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.

Believe it or not, every single player in the NBA does. 

Over the past few years, NBA Twitter has become filled with fan accounts dedicated to literally every player and organization within the League. We’re talking hundreds upon hundreds of accounts fueled by one sole purpose: amplifying the success of their chosen player or franchise. 

Go ahead, go to the search bar and look up anyone from Stephen Curry to Xavier Tillman, put “Muse” at the end of their name, and you’re bound to find an account that’s posting about them on a daily basis—in some instances, several duke it out in reply threads for the “official” title. Aaron Wiggins, Josh Green, even G-League legend Andre Ingram all have accounts repping them with a passion. This shit is random, it’s weird, and it damn near doesn’t make any sense. All the while, they make memes, troll each other during matchups, are followed by All-Stars and rake in millions of impressions a week. 

The collection of Muse accounts has seen legal action, led to social media careers by account holders and shaped an entire era of sports social media, for better or worse. Some folks think they’re the “downfall of NBA Twitter”, some love the added entertainment to scroll through on a nightly basis and some are completely oblivious to the supposed reason for the existence of the accounts: the statistical performance of the individual players.

“In a modern masculinity sense, it’s very cute to know that these kids, these teenagers, these adults, what have you, they’re real people and they’re talking about who they miss and who they enjoy. And that type of beauty is lovely and that’s why I enjoy it and am still involved in it,” the account holder behind SpursMuse said. 

As accounts for the obscure 10th man on NBA rosters continued to arise this past season, we wanted to truly understand what a Muse account was. How do they get these vague yet specific advanced stats? Why are they beefing and cussing each other out? Is this a job? Do they get paid? Why does Mason Plumlee have a dedicated account posting about his nightly numbers? Where did this all come from? 

For the past few months, we’ve been searching for answers. We reached out to and spoke with various Muse accounts to figure out how they started an account and to dish on the inner workings of the Network. We got on the phone with the founders of StatMuse to see if they’re even behind this phenomenon that uses their visual likeness (more on that later). And we might have gotten some answers. 

Fan accounts on NBA Twitter are nothing new, but these Muse accounts are a different breed. Using StatMuse’s AI-powered sports statistic search engine, accounts fuel online discourse, banter and engagement plastered with cartoonish illustrations of players across the L. Any statistical feat that you could ever dream of gets posted on a nightly basis. 

For the past two and a half years, the Muse Network has turned X—formerly known as Twitter—into a hotbed for some of the most obscure online sports beefs in recent memory. All the accounts may be tied to the sports stats company StatMuse, but that doesn’t mean everyone sees eye to eye. At the end of the day, this is hoops. Shit’s competitive.

Each account holds an unyielding loyalty to their team or player. Airing out grievances is a weekly occurrence as new pages enter the fold almost daily. 

WiseMuse—short for James Wiseman—was going back and forth with an anime page in February when Marcus Morris Sr.’s account came flying in from the top rope to diss them for having an account dedicated to the Pistons center. The frequency of run-ins has coined its own definition, “Muse Beef.” 

Back in 2014, Eli Dawson and Adam Elmore saw a new angle in the shared landscape between sports, statistics and software. The two founded StatMuse, a media company that focused on creating digestible stats content with the help of AI.

“If you go back to 2014 when Adam wrote the first line of code, Siri was out but you didn’t have the explosion of AI that you have today,” Dawson says. “So our fundamental bet was that this is gonna be the decade that humans start talking to computers. And once humans start talking to computers, it should transform the media experience where you can have this interactive, dynamic storytelling where whatever’s on your mind, whatever you want to learn more about, you can really drive that experience and all you have to do is ask.”

A decade ago you couldn’t type “Highest career playoff FG% by a player with 20+ MPG (minimum 15 games)” into a search bar and immediately get the figures back for DeAndre Jordan, Dereck Lively II and Rudy Gobert. You’d have to count through the games or pray someone else had already asked the question. Now StatMuse does it for you. 

With boundless opportunities to explore statistical feats and anomalies, social media took it from there. 

The phenomenon started in late 2021 and early 2022 with accounts like WarriorsMuse—now at 98.1K followers—and MavsMuse—now at 46.4K—arriving on the scene. Others followed that fall. Then the Network’s spontaneous nature came to fruition. Making an account for a perennial All-Star is one thing; you’ve got an unending stream of data and playing time to your advantage. Building an entire account for a role player like Zeke Nnaji or JT Thor—which actually exists—is a little absurd. But it kept happening. 

“Once Stat Muse started getting a little bit more involved and started engaging with us a little bit more, I think it became something different,” says the SpursMuse account holder. (The SpursMuse account holder—and most of the other account holders quoted in this story—asked us not to print their actual names.) “But in the early stages, it was definitely just a rag-tag page. No structure, no organization. Just a social media account like any other guy would have.”

As followings grew and accounts piled up, StatMuse decided to finally embrace the army of individuals who were preaching their gospel. Retweets, quote tweets and follows served as an official stamp of support from the company. When nearly every team had a representative, they encouraged their followers to create even more accounts for the remaining players and teams.

“I remember one of the first weeks I started, the whole big thing with all the new Muse accounts was getting StatMuse to follow you. And once StatMuse followed you, you knew that you were legit,” the HeatMuse account holder says.

Currently, individuals in the Network can monetize their accounts through X’s ad revenue system. Smaller accounts typically walk away with anywhere from $15-$30 a month while larger pages are making around $80, the SpursMuse account holder estimates. Other accounts pull in a bit more by agreeing to sponsored content deals with small companies who are looking to reach their X audiences. 

At the end of June, StatMuse launched a complete redesign of its website. Currently the company is still exploring programs that will share economic ventures with the community, like splitting up the advertisement revenue made off the new site. For the account holders, that’ll be a lot better than the $500 vouchers they used to receive to spend at the company’s online merch store. 

With roughly 500 accounts spread across multiple professional sports leagues, the Muse Network varies in its approach to content. Some accounts post hard statistics, while others lean into the nuances of social media. 

“SpursMuse kind of took off because I had always had a tonal bit to my account that everything was useless. Everything was out of context, everything lacked a bigger picture. And that’s just part of the conversation with any online sports stat,” the SpursMuse account holder says. “I became kind of enamored with the bit of, how can I find the funniest stats that would leave out such an important piece of context?”

He points to his April 16 post as proof. 

“The reality is that LeBron James has a billion triple-doubles past 38. But Timmy D is the only one with two blocks,” he says. “So I love doing that, trying to find the little bit of context, erase it, then you have the bare bones stat because then it’s way more abstract. It’s a little bit more fun in that sense.”

Leaving out context on social media is a venture that MavsMuse recently realized may not be worth it. After reaching the NBA Finals, MavsMuse tweeted that Jason Kidd was the first person ever to reach the Finals as a player and coach for the same team. He forgot to mention that his findings were based after the ABA and NBA merger. 

His post was met with a Community Note from fellow users pointing out that the likes of Bill Russell, Al Attles, Pat Riley, KC Jones and several others had already been there, done that. 

This playful approach to NBA Twitter has faced a range of reactions throughout the Network’s tenure. Social media has always been an unforgiving place. One misstep or incorrect stat leads to the whole community being roped into the same bucket. At the same time, the freedom associated with joining the Network is enticing. For accounts like BrunsonMuse, operating within the space wasn’t even about the stats. 

In September of 2021, ObiMuse—an account about Obi Toppin—was created as a joke. The New Yorker behind the account had seen the recent uptick in accounts and decided to make a bet with his cousin. They’d both make a player account and whoever reached 1,000 followers first won. After a week and about 20 tweets, ObiMuse had cleared 1K. 

By the start of the 2022-23 season, the account had around 3,000 followers. By March, he’d lost interest in growing the following. A rebrand was needed and whispers of a potential Obi Toppin trade had begun to grow louder and louder. At the same time, Jalen Brunson had finally hit his stride after being traded to The Mecca. Within minutes ObiMuse was flipped to BrunsonMuse.

The account holder of BrunsonMuse says the growth of his account was tied to two factors; posting quality over quantity and the emergence of Jalen Brunson as a bonafide superstar. Brunson’s stellar 2023-24 season brought new heights of attention to his page, which now sits at over 14K followers. WolvesMuse has seen the same scenario, gaining nearly 7,000 followers this season after Anthony Edwards planted his stake in the League as its next superstar.

“Honestly, the accounts for each player and each team is really like a stock,” the account holder of BrunsonMuse says. “If Jalen has a hot week I’ll gain more followers than I did the week prior. If he has a slow week, likes all go down, all engagement goes down, following goes down, everything goes down. It’s really just a reflection of how talented the team or the player is that we represent.”

It takes a certain level of dedication to run an account like this; to track, defend and follow a singular player throughout an entire year. Only beat reporters see this much confrontation and obsessive analysis. So when we learned that it was high schoolers, college students and everyday dudes in their 20s running these accounts, everything clicked. Leave it to the next generation to spawn one of the most divisive social trends in sports. 

“They all bully me in the main chat,” the SpursMuse account holder says between laughs. “I get the most shit out of anybody. Everyone says I’m a geezer. Everyone says I watched Wilt’s 100-point game—like I get crap from everybody. And it’s funny, I’m not that old, I’m just so much older than half the chat.” (He’s in his mid-20s.) 

That’s right, there’s a group chat. Over a year and a half ago, a number of the OG accounts started the chat that now houses nearly all of the Network’s heavy hitters, currently sitting at around 70 members. The chat has become an extension of the Network’s potential, connecting fans from across the globe, with some account holders living in Germany, Australia and throughout Asia. 

Every account we spoke with enjoys the hell out of the experience, but the Network isn’t immune to the pitfalls of social media. “If one Muse account is bad or lacking, that’s a reflection on the entire community,” the HeatMuse account holder says. “That’s something that we really emphasize in our own chat.” 

StatMuse allows those they refer to as “good participants” to use their IP, like their hand-drawn images and incorporating the company’s handle into an account name. In turn, the accounts are expected to uphold StatMuse’s brand image. But that’s kind of hard when literally anyone can make an account with Muse at the end.

“I’ve always worried, selfishly, that we are all committing copyright infringement. At its core, aren’t we all doing that? All it would take is one account doing something that puts StatMuse’s likeness at risk and then StatMuse shuts everyone down,” the SpursMuse account holder says. “I wish more people understood that and the impact that it would have.” 

Not only are the accounts aware of the potential consequences—they’ve seen them firsthand in the form of a now-nonexistent account known as BrickMuse. 

The aforementioned account focused on meme-driven content and would pay to boost their posts with likes and reshares from bot accounts. For a period of time, they remained in the group chat, although several accounts we spoke with noted their disdain for the individual and how they promoted their page. During the 2023-24 regular season, the community had enough when the account began pedaling false narratives about certain players having disabilities. 

Account holders immediately reached out to the StatMuse admins in hopes of getting BrickMuse removed. Reportedly, the company did more than that. They went with the legal route and forced the individual to renounce his account in full alongside any connection to StatMuse. 

“At the end of the day, it’s our IP. So if someone starts becoming a brand negative, we can get them to quit using the illustrations,” Dawson says. “It’s pretty rare and at this point, the community has people that want to join because it is positive, they love talking about stats. I think it’s kind of a self-fulfilling community at this point.”

Yes, the Muse Network has seen the ugly face of social media on more than one occasion and there are plenty out there who look down on this young group of creators, but there’s still an eccentric beauty in the movement. 

It’s puzzling yet endearing. Its randomness is fascinating as new accounts continue to spawn. And the randomness and weirdness never seems to stop. We’ve got X accounts for Markieff Morris arguing with a Cam Reddish stan over who was a better Lakers role player—Morris or Talen Horton Tucker. And they’re using stats to back it up. You can’t make this shit up. 

Photos via StatMuse.

The post Extreme Fandom: Uncovering the Mystery Behind StatMuse and the Legion of Muse Accounts That Just Keep Appearing appeared first on SLAM.

An oatmeal, dairy-free Greek yogurt with frozen fruit, unsweetened almond milk and agave nectar smoothie has already been consumed. Numerous t-shirt and short combinations, along with shower shoes, socks and enormous size 15 low top LeBron’s have been neatly stuffed into his official 2024 Final Four backpack. Ambling, but not with a residual slumber as Lil Wayne’s high pitched helium balloon voice swims through his headphones, he folds his immense 6-foot-10 frame into the passenger seat of the waiting gray Toyota Highlander with red leather interior. 

The day’s work beckons. 

At 7 AM, he begins the first of his scheduled workouts, this one at the OverDrive Elite facility in New Canaan, pushing himself through strength and conditioning drills that stress speed, lateral movement and the loosening of the hips along with lateral, forward and vertical explosion. 

Within minutes he’s drenched in sweat. Throughout the day he consumes copious amounts of water.

Two hours later he’s devouring a savory egg white breakfast bowl with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms and rye toast, between gulps of coconut water as the Highlander eats up the road and the scenery transitions from the bucolic pleasantry of Connecticut to the suffocating congestion of lower Manhattan.

Burns was the third ranked prep prospect coming out of his home state of South Carolina, behind Zion Williamson and Ja Morant, the top two picks in the 2019 NBA Draft. 

A bright student, he earned enough credits to graduate after his junior year at York Preparatory Academy and accepted a scholarship offer from Tennessee, where he redshirted.  

After transferring to Winthrop, he tore through the Big South and was named the conference Player of the Year as a junior in ‘21-’22.

“We were looking to get older and I knew he would be a great addition to our program,” says Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts. “I like underdogs, kids that have innate leadership skills and unique personalities.”

“DJ comes from a great family,” Keatts continued. “He wasn’t as valued as much as he should have been. What he does can’t be replicated. And his vision is extraordinary. I really liked the kid and his game was completely different from anyone I’ve ever coached.”

That March Madness success had long been marinating, going back to when his parents watched in wonder as their two-year old son danced and glided around a roller skating rink with his much older cousins. 

“DJ was a very active child who was always physically advanced for his age,” says his mother Takela Burns, a longtime educator and assistant middle school Principal in South Carolina. “He was this hyper ball of energy and inquisitive. If he wasn’t running around these country acres somewhere, he was talking me and my husband’s ear off.”

One of the things he internalized was the family tradition of sharing and giving. His grandmother was a foster parent that also adopted kids from challenging circumstances and with various disabilities. His parents took in a number of children from unstable homes, some of whom lived in the Burns household for years. 

Takela, who played ball in high school, was DJ’s first basketball tutor at the age of six. His father took over the coaching responsibilities when his son began playing rec ball at eight.

That unselfishness, vision and passing acumen on the court that had television announcers like Bill Raftery, Jay Bilas, Ian Eagle and Grant Hill gushing during the NCAA Tournament—pronounced spontaneous combustions of “His footwork’s incredible!”and “Is there anything he can’t do out there?”—were present from Day One.

“Little DJ was such a happy kid who’d give you the shirt off his back,” says his father, Dwight Sr., a South Carolina probation and parole agent who can be seen on fall Saturday afternoons sprinting beside Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney during halftime and post-game jogs to and from the locker room. 

“DJ loved being in the gym. He played guard, center, forward and was very skilled at a young age,” Dwight Sr. continued. “He had a soft lefty shooting touch and a sweet handle. The thing he loved most was passing. He’d celebrate more when his teammates scored than when he did. The only thing he cared about was winning.”

When the coaches would assemble to pick their squads, 8-year-old DJ served as his father’s de facto scout and general manager. “He’d be like, ‘Daddy, pick him!’ and he’d be pointing to a kid that wasn’t very good but was hungry, willing to hustle, unselfish and a good person,” he adds. “I’d ask him about a kid that was scoring a lot during tryouts and he’d be like, ‘Nah, we don’t want him. He’s selfish, doesn’t pass and travels all the time.’ I always listened to him and our teams always won.”

—

At 10:45am, Burns saunters onto the basketball court inside the high-end waterfront condominium One Manhattan Square building located on 225 Cherry Street. The wide grin splashed across his robust face immediately brightens the sleepy atmosphere. 

He stretches while listening to the playlist he’s cultivated that now fills the gym, with his favorite artists Lil Wayne, G Herbo and Lil Tony in heavy rotation.

“Lil Wayne is obviously the GOAT!” he playfully shouts to no one in particular before starting his workout under the direction and watchful eye of his trainer Nate Brown, who has previously worked with Malik Monk, Derrick White, Brandon Ingram, Tobias Harris and Jamal Murray, among others, during their pre-draft preparations. 

For the next 90 minutes, he pushes through a high-tempo, dizzying array of full court dribbling drills while handling two balls simultaneously. He then transitions to shooting every conceivable shot off pick and rolls, pick and pops and screen and catches. 

The angles while smooching the rock all over the backboard are reminiscent of a pool shark’s english. 

“This summer, our objectives were to sharpen up an overall skill set that he could showcase in an NBA setting,” says Brown. “We elaborated more on stretching the floor because in the pro game, you have to be able to knock down that deep ball.”

Back in the Highlander, he relaxes while heading towards Greenwich Village for a well-deserved lunch break. Stalled in traffic near Union Square as food options are being discussed, the conversation shifts to what his favorite movie is. 

Burns excitedly scoots forward in his seat and straightens up. Through a thin smile, the words burst gently out of his mouth.

“Yo, fo’real, I love Paid in Full with Mekhi Phifer, Wood Harris and Cam’ron,” says Burns. “The dialogue, the cinematography, the music, the Harlem scene in the ‘80s, the wardrobe, the acting, the slang, the story arc, the message and the fact that it’s based on a true story? Maaaaan, I love how all of that comes together. That’s my favorite movie of all-time!”

The driver, stuck at a red light, turns with a mischievous smile to meet Burns’ steady gaze. “Oh, word?” he says to his oversized passenger. “Cool. Change of plans, we’re going to Harlem right now then.”

As the vehicle idles in midtown traffic on the sun-splashed, pleasant spring afternoon, Burns glances out the window at the teeming sidewalk while his ears are assaulted by honking horns. 

“Why is there so much traffic at lunchtime? Why is everyone honking their horns? Why is everyone so angry looking and walking so fast? Man, all of these folks just need a massage,” he says while shaking his head.

As the street arteries become uncongested and the glass skyscrapers of multinational corporations give way to the opulent billion dollar apartment buildings inhabited by wealthy celebrities and business tycoons, Burns notes to himself, “Oh, this is where the rich folks live. I need to come back here sometime and do some shopping.”

When they pass 96th street and creep a little further uptown, as the previous decadence gives way to the Spanish Harlem version of Park Avenue, with its sagging, depressing, brown brick housing project facades, Burns is amazed at the dichotomy. 

He’s told that this neighborhood forged Alpo, the real-life teenage drug lord that inspired Cam’Ron’s character, Rico, in his favorite movie. “This is amazing,” he says softly. “To experience this neighborhood and these streets, to see these people and the real culture behind Paid in Full. Maaaaaan, this is awesome.”

While exiting the Slutty Vegan takeout restaurant on West 135th Street with his order of a plant-based burger and fries topped with vegan beef and cheese, jalapenos, onions, lettuce and diced tomatoes, along with a large raspberry lemonade, he looks up and down the wide bustling thoroughfare and says, again to no one in particular, “Maaaaaan, I love Harlem! There’s so much Black history here.”

His meal is consumed while double-parked with the windows down. As the laughter and rhythms of the street pour in, the crew heads back toward the FDR Drive en route to lower Manhattan.

 As the banter turns toward his musical tastes, he casually mentions that he plays the piano, standup bass, tuba and the saxophone.

—

Burns sneaks in a quick cat nap before arriving at the Basketball City complex at Pier 36, 299 South Street. 

He walks gingerly into the mammoth complex, where all seven regulation courts are empty. The silence is soon replaced by his curated playlist once again when he pairs his iPhone with a nearby speaker device. Armed with the knowledge of his proficiency as an instrumentalist, as he works out with another of his trainers, Mike Collins, it’s now evident that he moves and plays to an inner biological symphony. 

There are elements of Jazz, Hip Hop, Trap, New Jack Swing, smooth R&B, Rock and Roll, buck nasty Funk and a taste of heavy metal in his gait and body language during the hour-and-a half workout that stresses the long ball off the dribble and the catch-and-shoot from the corners, wings and straight away.

“We started working together after the Final Four run, and I was pleasantly surprised by his humility, hunger, and ability to work at a high level with an attention to detail,” said Collins. “DJ enjoys the hard work. I know he’s tired and sore by the time he gets to me, but he has never complained. Not once.”

“People see how big he is, but they don’t understand how quick he is in tight spaces. He has a nice, smooth release and he’s banging in 200 to 300 long-range jumpers a day during our sessions alone, making over a thousand a week. He’s going to show folks some things they never saw from him in college.”

At 5:00 PM, Burns is back in Stamford at the Haute Healing Oasis Whole Body Wellness Center for an hour and a half of massages and non-steam infrared sauna treatments that soothe his joints, ligaments and muscles. 

After a short rest, he’s back at the Overdrive Elite facility from 8 to 9 o’clock for rigorous stretching exercises and medicine ball work to reduce his upper body excess and strengthen his core. 

From there, he’s off to grab a small dinner portion of baked fish and vegetables before being dropped back off at the Marriott, where a comfortable bed and a good night’s sleep await.

The next morning, around 5:15 AM, he’s up and eager to do it all over again. It’s a routine that he’s been following for six days a week over the last month.

—

Burns, who received his Bachelor’s Degree from Winthrop in Sociology and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Psychology at N.C. State, has yet to fully reflect on his spectacular nine-game postseason run. 

His mind will invariably wander toward the 24-point, 11-rebound, four-assist gem against Oakland in the NCAA Tournament, where he converted an absurd 75 percent of his shot attempts. 

And then there’s the monstrous performance against Duke in the Elite Eight, scoring 29 points, snagging four rebounds and dishing out three assists in the 76-64 victory that propelled the Wolfpack into the Final Four. 

He quickly turned the page to address the next challenge, proving those who relegated him to an afterthought as the NBA Draft approaches wrong.

At the pro day organized by 4Life Sports Management, the agency that reps him, at the Lakers training facility in El Segundo on May 21st, NBA reps in attendance were shocked at his body transformation. The buzz at the combine centered on his surprisingly accurate three-point shot and the fact that he’d shed approximately 50 pounds after his Final Four appearance. He has since been invited in for private workouts with the Cavaliers, Nets, Bucks and Rockets, with others calling to express interest. 

When Burns recently returned home for a brief visit, he even kept it real while trying on an expensive Gucci shirt that he purchased during the NCAA Tournament.

“When it first arrived, I couldn’t fit into it. Maaaan, those buttons were screaming at me” says Burns. “When I got back from New York, that beautiful butter soft thing fit me perfectly.”

In essence, that’s all he’s searching for moving forward, the perfect fit. “I just need one general manager, one organization, one coaching staff to believe in me and take a chance on me,” says Burns. “It won’t bother me if I don’t get drafted. When I get to Vegas for summer league, they’re gonna see what I can do. And the one team that gives me a shot will not regret it. I’ve been a winner every step of the way. I see no reason for that to change now.”

Photos via Getty Images. Exclusive photos by Kim Toledo and Brandon Christopher Hyman.

The post The Behind The Scenes Story of How DJ Burns Transformed His Body Heading Into the NBA Draft appeared first on SLAM.

We connected with Coby to speak about his offseason plans, becoming the go-to guy in Chicago, staying in the moment and more.

SLAM: How’s the offseason been so far?

Coby White: It’s been quiet, bro. I really haven’t been doing much because of how long the season was. I’ve been taking it easy—really just been in the weight room, tryna lay the foundation down before I get back on the court. I usually give myself two weeks [of rest], but this year I played a lot more minutes, so this offseason is a little different for me. I’m taking three to four weeks, and then I’ll really get back to it.

SLAM: You’re coming off the best season of your career so far—we’ll touch on that in a minute—but I want to take it back to last year. Was there anything you did differently last offseason in preparation for this season, or was it just a matter of everything finally coming together?

CW: I think last year, as far as on the court and in the weight room, the physical aspect of it was pretty much the same. What really changed for me was that I took the mental side of it differently; I took a different approach. Coach [Billy] Donovan really put it on my mind to transform myself mentally. He felt that was the next step for me. So, I started trying to grow mentally, doing little things such as reading more, meditating, putting myself on a set schedule, praying multiple times a day and things of that sort. And then Coach Donovan took me and a couple of the young guys to Colorado last year. We met with a mental coach, and he gave us little exercises. I just wanted to carry that to my summer training and into the season.

SLAM: You only started two games last year, but early on this season, it was clear you’d have a much bigger role. How was the transition for you establishing your role as the team’s lead guard?

CW: It was challenging at first, but it was fun. Obviously, things changed over the course of our season. Going into the year, I knew I was gonna have a big role, but by the end of the year, it was even bigger than I thought it was going to be. I just embraced the challenge. My teammates and coaching staff were supportive of me and patient with me. It was a learning experience. There was definitely a learning curve at the beginning. But once I got the hang of it and became accustomed to using my voice and being a leader, that’s when things just kind of clicked and I took off from there.

SLAM: Unlike many other lottery picks, you weren’t given the keys to your franchise right away. Can you speak to what staying the course looks like for you and how you stayed ready for the inevitable moment when you’d get the opportunity?

CW: It was hard at first, especially as a rookie. You kind of look around the League and see all your counterparts who were drafted around the same area as you, and you see a lot of guys playing 36 minutes, starting, leading their teams to wins and playing [in] those crunch-time moments. For me, I was coming off the bench, playing, like, 18 minutes a game. I think the mental part was the toughest for me. I’ve always been a hard worker and always worked on my game. I just wanted to show them that no matter what position you put me in, I’m going to continue to be myself and work how I always work in the gym. I just had to understand the mental part—it was a different type of adversity I had never been through in my life. But once I accepted the fact I was gonna have to work for this and be patient, I got a lot closer to God, especially his plan for me. I felt it in my spirit for the longest that my time was gonna come; I just had to be patient. This year, it finally came and I just thank God for allowing me to be in this position.

SLAM: Was there a moment early in the season that you could point to where it was like, This year’s going to be different?

CW: I think training camp just felt different. I just knew I couldn’t fail. I had the support of my teammates and my coaching staff, and I was more outspoken and the leader out there. Then, as the season started, I wasn’t very good—the first month, I was OK. I wasn’t myself the first month, but I remember talking to my brother, telling him I had this gut feeling that it was just all going to come together. Then, in December, things just clicked, and the confidence kept rising. Then, you know, you get comfortable [in your role], and you get the sense like: I belong here. This is who I am. And then I just kept getting better as the season went on.

SLAM: You finished second for the Most Improved Player Award; even though you didn’t win, is there any satisfaction in knowing that other people and your peers are considering you among the young stars in the League?

CW: You couldn’t go wrong [with any of the finalists for the MIP Award], but for me, it’s like—I lost. There isn’t really any gratification. Like, you either win or you lose and that’s just kind of how I see it. For me, it’s extra motivation, extra fuel—but it’s not animosity. Any one of us could have won it. In terms of being in conversations and people starting to recognize who I am—I try not to pay attention to it because I try not to get too high or too low. I enjoy the moments as they come. And then, after they go, it’s behind me. I had a great season, but I have to continue to build a foundation and continue to grow in every aspect of my game.

SLAM: Y’all fell just short of making the playoffs after losing in the play-in; what do you think is the next step for you to become the lead guard for a team that’s a consistent playoff contender?

CW: I think just continuing to build as a leader and use my voice. One of the hardest parts is the emotional aspect. There are so many emotions that go into one game, let alone the entire season. I’m an emotional guy; I wear my heart on my sleeve. When it comes to basketball, I care so much, and I’m emotional about it, and sometimes it’s affected me to the point where I’m not being the leader I should be. I have to be that rock for the team—that foundation for the team. I have to be the one to reel everybody back in. I’m learning in that area.

And I think this summer, I have to do a lot more conditioning. I can’t let fatigue play a factor [in] if I play well or not. I didn’t know I was gonna come in and play damn near 40 minutes a game. The role I had coming into the season, I was like the fourth option. By the end of the season, I was the first or second option. Towards the end of the season, when teams started adjusting to me and making things a lot harder for me, I feel like fatigue played a huge part in some of the games in which I didn’t play as well. I feel like taking a step in my conditioning and physicality will help me take the next step to where I want to be.

I’ll also work on being more creative on the ball. I’m learning how to get to my spots, learning how to play through physicality, because now, every night, I’m getting the first and second best defender on the team.

SLAM: Looking ahead to next season, what are some goals you’re aiming to accomplish?

CW: I think winning truly takes care of everything. But for me, individually, I think that next step is just becoming an All-Star. This past summer, I had one goal, and that was to prove to everyone that I deserve to be a lead guard in the NBA and that I can be a starting guard in the NBA. The one thing I want to do going into next year is just prove that I can sustain this level of play and also take a leap and become that All-Star. I feel like if I continue to work and be on the trajectory that I’m on, I think winning would make it an easy choice. For me, winning always comes before anything.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Bulls’ Coby White Talks Offseason, Staying the Course and Goals of Becoming an NBA All-Star appeared first on SLAM.

When the legend herself walks in wearing an all-white fit, her aura and energy is mesmerizing. Her presence commands the entire room. This is the same visionary who just led her team to an undefeated season and the program’s third national championship, a feat very few expected them to accomplish. This is the very trailblazer who is the highest paid Black coach in all of women’s basketball. This is the Dawn Staley, the dream merchant who has led not just a program, but the culture, into a new day where no one can deny what she’s done and no one can doubt that she is one of the greats. It’s written in the banners, in the stars, and on this very cover. She is in charge. The CEO of excellence. 

SLAM 250 featuring Dawn Staley is available now.

With her right hand man, Champ, prancing a few steps behind her, Staley exudes calm, cool and collected as she walks onto set. Biggie is blasting through the speakers in the background, serving as the perfect anthem for what we’re trying to capture: her aura, her energy and all that damn swaggggg. Not only is this Dawn’s first-ever solo SLAM cover, but it’s the first time ever that any coach has had their own cover for the magazine. Today is about capturing the legacy of someone who is way bigger than the box scores—but, if we are talkin’ hoops, a legacy that includes 38 straight wins this past season. The Gamecocks were out here destroying teams by upwards of 50, 60, nah, 80 points per game. 

As legendary photographer Diwang Valdez snaps away, Staley, who is now wearing the team’s 2024 National Champions tee, effortlessly poses in front of the camera. Just when you think the flicks couldn’t get any more fly, Dawn turns things up with another outfit change. This time she’s rocking a black blazer, tearaway joggers and, of course, a crisp Louis Vuitton tee. She goes from giving soft smiles and playful banter to transforming, as she leans back into the chair she’s now sitting in, crosses her legs and rests her elbow on a basketball. She stares into the lens, giving the same look that we’ve seen from her on the court. It’s deeply methodical, poetic even. Right now, Dawn means business. 

This is the face of someone who has personified strength, resilience and authenticity for decades. Here, she gives us a glimpse into her mind and her magic—a conversation that is as much about basketball as it is about how she sees people, her legacy, and—with true sincerity—herself. 

SLAM: You’ve mentioned in the past how you didn’t really have an interest in coaching, at least early on. Can you bring us back to when you were playing in the WNBA and coaching at Temple at the same time?

Dawn Staley: One of the most gratifying moments of my life was to be able to play and then be able to coach all at the same time. Because it played on both sides of my brain and the passion was on full display. If any of the younger players in the WNBA ever have the opportunity to do both, they would find that it’s so fulfilling. You’re able to get out the aggression of playing while also being a dream merchant for younger players and giving them an experience that you are actually living. A lot of coaches have to go back in time to that place when they were playing, but when you’re able to do it in real time, it is an automatic respect from your players because they know you’re doing the very thing that you’re asking them to do and to be disciplined at.

SLAM: You often refer to yourself not just as a coach but a “dream merchant.” Can you elaborate on what you mean?

DS: Anybody that is coaching this game, that’s what you are. I know we try to figure out our purpose in coaching, and it’s just that: being a dream merchant for young people. Helping young people find their passion [and] work towards that. It’s not always basketball—it’s not. For 90 percent of them, it’s not basketball. It is figuring out what you want to do, because I want people to work in their passion. It is a lot easier to work in your passion if that’s what you do on a daily basis. The real world really is taxing. It pulls you in a lot of different directions and if you’re not passionate about it, you are not going to give it your full effort. And maybe half of you is good enough in some instances, but for you as a person, your fulfillment is most important. 

So, what does a dream merchant do? That person guides, that person helps to navigate, that person is a listener [and] an observer. That person is someone that is trustworthy of not only the student-athlete but everybody that touches that student-athlete, because it’s not just a one-way street. All young people have people in their lives that impact them. I find that young people talk to their parents every single day…I think back to when I was their age, I probably talked to my mom or my dad maybe twice a month. And you know when that was? When the funds were low. But they talk to them every day, so I’m like, OK, well, I may have to change my style. I may have to pivot a little bit because I want to be the biggest voice in my players’ heads, and if it’s the parents that have access in that way, in talking to their daughters every day, [then] I gotta talk to the parents. 

GET YOUR COPY OF SLAM 250 + COVER TEE

SLAM: Who were your mentors? And did any coaches inspire you?

DS: I really didn’t have coaching mentors. I’m more of a private person. I don’t like to show weakness, and that’s probably a downfall of mine, but it’s the very thing that keeps me going, because it has me working. It always has me preparing for the worst, and I don’t like to take my problems to anybody else. I will say I have people in my life that I bounce things off that [are not] as close to the game as probably some other coaches, and I like them to give me feedback from the outside looking in, because when it’s all said and done, I like to be covered. My mind works as a basketball coach most of the time, so I’m always looking for basketball things to teach lessons to our players because I believe that sometimes they learn better from that standpoint. 

And then, if I get advice from somebody that’s not in the basketball world, I can balance that and make sure that I’m giving our players what I see, as well as what somebody else may see that I’m not covering. 

SLAM: Has your approach to coaching changed at all over the years? Are there things that worked early in your career that may not work now and vice versa?

DS: We’re in an era where we have to pivot. What worked 24 years ago will not work today. I’ll say this: The core principles of who I am as a person and coach doesn’t change. [The] battles I fight? They change. Take for instance this year—my approach was entirely different than my approach in just the recent years. In recent years, we had a group of players that got it. They understood the assignment and what they needed to do and they executed on and off the court, so they gave us no issues. I was just able to be a basketball coach. 

This year, they were different. They were younger, their approach was different. They were lackluster, they didn’t really have a plan as individuals—they may have thought they had a plan. Their plan was just to play more. You can approach it that way, but it’s shallow, so you gotta put something behind it. We worked from a place that we hadn’t worked from in a long time, which was, Hit the ground running. We couldn’t [even do that] because they couldn’t run, they were outta shape. They came in just thinking, I wanna play. I sat for a long time. It’s my time. Well, their time, and who they thought was taking their time, [the] approach was a lot different. Zia, Aliyah, Brea [Beal], they all came in shape. Every time that we had to come back in the summer, so we could hit the ground running…It was more of creating better discipline and habits, because they hadn’t formed it to the degree of them being ready to rock and roll. So, I looked at it as a challenge, and once I looked at it [as that], I got more passionate behind it because I’m drawn to challenges. It was cool because they did teach me [that] there are a number of ways to be successful and a number of ways to approach things.

One of the battles that I did not fight that I normally fight: if everybody had the same sweatsuit on, and one person didn’t, I knew that they spoke to that person. I knew it. I could see it, I’m looking at [it] and it looks strange to me…I approached it as a mistake that had been handled. But that’s one of the things I didn’t fight, because I knew this team had a way of delivering the message that I would deliver. 

SLAM: As you mentioned, the start of the season was a little different for you. What do you attribute this year’s success to? 

DS: We’ve had the best team in the country prior to this year, I would say for years. The best team in the country and this one ended up being the best team in the country by way of default, so to speak. But it was a way that was formed by them and I will give them all the credit because they could’ve balked, they could’ve said, I should be starting—for a while, they could’ve said, I’m the It. I should be starting. Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I could play with the best of them. Let me get some of Breezy’s time. Let me get some of Raven’s time. [But] they didn’t. Actually, the youngsters just allowed the older players to guide them to the point where they were so confident entering the basketball game that they knew that they were going to make an impact. And they kept holding each other accountable. Ashlyn [Watkins] found her superpower, and her superpower is on both sides of the basketball, but it was also leading. Her voice was prevalent in huddles, and it got to the point where they didn’t want to lose. It wasn’t even being undefeated, they just didn’t want to lose. It was nothing about winning each and every game, but in the moment of each game, they didn’t want to lose. So, they would listen to each other and they were very coachable, and then we just got momentum. We kept pushing through and then when we got to the Final Four, they were like, We gonna win this thing.

Before the national championship game, they were talking major cash ish. The coaches’ locker room is connected to the big locker room, and we don’t go in there [to] let them have their space. I’m too close to the situation, I don’t want to hear them, [but] they’re like, We’re going to kick their A, and I’m like, Lord, they don’t know what they don’t know. Either we’re going to get blown out, or we’re going to blow somebody out because they were talking. And I know they’re hyping themselves up, but as coaches, you know, we gotta go out there and face Caitlin [Clark] and them. Like, they got themselves here, they got momentum. 

