I feel like I’m a pretty smart guy and understand circumstances, and so it’s not hard for me to figure things out. I think I’ve been blessed from above to be able to coach because it comes easy to me. I’m not bragging, but it just comes easy to me. I can see things. My gift is adjustments and that’s what you have to do when you’re coaching—you have to be able to adjust.”

Penny’s work with the youth has gone beyond the months of a basketball season. After his first season at Lester in 2012, he turned a local Memphis YMCA basketball program into the now highly regarded Team Penny grassroots travel organization. He started the program with three age groups that first year. Desmond coached the sixth grade team, Penny’s cousin coached the 7th grade team and Penny took the eighth grade squad. As the kids got older every year, Team Penny continued adding older HS squads. Today, the program is known as one of the strongest on the prestigious Nike EYBL circuit.

“We won early and established ourselves and who we are,” Hardaway says. “I’m proud that we have gone from a program that no one knew anything about to being in the Final Four every year we’ve played except for one.

“We started off great because we ended up getting the Lawson brothers [KJ and Dedric Lawson, who transferred to Kansas after two years at the University of Memphis.—Ed.]. It started with that great group of kids and then it just kept building from there. More kids saw our program, saw how we played and liked our style and wanted to come join us. So it started with the better kids from Memphis wanting to play together.”

Penny’s emergence into one of the most successful and impactful coaches in the country and the role that his late friend Desmond played in bringing it into fruition has inspired a new generation of young hoopers in Memphis. It’s a classic old-generation-meets-new-generation tale. Penny’s ability to dominate the coaching scene so soon resembles the way he became one of the League’s biggest stars just as quickly. With only three of the original middle schoolers from that Lester team still in high school at Memphis East, the plan that he and Desmond set forth in 2011 will soon be reaching its final stage. But given the triumphant manner in which the blueprint has been carried out, how it ends is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t know where this is going to take me,” Hardaway admits. “Initially, Desmond and I, we were going to wait until that sixth grade class graduated high school, and next year, those guys will be seniors. But now we have better players coming in that are now ninth graders, so I don’t really know how long I’m going to do this. I don’t really want to leave kids behind because they transferred or came to the school as freshmen to play for me and then I go ahead and leave—but it just depends. Right now, I’m OK here at East. I’ll see where that leads me.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Photos via Nike/EYBL, Getty Images

The post New Way appeared first on SLAM.

His dad, Gary Sr, was a forward for the Wolves who started 34 games while playing for the late Flip Saunders from 2001 to 2004. A bulky 6-8 big out of Columbus, OH, who earned the nickname “Shaq of the MAC” at Ohio University, Gary Sr was selected 11th overall in the 1995 NBA Draft by the Bucks, ultimately playing nine years in the League.

Fast forward some 13 years and Gary Jr, regarded as one of the top 10 recruits in the Class of 2017, is playing in front of NBA scouts during high school all-star games. Unlike his dad, who didn’t take a serious interest in basketball until he was 15 years old and wasn’t heavily recruited heading into college, Gary Jr is a five-star prospect slated to suit up for Duke in the fall.

Touted as one of the next blue chippers in line to hoop for the legendary Coach K, Junior is getting closer and closer to joining the elite company he was unconsciously surrounded by as a young kid.

“With my Uncle Kevin, [me] jet skiing on his lake—it’s really motivating,” Trent Jr says, referring to Garnett. “You see the position they’re in, what they can do and how they can change lives and you want to be a part of that. Every time I go over to his house, it’s just a reminder that if you work hard, this could be you. This is what you’re working for.”

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Listen to Gary Jr. and Gary Sr. talk about their journey on the debut episode of the “Blue Chips” podcast:

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The talent and skill set was obvious from an early age, with the 6-6 shooting guard playing HS varsity at Apple Valley (MN) since the 8th grade. For two of his four years there, he played on a team that included former Duke standout and current Wolves PG Tyus Jones. Then last fall, Gary Jr left Minnesota and transferred to Prolific Prep in Napa, CA—the same program that top 2017 draft prospect Josh Jackson attended—in order to play in a national schedule.

With a dad who experienced first-hand not only what it takes to make it to the League but also what it takes to stay there, Junior recalls his early hoop lessons not having much to do with an actual hoop.

“My dad simply came up to me and asked, ‘Do you want to play basketball and do you want to be good at basketball?’” recalls the younger Trent. “So one day he took me to the track and we started dribbling. We just dribbled a mile’s worth, and at every 100 meters we did 10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups. So that ended up being 160 push-ups and sit-ups. This is at the age of 5 or 6. We did that for the first year. I was always wondering, Why are we [just] doing dribbling? And he simply had to explain to me that if you can’t dribble the ball up the floor you won’t be able to get your shot off.”

In the end, with the opportunity to play ball at any collegiate program he desired, it was culture and heritage that landed him in Durham.

“As I sat down and buckled down with my dad on which schools could help in the long run, on and off the court, Duke came second to none,” says Junior. “Just everything behind it is great. When you hear Duke, it opens eyes. It’s a brotherhood.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Justin Borucki

The post DNA. appeared first on SLAM.

For the Class of 2017, the late bloomer was 6-3 point guard Collin Sexton.

Headed into the 2016 AAU season, Sexton couldn’t be found on any national rankings. In fact, he had yet to even play 17U in the summer circuit. And so when he entered the Nike EYBL—regarded as the most talent-heavy grassroots circuit around—last April, not many could have seen coming what transpired over the following six weeks.

Here was a relatively unknown prospect about to his make his 17U debut in the toughest youth travel league in existence. A few good baskets here and there would have made it a successful debut, right?

But Sexton had different expectations. Playing for Georgia’s Southern Stampede, he was going for all the chips.

Game 1: 24 points vs King James Shooting Stars (OH)

Game 2: 35 points vs Houston Hoops (TX)

Game 3: 32 points vs City Rocks (NY)

The Mableton, GA, native emerged from that weekend as the league’s leading scorer.

“Going into that summer all I wanted to do was show everyone who I was and prove myself and show what I could do against the best of the best—and then I went out there and did it,” Sexton says. “The first EYBL session was a success and then I started opening up eyes. Everybody was like, ‘Oh nah, he just had a few good games. He can’t do it again.’ After that, I felt like I had to show everybody that this wasn’t just a few good games. This is what I could do for a whole season.”

Indeed, he did. He went on to score 30 or more points in 12 of the 16 EYBL regular season games throughout its four weekend sessions. With a final average of 31.7 points per game (best in the league—No. 1 recruit Michael Porter Jr came in second almost 10 points behind), Sexton had done the unthinkable, setting the EYBL all-time single season scoring record. By the end of the summer, just about every major collegiate program was calling with scholarship offers. And yes, those national rankings finally started showing love. Top-10 love.

When it came time to choose a college, he came up with a strategy. In an era when colleges pull out the red carpet for recruits visiting campus, Sexton wasn’t interested in first impressions.

“Well, you go the first time and they blow you away. Then you go a second time and they blow you away,” says Sexton of the recruiting process. “But then that third and fourth time, you can really feel like, Damn, this is really somewhere I want to be in the future.”

He ended up visiting Alabama five times. Yes, FIVE. And that’s when he knew it was the place he really wanted to be at next season, regardless of the other prestigious schools that were courting him.

“I went down there five times and it felt the same every time,” says Sexton, who chose Alabama over Kansas. “Nothing changed. Everyone acted the same. So I just felt like it was the right move. Also, Coach [Avery] Johnson has played and coached at the next level and so no better person [to learn from] than him.”

Aside from Sexton, the Crimson Tide also landed top-25 recruit John Petty, a 6-5 instate shooting guard who chose Alabama over Kentucky. The five-star duo has formed the top recruiting class in the program’s history.

“Next year, I just feel like we’re going to shock a lot of people,” he predicts. “We’re just going to go out there and show what we can do. I just want to shock a lot of people.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Diwang Valdez.  

The post You Oughta Know appeared first on SLAM.

JaMychal Green: The best part about growing up in Montgomery was being around my family. My mom, she came from a family of 12 [siblings] and my dad came from a family of eight, so I always had a lot of cousins around my age. And we were always close. I always had a big family around me.

SLAM: Which neighborhood did you grow up in?

JG: I grew up in Normandale from about 6 to 18. We stayed on a pretty good street. But the next block over is rough—there’s a lot of shootings. We were still in the area. But it really shaped me into who I am today.

SLAM: How would you compare Montgomery to Memphis, where you live now?

JG: Montgomery is a small little Memphis. There are so many little things around Memphis that’s similar to home. They have some good barbecue spots here and at home we have good soul food as well. Memphis is a little more spread out; Montgomery is smaller. But just the culture, the good food and family environment, it reminds me of home.

SLAM: What was the hardest part about coming up in Montgomery?  

JG: I would say the most difficult part was losing my brother. He was shot and killed in 1992. I was 2 at the time. I remember my mom was really hurt. I was young so I didn’t really understand what was going on, but just seeing how hurt my mom was when talking about it—I saw how much she missed him. I miss him too and I just wish I had more time to spend with him.

SLAM: How did that time shape you into who you are today?

JG: My brother had two kids before he died—my nephew and my niece. My nephew, he had just turned 1 and my niece was only like a couple of months old so we were all close in age. Me and my nephew, we were only like a year-and-a-half apart, so growing up it was always me and him. Now I have a foundation called My Brother’s Keeper. And that’s how it all got started, with my brother dying and leaving his two kids. I’m not their father, but I felt it was my job to be involved. We just launched the foundation last year in Montgomery.

SLAM: You were a top-10 recruit out of high school but decided to stay home and play at the University of Alabama. Why?

JG: I wanted to play with Andrew Steele and Tony Mitchell. We were always close friends and we always wanted to play together. So we got it done. Then coach [Mark] Gottfried left my freshman year. I still decided to stay, just to try to change the culture of basketball there and get it back to how it was when Ron Steele and Kennedy Winston were there. We just wanted to get it back to how it was—that was really my point of staying home.

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Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Action: Getty Images, Childhood photos courtesy of the Green Family

The post Sweet Home appeared first on SLAM.

In eighth grade, the 6-11, 245-pound center had decided to take up hoops seriously. He relocated from Chicago’s West Side to sunny San Diego to live with his uncle and joined his youth organization club team, Ground Up. But McCoy wasn’t really getting minutes at the time. And so when he did get on the floor, a mental lapse on his part led to a sequence he would never forget.

“We were blowing a team out and there was like two minutes left. I come in and they were pressing us so that we wouldn’t get the ball on the court,” recalls the undecided five-star senior. “They were pressing us so hard that it made me feel like we were on our side of the court, you know? So as soon as I got the ball, I shot it thinking we were on our side. I ended up scoring on the wrong basket. Everyone started laughing. Ever since then people would call me ‘doo-doo’ and ‘negative-two.’ There was a time when I didn’t want to play basketball [after that].”

While the embarrassing moment was one McCoy could have done without, it’s one he credits for getting him to this point.

“And now I’m one of the top seniors,” he says. “Those days are what keep me going. There was a point when everyone overlooked you and now everyone has seen you come up.”

Today he’s highly touted for the impressive mobility he demonstrates at his size. His presence in the lane alone causes problems for opponents; he almost averaged a double-double in the prestigious Nike EYBL summer circuit last year, posting 17.7 points and 9.2 rebounds per game for Cal Supreme.

Aside from being slept on at the outset of his career, McCoy, who cut his college list to five in the fall (San Diego State, Arizona, Michigan State, UNLV and Oregon), also credits his mother, an Army veteran, for his meteoric rise up the national rankings. Having a parent in the military offered him a much different upbringing than his peers.

“I was used to moving around a lot when I was younger—moved with my auntie for a couple of months here and my grandma a couple of months there because my mom would have to go overseas at any given moment,” recalls McCoy. “She’s been there for 21 years, I think. She was a Master Sergeant E8 and is now a reserve. So that played a role in being comfortable wherever I was at. Moving around made me tougher and made me mature as a person.”

When he’s not on the hardwood, McCoy could be found playing the trombone for Cathedral Catholic’s school band, performing at every one of the football team’s home games. He likens the experience to basketball in that it all has to “synchronize—if one sound is off, the whole thing sounds off,” just like on-court team chemistry.

With his dad having some D1 collegiate experience under his belt—he hooped at Southern University—and the discipline McCoy garnered from his mother, the makings of something special were already there. But, in retrospect, that middle school game helped provide the extra push that would give McCoy a reason to go for it all.

“One thing my mom always instilled in me was accountability,” says McCoy. “I was put in a position to shine and I think when it came I did enough to push me to where I’m at now.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Charlie Langella. 

The post The Real is Back appeared first on SLAM.

“Tell me about it,” says the 6-11 big man. He smiles at the juxtaposition of starting in less than 20 percent of his games at the University of Texas, to now serving as the starting center for the Indiana Pacers.

It’s mid-March and Turner is about 10 days from turning 21 years old. In town for a game against the New York Knicks, he’s 24 hours away from dropping his 11th double-double of the season, this one at Madison Square Garden.

In only his second year in the League, Turner has emerged as a building block for the Pacers. The former Longhorn leads Indiana in rebounds (7.2 per game) and blocks per game (2.1) and he’s scoring 14.4 points a night.

Beyond the numbers, though, is a fascinating story of a kid who wasn’t even a nationally ranked prospect for most of his high school career. And as cheesy as it may sound, it’s the perfect story of someone who stayed ready for when that opportunity came knocking.

Turner averages more blocks than any other player in the 2015 NBA Draft class (he was picked at No. 11) and only two from that group average more boards.

Suffice it to say, he has quietly become one of the top young hoopers in the League. While a lot of people have been surprised to see this kind of production coming so quickly, Turner swears he isn’t. And based on how he describes his first conversation with team president Larry Bird after being drafted by Indiana, neither should anyone in the organization.

“He said he wasn’t going to baby me,” Turner recalls. “He said, ‘We need you to play now and that’s why we drafted you.’ That’s why I knew right away that I would get a chance to play. I knew I wasn’t going to be a project. I knew I would be a focal point.”

For Indiana to have that kind of confidence in Turner, considering his ups and downs before reaching the League, was bold.