As coaches, too, we would ask each other, You drinking the Kool-Aid? We would literally ask each other. So, for the most part we were like, Nah, we ain’t drinking it. Towards the end of the year, we asked, How about now? You drinking the Kool-Aid? I’m like, I’m sippin’. I ain’t taking a big gulp, but I’m sippin’. Because they’re putting it on display. I think, just overall as I reflect, it was a super cool journey and environment to be around them. They just played loose. I told this to a friend, I said, “They played free.”…So, I think that was really kind of cool for them to take us coaches down their journey. It’s usually, like, our journey—how we want to direct them and guide them. Nah. Nah, we got on their train and we rode their coattails. 

SLAM: Now that you’ve accomplished it all—going undefeated, winning your third chip—how does it feel?

DS: It feels great, like seriously. It’s unbelievable to me…[The] 2022 [team] looked the part. They looked the part, they played the part. They played just freer, but with pressure. And then this group was just unlike any of them. I don’t think anybody saw it coming. We didn’t see it coming, so that’s what I like about it. I’m sitting [here] and I’m happy…I want to share our story. I want to share the good, the bad, the ugly but also the likelihood of someone else doing what we did—I want to give them hope, because we didn’t look like a national championship team at the beginning of the season. We looked like most of the teams in the country, so we’re relatable to most of the teams. If we could do it, anybody could do it. 

SLAM: Your legacy reaches far beyond Xs and Os, wins and losses. We could go on and on, but what do you, Dawn Staley, want your legacy to be? 

DS: I want my legacy to be an “odds beater.” I am an odds beater. The odds said that I wouldn’t be an Olympian, I wouldn’t be the head coach of an Olympic team. To have coached 24 years in this game, I know that I don’t care about a personal legacy. I want to let my players talk about the legacy that they were able to feel every day from our coaching staff. I don’t have to say anything, they say it. Historically speaking, you don’t really hear my name as being a great coach, whether it’s X-ing and O-ing. I’m probably known to be a player’s coach, whatever that means. But to win three national championships, to not be an X and O coach and only be a player’s coach, I think we’re doing pretty good. If the X-ing and O-ing coaches aren’t winning national championships, I know they would probably flip it and be a player’s coach, if it produces national championships. I really don’t care about any of that, but what I do care about is our players, their experiences [and] their legacy, because the more of a legacy they have, it comes back. I just want to do right by our players. 

SLAM: You’ve seen women’s basketball skyrocket from a business standpoint, starting from your playing days to what it is today. What has it been like to see this transformation in real time?

DS: Women’s basketball is super cool, now. I would say now. It was super cool to me when I was growing up playing it and going to college because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Now that I know what I know about our game, one, we’ve been intentionally held back. I know that because it just doesn’t come out of nowhere. It seems like our game has just come out of nowhere and now everybody is falling in love with it, when we know different. We know that back when I was playing in ’88, in college, in ’89, people were watching. They would tune in. I know it because I know when I go to different places, I’m more known for playing at Virginia than anything. So, they were watching it. 

So, what happens between then and now? Decision makers are making some really good calls when it comes to our game…They know that women’s basketball is a mainstay. So, the biggest difference now is we are being treated like a real sport. The good, the bad and the ugly because in sports you have storylines, like a Caitlin Clark. In our game you have storylines of us being undefeated, winning a national championship. You’ve got Juju [Watkins], Hannah [Hidalgo], MiLaysia [Fulwiley], all of these storylines that are being played out now because the fans want more and more and more. And now, finally, and maybe, it’s the new negotiated TV deal that is allowing us to continue to grow. Maybe there’s somebody in the room that’s making sure that we have different people telling our stories. You got Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike, Aliyah Boston, [Andraya] Carter, Carolyn Peck…I thought that whole crew broke basketball down like no other. Wasn’t biased, because we gotta get the bias out of our game. So, you saw what happens when it’s unbiased. It was absolutely beautiful.

SLAM: You don’t seem like the type to chase milestones or history, it just sort of finds its way to you. With that being said, is there anything that you have your eyes set on before you bow out of coaching?

DS: Selfishly, it’s just one thing that I wanted out of this game: I wanted to be a Hall of Famer. So, I went in [to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame] in 2013 as a player. Now, I do want to go in as a coach. 

Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Action photos via Getty Images.

The post The Excellence of Dawn Staley: South Carolina Head Coach Talks Championship, Being a ‘Dream Merchant’ and Growth of Women’s Hoops appeared first on SLAM.

Ever since I can remember playing the game, watching the game, loving the game — SLAM Magazine has been right there. I’ve been wearing a rubber band ever since that first KICKS issue.

It was the foundation. The blueprint. The culture. All along. For both basketball and sneakers. For the last thirty years, and however many years it runs from here…

I knew I could also contribute to the anniversary in a unique way. 

To celebrate the impact of SLAM and its 30th anniversary, we’ve partnered with footwear brands across the industry. We’re looking back at some of the most iconic covers and players over the last 30 years, to tell the story of SLAM’s impact on the basketball world, all through some fire collaborative sneakers. 

My favorite part about SLAM is the chapters. The eras. The way that the magazine and the platform meant different things to different people along the way — each decade — but always made an impact and left its mark.

Tonight in New York, we’ll be previewing some of our upcoming SLAM 30th Anniversary footwear to come at the magazine’s 30 YEARS OF SLAM party, with a runway spanning throughout the entire rest of 2024 of more heat on the way. Here’s an early look at what to expect all year long. 

SLAM x LEBRON x NIKE

By the time the already-dubbed “King James” appeared on the cover of SLAM #78 at the midway point of his rookie season, the most hyped prospect in league history was already meeting, and even exceeding the hype.

“It’s only the beginning,” read the cover text. 

He was lacing up his first signature shoe, the Air Zoom Generation, throughout his historic 20.5.5 rookie year. It wasn’t just the league that had stamped him as the future, but Nike coined him “generational” off top with a record-setting $90 Million rookie shoe deal. 

The history between SLAM and Bron is also long stamped. The text behind the tongue of the SLAM x Air Zoom Generation is updated from the cover and says as much: “Since The Beginning…” 

Flipping the hues of his first shoes, a rich red suede takes on the base color, while a series of design details celebrating his debut signature all come to life. There’s a nod to his first PE, the “Laser” Generations worn on Christmas Day, which was also the first lasered hoop shoe to hit the NBA hardwood. A detailed lasered graphic highlighting the SLAM logo and James’ upbringing tells the story further.

For the first time, there’s a collar Swoosh placement, just as Aaron Cooper originally designed them. The molded parts on the shoe that drafted off of his much-discussed Hummer H2 are all chrome to honor his 18th birthday gift. We’re only just getting started with this one.

***

SLAM x AND1

When SLAM #41 dropped in April of 2000, we had just witnessed perhaps the greatest Dunk Contest performance of all time. Vince Carter was famously a sneaker free agent in just his second season, and he laced up the white and red AND1 Tai Chi for that instant classic array of dunks. 

AND1 had been around for a few years as a rising apparel company by that point and their transcendent streetball Mixtapes were moving major, but now, their footwear was taking off too. VC laced up a simple black and white pair of the Tai Chi on the very next cover slot that was available. The header was straightforward:

“The Greatest Show On Earth” 

To celebrate the 2000s era of AND1 and the impact of the Tai Chi on sneaker culture, we’re creating a new version that brings to life SLAM’s heritage colors of white, grey, black and orange, fittingly the exact shades from that cover shot of Issue 41. 

The mesh fade is a nod to another model from the era that I always loved, the Finger Roll, and a way to bring the Tai Chi’s original yin and yang inspired split read to the side of the shoe. As always, the shoe looks best with a suede color along the inside panel — a bright orange suede is seen on the SLAM edition. 

Our 30th anniversary crest can be seen along the inner collar, along with the three vertical stars found on the cover text. The 3M hits throughout tie back to the bright lights of All-Star Weekend, and the impact of The Greatest Show On Earth all these years later. 

***

SLAM x CURRY BRAND

Stephen Curry had just signed with Under Armour a few months before he was on his first cover of SLAM in December of 2013. And man, what a run he’s had in the decade since. He’s now the President of Curry Brand, his own damn brand within the Under Armour umbrella.

On the original cover, he’s wearing the Anatomix Spawn, a sneaker that marked a new era of design for UA, and the first model he wore with the brand to start the 2013-2014 season. 

The real story is the shoe that Stephen wore for the cover shoot was a mix of blue, purple and teal. In a full circle moment I couldn’t have imagined, I actually photoshopped the original picture, shifting the purple midsole to royal blue, and the teal collar to a Warriors-matching yellow. This was long before the league let go of their color rules, of course. 

A decade later, and Curry Brand has recently launched the Anatomix Spawn through its Flotro filter, remixing the company’s innovative Flow midsole with a modernized version of the original upper. 

While SLAM #173 was just the starting point of Curry as cover man, the SLAM x Spawn Flotro celebrates all of the covers that the 4-time champ has appeared on in the years since. 

The design incorporates a collage of his covers across the entire upper, with torn edges inspired by everyone’s childhood ritual of tearing out the pages of SLAM to tack up on their bedroom walls. 

The concept is also a nod to the generational impact that Curry has had on the game, inspiring young readers and players around the world to reimagine how they approach the game, extend their shooting range, and experience the joy of hoops.

The heel hang tag features the SLAM logo, while a pearlized midsole references the common 30th anniversary stone. The lace tips are a nod to both the milestone and Curry’s iconic jersey number, simply reading “THIRTY.” 

Stay tuned for more on the full SLAM x Curry Brand pack to come. We’ve got another model on the way, too…

***

SLAM x SABRINA x NIKE 

A year after being selected #1 overall in the WNBA draft, SLAM stamped Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu as “The Next Queen of NY” for the mag’s Future Issue. 

The following year, Sabrina was launching her very own signature shoe with Nike, taking her starpower and impact on the game to yet another level. An All-Star and All-WNBA PG in each of the last two seasons, the 3-Point Contest record setter will once again be running point this season for a loaded Liberty squad that reached the WNBA Finals last year.

The expectations are rightfully high yet again as Sabrina enters her fifth season. There’s also equally high expectations for her follow-up signature shoe, the Nike Sabrina 2.

After her debut signature model broke barriers and saw adoption at all levels of the game, inspiring “anyone, anywhere,” the momentum around her second sneaker makes it one of the anticipated models of the entire year.

We can’t wait to share how SLAM x Sabrina comes to life in New York later this year.

***

SLAM x LAMELO x PUMA

Since he was a teenager, LaMelo Ball has been SLAM Fam. He was doing full-scale photoshoots throughout his high school run at Chino Hills, with his starpower and basketball journey taking him around the globe ever since. 

After his Rookie of the Year start in the league, the face of Puma Hoops saw the launch of his first signature shoe coincide with his first All-Star Game appearance during his sophomore season. It was on Issue #237 that he pulled up for the cover of SLAM in his unlaced MB.01s, hitting the league’s longtime logo pose in a custom LaFrancé jersey from his own clothing line. 

With an iced out, 3D UFO pendant on his neck, the cover declared him “Out Of This World.”

With more to come later this year, look for SLAM and LaMelo to bring to life his “rare” and “1 of 1” personality in the loudest way possible, as we team up with Puma to celebrate Ball’s impact on the sneaker industry and his place in the future of both the game and SLAM’s next chapter ahead. 

***

SLAM x PENNY x NIKE 

As we looked back through the decades of SLAM covers over the years, we also looked at the various milestone issues since the very first cover went to print in ’94.

The 30th issue of SLAM featured none other than Penny Hardaway, with a Scoop Jackson-penned cover story that perfectly captured his immediate rise with the Orlando Magic and his mission to stay on top of the game that he poured everything into. 

Around that same time in the late ’90s, Nike had just unveiled one of their most innovative sneakers ever with Penny as the headliner. The Foamposite One has been one of the most unique and iconic sneakers across the industry ever since, with its molded upper and clear bottom making for an unmistakable look and a global following. 

The SLAM x Penny Foamposite takes it back to one of the earliest sketches from designer Eric Avar, who somehow saw the future when first crafting the shoe in the mid-90s. The molded Foamposite upper found here features a printed graphic inspired by Avar’s concept sketch, with the details dialed in from there. 

For the first time, there’s a Swoosh along the shank, just as Avar had sketched it. The tongue logos alternate between Hardaway’s sleek 1 Cent logo and the SLAM logo. The heel tabs feature the three vertical stars found on every cover throughout the magazine’s 30 years, and a number 30 that also honors SLAM’s 30th Issue. 

***

SLAM x ADIDAS 

When you ask anyone to pick their favorite cover of SLAM, it’s the 15th issue featuring a fold-out cover of rising rookies “set to blow up” that quickly comes to mind for many. One of the deepest Draft classes ever posed in front of a brick wall, and SLAM was right there in 1996 to stamp the collection of future Hall of Famers as next up. 

In partnering with Adidas, we’ll be bringing to life one of the brand’s most forward-thinking designs in company history. Yes, that means the Crazy Two is retroing in the future, for the first time. 

With a molded silhouette drafting from the automotive industry, the sneaker was every bit as boundary pushing as it was polarizing when it originally launched.

You’ll be seeing the outsized proportions of the sneaker come to life in an entirely new way later this year, as SLAM looks back to the shades found along the classic “Ready Or Not…” cover from the earliest days of the magazine.

***

SLAM x BUBBA CHUCK x REEBOK 

You already know this was a must. 

As Allen Iverson writes in the foreword of the “30 YEARS OF SLAM” book:

“I am SLAM.” 

The bond and timeline of the two have been linked ever since Iverson was first featured on the cover, while still in college. When Issue #32 dropped though, the impact reached beyond basketball. 

It’s not just an iconic SLAM cover. It’s an image that kickstarted an entire throwback jersey era for the 2000s, and cemented AI as the most culturally impactful icon that the league has ever seen. 

Throughout the detailed Russ Bengtson feature interview with The Answer, there’s a layout graphic featuring Iverson that’s centered around “The 3 of Diamonds.” 

As we all know, there isn’t much explanation needed to explain Allen’s affinity for ice.

The throwback “PHILA” jersey he’s wearing was custom made by a local nearby manufacturer named Mitchell & Ness, to highlight the history of the league in an “Old School Issue” as the NBA was dealing with a lockout that year. It was the chains, the tats, the watch and the earrings that let you know this was still a modern icon of the next millennium. 

Inspired by “frosted” diamond watches, the midsole of the SLAM x Reebok Question Low features a metallic frosted texture that extends up into the shoe’s iconic toe cap. The SLAM logo appears on the heel, while the lettering up the eyelets have been switched out to read Allen’s longtime nickname among his closest friends, “Bubba Chuck.” 

The “3 of Diamonds” logo from the original cover story layout can be found on both the heel of the shoe and through the clear outsole, bringing one of the most impactful covers in SLAM’s 30-year history full circle, celebrating once again that “Allen Iverson is Soul On Ice.” 

***

The post SLAM Celebrates 30 Years With Upcoming Sneaker Collabs  appeared first on SLAM.

Jimmy Butler is everywhere these days.

There he is at the US Open, serving as an honorary ball boy for an exhibition match between Carlos Alcaraz and Frances Tiafoe. There he is in the new music video for Fall Out Boy’s “So Much (For) Stardust,” sporting his now-legendary “Emo Jimmy” look. There he is in ads for Hulu, Alo, State Farm and Hotels.com. There he is sampling products for BIGFACE, his budding coffee brand, and at the first-ever Reserve Cup, a padel competition that he helped bring to Miami. There he is at the Kaseya Center, soaring for lobs and knocking down threes.

And here he is at ZZ’s Club Miami, singing and dancing along to Lloyd’s “You,” breathing energy into the club’s swanky sports bar. He is, after all, five cups of coffee in, and it’s just 2:30 p.m. (he drinks 10-12 cups a day, by the way). A wide-ranging playlist booms through a handheld speaker—everything from “Let Me Love You” by Mario to “Jamming” by Bob Marley & the Wailers to “Loop Hole” by Tee Grizzley featuring 21 Savage. In between posing for photos, the Heat star snacks on sushi and sips an old fashioned.

Welcome to Jimmy Butler’s SLAM cover shoot, and welcome, more broadly, to his ever-growing universe, where you’re invited—err, encouraged—to be your authentic self at all times. To follow whatever passions you may have.

SLAM 249 featuring Jimmy Butler is available now. Shop here.

Butler is a man of many interests: coffee, wine, country music, tennis, padel, soccer (which he calls football), dominoes, spades, UNO, traveling—the list goes on. He is always up to something, always surrounded by family and friends. His house in Miami doesn’t even have TVs. Instead of binge-watching shows, Butler does things like chase tennis balls around Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, NY, because, well, it’s fun and he felt like doing it. He is currently working on his own country album; right now, it features 62 songs (!) and Butler, who has played a DJ Khaled-like role, is debating whether to hop on one.

“He loves to get into a whole bunch of stuff that you wouldn’t think he would enjoy doing,” says Butler’s teammate Caleb Martin. “He’s just super active, man, whether he’s doing something on an off day or meeting up with certain types of artists or playing dominoes or going to tennis matches. He’s definitely a dude full of surprises.”

Surprises like…starring in that aforementioned Fall Out Boy video in an all-purple cowboy outfit. 

“Anything to shake up anything on the internet and continually be myself, be happy and love my life and what I’m doing, I’m down,” Butler says. The video was shot over All-Star break and it dropped less than two weeks later. And yes, it shook up the internet.

Butler strikes a difficult balance: he doesn’t take life too seriously, but he is also extremely competitive. He cracks jokes, but often leaves people wondering…was that really a joke? 

“Don’t be fooled because you see me on TV or a commercial or a billboard, I do a lot of the same stuff y’all do,” he says, before adding with a grin, “I’m probably just better at it than all y’all…but I can’t help that.”

The truth (and irony) is, Butler engages in many extracurricular activities, such as tennis and songwriting, “to humble” himself. He wants to experience firsthand the challenges of other professions. Of course, he is also certain that if he keeps working at something, he will excel at it. He has a burning desire to be the best at everything he does. 

To win at everything he does. 

Take spades, for example. The Heat like to play on the team plane during long road trips. “When I say he does not lose, he does not lose,” forward Jamal Cain says. “Me and Haywood Highsmith beat him once and he was kind of shitty after that. I kind of saw it in his face. He’s very competitive. He does not like to lose.”

Or take dominoes, which might be the game Jimmy is best at (including the one he’s famous for). “He’s a top-five, top-10 dominoes player in the world,” claims Chris Brickley, Butler’s trainer. “I know this because he and [Colombian singer] J Balvin have flown in the top dominoes players in the world, like, world champions. And he’s beat them.”

“That’s some Jimmy shit,” Martin remarks with a laugh. He and his twin brother, Cody, are a rare duo that have actually beat Jimmy in dominoes. “And we ain’t played since,” Martin says. “On and off the court, he doesn’t like to lose. He’s ducking me, for sure. Ever since we played him, he tells me and my brother, ‘Y’all are The Funky Brothers.’ Me and Cody play funky, so it messes him up.”

Butler brings that same competitive mindset to his brand, BIGFACE, which he is very dedicated to building. Along with the BIGFACE team, he has visited Colombia and Ecuador on a quest to find the best coffee. He is even trying to master latte art and how to make the perfect cappuccino. 

“People can see this on the court as well—his dedication to something and to knowing everything there is to know about it translates from basketball to coffee,” says Britt Berg, Chief Operating Officer at BIGFACE. She and Butler text about coffee almost every day. 

BIGFACE is set to open its first brick-and-mortar shop in Miami later this year, a milestone that Jimmy is eagerly awaiting. “When I’m not practicing, when I’m not with my kids, when I’m not in a game, I can tell you where I’m gonna be, and that’s in this coffee shop, meeting all the fans of myself and of coffee,” he says. “Because I do love coffee, I do want to bring the best coffee to Miami. I don’t think there’s a spot like that here yet, and I want the first BIGFACE café to be that, so that’s where I’m gonna be. And we need that. Miami needs that…along with a championship!”

Ah, yes. We should probably talk a bit about basketball. It’s mid-March when we shoot this cover—or, as Butler calls it, “that time.”

Allow him to elaborate: “It’s the time where people really gotta think about going up against the Miami Heat and myself. I know what I’m capable of. I know what my squad is capable of. And don’t nobody want to see us in a seven-game series anyways. We know that.”

We do.

Miami finished eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 46-36 record. But, then again, the Heat entered last year’s playoffs as the No. 8 seed before going on an epic run to the Finals. In 2019-20, the League’s bubble season, Miami reached the Finals as the No. 5 seed.

“Nobody can tell you anything right now,” Jimmy says. “There are three things that you gotta have in order to win a championship: you’ve gotta be playing your best basketball at the right time, you gotta be healthy, and you gotta be lucky. That’s just the way that it is. So can’t nobody tell right now who’s going to have all three of those things.”

Butler quietly had another stellar year, posting 20.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game and shooting a career-high 41.4 percent from behind the arc. Don’t expect him to be launching more threes in the postseason, though. “I just don’t like shooting threes because I want to run into you,” he says. “I want to hit somebody. You can’t hit nobody if you shoot threes. I want to see who’s going to quit first. I’m gonna keep running in there, I’m gonna hit you, and I’m gonna hit you again, and I’m gonna hit you again, and we’re gonna see who’s gonna quit.”

That sounds like something the fabled and fearless “Playoff Jimmy” would say, doesn’t it? Only thing is, Butler continues to deny that Playoff Jimmy exists. 

“That’s not a thing for the hundredth time,” he insists. “Playoff Jimmy is not a thing. Emo Jimmy, thing. Football Jimmy, thing. Tennis Jimmy, thing. Daddy Jimmy, thing. Zaddy Jimmy, thing. But Playoff Jimmy, not so much.”

OK, fair enough. But worth noting: over a four-season stretch, Butler has led Miami to the Eastern Conference Finals three times and to the Finals twice, averaging 24.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.9 steals through 64 playoff games. During the 2020 Finals, he registered two triple-doubles, including just the third 40-point triple-double in Finals history. In Game 6 of the 2022 ECF, he hung 47 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals on the Celtics to force a Game 7 (one of four 40-plus-point performances he had that postseason). He set a franchise playoff record with 56 points in Game 4 of last season’s first-round series against the top-seeded Bucks, then followed it up with 42 points in Game 5 as his team pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever. 

Butler will admit that things “ramp up a notch” this time of year. Amid the last few weeks of the regular season and into the playoffs, he and Brickley start working out the night before every single game. They study the defense Miami is about to face and try to replicate the exact situations Butler will find himself in. What spots on the floor will be open? What shots will be available? What switches might occur? Butler’s basketball IQ is “probably the highest IQ out of any player I’ve worked with,” says Brickley.

Martin, who has been with the Heat since 2021, notices a “mental shift” in Jimmy as the playoffs loom. “I think him having the experience of going through this phase so many times, he knows how to time stuff up with his body, and then [there’s] the mental part of it, too, him just being so steady mentally,” Martin explains. “He’s very strategic. He knows when it’s time to ramp up. He knows what games probably hurt more than others or whatever the case is. Everything he does, he thinks about.”

The added reps in the gym help, as does Butler’s very calculated approach. But if there’s one reason to believe Playoff Jimmy is real, and that other teams should fear his impending arrival, it’s this: Jimmy Butler is fully confident in who he is and what he’s capable of. There’s a comfort in that, a peace. Any feelings of self-doubt and pressure are gone. He doesn’t care one bit what others think about him—what others predict he and his team will or won’t do.

That type of confidence has a way of rubbing off on the people around him: friends, colleagues, teammates. 

“When you have a leader like that, it gives you a sense of confidence in your abilities and what you’re doing,” says Berg.

“The first thing I noticed with Jimmy, he’s very comfortable being in his skin. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him,” Cain adds. “Seeing how he carried himself and how confident and comfortable he was in his skin only made me more comfortable being who I am.”

Cain remembers one game day when he and other members of the Heat huddled up to pray before taking the court, as was their ritual, and requested that Jimmy turn down the music he was blasting. “Y’all need to be praying to me!” Butler responded. “He said it in a joking manner, but just the fact that that was the first thing on his mind, I was like, Wow, this is Jimmy in a nutshell,” Cain recalls with a chuckle.

It’s no coincidence that Butler describes the Heat as being “overly confident in a good way.” In large part, that identity stems from him. Despite the ups and downs of the regular season, Butler has no doubt that his team has what it takes to make another deep playoff run. 

Why? 

“We just have a different way of going about things,” he says. “Our coaching staff cares and they’re constantly studying how we can make everybody on our roster stick to their strong suits and stay away from the weak points of their games. Ownership cares—they’re at every practice, they’re on the plane. We’re talking to one another. We really fuck with one another, which is a good thing. And, um…” 

He pauses for a moment and flashes a sly smile. 

“I’m on the team. So, I’m taking my chances every time.” 

Portraits by Alex Subers

The post The Undeniable Realness of Jimmy Butler: Heat Star Talks Leadership, Staying True and the Playoffs appeared first on SLAM.

These guys are friends. 

Sounds obvious, right? For sure. Easy to acknowledge it sounds obvious. But SLAM is celebrating its 30th anniversary. We’ve been around NBA players for a while now. We’ve seen that a ton of them are colleagues, not friends. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. These guys spend months on the road together. Their team responsibilities pull them away from their families. So most players keep it cordial with each other, but in the same way that you leave your work environment, they do, too. 

We’re not here to burst any bubbles. You should still believe in Santa Claus. Hell, hopefully one day the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot finally emerge. But we regret to inform you that most NBA players don’t kick it with each other outside of practice, even if they make it seem so when they’re in public. 

That’s why the genuine laughter of this trio, all three of them former Villanova Wildcats, was a much welcomed surprise. They seem to be friends off the court. There’s a ton of history between them, which we will get into. But you just never know what’s for the internet and what’s for real. 

SLAM 249 featuring the Knicks is available now. Get your copy here.

Josh pulled up first. He was early. He and one of his agency reps sat in the corner of the gym, with windows displaying the amazing manicured lawns outside the gym. It was the first day of March and the sun was reminding us it existed after a long winter. Finely-kept evergreen trees couldn’t block the natural light, so Josh, with his perfect braids and fresh white Ralphie tee, was illuminated. 

He deserves some of the spotlight. He’s the one who does the dirty work for Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. Deflections, switches, backside call-outs all fall under his list of responsibilities. He also plays a lot of minutes. Like, a lot. As we go to press, he’s averaging 41 minutes a game over his last 22 contests. He even played the entire 48 against the Golden State Warriors on March 18. Hart’s role increased when the Knicks suffered injuries to two of their best players; he was called on to essentially be a 6-4 power forward. He has to get bruised up down low, fly around on rotations, jet back down to the paint and then grab rebounds. Over that same 22-game stretch, he pulled down an average of 11.3 boards a contest, way up from his career average of 6.5. Recently, his rebounding numbers have been major. In a stretch from late February to mid-March, he’s had one game of 18 rebounds and two with 19. And to make those two 19-board moments even more impressive, they were both part of triple-double performances. Triple-doubles are portraits of desire and technique—they require reading the game on a serious level. Hart has had five triple-doubles in his seven-year career. They’ve all happened in this current season. 

Hart’s a serious competitor on the court, which, according to Brunson, is the only time he’s ever serious at all. The two were roommates at Villanova and know each other very, very well. For example, Hart knows that Brunson’s favorite childhood player was Steve Nash. Brunson can counter that knowledge by adding that Mike and Ike is Hart’s favorite candy. Brunson, who was named an All-Star this season, says plainly that besides being about his business in basketball, Hart loves to joke around. There’s no arguing from Hart. In fact, Brunson and Hart only communicate in one way throughout the entire shoot.  

Brunson and DiVincenzo arrived together at the gym in Connecticut. It was starting to get dark when they walked in. No more individual spotlight on Hart. Instead, the three of them were the center of attention. Right from the jump, Brunson and Hart speak to each other through veiled inside jokes and outright insults. Sly smiles followed everything they said. Whenever Hart did or said something ridiculous, Brunson would look around helplessly, praying somebody else noticed the insanity. DiVincenzo, the youngest of the trio, consistently cracked up with laughter no matter what. 

DiVincenzo has had a winding road since making it to the League in 2018. The Bucks picked him 17th overall, but he didn’t get a ton of burn in that first season. To go from the height of winning the 2018 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player to only appearing in 27 games (a nagging heel injury can be blamed, too) is a fall off that would take the heart of most. That speed bump, however, gave us the first look at DiVincenzo’s resiliency. He came back the next season, played 66 games and averaged 9.2 ppg. The following season, he started every game he appeared in and upped his points average yet again. He would have been a huge part of the Bucks’ NBA Finals-winning group if not for an ankle injury that needed to be surgically repaired. 

Still, he has a ring. 

The Bucks traded him to the Kings in February ’22, where he suited up in only 25 games for then-coach Alvin Gentry. His next stop, the Warriors, reminded the NBA of how he plays when healthy. More resiliency. After fighting back from injury, he showed that he can run the 1 or play the 2. The Dubs had him dishing the ball to their Hall of Fame shooting duo. They had him filling the slots on cuts. He was one of the very few guards in the NBA allowed to crash the offensive glass (in this age of otherworldly athleticism and aerial acrobats, most teams prefer to send guys back for transition defense). When given the opportunity, he showed the ability to create his own shot off the bounce. 

He’s doing all of that now for the Knicks. This season, his three ball goes down nearly 40 percent of the time, above the League average. He has four games of more than 30 points this year, too. He had never had a 30-point game in his NBA career before this season. In his last 21 games, he’s going for 20.8 per. Big jump. Big, big jump. 

As most basketball players know, being on the same team as your friends usually increases production. There’s a foundational layer of trust that underlies everything when hooping with the bros. A portion of the stresses that come from playing with strangers get replaced by the fun of running around with your boys. Taking crazy shots or throwing stupid passes are usually followed by choice words from teammates. But sometimes those bad shots or wild passes result in strokes of genius. Genius is more likely to happen with brothers than it is with strangers, when people trust in those choices, when you really know the guy who has something to say after those shots and passes. And defensively, that trust shows up in the form of big rotational swings—a gamble in the passing lane getting covered by that dude who really enjoys Mike and Ike. 

Playing alongside friends is a treat. Winning alongside friends is a special privilege from the basketball heavens. 

These guys won together on the biggest collegiate stage. 

Hart was a junior by the time DiVincenzo and Brunson got to Nova. Though DiVincenzo didn’t play much in that 2015-16 season, Hart and Brunson were two of the Wildcats’ leaders. Along with Kris Jenkins and Ryan Arcidiacono, they guided the Wildcats to the 2016 national championship. They conquered close games, raced back from big deficits and survived the gauntlet together. Together is the key here. 

It’s a fact that the bonds we as humans form get deepened by stressful environments and heightened situations. When you’re 18-21 years old and the entire nation is watching your every step, giving you all their opinions, placing their hopes on your shoulders, that’s a stressful environment and a heightened situation. 

Then when Hart was playing for the Lakers in 2018, Brunson and DiVincenzo won the natty again. More stressful environments and heightened situations. 

So, of course these guys are actually friends. Their bond began in college, where young minds are shaped and formed without nationally-televised basketball games. Add in the games on TV, the thousands of screaming fans, the legacy of a Hall of Fame coach and that would’ve made for a deeper bond together. Now fast forward a few years and add the layer of Madison Square Garden, the generations-deep Knicks fandom and the pressure of possibly playing in May or June…that’s a lifelong bond. 

The three of them hit the bathroom together to change into their uniforms at our shoot. When they come back to the gym, Brunson’s no longer wearing DiVincenzo’s jersey. But they’re all still laughing. And they continue laughing. Hart is the ringleader. Brunson is the seemingly-innocent-but-actually- devilish instigator. And DiVincenzo uncontrollably laughs at it all. 

None of this happens without Brunson, by the way. He’s the All-Star, he’s the Knicks’ best player. He’s their floor general. He’s their clutch scorer. He’s the heartbeat of the Garden. All the numbers point to this being his best season yet. Those numbers actually become redundant because they all make it clear that he’s an elite player. One number, however, sums it up. Five. 

He’s fifth in the NBA in scoring, as of this writing. 

Nobody thought that the 33rd overall pick in the 2018 Draft would one day lead the Knicks’ franchise revival, be an All-Star or be near the top of the League in scoring. But the game is easy when playing with friends. 

Especially with friends who love to compete. All three of these guys are physical. They hustle hard. Hart hits the glass, DiVincenzo recovers from injury after injury and Brunson goes down into the land of trees despite his height. They relish the big moments. They love the challenge. It’s obvious they love playing together because they play together. 

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau spoke about them after a big road win over the Golden State Warriors in March.

“Josh’s role expanded,” Thibs said at his postgame press conference. “Donte’s role expanded. And Jalen just keeps rolling. It’s a team, and that’s what we prioritize. We want guys to sacrifice and put the team first, but there has to be that belief. I think when your best players have that belief, then your entire team ends up having that belief.”

Even when they’re making fun of each other and laughing at each other, they do it together. After about an hour in front of our cameras in that Connecticut gym, they leave, together. 

Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

The post The Reunion of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo appeared first on SLAM.

For the next 30 days—Monday through Friday— we’ll be unveiling the full list here. We’ve also got an exclusive retro collegiate collection, out now, that pays homage to each squad’s threads. Shop here.

It’s impossible to reference the most impactful college teams without including Allen Iverson and the Georgetown Hoyas. We’ve got a storied history with Bubba Chuck, which started in ‘96 with Issue No. 9 when SLAM Shakespearean Scoop Jackson lobbied for the first of AI’s eventual 15 covers. Led by the infamous John Thompson, Hoya Paranoia was synonymous with the iconic kente cloth-stitched threads and high expectations, entering the season with a Top Five preseason ranking. With AI returning for his sophomore campaign in ‘95, the basketball ecosystem gravitated to Washington D.C. And outside the nation’s capital, everybody wanted to be down with the Hoyas. Replica Nike unis, baggy gray and navy sweat suits. Georgetown was more than a basketball powerhouse; it was a culture—a culture led by Allen Iverson, a simply unstoppable force. 

The 6-foot phenom left every crowd in awe with his signature cross, unmatched rhythm and smooth jumper. Jumpstops were his specialty, buckets were his major while studying at the College of Next Up. Back in ‘96, Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson put it plainly; “I’ve been to three calf shows, nine horse ropings–I even saw Elvis once. But I ain’t never seen anyone do what Iverson does. We doubled him, trapped him and he broke it.” 

Big East Freshman of the Year and Big East Defensive Player of the Year just last season. Nobody could punk, mess or even dream of stopping the Hampton, VA native. 25 points and 3.4 steals per, Iverson’s craftiness was unparalleled. Down low, Othea Harrington continued the program’s well-earned reputation as a big-man factory, dominating the Big East boards alongside Jerome Williams.

In the fast break, freshman sensation Victor Page truly shined. The 6 ‘3 backcourt complement was thrown more lobs than spot-up threes as he and Iverson skied to the rims for constant highlight connections. One-handed cross-court bounce passes, no look dots and emphatic hammers—just another day at the office.

The phrase ‘look good, play good’ might be overused, but it was a decree regarding the Hoyas of ‘96. From the debut of the Terminators back in ‘85 to the inclusion of kente patterns in ‘93, John Thompson’s chess-like approach to visual excellence was singular. While grey and navy may have been the base for the most popular uniform in college basketball, Thompson’s decided to throw one more into the mix—the heralded sleek all-black threads. Decades later, the trio of hues continue to spark the influence of the 95-96 Hoyas. 

Finishing the season with a 29-8 record while refusing to fall out of the Top 14, the Hoyas stamped their ticket to the big dance despite falling to UConn in the Big East Tournament championship. After receiving a No. 2 seed in the East region, Iverson went berserk, exploding for nearly 28 points and two steals per game throughout March as Georgetown marched to the Georgia Dome for the Elite Eight. 

Despite falling to Marcus Camby and Massachusetts, the 95-96 Georgetown Hoyas remain one of the most impactful teams in collegiate history, period. We’d implore you to find a team whose threads have remained relevant for over three decades. The fabric of Georgetown’s prominence may have been initially stitched by Thompson and Patrick Ewing, but the immortalization of the Hoyas was cemented with AI and the ‘96 squad. 

Photos via Getty Images.

The post The 30 Most Influential NCAA MBB Teams of SLAM’s 30 Years: ‘96 Georgetown 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.

“Hey man, you can at least tag me in the post,” Maxey told Embiid. “Like, you got a million followers.”

According to Maxey, Embiid went to the media, presumably sometime around when the Sixers beat the Celtics at home on January 14, and allegedly asked them to “Find me a picture of me and Ty so I can post it.” After the game, he posted another flick on the gram, without telling Tyrese. The caption? “#0>>> THE FRANCHISE @tyresemaxey.” 

SLAM 248 featuring Tyrese Maxey is available now.

The Process has seen something in Maxey since the beginning. Maxey remembers during the Sixers matchup against the Nuggets on January 9 his rookie year, which was the first game he started, when Joel asked him if he could get 40 that night. “I’m like, Me? Me, get 40? I rarely play,” he tells us, looking back. “I had, like, 39 and I’m like, dang, he said that and I knew I could probably do it, but at the time, like, Man, That’s gonna be tough.” It was the most points scored by a Sixers rookie since Allen Iverson in 1997. 