See, after his junior season of high school basketball, the Bedford, TX, native found himself heading into his last summer of AAU ball under-recruited and with his name nowhere to be found on national prep rankings. The summer season before that one, he had broken his ankle, which ultimately led to a six-month rehab. So when the AAU campaign arrived in 2013, Turner was itching to get one last stab at it. A tournament in Houston that spring ended up becoming what he refers to as one of the turning points in his career.

“I just remember that something took over me that whole weekend,” says Turner of the Spring Ice Breaker tourney in Houston in March 2013. “I was so chill off the floor. But when I got on the floor, I flipped a switch. That never really had happened to me before. Up to that point, I always had done basketball for fun. But I was really into it that weekend. I absolutely dominated the competition that weekend.”

He would bring that same intensity to just about every other tournament he played in for the next four months, with word quickly getting out to college coaches of an emerging star out of suburban Dallas. By the time summer ended, Turner had worked his way into the top-10 national prospect conversation, piling up offers from the likes of Duke, Kentucky and just about every other major program along the way.

He carried that momentum into his senior year of high school and finished the season ranked No. 2 in the country—behind only current Sixers big man Jahlil Okafor—on ESPN’s list.

When it came time to choose a school, Turner went with nearby Texas, whose list of ex-players includes his favorite player growing up, Kevin Durant. But his time in Austin didn’t go quite as smoothly as the previous 12 months had. A limited role, to go with a bumpy 20-14 season that ended with an early exit in the NCAA Tournament—and the subsequent firing of coach Rick Barnes—brought the 2014 McDonald’s All-American back to earth.

“In high school, rising as the No. 2 recruit, you can go anywhere you want and you think you’re the man. And then when you get to college, it’s a reality check,” says Turner, who despite the turbulent season was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year. “There were guys that have been there for a while—a lot stronger, faster and bigger than you are. It was definitely a reality check when I got there.”

Still, the Pacers saw enough in Turner to make him a lottery pick. The boost of confidence from Bird was reassuring.

Until reality hit again.

Just two weeks into his rookie season, Turner broke his left thumb and was sidelined for 21 games—more frustration. This one, though, turned out to be a blessing in disguise, he says.

“It was obviously very frustrating,” Turner says. “It felt like high school all over again, when I broke my ankle and was out for like six months. But that was probably one of the best things that could happen to me. I was able to sit back and learn the game from a first-person perspective—being on the bench and learning the plays. So when I got back on the floor, it was like second nature to me. I didn’t really have that indecisiveness. I knew what to do.”

He returned to action at the end of December and quickly made contributions off the bench. It was during a four-game West Coast trip three weeks later that Turner’s professional career finally took off. He dropped 25 points to go with 7 rebounds in Denver, and then put up 31 and 8 at Golden State a couple of games later—both coming off the bench.

“Right before we went on that trip, the [staff] had said, ‘Hey Myles, we’re going to send you to the D-League because we need you to get some live reps but just at a different pace,’” Turner remembers. “But that West Coast trip was my coming out party. I was ready. If I ended up in the D-League, I was going to kill. I knew I was going to go out there and defend and block shots and just let the offense come to me. But just from the jump, I was ready to go. I spent that time [injured] evaluating and watching film. I learned so much. My mindset was it was time to go.”

Turner never logged a single game in the D-League. In fact, his role increased with the Pacers. Less than a week after the big game against the Warriors, Turner was inserted into the starting lineup. Indiana was going through a slump, and a couple of veteran bigs were banged up. Ian Mahinmi, now with the Wizards, was battling a sore lower back, while Jordan Hill, now with the Wolves, was dealing with a dislocated finger. Just as he had seized the opportunity that AAU season before his senior year of high school, Turner suddenly found himself in a similar situation in the pros. He ended up starting in 29 of the team’s final 36 games to close out the regular season.

“I could have came out there and laid an egg and then who knows what would have happened,” says Turner of that West Coast trip. “But I guess looking back at it, I’ve always been ready for that shining moment. I live for that moment. I live to be that guy who takes the last shot with the game on the line. I was going to make people respect me.”

Turner finished his first NBA season averaging 10.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game and was named to the All-Rookie Second Team. Heading into the 2016-17 campaign, Turner was awarded the Pacers’ full-time starting center position, and he wasted no time in proving it was the right move, dropping 30 points and 16 rebounds on opening night, an overtime win over his hometown Mavericks.

And he hasn’t looked back since. With averages of over 14 points and 7 rebounds a night coming into the New York trip, Turner has rapidly become one of the Pacers’ most important pieces. Around the trade deadline, rumors even swirled that Bird might be willing to part ways with Paul George and rebuild around another No. 33. It was nothing more than scant speculation, of course, but if nothing else, the reaction to those rumors proved that building an NBA team around the young Turner is nothing to scoff at.

“I think it’s my defensive abilities,” says Turner of why his stock has skyrocketed. “The ability to be a defensive anchor down there. The coaches have trusted me to anchor the defense. They do give me a thread offensively as well, but it was my defensive ability that solidified it for me.”

CBS Sports gave the Pacers a draft grade of “D” for selecting Turner just outside the top-10 in 2015. The implication was that Turner wasn’t ready to step in for Roy Hibbert, and that his upside was, at best, Hibbert 2.0. Little did they know, Bird picked Turner with the intentions of playing him right away—and Turner was ready.

“I did expect this,” Turner says with confidence. “The Pacers could have easily questioned my motor in college. Said, ‘Why weren’t you starting? Maybe it was something you were doing.’ I could have easily lost my sanity and kind of fallen into that trap. But my mentality has never changed. I know the player I am and the player I want to strive to be. It was a blessing to get an opportunity early and I wasn’t going to ever let this opportunity slip.”

Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Tom Medvedich, Action shots via Getty Images

The post Window of Opportunity appeared first on SLAM.

Russell Westbrook and James Harden have owned the MVP conversation all year. At the college level, mock drafts have freshmen sensations like Washington’s Markelle Fultz, UCLA’s Lonzo Ball, Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox and NC State’s Dennis Smith Jr pegged among the top seven picks in the 2017 NBA Draft.

Of course, all the names mentioned above resemble a distinct evolution of the game over the past few years. The common thread? Every player mentioned is a point guard.

Not only has the League shifted to a guard-dominated game—with PG emerging as the most competitive position in the Association—but the upcoming NBA draft, expected to be one of the deepest in history, will be top-heavy with highly touted freshmen point guards leading the way. Add up the college players noted above, and four of the first seven picks in the 2017 NBA Draft could be PGs. That would be unprecedented.

The top three scorers in the NBA right now are all PGs, too, with the Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas sandwiched between Westbrook and Harden. Harden wasn’t even a point guard until this season, yet nonetheless is the League’s assist leader with 11.2 per game. Likewise, 6-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo is now a PG, and he leads the Milwaukee Bucks in just about every major statistical category, assists included.

The top pick in the 2016 Draft, 6-10 Ben Simmons, drew hype because of his court vision and playmaking abilities. Sixers head coach Brett Brown publicly stated last December that the team plans to make him the starting point guard when he makes his pro debut after fracturing his right foot last October.