This season, Embiid was the one who pushed him again when the Sixers played the Pacers on November 12. By the fourth, Maxey looked up at the scoreboard and saw that he already had 45 points. That’s when Embiid let him know. “Joel [is like], You gotta get 50, you gotta get 50. I’m not really trying to press it, but he grabs the ball, like, Here, you need to shoot again.

“I always say this, man. Joel is probably one of the first people that believed in me here,” Maxey adds. “He really believed in me from day one.”

Mad Max has come a long way since his rookie year. From coming off the bench to starting full-time, he’s played an instrumental role in the team’s success this season—they’re the No. 3 team in the East at press time. An hour or two before his first-ever SLAM cover shoot, the All-Star voting results dropped and his name was listed alongside some of the best in the L. 

By the time the cameras start rolling and we’ve got No. 0 with us, he instantly commands the room, and the camera, all while having fun with it. In between takes, he’s dancing and rapping along to Lil Wayne’s “A Milli.” With a big smile on his face, he sings the chorus. “I’m ILL!” 

The moment is giving major main character vibes. And just like Weezy at the end of that video, what’s so fire about Tyrese Maxey’s rise to stardom is that it’s to be continued…

Let’s go back.

Maxey’s basketball career, starting from college, has been unconventional. And yet, he’s somehow been able to handle the chaos—including the Covid pandemic which cut his lone season at Kentucky short. Even after being selected No. 21 in the 2020 NBA Draft, Maxey ended up having to report to training camp late due to a positive test, which left him wondering how that would look to his new teammates, especially the vets. He wondered to himself, How are the vets gonna look at me? Are they gonna say anything to me? Are they gonna mess with me or is this gonna mess up my playing time?

That season, he started six games in January but mostly came off the bench, with the exception of two games in May. After the Sixers lost to the Hawks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, news reports and criticism circulated about his teammate Ben Simmons. By February of the ’21-22 season, Simmons was traded to Brooklyn for James Harden. The new addition put Maxey back to shooting guard. He worked through it and went from averaging just 8 points as a rookie to 17.5 points that year. 

But then, in the 2023 offseason, Harden requested a trade. “Now I gotta be back on the ball,” he explains of the sudden positional change. “Then James leaves and I gotta go back on the ball. It’s been a lot but, you know, it’s an ever- changing, adapting environment that we live in.”

Maxey has talked before about how he picked up some things when playing alongside Harden, even shouting him out on NBA TV for the “little James Harden stepback” move he’s added to his bag. Still, he admits that it was tough for him last year when he would start some games but then come off the bench. “That’s difficult,” he admits. “Especially when you wanna win, you wanna do whatever is best for the team, but you also wanna play well for you [and] to help your brothers win. It’s a hard job.”

After all the narratives that have surrounded the Sixers over the years, mostly filled with drama and negativity from the media and fans, Maxey has developed a desire to speak up for athletes and create his own narrative on his podcast, “Maxey on the Mic.” “I just kinda wanna be a voice for some athletes, because athletes go through a lot, as far as just social media, what people say about them. A lot of people don’t know it’s hard. [There’s] pressure out there.”

He also leans on prayer and his family to help him emotionally during those hard moments. He confides in his uncle, Brandon, and his parents, both of whom he watched work extremely hard within their own careers growing up. Before retiring, his father Tyrone coached for 20 years and would be tough on Maxey when he was younger: “If I passed the ball and somebody dropped it, he would yell at me first.” Meanwhile his mother Denyse worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield and started from “the bottom,” he says, and then worked her way up at the company. Denyse, he describes, is also a “tough, tough, tough mother,” but would always tell him, Control what you can control and everything is in God’s hands.

It’s helped him whenever he’s had to deal with major change, including adjusting from former head coach Doc Rivers, whom he says “tried to challenge me early” by having him sit and watch the veteran players, to Nick Nurse. “Coach Nurse, his personality is a lot different,” Maxey says. “He’s a great dude. I love him, and the way he coaches is special. The way he does things, the way he adjusts on the fly has been great.”

His ability to adapt to whatever situation he’s in is just one of his many super powers. Maxey, a huge Marvel fan, told us before he got drafted that if he was an actual superhero, he’d call himself Maximus and would want to have the ability to max out all of his strengths. Now, four years later, he has a few things to add, super speed being one of them. “I’m like, well, I could be faster, you know what I mean?” he says. He’d also max out his vertical. “I just think it’s cool when people jump up and dunk and block shots and stuff. I see so many people like Rayjon Tucker, that’s somebody that comes to mind…Ja Morant, of course. They do cool things when they’re up in the air like that. I feel like I have some type of vertical ability, but not like them, jumping off two feet. It looks so crazy sometimes.”

Athletes are often called otherworldly, and while Maxey is undeniably talented, very, very fast and has a hot hand like he’s Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet, he’s also human. He sees a bigger picture in the type of impact he’d want to have. “I would wanna max out me being positive, like, me having a positive effect on people, because the world is just so [much] better…That’s just something I try to bring, not just [to] this organization, not just this team, [but] my life and [the] people who I’ve impacted in general.

“We’re blessed to be here, we’re blessed to be living, we’re blessed to be walking around in 2024. You know, some people can’t say the same…I get to play the game that I love every single day and I have fun while doing it with a smile on my face. And while I’m doing that, I’m on TV, kids are watching and I’m trying to inspire them to make their dreams come true—not just basketball dreams, but life dreams. I tell everybody that you can do whatever you put your mind to. Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t, as long as you get one percent better at it, you know what I mean?”

Life can be unexpected, but at the end of the day, it’s about controlling what you can control. That’s been Maxey’s true power, and it’s why in Year 4, he isn’t at all surprised by his success so far. 

“I just put a lot of work in. It’s like, every shot that I’ve shot this season, I’ve done it before a million times in the gym. Reps over reps. I don’t have to think, you know what I’m saying?…I’m just confident. I wanna help us win, and I’m in a position now that I can have the ball in my hands [where] I feel like I have control over helping us win games.” 

SLAM 248 IS OUT NOW!

Photos via Getty Images. Portraits by Alex Subers.

The post Tyrese Maxey Talks Rise to Stardom, Joel Embiid and Finding Control Through the Chaos 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.

Freshman year at Davidson had just concluded. Stephen Curry was still Dell’s son. Now, Dell is Stephen’s dad. But it took a minute for people to make the change. Right after his first year as a Wildcat, Stephen did a photo shoot and interview for SLAM 109. It was the issue that came out in July 2007. With just a little hint of a mustache, the young Curry looked up at our camera. His gray Davidson sweatsuit was loose on his 6-1 frame. 

“It’s a good honor to have Dell Curry as my dad and to have his name, but I’m trying to make a name for myself,” Stephen told SLAM. 

What was good with the basketballs that he effortlessly rifled into the hoop from long distance? Were they actually crystal balls? Were they seeing stones into the future? Because he did it. He made a name for himself.

Now the world knows Stephen Curry as the greatest shooter ever and one of the most iconic players in League history. We here at SLAM know him as the star of 11 covers. We know him as the participant in countless interviews with us. We know him as the voice printed in our stories and speaking in our videos. We know him as a generous partner, as somebody who has given us his time, even though he doesn’t have a ton of it to give. 

He spends most of that time breaking and then setting the record for most career three-pointers ever made. For real, though: That record gets broken and then re-set in every game he plays. Then he spends some of it winning championships. Then he spends some of it giving back to the community. Then he spends some of it as one of the very few people with their own sneaker company. And then, thankfully, he spends some of it with us. 

A good example of his time being spent with us is the cover of SLAM 219. Numero 30 was already three championships deep when he invited 150 children from around Oakland to join him on that cover. Other highlights from that day in 2018 include the fact that he debuted the Curry 6 with us, that he also wanted E-40, Andre Ward and the legendary Al Attles to be part of the shoot, and that he wore a pair of shorts reminiscent of the “We Believe” Warriors. It was a perfect day. Those kids got a memory they’ll never forget. Longtime SLAM photographer Atiba Jefferson got an image we’ll never forget. 

Throughout these last 16-plus years, we like to think we understand him. The world knows him fairly well, but we know a few different parts of him a little bit better. 

We know him to be a deeply passionate fan of good basketball; of setting screens, talking on defense and giving out high fives. We know him to be a scarily intense competitor. We know him to be romantic about the game. We know him to be a storyteller—his footwear has evolved into the equivalent of his life’s work. Different colorways continue to let him share what he finds meaningful without ever saying a word.

And when he does say words, he says things like this that further his romantic ideals about the game: 

“There is room in my mind and spirit for more imagination,” Curry told us in KICKS 25. “More self-expression, more moments where people see a different side of you because every year is so different. The challenges are different. It requires more of you, and that brings out the different reactions, different forms of self-expression and presence on the court. But the mystery of what that is and the unknown is what makes it so dope and so much fun. I have no idea what that’s gonna look like, but I’m going to keep living it. 

“You know, what happened this year and our journey to win a championship, all the accolades that I got, the night, night stuff, all that stuff I had no idea was going to be happening, but I fell in love with the journey and all that stuff takes care of itself. So now the challenge is to maintain that energy, maintain that perspective, go back to the drawing board and try to continue to be the best version of yourself. Because you’re never, ever complete.” 

Featured image via Getty. Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

The post THE 30 PLAYERS WHO DEFINED SLAM’S 30 YEARS: Stephen Curry 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.

Forget how Merriam-Webster defines “iconic,” here’s how it should be defined: someone who or something that makes an enormous impact not only through his or her or its presence but also through his or her or its absence. 

“Iverson left.” 

Those were the first two words I remember hearing from Tony Gervino when he called from the NBA’s rookie orientation in Florida where we were shooting what would become the 1996 Draft fold-out cover. This was a huge shoot for us, and now we weren’t gonna have the first overall pick. (This news overshadowed the far funnier story of us having to keep a curious Todd Fuller—11th overall pick, Golden State Warriors—from wandering into the shoot. As an aside to an aside, if we included Golden State’s Draft pick, we probably would have taken out Kobe and wow how things could have been different.) 

“Iverson left.” This wasn’t good.

Over the years, we became incredibly familiar with those words, with that happenstance. Iverson was always there on the court and almost never there for photo shoots. He was 12 hours late for the SLAM 32 “Soul on Ice” shoot, dipped from practice (yes, yes, I know) entirely before we were supposed to shoot him for SLAM 42 the following year. We’d driven from New York to Philly, Clay Patrick McBride had everything set up, done the test shots and for a while we just stood around, hoping beyond hope he’d come back. He didn’t. We finally broke it all down and drove back. Instead, we eventually shot him in a room off to the side at an arena—grabbed him for literally a minute before a game and shot maybe one roll. For the record, every frame was amazing.

But it’s that rookie cover I keep going back to, and how Iverson’s absence ended up defining it better than his presence ever could have. It helped of course that Kobe Bryant and Ray Allen and Steve Nash ended up Hall of Famers (and Stephon Marbury and Jermaine O’Neal should be). In a way, Iverson being on there would have completed it. But in another way, his not being on there makes it cooler. This might just be me after-the-fact rationalizing, but I don’t think so.

Iverson had already had his debut SLAM cover by then, an action shot while he was at Georgetown that Scoop had to convince Dennis would work. He’d get another in short order, “Who’s Afraid of Allen Iverson?” on the June ’97 issue. This was the proto-Iverson, a skinny little dude with one tattoo on his bicep, cornrows, a single long gold chain. This is who the mainstream sports media was railing against? By then he’d been Rookie of the Year, dropped 40-plus in five straight games, dropped Michael Jordan with a quick bap-bap, BAP-BAP crossover (and earned the GOAT’s ire in their previous matchup by proclaiming he didn’t have to respect anybody). Iverson loved Jordan, still does, but on the court? No love there.

Off the court though? I gave Iverson a copy of that “Who’s Afraid of Allen Iverson?” issue—we all used to carry copies of the latest issues to give to players—and in return he gave me a big hug. This was the first time I’d met him. But that’s how Allen Iverson was, and how he is. If he loves you, he shows it. I think of Sosa talking to Tony Montana in Scarface and saying, “There’s no lying in you, Tony.” There’s no lying in Iverson either. The last time I saw him, a couple years ago, he gave me a hug, too. “Who’s Afraid of Allen Iverson?” Someone who never interacted with him, that’s for sure.

The “Soul on Ice” cover, which came nearly two years later (March ’99) happened with the NBA still in the throes of a lockout (note the “84% NBA Free!” in the upper left corner). It—both the cover shoot and the story—were part of a larger Iverson media push, so both the shoot and the interview for it were slotted in right before The Source Sports (The Source’s sports offshoot). We had to hire his hairstylist to both unbraid and re-braid his hair so he wouldn’t go into the Source Sports shoot still sporting a blowout. Of course in those pre-social media days, it was actually possible to keep a secret, so when the cover hit, no one was expecting it (an editor at Sports Illustrated actually asked Tony how we got him to wear a wig).

The interview happened in the morning and was something he wasn’t late for—I rode around NYC in a limo as he went to Modell’s HQ with Reebok (and stopped in the diamond district to get a massive piece of platinum and diamond jewelry repaired) and then out to Teterboro Airport. There, a Source Sports guy would accompany him on the flight and I’d catch a car service back to Manhattan. Now, Iverson is clearly not and never has been a morning guy unless he’s coming at it from the other side and preferably from the Main Line TGI Fridays. But he was still cool and compelling and heartfelt and honest to a fault—asked if he could be any other NBA player, he eschewed his childhood hero MJ (by then retired again) and went with Latrell Sprewell, who had yet to be reinstated by the NBA after choking coach PJ Carlesimo. It’s kind of crazy to think that at the time, he was still just 23 years old and hadn’t even been an All-Star yet. That summer, when KICKS Magazine opened to include all brands (it launched as Nike-only), he was on the cover of that, too.

In 2001, Iverson became a god. There was the All-Star Game in DC in February, where he scored 15 of his 25 points in a furious fourth-quarter comeback from down 21 to win by 1. He was, of course, named MVP. On top of that he dropped 50-plus twice in the regular season and won MVP, dropped 50-plus twice more in a seven-game series against Toronto (and posted a season-high 16 assists in the closeout game), and took the undermanned Sixers to the Finals to face an undefeated Lakers juggernaut that he promptly defeated in Game 1 in Los Angeles with a 48-point masterpiece. To paraphrase then-SportsCenter anchor Dan Patrick, you couldn’t stop Allen Iverson or hope to contain him.

People tried, of course. That magical year in Philly did not lead to sustained postseason success, the clashes with Larry Brown did not cease, the local sports radio call-in types did not become rational. Iverson continued to be judged for what he didn’t do (show up to every practice, shoot at a high percentage) rather than what he did (carry a team on his back every f*cking game). I am half convinced that the analytic nerd obsession with “efficiency” was at least in part embraced because it discredited Iverson, a guy whose misses wouldn’t have even been shots for someone who didn’t have his crossover or first step or long arms or big hands or sheer fearlessness to drive again and again into the teeth of physical defenses.

Here was a guy who stood 6-0 (maybe), weighed 165 pounds (maybe) and led the League in minutes per game seven times! He averaged over 40 minutes a game for his career!

He was as superhuman as could be, but Iverson remained a hero to most for his humanity, in a way that even Jordan never was. Jordan always seemed to be above the fray even when he was in it, unreal even when he was standing right in front of you. The myth became the man. Iverson? He was the people’s champ long before Paul Wall, grindin’ out of VA before The Clipse. If you were a young NBA fan, Iverson was a guy who dressed like you, listened to the same music you did; he faced untold struggles and doubters and still he rose. He was a hip-hop icon who was himself of hip-hop, with the cornrows and the throwbacks and the jewelry and even the (unreleased) album. He did commercials with Jadakiss, pushed a Bentley, kept crazy hours and still dropped 45 whenever he felt like it.

Let’s talk about the throwbacks for a minute. His wearing his own Wilt-era No. 3 Hardwood Classics jersey on the cover of SLAM 32 was instrumental in kicking off the whole craze and making the Mitchell & Ness flagship store in Philly a must-hit spot for everyone (including us). AI even rocked throwbacks on the bench when he was out—I distinctly remember him wearing an Abdul-Jabbar Bucks joint in Milwaukee—but, despite the NBA brand synchronicity, the NBA commissioner didn’t love it. There were rumblings of an NBA dress code long before one was ever implemented. So when we were brainstorming ideas for Iverson on the February ’05 cover, I came up with this: What if we shoot Iverson in a suit? 

The first question was whether he’d be down to do it, which he was. Phew. The second question was, did he even own a suit? The last time he wore one was probably when he got drafted. The answer to that, at least in terms of whether he had one he’d be willing to be shot in, was no. So he had one made. If you look at that cover with its black-and-white Atiba Jefferson photo, you’ll notice the suit is kind of baggy. So is the fedora, somehow. He’s like a hip-hop Humphrey Bogart. I ran into Que Gaskins, Iverson’s long-time Reebok guy, some years later, and he told me that Iverson kept telling the tailor everything had to be bigger, no, bigger than that, so many times that the guy finally just threw up his hands and quit. Well, nearly quit anyway. In October of that year, David Stern finally instituted the long-anticipated NBA dress code and hey, at least Allen Iverson already had a suit.

AI’s career didn’t end the way anyone wanted it to, but it lasted long enough for him to get endless bouquets from the generation that came after his—fitting for someone who never hesitated to pay homage himself, once wearing Dr. J’s No. 6 instead of his own No. 3 in an All-Star Game. Traded to Denver, he teamed with a young Carmelo Anthony, his own 6-7 doppelganger complete with ink and braids and a headband. Their SLAM cover together in March 2008 is a frozen moment of laughter, two guys clearly delighted in each other’s presence. And it wasn’t just Melo; that whole class of 2003 was filled with Iverson fans, from LeBron—forced to cover up his own tattoos in high school—to Dwyane Wade, who wore No. 3 because of him.

Allen Iverson inspired us, too. Here was a guy who, from the very start, was uncompromising in what he believed, in what he did, in what he said. With apologies to the great Kool G Rap, he was the realest. It shone through in everything, from his on-court performances to photo shoots to Reebok commercials. There were layers to go through to get to him of course, but by the time you did get to him, you knew exactly where he stood.

Yeah, he could be exasperating, especially to photographers (and writers) with schedules and families and whatnot, but even they got past it when they realized AI wasn’t being malicious or big-timing them or anything, it’s just who he was. But his presence—or his absence—was always huge. We always did what we had to do to get him, no matter how many times we had to reschedule. After all, we knew what missing him was like, and we didn’t want that to happen again. 

Photo via Getty Images. Portrait by Clay Patrick McBride.

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

When I was deciding how I wanted to kick the column off, I knew I wanted to take it back to the very essence of why we’re all here in the first place: the love of the game. Over the years, I’ve played with a lot of people who love to ball, but there’s one person who’s separated himself from the pack. 

Seth Allen, former Maryland Terrapin, Virginia Tech Hokie and ACC 6th Man of the Year is the best player I’ve played with—and I’ve played with my fair share of killers. He was my backcourt partner for a few years in high school and someone I went through a lot of battles with on and off the court. I got a first-row seat to his rise from an overlooked prospect to an ACC impact player. I knew Seth was the perfect person to kick off this column.

It’d been a minute since he and I connected for a long conversation, so it was great catching up and hearing him walk me through his journey from his perspective. It all starts with the love of the game.

“My love for the game started young,” Seth tells me. “Ball” was his first word. A basketball he got when he was four years old was the first Christmas present he remembers. And with a lot going on in his household growing up, basketball was the only thing that provided him with a sense of stability. “Basketball was the only thing that was consistent for me in life,” he says. “I was always in different types of environments, and basketball was the most stable thing in my life. I was always around different people, but basketball was always the same.”

There are elite hoopers all across the world. Make no mistake about it, Seth Allen is one of them. And nobody, I mean nobody, becomes elite by accident. You don’t go from being an underrated 3-star prospect to Mark Turgeon’s first Maryland recruit by accident. You aren’t given the keys as an ACC freshman point guard by accident. You don’t hit the game-winning free throws against No.1 ranked Duke, as a freshman, by accident. You don’t become the top transfer on the market by accident. You don’t become ACC 6th Man of the Year by accident. And you damn sure don’t lead a Virginia Tech Hokies squad to their first NCAA Tournament berth in over 10 years by accident. 

Sure, he’s a naturally skilled and gifted athlete. But that’s rarely ever enough. Seth’s basketball success, all of it, is rooted in his obsessive love for the game. Look up “for love of the game” and a portrait of Seth should pop up. 

He loved the game before he even knew. “At first I didn’t even know I loved it or was good at it,” says Seth. After getting enough compliments from his peers and adults around the neighborhood, he started to believe in his ability for himself. And he needed every ounce of confidence to help him overcome the challenges that’d stand in his way along his journey.

Seth’s first real obstacle: a high school coach who sprinkled a healthy dose of doubt on his Division I hopes. Fortunately, that didn’t deter Seth’s ambition from striving to accomplish everything he set out to do. After his sophomore year, Seth transferred from C.D. Hylton in Woodbridge, Virginia to Fredericksburg Christian School (FCS) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, about an hour away from home. Once again, he’d find himself getting acquainted in a new environment. Once again, he relied on basketball to provide a sense of stability. And once again, basketball proved to be a reliable companion for Seth to lean on. After an incredible junior year and an impressive showing on the summer circuit, Seth committed to the University of Maryland in 2011, becoming the Terps’ first recruit in the post-Gary Williams era. Seth would cap off a stellar two years at FCS with a resume that helped him earn his spot as the Free Lance Star’s Player of the Decade for the 2010s.

Despite his jaw-dropping performances night in and night out in high school, Seth arrived on campus in College Park with a lot of naysayers who were skeptical of his production translating to the ACC. “Out of high school, people were thinking I wasn’t gonna be able to play my freshman year, and then I ended up playing and starting half the season,” Seth recalls. “And then sophomore year… my love for the game grew the more I gave to it.” He’d always been a gym rat, but at Maryland, he quickly learned that there were levels to this. “What the game is – you get out of it what you put into it and that’s something I didn’t fully understand at a young age,” he says. “In college, every team practices and lifts weights. That’s literally like the price of admission to being a college Division I player. So then it’s about who’s gonna do extra.” Well – Seth did extra. And that extra paid off.

With Maryland announcing they’d be joining the Big Ten Conference, Seth decided he wanted to stay put in the ACC. At the time, it was the best conference in college basketball by a considerable margin. They also just added Syracuse, Louisville and Notre Dame from the Big East. On top of that, it was important that his family could easily travel from their Northern Virginia hometown to his games along the Atlantic coast. Seth was the pick of the litter of all the 2014 transfers and received interest from many of the top schools in the country. So when he committed to Buzz Williams and Virginia Tech, who had just finished 2-16 in conference play, over NCAA Tournament mainstays like UVA, Syracuse, Baylor and others, many people questioned his choice. But Seth’s decision was calculated. “It was like, ‘I want to stay in the best league. And you know what? I’m gonna go to the worst team in the ACC and show everybody I can turn this team around,’” says Seth.

Another change of scenery. Another new environment in which he’d have to find his place. Another moment in which Seth had to rely on his love and trust in basketball to provide a sense of security amid so much uncertainty. Another instance of basketball proving its loyalty to Seth. 

Seth proved to be a man of his word. As a junior In his first year leading the Hokies, after sitting out a season under the old transfer rules, they did a complete 180. They went from second to last in the conference to a winning record and finishing in the top half of the ACC, barely missing out on the Big Dance before being invited to the NIT and advancing to the second round. It’s one of the biggest program turnarounds in ACC history. But the job wasn’t done. There were higher heights to reach. And Seth knew that if he wanted to reach them, he had to take his commitment to another level. Loving the game wasn’t enough, he had to fall in love with the process.

Seth upped the ante in his approach to the game. “I would say the moment really locking in was my senior year,” Seth says. “I deleted all my social media. I really was sleeping in the gym.” Seth was able to bring it all together the following season, his senior year, becoming the nation’s most lethal player in the clutch for the 2016-17 season with about eight game-winning clutch time buckets. His heroic performances helped him earn ACC 6th Man of the Year and helped Virginia Tech clinch their first NCAA tournament berth in over 10 years. Mission accomplished.

But the story isn’t over. Not even close. 

At 29 years old, Seth has continued to find ways to get better and evolve his game. “In your late 20s, you get to start figuring out what you’re really good at,” says Seth. His love for the game has only grown and shown up in new ways, too. He’s built a sustainable pro career that has spanned seven countries thus far, and a short stint in the G-League after being drafted by the Stockton Kings. Seth has given all he’s got to the game, and he has a lot more to give. “Until the ball stops bouncing, I’m still playing,” he says. “I love the game so much, so when I stop playing, that’s going to be a big moment. I want to play as long as I can. And then I know once everything’s all said and done, like, ‘okay, I gave the game everything I had.’” 

Even then, his career in basketball won’t be over.

After he’s done playing, he intends on coaching and teaching the game. He speaks extremely highly of those who have poured into him and helped him get to where he’s at. “I was blessed to be around really good coaches and have really good guidance,” says Seth. He’s maintained his relationships with his coaches, and he’s made them all aware of his intentions on coaching down the line. It helps that he’s a sponge and takes pride in being a student of the game. He was the only one taking a notebook and pen to every team meeting, soaking up game from veteran coaches in hopes of becoming one when the time is right. 

“I want to teach the young guys and I want to see how much the game is going to evolve,” says Seth. “Basketball players are artists. If you teach them the right way to play and then let them be the artists they are, then magic and beautiful stuff comes out of that.”

But what he can’t do is teach someone to love the game. That’s a choice they have to make for themselves. What Seth can do, however, is continue to love the game himself and good things will come out of it like they always have for him. Seth owes it all to basketball. “This ball, since I was four, took me so many places,” he says. “No matter where you go, even if you don’t speak the language and can’t talk to the people, basketball has always been the same.”

Take care of the ball and the ball will take care of you. Love the ball and the ball will love you. Seth knows this better than anyone.

Photos via Getty Images.

Curtis’ Corner:

Hoops: This is your opportunity to get on the hype train early. MiLaysia Fulwiley is a PROBLEM! The South Carolina freshman put the nation on notice with her college debut and is primed to help the South Carolina women’s basketball program stay among the elites in the country for years to come. 

Rap: I’ve had Westside Gunn’s “And Then You Pray For Me” album on repeat since it dropped. It’s niche, but a banger. Go bump that one time!

Everything Black: SLAM, in partnership with The Local Gallery Toronto, just opened The Local Gallery NYC a couple of weeks ago. It’s a year-round art gallery that will always be filled with art that’s inspired by the game of basketball. The legendary Spike Lee pulled up and copped a custom New York Knicks jersey puffer vest, created by Jocelyn Hu. Spike even rocked it at the game on Wednesday for Wemby’s Madison Square Garden debut. 

Pull up and checkout the gallery on 43-42 12th St, Queens, NY 11101.

Here’s the official Hoops, Rap and Everything Black playlist. It’ll be updated weekly with each column. Add the playlist to your library to stay in the know, and be sure to follow SLAM on Spotify.

The post Hoops, Rap and Everything Black: The Love of the Game feat. Former 6MOY Seth Allen appeared first on SLAM.

Last year, there was one women’s HBCU program in particular that separated itself from the pack for the vast majority of the season: Jackson State University. While members of the media were focused on Deion “Primetime” Sanders and the school’s football team, they were overlooking a historic run unfolding right before their eyes. The women’s team entered the SWAC tournament on a crazy win streak and was heavily favored to clinch a spot in March Madness. They’d end up being upset by Southern University in the semifinals on a last second buzzer-beater. This year, the Lady Tigers are on a revenge tour to make up for that lost opportunity. They’re returning All-SWAC First Teamer Ti’lan Boler and SWAC Coach of the Year Tomekia Reed, along with a group of ladies proven to have a positive impact on the floor. The sky’s the limit for the Lady Tigers–let’s see where they land.

Norfolk State punched their ticket to the Big Dance after a stellar season in which they won their regular season and conference tournament. They want to take things a step further this year. That means advancing in March Madness. Repeating their success will prove challenging as the Lady Spartans lost two All-MEAC First Team selections, including the Defensive Player of the Year, Camille Downs. But this year’s squad is star-studded, led by one NC State transfer Diamond Johnson, a potential WNBA draft pick. Johnson isn’t the only high-major talent on the roster, which consists of transfers from St. Johns, VCU and Seton Hall. Coach Larry Vickers was named MEAC Coach of the Year last season, and the staff he’s put together has been a major factors in transfers opting to play for him. The Lady Spartans have the ingredients to be very special and make some real noise in college basketball this year.

All eyes will be on returning MEAC Player of the Year Destiny Howell out of Howard University. The 6-foot guard will be on a mission to maintain her spot as the best player in the conference. She’s the only player from last year’s All-MEAC First Team who wasn’t a senior or graduate student. If she’s even a little better this year and All-Rookie selection Nile Miller continues trending upward, Howard University has a real shot at cutting down the nets at the end of the season.

HBCUs have an exceptional history of producing female athletes who embody strength, resilience and excellence both on and off the court. This season, we continue to honor and build upon this legacy.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post What to Expect for the 2023-24 HBCU Women’s Basketball Season appeared first on SLAM.

Challenges were few and far between before a trip to Connecticut early in the campaign. It was exactly what the ball club needed in order to realize what it was going to take in order to return to where it was last year.

The entire team, ignited by Hammon’s statement following that game made it a mission to take that next step defensively. From June 11 on, nobody has been better.

That theme of a relentless resistance has been paramount to this postseason run so far. While scoring over 90 in three of their last five games, the Aces have not allowed an opponent to net more than 85 points since August 28 at the New York.

With a berth to the Finals on the line, the Aces dug in. The ball pressure was tremendous. With help rotating over led by A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas held one of the W’s most elite scorers, Arike Ogunbowale to just 25 percent shooting in the final 10 minutes.

Up by one with under 1:30 remaining, the defending champions pieced together multiple special defensive possessions. All five players were communicating, and working in unison. It was Hammon’s dream. The Wings did not make a single field goal in the final 4:58 seconds of the contest. The Vegas coach could not help her excitement. Her smile postgame was of a proud coach that saw her team accept the challenge and dominate.

Hammon kept it real after grinding out the close out game on the road. “It just shows you that we can win with our defense. It’s not always going to be a pretty one. These are the ones you actually have to find ways to win.”

She continued, “When the ball’s popping and we’re scoring 90 and 100 points, those are easy ones for us. When we have to win like this and really prove to ourselves that we can win like this, that it’s not about the offense all the time, it’s about rebounding and defense, which we did very well down the stretch.”

If Vegas can continue this kind of defensive efficiency, it will become the second team since 2015 to own a playoff defensive rating under 90. The versatility on this end of the floor starts and ends with back to back WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, Wilson. The former South Carolina star was the only player in the W to average two or more blocks per 40 minutes.

You can see it live in action, her emotions on the floor explain to the world truly how much defense means to her. She is on you defensively like your mother with a camera on a family vacation.

It does not stop at No. 22.

Remember the 2020 Seattle Storm championship team? Current member of the Aces, Alysha Clark was a key piece to that side’s success, especially defensively. Bringing in the 2020 All-Defensive First Team forward was an early sign Hammon wanted to focus on defense. It has more than paid dividends. Clark has done everything Vegas has asked of her coming off the bench.

Guess who was the main defender on Satou Sabally in the final 10 seconds of Game 3? It was the Middle Tennessee product.

Don’t sleep on Kiah Stokes either. The 2023 WNBA Sixth Player of the Year tied her career high in steals, and recorded more than 0.9 blocks per game for the first time in three years. Stokes and Clark were the only two Aces’ players with a defensive rating under 96 in more than 20 games played in 2023.

It is all accompanied by Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young. The three perimeter players cause constant havoc. Both Young and Plum increased their steals total from 2022 while the “Point GAWDDD” matched last season’s total.

It is the true definition of a complete team. Hammon’s team managed to do that for the most part against Dallas, but the challenge becomes even tougher with the Liberty on tap.

This year’s WNBA Finals and going to be a match up for the ages. We’re hyped, you ready?

Action photo via Getty Images. Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.

The post The Aces’ Defensive Identity Has Elevated This Team to Another Level appeared first on SLAM.

This story and so much more is featured in the latest issue of KICKS 26. Get your copy here.

First Team

P.J. Tucker

As sure as the sun rises in the eastern sky, P.J. Tucker is back on our First Team. There’s nobody in the League more versed, more versatile and more willing to play in any pair. He cemented himself long ago on this list, yet he keeps on proving himself over and over.

James Harden

James Harden is a fairly uncommon human being in general. He did, after all, help to rewrite the NBA rule book with his singular style of play. His seventh signature silhouette, the best of the 2022-23 campaign, is particularly exceptional. It’s got a funky shape, it’s got an upper that looks like a puffer jacket, it’s full of the best tech the Stripes has to offer and it had incredibly hard colorways throughout the season. 

DeMar DeRozan

It’s not a shot at P.J. to say with confidence that DeMar DeRozan has the best Kobe collection in the League. As has been printed in these pages many times, he’s played in every Nike Kobe silhouette throughout his career and continues to add Kobe PEs that look more like art pieces than sneakers to his collection.

Ja Morant

Before his signature sneaker debuted on Christmas Day 2022, Ja Morant had been hooping in high quality Kobes and original versions of the early Kyries. Then he stomped into the signature game with a handful of unique colorways. And because he moves differently than just about everybody in the League, there’ll be more originality in his future.

Stephen Curry

The best shooter ever had variety in 2022-23. Curry 10s, FloTros of the 1 and 2, some sprinkling of the 4 FloTro all got court time with No. 30. There aren’t many others who tell stories with their footwear like Stephen. His nonstop commitment to the underrated and underrepresented often gets communicated through his footwear. 

Second Team

LeBron James

Flavor after flavor after flavor. LeBron James’ 20th season will be remembered for the multitude of colorways he played in. Both the Nike LeBron 20 and the Nike LeBron NXXT Gen appeared under the bright lights in equally subtle and outrageous makeups, night after night. 

Paul George

Even though his signature line has wrapped up, Paul George didn’t miss a step. Each game brought a new chance for him to show off his unexpected appreciation for basketball sneakers, like, for example, wearing the “All-Star” Nike Kobe 6 while playing in the City of Angels. You get the connection?

Malik Monk

Malik Monk very much understands how to properly apply hues to footwear. All of his Kobe PEs, be it 5s or 6s, are consistently fire. None of them are really that similar, either. There’s a ton of variation from pair to pair, with browns and blues and purples and blacks and pinks
showing up throughout his stable. 

Trey Lyles

Look, let’s be honest here, yeah? Kobes are this generation’s Jordans. Trey Lyles has a stockpile of rare heat that he’s amassed over the years and most of them aren’t protros. He’s on this list because he consistently hoops in heavy hitters from the game’s most cherished line, oftentimes reminding people about pairs or colorways they’d previously forgotten. 

Jayson Tatum

Another visual storyteller, Jayson Tatum started the season with many versions of the Air Jordan 37 and Air Jordan 38 Low that let the public in on what matters most to him. Once ASW rolled around and he got to unveil his first signature with Jordan Brand, the storytelling door flew clean off the hinges. Tatum tells us a whole lot about himself without ever saying a word. 

MVP: P.J. Tucker

LeBron James only has four MVPs. Michael Jordan only has five MVPs. What in the hell is good with that? That’s not the truth. Both deserve a minimum of 10. In the context of basketball sneakers, P.J. Tucker is LeBron. He is MJ. In our pages, he will continue to get his shine until he hangs up his sneakers for good.

We’ve called him a lot of things over the years, like the Michael Jordan of wearing Jordans. We’ve compared his conquering of basketball footwear to passages in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Now that we’ve finally gotten him on the cover and had a chance to listen to him speak openly about sneakers, he’s the MVP because he loves it all more than anyone else. We hear you, P.J. 

Rookie of the Year: Jalen Williams

The list of Stripes silhouettes that Jalen Williams played in is mighty long. It includes the Harden Vol. 7s, Crazy 97s, Dame 5s, Top 10 2000s, D.O.N. 4s, Agent Gils, Harden Vol. 4s, D Rose 1.5s and Dame 8s. 

Williams maintained a steady rotation throughout the season, varied with many colors. He seems to be a student of the sneaker game. He joined the likes of Tracy McGrady, Nick Young and Jaylen Brown when he rocked mismatched adi joints. The young star popped out to All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City with one white Harden Vol. 7 and one pink Harden Vol. 7. His name will most definitely show up again in these pages next year.

Most Improved Player: Paul George

The Swoosh decided to end Paul George’s signature line at the PG6. It went out with a bang, concluding after the drop of his collab with Hot Wheels. 

The ending of one thing is the beginning of another. Freed up from being required to play in his latest signature model, PG hit the ground running by wearing Kobe 4s, Kobe 5s and Kobe 6s. He dug into the closet for the return of the PG1, the PG2 and the PG2.5. Strategically, he secured this spot when he played in the “Draft Day” Kobe 4s in Charlotte. That was a wakeup call signifying there was another knowledgeable sneakerhead ready to show out. 