Whether in the body of a player standing 5-9 or 6-11, point guard play has gone through a transformation right before our own eyes over the last few years. Which brings us to bigger, overarching questions: Why is almost every great player, regardless of height, looking to run point? Why is the game, at every level, filled with star lead guards? Are we witnessing some sort of golden era for the PG position?

https://youtu.be/HVO2ICmCa_4

“I think before we used to get so caught up into positions,” says Jay Williams, current college basketball analyst for ESPN and a former star PG at Duke who was selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. “You heard a lot of GMs and scouts try to categorize you and tell you, ‘No, you fit into this box.’ But I think as the game evolved into positionless basketball, you now have guys who have the ability to do so many other things than what the prototypical style of a PG was 15 or 20 years ago.”

Positionless basketball: A phenomenon that has taken the League by storm and subsequently has trickled down to college and high school ball, too. It’s enabled players who weren’t traditionally “allowed” to bring the ball up to now do so and make plays.

“Guards are a lot more of combo guards now,” says Williams of where he thinks this trend stems from. “There’s not a lot of prototypical point guards. There’s been an evolution of the point guard position and you’ve seen that with the likes of Derrick Rose, John Wall, Kyrie Irving, Isaiah Thomas—all these guards are able to score prolific-like numbers but are considered PGs. That’s where our game is trending.”

All of which is to say that the qualifications of the position have been modified. It isn’t just about being able to dish out great assists anymore. Today’s starring PGs are also expected to drop 35 or 40 points every so often.

Even guys currently in the League have taken notice. Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard says his position has experienced a shift even in just the five years since he’s been in the League.

“Now you see a lot of scoring point guards. They score points and make plays and rebound the ball—do so many things well and I think it’s kind of the golden age of point guards,” says the Oakland native. “When I got in the League, it was heading in that direction but it wasn’t quite there. But I think now, every night that you go out there, you gotta put your best foot forward or you can get embarrassed. To win, you need a point guard that can score, that can dominate a game. If you don’t have that, you don’t have much of a chance at winning.”

Fultz (who has already declared for the NBA Draft) is a dynamic offensive player who can score from anywhere on the floor in a smooth, effortless manner. And while his scoring prowess tops the list of his strengths, the 6-4 guard can do much more than just put up points in bunches. This season, on more than one occasion, the Maryland native came close to becoming the first UW player to ever post a triple-double.

Ball, the oldest of the now world-famous Ball Brothers out of Chino Hills, CA, has drawn comparisons to legends like Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd. The 6-6 freshman literally averaged a triple-double his senior year of high school: 23.9 points, 11.3 rebounds and 11.5 assists per game, leading Chino Hills HS to a perfect 35-0 season and the top spot in the national rankings. He’s helped turn the UCLA program around this season, earning a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament after going 6-12 in the Pac-12 last year.

Smith Jr is arguably the most explosive prospect in the college ranks. After missing his senior year of HS with an ACL tear, the 6-3 Fayetteville, NC, native has bounced back stronger than ever. Aside from making SportsCenter’s top plays periodically thanks to his high-flying finishes, Smith Jr became the first ACC player ever to put up two triple-doubles against league opponents in their entire career. And he did it all in a one-month span.

Fox has drawn comparisons to fellow UK great John Wall, mainly because of his lightning speed and agility. The freshman became only the second Wildcat ever to post a triple-double in the program’s rich history, when he finished with a 19-10-10 line against Arizona State in December. You’ll see him get busy this weekend as March Madness kicks off for 2-seeded Kentucky.

NBA veteran Jamal Crawford is among the current players aware of the PGs slated to enter the NBA in June and he’s quite excited for what they’ll bring to the L.

“These young guys coming up, the League is going to be in great hands,” says the Seattle native, who worked out with Fultz last summer in Emerald City. “With guys like this coming in, who really appreciate and respect the opportunity and take full advantage of it.”

Sonny Vaccaro, the legendary sports marketing executive referred to as the godfather of grassroots ball—and who is best known for having signed Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal with Nike—has witnessed this evolution into positionless basketball up close.

“When basketball started, what did you do? Inside, out. You guarded the big man. You had to sign the big man. You had to draft the big man,” says Vaccaro. “One of the biggest mistakes ever made was going for the big men and not getting Michael [Jordan]. In today’s game, Kevin Garnett would have been a 1. Kobe [Bryant] would have been a 1. Tracy [McGrady] would have been a 1. The mindset back then wasn’t ready to make them 1s yet.”

In Williams’ opinion, the globalization of the game has also opened doors for today’s contemporary style of PG.

“We have a lot of European influence and one thing about European basketball is that from a skill-level, they’re still better than us,” says Williams. “And so you’re starting to see a lot more younger players do this: Regardless of what their size is when they’re young, they’re working on the ballhandling and offensive skill set in order to be a more complete basketball player.”

There’s also no denying that the athleticism and explosiveness of young players has hit unseen levels, ultimately allowing guys of different physical builds to play out of their traditional positions and still hold their own. That versatility was on full display at this year’s All-Star festivities, when for the second year in a row a big man won the Skills Challenge, which has historically been a contest designed for point guards. (The Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis won this year’s; Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns won in 2016.)

“It’s a scary place where our game is at—in a good way,” says Williams. “I think our game is at a place where we have the best athletes in the history of the sport. We’re seeing things we’ve never seen before. The athleticism is at an all-time high and now the skill set has started to catch up.”

But considering the amount of love point guards are getting these days and that so many wings and big men are making the transition into the 1 slot, could it be that there are also business reasons behind the trend of everyone suddenly wanting to play point? Because having the ball in your hands and being the team’s playmaker does increase one’s marketability off the court, right?

“I don’t think you can consciously say that, but yes, it does,” says Vaccaro, who is more qualified than anyone to speak on the matter. “Just look at the big men in the league today. There are about four or five traditional big men today that are just great and stand above all of them, but none of them have the Shaq-type sneaker endorsement. Shaq was an anomaly in that he was a personality. Giannis is going to get signed for a nice dollar. Now you got a foreign big guy that’s going to make a lot of money because he has that guard skill.”

Vaccaro says it’s vital for players to be able to relate to the average fan in order to sell sneakers. That personal connection is the hook.

“At first, it used to be the ‘We’re all like him’ narrative, meaning we can identify with him by being 5-10 or 6-feet tall,” says Vaccaro. “That was Jordan’s strength at the beginning. He could look like us. None of us could identify with Moses [Malone] or Wilt [Chamberlain]. So Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the greatest ever, had a little shoe thing. But that didn’t fit then and it doesn’t fit now. The grand slam right now is to be the point guard who’s not a point guard—but he is a point guard.”

At the moment, Stephen Curry is the face of Under Armour, Harden of adidas and Westbrook of Jordan Brand, while Kyrie is rising up the Nike ranks. All “point guards.” In the end, Vaccaro believes there’s an emotional connection that players must offer to ultimately allow them to become the face of major sneaker brands. And no other position offers that opportunity better than PG.

“We all like to root for the little guy,” says Vaccaro. “Russell’s attempt at doing what Oscar [Robertson] did [by averaging a triple-double] is an unbelievable thing because you’re putting the physical equations of everything. The game has changed—it’s so open now. It’s not 18 passes and then throw it to the post guy to dunk it. That game is over. This league is a point guard league. Even the big guys want to play point guard. They’re no longer your daddy’s point guards. Now they’re the show.”

Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Photos via Getty Images

The post Straight to the Point appeared first on SLAM.

As his coaches scramble to re-book the team’s itineraries, Duval can’t help but notice how the situation reflects his personal journey so far. Throughout his high school career, the Wilmington, DE native has found himself tweaking and readjusting his life path en route to pursuing his desired destination. While emerging as the top point guard in the Class of 2017, he’s attended three high schools in four years, all out of state.

“It’s been challenging,” says Duval. “I learned a lot from each situation. I learned how to mature as a young man and as a player. I learned how to deal with a lot of different situations. I think the biggest thing I took from it is that every situation isn’t going to be perfect, there’s always going to be something happening. So I just learned to accept the situation I’m in and make the best out of it. I learned how to be independent.”

Although right in the middle of the Northeast corridor that connects cities like DC, Philly and New York, Wilmington (and Delaware as a whole) is rarely celebrated for producing hoops talent.

“Wilmington is so small, everyone knows each other, and that could be bad, but the good thing about it is that everyone looks out for you,” Duval says of home. “I’m known as the basketball player there and so they look out for me—try to give me guidance and just support me.”

But Duval and his family eventually realized that they needed to make a tough decision after middle school regarding which route to take in order to place him in the best position to succeed.

“We were just looking at the best players around the state and seeing that they weren’t really getting the recognition that they really deserved, you know, being in such small area,” says the ultra-explosive 6-3 guard. “We felt that if I went to a different state with a bigger stage and where I could get a lot more recognition, it’d be the best thing for me.”

And so he started his HS career in Newark, NJ at St. Benedict’s Prep for two seasons, where he led the Gray Bees to the Prep A title before relocating to Dallas to join Advanced Prep International for his junior year. Then last summer he transferred to the prestigious IMG Academy, with a campus that sits on 450 acres about an hour south of Tampa.

Highly touted for his athleticism and ability to create, Duke committed to Duke in the spring.

Right now, there isn’t a single player from Delaware playing in the NBA. In fact, throughout the history of the League, only seven players have come from Delaware, of which only one enjoyed a career that lasted longer than six seasons. The state has never had one of its own drafted in the lottery (only three have been drafted in the first round). With that in mind, Duval is fully aware of what’s at stake for his home state.

“It’s crazy when I think about it, actually,” Duval says of the chance to put DE back on the map one day as a pro. “I can be one of the first persons from my state to go all the way. It’s a blessing, but then when I think about it there’s a lot of pressure. But I love it, actually. I like the fact that I could be one of the first to do something special.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Grant Meeks

The post Hardly Home (But Always Reppin’) appeared first on SLAM.

Kelly Oubre: From when I was a baby, we lived in the Magnolia Projects. It isn’t the nicest place in the city to live. That’s where all the crime was happening. Then we moved. Still Uptown, but it was more of an older crowd. Then when I was about 7 years old, we moved to the East. The East is a nicer area of the city. You got a lot of the rappers and celebrities living in Eastover—I lived about 10 minutes from them. I felt like we had made it at that point. We were living solid, in a nice house. We were there for two years until I was 9, then that’s when Katrina hit, and that’s when we moved to Houston.

SLAM: How would you describe the culture of New Orleans?

KO: A lot of the culture comes from the inner city. You have a lot of music. You have a lot of people doing second lines just randomly on different days. Just people dancing, good music, random parades. They were shutting down the streets so the people could dance. It was just a good vibe. Every day, it didn’t matter if we were in the murder capital, there was always a good vibe because people always made it a happy place no matter what. The culture, the colors, the Voodoo—people really buy into what New Orleans has to offer because that’s all they know. All we got out there is the culture. That’s the best part about my city.

SLAM: Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural disasters ever. How would you describe it from the lens of a 9-year-old?

KO: It was tough because I had to just sit there and watch and observe a lot of stuff. Watched my dad and my family struggle. After the storm, I couldn’t support them financially. I couldn’t do anything for them other than make sure I was standing by their side. So I had a lot of tearful nights and tearful days, just watching them go through stress, depression and trauma. But I tried to give that emotional support since that was pretty much all I could do back then.

SLAM: What do you recall from the evacuation process?

KO: Actually, we weren’t going to evacuate at all. But then the night before the eye of the storm hit—it was already raining a bit—we decided to hop in the car and pack our bags and get out of there. We drove to Houston that night. I remember sitting in traffic for about eight hours. We just decided to get out of there on a spontaneous decision. We just moved on the fly.

SLAM: Have you been back to your old block to see how it looks now?

KO: We waited about a year to go back. The funny thing is when the storm hit, we had just moved into the new house. It was so brand new that the land was elevated. So none of the flooding really touched our house. But my dad decided to stay in Houston because he saw it as a sign from God and that it would be better for me to grow in a different place and environment.

SLAM: When the massive floods hit Louisiana last summer, you were involved in a relief effort through a t-shirt campaign of yours. What motivated you?

KO: I was just trying to find a way to raise money through fashion and clothes, things I’m very interested in. I just wanted to spread a positive message by letting people know that we’re one community and we have to stick together. I vowed that if anything ever happens to the city or the state of Louisiana, I’ll always be there to help. I’ll be there front and center ready to donate more money.

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Photos courtesy of the Oubre family, Action photo via Getty Images

The post Nolia Clap appeared first on SLAM.

“The first couple of weeks, I was able to get in the gym with [Seattle natives] Jamal Crawford, Isaiah Thomas, Nate Robinson, Spencer Hawes and Dejounte Murray,” recalls the 6-10 wing. “Obviously I had a lot more friends back home but coming out here has been a great opportunity for me—being around these high-level guys. I noticed they all come back to Seattle. It definitely feels like a big family.”

His relocation to Seattle and addition to this basketball-rich family has technically been decades in the making. His father, Michael Sr., hooped at the University of New Orleans and later with Washington Huskies head coach Lorenzo Romar in the 1980s, when the two were teammates for Athletes In Action, the sports arm of Cru (then called Campus Crusade for Christ) a non-profit, non-denominational ministry organization. Romar, who had played in the NBA for five seasons previously, eventually coached for AIA before joining the UCLA coaching staff in 1992.

At AIA, the two developed a bond so strong that Romar would eventually become Jr’s godfather. And so when the younger Michael emerged into one of the top recruits in the Class of 2017, the Huskies were naturally expected to have a good shot at bringing him to Seattle.

Except Michael ended up getting there early. Both Michaels.

Porter Sr., who’d been serving as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball program at Missouri since 2013, and as the team’s Director of Basketball of Operations for three years prior to that, accepted an assistant coaching position on Romar’s bench last May. It meant Jr. and the rest of the family would be relocating. At that point, it was only a matter of time before the younger Michael got on board with the Huskies, too.

“Honestly, it was an easy decision for me to pick Washington,” says Porter Jr., who verbally committed to the program two months later. “It was already a top-3 just because I felt I could trust Coach Romar, who has a track record of developing his guards. But then when we moved out here, it became a no-brainer. My dad was going to be on staff and so that’s two people right there that I could trust.”

Even beyond father and son, basketball runs deep in the Porter family. Michael’s younger brother Jontay is a 6-10 junior who already had committed to the Huskies in August of 2015 and will be arriving on campus in 2018. Michael’s two oldest sisters, Bri and Cierra, both play at Mizzou, which made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. Their mother, Lisa, played ball at Iowa and is the sister of Missouri women’s basketball head coach Robin Pingeton.

As if the roster of Seattle natives he worked out with upon his arrival in the summer wasn’t strong enough, Porter Jr. is now also being coached by another local legend. Former UW standout and three-time NBA All-Star Brandon Roy became the head coach of Nathan Hale HS (where Porter Jr. plays, though he’s being homeschooled) last June.

“The thing I’ve been most impressed with is Michael’s not like a normal high school senior,” says Roy. “I wish I was as good as this guy is when I was a senior in high school. The things I learned as a rookie and second-year player in the NBA, he’s already doing it now.”

Save for three years at Father Tolton HS in Columbia prior to his move to the Pacific Northwest, Porter has been homeschooled his whole life. Widely touted as a top-3 prospect in the Class of 2017, he’s highly heralded for his versatility, scoring prowess and overall smooth game.

“I want to be the best player in high school basketball,” says Porter Jr. “I want for it to be no question by the end of this season.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Daniel Baum 

The post Next Gen appeared first on SLAM.

SLAM: What’s your hometown of Sombor like?

Nikola Jokic: It’s a really small town on the northwest of Serbia. We have really nice nature. But I just like the people there. It’s like family.

SLAM: What’s the most popular sport for kids in Serbia?

NJ: You know, we’re a sports nation, now that Novak Djokovic has been the top tennis player in the world, we won silver medal at the Olympics in basketball, the women’s team won bronze, and then the women’s volleyball team won a silver medal. So it depends, sometimes they’re going more toward tennis, and sometimes it’s basketball.

SLAM: How did you watch NBA games back home?

NJ: When I was like 14 and YouTube came out, I started to watch highlights from some players, some moves but not the whole games. It was like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Now, when there’s big games or the Finals or All-Star, they have that come out on TV.

SLAM: Is it true that besides basketball, you raced horses as a kid?

NJ: Basketball was always in my life. I had two older brothers who played basketball. I fell in love with basketball because of them. We would always play together. But then at some point in my life I started to go into horse racing. I just fell in love with horses and their beauty and elegance. It was like a hobby for me. I didn’t get serious with it. And I wasn’t taking basketball serious either. I was in between both.

SLAM: How old were you when you started getting into competitive horse racing?

NJ: I was like 14 or 15 years old. I just enjoyed [being] with them, just to clean them up, just to ride with them. I just enjoyed that. Our stable, we were like a club. We raced some professionals. But I wasn’t professional. I was just amateur. I just had one amateur race, and I took fourth place, but that was good because in that race they were all better horses than I had and drivers with more experience. I did good for a first-timer.

SLAM: When did you realize you wanted to make basketball your main focus?

NJ: My whole career was going fast because I went from my hometown to one bigger town to play professionally. I was there six months and then I went to Mega Leks [in Serbia], my ex-club. And then in three years I went to the NBA. So in three years I went from my hometown to the NBA—it was crazy fast.

SLAM: How was the Mega Leks experience?

NJ: Mega Leks was a small club but with big talent and big players. But now you see we had three players in this year’s NBA Draft. We also had three players in the 2014 NBA Draft. We’re doing a great job helping Serbian basketball and helping young players develop.

SLAM: How difficult was it adjusting to life in Denver as compared to life in Serbia?

NJ: Oh, everything. The people, the food, the atmosphere—everything. But my brothers came with me and my girlfriend came with me so we tried to make our home here and not allow all the different things to bother us. I actually like Denver as a city—it reminds me a little of my hometown in Serbia because I like nature, mountains, rivers and trees.

—

Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Action photo via Getty Images; Throwback photos courtesy of the Jokic Family

The post No Joke appeared first on SLAM.

The 6-6 guard earned the 2006-07 NBA Rookie of the Year award almost unanimously while a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, and by the following season was already selected to play in the NBA All-Star Game—one of three consecutive invitations. He was named to All-NBA teams twice within his first four seasons in the League.

But, nagged by knee injuries, Roy’s career began to slow down drastically in 2010 when tests showed that a lack of cartilage in his knees was giving him trouble. He would go under the knife twice within a 9-month period, and it became evident that his issues were likely irreversible. By the fall of 2011, Roy’s knees had degenerated so much (lost cartilage between the bones of both knees) that he decided it was best to retire from the game.

He would attempt a comeback for the 2012-2013 season, this time with the Minnesota Timberwolves. But just a handful of games into the season, he had season-ending surgery on his right knee. This time, he walked away from the game for good, with career averages of 19 points, 4.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game.

Since then, Roy has kept a low profile. He refers to the last four years of his life as a period where he finally had time to “relax” and reevaluate life. That was until spring of this year, when his name once again began making the rounds in the basketball universe. He had suddenly decided to return to the game, this time as a coach—at Nathan Hale High School in his hometown city of Seattle, where he took over for a team that went 3-18 last season.

For Roy—who attended Garfield High in the city’s central district—to take a coaching job at the high school level, guiding a team that barely won any games last season? That’s a rarity for a former NBA All-Star.

Just a couple weeks into this season, though, Nathan Hale finds itself ranked among the top 15 programs in the nation. The team is already off to a 5-0 start—thanks to some additions the program made during the offseason. Yes, bringing in Roy was definitely a huge get. The other summer acquisition for Nathan Hale was 6-10 Class of 2017 prospect Michael Porter Jr, who is touted among the top-3 recruits in the senior class. Porter Jr, who (like Roy) will be attending the University of Washington next fall, relocated from Columbia, MO, after his father accepted an assistant coaching position with the Huskies in May.

“The main things he’s been helping me with is the efficiency with my dribbles, my footwork—he was a master with his feet—so I feel like my footwork has gotten a lot better since I got up here,” says Porter Jr. of Roy. “He started teaching me those NBA moves. I’m definitely blessed to have him as a coach.”

As he begins his coaching career and next chapter in life, we caught up with the 32-year-old Roy to talk about dealing with the injuries that led to his shortened NBA career, what he learned from the experience, what led him back to high school ball in Seattle and much more.

SLAM: What were those first few months like when you came to the realization that your playing career was over? You kept a low profile for a while.

Brandon Roy: The biggest thing is, it’s different but the same for everyone. I had a few veterans tell me that. So my last real game was when I was like 27 or 28. And a couple of veterans, and I won’t say their names, but they all reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, B, it doesn’t matter if you’re 38 or 28—this thing is not easy to walk away from.’

So the first thing you have to do is understand that it’s normal to feel the way you do. That helped me so much. Even the greatest player ever came back from retirement—twice! Because this isn’t easy to walk away from.

For me, the first thing I had to do was say, OK, it’s normal for me to be a little sad about this. And the first thing we all want to do is feel sorry for ourselves. I got that for a little bit. I didn’t want to jump into something just because people think you have to work to take your mind off it. I was more of like, You know what? This is the first time in my life that I don’t have to get up and go work out. I don’t have to travel and leave my family for two weeks at a time. I don’t have to mentally prepare myself to play against the best players in the world.