LeagueFits Arrival Sneaker of the Year: Russell Westbrook

Michael Jordan’s retirement in 1998 gave the first class of Brand Jordan athletes the full sneaker spotlight. They were getting to play in retro colorways made just for them. Guys like Ray Allen, Derek Anderson, Vin Baker, Eddie Jones and Michael Finley are the reason every sneakerhead knows what PE (player exclusive) stands for. Retro PEs continued for the next couple of Jordan athlete generations, with guys like Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson gaining fame for their heat. 

But Jordan Brand changed up the overall thought process a few years back. Retro PEs are far more rare now. 

Their scarcity is why Russell Westbrook’s Air Jordan III colorway is getting the nod for the LeagueFits Arrival Sneaker of the Year. Seeing these IIIs in the wild is like seeing the Loch Ness Monster finally reveal itself. 

Best of the Brands:

Curry 10

adidas Harden Vol. 7

Jordan Tatum 1

New Balance TWO WXY v3

Nike LeBron 20

PUMA MB.02

READ MORE: KICKS, NBA, WNBA

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Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby is on set, marveling at the photos that were just taken for a Jordan Brand campaign. It’s June, and Hamby is with us at the Jordan Brand Flagship store in downtown L.A. She’s rockin’ a pair of Jordan IIIs along with a custom mini skirt paired with a Jordan sports bra peeking through a netted top. As she peers over her white shades and takes flicks of the photos that were just shot, it’s clear that she’s hyped about how everything is turning out…including her outfit. Not only is the look Instagram-worthy, but it’s something that she wishes she could wear in the tunnel right now. 

The fashion visionary behind Hamby’s one-of-one look, as well as the entire editorial campaign, is none other than Sydney Bordonaro. The Pittsburgh native popped off with every look and did so by herself, without even one PA or assistant. One minute Bordonaro is in the locker-room-turned-glam-room, a pair of office scissors in hand, cutting Hamby’s top, which was originally a dress; the next she’s handing Chicago Sky guard Dana Evans a white leather purse and black shades to wear when it’s her turn in front of the camera. When Evans sees the photos, her reaction is nearly identical to Hamby’s—she, too, asks for the photos to be sent to her ASAP.

That’s the pure magic that is Bordonaro. She has a way of getting her clients to trust her, all while putting together looks that compliment them both as women and athletes. Look no further than the fits she’s put together with superstars like our co-cover star Kelsey Plum, who is always rockin’ something crazy in the tunnel before games and is consistently featured on LeagueFits. Bordonaro is big on attention to detail; having styled Hamby before, she had the skirt custom made to fit her perfectly. 

“My favorite part of what I do is my relationships with each of my clients. I cherish it,” she says. “There’s a very friendship-type bond between us. I love it. I’m always cognitive to never get too comfortable, though. They’re paying me for a service. They’re trusting me with their image.”

It’s not hard to trust her vision either. Bordonaro’s own sense of style is fire. Scroll through her Instagram feed and you’ll notice her bold, bright and colorful fits, long acrylic nails and lashes. It makes sense why she’s so tapped into the game—Bordonaro can hoop, too. She committed to Pepperdine as a sophomore in high school, and after graduating in three years, she did her grad year at Long Beach State. Word in the SLAM office was that she dropped buckets on Duke back in the day, which we later confirmed—as a freshman, she scored 23 points and hit seven three-pointers in that game.

“It just recently came to my attention that people who’ve met me from styling didn’t know I was a hooper! It blows my mind because I feel like I still associate myself [with] being a basketball player. I still feel like that’s me!” she says. 

Bordonaro started playing basketball when she was just 4 years old and wore a different Allen Iverson jersey to school every day in second grade. Basketball has remained “the center of [her] life since then,” but styling wasn’t necessarily something she thought she would do. Bordonaro majored in sports management and had her sights set on becoming an NBA agent. It wasn’t until after she finished school, and she didn’t “have to focus on ball as much,” that she started really tapping into her creativity.

“I love fashion, because in the craziest way, it’s just like basketball,” she says. “I love that you can portray who you are based on the way you dress. It’s a form of expression. You can catch someone’s vibe as soon as they walk into the room based on the way they’re dressed.” 

As one of the leading stylists truly elevating the WNBA fashion game, Syd is pretty booked and busy these days, but her vision has started becoming clearer and clearer as more opportunities come her way. “Recently, I decided I want a showroom, a fly creative space. I think I’m going to do that in Vegas by the end of the year,” she says. “I also see myself working beside athletes, agencies and brands more and more. I want to build a team around me. I want to bridge the gap [because] I see a disconnect here.

“Great things take time,” she adds. “I’m really enjoying the process of building this thing up.”

The post Meet Sydney Bordonaro: the Visionary and Stylist Who is Elevating the WNBA Fashion Game appeared first on SLAM.

What beats a classic SLAM solo cover!? An iconic duo cover, for sure. Think about it: Showbiz and KG, C-Webb and White Chocolate, Shaq and Kobe—all more than 20 years old, all still rockable on a cover tee (shout out SLAM Goods!). Players tag-teaming on a SLAM cover has been popping off recently, too—even Stockton and Malone finally got their joint on the All-Star Weekend special edition earlier this year! The chemistry is tangible and the shots are unforgettable. Duo covers are sick.

The fact is that a superstar can rarely win it all alone. Let’s think some more: Kareem needed Magic, Mike needed Pip (awkward!), Bron needed Wade, Curry needed Klay. When you think of a championship team, what comes to mind is usually plural.

When the Nuggets lifted the trophy this year, the sentiment was the same. The Joker—former League MVP in 2021 and 2022—is far from a one-man show. Murray, Gordon and Porter Jr are all appropriate counterparts in nailing a solid one-two punch with Jokic. But this isn’t the first time we’ve witnessed a championship caliber duo in Denver.

Back in 2006, NBA vet Allen Iverson joined a young but established Carmelo Anthony on a fresh and exciting Nuggets squad with high aspirations. Two years later, SLAM 115 dropped. Denver’s shot at a title wasn’t too far-fetched. However, it was yet another year where Kobe Bryant had his sights set on NBA greatness and the Lakers swept the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. Worse than that, the Melo and AI combination drew to a close. Of course, we wish it would’ve lasted longer, but judging by the smiles on this iconic cover, those dudes are as happy as we are that it ever even happened. Although relatively short-lived, this moment being immortalized on a SLAM cover means that it will last forever. We got another dope duo cover in our collection, and the Nuggets—eventually—got their chip.

The post The SLAM Archives: SLAM 115 Featuring Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson From March of 2008 appeared first on SLAM.

Then there’s the obvious: he’s into the moment and what we have in store for him at the shoot. A duffle bag full of mystery items to film an episode of “Bag Talk,” an oversized Pacers throwback jersey with a pair of Timberlands and more. Inside the gym, music is blasting through the speakers—it’s a mix of old school Drake and Disney Channel throwbacks like High School Musical (Tyrese, a huge HSM fan, can sing every word). His longtime girlfriend, Jade, and agency rep are here with us, too, and encourage him to just be himself while the camera snaps away.

Once he sits down to talk about his All-Star performance this season, that smile appears again. Actually, it’s more of a smirk now. Maybe he knows something that we don’t?

A few days from now, the news will drop that Haliburton is signing a five-year max extension worth $260 million, making him the face of the franchise.

“I’ve battled and clawed and fought my way to get to where I’m at,” he says. “Now criticism and all that stuff means nothing to me because when I was a kid, nobody would have cared enough to even give me criticism. So the fact that I get it now is pretty cool. I just love proving people wrong. I don’t know, I love negativity. I love seeing negativity on Twitter. I love hearing people say negative comments about my game. It always interests me. It could be somebody with, like, no followers, I just want to prove them wrong.”

SLAM 245 featuring the Indiana Pacers All-Star is out now. Shop here.

This is the same Tyrese Haliburton who was a three-star prospect in high school and, in his words, was expected to redshirt as a freshman at Iowa State. He went from there to becoming a lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. After a mid-season trade last year sent him from Sacramento to Indiana, he’s now an All-Star and was the team’s leading scorer this past season.

While other people might not have seen the vision, Haliburton has always been in his own lane. It stems from his childhood. In elementary school, his guidance counselors would tell him to pick a career path that seemed more “realistic” when he would mention that he wanted to be in the NBA. For the sake of moving things forward, Haliburton would pick something else, but really, he was always thinking a step ahead about how to make it to the League. There’s even a video of a young Tyrese on the internet, rapping to Drake’s “The Motto.” In it, he sings, “How ya feel, how ya feel? 25, sitting on 25 mill.” Even little Tyrese knew what was up.

And like the flow Drake and Weezy carry in that song, Haliburton’s rise happened pretty quickly. In college, he thought he’d have a “good four-year career” at Iowa State but ended playing two seasons. There’s always been doubters, too, even when it comes to his shot-making ability, which he says has been critiqued since he was young. “It’s always just kind of been that way, but I’m just gonna be who I am at the end of the day. It’s helped me get here, so I must be doing something right.”

Now, in the city of Indianapolis, home to the Indy 500, Haliburton is bringing that same energy and speed to the Pacers’ offense. That’s just how he was taught to play the game—pushing the tempo, getting up and down at a rapid rate. “I feel like it’s contagious as well—good energy, and pace and all that stuff,” he says. “When we’re playing fast-paced like we do, I think everybody just falls in line.”

While the team showed flashes of promise this season, collectively and individually—Haliburton averaged 20.7 points and 10.4 points (both career highs), and big man Myles Turner hit new career marks with 18 points and 7.5 boards—there’s still room for improvement. Winning is Haliburton’s main priority right now.

“I haven’t had a winning season in, like, four years dating back to college, so that’s just where I want to get to,” he says, later adding: “There’s obviously a lot more for me to accomplish personally, but I want to win. I want to be playing on the biggest stage, and that’s the playoffs.”

Haliburton doesn’t hesitate to keep it real about how last season went. The Pacers finished with a 35-47 record, ranked 11th in the East, and he found it “frustrating” to have to deal with injuries knowing that his team needed him.

“I felt like if I’m healthy, the situation for us changes a little bit last year,” he says. “But you can’t control everything. You can only put so much energy into what you can’t control. I think the best advice I’ve ever received is just control what you can.”

He’s constantly thinking about what’s next, too, and what he can do better individually and as a leader on the team. “I’m obviously already thinking [about] next year,” he says. “Like, what do I have to do for us to get to where we want to be?”

This summer is all about getting stronger so that he can protect himself from injuries and be able to last throughout the season. He’s been lifting 4-5 times a week and sharpening his skills on the court with Hanlen, who noticed a major shift in his mindset over the years. “I would say mentality, just being more aggressive and more confident, and feeling like he is that guy that can lead a franchise.”

Then there’s his approach to the game. Hanlen first got connected to Haliburton, who was playing on the Kings at the time, through his agent, Dave Spahn. Back in January of 2022, the team was set to play Philadelphia, and Hanlen happened to be already be in town to work with Sixers’ superstar Joel Embiid when he agreed to meet Haliburton for dinner the night before at Del Friscos. The conversation quickly turned into Hanlen “pressing” his potential client on what he wanted to achieve. He’d ask him, How many times are you going to be an All-Star? How many times will you make All-NBA First Team?

“I’m just giving [Haliburton] a bunch of these gut-punching questions,” Hanlen recalls now. “Then I said, you know what? The biggest thing is you’re not gonna be able to do any of this stuff if you keep attempting—I think he was attempting like 11 shots a game at the time or something like that. I was like, it’s just not possible. The math ain’t math-ing.”

Then Hanlen offered Haliburton a challenge: “You wore number 14 in high school, so that’s the number. If you wanna work with me this summer, you have to shoot 14 field goal attempts tomorrow night against the Sixers. Otherwise, I’m not working with you.”

The next night, on January 29, Haliburton went out and scored a career-high 38 points on 11-19 field goal attempts. Not only had he accepted Hanlen’s challenge, but he had dominated. The two have worked together ever since and talk after every game. From Hanlen’s perspective, Haliburton has grown in every aspect of the word: from improving his footwork to his shot creation and being a more “dynamic scorer.” Last summer, Haliburton gained 12 pounds, he says, and has become stronger and able to play through more contact. But in terms of Haliburton’s unconventional playing style, Hanlen also just lets him rock.

“You don’t break things that aren’t broken,” he says, later adding: “We always try to just strengthen his strengths and we try to attack his weaknesses. There’s nothing that can hold him back from reaching the heights that we think he can get to [and] there’s no reason to take away the uniqueness and the creativity that allows him to be unconventional, but also so dynamic as a player.”

The 23-year-old doesn’t take himself too seriously, either. Basketball, he says, is a “child’s game,” and brings him back to memories of having a ball in his crib and playing video games. That’s the joy behind Haliburton’s ever-apparent smile when he’s out there on the hardwood. “When I’m playing basketball, it’s just fun,” he says. “It’s like I’m a kid again, you know? And that’s what I love about it. This isn’t a job for me. This is a passion of mine and something I really love to do.”

Playing against All-Stars like Darius Garland, who was drafted a year before him in 2019, is his idea of fun. “We’re good friends,” he says. “I think that’s important. We just really enjoy competing against each other. I see that being a thing for both of us moving forward.”

He’s also a fan of the WNBA and tunes in to as many games as he can, including a recent match-up between the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever. Haliburton, who live-tweeted his reaction to Chelsea Gray’s elite behind-the-back pass, was taking notes, too. “I wouldn’t even think to try something like that. I mean, maybe I would in the moment, but just on TV it looked crazy. I couldn’t believe that she did that.”

“I’m trying everything [she did],” he admits later. “CC [Gray] in the caption.”

It’s that energy that’s got Pacers fans excited. Even Indiana’s own Caitlin Cooper, who runs the Basketball, She Wrote blog on Patreon and once wrote about the team for Indy Cornrows, has noticed it around the city. The team had its first two sell-out games since February 8, 2020, according to the Indy Star. “I can tell you that you’re starting to sense a shift,” says Cooper. “I’ve talked to people who would have never talked to me about the Pacers before and they’re like, I gotta get on the ground floor of this. They’re building something special and that Tyrese Haliburton is a really entertaining guy to watch.”

The way Haliburton has shown love to Indiana is a sign of a promising future ahead. He’s invested in the city, hosting youth basketball camps and even going as far as to promote Cooper’s work and wear her t-shirt, “JUMP PASSES ARE GOOD NOW,” in the tunnel this year.

“I think that the best thing about Tyrese Haliburton—having him as your franchise player—was just, from the Pacers’ perspective, they’ve talked about the fact that there are murals painted on buildings of Reggie Miller and that they think that Tyrese can get to that level at some point,” says Cooper. “And the way that he’s embraced the city and what he means as a franchise star, you can believe that [they’re] going to get there.”

According to Hanlen, even his other clients have noticed that something is brewing in Indiana, with Tyrese at the forefront of it. “I work with a lot of other NBA players. Anytime somebody signs with the Pacers, the first thing that all my clients say is, Oh, Ty’s gonna get ’em paid. Ty’s gonna get ’em paid. He’s gonna make ’em look so much better than that player really is just because Ty makes the game so much easier for everybody around him. When you ask, what is his ceiling? I mean, he’s a guy that I think will be one of, if not the best point guards for the next, next decade and a guy that I think can be a floor general for a championship caliber team.”

Spahn, says they set goals before every season—last year, it was for Haliburton to average 20 and 10 and be an All-Star, which he did. Going into next season, they’re ready for him to amp it up and be All-NBA. “I don’t think there is a limit right now, I think he’s gonna be the best point guard in the League one day,” Spahn says. “And I think he’s gonna be the best point guard in the League for a long time. I think he’s that level of player and person.”

What’s most important is that Haliburton sees it within himself, too. While the accolades and accomplishments continue to pile up—the week after our shoot, it was announced that he’ll join the 2023 USA men’s national team for the FIBA World Cup this summer—Haliburton knows that in order to get the Pacers where they want to be, they’re going to have to work for it. Proving people wrong ain’t nothing new for him, but right now, Pacers fans are expecting bigger and better things. He’s on a mission to prove ’em right.

“I always say, There’s no secret to success. All the most successful people in the world, they just usually work harder than everybody else,” Haliburton says. “I just want to be the best that I can and squeeze every bit of God given ability that I have [out]. Squeeze it all out before I’m done playing.”

SLAM 245 GOLD MEDAL EDITIONS + COVER TEES OUT NOW!

The post Inside the Rise of Tyrese Haliburton and His Mission to Lead the Pacers Back on Track appeared first on SLAM.

It’s a simple but important designation that has become a rallying cry of sorts for fans who’ve waited nearly half a century to be taken seriously on the game’s biggest stage. Because despite the lazy misnomer that Denver is some barren mountain town only capable of football obsession, hoops culture in this part of the country has been thriving. And now, for the very first time, that basketball city is home to the best basketball team in the world.

It has taken exactly 47 years, 29 trips to the playoffs and one exceptionally talented man from Serbia to fully exorcise the NBA demons that have haunted this land for decades. That’s not even taking into consideration the extra nine campaigns that Denver spent in the ABA prior, each also ending in postseason heartbreak. But that was then.

This is now; a now where the Denver Nuggets really are world champions and a fan base can finally break free from playoff purgatory. It’s a beautiful outcome for a dream that has been brewing for years, with a team culture all their own. Equipped with a starting unit all age 30 or under and all returning next season, it might actually be the beginning of a whole new future for both the franchise and city, too.

Having grown up in Denver myself, it’s also something I’ve thought about for well over two decades. What if they actually won it?

So, as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope snatched that final rebound in the waning moments of Game 5 against Miami, and confetti rained down from the Ball Arena heavens above, it made me reflect on the road the Nuggets took to get there. On how far the city has come in reclaiming its passion for the sport. And on how powerful the connection to both a team and a hometown can be for so many.

Let’s take it back. I didn’t inherit this path—I chose it. As the son of a Midwestern salesman and realtor, my family moved around a lot before settling down in the surprisingly vast metropolitan sprawl of Denver, CO. After living in basketball-obsessed cities like Chicago and Dayton, OH, I touched down in Denver in 1998. The Nuggets had won just 11 games all season and couldn’t fill their arena. It wasn’t exactly electric, but it was the beginning. The Nuggets have held a piece of my heart since, but it took a minute to capture everyone else’s.

The thing about Denver is that despite its mid-market classification, it’s still a city with teams in all four major professional sports—three of which have been crowned champions since 2015. If we’re talking about the last decade, the Mile High City has as good a case as any for the distinction of Title Town. So, fighting for relevancy and attention doesn’t always come easy, even locally.

One thing that is sure to bind the masses, though, is an underdog. And what’s great about an underdog story is that it can assume many forms. It can be about a city that feels overlooked and miscast as some small David out west. It can be about a franchise that was close to glory before, but never able to summit the mountain until now.

It can be about Jamal Murray, a flamethrower from Kitchener, Ontario, returning stronger after a devastating knee injury to light up the 2023 Playoffs. Or Nikola Jokic, a back-to-back MVP from Sombor, Serbia, who has defied both logic and expectation at every turn since he was drafted 41st overall. Similar can be said about players up and down this roster, from Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr to Bruce Brown and rookie Christian Braun. Each carries a chip on their respective shoulders—both individually and together as one.

This town has always embraced that underdog mentality, and its basketball team has embodied that to its core.

Head coach Michael Malone knew that when he first came to Denver in 2015. So did the front office when it went to work rebuilding a team in that image.

Think what you want about his delivery methods, but there’s nothing vague about both Malone’s personality or the culture he’s worked to instill. He’s direct, often bluntly so, passionate and intensely steadfast about what the mission at hand is—driving home the narrative, round after round, that Denver was disrespected and overlooked. Whether you agree or not, that locker room believed it in its bones. Underdog fuel.

Hell, Malone popped off one of the greatest championship parade performances of all time at the podium, and I’m confident it was only partially due to the cinnamon whiskey coursing through his veins. Still, all that fire(ball) and fierceness only goes so far unless your players are buying into the message. Thankfully for Denver, if playing the role of challenger is the script bonding its players together, selflessness is the super glue keeping anything from falling apart.

“When we win a championship, it’s 17 players strong,” said Malone in front of an estimated 750,000 Nuggets faithful at the championship parade, screaming until his voice was gone. “It’s the coaching staff, it’s the front office, it’s the ownership, but more importantly, it’s all of you [the fans].”

He paused slightly before extending out the mission.

“Y’all wanna do it again? Let’s do this. Dynasty. Dynasty. Dynasty. I love y’all.”

You could almost feel him working through next season’s narrative in real time. Surely no one believes they can repeat again next year, right??? Underdog fuel.

These Nuggets have embraced the journey. They play for each other and often talk about how, to win for the next man, you’ve gotta sacrifice your own ego at the door. Every player, every coach, every fan. That’s the only way you can break a curse that’s lasted 47 years—and how you run through Minnesota, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Miami to do it. You’ve got to earn it.

I’ve never been to a championship parade before, so I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect.

I definitely didn’t expect that upwards of 750,000 people would come out to celebrate on a Thursday morning. But they did—littered in championship swag, Mile High jerseys and about a thousand shirts featuring Murray and Jokic photoshopped onto the Step Brothers movie poster.

It also became clear that not only had the city’s passion and mentality rubbed off on the team, but the fans had taken a page straight from the Nuggets handbook.

What’s immediately evident when you watch Denver play is that they all seem to genuinely like each other. In every interview and at every opportunity, each player on the team comes back to this central point: they root for the guy next to them. And granted, every fan who found themselves at the parade was there to celebrate a literal world championship, but for at least a few hours it did feel like everyone in the city genuinely liked each other, too. Not one of them can drop a 30-point triple-double in the Finals, so maybe that’s where the similarities end, but it was admittedly cool to see.

For a guy who has largely watched this current team blossom and grow from a thousand miles away in California, it was a bit surreal to see how many, and how much, other people truly cared.

It meant something to these fans, and it means something to this city. That something is different for everyone, including Jokic, who also provided the most notable on-stage appearance of parade day.

When it was finally his turn at the microphone, he stood there for a minute and waited, smiling and taking in the overwhelming chants of “M-V-P” below, with his entire team hyping up the crowd from behind. That moment of crowd swell felt like an avalanche of joy and relief. Like a great communal weight had finally been lifted.

Being a fan of anything is a journey, and it can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. A connection to home, a love for the game, a family bond, a piece of a community. For 47 years, this community has seen the ups and downs of where that journey can take you. From the lottery to the bubble to the Finals. The painful lows only made the epic ascent mean that much more.  You’ve got to earn it.

Yet, and rightfully so, none of that seemed to matter much as Joker finally quieted the crowd back down to reality. In the end, maybe we don’t need to overcomplicate it, but rather just enjoy the view. Especially when you’re looking at it from an all-new elevation.

“I f—ing want to stay on parade,” said Joker smiling to the crowd. “This is amazing. We are all going to remember this our whole lives.

“We love you Denver, this one is for you.”

Amen, brother. It’s finally a parade inside my basketball city, yeah.

SLAM 245 featuring Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets is available now.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post The Denver Nuggets’ Rise to Becoming NBA Champions Marks a New Beginning for the City appeared first on SLAM.

In the days before YouTube and any social media platform you’ve heard of, awareness of the Next Big Thing generally came in stages. The soon-to-be multi-platinum recording artist, the future Hall of Fame athlete and the arena-headlining comedic genius almost never got famous all at once; proximity, and connections, determined who knew about them when. Fame was a gradual thing, and very few people ever had a chance to be in the select group known as “first.”

Where basketball is concerned, this publication has generally been one of the exceptions. Strictly speaking, SLAM has never discovered anyone, but we built our rep in part on introducing the game’s brightest young stars to our readers before almost anyone outside their hometowns—including our national media peers—had heard of them. We built connections across the grassroots scene, we paid attention, and in a magazine created to celebrate today’s superstars, we always found space to tell you about tomorrow’s.

There’s a compelling case to be made for LeBron James as the last true superstar to emerge from that mostly analog era, a time when magazine covers, SportsCenter highlights and at least one semi-authorized biography (more on that in a minute) did the work of building the legend. He was already one of the biggest stories in sports when he stepped onto the NBA draft stage 20 years ago this summer. A lot of that had to do with the three SLAM features, two covers and a year’s worth of Basketball Diary entries he’d already been the subject of.

Shortly before he made his NBA debut that fall, not one but two LeBron biographies hit bookstore shelves. The first of them, by about three weeks, was mine. King James: Believe the Hype exists solely because of SLAM, specifically because of the access that then 16-year-old LeBron and his tightly kept circle granted the mag before what seemed like the entire world descended on Akron to feed on, and into, the aforementioned hype. To the extent that the book holds up, it’s as a snapshot of two surreal years in the basketball life of a guy who was destined to end up on the GOAT shortlist.

Of course, LeBron was neither the first nor the last to carry the Next Big Thing weight in our pages. Founded in 1994 with a distinctly NYC lean, it was only fitting that the first prep star we aligned with was Brooklyn’s own Stephon Marbury, perhaps the last truly iconic New York City-born-and-bred hoop star. The Coney Island point god was the first person to write our Basketball Diary; four years later, when Ray Allen played a high school star based heavily on Starbury in Spike Lee’s He Got Game, his character, Jesus Shuttlesworth, got his own on-screen SLAM cover (see pg. 60 for more on that—Ed.).

The flow of hype-generating, potentially generational talent has never stopped. On LeBron’s heels, and from Marbury’s own neighborhood and bloodline, came Sebastian Telfair, who memorably shared a cover with his friend from Akron and followed him as our Diary keeper. Then came OJ Mayo, a varsity star as a West Virginia eighth grader and thus the most obvious entry into the “who’s the next LeBron?” sweepstakes that nobody needed. Understand, Bassy and OJ were incredible high school players, and maybe under different circumstances would’ve had more substantial NBA careers. As it is, they helped confirm that LeBron—the dude who somehow not only met but surpassed the most ridiculous career expectations ever put on a 16-year-old basketball player—was the exception, not the rule.

In the years since, probably only Zion Williamson and the Ball brothers have come close
to LeBron levels of pre-NBA attention with the buzz created by their hyper-viral high school highlight clips (with LaMelo and Lonzo getting an assist from Pops, of course). The latest to contend for that ultrabright spotlight is Victor Wembanyama, a true unicorn with international appeal and a highlight reel perfectly suited to TikTok and Insta edits. If you’ve been paying attention, you know SLAM was up on these dudes early and often as well.

But as this magazine approaches its 30th birthday (!!!) and the subject of this story wraps up Year 20 in the League, there still hasn’t really been a saga quite like LeBron’s.

Sometime in 2002, when the national attention and increasingly prying coverage of LeBron James became truly disruptive, the administration at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School placed a sign in front of its entrance announcing that media was not allowed on campus. But a year or so earlier, when we pulled up to campus in the spring of 2001, we were greeted with a different sign: “WELCOME SLAM MAGAZINE.”

That first visit was a chance to meet the school’s AD and basketball coaches, LeBron’s teammates and the lanky 16-year-old himself. We hung in the lunchroom, watched an informal after-school practice run, then caught dinner with LeBron and his mom. The result was the first feature-length LeBron James profile to appear outside the 330 area code. In retrospect, it seems crazy that we didn’t put him on the cover, but trust that the mere thought of putting a largely unknown high school sophomore from Ohio’s fifth-largest city on our front page seemed, at the time, infinitely crazier. SLAM in 2001 was first and foremost a newsstand magazine, and only established stars moved newsstand units. (Honestly, our biggest regret might be that one of Atiba Jefferson’s iconic shots from that story didn’t grace the cover).

Still, we were already treating him as something different. He wrote our Basketball Diary in ’01-02, becoming the first non-senior to handle the gig; a year after that initial feature, with a game-changing Sports Illustrated cover and regular SportsCenter highlights under his belt, LeBron (alongside Sebastian Telfair) landed on our cover. A year after that, with his senior year over and his unprecedented high school career behind him, he got his first solo cover. Legendary hip-hop photographer Jonathan Mannion was behind the lens; LeBron wore a Mitchell & Ness Michael Jordan NBA All-Star jersey on his chest, an acknowledgement of the expectations he welcomed, and a custom SLAM headband on his forehead. The latter was his idea, nothing we asked for or expected, a generous nod to the publication that had sought him out and told his story before anyone else.

The book came out a few months later, and much of it expanded on reporting and interviews first published in the magazine. Part of that meant acknowledging the absurdity of dedicating so much ink—a sentiment shared by the many publishers who turned down the book proposal, apparently—to an 18-year-old high schooler. My pitch—that this dude had the potential to be one of the greatest of all time—had less to do with my own scouting prowess (ha) and much more to do with the opinions of people who actually knew. That started with his high school coaches, particularly Keith Dambrot, the once- and future-Division I college coach whose reputation helped bring LeBron and a handful of his AAU teammates to St. V in the first place.

Dambrot had run offseason skills sessions at the local Jewish Community Center attended by Bron and those teammates—aka the Fab Four, which expanded to a Fab Five by the time their high school run was over—so he knew he had a talented class. It didn’t take Dambrot long to realize that in LeBron, he had much more. When we first spoke in the spring of ’01, Dambrot never hesitated in acknowledging the validity of comparisons to the likes of Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. He wasn’t worried about setting up LeBron to fail against unrealistic expectations, because he saw every day how hard his best player worked, his off-the-charts basketball IQ and just how talented he was.

The rest of the world got its chance to see him as his junior and senior seasons played out. There was the legendary 2001 ABCD Camp showing shortly after his first SLAM feature—LeBron, a rising junior, outdueling top-ranked senior-to-be Lenny Cooke in a game that took on outsized significance in the trajectories of both players. Even then, LeBron was being touted (among people who didn’t read this magazine, anyway) as an “unknown” who was “discovered” at the camp. Hardly, but it was another step in the creation of a legend.

Two more steps came in showcase games against national prep power Oak Hill Academy. The first, played in Trenton, NJ, in February 2002, marked the first and only high school meeting between LeBron and Carmelo Anthony. Both players balled out, with Melo leading his stacked Oak Hill squad to the win. A year later in Cleveland, the rematch was televised by ESPN, with Bill Walton and Dick Vitale on the call. With Melo gone to Syracuse, Bron and the Irish rolled to a 20-point win.

Even the games that weren’t on ESPN were events: St. V played a national schedule during LeBron’s senior season, hooping in Philly, Los Angeles and a handful of spots in between. The team’s home games, meanwhile, were moved to the nearby University of Akron to accommodate fan interest, and a local cable company secured a deal to offer them on pay-per-view. The off-court “controversies” that came with such attention—investigations and a suspension for accepting a couple of throwback jerseys from a local store and getting an advance on a Hummer a few months before he was officially worth nine figures—were ridiculous at the time and, particularly in the NIL era, somehow look even dumber now.

And then his amateur days were over, the $90 mil check from Nike preceding the first of his many comma-heavy NBA contracts. My book came out that fall, and another…over two dozen SLAM covers have followed in the two decades since. We didn’t know how all this would turn out, of course, but being first, we could only stick around to see how it ended. Twenty years later, we’re as amazed as anyone that his story isn’t over—that somehow, there is still more to write. 

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the ’03 NBA Draft and the Arrival of LeBron James appeared first on SLAM.

In Girona, Spain, however, things are getting a little confusing. This delightful medieval city, located an hour north of Barcelona, technically has only one Gasol brother: Marc. But within him are two alter egos: Marc the owner of Bàsquet Girona, and Marc the star player of—yes—Bàsquet Girona. Indeed, the 38-year-old is making history as (probably) the first-ever player-owner in pro hoops. But it’s not easy keeping it all together. Gasol shifts back and forth between the two personas each day, and even during conversation. Marc the owner is an optimistic neophyte; Marc the player is a fiery veteran back in Girona after a 13-year hiatus. 

“They don’t deal well with each other,” Gasol says. The owner’s goal is to expand Bàsquet Girona’s long-term impact beyond hoops. The player? “I’m 38. There is no tomorrow,” he says. “I’m very calm and reflective inside the front office, but on the court it’s the complete opposite. Not allowing one cup to spill into the other is a challenge. But that’s what I chose.”

This experiment began in 2014, when Gasol founded the Bàsquet Girona youth academy. The team came next, in 2017, after its prior iteration had gone belly-up under different ownership. Gasol joined as a player in 2021 following his NBA retirement. Immediately, he played hero, adding two more distinctions to his title: founder-owner-president-player-reigning champ-reigning MVP. (On LinkedIn, he is simply “President, Bàsquet Girona.” Pau is Vice President, a job he serves remotely.)

Why Girona? It’s not Gasol’s hometown (that’s Sant Boi de Llobregat, a province in Barcelona), but it is where his career first blossomed. “The way the city embraced me and helped me become a basketball player was something that impacted me. I wanted more players to feel the warmth and security of a city behind them,” he says.

In turn, Gasol has given Girona all the warmth and security he can muster. The team is on solid footing, the youth academy has grown to 450 boys and girls, and around town Gasol is omnipresent, easily spotted at coffee shops and sustainability council meetings. 

“Everybody in Girona loves Marc,” a local journalist named Nil Solà says. “Here, everything is Marc.” 

This love story began some 17 years ago. Back then, it was simple: Girona gave Gasol a chance to play basketball. He was 21 when then-CB Girona acquired him from Barcelona Bàsquet, where he rarely played. 

Gasol has repaid that favor time and time again. 

In 2007, his NBA stock began to climb, but he declined to travel for pre-draft workouts, content in Girona. “I didn’t care,” he says. He was drafted by the Lakers in the second round and stayed put. A few months later, Barcelona asked for a mulligan on the loan that had sent Gasol to Girona in the first place. Gasol personally called Barcelona’s front office to veto the deal. “I said, I’m staying in Girona.” 

Gasol’s NBA rights were soon traded from Los Angeles to Memphis in the notoriously lopsided deal for Pau, which even Marc calls “a rip-off.” The NBA world was disgusted. Gasol could not have cared less. He remained in Girona and won MVP of Liga ACB, Spain’s top division. But amid the global financial meltdown, CB Girona went into disarray. Finally, Gasol left for the NBA.

In Memphis, he anchored the upstart Grit ’N Grind Grizzlies, countering the League’s chaotic three-point revolution with a polished bruising style. In 2013, he was named Defensive Player of the Year while leading all centers in assists. In 2015, he inked a max extension—five years, $100 million. He used some of the money to finance the Bàsquet Girona youth academy, and founded the men’s team within two years. 

It debuted in Spain’s fourth division in 2017. Gasol kept tabs from Memphis, and then Toronto, where he landed in a mid-season trade that ended with a ring and the Raptors first-ever NBA Championship. By 2021, Bàsquet Girona had clawed its way up the Spanish ranks, reaching second-division LEB Gold. A promotion back to the ACB was just one great season away, but further relegation was also just one awful season away. The team opened at 2-7. Gasol had a choice to make: extend his NBA career, or cut it short to save hoops in Girona.

“I’m a person that looks in the mirror,” he says. During the ’20-21 season, Gasol had been a 36-year-old reserve on the Lakers, donning purple and gold in “awkward” fashion by his own admission. Still, he labored over whether to return to Girona. “We tend to remember only the good things about places,” he says. “Sometimes those memories are better to stay untouched.” 

Gasol is seated along the baseline at Pavelló Girona-Fontajau, home to so many of those memories. It’s a modest stadium—gray, low-slung, about a 25-minute walk from the city’s striking old town. The gym has a YMCA feel, its halls filled with backpack-clad academy kids. As I chat with Gasol, practice begins for Uni Girona CB, a dominant force in Liga Femenina, the ACB’s women’s counterpart. Gasol became a star on this floor, and during his lengthy hiatus hardly anything here changed. Not even the scoreboard hanging above us, he says. Offering no stats nor in-game entertainment, it is practically a symbol of resistance against the NBA’s piped-in, gambling-crazed atmosphere. Gasol’s final NBA game had been at the STAPLES Center, which once threw an unveiling ceremony for its $10 million jumbotron. Well, good for the STAPLES Center. The rest of Gasol’s home games, he decided, should be spent here instead. 

“This is something I always wanted to do before I say goodbye to this sport and to the court, to play here one more time,” Gasol says. 

On December 3, 2021, he returned to this floor after 13 years away. 

At first, Gasol’s intention was merely to play well enough to stabilize his organization. “When you’re not playing well on the court, it creates an insecurity feeling everywhere else,” he says, clearly speaking as Marc the owner. “I didn’t want what happens on the floor to have an impact on everybody’s mood in the office.” 

But Marc the owner doesn’t play basketball, and Marc the player is a competitive freak. If Gasol had looked washed up in Los Angeles, he was an instant force in Girona. He averaged just shy of 15 points, 10 boards and 3 assists in his return season—a near-replica of his MVP campaign 14 years earlier—and was named MVP of LEB Gold. Bàsquet Girona swept through the playoffs (Gasol gutted out a knee injury in the finals because of course he did), earning a promotion back to Liga ACB. 

Glory had been properly restored to the once-defunct franchise. 

The mission was complete. 

Or was it?   

No, no—instead, the heroism of Marc the player kicked Marc the owner into a new competitive gear. Heading into this season, Girona’s first in the ACB since ’08, he strengthened the organization from top to bottom. He expanded the club’s staff to 130. He acquired three new starters, including Kameron Taylor, a 6-6 wing who leads the team in scoring. He hired 76-year-old coach Aíto García Reneses, winner of nine—count ’em—ACB titles and the 2008 Olympic silver medal. And, best of all, he had an ACB rule barring player-presidents overturned. 

Local excitement erupted: season tickets sold out within 24 hours. (The team is nearing self-sustainability—where once Gasol financed the organization entirely out of pocket, he now covers less than 10 percent of costs, including his own minimum contract, and team revenue accounts for the rest.) 

Still, facing ACB competition has been a challenge. A few hours after I sit down with Gasol, Bàsquet Girona struggles against Bàsquet Manresa, a relegation candidate. Gasol receives a raucous ovation during lineup introductions, but on the floor looks his age. He moves slowly and defers often, playing the role of safety valve rather than superstar (or overbearing owner). In fairness, Gasol was a slow-mover and willing teammate in his prime, too. 

“He’s a guy that likes to see others do well,” says Taylor. “You would think at his age, with his years in the NBA, and being the owner of the team, he’d come out here and expect the ball every time. But he’s out here sweating like the rest of us. He’s not the owner when he’s playing basketball.”

Gasol finishes with 13 points as Bàsquet Girona loses. At 8-16, the team is merely three games clear of relegation. They ultimately finished the season 11-23, one skinny game above relegation. Is this struggle a wrench in Gasol’s Hollywood story, or the essence of it? Over a few days in Girona, I come to see it as the latter. 

If Gasol could score at will and assure victory, there would be no need to separate the two Marcs. Winning would unify the big-picture thinker and the urgent competitor within him. It’s the losses that necessitate the divide and underscore the challenge at hand. 

After each loss, Gasol says, “As soon as I take a shower and walk down the hall, I need to change completely,” embodying the patient owner over the frustrated player. Or at least that’s the idea. In reality, no Gasol ever stays boxed out for long.

“I’m trying to change the narrative of, only winning and losing matters,” Marc the owner says, but Marc the player rejects that notion and cuts in. “Obviously, for me, winning means more than anything,” he says. The owner interjects: “But there’s a lot more to it.” And on and on they go. 

Photos via Getty Images and Segi Geronès.

The post Marc Gasol is Entering a New Chapter as Both Player and Owner of Spanish Basketball Club, Bàsquet Girona appeared first on SLAM.

The United States will enter the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup in August as the second- ranked country in the world.

Yes, the second-ranked country.

For the first time in more than a decade, US men’s basketball slipped to No. 2 in the FIBA world rankings back in November. The top spot currently belongs to Spain, winners of the 2022 FIBA EuroBasket—the championship of Europe for men’s national teams—and the 2019 FIBA World Cup (a tournament in which the Americans finished seventh). The US does not send its A-team to events such as the FIBA AmeriCup, where it came in third last year after being knocked out by Argentina, but the results of those tournaments still impact the rankings. And while the squad put together for the Tokyo Olympics emerged victorious two summers ago, it lost to France during the preliminary round and only won by 5, 87-82, in a rematch in the Final. 

You don’t have to look hard for proof that the game is growing around the world. The three finalists for the 2023 NBA MVP hailed from countries outside the United States—winner Joel Embiid (Cameroon) and runners-up Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece)—as well as six of the top eight vote-getters. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) finished fifth, followed by Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania) in seventh and Luka Doncic (Slovenia) in eighth. This marked the fifth straight season that a foreign-born player was crowned MVP, dating back to Antetokounmpo’s first triumph in 2019.

Most of those stars have confirmed that they intend to play in the upcoming World Cup, which will take place in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. This year’s event will be the second to feature 32 teams and the first to be hosted by multiple nations. It’s also the gateway to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, as seven countries will qualify based on their performances: two from the Americas, two from Europe, one from Africa, one from Asia and one from Oceania.

For the US, the tournament will be far from a cakewalk, regardless of who lands on the team’s final roster. 

“There are quality players around the world—I think we’re starting to see that,” says Carlan Gay, deputy editor at The Sporting News and an announcer for international competitions. “Four of the five that finished at the top of the MVP voting aren’t American born—that just tells you that the world isn’t catching up, it has caught up.” 

“I think that we have this idea that, well, if it’s not American, it’s not as good,” says Jeff Taylor, an international basketball commentator since 1997. “I understood immediately watching the [1997] EuroBasket—watching a game between Poland and Germany—I was struck by how good they were.” 

Taylor has covered most of FIBA’s flagship events since then, observing firsthand how the level of talent has risen in other countries. “It’s grown exponentially,” he tells SLAM. “I think it was already good at the time, but I think there are different factors at work here [that have made it even better].”

For one, an increasing number of Europeans jumped to the NBA in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The success of guys like Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and Tony Parker helped erase stigmas about foreign players—mainly, that they were too soft and not athletic enough to succeed in the States—and inspired others to follow in their footsteps.

Emerging talents overseas join top professional organizations as teenagers, where they are exposed to elite coaching and stiff competition that accelerates their development. Doncic signed a five-year contract with Real Madrid at the age of 13, and No. 1 NBA draft prospect Victor Wembanyama has been a pro since he was 15. Of course, those high-level prospects also join their respective national team programs early on, which facilitates even more growth.

“There’s more opportunity for development within your national team program [overseas],” says University of Alabama assistant coach Ryan Pannone, who has previously coached in the NBA, G League, China Germany, Slovakia and Israel. “And the pressure those guys are playing under and the pride for their national teams is really high. [For example], Luka was playing within the national team obviously from a very young age in Slovenia, and he was in the academy within Real Madrid in Spain. So he’s getting professional coaching seven days a week from coaches whose full-time jobs are to make sure he develops; and then in the summer, he’s in the national team system of Slovenia, where he’s playing in high-pressure-filled games.”

Basketball journeyman Scotty Hopson, who has played in 10 countries and suited up for the 2018 USA World Cup Qualifying Team, notes that the “athleticism level” has increased among international players. “Whenever I go to these countries and play against other teams and players, I feel like they always have a knowledge of basketball that’s pretty high level,” says Hopson. “And now you add the component that guys are starting to get more athletic, starting to understand how to take care of their bodies, how to train more.”

It’s important to mention that the FIBA game is different—harder, in a lot of ways. Quarters are 10 minutes long as opposed to 12. The court is smaller (91 feet-10 inches by 49 feet-2.5 inches, compared to the NBA’s 94 feet by 50 feet), and the three-point line is about a foot closer. There’s no defensive three seconds, and goaltending rules are modified: players are allowed to swat the ball off the cylinder as soon as it touches the rim.

All of these changes result in a distinct style of play: more strategic and methodical, less spaced. Teams value possessions more because there are fewer of them. On defense, it’s easier to pack the paint and provide help. Closeouts are faster—there’s not as much ground to cover—so coaches emphasize shooting and making quick reads. “The game internationally can be very physical, very tactical. And if you’re going to play it, you have to be very intelligent,” explains Taylor.

“The game in Europe is way harder than the game in the NBA,” Antetokounmpo said last September. “The talent obviously in the NBA is way higher, but the space [is better]—you have a lot of lanes to drive the ball, a lot of lanes to create. Over there it’s more intense.” 

During the 2022 FIBA EuroBasket last summer, Antetokounmpo had to work extremely hard for his points, as opponents clogged the middle and sent double or triple teams his way. “And in the past, this has helped me a lot, like when I came back from [the World Cup] in 2019,” he added. “That was the year we went to the bubble. The first couple of games, I felt like the court was huge.”

“Is it harder? Yes, because I think you really need to have quick thinking,” Jokic said about the international game after EuroBasket. “In the NBA, if you go by the guy, you can see the help is coming. In Europe, help is always there. So you need to think and play ahead.” That challenge helped Jokic evolve into the playmaker that he is today and made transitioning to the NBA much easier. Similarly, Doncic told SLAM in 2022: “I think from [Europe] comes my reading the game, all the passing skills.”

Thus, current and future NBA players can benefit tremendously from participating in FIBA events, especially given the intensity of those environments. Many of those players also assume bigger roles for their national teams, which allows them to showcase other parts of their games. Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen, for example, shined as the number one option for Finland at the 2022 EuroBasket, averaging 27.9 points on 54 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent from three.

When he returned to the States for the 2022-23 NBA season, Jazz head coach Will Hardy encouraged Markkanen to play exactly as he had for Finland—confident, assertive, in more of a central role. And Markkanen had the best year of his NBA career, making his first All-Star team and winning the Most Improved Player award.

Says Coach Pannone, who was an assistant for the New Orleans Pelicans in 2022-23, “Obviously, Lauri Markkanen and the way that panned out doesn’t happen for every [NBA] team, but [FIBA events] certainly give you the chance to see one of your players in more of a star role—how they’re used, how they handle it, how successful they are. And you get that opportunity without it costing you games by trying to experiment with that throughout the NBA season.”

Markkanen will be with Finland again this summer for the World Cup. Other international players expected to compete include Antetokounmpo, Doncic, Jokic, Gilgeous-Alexander, Sabonis, Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert (France), Karl-Anthony Towns (Dominican Republic), Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia), Franz Wagner (Germany), Josh Giddey (Australia), Nikola Vucevic (Montenegro), Jordan Clarkson (Philippines) and more. The US will likely enter the tournament as a significant favorite, but the depth of talent this year will once again make the road to the Naismith Trophy very difficult.

“Whether you’re from the United States or not, there’s going to be amazing competition here because the level of basketball in this World Cup, I think, will be unprecedented,” NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said during an episode of One Sports’ The Game.

Defending champions Spain should have another formidable roster, led by veteran point guard Ricky Rubio, MVP of the 2019 FIBA World Cup, and Willy Hernangomez, MVP of the 2022 FIBA EuroBasket. Australia, ranked third, should have Giddey and several other NBA players, including Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Matisse Thybulle, Josh Green and Jock Landale. The likely presence of Antetokounmpo, Doncic and Jokic ensures that Greece, Slovenia and Serbia will all be tough opponents. Canada could be stacked with household names: Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Lu Dort, Dillon Brooks and more. And then, of course, there’s France, a country that nearly toppled the United States in the Tokyo Olympics and should have a similar squad, plus the 7-4 phenom Wembanyama. 

The list of worthy competitors for the ’23 World Cup title goes on and on—each one composed of prideful players determined to reach the podium for their countries. 

“You can go down the list of guys who really take pride in putting on that [national team] jersey,” says Gay. “I don’t think it’s something that we truly understand in North America—how much passion there is for basketball outside of these borders and how much passion there is for performing on the world stage for your country—because of the NBA factor. I think kids around the world grow up not dreaming to be in the NBA but dreaming to play and win a World Cup and win an Olympic gold medal.”

“Representing your national team, it’s heavy,” said Antetokounmpo in September. “You represent your whole country.”

Asked about facing Antetokounmpo during the 2019 FIBA World Cup, then-United States head coach Gregg Popovich said this of international superstars: “When they play for their countries, we like to say that they become superheroes. They get together and, through their relationships and their views about their game, they just form a team that—they fall in love with each other. They enjoy playing with each other. And that goes across the board for everybody that’s in the tournament. A lot of them have grown up together, a lot of them have spent a lot of time playing together, and you can see that.”

“The biggest advantage I felt like [other countries] had was that those teams play together for years and years and years,” Hopson reiterates. He speaks from experience, having lost to a cohesive and well-coached Argentina squad during qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup. “You’re going into a situation where you’re playing against guys who have probably been playing together since they were kids. They have an advantage with that because the chemistry is already built.” 

Combine that chemistry with the rising talent and the hunger of players to win for their countries and the US will certainly have its hands full trying to reclaim the World Cup title and the No. 1 FIBA ranking.

“The gap has closed, but also, the fear factor is gone,” Gay says. “No one’s afraid to play Team USA. In fact, they’re circling that date on the calendar to try to make history.”

SLAM 244 is also available in this exclusive Gold Metal Edition.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post International Superstars are Now Dominating the Game More Than Ever Before appeared first on SLAM.

Spike Lee, sporting a Nike sweatsuit and Knicks-colored pair of Jordans, invited SLAM into his beautiful studio, plastered with exclusive Knicks and NBA memorabilia that he’s accumulated over the years, to reflect on the movie. He walked us through everything from the casting process, the Jordan XIIIs, working with Ray Allen and Denzel Washington, the movie’s legacy and much more.

SLAM: Can you walk us through the ideation of the movie? How did it come about and what sparked the idea?

Spike Lee: Well, for years, people had asked me when I was gonna do a basketball film. I executive produced “Love & Basketball,” but that was not mine, ya know? It wasn’t my thing. I still love that film today and people still love it. That film came out very well. So, I started to write [“He Got Game”] and I sent it to Denzel, not expecting that he was gonna like it. He called me back right away and said, Did you write this?! I said, Of course, I wrote it! And we got it made.

SLAM: Where did the title of the film come from?

SPIKE: He got game. I mean, that’s something that you just heard. I can’t say I never heard that before. If you got it, you got it. You know what “game” is. It clicked right away. Usually, when I’m thinking about a film and the subject matter, the title comes to me very quick. I gotta know what I’m writing about before I start.

SLAM: How was the casting process? Did you already have people in mind for each role?

SPIKE: Denzel played junior varsity at Fordham University. His coach was the legendary PJ Carlesimo. So I knew this script might be attractive for Denzel. I wrote this for him. And I’ve watched many, many basketball films that have been made, particularly ones with actors [who are] supposed to be basketball players. And I don’t think those films were good. Jesus Shuttlesworth is the top high school prospect in the world, and I knew in my heart that no actor could play that. So, I knew that I had to get a baller. I looked at people leaving college coming to the pros, and also players already in the League who still looked youthful, so you would believe they were a high school senior at Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.

I went to various people. Kobe said he couldn’t do it because in the offseason he’s working. Here’s something people don’t understand: Whoever I was gonna cast had to commit, pretty much, their whole offseason. There were several players who wanted me to just give them the role. They didn’t wanna come to audition, and that was not gonna happen. Ray [Allen] came in and did a phenomenal audition. But I knew for whoever I cast, I would need an acting coach. So, I hired the great Susan Batson. Denzel was giving him tips, too. And that’s how it all came together.

SLAM: Ray Allen became widely respected as one of the hardest workers and routine-driven players in the League. Did you notice any particular habits that translated while he was preparing for his role as Shuttlesworth?

SPIKE: Ray Allen was committed. I mean, that’s how he got the part. I told him, Your whole offseason is gonna be on this film. And it was a great sacrifice. These guys kill themselves in the regular season, they need their bodies to heal in the offseason. But he had no offseason. He said it wasn’t a problem. Whatever we had to do, whether it was doing a million takes or whatever, Ray did it. He was committed, and we had a great support system. I know it’s a cliche now, but we wanted to put Ray Allen in position to win.

SLAM: Was there anything that stood out about the other NBA players you casted for the supporting roles?

SPIKE: Oh, yeah. The team that made up the squad had Hill Harper, who is a very fine actor. Then the pros were Travis Best, who went to Georgia Tech; Walter McCarty, Kentucky; Rick Fox, North Carolina; and John Wallace, Syracuse. They all auditioned for the role of Jesus Shuttlesworth, but I knew that Jesus had to have teammates. So, I knew from the pool of people I auditioned, I could fill out the squad for the Abraham Lincoln Railsplitters. 

SLAM: Did you have a gut feeling, during filming, about the significant cultural impact this movie would have in the world of basketball?

SPIKE: Well, here’s the thing: I sit courtside at the World’s Most Famous Arena, The Garden. I knew if this film was not dope, I would hear it not only from the Knicks but from the visiting teams as well. And that wasn’t an option. So, I knew we had to get it together.

I also want to talk about the technical advisor on this film. One of the greats, one of the top 50 NBA players of all time,  Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. Every time we were filming a basketball sequence, Earl “The Pearl” was sitting right next to me. And we had this scene in the film where Jesus discovers that his father didn’t name him after the biblical Jesus. He was named after Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, whose nickname in the Philly schoolyard was Black Jesus.

SLAM: The “Black Toe” Air Jordan XIII was released in ’97 and ultimately got tabbed the “He Got Game” XIIIs after being popularized by the film. What about this particular silhouette made it the feature sneaker for the movie?

SPIKE: It was very intentional. It started with my first film. What did Mars wear? What did Buggin’ Out wear in “Do the Right Thing” What did Radio Raheem wear? When you grow up in New York, that’s just part of the culture. 

So I told Michael Jordan we needed to have some for the film. And then I told Denzel, too. Denzel rocked those. I know they call them the “He Got Games,” but a lot of people call them the “Denzel Washingtons,” too. I love the line in the movie when Denzel is in the sneaker store, and they see the ankle monitor.

SLAM: How did you decide on Public Enemy for the soundtrack?

SPIKE: While I was writing the script, I was listening to the classical music of Aaron Copland. He’s one of the great, great, great composers, and I knew I wanted to use select pieces he had written for various scenes in the film. Then I went back to Chuck D and Flavor Flav. I’ve always loved that song, “For What It’s Worth,” by Stephen Stills. And I wanted to use parts of that.

Then we did the music video, well, the short film. Michael Jackson told me, Spike, don’t ever use the phrase “music video.” Anyway, we did the short film. We got Stephen Stills to come back and be a part of the song. Everything came together on that one, and that’s very rare. I’m a professor at NYU, and I tell my students all the time, It’s hard to make a horrible film, let alone a decent one. Because there are so many elements, but it came together on that one.

SLAM: There’s a scene with Jesus on the couch watching TV and Shaq, Dick Vitale and John Thompson are praising his game. Above the TV is a SLAM Magazine cover with Jesus on it. At this time, SLAM had only been around for about four years. What went into this decision? 

SPIKE: SLAM is part of the culture. I had to think long and hard about having a character, Jesus Shuttlesworth, who in the film is the top high school prospect in the world. So [putting him on a SLAM cover] was very simple. 

SLAM: How do you measure the impact of the movie and how it has transcended generations?

SPIKE: A lot of these young cats, when they come to The Garden, [they] ask me if they can be in a sequel. And they were very young—some of them could not have been born when this film came out. It’s just part of the culture, ya know? I’m grateful for that. 

Here’s the thing, though. One time I wanted to do a sequel. But I knew I couldn’t do it without Denzel. Ray was on me to do a sequel, but Denzel said he didn’t do sequels. Well, I think he broke that rule. “The Equalizer,” I think there are three of them. I kid him about that.

SLAM: I actually read an article from years back where Ray was speaking of his interest in doing another film. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask—is that something you would be interested in doing?

SPIKE: At one point, I wanted to. I mean, it’s been 25 years. I’ll see Denzel again, and since he told me he’d never do a sequel and now he’s done them, maybe he’s changed his mind. But you know, Denzel and I have done four films together. So hopefully, maybe one day we’ll get together for our fifth. I’m not saying for “He Got Game,” but just to work together. We’ve done great work together. 

SLAM: You’ve managed to maintain your spot as one of the best at what you do, despite the varying changes in the world of media. What’s keeping you inspired to not only continue adapting but also thriving in today’s climate?

SPIKE: I know I’m blessed because if you’re able to make a living doing what you love, that’s not a job. I tell my students this, too. Hell is working a job you hate. That’s not just hell, that’s holy hell. It’s a blessing, and I don’t take it for granted. I’m just very, very happy that “He Got Game” is considered a classic.

This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.

Photos via Marcus Stevens and David Lee.

The post Spike Lee on the 25th Anniversary of ‘He Got Game,’ Casting Ray Allen and the Inspiration Behind the Iconic Film appeared first on SLAM.

Seeing is believing, and artist Troy Murray, who goes by the name TYP, has created just that and more: his latest work, titled “Rhetorical Question” depicts a realistic portrait of the NBA legend and even features sculpted Reebok Questions that were molded and casted from the actual kicks. 

When the Detroit-native pulls up to our office in Long Island City, he reveals that his artwork represents his early childhood memories of watching Iverson, who was his favorite player growing up, and begging his parents to buy him his own pair of kicks. He also got a subscription to SLAM when he was 12, and would keep issues on his bedside table. 

“Everybody has this memory of that AI cover,” TYP says. “Anybody that loves basketball has a memory. I was able to tell my version of the memory through that piece.” 

TYP says it takes him about two weeks to create each piece. He begins by sketching the portrait on Procreate to get an idea of the color scheme and textures he wants to incorporate. When it’s time to build the sculpture, he starts by creating the shape of the piece using foam and wood, and then sprays a light layer of concrete on top. To give it that rocky, aged-look, he casts and molds different elements of the piece, like the sneakers, out of a clay that hardens into a proxy, and then sands it down.

Shop Allen Iverson SLAM Cover Tees here.

His journey into developing his own distinct style started with a different pair of kicks, the Jordan 1s. After focusing primarily on drawing portraits, he wanted to explore an entirely new medium when he picked up a sneaker box one day. “I just saw how [the Jordan 1s] were sitting in there, and I just thought that if I just pattern those in the right way they could make a pretty relatively even painting surface for me. So I tried it and it worked.”

He would take pairs of kicks and quite literally cut them in half to use in his artwork. Yes, you read that right. “That original one, we were like, this is kind of crazy. We were just cutting these sneakers in half, but once we did it once [and] we cut one sneaker and started to actually piece it together and pattern it we were like, this is so dope. This is gonna work.” 

Eventually though, TYP’s friend Anthony let him know that instead of cutting them up, he could just mold them and replicate as many pairs as he wanted. Learning the entire molding and casting process, put things into perspective that he could now create his art on an even larger scale. 

By turning a real SLAM cover into a real-life sculpture, TYP has captured the very epitome of how art, basketball, history and human connection all intersect. .“I wanted to play off of the question and the answer here. I always thought that was so cool as a kid that he had a sneaker. That was the Question, the nickname was The Answer. And so the name of the piece was a Rhetorical Question. And the whole narrative was based around this, he’s always been the answer.”

Photos by Marcus Stevens.

The post Artist TYP Reimagines Iconic SLAM Allen Iverson Cover with ‘Rhetorical Question’ Sculpture appeared first on SLAM.

Daily subjects vary—some lessons center on basketball, others are focused more broadly on the transition from high school to college. Professors vary as well—the recently retired Coach K spoke to the 2022 freshmen, as well as current coaches, general manager Rachel Baker and others. The overall mission of the class is clear: welcome new members to The Brotherhood. Teach them what The Brotherhood is all about.

“It’s great because you learn about the history of Duke,” says freshman center Christian Reeves. 

One day, associate head coach Chris Carrawell, who played for the Blue Devils from 1996-2000, showed an hour-long video tracing Duke’s storied past. The five national titles and 15 ACC tournament championships under coach Mike Krzyzewski. The 1,129 wins since 1980 (the most ever by a coach at one school). Carrawell broke it all down, highlighting how the program has managed to find so much success.

Everyone knows about The Brotherhood. For many of Duke’s new players (both its top-ranked recruiting class and impressive group of grad transfers), it was a significant factor in their decisions to come to the university.

Still, it is tough to fully understand The Brotherhood until you are a part of it—until you are experiencing it from the inside, as opposed to just hearing about it. There are traditions in place that give newcomers an immediate feel for what they have joined: a close-knit, strong, lifelong family. 

“What The Brotherhood means to me is, simply, unity and togetherness,” former Blue Devil Gary Trent Jr told SLAM in 2018. “Being part of something that’s bigger than yourself, fighting for someone other than yourself, just always looking out for the next man and your brother.”

“The Brotherhood is basically the bond that is Duke [Men’s] Basketball,” added Grayson Allen, who spent four years at Duke from 2014-18. “It’s former players from 20 years ago to guys now and to future commits. It’s the whole thing. You share a common experience of playing here, playing at Duke, playing for Coach.”

Of course, at the heart of The Brotherhood is “Coach,” who has defined the program for over four decades. “It started really because there are not a lot of cases where you get a coach who has coached so many players for so many years,” Carrawell explains. Krzyzewski is the glue that holds The Brotherhood together—the powerful connecting force at its core. He cultivates relationships between past and present Duke players. He makes sure that those bonds never fade. The Michael W. Krzyzewski Center (known on campus as the “K-Center”)—a two-story athletic and academic facility adjacent to Cameron Indoor Stadium—even has a “Legacy Locker Room,” constructed specifically to accommodate former players who come back.

Throughout his tenure, Krzyzewski established annual traditions such as K Academy, a five-day fantasy camp held at Duke in June. Campers, who must be at least 35 years old, compete in a basketball tournament and get to learn the inside scoop about the Blue Devils program. Alumni always return for the event, making it one big family reunion.

Ryan Young, a 6-10 center who recently transferred from Northwestern, was a coach at the 2022 K Academy. 

“That’s where I really saw The Brotherhood,” says Young. “You have young guys like Quinn Cook, Amile Jefferson and Grayson Allen back here coaching teams, but you also have older players that I don’t even recognize that played here in the ’80s and ’90s and 2000s that have all been coming back every year for this event. It’s really cool. I’m sitting there coaching with Mark Alarie, Justin Robinson and a few other former players. And then you have, like, Shane Battier and all those guys walking around the gym like it’s nothing.”

There are typically around 30-40 former Duke players in attendance at K Academy—all bonded by their experiences at the university. Some are in the NBA (more than 20 Blue Devils are currently on NBA rosters), some are coaches, some are front office executives, some have moved on from basketball entirely.

During Krzyzewski’s illustrious career, Duke had 68 NBA Draft selections, including 42 first-round picks. Beyond just K Academy, those players constantly come back to Durham and serve as mentors for the present-day Blue Devils, many of whom aspire to follow in their footsteps.

Heading into the 2022-23 season, the team was visited by Jayson Tatum, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, Paolo Banchero, Mark Williams and others. Those alums didn’t just drop by to say hello—they hung around, played pick-up, worked out at the K Center, engaged with the staff, shared advice with the players. Freshman Mark Mitchell got to pick the brain of Barrett, another versatile and dynamic lefty wing who was once in his position.

“I’m trying to be where he’s at, so him just taking time out of his day to talk to me and give me tips for five minutes really meant a lot to me,” says Mitchell. “Some guys can be arrogant or act like they’re too cool, but he really sat there, talked to me, took me on the court and gave me little tips that I can [use] to be better.”

“I think the coolest part about The Brotherhood is the fact that people—us as players—own it and don’t take it for granted,” assistant coach Amile Jefferson says. Jefferson played for Duke from 2012-17, appearing in a program-record 150 games and winning a national championship in 2015.

“It doesn’t matter if you come here for nine months and you’re a one and done or you stay for four-plus years,” Jefferson continues. “When you wear this jersey and you lay your blood, sweat and tears on the line for this school, for this team, you become a part of something bigger than yourself. And guys carry that with them and it means something. So it’s cool to see guys, especially our pro guys, come back and work out with our young guys—come back and mentor them, stay in touch with them. It happens organically. It’s not like our coaches are making the alum do that, making the pro guys do that. It’s giving back, it’s paying it forward, and I think that’s what The Brotherhood is about. It’s not just a word. It’s a word that works. And it’s followed up by action.”

It isn’t a coincidence that the current coaching staff consists of three former Duke players: Scheyer, Carrawell and Jefferson (all of whom played for Coach K). That has been the program’s approach for a while now, ensuring that the traditions get passed on, the culture doesn’t fragment and The Brotherhood continues to thrive, even in Krzyzewski’s retirement. Under Scheyer, the standards will remain the same and the family will only grow.

“I think you look at the stability of our program for a long time and we plan on keeping that stability as we move forward,” Scheyer says. “[The Brotherhood] is really the feeling of what it means to play for Duke…Whether it’s one year that somebody is here or whether it’s four years, it’s not a pit stop. Duke University, Duke Basketball—it’s not a pit stop. You have to be all in.”

The Brotherhood extends far beyond the court. It’s a network of support that transcends basketball. A former Duke manager who now works in private wealth management recently came back to talk to the team about his career path. 

“On the job side, if you ever need anything business-wise, you have so many people that have come through The Brotherhood,” says junior guard Jeremy Roach, captain of the 2022-23 squad. “You can ask them questions and get information from them.” Roach was drawn to Duke during his recruitment process because of the “family mentality” fostered by Coach K.

“We all try to help one another,” Carrawell stresses, whether it’s related to the game or not. “I can go to Grant Hill. Daniel Ewing can come to me. I’m pretty sure there’s a younger guy that can go to Daniel Ewing, just because we have that Duke connection.”

“Once you leave here, there’s a special connection that you feel with the guys who have played here, the guys that are about to enter our program, and the guys who are currently here,” adds Scheyer. “That’s a bond I don’t think you can explain unless you’re in it.” 

Photos via Getty Images.

The post How Duke Men’s Basketball Program Became an Eternal Brotherhood Over the Years  appeared first on SLAM.

February 9th 2003. How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days was the number one movie in the world. “All I Have” by Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J was sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100. Kobe Bryant was on the cover of SLAM 66 wearing a jet black Lakers jersey with his three Larry O’Brien trophies. It was a cloudy night in Georgia but even then there were 24 extra stars in the Atlanta sky. On that night at Philips Arena, the NBA hosted its 52nd Annual NBA All-Star Game. 

It was a time before TikTok, NFTs, and NBA Twitter. It’s now 2023 and at times it feels like we’re living in some twisted up future, but at least the game of basketball is still good. 

By the time you’re reading this, the League will be getting ready to host the 72nd Annual All-Star Game in Salt Lake City and if we’re lucky, it’ll be a classic much like Atlanta’s game 20 years prior. Generally speaking, ‘03 is a year strongly etched into the memory of all within the culture. Baggy pants, bulky kicks, triple-layered headwear, spinning rims, Playstation 2… could it have all been so simple then? 

The 2003 NBA All-Star Game was one of the most stacked events of all time, both in star power and personality. Society was reaching a breaking point when individuality, charisma, and style were placed on a similar level as skill. The Western Conference All-Stars included Steve Francis, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, and Yao Ming as starters, with Shaquille O’neal, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Gary Payton, Stephon Marbury, and Peja Stojakovic coming off the bench. The West was helmed by then-Sacramento Kings head coach, Rick Adelman. Peja was an injury replacement for his teammate Chris Webber.

The Eastern Conference All-Stars included Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O’Neal, and Ben Wallace as starters, with Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Paul Pierce, Brad Miller, Jamal Mashburn, Antoine Walker, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas coming off the bench. Isiah Thomas, who coached the Indiana Pacers at the time, led the charge for the East.  

There are a lot of things you may have forgotten about the 2003 NBA All-Star Game. So, allow us to remind you. 

First off, the jerseys. It marked the first time since the ‘90s that the NBA designed and deployed All-Star Game jerseys. In the previous five years, players just wore their own jersey from their respective teams (All-Star Weekend in 1999 was canceled due to the lockout). And the jerseys were fresh as hell. The retro design recalled some of the late ‘80s All-Star Game jerseys, swapping out the short shorts for a baggier option. 

The main focus entering All-Star weekend was Michael Jordan, who was preparing to retire for a third and final time. He was a starter and an All-Star for the 14th time in his career, an accomplishment that didn’t come without its fair share of controversy. Allen Iverson and Vince Carter were both near at the peak of their popularity in 2003 and were voted as the starting backcourt for the Eastern Conference by the fans. Carter had missed a big chunk of games that season as a result of injury and there was a ton of pressure on him to give up his starting spot to Jordan. He resisted the notion for quite some time but he eventually relented and gave up his starting spot to his elder UNC alum just before gametime. The scrutiny turned ugly after a while, and the Atlanta crowd even booed Carter when he was being introduced before the game. 

For the record, Jordan was perfectly fine with coming off the bench. When asked about it during the game, Jordan said, “Vince surprised me. I told him as I told the rest of the players, I started 13 times, I didn’t need to start [a] 14th time. You know, they were adamant about getting me to start. Vince actually came to me right before we went out and said that he would love for me to take his spot. He’s very respectful. I think he took some undue punishment, all during this week about him being very honorable to the fans, and even at the end, when he gave it up, I really didn’t want him to back down from what he actually stood for and I’ve supported him in that sense. But he wanted me to take his spot and I thought it was very gracious of him and very respectful.”

Problem solved, Jordan started. 

Another wrinkle out of the gate was Jordan’s coach for the game, Isiah Thomas, who is arguably Jordan’s biggest rival and definitely his most prevalent foil. If Jordan had a nemesis, it was Zeke (or Jerry Krause). But Thomas had coached the Pacers to the best record in the East by the break, so he was his coach for the night. Infamously, there is a conspiracy that Isiah Thomas led a charge to freeze Jordan out of his first All-Star Game in 1985. Jordan was a rookie and finished the game with seven points on 22.2 percent shooting in a 140-129 loss. And now 18 years, two retirements, and 13 All-Star appearances later, Michael Jordan was the elder statesman in the All-Star Game, with Yao Ming as the lone rookie to participate in the game. 

Jordan, however, was aggressive but wasn’t hot right out of the gates. He started the game 0-7. He began the game only 10 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most points in the All-Star game’s  history and the Atlanta crowd was hungry for him to break the record (a record that’s been snapped by the late-Kobe Bryant and LeBron James since then). Each missed attempt by Jordan was followed by hushed sighs of resignation by the crowd but the voracious outbreak when he finally made a jumper was well worth the wait. 

The first quarter was a relatively competitive defensive performance for both sides, the first quarter ended with the East leading 23-18 off the strength of a 13-0 run. Jordan never really got any hotter from the field, but he eventually broke the record and finished with 20 points on 9-27 (33.3 percent) shooting. 

The pace and level of play picked up considerably but the defensive effort faltered in the second quarter when the reserves checked in. The signature playground style of all-star ball had infiltrated every corner of the game and it was fun as hell. A sequence of lobs from Brad Miller to Vince Carter followed by Stephon Marbury to Shawn Marion early in the second quarter was especially electrifying. Shortly afterwards, Dirk Nowitzki went on a mini-heater in two minutes and scored all nine of his points for the night. All-Star games are interesting in that way. Basketball is improvisational like jazz and these are the best artists in the world. You never know when a player might go off onto a solo and strut his shit. 

Rick Adelman decided to indulge every hoops fan everywhere and played a lineup of Francis-Garnett-Duncan-Shaq-Yao. If any lineup with four seven-footers could work in a real game, I feel like this would be the one. Great mix of shooting, passing, mobility, length, and defense. They went on an 8-2 run in just over two minutes to secure a 55-52 lead heading into halftime. 

Halftime was a show in itself. The NBA had orchestrated a tribute for Michael Jordan that involved Mariah Carey coming out and singing in two different Jordan jerseys. She sang “Boy (I Need You)” while wearing a mini-dress styled to look like Jordan’s Bulls jersey. While they played a montage of Jordan highlights, Seinfeld clips, Gatorade commercials, SNL monologues, and Spike Lee poetics, Mariah Carey changed into a floor-length dress designed after Jordan’s Wizards jersey.

Mariah Carey gave chilling renditions of “My Saving Grace” and “Hero” at the center of a stage placed on the court. Jordan was moved to tears during the performance and Mariah Carey introduced Jordan to the crowd for an opportunity to address them. It took the standing ovation over a minute to calm down enough for Jordan to even get any real words out. When he could finally speak, he tearfully thanked the fans, his family, and expressed his gratitude for being able to pass the game along to the next generation. Much of the next generation was sharing the floor with him in this game and they’d determine how it would end. 

 If basketball is jazz, Tracy McGrady’s third quarter was like Miles Davis at his peak. He was cashing jumpers from all over the court and making daring forays to the cup, it was very clear why he was arguably the best scorer in the world at that moment. Iverson got it going as well with the pass-first Jason Kidd by his side in the backcourt to start the half rather than Michael Jordan. For the West, Kevin Garnett continued his impressive play on both ends of the floor. He hardly missed anything and remained a conduit of unbridled energy. Kobe got it going as well after pretty much sleepwalking through the first half.  

In the third, Shaq was throwing Jordan’s layup back to the three-point line. The crowd booed Shaq for hampering their hero but the East largely controlled the third quarter, eking out a 93-86 lead heading into the final frame. 

As usual the fourth quarter was more competitive than the rest of the game. Shaq dominated the reserve minutes but most of the Eastern Conference starters remained on the floor, even at the beginning of the quarter. Both of the Boston Celtics young guys, Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, complained about the lack of playing time they received in the game. Zydrunas Ilgauskas of the Cleveland Cavaliers did not publicly complain but he only played four minutes. Isiah Thomas met all complaints with a closed ear, “it’s my team” he commented.   

Michael Jordan is one of the clutchest players in NBA history, if not the most clutch. He had won games, and championships, with his elite shot making ability with the game on the line. With 10.1 seconds left and the game tied at 120 a piece, and a young Shawn Marion on him with overtime looming, Jordan posted up in complete isolation. He took a few dribbles in the midpost, then turned over his shoulder and shot his patented turnaround jumper. He missed. The crowd sighed as it clanged off the rim. Overtime, the sixth instance this happened in All-Star game history. 

And then it’d eventually go into double overtime—the first time in NBA All-Star game history. 