SLAM: That’s a really good point.

BR: At my position, I had to match up against Kobe, LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen—those were the guys I had to get ready for. In 2006, these are the best players around. All that stress and all that work. So I just said, I’m going to relax. I just relaxed and finally said, Hey, I don’t have to play anymore. When it’s over you get to relax and not have to go through that anymore.

Once that was over, I started to think. People were saying, “How about business?” But I was like, I like basketball! You know, I was fortunate enough to play basketball and people sometimes think that because you made money playing basketball you must be really big into business. But I wasn’t really a businessman. I like hoops. I like the competition of strategizing against another team. I tried some radio stuff, which I liked a lot. And a few people asked if I wanted to do TV, but it just wasn’t giving me that feeling like I have now being on the sidelines and in the locker room. So it just developed. I was working guys out. I would get some of the top high school kids and we would work out in the gym. And then it just kind of slowly went from there.

SLAM: When did it become clear that you wanted to coach?

BR: For me, I wanted to coach about a year ago but I didn’t want to commit to it. And then I finally had to tell myself—when you stop committing to things like I did for four years, it’s hard to get back into it—I said, Brandon, you have to get back into the real world. You gotta commit to this and be there everyday for these kids. And then in the spring I finally said I’m ready to do this. And I knew it would be a journey but it’s one I’m enjoying being on.

SLAM: What are some of the lessons you learned from your NBA career that you now find yourself applying to your coaching philosophy and emphasizing to your kids?

BR: I tell these kids to maximize their opportunities. And the reason you say that is because you can’t worry about the things you can’t control. You can’t control injuries but what you can control is what you do every day that you’re healthy. I think sometimes with these kids, they’re young and the best thing about being young is that you can dream. Reality hasn’t set in yet. My knees aren’t going to let me play in the NBA—that’s reality right there. I try to tell these kids keep dreaming but make sure you live in the moment. I learned that from my own experience.

At the end of the day, you want to open up your book and you want to know you dominated every single phase of it. Because when you’re done, that’s all you have. Now that I’m done with basketball, all I have is my memories and everything I did while playing. So when people say, “Brandon, how does it feel? Are you okay with your career?” I’m great! Because I did everything to the fullest of my abilities in basketball. And when the body said I couldn’t, I didn’t harp on it.

SLAM: Did you specifically want to coach at the high school level?

BR: I had a lot of people reach out, even NBA people that I’m good friends with asking if I wanted to do something at that level. Also, there were colleges asking if I wanted to do something at that level. It just felt right to be around the high school kids. Look, I’ve played in the NBA, and it’s hard to get those guys to adjust. And honestly, I didn’t think I was ready to step in and help a professional get better. But I thought I had a pretty good idea of how I could help high school kids. That’s why I felt like the high school level was where I wanted to start my coaching career. And I do call it a career because it’s something I’m enjoying and want to continue to pursue. It almost feels like when I was playing I had to go to high school and college to get ready for the NBA. So that’s where I’m at in coaching—start at the bottom and develop my skills.

SLAM: Nathan Hale went 3-18 last year. Is the thrill of the challenge itself part of what made you decide to start there?

BR: Most guys that have big-time careers, they don’t step into situations like this. Some of it is because a lot of guys are afraid to lose. But I’m not afraid to lose. I want to win. I’ve always heard of the saying, ‘I’m more afraid to lose than I want to win,’ but I’m little bit of the opposite of that. I had an older brother growing up, so I always lost. So being afraid to lose for me is like, So what! I always lost. But when I won, that was the best feeling in the world. That’s the thing with coming to the high school level, I know a lot of these high school coaches are like, ‘Oh, he was an NBA All-Star and now watch me beat him.’ But I like that challenge, knowing that all 30 coaches that we’ll play this year didn’t play in the NBA. So I’m the minority here. I get to overcome something really cool. I think I put the pressure on them to beat me because this is my first year.

SLAM: You have one of the top players in all of high basketball on your team in Michael Porter Jr., who is ranked top-3 in the country. What are some of the things you’re looking to emphasize to him on the court?

BR: Biggest thing is just wasted motion. I’m a huge basketball fan, so I watch other NBA players and I always think, If that guy used less energy and was more efficient with his movements, he’d be a better player. It’s hard to teach a 25- or 28-year-old All-Star because he’s already so good. But with an 18-year-old kid like Michael, I can kind of put all of that stuff in and he’s geared to be like, ‘Perfect, what’s next?’ I always tell him, high school won’t have as many guys that can push him. But that doesn’t mean he can’t add to his game. In college, they’ll have a few more than high school but when he gets to the NBA, he’ll start playing in playoff games, and I never played in the Western Conference Finals, but the games just get tougher. And so I’m just trying to prepare him like, Look, in the Western Conference Finals, they’re not going to let you do that move right there. But working with him—he’d make any trainer look like a genius.

SLAM: What’s been the most challenging part of coaching so far?

BR: Teaching and then seeing kids apply it is probably the most challenging part. You can draw it up and it’ll look perfect. And then the kids can practice it and it looks perfect. And then they get in the game and get a little rattled, and all of that great practice goes out the window. And you’re like, Where did it go?! So getting kids to understand and trust the system is probably the toughest adjustment. Trust the “we” and not the “me” is probably the hardest part.

SLAM: Being around kids now as a coach, how would you compare the culture of the game now to how it was when you were coming up in the early 2000s?

BR: The biggest difference is just the social media. When I was a kid, our world was so small. It was just my high school and that’s the only kids I knew. And now, these kids are best friends with kids from across the country because they can talk everyday. They can see each other online. In my era it was a little easier to be yourself. I only knew a couple of other guys that went to other high schools. I would never talk to them like that, I just knew them in passing. So it was easy for me to say, Hey, I’m going to be Brandon Roy. But nowadays the world is so small that kids get on the Internet and there’s all this popularity going on. And so I think kids are even more insecure as they try to fit in even more now because they see what everyone is doing in the world. When I was coming up, it wasn’t like that. It was just, Hey, what are the other guys doing in your neighborhood? I think there’s more pressure on them because there’s so much attention and media, and so everybody is a critic now. When I was in high school and I lost or didn’t do well, if you didn’t read the newspaper then you wouldn’t have known. I just try to tell the kids, Don’t let anyone outside of this locker room put any extra pressure on you.

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Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Photos via Getty Images

The post Brandon Roy’s New Chapter appeared first on SLAM.

Once a prideful city that seemingly produced top prospects on a regular basis, specifically at the guard positions, New York City became the subject of ‘what went wrong?’ articles in recent years as the number of top prospects it put out drastically decreased. Historically known for producing some of the grittiest and most talented hoopers, all of a sudden calling it the “Mecca of Basketball” seemed like an outdated term that more accurately referred to the an era from the previous century, particularly the ’60s through ’90s, when Bernard King, Nate “Tiny” Archibald, Connie Hawkins, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, among a long list of other accomplished ballers, put the Empire State in a lane of its own. The city was quite simply no longer producing the same batches of prospects, with the same kind of buzz at the same rate it once did.

But then 2016 happened.