Isiah Thomas must have felt guilty about the lack of minutes allocated to his bench players (along with the starters probably being exhausted with the extra basketball time on this night) because he put in a few guys who hadn’t seen many minutes down the stretch to start double OT. The West quickly jumped out to a lead and never relinquished it again. Garnett dominated against the smaller East lineup, finishing with 37 points on 70.8 percent shooting. The West held on to win the game 155-145 despite Iverson’s best efforts. 

The game came to a close with the usual procession of handshakes, hugs, and high-fives, as the players rushed to get off to a night on the Atlanta streets. Peace to mankind, it was a beautiful time to be alive. 

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Here’s a Look Back at the 2003 NBA All-Star Game in Atlanta  appeared first on SLAM.

Here’s a nice and simple number, though: 

Five. 

Jayson Tatum has had five 50-plus-point games in his career. That’s more than Larry Bird, more than Paul Pierce, more than John Havlicek, more than Isaiah Thomas, more than Sam Jones, more than Bob Cousy, more than Kevin McHale and more than Ray Allen. 

Tatum has scored at least 50 more times than any other Celtic. He and Bird are the only players to ever score 60 for the League’s most storied club. 

Here’s one more easy number to put all of that into perspective: 

24. 

As in, he’s only 24 years old. 

The above is special regardless of age. The skill level is magnified under the intensity of the attention that the Cs have always received. Last season’s run to the Finals has heightened the attention around Tatum even more. He’s delivered, making expectations seem more like invitations to demonstrate his dominance. A few more numbers, true as we go to press, to illustrate the evolution super clearly: 

—Career-best 31 points per game

—Career-best 8.6 rebounds per game 

—Career-best-tying 4.4 assists per game 

—Six 40-plus-point games

—10 30-plus-point games 

The eye test is a resounding pass. He scores a 100 on that, an A+, gets five gold stars and one round of applause. 

Tatum scores in every single way imaginable on the floor. Single coverage is pretty much no coverage for him. Going up against a double team is like a fun challenge that he can solve most of the time. These days, it looks like triple teams are becoming a necessity. 

He’s been surpassing the ghosts of Celtics past in mostly the Air Jordan 37 Low. Jordan’s signature foam, Formula 23, is stacked in the heel for landing, while an Air Strobel unit and a Zoom Air unit are double-stacked in the forefoot. Tatum’s shown off a variety of PEs while he’s been in the 37. 

But things are about to change…

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Jayson Tatum’s Game is Already Otherworldly, but He’s Just Getting Started appeared first on SLAM.

Here’s what happened in the NBA and WNBA over the weekend. Let’s get it!

Draymond Green Gets Candid in Interview with Taylor Rooks

Draymond Green recently sat down with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report. The Warriors legend dropped some revealing gems during their interview. Green admitted “the writings on the wall” when he was asked about leaving the Warriors as a free agent.

The two parties have had some incredible highs as four-time champs and a record-setting 2015-2016 regular, but the lows have been low during public spats with head coach Steve Kerr, Kevin Durant, and a controversial altercation with teammate Jordan Poole. When it comes to that infamous moment, Green said their relationship is “a work in progress,” and he’s willing to do the work because he was wrong.

He also said they “definitely moved forward” and that he’s “seen improvements day by day, week by week, month by month.”

TOMORROW pic.twitter.com/avHPFxt6MV

— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) January 13, 2023

Ja Morant’s Challenge to All Rim Protectors: ‘Jump with Me if You Want to Go Viral’

Do not get it confused; Ja Morant will never back down. The former No. 2 overall pick has posterized many a rim protector. Few, if any, were as impressive as Morant’s yam on Jalen Smith. The unbelievable slam was punctuated by Memphis winning their ninth straight game after beating Indiana, 130-112, on Sunday.

Postgame, Morant admitted his thunderous dunk was his best of the difficulty. Morant felt so good about it that he challenged all rim protectors to jump with him if they wanted to go viral.

“It’s what everybody has been waiting for. I finally made it.”

jump with me if you want to go viral https://t.co/3ESSiC3A1w

— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) January 15, 2023

Jonquel Jones is Headed to New York Via Blockbuster Trade

Jonquel Jones is on the move! The 2021 MVP was a part of a three-team deal that will send her to the New York Liberty, while Rebecca Allen and Natasha Howard will be sent to the Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings, respectively. The Wings will also receive Liberty guard Crystal Dangerfield, Kayla Thornton will go to New York, and Ty Harris is headed to Connecticut.

Connecticut will also receive the No. 6 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft.

JONQUEL TO BROOKLYN?!

Welcome to free agency @RachGall @Winsidr pic.twitter.com/PpZqvW1hgn

— WSLAM (@wslam) January 15, 2023

Nikola Jokic’s Game-Winner Sinks Orlando

Nikola Jokic delivered a stepback game-winner to sink the Orlando Magic 119-116. The back-to-back MVP posted 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists on 8-11 shooting from the field and 1-4 from beyond the arc.

“He stepped back, got the space, and just shot over the top,” teammate Aaron Gordon said per ESPN. “It was a beautiful shot.”

EVERY ANGLE OF NIKOLA JOKIC’S STEPBACK GAME-WINNER pic.twitter.com/007JQYDLas

— NBA (@NBA) January 16, 2023

LeBron James Inches Closer to History After Scoring 38,000 Career Points

The King is the second player to score 38,000 career points and is now 364 points away from breaking Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbarr’s career scoring record. James accomplished the historic feat after knocking down a three-pointer from the top of the arc. The four-time MVP posted 35 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists in the Lakers’ heartbreaking 113-112 loss to the 76ers.

LeBron tonight:

35 PTS
8 REB
10 AST

Only the second player in NBA history to score 38,000 career points pic.twitter.com/W7DvUvFB7s

— NBA (@NBA) January 16, 2023

The post Weekend Recap: LeBron James Makes History and Ja Morant Challenges All Rim-Protectors appeared first on SLAM.

Quickley had thrived as a starter this season, averaging 20.3 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game during his eight starts when he took over R.J. Barrett’s spot in the startling lineup while he recovered from a finger injury.

As a trade target, Quickley could serve as another capable scorer on a playoff contender like the Mavericks, who are looking for another player to help relieve Luka Doncic from all the scoring and playmaking duties he has to deal with. Quickley could be seen as an upgrade over Grayson Allen for the Bucks as a two-way combo guard that can shoot well.

The Wizards could use another guard that can spot start and play as a combo guard next to Bradley Beal on offense.

The Knicks are reportedly seeking first-round draft pick compensation in exchange for Quickley. They’re in the playoff picture with the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, thanks to Quickley’s contributions as a starter and off the bench.

The former SEC player of the year is averaging 12.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 41.7 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.

The post REPORT: Bucks, Mavericks, and Wizards Are Interested in Trading for Immanuel Quickley appeared first on SLAM.

Antetokounmpo dropped 30 points on 7-18 shooting from the field, 1-3 from beyond the arc, and he went 15-21 from the free-throw line, 10 assists including the game-winning dime to Grayson Allen (16 points and the game-winning triple from the corner), and a season-high 21 rebounds to secure a 104-101 win over the Toronto Raptors (16-22) on Wednesday.

His second triple-double performance comes off a career-high 55 point performance against Washington the night point. Before that, he posted at least 40/10/5 in each of his past three appearances. The back-to-back MVP being able to summon that kind of outing on the back end of a back-to-back is indicative of his desire to make his dominance “boring.”

“On a back-to-back, he used a lot of energy both last night and tonight,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said per ESPN. “They (Toronto) are very physical. For him to find a way to get us over the top was huge.”

Embrace every moment. pic.twitter.com/LCd9XGGpPV

— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) January 5, 2023

Antetokounmpo’s triple-double wasn’t just noteworthy for the fact it made Milwaukee 4-0 on the second game of a back-to-back. It also placed the Greek Freak beside Kareem Abudl-Jabbar for another outstanding accomplishment. This time Antetokounmpo became the first player to drop 200+ points, 80+ rebounds, and 30+ assists over a five-game stretch since the Hall-of-Famer center did it in 1972.

“Obviously your body is tired,” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s more mental than physical, just being about to go out there and get the job done on a back-to-back always feels good.”

Giannis’s last 5 games:

30 PTS, 21 REB, 10 AST
55 PTS, 10 REB, 7 AST
43 PTS, 20 REB, 5 AST
45 PTS, 22 REB, 7 AST
27 PTS, 9 REB, 3 AST

He's the first player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1972 to drop 200+ PTS, 80+ REB, and 30+ AST over a 5-game span. pic.twitter.com/gktMMk1a9Y

— NBA (@NBA) January 5, 2023

Antetokounmp is averaging 32.7 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game and has led the Bucks (25-13) to a tie with the Boston Celtics (26-12) for the top record in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks have Wednesday off and then they’ll play the Charlotte Hornets (10-29) on Friday.

The post Giannis Antetokounmpo Reaches Another Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Milestone appeared first on SLAM.

When we caught up with Redick after filming was done, he was just as reflective about his playing career and going into broadcasting and sports media.

“I think a big part of it was just going to play for the Clippers, to be honest with you,” Redick says of how he’s transitioned into media while being introverted. “Duke felt like a bubble. And then Orlando is a smaller market, even when we were really good it didn’t feel big. And when I went to the Clippers, big media market, a lot of eyeballs, we were a good team. The city’s huge. You start meeting people, you’re randomly at a fundraiser for the Democratic Party at Magic Johnson’s house and you’re up on stage with Harry Reid. And you’re like, what? How did I f***ing end up here? I’m taking a picture with Diane Keaton. 

“By the time I was doing ESPN [and] by the time we had launched the ‘The Old Man and Three’ in 2020, I was very comfortable by then. I look at those four years in L.A. as sort of the growth and the journey. That, to me, was a pivotal moment in my life—and it coincided with me becoming a father.  That gave me a whole new perspective on things and what mattered and not caring as much to be honest with you. Not being so sensitive.” 

The decision to get into podcasting for Redick really started out of curiosity. “It was something other than basketball, which is something that I had thought about for a long time,” he says, later adding: “It’s weird, because I grew up so introverted and now I have to have gotten comfortable. I have to talk a lot on camera.” 

It was around 2012-2013 when Redick, who was then playing on the Orlando Magic, took a trip to Boston to visit his best friend from high school. They hit up Fenway, as well as Harvard, where they ended up having a two-hour long conversation on the quad. “I remember thinking at the time, ‘I wish somebody had recorded that.’ I didn’t have the podcast [yet].” This moment ultimately contributed to the start of a journey that would lead to Redick diving into podcasting. 

Now, Redick has established himself as one of the strongest voices within sports media, offering both a deep knowledge of the game, as well as a player-first perspective. Whether he’s challenging Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s First Take, interviewing superstars around the NBA on the “The Old Man and Three” podcast, including Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum, alongside co-host Tommy Alter, or going back and forth with the DraftKing’s Starting Five about the state of the game today, Redick admits that these are all skills—public speaking, asking questions, getting subjects to open up—that he’s had to learn and develop over time. Since he became the first active player to host a podcast when he launched a weekly show with Yahoo Sports in 2016, Redick has spent the past five years perfecting his craft with the same preparedness and attentiveness to the game as he did as a player. 

“There are certainly comparisons, there are certainly similarities. I think a lot about preparation. For me, being undersized with a short wingspan, not particularly bouncy, not particularly agile—I mean relative to you, I’m a better athlete, but relative to NBA players, I was on the lower end of the spectrum. So I had to prepare and people tell me all the time, and it drives me f***ing crazy, ‘Oh, you’re a natural.’ And I’m like, ‘Mmm, no, I’m not.’ It goes back to the extroverted thing. I’m not. I’ve actually got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reps. Like last year, I would do a f***ing five-minute SportsCenter hit at 12 o’clock, I’m preparing 45 minutes for that. I get the questions. I’m doing my research. I’m thinking about clips. I do it the same way I played. That’s how I had to play and I look at it [like] I have to do it the same way here…Look, if we’re being honest, you go to Miami in Game 4, you’re down and you hit a big bucket down the stretch, you make the game-sealing free throws, and Joel gets the rebound to end the game and you’re going back in the locker room with your teammates to fly back to Philly to close them out. There’s no better feeling than that. We probably, as athletes, we probably won’t ever feel that again. There’s got to be some level of acceptance on that but you can still grind and search and challenge yourself in ways that you approximate that.”

When he’s watching the game these days, Redick pays keen attention to body language—a skill he learned at Duke while playing under Mike Krzyzewski. 

“I think it’s because I played for Coach K, I am big on watching body language—and I know that sounds weird. There’s four or five actions you can run in the NBA, and there’s three or four ways to defend those actions, generally. There’s some creativity around watching Phoenix or Dallas—the different ways they get into the pick and roll. I find it fascinating and when I call their games, I’ve tried to find ways to point this out and break it down because I think most casual fans [are like], ‘Explain pick and roll. What’s that?’ [and] the Twitter nerds, they love it.  But I watch body language a lot and when I’m evaluating a team, I’m watching the body language. When I’m evaluating a team winning or losing, I’m watching the body language. I’m watching players that have edge—I am fascinated by Jose Alvarado, T.J. McConnell, Marcus Smart. I love watching those guys. 

“And then, as a true basketball fan, and this is where I, like, for whatever reason, run into such headwinds. I appreciate greatness. Shouldn’t we all? I guess not because so much of the narrative side of it is pointing out all the failures of great players versus celebrating the longevity, the scoring, the winning. It annoys the f**** out of me, to be honest with you. It does. I love watching Tatum play, I love watching Ja Morant. I view games through the analytical lens for sure, but I’m also just a basketball fan. I retired and I was like, I’m going to take a break, and then I had to sign up for ESPN, but then, like, f***ing two weeks into the season I’m like, Jesus, man, I’m doing the same thing I did as a player. I’m watching eight [NBA] League Pass games, switching back and forth channels, channels, channels, and then it’s 12:30 at night and I’m like, Okay, I can finally go to bed because I’ve watched all the games.”

For Redick, there’s “two components” to the way he approaches his work now as an analyst and podcast host: “There’s the analysis of the game, which to me, seems very black and white,” he explains. “In that, I can go look at advanced stats, and I can talk about them all day, I can watch a play, and I can break that down. It’s cut and dry. The narrative side of media, which is where I think I’ve made some headway, if that makes sense, that is the gray. Tobias [Harris] and I talk about this all the time, because he was such a black and white person, and it used to drive me crazy. I’d be like, ‘Dude, you gotta learn to live in the gray.’ And I like to live in the gray. That’s how I operate in my life. And so I think, every conversation we have about narrative, it’s always super nuanced. I enjoy having those conversations. That, to me, is where you get a lot of disagreement. And that’s inevitable, because so and so player, team, their stans. And you are never going to change the opinion of a stan. You’re just not. But I enjoy having those conversations. And I’m not always right. I know I’m not always right. And I knew when I was wrong. I do, or at least I try to. Kings fans, I’ve acknowledged that I’ve admitted the whole trade, whatever.”

Then there’s Redick’s ability to understand his subjects, an attribute that has made him so compelling as an analyst. He’s been there, not just on the court, but as a professional athlete who’s been put under a magnifying lens by the media and general public. When the scrutiny surrounding Russell Westbrook gets brought up mid-interview, Redick offers both perspectives—there’s the one that only he, and his former NBA teammates, could ever possibly understand, and then there’s the outside, fan perspective. “So, number one, we’ve all been memed and GIF-ed. I think we’re all cognizant that the camera is on us, but we’re also human. And I remember during the [NBA] bubble, our second game, we got blasted by the Clippers and I had to lay down because of my back, so I never sat on the bench. I’m rolling my back …and I’m, like, staring into the abyss. That became a GIF for, like, four days and it’s like, Yeah, you caught me in a bad moment. I was f***ing pissed. We were losing by 30 in the third quarter. Like, it happens. So, the body language part I get and certainly players like Russ are scrutinized, especially once different storylines get added in.” 

It’s in the gray area where Redick shines most. By intertwining his knowledge of the game and 15 years of playing experience with his understanding of how NBA fandom works, as well as the media, Redick has been able to get players around the League to let their guard down and open up about never-before talked about topics, from mental health to getting cut from a team, in a way most broadcasters could only imagine. He’s still that same determined, competitive and straight-up clutch sharpshooter that he was at Duke and in the League—the only difference now is that he’s bringing that same passion to every assignment, every game and every interview. 

“It’s the juice. Yeah, that’s the juice for me,” Redick says of getting players to open up. “When I played, the competition part was such a drug. And the highs of it were just so good. The lows were so bad. But it was so addicting, all of it was so addicting. And as athletes we really struggle to recapture that in our post-playing days, it’s damn near impossible. I sometimes get it on the golf course. Going back to recording, for the podcast, for me, that is the drug. When PJ Tucker talks about how, at the end of his first season, the Raptors cut him and prior to cutting him for the playoff run, they brought him into the office, the whole staff was there, and they showed we’ve had a camera on you. For the last two weeks, here’s your body language in huddles, here’s your body language when your teammates scores, here’s your body language in practice. Like, when he tells that story, that’s a high for me. When DeMar [DeRozan] opens up about his mental health approach and his struggles and his journey there, that’s a high for me. You don’t always get that in every interview or every episode, but when you get it, God, it’s so f***ing good.”

Watch the latest episode of the DraftKings Starting Five series featuring JJ Redick here. 

The post JJ Redick Quickly Became a Rising Star in Sports Media by Approaching it the Same Way He Approached the Game appeared first on SLAM.

Five straight losses are detrimental to any franchise, but to some, it’s a learning curve to championship success.

Warriors forward Draymond Green has been a contributor on four title teams in the last eight years, and within that time period, the Bay Area had to get accustomed to playing a majority of a season without their star players in Green, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson.

The Golden State dynasty was struggling after missing the playoff two years in a row in 2020 and 2021, but the Warriors trusted their core to figure it out and find a way to win another title this past season, and they accomplished just that. Given Green’s veteran leadership, the former defensive player of the year shared advice on how to overcome the challenges, starting with their “commitment.”

“You start hearing noise about trades, and this guy shouldn’t be here, and that guy shouldn’t be here, but you have to stay committed to each other. You can’t let the outside noise dictate how you act or essentially your attitude towards the same or, more importantly, towards your teammates,” Green said per Sports Illustrated. “I think for us, you just always want to re-center yourself and re-center your focus to the game, and if you do that, the game rewards you.”

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The struggles for the Raptors have come in crucial areas of the floor. Thus far, the Raptors rank as the third-lowest three-point shooting team at 32.6 percent. Meanwhile, defensively, the group gives up the fifth most fast break points (15.6) and averages the lowest defensive rebounds across the League (30.1).

There’s plenty to like for the Raptors as well, as they currently lead the League in steals at 9.6 per game, but capitalizing off those forced turnovers hasn’t been on full display as of yet.

“I don’t think that we haven’t shown that this group of guys can play the way we want to play,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse.

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There are still a lot of games left to do in the season, but the turning point for the Raptors, as Green eluded to, is the team sticking through the thick and the thin of a losing stretch.

The circling trade rumors can’t become a distraction in the locker room if the team hopes to find post-season success; therefore, it’s up to the championship pedigree of the Raptors veterans to invoke a mindset to their young talent.

“We gotta play better; that’s the main thing,” Pascal Siakam said. “We[‘ve] got to get wins, and we[‘ve] got to figure out a way to get a win and then kind of build on it. Yeah, it’s hard for me to try to analyze everybody, but just us, we have to get a win.”

The post Draymond Green to the Struggling Raptors: ‘Stay Committed to Each Other’ appeared first on SLAM.

Herro makes NBA History by becoming the first player to record nine or more three points on back-to-back nights. On Thursday, he tied the franchise record for most three-pointers (10) in a single game against the Houston Rockets, which featured a career-high 41 total points for him.

Wednesday night was a similar performance with a victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, as Herro knocked nine 3-pointers to his 35 points. The reigning Sixth Man of the Year has been on a tear lately, but Herro is only focused on what he can contribute to pushing the Heat back into one of the contenders of the East.

“I didn’t know it was the record until last night when I hit nine, and they said I was one short,” Herro said per ESPN. “I didn’t have any intention of coming in to tie the record, but I was just trying to get 3s up. I think shooting more 3s is helping.”

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It’s not like he’s just chucking three balls out there, either. His numbers are looking as efficient as ever from the outside. Herro shot a career-best 10-15 from beyond the arc. While he shot 12-23 from the field against the Thunder, Herro hit the game-winning basket from 15 feet to aid him as the best field goal percentage made shooter among starting guards the last two games.

“Regardless, he’s too good of a shooter for us to not take 3s off the catch,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game. “He has to continue to be assertive in those opportunities. He’s just a brilliant shooter. He can do it off the dribble and off the catch.”

The back-to-back historic nights for the Kentucky product aren’t one of his first marks in NBA history. Against the Boston Celtics in the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals, Herro recorded a 37-point game in a critical Game 5 that listed him with the second most all-time playoff points for a player 20 years old or younger behind Magic Johnson(42).

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This time around, Herro, at 22-years-old achieves another Heat record by becoming the youngest player to have a 40-point game in the regular season, breaking franchise legend Dwyane Wade‘s at 23.

Herro has lived up to his $130 million contract this season, and more importantly, he earned himself a spot in the starting lineup, a role he was excited to grab this past summer.

With the presence of All-Stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the Heat may have solidified a Big Three that can contribute at all ends of the court to reach the destiny of a fourth championship.

For now, only one thing is certain; Herro is indeed a Bucket.

The post Tyler Herro Makes History After Hitting Nine Triples in Back-to-Back Games appeared first on SLAM.

However, the two threes that Thompson hit moved him into some very elite NBA company. Coming off a recent game where he had just moved up to 13th in the NBA’s all-time made three-pointers list, Thompson is also the 13th NBA player ever to make 2,000 career three-pointers.

Thompson now joins Stephen Curry, Ray Allen, Reggie Miller, James Harden, Kyle Korver, Vince Carter, Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Damian Lillard, LeBron James, Kyle Lowry, and Paul Pierce as the only NBA players ever to accomplish such a milestone.

Becoming a part of such an elite group of sharpshooters must feel great to Thompson after battling his way back to form after suffering an Achilles injury in 2020 after just returning from an ACL injury in 2019.

This 2023 season has been sort of a “revenge tour” for Thompson, as he has trying to block out the noise and prove to the doubters that he’s still got it. Admittedly Thompson has come out and said that comments about his game “slipping” have hurt, but he knows that he can’t please everybody.

While it is a great career moment for Thompson, he and the Warriors look to get back on the winning track Thursday against the Indiana Pacers.

The post Klay Thompson Becomes the 13th NBA Player to Knock Down 2K Threes appeared first on SLAM.

The LeBron we see in 2022 has evolved, of course—he’ll always be “The Kid From Akron,” but he’s so much more than that now. We know what that means off the court: father, husband, Hollywood mogul, business titan, brand ambassador, and oh yeah, a guy who created an entire school to give hundreds of kids in his hometown a better chance at life. That’s all possible because of what he’s done on the court, the spotlight under which he’s excelled for almost a quarter century, and the generational talent and nearly unequaled impact he’s brought to the highest level of the game.

As stated, his evolution is essential to any retelling of LeBron’s story. And so, a challenge: How do you convey two-plus decades of evolution in a single action figure? How do you convey the transformational impact on three franchises, the 10 NBA Finals appearances, the four rings? With Starting Lineup, the answer is simple: You capture the accumulation in a frozen moment. Everything that he’s accomplished and experienced in his career has made him the savvy, all-world elder statesman that he is today, the still grown-man-strong, athletic dude who has seen more—and still sees more on the court—than just about any player in NBA history.

This isn’t baseball, so there’s no debate about which hat LeBron will wear for his Hall of Fame eternity. His jerseys—three color schemes and two different numbers so far—have ironclad reservations in the rafters of three different arenas, and all are essential to his unparalleled career arc. It’s all there in one figure: his formative years and ultimately triumphant return to Cleveland and his otherworldly stint in Miami, both unseen but undeniably implied in a figure now clad in Forum blue and gold. He got another title in L.A., of course, and based on last year’s performance, there’s every reason to believe he’s not done pursuing titles just yet.

How to pose him will be a challenge for even the savviest of fans—how many other players have so many oncourt signature moves? The soaring, one-handed dunk is an easy choice—as easy as he still makes them look even as he creeps up on his 38th birthday. The chase-down block would be no less fitting for a player who has now scared a couple of generations of opposing players into looking over their shoulders when they think they’ve got an open layup and he’s on the floor. And of course, there’s that fall-away jumper, the casual gather and launch from his instantly recognizable stance that feels like money from the baseline corner or the top of the key.

All these years later, LeBron remains the top pick, the guy you can play (and display) anywhere.

The post Starting Lineup New LeBron James NBA Action Figure Captures the Greatness of His Legendary Career appeared first on SLAM.

But being 6’2″ and leading the NBA in paint scoring? Nah, Ja Morant is different for that. The fourth-year guard says the answer is simple as the fact that “motherf—ers can’t stay in front of me.” We can laugh at the comment all we want, but big facts are big facts; the 23-year-old out of Murray State led the League in points scored in the paint last season, becoming the first guard to do so in at least 25 years.

The behind-the-back in-transition at the speed he’s going. Sheesh, Ja. (via @memgrizz) pic.twitter.com/ztqceYs5Ss

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) October 14, 2022

And he does it with a God-given burst, the ability to change directions like a cheetah chasing it’s prey, and a shifty handle that even Allen Iverson could admire. Not to mention his supernatural ability to finish at the rim going around and through centers, Morant has taken notes from athletic guards like Derrick Rose and Iverson, two elite guards who won MVPs in 2001 and 2011, an ironic ten-year gap.

“People look at that athletic stuff, but that happens once a game or once every two games,” teammate Desmond Bane said of Morant’s highlight-reel dunks per ESPN. “But he finishes with 26 points and 20 of them are in the paint, so it’s like, how the hell did he get the other 18?”

Come on now, Ja. (via @memgrizz) pic.twitter.com/BcW8dIlKiO

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) November 16, 2022

One weapon Morant uses is his floater. Morant has 40.7 percent of the 90 floaters he attempted this season, and he’s averaging 14.5 points in the paint per game, good for seventh-best in the League. Last year, he hit same shot 44.7 percent of the team.

“It allows me to not receive contact every time,” Morant said, “being able to have that floater right before I get to the big.”

Morant can also dive deep into his bag and finish with either hand, and he thrives launching to the rim off one foot, two feet, leaping off his left instead of the right or vice versa. Morant is finishing his lefty layups 57.5 percent of the time this season.

Trip dub in The Garden? Go crazy, Ja.

27 pts
14 ast
10 reb

(via @memgrizz) pic.twitter.com/YEE2tb27un

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) November 28, 2022

Morant has 37 games with 20 paint points amongst guards in the last 25 years, fourth behind Dwyane Wade (56), Russell Westbrook (54), and Kobe Bryant (39). This season, Morant is the only player 6’3″ and under in the top seven of paints in the point scored per game. The only guard ahead of him Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the 6’6′ breakout point guard of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“I can’t just rely on dunking every single play, so I have to have different types of finishes to be able to get my shot off,” Morant said, “whether it’s high off the glass, same leg/same hand, reverse, hanging in the air forever.”

Memphis will look to win their fifth game in a row against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.

The post How Ja Morant Became the Top Paint Scorer in the NBA appeared first on SLAM.

The last time these two powerhouse squads went at it, the Bucks defended home court and got the 124-115 win over Dallas. Antetokounmpo had himself a night, scoring 30 points on 11-19 shooting and also grabbing 11 rebounds.

Bucks shooting guard Grayson Allen also had a huge game to help seal the victory. Allen finished the game with 25 points on 8-10 after having a scorching hot first half where he shot 7-7 from the field.

Milwaukee (18-6) comes into Friday’s matchup as the second-best team in the Eastern Conference and looks to put their stamp on this regular-season matchup with another wire-to-wire dub.

On the flip side, we have Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, who are looking to bounce back from the loss they took last time out. Doncic was in his bag in their previous matchup, putting up 27 points on 10-20 shooting to go along with 12 assists.

Doncic and the Mavs have been a tear as of late, winning their last three matchups versus the Knicks, Suns, and Nuggets. Mavericks forwards Tim Hardaway Jr and Dorian Finney-Smith put up big-time offensive outbursts during this stretch of games.

Finney-Smith scored 19 points, shooting 7-13 from the field against the second-place Nuggets. Hardaway Jr also had a great game, dropping 29 points while shooting 7-12 from the field.

With the Western Conference standings so tight, every win matters. The Mavericks picked the right time to get hot, but will it be enough to even the season series tonight? All questions will be answered tonight on ESPN at 10 pm.

The post Preview: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic Lead Bucks and Mavs Into Final Encounter appeared first on SLAM.

The 25-year-old center posted a historic stat line against the Indiana Pacers after recording 31 points off 14-17 shooting and 29 rebounds, a League-best result for attacking the board this season. The Croatian also had three blocks on Sunday, and his execution defensively with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard in and out of the starting lineup has inspired him to make his case as an elite defensive team candidate.

“Making the NBA All-Defensive team is something I’m really working towards,” Zubac said to AllClippers. “It’s one of my goals coming into the season, just being as best defensively as I can be— I want to show people that I’m capable of that, and for sure, that’s one of my goals.”

STATEMENT MADE pic.twitter.com/x7CxYlLkTu

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) November 28, 2022

As the last pick of the 2016 NBA draft, Zubac was doubted by scouts for what he contributes to the floor defensively. Now manning the middle for the Clippers, the team currently ranks second in defensive rating, while he ranks sixth in blocks and gives up the League-lowest field goal percentage when players try to challenge him at the rim.

Not bad for the Mr. Irrelevant of the 2016 draft. Zubac kept those notes, stating the previous doubters have opened up his motivation towards making the Clippers defense hold a fierce personality.

“Coming into the League, that was always one of the questions about me on the defensive end of the floor,” Zubac said. “Just proving people wrong and proving to myself that I can contribute to defense really means a lot to me. Helping my team be one of the best defenses in the league. It’s something we pride ourselves on here.”

.@ivicazubac came up clutch, scoring 14 of his 31 points in the first quarter.

@awscloud CourtVision Mascot Mode pic.twitter.com/cnqxNgja2T

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) November 28, 2022

Though this may just be a breakout week for Zubac, it’s pretty impressive to see the big man lead his team to the fifth-best record in the high-powered Western Conference, primarily through his defense and lack of two superstar wings. His specialty at that end may not be as enticing as a Rudy Gobert swat to the fifth stands or the vocal and scrappy difference-making of a Draymond Green, but Zubac has earned the ‘defensive anchor’ title in the Clippers locker room.

The post Ivica Zubac: ‘Making the NBA All-Defensive Team’ is His Season Goal appeared first on SLAM.

The Bucks started 9-0 out the gate but have gone 5-5 over their last ten contests. On Sunday, the good vibes came out after the Bucks held on for a wire-to-wire victory over the Mavericks, who lost their fourth consecutive contest. Allen finished the game with 25 points on 80 percent shooting. He also had five assists, two steals, and one block. 

“The hoop looked huge,” Allen said per ESPN.

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Giannis Antetokounmpo had his usual outstanding performance as well. He led all scorers with 30 points on 57.9 percent shooting, 11 rebounds, and four dimes. Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd was complimentary of how Antetokounmpo and Allen’s games complimented each other last night. 

“He was on fire,” Kidd said. “We gave him a lot of great looks, and he knocked them down. Giannis put pressure on the rim, and we just couldn’t get to their shooters.”

The Milwaukee Bucks shot 17/37 from behind the arc, matching their season-high mark for made three-pointers. Allen’s sizzling shot-making led this in the first half, but Antetokounmpo was ardent about ensuring the other parts of Allen’s game were also acknowledged. 

“He’s not just a good shooter,” Antetokounmpo said. “If you’re sleeping and you’re being lazy, he’s going to drive the ball, drive the close-out and go and dunk it. It just makes him dangerous. As much as they respect the 3, they’ve got to respect the drive also.”

Coming into the game, it was touted as a battle between two MVP candidates, Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic. Despite spectacular performances from both, Allen completely stole the show, which may be enough to get Milwaukee’s season back on track. 

The post Grayson Allen’s Hot Shooting Starts Lifts Milwaukee Over Dallas appeared first on SLAM.

The SLAM Retro Covers Vol 1 Collection will be available to SLAM Logo Pass holders on November 15 and to the public on November 17 on autograph.io.

The post The SLAM x Autograph NFT Retro Covers Vol. 1 Collection will be Available Nov. 15 -17 appeared first on SLAM.

Over the weekend of September 3rd, thousands of fans streamed into the house that Michael Jordan built, the United Center in Chicago. DeMar DeRozan wasn’t laced up. There was no game going on. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters were not there to see Zach LaVine defy gravity but to witness artistry of another genre. Inside this hoops sanctuary, among the six championship banners and Larry O’Brien trophies and retired jerseys hanging in the rafters, was a giant pop-up exhibition featuring 120 fine, street and graffiti artists from 15 different countries. This gallery, containing hundreds of works for sale, with as many interpretations of the game, was the main attraction of Bulls Fest 2022.

The “Art of the Game” exhibition is a collaboration between the Chicago Bulls and local printer, designer and curator Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff, owner of the gallery All-Star Press. This weekend was not the first time the two entities teamed up but instead represented the culmination of over 30 projects the franchise and the local Chicago gallery have collaborated on, going back to 2018. What started as a sourcing of local artists to create game-day posters grew to limited edition stadium merch drops and manifested into Bulls Fest 2022, a spectacle even Tasseff-Elenkoff was taken aback by.

“This was something I have not seen on a scale this large. It was a very special weekend.”

Bulls Fest is indicative of a growing trend in the NBA, and other corporations, of an increased interest in and embrace of street, graffiti and fine art.

The League’s interest is not new, of course. The culture of street art and graffiti mirrored, matured and grew with the popularity of the sport, as basketball overtook baseball and football to become one of the country’s most viable global exports. Hip-hop, along with the astounding levels of play, ingenuity and genius of the athletes, is indeed the engine that powers the viability and allure of the NBA to younger audiences stateside and across the planet.

The players grew up with and were often from the same communities where emerging emcees, b-boys and b-girls, graffiti artists and DJs lived, and innovated the youth cultural practice that would bring together more young people.

From the vibrant sheen and clean and stylized fonts of ’90s Starter jackets and Mike’s gold chains, to Spike Lee’s Mars Blackmon commercials and the braids, tattoos and fitted caps of Allen Iverson, the NBA was the first major sports league to follow the lead of the culture, though reluctant and not without a fight, due to generational gaps and racial fears.

Graffiti and street art have been moving to the center of the more formal and fine art world over the last several decades. Banksy is a showstopper at Sotheby’s, OG graffiti writers like Futura and Lee Quiñones have become highly coveted in collections around the globe, and NBA and WNBA teams have commissioned some of the most well-known street artists in the world to honor teams and their players. The Lakers have worked with Mr. Cartoon and OG Slick to create murals and limited merch. The Phoenix Suns partnered with local muralists in 2021 to devise new logos and put the faces of Devin Booker and Chris Paul all over the city.

This past spring, the city of Milwaukee and the Bucks commissioned graffiti writer and muralist Mauricio Ramirez to paint a 50-foot photo-realist portrait of Giannis Antetokounmpo on a building facing Fiserv Forum. The result is a stunning tribute to the Greek Freak, the game of basketball and the team. The mural is part of a business district improvement plan and has become a new landmark and attraction for people to meet in front of, taking and sharing photos. For the artist, it was a dream come true.

“My mom grew up in Milwaukee, and on my dad’s side, everyone lives in Mexico,” Ramirez tells us. “I grew up in the ’90s, playing basketball with friends, and when I was growing up, it was like, Whose house are we playing at?”
His older cousins were into graffiti and stylized lettering and were in the graffiti crew DS aka Drop Squad. For Ramirez, that was “my true introduction to art, color theory, drawing and the tools I was introduced to: markers, spray paint. And since then, I’ve wanted to get better and better. Graffiti and hip-hop are all about skills. Going hard, snapping, and that’s the mindset I bring to each project, especially if it’s in the public.”

Tubz speaks of his work with a similar fervor and extends the analogy to players in the League. “I was thinking about how seriously NBA players take their craft. It’s as serious as I take my art. These players give everything. They dedicate their lives to their sport, their craft. They’re constantly in the gym. They were shooting in the backyard when they were kids idolizing Jordan, doing the fade away, saying ‘Jordan!’ I was doing that, too. And 10 years later, they are in the draft.” Being recognized by the team and franchise he idolized as a kid brings a similar feeling for Tubz and artists like him. “I feel like this is my draft. I’m getting drafted to the big leagues.”

For Tasseff-Elenkoff, who has owned galleries and helped give a platform and profile to underrepresented artists for decades, this moment represents, “a cultural shift toward youth.”

“Murals and street art and people like Shepard Fairey, Cleon Peterson and Pose, are all components of that culture, and on a local level, people like Sentrock and JC Rivera all resonate back to the streets and what kids are interested in. And if brands and these teams want to stay relevant, they have to shift into new media and new culture. And a lot of that, over the last two decades, has been through art.”

The art world, like the league, has scouts who seek and develop new emerging talent and connect artists of the unknown to the largest stages and platforms. Like in any field, there are those who pursue the path for a bottom line and there are those who are called to the space because of a love and vision for the work, a gift of sorts for seeing what others cannot.

Mr. Nice Art is a curator, collector and visionary with an eye for what will be popular in years to come. A kind of shit-talking iconoclast who walks the walk.

“I never wanted to be the person that wanted to be the face of anything,” he says. “Growing up in Chicago, you move in a particular way.” He is shrouded in an MF Doom-like mystery. He does little to no press and is nearly impossible to find pictures, or word of, on the internet. He also might be one of the most important connectors in the world of contemporary art and culture.

Mr. Nice Art grew up in a Southside neighborhood a high school away from Chicago Vocational, home to then-prep star Juwan Howard, whom he first met in the 6th grade. Years later, in 2007, while working retail at Neiman Marcus and styling people like Kanye West and Jerry Lorenzo, he connected again with Howard and his wife when they came in the store. After commenting on Juwan’s Panerai 289 Luminor rose gold watch, the two rekindled their friendship. Howard eventually encouraged Mr. Nice Art to take the commissions he was making from Neiman’s and consider investing in art. While Howard was collecting Kerry James Marshall and other notable—and expensive—artists, it forced Mr. Nice Art to “look for Chicago artists early on, because I couldn’t afford what my boy Juwan was affording. Dude is a millionaire.”

Mr. Nice Art began going to the makeshift studios of young artists and applying what he knew about retail and the maturing of fine watches to the world of art. He developed relationships with unknown painters from the studio, street and graffiti art scenes around the same time hip-hop in Chicago was gaining more and more international notice. Cultural communities often rise together, and in 2012 when Chief Keef and Chance the Rapper were beaming examples of the young genius coming out of Chicago, Mr. Nice Art happened to be working with a local emerging painter and sculptor named Hebru Brantley.

In 2012, Brantley was having a show for private collectors that Q-Tip was DJing. During prep for the show, Howard called and asked what Mr. Nice Art was up to. He told him about Brantley’s show and Howard said something to the effect of, “S**t, hook me up if you think he’s good.” Howard was serious and followed up saying that he would send money to Mr. Nice Art and he should pick out something nice within that budget, keeping the rest for a commission.

Mr. Nice Art attended Brantley’s show and walked away with six original pieces, one of which LeBron James saw hanging inside Howard’s home.

“We always knew Juwan was going to be a coach. As he was playing, he was always directing the game on the court,” says Mr. Nice Art. “To keep it real with you, the Heat had him on the roster not only to be a good example of a Black man but also to be…a mentor to LeBron.”

And the student did receive the lessons. James, as Mr. Nice Art tells, wanted to do something special for his teammates and was encouraged by Howard to think of an investment in art made by a Black artist. Mr. Nice Art connected James with Brantley, who then commissioned 15 original works to celebrate Miami’s 2012 NBA championship.

That was 10 years ago. Since then, athletes have invested millions into the contemporary art market. Mr. Nice Art credits moguls like Swizz Beatz and Jay-Z for pushing the culture forward, and he acknowledges collectors like Patrick McCoy who was a mentor.

“The torch was extended, and guys like me took it,” he adds.

He is preparing for a million things all at once, including connecting some of the younger artists he is working with to the major collections of both private high net worth individuals and the permanent collections of major museums.

“I don’t hear ‘Collect art,’” he says. “I hear, ‘Preserve your history.’ We wouldn’t know what the cavemen were doing if we didn’t see the art they placed on the wall.”

Photos curtesy All Star Press Chicago

The post From the NBA to Top Names Around the League, Here’s How the Basketball Community is Tapping into the Art World appeared first on SLAM.

Morant doesn’t remind Durant of any other player.

“He’s a unique player. A lot of athleticism and creativity out there. Body type reminds you of somebody like—well, he’s taller than A.I. [Allen Iverson], but a wiry, strong player — but he’s an incredible player, man,” Durant said per Bleacher Report.

The Murray State product lived up to Durant’s pregame praise with 38 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and two steals in a 134-124 Memphis win. Morant, Durant, Desmond Bane, and Kyrie Irving combined to score 150 points on 62 percent shooting from the field.

At just 23-years-old, Morant has the rest of the NBA on watch.

A 2022 All-Star and the NBA’s Most Improved Player, the guard led the Grizzlies to second in the Western Conference last season. Morant has averaged 35.3 points, 7.0 assists, and 4.3 rebounds this season while leading the Grizzlies to a 3-1 start. Memphis ousted the Nets, Houston Rockets, and New York Knicks but fell to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.

Durant’s teammate Ben Simmons spoke on 12 before their Monday night match-up. The duel between Simmons and Morant ended late in the fourth quarter after the 2022 All-Star baited Simmons into fouling out as the Grizzlies inbounded the ball.

“He is an incredible athlete — He pushes the pace, gets his team going, shares the ball. He’s relentless at the rim.”

The Morant magic continues Thursday Night versus the Sacramento Kings.

The post Kevin Durant Calls Ja Morant ‘The Face of Our League Going Forward’ appeared first on SLAM.

At first, Angola thought the game, compared to soccer, was sorta soft. He first tried playing basketball at 10 years old, but ended up picking up the ball, running with it and being called for a travel. He’d bring his soccer ball to every game and tournament, and during timeouts, he’d start playing soccer on those very same nets.

And yet, coming from a poor family, Angola soon learned that there were opportunities that could come from playing basketball, like getting an education, housing and even food, all provided for.

“Something on my mind I don’t have to pay for,” he’d think to himself. 

At 14 years old, Angola then made the decision to move from Colombia all the way to the United States, by himself, to play for then-prep school Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada. He went on to suit up for Northern Idaho College after, and now looking back, Angola admits that any money he had at the time, he’d send to his family back home rather than spend it on himself. He would sometimes go long periods of time without eating.

Eventually, the 6-6 guard got the opportunity to play at Florida State, where he averaged 12.5 points during the 2017-18 season, and after going undrafted in 2018, he signed with the Orlando Magic to play with their Lakeland Magic G League squad, making him the first Colombian-born player in the L. 

“When I found out that I was going to Orlando, I started crying. You got to think about it, like, when I tell you the stuff that happened in my career, there’s a lot of stuff. I used to eat out of the trash,” he admits over the phone. “So, when I got a call from my agent saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to Orlando, they want to sign you and do Summer League with them,’ I got on my knees and started praying.’”

This past August, Angola even got the opportunity to represent his home country in the World Cup Qualifying Round, where he averaged 17.8 points and 2.8 assists for the Colombian National Team. 

Angola is just as dedicated to giving back to his community—he has his own foundation in his namesake, and he recently played in the Barrio Basketball League alongside other Colombian national teammates like Romario Roque and Jaime Echenique, who’s currently signed to the G League’s Capital City Go-Go and was called up to the Wizards last season, before they headed off to Brazil to compete in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers against Chile, Brazil, Mexico and the United States for the very first time. 

Founded by SLAM FTW’s Andres Puerta and Jonathan “DJ Yonny” Avila, the Bario Ball League put on for the city of Medellin with a pro-basketball showcase, as well as a basketball clinic for over 200 youth with Jr. Knicks jerseys, as well as bags and other giveaways, all donated by the team.

“Colombia needs to be on the map,” says Puerta over Zoom, later adding: “There needs to be exposure here, they need to have a mentality where it’s just not soccer, and these basketball organizations got to support the talent. Whatever it takes to take it to the next level—because they’ve done it with music, they’ve done it with soccer and these other sports—but there’s [basketball] talent here, [too].” 

“For us, Barrio Ball is basically basketball from the hood and there’s hoods all over the world,” adds Avila. “So, we want to do that and not only educate and inspire young kids, but take some of these local, unseen talent that the world hasn’t seen, and bring them to light.”

Adds Jonathan Ochoa, manager of fan engagement for the New York Knicks: “Our goal with the Barrio Ball League is to go to communities in need and provide them with the resources to play the game of basketball [and] then source the top local talent and host streetball games to help them garner exposure.”

From Angola to Echenique, Roque, Leyder Moreno, the “female LeBron of Colombia” Manuela Rios, Juan Palacios, and elite skills coaches like Alvaro Cortes, who are training the next generation, the talent in Colombia is visible everywhere. It’s time for the rest of the world to finally take notice.

For Jaime Echenique, the reality of being the first player from Colombia to ever suit up in an NBA game didn’t really hit him until a teammate put it all into perspective.

“He said, ‘Okay, think this: in the 75 years of the NBA, there was never a Colombian in the NBA.’ And I said, ‘Okay, yeah, you’re right.’ [He then goes], ‘After all, how much is the population in Colombia?’ I said, 50 million, and he says, ‘You are the first after 50 mil to get to the NBA.’ And I said, ‘Well, you got a point. You got me on that.’ I kind of understood a little bit better,” Echenique says over Zoom. 

Echenique’s journey to the NBA started at Trinity Valley Community College, where he arrived on campus speaking barely any English at the time and had to take classes to better his proficiency. His transition on the court was just as challenging—the 6-11 forward still remembers how much he struggled in his first training session there. “Man, oh my God, I remember the first workout, it was horrible.”

During that time, Echenique admits that he didn’t have his sights set on one day making it to the League—instead, he was focused on just trying to get a Division I scholarship. Still, his talent and skill set were enough to earn him a starting spot as a freshman in 26 games, where he averaged 9.2 points. After a consistent sophomore campaign, Echenique committed to Wichita State over offers from programs like Baylor, Cincinnati, Western Kentucky and Illinois. 

In Kansas, he averaged another 9.2 points per game and 6 rebounds as a junior, and upped his scoring average to 11.3 points his senior year and earned All-AAC Second Team honors that season. He went on to sign his first pro contract with the Acunsa GBC of the Spanish Liga ACB, where he averaged 12.8 points and 4.6 rebounds a game. 

Then the Wizards came calling with an opportunity to compete in the 2021 NBA Summer League. “I was pretty nervous. It was my first time,” he says. “Obviously, I was living the dream, I’m with an NBA team [but] I was missing layups. Literally, the coaches were tired of me. I didn’t think that they would play me…[In] the last five minutes, I was being really vocal, really loud. Doing what I do best and commanding the team, playing good defense and running the court. I think that those kind of [moments had the coaches] like, ‘Huh, he can play.’” 

Against Brooklyn, Echenique finally found his rhythm and showed out, dropping 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting. His performances were enough to earn him an invitation to Wizards training camp and soon a 10-day exhibition deal with the team. In October, he signed with the Go-Go as an affiliate player, and by December, he was making his NBA debut against the Cleveland Cavaliers, making NBA history in the process. 

But what a lot of people don’t know is that heading into the last game of the G League Showcase, Echenique had sprained his ankle pretty badly. “Nobody knew that. So by the time I got called up, my ankle became swollen. And I told the trainer—sorry for what I’m going to say—tape that b—- up,’” he says now, with a chuckle. 

“Then I got into the game and it was an amazing experience. By the time I [got in], I wasn’t thinking I’m about to make history, I was like, let’s get the job done, let’s be focused, communicate. Just do what I do.” 

“I think what happened was an appetizer, that was the beginning of something more that helped me to push even further,” he adds. “When I got back to the gym, I was pushing as hard as I could and going [into this year’s] Summer League, I was even pushing to a higher level to understand how to be part of a role, because sometimes the younger guys, including me, [what] we don’t understand is like, we’re trying to impress everybody [and] doing so many things. One of the coaches once told me, ‘When you go to the League, you get paid for maybe one or two good things. That’s all. That’s the main thing that I can focus on.”

Having experienced firsthand the grind of going from playing in Colombia to college, and now the pros, that’s why Echenique says it’s especially important to not only provide more showcases and tournaments for players in Colombia to get more exposure, but to make sure they’re competitive enough to challenge them at the next level. 

“The level of competition and the quantity of competition in Colombia has to increase in order to get more exposure. Like, we don’t have AAU tournaments, we don’t have showcases like that. We have a state tournament, maybe national teams, and a select group of [players] can go to those tournaments. So, creating more quantity [of opportunities], with a lot of quality in Colombia will be a huge wake up call for a lot of [teams] overseas—doesn’t matter if it’s in the United States, there’s [also] a lot of European teams [that can] come here and start picking up [players] to go to their [leagues].” 

He’s not alone in thinking so. For pro hoopers like Leyder Moreno, who played high school ball at Texas Christian Academy, he wants to not only let people know that soccer isn’t the only sport Colombians are good at, but that they can also hoop at the highest level. “People think we don’t play, but we want to show people there’s basketball in Colombia, ” he says, later adding: “One of my friends, [Jaime Echenique], he made it to the NBA as the first Colombian. We’re proud of him, [and if] he keeps working, he’s going to make it. Everybody’s behind him. He [has] support from the whole country, everybody’s excited to see him and, of course, not just him. Like, why not other players, [too]?”

Romario Roque, the starting point guard for the Colombian National Team, echoes that sentiment while also expressing that the issue at hand is exposure. He admits over Zoom in August, just a few weeks before Colombia is set to play Mexico in the FIBA World Cup qualifier round, that the lack of visibility is one of the reasons why he decided to also take his talents overseas to Switzerland. There, he’s been able to learn how to utilize his skills as a playmaker and get his teammates more involved. 

Roque initially played soccer growing up, but around the age of 10, he discovered his love for the game while shooting around on a local court with a friend. Shortly after that, he started watching highlights of streetball games on Youtube and clips of NBA superstars, including the late Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kyrie Irving. 

“[My] dream is to play in the NBA one day but I also understand what it takes to get to the NBA,” Roque admits over the phone, via a translator. “I still have it in mind as one of my goals.”

For Roque and teammate Juan Palacios, the chance to compete against Team USA at the FIBA World Cup is an opportunity that can “open doors” and show that not only is Colombia good enough to compete, but to compete against some of the very best.  

“It’s a challenge and it’s an opportunity to show that we’re not just lucky,” says Palacios, “but that we’re actually good enough to play against these great teams.”

The game has taken Palacios all around the world—from Colombia to New York at the age of 15 to play at Our Savior New American, where he went on to average 20.2 points per game as a senior in high school, and then eventually to Louisville. Throughout his 13-year career as a pro, he’s played everywhere, including Spain, France, Lithuania and Turkey.

“I think the most important thing is, like they say, the more stronger survive, [but] I believe it’s the most adaptable survive. You know, you can be the strongest but I might be someone stronger or [a] situation stronger that you cannot deal with. But if you are adaptable to every situation, you [are] able to figure out what’s going to work in the place that you are with the coaches that you [have]. My slogan is movement. The more you move, the more you live, and the more experiences you have.”

The lack of exposure and coaching expertise available in Colombia is exactly why one of the country’s most prominent trainers, Alvaro Cortes, has dedicated himself to training up and coming players, oftentimes free of charge. 

Alvaro’s resume speaks for itself: he’s coached at the high school level, for various programs and basketball clubs, and has worked alongside everyone from Puerto Rican basketball coach Carlos Morales to Drew Hanlen and Michael Lancaster. He’s trained pros from around the world, including Renaldo Balkman, former NBA guard Greivis Vásquez and former West Virginia power forward Devin Williams. 

“What I’ve learned from [training in the] United States and all the techniques and offseason workouts that are going on, my dream is to bring that type of basketball knowledge here to Colombia and offer it to the people here and take them to the next level,” Alvaro says via a translator. “My dream and motivation is to one day have my own facility and court to [give back] to the kids that don’t have the resources to one day go to a private gym or or attend some workouts that you need to pay for. 

“[I want to] produce more players to [go on and] play in college and in the NBA, not just have Jaime be the only one. I want to produce another Colombian NBA player.” 

Known as the “Chris Brickley of Colombia,” Alvaro’s day-to-day includes waking up at 4 a.m. and getting through his first training session by 6, followed by two more workouts after that. Then he has another 2-3 workouts throughout the afternoon. One of the players he trains is Samir Viveros who is from Buenaventura, and has been working with him on his defensive game and building up his IQ.

“Everything has changed for me ever since working out with Alvaro,” he says. “My mental game, my physical ability, I’m actually getting the right training.”

And then there are standouts like Rios, who is pioneering the women’s game in Colombia and dominating as the top player in the Americup and the South American Games. In 2019, she and her Colombian National teammates played against Team USA at the Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Argentina—and even got a legendary photo opp with the USA’s squad: a smiling Rios can be seen surrounded by WNBA greats like Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, and 2022 WNBA champions A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum. 

When asked about her thoughts on how the game can continue to grow in Colombia, Rios says there also needs to be a women’s pro league there, just as there is the W in the States. It’s a dream that’s shared amongst her teammates.

“A pro league for women would be a great start, but of course with that there needs to be people to buy into this league,” she says via a translator. “A lot of the women on the Colombian team, their dream is to get to an Olympics and to represent Colombia, and definitely giving an opportunity to women to have a league here.”

Photos by Andres Puerta and via Getty Images.

The post Meet the Colombian Hoopers Ready to Take the South American Country’s Game to the Next Level appeared first on SLAM.

The energy has truly shifted around the Association since the Golden State Warriors put the haters to sleep and won another NBA championship. This offseason, there was a sudden coaching change in Boston, a reported trade request in Brooklyn by Kevin Durant (that didn’t actually happen), and some major moves during free agency, from Donovan Mitchell teaming up with Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley on the Cavaliers to Jalen Brunson becoming a New York Knick. Then there’s the highly-anticipated return of Zion Williamson, Ben Simmons and SLAM 240 co-cover star Kawhi Leonard, who is sure to be a scary sight alongside Paul George now that they’re both healthy.

While we’ve dished out some bold takes in the past, this year’s preview might feature our boldest takes yet. Here’s the official 2022-23 SLAM Staff NBA Preview:

Anthony Holt, Slam Goods Apparel Designer

The Cavaliers will emerge as a top three seed in the East. 

With the blockbuster trade for Donovan Mitchell, the Cavaliers will claim the No. 3 seed. The championship experience of Kevin Love and Luke Walton will evolve Mitchell into the leader the franchise needs to make a playoff run. The Cavs will reach the second round of the playoffs before being eliminated by the Celtics, who will face the Bucks in the ECF.

NBA Finals Matchup: Bucks vs Grizzlies

Deyscha “Sway” Smith, Associate Editor

Ben Simmons will make a case for winning Most Improved Player of the Year.

Before any of you mention me on Twitter or pop off in the comment section, hear this one out. We all know what happened last year, and by no means is Ben Simmons, a three-time NBA All-Star, any sort of “up and coming player.” But if this preseason showed us anything, it’s that Ben is actually back and playing basketball again. After averaging 15.9 points per game during his time in Philly, if he brings that same energy and presence (both literally and in terms of his defensive game) to the Nets this year, by technicality, it’s really only up from here in terms of his overall improvement.

Will he win MIP? Unlikely, but then again, just imagine if he actually did put himself in the running for the award.

PS: When I predicted the Celtics would make the ECF in our season preview last year, y’all called me real bold for that take back then. If Ben gets active and starts playing at that All-Star level again, just make sure your apology is as loud as the disrespect has been.

ECF Matchup: Celtics vs Nets

Joshua Tapia, Editorial Intern

Damian Lillard takes the Portland Trailblazers to a top 5 seed in the West while securing his first MVP. 

Damian Lillard will finish the season above 32 points a night with eight assists. If he disciplines himself defensively, Dame could become a reliable defender against the League’s best scorers.

Here’s my playoff prediction: Lillard will lead the Blazers past the No. 4 seed Mavericks in the first round, the Warriors in round 2, but get defeated in Game 6 against the Clippers.  

Adam Figman, Chief Content Officer

The Sixers are winning the championship.

Everything is coming together at the perfect time in Philly: James Harden is healthy and more motivated than ever, Joel Embiid has a better understanding of how to treat his body to make it last a full season plus playoffs, Tobias Harris is the perfect starter to play next to two stars, Tyrese Maxey is making a leap, and Daryl Morey is going to be aggressive adding role players throughout the season to put around this group in order to ensure the team has everything it needs come postseason time. The 76ers: 2023 Champs. 

Michael Harris, Editorial Intern

The Lakers will make the Western Conference Finals.

The Los Angeles Lakers will figure it out this season. Russell Westbrook will embrace his role off the bench, Anthony Davis will be healthy and be a top three candidate for MVP, while Patrick Beverley will bring the defense at the guard spot necessary to help the Lakers lock down shooters. The Lakers will also finish as the top three seed in the West and make it all the way to the WCF to face the Grizzlies.

NBA Finals Matchup: Heat vs Lakers

Ajayi Browne, Editorial Intern

The Dallas Mavericks will win the NBA Finals.

The Dallas Mavericks will reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2011 and Luka Doncic will average career-highs across the board while having his most efficient season on his way to winning MVP. The team’s new additions, Christian Wood and Javale McGee, will give this team what they were missing last year, while Tim Hardaway Jr’s return will be vital, too.

Theus McBee, Co-Host of No Pump Fakes

Anthony Edwards will make his first All-Star Game and the Minnesota Timberwolves will make it to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in nearly 20 years. 

The conversation of Ant Man “possibly” being a part of the top five under 25 group will come to an end and we will finally give him his rightful title of “Best Shooting Guard in the NBA.”

Check out the latest episode of No Pump Fakes below:

Najee AR Fareed, Editorial Intern 

Trae Young will make First Team All-NBA, lead the League in assists and take the Hawks all the way to winning a championship. 

The Hawks had a down year last season but their defense should be bolstered by a resurgent Clint Capela, Dejounte Murray’s arrival, and the rise of Onyeka Okongwu. The offense? Ice Trae might hold it down on the offensive end, but the Hawks have much more than just him. Deandre Hunter is taking big steps and John Collins’ lesser offensive load, with the addition of Murray, should free up his game for lobs and catch-and-shoot threes.

The Hawks will win one this season. For 3 Stacks and Lemon Pepper Wings and Zone 6 and Old Nat and everything else we love.

Colby Cusano, Brand Partnerships and Analytics Intern

Zion Williamson will bring the New Orleans Pelicans from an No. 8 seed to a No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and take home the Most Improved Player Award. 

After a decent season that saw them squeeze into the playoffs, the Pelicans are ready to make another run and with a healthy Zion Williamson. They now contain one of the most talented trios in the League.

NBA Finals Matchup: Mavs vs Celtics

Delon George, Marketing Manager SLAMgoods

The Brooklyn Nets will win the title.  

Though a lot of politics surround the Nets’ Big 3, I believe they have a lot to prove individually and together as a team this season. With Kyrie Irving will playing full-time from the start of the season and Kevin Durant avoiding injuries, the Nets are bound to have momentum this year. 

Brooke Brennan, WSLAM Intern

Lonzo Ball will return mid-season and take control of the Bulls’ offense, pushing them to be a top four seed team in the East.

While injury plagued his 2021-2022 season, Lonzo’s return mid-way through this year could give the Bulls the point guard anchor they need to take control on offense. After losing in the first round to the Bucks last year, the Bulls proved that they can be a playoff team, but have to make those adjustments. Returning key players, rising young talent, and added veteran depth will help to develop this team unit.

As for Zo, I project he’ll make an All-Star team in the near future. 

Andrew “Pitt” Pitagorsky, VP of Brand Partnerships

RJ Barrett will win Defensive Player of the Year. 

RJ Barrett will become an NBA All-Star and win Defensive Player of the Year. Going into Year 4 of his young career, RJ will take the next step in his growth and make the leap to the All-Star player we all know he could become. With the help of the coaching staff, and a pure point guard in the lineup, RJ can focus more on the defensive side of his game, and be an elite defender of the League.

Andres Puerta, Social Media SLAMFTW 

The Miami Heat will win the Eastern Conference Finals. 

The Miami Heat have a solid starting lineup. They are coming off a great season, with a solid performance in the playoffs from Jimmy Butler who showed what he can do in the playoffs. Tyler Herro showed out as the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. They have a competitive group of guys and it doesn’t matter who is on the court. With the Heat being one of the top teams in the East last year, this will be the year they win the Eastern Conference Finals.

Arvind Pitchai, VP of Social Media

Luka Doncic will average a triple double and win MVP. 

Here’s another Luka Doncic prediction: when he averages a triple-double this season, he’ll definitely win MVP. We all know about Luka’s scoring prowess and ability to see the floor, but he also can clean the glass at a high clip. Will this lead the Mavs to the Finals? Who knows but it’s going to be a fun season watching Luka regardless.

Marcus Allen, Social Graphic Designer

The Knicks will make the Eastern Conference Finals.

A big season from the New York Knicks is upon us as they will make the ECF in 2023. Future star, RJ Barrett will have the best season of his career with his new backcourt partner Jalen Brunson and ultimately earn Most Improved Player and or Defensive Player of the Year. Let’s get it.

Dave Schnur, President

The T-Wolves and the Cavs will go on a playoff run and make the Conference Finals.

Karl-Anthony Towns moving to the 4 full time will be a matchup nightmare for opposing teams. He’ll hit a career high number of threes this season, Ant Edwards will make his first All-Star Team, Rudy Gobert is gonna Gobert and D-Lo will get his, too. The Cavs already have a great young core with Garland, Mobley and Allen. Adding a perennial All-Star SG like Spida that can stretch the floor and facilitate will bolster an already potent offense. Garland and Donovan may be the best backcourt in the East. 

Max Resetar, Editor 

Stephen Curry will break his own record of 402 threes in a season. 

The Dubs finally have everyone healthy. Every player on the roster has a clearly defined role and they each understand that their number one target on offense is No. 30, whether that means passing to him, screening for him, or getting the f— outta his way when the reign starts to rain. With a complete season of all the major hitters, their offense is gonna hum all the way to an easy 450 threes for the most recent Finals MVP. 

Celebrate the return of the NBA season, the 2022 WNBA champs and the future of the game with SLAM 240.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post SLAM’s 2022-23 NBA Preview: Crazy Bold Takes for this Season appeared first on SLAM.

When Caruso sat down with NBC Sports to talk about the role, he highlighted how being a two-way stud has made him a fan-favorite in Chicago, a blue-collar city that loves players that work hard and do the gritty underrated work on the court. A description that applies heavily to the Bald Mamba.

“That’s Chicago, though, right?” People put their hard hat on and go to work every day. Rain, sleet or snow, they’re showing up and doing their job.” Caruso said.

“That’s kind of the same mentality I’ve had to have to make it to the NBA and now to stick around. I’m not planning on changing that because that’s really what separates getting to the league and staying in the league — the work. A lot of times, guys come in, and they make it and relax a little bit. You don’t maximize your opportunity. For me, I’m just trying to see how long I can play basketball for, and a lot of that has to do with how hard you’re willing to work.”

Caruso also revealed that one of his personal goals is to make an All-Defensive team. Caruso thinks it’s possible that he would’ve been named to an All-Defensive team, but he got hit with “the injury bug and didn’t get consistent minutes the second half of the season.” One thing he does know is that he’s tough to matchup with, confidently stating that he thinks opposing players “know they’re going to have to work that night.”

When asked about his love for the less glamorous end of the court, Caruso credited his dad, a former player, and coach, with helping him. He also revealed that after he worked Texas A&M games as a child, they used to talk about the game and the other team played while listening to a talk show featuring an Aggie play-by-play announcer and a member of the coaching staff.

“I still did all that. I just always had a knack for defense,” Caruso said. “I had pretty good anticipation. I’m a smart player. In high school, my senior year, I averaged like 4.5 steals a game. I would just start jumping passing lanes. We were a super-aggressive defense. I went from that to kind of honing it in college and then professionally learning how to play. It’s always just been an easy way for me to get on the court. It’s kind of in my DNA.”

Caruso also touched on the relationship he’s formed with LeBron James. The King has been one of the main advocates for Caruso and made it clear that he’s confident in the Bald Mamba’s ability to hoop at a high level. When Caruso was asked about the respect Bron has for him, he said that James helped him “reach new levels of my game” and instilled a high level of confidence in Caruso too.

Caruso also said that he’s “learned so much” from James, including having a strong work ethic, on the court, in the weight room, before practice, after practice. According to Caruso, James just “shows up and plays every night. He’s out there as the best player, No. 1 on the scouting report. and he’s going hard.”

“He helped me reach new levels of my game that I maybe didn’t have the confidence to reach at a certain point in my career. He enabled me to get on the court because we had such good chemistry. I was able to play off him and understand the game. I learned so much just from watching him. Work ethic. Getting in the gym. Working on your body. Making sure you recover. Putting the work in pre-practice. He shows up and plays every night. He’s out there as the best player, No. 1 on the scouting report. And he’s going hard.

Above all, Caruso marveled at the relationship he built with James, and that the “chemistry we formed was validating.” Caruso also believes that James is one of the smartest, if not THE smartest players in the NBA.

“If he’s not the smartest, he’s probably 1A or 1B with Rondo for smartest players that I’ve ever played with. Just as far as the encyclopedia of knowledge they have on players, coaches, sets coaches like to run, how teams like to play, tendencies. All that stuff is stuff I’ve taken and I’m like, ‘All right, I know this guy loves to go left. I know this guy isn’t going to try to get to the rim. He’s going to stay in the midrange so I can stay pushed up on him. This guy is super aggressive; you can backdoor him.’ It’s part of my growth too.”

The post Alex Caruso Speaks On His Defense-First Role and His Bond With LeBron James appeared first on SLAM.

Eastern Conference contender emerges as interested suitor for Suns’ Jae Crowder: pic.twitter.com/oxw12tvnUt

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 10, 2022

The former second-round draft pick has solidified himself as a premier defender that could stretch the floor offensively. Crowder is the type of modern-day 3-and-D player any team finds value in. It’s no wonder the Hawks aren’t the only team interested in the 32-year-old.

Trade rumors surrounding Crowder came after multiple reports revealed Phoenix was shopping the veteran during the offseason; Crowder went to Twitter to express how he felt.

ONE MUST SEEK WORK WHERE HE IS WANTED.. WHERE HE IS NEEDED.! I AM THANKFUL FOR WHAT THESE PAST 2 YRS HAVE TAUGHT ME.! NOW I MUST TAKE ON ANOTHER CHALLENGE WITH CONTINUED HARDWORK & DEDICATION.! FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO CLOSED THE DOOR ON ME…. THANK YOU! 99 BACK SOON.!

— JAE CROWDER (@CJC9BOSS) September 25, 2022

He made it known that not only would he not be at training camp, but Crowder would also like to play for a team where he is wanted. Since tweeting this out, Crowder has not been seen at training camp or preseason. The organization is on the same page as the veteran as they try and find a resolution for his future.

Cam Johnson is set to replace Crowder in the Suns’ starting lineup going into the new campaign. If the trade goes through, it will be interesting to see how the veteran will fare, teaming up with the latest Big Three of Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, and John Collins.

The post REPORT: Hawks Emerge as Potential Suitor for Jae Crowder appeared first on SLAM.

First Team

PJ TUCKER

Julius Caesar reigned over the mighty Roman Empire with the famous words of “veni, vidi, vici.” Those words translate to “I came, I saw, I conquered,” which Jay-Z used in a song during his mighty reign over music. Hov is PJ Tucker’s favorite musician. This season was yet another encore of conquering for the NBA’s mighty, unbeatable, unrelenting, reigning Sneaker King.

DEMAR DEROZAN

By now it’s common knowledge that DeMar DeRozan has played in every single pair of Nike Kobes throughout his career. The amount of variety, from the lows to the mids to the highs, lands him on this list yet again. What gets him second billing, though, is his “WNBA” Kobe 6 PEs. Bean’s relationship with the W needs no explanation, so please watch the WNBA and please support the WNBA in the same way DeMar DeRozan does.

STEPHEN CURRY

Stephen Curry came out the gates with an entire pack of Curry 9 colorways done in collaboration with Sesame Street. But the 9 wasn’t just another silhouette. It’s the second one in his line to obsolete rubber midsoles in favor of the Flow tech that is pioneering different construction in basketball sneakers. Many more fire colorways followed after Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch got their shine.

TRAE YOUNG

Trae Young and adidas handled their business for this introductory silhouette. The Trae 1 was treated with numerous colorways, some of which matched the Hawks’ uniforms and some of which stood out as singular statements. “I think this shoe is going to bring out a lot of the creative ideas in my mind,” Trae told us in last year’s issue of KICKS. He was right.

JA MORANT

Sheer volume of high-level Kobes, KDs and Kyries would’ve been enough 
to land Ja Morant a spot on here. His intention on creating separation became crystal clear when he started to mix in outrageously loud customized Kobe 6s. The only part of Ja’s sneaker season that was as rare as the actual pairs was him repeating sneakers; almost every game came with something different. 

Second Team

JAYSON TATUM

Jayson Tatum has great chemistry with Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown and Al Horford and he’s just as in sync with Jordan Brand’s Senior Promo Colorway Designer Kelsey Amy. Together, the duo made dozens of Air Jordan 36 PEs that told Tatum’s story, illustrated his interests and paid homage to the legendary Kobe Bryant.

DEVIN BOOKER

Back again with his now-familiar rotation of Kobe 4, Kobe 5 and Kobe 6 PEs, Devin Booker introduced us to a couple of new 6 colorways that were adorned with, of course, “Be Legendary,” the pair of words that Kobe left him with back in 2016.

LAMELO BALL

For someone who isn’t even from this planet, LaMelo Ball did a damn good job of introducing the world to his first signature sneaker. The lead colorway’s all-red makeup contrasted crazy against Charlotte’s uniforms, while the mismatched “Rick and Morty” drop proved that traditional rules were of no concern to the 1-of-1 hooper.

DONOVAN MITCHELL

A ton of colorways, a few more colorways and then a couple of extra colorways define the D.O.N. #3’s run this past season. Spida has proven time and time again that he’s going to use his signature line to express himself, be it his love of Marvel, Monster’s, Inc. or the University of Louisville.

LEBRON JAMES

Nothing new here. Well, that’s technically not true. The King did play in the LeBron 19 this past season. And some retros in new colorways. The nothing  new here is that we’ve seen this man display an arsenal of ridiculous sneakers for almost two decades, so when he pulled out a golden version of the Nike LeBron 20-5-5 in his home region of Northeast Ohio, it was a reminder of just how long King James has been at the top.

MVP

PJ TUCKER

There’s grandeur in PJ Tucker’s consistency and his intentionality in this sneaker game. Sure as Alexander the Great rising each morning to examine how he could extend his rule across lands far away from Macedon, PJ’s extensive knowledge of history has furthered his dynastic rule as the Sneaker King. He’s the one pulling out samples that were made for Ray Allen and Gary Payton, playing in Kobe 6 PEs inspired by Kanye West’s original run of Nikes. He even played in those OG Yeezys this past season. The throne is being watched, meticulously.

Rookie of the Year

JALEN GREEN

In addition to several in-line adidas models, Jalen Green (bigggggg SLAM Fam) spent his rookie season in D.O.N.s, Dames, Hardens and Traes. But to keep it a Bucky Barnes, the real reason that our guy Jalen is getting this award is he wore the adidas Gil Zero twice. For the uninitiated, the Gil Zero is the actual silhouette that reintroduced the low top back to modern basketball over 15 years ago (absolute all due respect to Bean and his fourth sneaker). The young fella showing love to Gilbert Arenas made him the easiest pick of this entire awards section.

Most Improved

Stephen Curry

You’re for sure saying to yourself that Stephen Curry has had almost a decade of signature sneakers and that KICKS just put him on the first team from this past season a few pages back. You’re asking how it’s possible that he’s also being awarded with the Most Improved title. But never before have we’ve seen someone with such a technologically advanced main silhouette mix in old models like the Curry 1 (in new and old flavors) and the Curry 6. He also debuted the Curry 4 Flotro, an update of his iconic model from five years ago that now makes use of his groundbreaking Flow tech in the midsole. Those three factors are how this seasoned sneaker vet was a lock for Most Improved.

LeagueFits Tunnel Look of the Year

Jayson Tatum

So long ago that it almost feels like a myth here in 2022, Jordan Brand used to lace their players with amazingly beautiful colorways of retros. Seeing the old Jordans, as well as pairs in the late teens and early ’20s, in colorways that didn’t have red or black was a thrill, and those pioneering players and their PEs became legendary, lore-like figures in the annals of basketball sneaker history. Jayson Tatum pulling up to the NBA playoffs in a brand-new Air Jordan XIV PE was a brief return to the glorious days of yesteryear.

Best of the Best

Jordan

PJ Tucker

Eminem x Carhartt x 

Air Jordan VI

adidas

Jalen Green

adidas Gil Zero 

Restomod

PUMA

LaMelo Ball

PUMA MB.01

Nike

PJ Tucker

Nike Air Yeezy 2

Reebok

Montrezl Harrell

Reebok Kamikaze II Low

Under Armour

Stephen Curry

Under Armour Curry 1

The post The 2021-22 KICKS Awards appeared first on SLAM.

The 12

Our 2022 USA Women’s World Cup Team to chase a fourth consecutive gold medal in Sydney!

#USABWNT x #FIBAWWC pic.twitter.com/WnewsZsuw1

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) September 20, 2022

Ariel Atkins and Jewell Loyd are the only other Team USA players besides Wilson, Gray, and Stewart that will play in the World Cup that also played on the Tokyo Olympics teams. Plum will play on her second World Cup team after leading Team USA to Olympic gold with the 3×3 group. Stewie will play on her third World Cup team after winning World Cup MVP in 2018. Wilson and Loyd were members of the 2018 World Cup team.