SLAM readers may have noticed that NYC prospects have been profiled a lot more often in recent months than in years past. This past spring, Arizona freshman Rawle Alkins made a statement by heading off to college as a top-25 recruit after being unranked just two years earlier. NYC has two of their own ranked in the top-10 nationally for the Class of 2017 in Mohamed Bamba and Hamidou Diallo. Then there’s Jose Alvarado, who will be following in the footsteps of Kenny Anderson and Stephon Marbury, as the next city point guard that makes the move to Georgia Tech from NYC for college.

And it doesn’t stop with this class. The junior class features Moses Brown, a 6-10 center at Archbishop Molloy in Queens, who is ranked top-20 in the Class of 2018. And then there’s Cole Anthony, son of former NBAer Greg Anthony, who is ranked top-20 in the Class of 2019.

Yet, no one this year had the same impact culturally the way Minnesota-bound Isaiah Washington did. The 6-1 PG out of Harlem, famously known as Jellyfam Dimes, started a movement of his own, as he explains in the video above, when he and a group of local basketball players decided to form their own basketball fraternity—with a specific initiation process and requirements, a consistent hashtag and an impeccable social media strategy, that would school any MBA candidate on marketing and brand visibility.

The Jelly Fam movement, which Washington says actually started in 8th grade with friend Ja’Quaye James, currently a high school junior at Teaneck High in New Jersey, picked up steam as the AAU season went from spring to summer in 2016. Playing with the New Heights AAU program in the Under Armour Association grassroots circuit, he quickly became one of the premier prospects this summer as the weekend sessions went from New York to Indiana to Los Angeles and then on to Georgia. He finished top-3 in assists in the league with 5.1 dimes while averaging 12.9 ppg in a summer that saw him go from unranked to now being listed nationally as high as in the 60s.

But what made him a star in the NYC community wasn’t necessarily his performance at national tournaments. It was his constant appearances at Dyckman, Rucker, Kingdome and similar local playgrounds in summer tourneys throughout the city. It was similar to how it all started for playground legends of past generations, like Pee Wee Kirkland and Rafer “Skip to my Lou” Alston.

The crafty handles off the dribble, the smooth finish at the rim, it was these moves caught on tape that made their way through the social media sphere—and with “Jellyfam” clearly visible in his Twitter and Instagram handle, the hoops community began to take notice. Along with Washington’s growing notoriety was the growth in Jelly Fam members. Top-40 junior prospect Jahvon Quinerly, a 6-1 PG at Hudson Catholic in Jersey City, NJ, joined the movement. Washington’s former teammate at St. Raymond HS in the Bronx, Sidney Wilson, a 6-7 wing with offers from Indiana, Louisville, UConn and UNLV, among many others, is also Jelly Fam certified. Leondre Washington, a 6-foot guard at Roselle (NJ) Catholic, with offers from a few mid-major programs also gained membership.

In total, today there are now eight elite members of the exclusive Jelly Fam society spread across three states—all highly touted recruits with enough cumulative social media followers to spread the movement even further, constantly using the #jellyfam hashtag in postings and in shout outs.

How do you become eligible to join the crew? One must do three finger-rolls on someone in one game in order to earn an invitation. And of course, one of the members of Jelly Fam has to be in attendance or there has to be footage of it.

Scroll through social media and you’ll find an array of users (not official members of Jelly Fam but admirers and supporters alike) using the Jelly Fam name in their handles or in hashtags. The movement has even transcended the digital world and infiltrated the game of basketball itself.

Kids at every level are now looking to finish at the rim with a finger roll more than ever before, some even opting to do so over throwing down a dunk. The crowd at the Elite 24 Game in Brooklyn, for example, would go more nuts after a simple finger-roll from Washington than after a rim-rattling jam.

There’s Jelly Fam t-shirts now. Kyrie Irving, just yesterday, revealed a Jelly Fam-inspired Nike shoe. Once a cult-like following seems to have transformed into a basketball cultural phenomenon.

“I just gotta keep up the reputation that New York has of bringing out great guards,” says Washington of the expectations that have come from his newfound fame and the rise of what he refers to as a “basketball social group.”

“We just want to be role models to the kids and put them in the right path.”

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The post 2016: The Year NYC Basketball Was Resuscitated appeared first on SLAM.

As he sits in his father’s silver Nissan sedan parked on the 99th Street side of the mega 20-building, 4,605-apartment complex known as LeFrak City—which is home to a diverse population of 14,000—he stares out the windshield toward the families entering and exiting the buildings he grew up in.

“There’s a lot of paths you can choose coming from here,” says Diallo. “It’s either you’re going to focus on being the best version of you or you’re just going to feed into the streets and let the streets suck you in. Basketball just helped me stay in the right lane and stay positive.”

From this very same inner city housing complex came legendary NYC guards and former NBA standouts Kenny Anderson and Kenny Smith. Today, expectations around the neighborhood—and nationally—are that Diallo could very well be on his way to following in their footsteps. It’s a path that two years ago seemed impossible.

The 6-6 shooting guard began his high school career at John Bowne HS, a local public school that plays Class-A ball (the AA division, meanwhile, features the highest level of competition in NYC). He came off the bench as a freshman. By sophomore year, he’d earned a spot in the starting lineup and even became the team’s leading scorer—although he was still far from receiving any national recognition.

But that following summer of 2014 changed everything. He landed his first scholarship offer—a modest one from Fairfield University—while attending team camp. And he decided that attending school in Connecticut would indeed be a good idea, although he wasn’t thinking college. He left the city and transferred up north to Putnam Science Academy, reclassifying to the Class of 2017 in the process.

“Best decision I ever made,” says Diallo. “Just getting away from all distractions down here. To get away from all of it and just focus on working on my game and things I know are going to make me a better person on and off the court.”

An unranked kid who at one point came off the bench for a Class-A school all of a sudden began popping up in the national rankings by the summer of 2015. Highly touted for his freakish athleticism—he’s arguably the most explosive player in the 2017 class—and scoring prowess, Diallo put his name in the top-10 national conversation this summer after leading the New York RENS with 19.1 points per game on the prestigious Nike EYBL (Elite Youth Basketball League) circuit.

But his meteoric rise isn’t even the most intriguing part of his story. He finished all of his high school requirements last spring (he’s currently doing a post-grad year) and will turn 19 next July—thus making him eligible for the 2017 NBA Draft. It’s the same scenario that allowed Milwaukee Bucks rookie Thon Maker to bypass college and declare for the ’16 Draft, where he was picked at No. 10 overall.

“I’ve been getting phone calls with people trying to tell me, ‘Make this choice. You always wanted to have a chance to go to the NBA,’” says Diallo, who as of early November has narrowed his college choice down to six schools: Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, UConn, Kentucky and Syracuse. “And then I got people telling me, ‘No, go to college and do that.’

“I definitely want to go to college. That’s my goal—it’s been since I was young. I don’t think I should skip a step but then again it’ll depend on what’s the right thing for me at the moment. So I’m just seeing how the process goes. I don’t want to rule anything out quite yet. I’m just happy to be in the position I am today. Hopefully one day soon I get to support my family from it.”

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Franklyn Calle is an Assistant Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @FrankieC7.

Portraits by Chris Razyok

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