The World Cup team will be the first in over 20 years not to feature Sue Bird or Diana Taurasi on the roster.

The two WNBA and UConn legends led Team USA to five of its seven consecutive Olympic gold medals and a combined nine World Cup medals. Sylvia Fowles and Tina Charles will also be left off Team USA due to retirement or moving on from national team obligations. Brittney Griner is another notable absence while the United States looks to negotiate her release from Russian prison due to illegal drug possession.

“After we won gold, [Bird] was like, ‘All right, it’s your turn now,'” Wilson told ESPN about Bird passing the Team USA torch, per ESPN. “I’m like, ‘Huh?’ When you really think about it, it’s me and Stewie. Everyone’s gone.”

“I don’t know who’s going to be talking in the timeouts now,” Wilson followed up. “We’ll be figuring it out. But, no, it’s a great thing. They’ve laid a great foundation for us to step in as the next-gen to carry the torch. I am probably terrified, but I’m excited as well just to get back out there with other greats. Let’s go get this gold.”

Shakira Austin, Kahleah Copper, Sabrina Ionescu, Brionna Jones, and Betnijah Laney are Team USA’s newest members for the Olympics or World Cup. Austin is the youngest member of the team and the only player to make it amongst her rookie class and college phenom and defending national champion Aliyah Boston.

The USA Basketball Women’s National Team Committee selected the roster, which Connecticut Sun president Jen Rizzotti chairs.

“We’re in a little bit of a transition,” Stewart said. “But it really gives an opportunity for young players to come in and show what they’ve got and help take USA Basketball to the next level — and understand that everybody wants to beat us.

“Nobody wants us to win gold. And still, our goal every time that we are playing is to win the entire thing.”

God is so great to meI made the USA World Cup Team bro….BLESSED

— Shakira Austin (@Theylove_kira) September 20, 2022

Boston, Diamond DeShields, Stefanie Dolson, Rhyne Howard, NaLyssa Smith, and Jackie Young are amongst the most significant final cuts from the women’s national team roster.

“We have been eagerly anticipating the 2022 FIBA World Cup and welcome the opportunities and challenges this competition presents as we face the world’s best teams,” 2021-24 national team head coach Cheryl Reeve said in a news release. “The U.S. roster features some of our game’s brightest stars, and I’m excited to lead this team with the goal of winning a fourth consecutive World Cup for the USA. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who was part of our highly competitive training camp and hope to work with many of them again in the future.”

The Women’s World Cup runs Sept. 22-Oct. 1 in Sydney. Team USA starts group stage play against Belgium on Wednesday at 9:30 P.M. E.T.

The post Team USA Announces 2022 Women’s World Cup Team appeared first on SLAM.

THAT’S GAME!!!!!! THE LAS VEGAS ACES ARE YOUR 2022 @WNBA CHAMPIONS pic.twitter.com/HA2gqVJBOh

— WSLAM (@wslam) September 18, 2022

The Aces were led by Chelsea Gray (20 points, five rebounds, and six assists on 2-3 shooting from beyond the arc.) and Riquana Williams (17 points off the bench on 5-9 shooting from long distance.) Kelsey Plum contributed 15 points, three dimes, and three steals. Jackie Young dropped 13 points, and A’ja Wilson followed up with 11 points, 14 rebounds, and two blocks.

https://t.co/hVRdHQk7s9 pic.twitter.com/UvvVwON4mA

— Dearica Marie Hamby (@dearicamarie) September 18, 2022

While Game 4 matched Connecticut’s preferred style of play, low-scoring and defense-oriented, the Aces were able to prevail and win a game that the Sun made sure they mucked up in every way possible. The Aces finished Sunday on an 8-0 run to take home their first WNBA Finals. Williams highlighted that run with a lethal stepback over Natasha Hiedeman that gave Las Vegas a decisive 76-71 lead over the Sun.

“You see it. You see it,” Wilson said during the Aces’ on-court celebration. “This is what we’re building. This is what we’re doing. This is it. I’m so happy right now.”

RIQUANA WILLIAMS EVERYONE (via @wnba) pic.twitter.com/0N0xGAsyH1

— WSLAM (@wslam) September 18, 2022

Las Vegas’ title caps off a banner year for the Aces, who took home the Commissioner’s Cup, MVP (Wilson), All-Star Game MVP (Plum), Defensive Player of the Year honors (Wilson), Most Improved Player (Young), and Coach of the Year (Coach Becky Hammon). Hammon is the first in WNBA history to win a title in her first season as a head coach. Hammon worked as an assistant on Gregg Popovich’s coaching staff on the San Antonio Spurs for eight years.

“She’s been absolutely unbelievable, and I guess this legitimizes the way we went after her,” said Davis per ESPN. “I can’t wait to see what these rings are going to look like.”

Hammon changed up Las Vegas’ offensive philosophy this season, challenging the Aces to take more three-pointers than ever. The Aces responded by going 343-951 from beyond the arc, taking 519 more triples than they did last season (162-432). Wilson made 31 three-pointers during the regular-season. Wilson won her second MVP this season and has now added a title and an Olympic gold medal, cementing her place as a WNBA legend by 26-years-old.

All of Las Vegas’ key players are returning next season, giving the Aces a chance to be the first WNBA team to win consecutive championships since the Los Angeles Sparks did it in 2001-2002.

“It’s a commitment to wanting to keep a group together,” said Gray, who also won a title with Los Angeles in 2016. “You think about the teams in the past who kept a core group together, like Minnesota or Phoenix or Seattle, it’s a commitment to excellence and wanting to leave a legacy.

“I think especially with a first-year head coach, our bond got even a little tighter and stronger. For the organization to understand what it takes to not just do it one year, but try to do it multiple years, that’s when you’re talking about a more legendary franchise. Hopefully, that’s what we can be.”

The Aces will celebrate their title run with a championship parade on Tuesday at 5:30 P.M pacific time.

The post Chelsea Gray and Riquna Williams Lead Las Vegas to First-Ever Title appeared first on SLAM.

Having two Black female executives in a single front office is a rarity even in the WNBA. Fargas is responsible for “grounding the organization in a time of flux,” while Williams is making sure the Aces maintain a stable and promising on-court future.

“When you have two Black women in executive roles, you always talk about, they will be what they see,” Fargas said per Andscape. “When you think about this game being heavily populated by Black and brown faces, but then there’s not the representation of what the League looks like, and there’s not that representation outside of you just being a player. 

“We have to change that narrative.”

two Black women lead the front office of the next WNBA champion – Aces are the only team in the W with that level of representation. a deep dive from ⁦@seanahurd⁩ for ⁦@andscape⁩: https://t.co/37mF7PyWOD

— Jesse Washington (@jessewashington) September 15, 2022

Williams is the second-consecutive Black general manager to lead a WNBA Finals after James Wade, head coach and GM of the Chicago Sky. Over the League’s 26 Finals series, there have only been four instances where consecutive Finals featured at least one team with a Black GM. WNBA legend Penny Toler became the first black GM to win a title after leading the Sparks to three consecutive appearances from 2001-2003, winning back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2001.

Fred Williams oversaw the Atlanta Dreams’ Finals appearance in 2013 as head coach and GM, with former coach and GM Pokey Chatman following up by leading the Sky to a Finals appearance. Toler made two more consecutive appearances in 2016-2017 with the Sparks. In total, 10 teams made a Finals appearance while being led by a Black general manager.

Cheryl Smith was the pioneer, leading the Phoenix Mercury to the ’98 Finals as head coach and GM. Toler has the most Finals appearances for any Black GM, winning a title three times out of her five Finals appearances. Should the Aces finish their sweep of the Connecticut Sun on Thursday, it’ll be the first time in WNBA history that two different black GMs won championships in consecutive years.

Williams is the only Black female general manager in the 12-team WNBA. 

Fargas is the only Black executive to hold the title of team president in the WNBA. The only other Black woman in a similar or higher front office role is Keia Clarke, the CEO of the New York Liberty, and Natalie White, the senior VP of the San Jose Sharks. Fargas is well aware of the lack of diversity in front offices around the WNBA and intends to challenge the status quo around the League.

“You are aware of that,” said Fargas, the only Black head coach in any sport while at LSU. “We kind of have to succeed.”

While Fargas is a champion of diversity from her presidential role, she also believes that the mentality must be adopted around the League, starting with ownership. Fargas gave Davis his flowers for hiring and entrusting her with many of the personnel decisions for the organization.

“I think there are so many qualified people out there that may not look like you or just come from a different background,” Fargas said. “You can find them; it’s just, are you looking for them? I’m always looking, but I also believe that we should have diversity within our organization, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Last fall, the Aces leaned on Fargas to balance the franchise after former coach Bill Laimbeer stepped down and former GM Dan Padover left for a similar position with the Atlanta Dream. Her solution was to hire Hammon as the team’s new head coach and then hire Williams as the Aces’ GM in April. She also hired franchise legend Jennifer Azzi, as a chief business development officer.

Fargas also signed Theresa Plaisance, re-signed Riquna Williams and Kiah Stokes, and re-signed 2022 MVP A’ja Wilson to a two-year contract. Williams then reached an extension deal with Jackie Young, the 2022 Most Improved Player, in May, extended Chelsea Gray, negotiated an extension with Dearica Hambyin June, and re-signed Plum in July.

“We wanted them all coming back. They’re incredible young ladies and amazing athletes,” said Williams, who will soon shift her focus to the 2022 WNBA MVP. “This next year, I’ve got to get A’ja Wilson re-signed.”

The Aces are set to potentially conclude the WNBA Finals with a sweep to clinch their first title in franchise history on Tuesday.

The post Nikki Fargas and Natalie Williams Look to Create Change As Leaders in the Aces’ Front Office appeared first on SLAM.

Wilson’s 26 points and 10 rebounds not only helped her team win, but her phenomenal Game 2 earned her a spot within an exclusive club. Plum, who has had her struggles this postseason, got her swagger back last night, putting up 20 points to go along with seven assists. Then finally, Gray, whose ‘unconscious’ Game 4 performance against the Seattle Storm helped to put the Aces in the 2022 WNBA Finals. Gray put 21 points and eight assists in Ace’s Game 2 win over the Suns.

The Suns are down 2-0 heading back home and have to navigate the challenging task ahead of winning a pivotal Game 3 to extend the Finals and surviving. As WNBA history notes, teams that have a 2-0 lead in the finals are historically 15-0 all-time in the finals. However, the Suns this postseason are 3-0 when in elimination games.

“We are taking it one game at a time,” Jonquel Jones said, per CBS Sports. “That’s all we can do. We are going to go back home like you said. We are going to have our fans behind us, who have been with us all season, and we are going to use that to propel us to a win, and that’s all we can do.”

Jones dropped 16 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists in Game 2, followed by a team-high 18 points and five assists from Courtney Williams.

Only time will tell if WNBA history repeats itself or if the Suns will be able to create some new history of their own.

The post Jonquel Jones: Connecticut ‘Taking It One Game At a Time’ Heading Into Game 3 appeared first on SLAM.

This story appears in KICKS 25. Shop now.

Way up in Oregon, raindrops fall through big branches of cedars, maples and firs, blanketing their vivid green leaves in layers of water. See, the Gulf of Alaska brings in low pressure systems to the Oregon coast, mixing it along with moist air from the Pacific Ocean. By the time it all hits Oregon’s mountain ranges, it settles as big, gray clouds and heavy showers. 

Storms as the main character of an entire region can be gloomy for the uninitiated. The flip side, though, is rain’s renewal. After all other audio distractions fade, the landscape provides alternating tempos, sometimes emphatically pounding against car roofs, sometimes gently tapping the sidewalks. But no matter the natural soundtrack, the water washes away the old and leaves room for the new. 

Away from the blistering noise of Portland, among the rain’s starring role, there’s been another sound. Pencils have been moving ferociously against stacks and stacks of paper for more than 30 years. Tinker Hatfield has been up here for all this time, sketching, sketching, sketching. 

Thinking. Dreaming. Trying. Failing. Thinking. Trying. Trying. Trying. 

Succeeding.

Hatfield has been the designer who has made the basketball world spin since the late 1980s. His ideas have traveled from the rain-ridden Pacific Northwest to the Windy City to Tokyo. His triumphant career can of course be credited to, in part, working with Michael Jordan on the Air Jordan III-XV and a smattering of others later in the line, the Air Jordan XX probably among the most notable. But to write off Hatfield’s legacy as only being connected to Mike is a disservice to the tinkerer. 

A pair of other factors are at play here. His mind and his eyes work together uniquely. What he sees when looking at a building is completely different than what an everyday human would see when looking at the same structure. He sees dimensions that those on the ground can’t comprehend. His capacity for observation, and then processing, functions at a higher level. And he has no interest in staying stagnant. He is the renewal. 

The Nike Air Max 1 and the Air Jordan III, his first two projects as a footwear designer in Beaverton, scared his coworkers so much that people wanted him fired. Exposed Nike Air bubbles and elephant print were too radical. 

Phil Knight didn’t fire him, though, and Hatfield has been observing, processing and creating ever since. 

So the obvious question to the man who has found solace in the scary for coming up on 40 years is: 

How has he trained his mind to break beyond the limitations that most people can’t let go of? 

Hatfield, in general, is modest. Conversations with him would give no clues to the fact that the entirety of modern basketball footwear can be traced back to his notebooks. The reservation in his answer says just as much as the actual words.

“Yeah, that’s a great question,” he begins, measuring what’s to follow. “I’m not sure there’s a point to point to point to point process,” he continues, with more measuring. “But I do believe that you have to think about, well, what’s really happening when you’re designing something?” 

Now he’s found it. 

“I think that it’s a culmination. I think to design or to do art, it’s kind of a culmination. It’s a culmination of everything that you’ve seen and done and experienced in your life up to that point. That’s really what really good design and really good art is, an expression coming from someone. And hopefully in the case of Nike products, there’s a performance about the whole thing which helps somebody achieve their goals. So that’s kind of how I think about, you know, where my heart lives and how I’ve used kind of that sense about product performance and also even fashion and style. Just sort of have a fairly smooth connection to all of those things.”

He uses the word “culmination” three times. Referencing a building in the example of how Hatfield’s mind works differently wasn’t random. The Air Max 1, one of the most legendary sneakers ever, was directly inspired by a building. A mid-’80s trip to the Centre Pompidou in Paris gave Hatfield the spark to expose the Nike Air bubble on the AM1. The idea clicked when he saw how the Centre Pompidou’s lead architects, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, exposed the interior piping of the building. The AM1 was the culmination of everything that Hatfield had seen up to that point. 

As was the Air Jordan XI, the Air Tech Challenge, the Air Mowabb, the Air Huarache, the Air Max 180, the Air Trainer SC, the Air Trainer 1, the Nike MAG and so many other silhouettes that Hatfield has crafted over the years. 

Included in those pairs are kicks made for hoops, running, training, tennis, hiking and walking around. Hatfield says that even among all of those different fields of function, there’s a similar sensation he begins to feel when he knows he’s on the right path. 

“I’m really critical when I draw something,” he says. “But I know within a few minutes if it’s the right direction. I mean, it’s very, maybe, bombastic of me to talk about it like that. But I guess I had the right kind of background to kind of do this job.”

He laughs almost nervously at the end, right after saying it’s bombastic to speak about himself like that. There goes that modesty again, like he doesn’t want the world to know how many rainy days and nights he’s spent in the studio, listening to the water coming down, both calmly and forcefully. 

The background he mentions is very well known by now. Hatfield was a high-level athlete in his younger days, a star in track and field and a monster in pole vaulting. During his time at the University of Oregon, his coach (though he hated to be called coach) was Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman. Bill would have young Tinker test track spikes and report his findings. 

“I learned a lot from those experiences because I was a wear-tester,” Hatfield says. “I was always trying some crazy new shoes that he had come up with. And I was one of the preferred wear-testers because I could draw some suggestions. But anyway, that was all good, good training for me. Just basically not just do the work, but also just have a natural feel. And I think that natural feel maybe comes from just being curious and out and about a lot.”

When he was effectively told by Nike brass that they were converting his role from corporate architect to sneaker designer, all that time and all of his natural feel caught up to his opportunity. His output was machine-like, but his designs were extraordinary, something only a special human could create. 

The more he did, the more he learned. And even though the feeling he got when he knew he had something was consistent, the actual physical motions his right hand made while drawing varied from project to project, whether the moment called for footwear, apparel, architecture or something else. The studying he’s done of his own process is another window into the distance he created long ago from any other peers. Even with modesty in his voice, he answers the question about how his hands move differently without any hesitation. An observation he’s already made. 

“Depending on the nature of the design and possibly the performance of a shoe, it could be a bit thicker and blockier,” Hatfield says. “And it could be maybe more mechanical, but not necessarily in a bad way. But it’s just different than, say, the very simple flowing lines that we do a lot. And so some understanding of the performance has to sort of fit in. But the reality is, once you have established this direction in your brain about whether or not it’s going to be kind of chunky and more masculine and powerful, or maybe it’s going to be sleek, slender, beautiful, you can draw differently to it to help sell that idea. So I can be real loose and just, you know, kind of, like, tail it off and it looks like it’s blowing in the wind, or I can make something look more mechanical and more, like, [robotic], if you will. So that’s a part of, I guess, a communication strategy, you know, to try to get across what was in your brain all along.”

Hatfield used to be in the public eye with regularity. His relationship with Mike and many other world-class athletes meant that he was Nike’s voice for the biggest moments in sports. Recent years have seen him take a step back into the storms of Oregon. He’s still active up there, even at 70 years old, surfing or skating when the weather allows it. 

He’s become a sneakerized Yoda, keeping secrets of the craft earned through decades up there in the silence of his solitude. But he’s not holding on to those secrets. He hands them out to the seekers, to those who understand that without his brilliant combination of art, science, engineering and dreaming, a magazine like KICKS wouldn’t exist and neither would the current fascination with athletic footwear. 

He’s not done yet, either. The showers will continue to fall way up there in Oregon, continue to wash away the old and make room for the new, for the kind of new that scares people. There will be more coming from his pencils among the pouring rain. 

“You know, I find that there’s just no limit to how easy it is to scare people,” he says with a big laugh. He says that because he’s noticed people becoming more nervous in general, the artistic process can add to those feelings. 

Before he goes back to the silence of the storms, he offers one last thought. 

“A lot of what we do in general, maybe [SLAM does] it with a written word and I do it with a picture, but we’re telling stories in very nuanced ways or very large and impactful ways.” 

Photos via Getty Images and courtesy of Nike.

The post Inside the Mind of Legendary Designer Tinker Hatfield and His Artistic Vision appeared first on SLAM.

Thought exercise time: Jordan Brand doesn’t exist. Trippy, right? Saturday mornings would be less invigorating and probably way less frustrating. Bank accounts would be fuller. Closet space would be more robust. Outfits would be more wack. Connections with other sneakerheads wouldn’t be as strong. Memories would be unknowingly incomplete. The entire game would be entirely different. 

Appreciation exercise time: Stop for just a moment and commemorate Jordan Brand’s 25th anniversary. 

Flip the calendar back to September 9, 1997, on a 62-degree day in New York City. Michael Jordan held a press conference to unveil Brand Jordan. Yeah, Brand Jordan. Not Jordan Brand. Brand Jordan. 

Flanked by Ahmad Rashad, Vin Baker, Ray Allen, Eddie Jones, Michael Finley and Derek Anderson, MJ wore an oversized beige suit and stood on stage to share with the world that he was embarking on a new adventure. He was leaving the house that Nike built, ready to live on his own with his own gear. 

He was five titles deep at that point, 12 signatures in, with three kicks already retro’d and the Air Jordan XIII unveiled at that very same press conference. His commercials were all hits and he was just a year removed from the acclaim of Space Jam. Nike’s goal for Brand Jordan was just $250 million. With all of that winning he had already done, it was a layup. And a layup it has been. But not a layup on a regulation hoop with a 29.5 inch ball. It’s been a layup on a 4-foot kiddie hoop with a marble as the ball. That’s how successful it’s been.  

Michael Jordan has made over $1 billion from Jordan Brand in the last 25 years. 

Here we go again for emphasis: Michael Jordan has made over $1 billion from Jordan Brand in the last 25 years. 

That’s numeric proof that the adventure has been stupidly fruitful. 

The other proof isn’t as tidily quantifiable. It’s more of a knowing. The Jumpman is every-damn-where. Pole to pole, from Hong Kong to Beaverton, this quarter century has affirmed that Jordan’s sneakers are still the most sought-after, most worn and most popular in all of basketball footwear. 

What started in 1984 with the Air Ship (hop on back to page 9) has evolved into a titan. Michael has become the soul of our soles. His longtime agent David Falk loves to tell the story of how Nike’s goal for the first three years of Jordan’s initial five-year contract was to get up to $3 million in sales. 

The Air Jordan I made $126 million in the first year of that deal. 

The II wasn’t as monetarily successful, but it was still impactful (hop on forward to page 90). The III broke the door off the hinges with striking force. The IV-VIII kept the hits rolling until the XI came through as the ultimate masterpiece. 

Money was always extremely involved with Nike and with Tinker Hatfield. He was articulate, rapidly understanding sneaker technology so he knew what he wanted from the III and beyond. With his fingerprints all over the blueprints, the XIII’s arrival coincided with this quote from Mike Wise’s New York Times profile that released on Brand Jordan’s launch day: 

“It’s a part of me; it’s a part of the creative personality I have,” Jordan said to Wise back in ’97 about his burgeoning sneaker empire. “When I walk away from the game, this is my means of staying in tune with the game. Not coaching, not commentary. Those are things that I chose not to do and I don’t want to do.”

Numero 23 stuck to his words. Now that the Air Jordan 37 has landed (hop on forward to page 70), he hasn’t done any coaching and he rarely appears on TV talking about hoops. But he’s still active with the Brand. He still gets final approval on what the Brand’s designers call the “game shoe.” This colossal turn in the sneaker business has kept his legend alive in the almost 20 years since he last played. The youth know him as the sneaker leviathan just as much as they know him as the GOAT. On the low, it seems like that’s what he wanted, as evidenced by another quote from Wise’s piece in the Times: 

“I got away from the game, I got away from the city a little bit, I got more into things like this,” he said, surveying his own line of sneakers in front of him. “I did a lot of basketball camps this summer, staying in tune with the kids who love the game. I think that’s fun.”

The players who joined him on stage that day became sneaker legends in their own right. Anderson helped to pioneer the Air Jordan XI Low. Finley played in numerous retros that paired perfectly with his Mavericks and Spurs jerseys. Jones and Baker respectively spearheaded the Jumpman Pro Quick and the Jumpman Pro Strong. And Allen…that two-time champion has a tier 0 Jordan sneaker collection. Seen it, can confirm it. 

The Brand continued to link up with exemplary players in the NBA, the WNBA, the MLB and the NFL after that first five. It’s been the best of the best, as well as the best of the coolest, that have rocked the Jumpman. 

The current roster, led by Luka Doncic, Zion Williamson and Jayson Tatum, holds the future of the League in their hands. 

These last 25 years have been characterized by flight. Gravity has been determined to be optional and, ultimately, unnecessary. With just a few steps in his Air Jordans, MJ took off long ago. There’s no return date for this soaring and all we really know about what the future holds for Doncic, Williamson and Tatum is that the Jordan Brand most definitely exists, and that higher and higher is the only way to go. 

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Looking Back at Jordan Brand’s Monumental Impact on the Game over the Past 25 Years appeared first on SLAM.

The journey to get to the championship stage has been challenging for Coach Curt Miller and the Sun. They lost Jasmine Thomas to a torn ACL early in May. Miller’s mom passed away in August. During the series-clinching Game 5, the Sun fell behind 10 points. But as it has been all season, Connecticut’s grit and resilience helped them defy the odds.

That resilience, DeWanna Bonner’s refusal to back down from Kahleah Copper specifically, was the catalyst to Connecticut reeling off a game-defining 18-0 run that helped them upset the defending champs and stamped their ticket to their

“Everybody has stories across this league,” Miller said per ESPN. “Ours — it just seemed like one thing after another that we had adversity this season in and out of that locker room. It’s remarkable that this group just refused to use it as excuses.”

Chicago’s elimination guarantees there will not only be a new champion, but whoever wins will be winning their first-ever title. A new coach will also win their first-ever championship as well.

When Connecticut takes on the Las Vegas Aces, they’ll be taking on the top seed of the playoffs led by DPOY and recently crowned two-time MVP A’ja Wilson, Sixth Player of the Year and All-Star guard Kelsey Plum, fellow All-Star and SPOY Dearica Hamby, the most dangerous closer in the playoffs, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young, the reigning Most Improved Player. Don’t forget rookie Coach Becky Hammon, who won Coach of the Year two weeks ago.

“Not many people will pick us against Vegas either, and that’s OK,” Miller said. “We’re going to prepare and try to make it a Connecticut Sun style of game.”

The Sun and Aces start the WNBA Finals on Sunday at noon on ABC.

The post Coach Curt Miller on Connecticut’s Journey to the Finals: ‘Everybody Has Stories Across This League’ appeared first on SLAM.

The loss is especially brutal, knowing it was Sue Bird and Briann January’s final contests in front of Storm fans at Climate Pledge Arena. Game 4 was a barn burner featuring three lead changes and three ties over the fourth quarter. Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd more than pulled their weight during the series-clinching loss, with Stewie dropping 42 points and four rebounds while Loyd followed up with 29 points and four boards.

Stewart played all 40 minutes while becoming the fifth player in WNBA playoff history to score at least 40 points, tying the individual playoff scoring with her 42-point outing.

“We are a duo that’s hard to stop,” Stewie said per Hunter Hames. “We are both still early in our careers and know how scary we can be on (the) court. You saw that last night.”

Stewie sharing how much she loves to play with Jewell

Stewie- “We are a duo that’s hard to stop. We are both still early in our careers and know how scary we can be on court. You saw that last night.”

— Hunter Hames (@hunter9h) September 7, 2022

As brilliant as Stewie and Loyd were on Wednesday, Seattle couldn’t find a third scorer to help lighten the load.

Meanwhile, the Aces were led by four double-digit scorers, with Chelsea Gray leading the way with 31 points and 10 assists, including 15 in the fourth quarter, followed by A’ja Wilson’s 23 points, 13 boards, three blocks, and one steal. Jackie Young contributed 18 points and five rebounds, and Kelsey Plum rounded out the Aces with 15 points and four dimes.

The loss plunges Seattle into an unknown future. The Storm only has two players under contract next season and eight free agents, including Stewie and Gabby Williams. Tina Charles is also a free agent after she reportedly opted out after the season concluded, according to Percy Allen of the Seattle Times.. Loyd is now the longest-tenured player on the Storm roster.

Jewell Loyd on next year’s team- “You find players you want to play with. People have seen my game, how Stewie and I play, & I hope they want to be here. There will be some calls and chats to recruit, but I’m not a recruiter, so you hope it happens organically.”

— Balanced Sports (@balanced_sports) September 7, 2022

The Finals between the Aces and the winner of the Chicago Sky-Connecticut Sun semifinal series will begin on Sunday.

The post Breanna Stewart on Playing With Jewell Loyd: ‘We Are a Duo That’s Hard to Stop’ appeared first on SLAM.

The pivot from being a professional hopper to a college student came after his former teammate, Ray Allen, a fellow avid golfer who Smith called a “great motivational speaker,” inspired Smith to challenge himself to get an education while the two were on a trip in the Dominican Republic.

“I was working like I was literally trying to make the league all over again,” Smith said per Complex. “It was fun as hell. When I got my first A in class, it was like me dunking on somebody or hitting a game-winner.”

Smith’s pivot gained more significance after his oldest daughter told him she was proud of him for going back to school, a moment that made Smith emotional.

The proud moment fulfilled a part of Smith’s purpose in pursuing a college degree. The former Sixth Man of the Year wanted to set an example for his daughters to “know they’re worth” that they can get a higher education no matter where they are in life.

“She looked at me and told me, ‘Daddy, I’m really happy you went back to school,’ I had to get up and walk away,” Smith said. “My oldest has seen it all. She’s seen the good and the bad. She’s been in the thick of it. So when she told me that, it really had me choked up.”

“It was for me but more importantly, what I’ve done was for them to understand you can… For one, you can always get your education no matter how old you are. It was also to understand your self-worth, especially for young Black women in this country.”

As J.R. Smith continues to evolve away from the game where he’s had great moments (two titles, 2013 Sixth Man of the Year) and massive blunders (Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals), Smith can move on knowing that he’s defying what people mischaracterize him as. No matter what anyone may think about the “100 percent fact” that the NBA has moved on from him, Smith has found his purpose.

The post J.R. Smith Talks Infamous Game 1 Moment and Relationship With Ray Allen appeared first on SLAM.

The two MVP candidates used those playoff implications to fuel a fire Game 2 duel that led to Wilson posting a game-high 33 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks. Stewie poured in a Seattle-high 32 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and three blocks. Wilson not only won the Game 2 individual battle but has tied up the Seattle-Las Vegas war after the Aces won, 78-73.

“That’s what grows the game. Everyone loves a good matchup,” Wilson said per ESPN. “Everyone loves to be like, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen here?’ I think that’s what draws fans and attention to us. When you look at the NBA, when you look at football, anything, there’s always a good matchup that everyone’s tuned into no matter what.”

A’ja Wilson vs. Breanna Stewart.

Best matchup in the WNBA, without a doubt. pic.twitter.com/xnoPxZUjaw

— WSLAM (@wslam) September 1, 2022

Wilson went 12-18 from the field and 8-11 from the free throw line during her career-best outing. Stewie went 12-23 from the field and 3-7 from beyond the arc, and scored at least 20 points for her eighth consecutive postgame. Wilson posted the fifth ever 30-point, 10-rebound, three-block performance in WNBA playoff history.

“I think matching up against A’ja, you’ve got to respect everything she has done and what’s she capable of,” Stewart said. “It’s just a battle. It’s what motivates you, what keeps you going, what makes you want to be better. It’s competitive.”

DOMINANT

The DPY dropped 33 PTS // 13 REB // 3 BLK on 12-18 shooting as the Aces secured the 78-73 W to even the series.@_ajawilson22 // #RaiseTheStakes pic.twitter.com/r7ABUgCcDx

— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) September 1, 2022

Her performance was also the second-highest playoff performance in Aces franchise history, just behind Coach Becky Hammond and her franchise-record 35-point performance in 2008. Stewart and Wilson are the third pair of opposing players to score 30 points in W-playoff history. It was also the first time two playoff opponents did that and recorded three blocks.

“I’m watching it during the game,” Aces teammate Chelsea Gray said. “I’m like, ‘Stewie just scored; A’ja, what are you about to do?’ Those matchups, a lot of attention is on it, and there is a lot of these players are going through with all that pressure to be that spotlight. But it’s good for the fans, it’s good for the sport and it’s good for them. It raises their level of play. They get better by challenging each other.”

Wednesday’s Game 2 effort was a vast improvement from Wilson’s disappointing semifinal opener when she posted eight points and 12 rebounds in Game 1.

Hammon utilized a small-ball lineup that helped Las Vegas’ spacing, giving Wilson plenty of room to operate in her preferred spots. She and Gray showed how deadly they are in the pick-and-roll. Gray contributed 19 points and seven assists on 66.7 percent shooting from the field, 3-5 shooting from beyond the arc. Gray has accounted for 44 percent of Las Vegas’ 151 points in the semifinals per ESPN.

“When you look at great guards and great posts, the whole thing is you’ve got to figure out how to guard it,” Wilson said of the pick-and-roll. “You have to pick your poison. What are you going to do? Once we mastered that, it’s like Play-Doh in our hands at that point.”

From 8 points in Game 1 to 33 points in Game 2 of the Semifinals, @_ajawilson22 speaks on what changed and how team chemistry has allowed the @LVAces to perform under pressure. #WNBAPlayoffs presented by @Google pic.twitter.com/dCAGjcHMiy

— WNBA (@WNBA) September 1, 2022

Seattle will host Las Vegas on Sunday and Tuesday for Game 3 and 4. The last time the Storm and Ace faced off in the playoffs, Seattle swept Las Vegas for their fourth-ever championship. Seattle likely remains confident after splitting the first two games of the semifinals as the No. 4 seed.

The post A’ja Wilson Outduels Breanna Stewart and Leads Las Vegas to a Game 2 Win appeared first on SLAM.

On peacefully sunny days 

When it’s left to flow in its ways

Gently swaying,

spraying droplets from ceaseless motion 

Undisturbed, it drifts with serenity

Giving life as nature’s true environmental necessity,

its blue divinity   

But

Invaded 

By an enemy 

The blue’s intensity 

Surges 

and 

Surges 

Until the water’s invincible strength ultimately emerges 

Angered, complete destruction submerges 

those that entered the deep 

Covering the invaders for their final sleep 

Night, night do they weep 

The greatest splash, up it did leap 

The lore of it crashing down on the shore will last forever and forever more 

And once its annihilation is done 

Back it goes to being peaceful in the sun

The myths vary from culture to culture. Poseidon is not necessarily the same as Neptune, just like Mazu differs from Lord Varuna. But, no matter what, each society always has a lord of the water. 

In the religion of hoops, in our basketball bible, Stephen Curry rules the seas. 

His old title of “Splash Brother” no longer fits. “Splash” is too small. 

He is the ocean now.

KICKS 25 featuring Stephen Curry is available now.

Curry has consumed the NBA yet again, so fluidly, so forcefully, that almost nobody saw his tidal wave rising until it was totally unstoppable. The momentum was too great, the water too strong. His flow was uncontainable. 

He’d been comparatively quiet for the last few years, especially contrasted against the context of 2015-19. He was listening, though, hearing all the doubts that the sun had set on his sea. But that’s the thing about the deep, deep blue…A little commotion can bring forth a monstrous explosion. And it absolutely did. 

We’ve watched his evolution from a single droplet to the all-mighty ocean for these last 13 years. The tide climbed and climbed, the same way he’s continually been searching for personal expansion. 

“Something that my younger self would be surprised that I know now is…the fact that you are never going to stop evolving,” Curry tells KICKS. “That’s the one thing that maybe when you’re younger you think maybe you will reach a point where you’re gonna feel like each year kind of becomes the same or, like, you’ve mastered something. Even though I feel like there’s times I’ve hit my peak, I still know there’s another level to get to, and I also know that I haven’t really mastered anything. There’s more potential to realize. So the journey of evolving and continuing to reiterate what you are doing never stops, no matter how much success you really have.”

Success in the NBA is often measured by titles, limiting as that barometer truly is. Title number four was secured after massive flood-inducing showers rained down by No. 30. He consistently rocked the Curry 4 Flotro throughout his return to the top, mostly in the “Lilac” colorway. 

“Flotro is dope,” Curry says. “Flotro, for me, is combining the old with the new. That’s what the name is, but bringing the best parts of the Flow [tech] to the old uppers and the old silhouettes that were a part of my journey and giving a fresh take on them. So building that innovation and performance into the blasts from the past. Everyone who has rocked with me from day one gets to experience this, and even people that are just finding out what I’m about and my story can appreciate it as well.”

The Flow tech that the recently-crowned champ brings up is Under Armour’s proprietary cushioning system that has obsoleted rubber from their footwear. Rather than rely on the squeakiness of a rubber, their developers, engineers and designers cracked the code on how to craft an entirely foam compound midsole. It’s been a groundbreaking journey for Tom Luedecke, Under Armour Innovation’s Director of Design, and the rest of his peers, based in both Baltimore and overseas in China. Since Flow was introduced to the world at the end of 2020, it debuted in the Curry 8 and was featured in the Curry 9. Those are the two silhouettes that have helped Stephen launch Curry Brand. Flow will also be used in the upcoming Curry 10. 

Who better than the Lord of the Water to tell us everything there is to know about his 10th signature sneaker: 

“The Curry 10 is expressing consistency and continuing to level up your game. The fact that you can have 10 signature shoes and, coming off a championship, being at this level, like, you want people to be a part of that journey with you. We’re also bringing back classic colorways from throughout my career that meant a lot to me. A special moment. It’s a celebration of success, the journey, the process, the work, the memories, everything. The Curry 10, ballplayers should know that it’s gonna help them be better, help them perform better, give them all the advantage they can have on the court when they lace up, but it’s also going to give them joy, hopefully. That’s what I’m trying to express through the shoes. They get to embody it as well.

“The 10s continue to push the envelope with innovation in terms of going back to the Flow and traction and comfort that I need and love on the court. And also elevating the upper and the stability and the fit and the ride that you have. We want the best of the best in terms of the on-court feel and cushion and stability, and all of those things lead to great things happening on the court. So we’re always trying to move to that next level. 

“I think the storylines, the stories that we’re bringing back with the 10, you can think about ‘Iron Sharpens Iron,’ you can think about the ‘Northern Lights,’ you can think about the ‘Sour Patch Kids,’ all those stories that are from other signature shoes that I dropped. They’re just moments. I can think back to certain games that I wore those shoes. I can think about what the inspiration was then and how it still applies and relates to now. Even with the ‘Sour Patch Kids,’ not just the joy and high energy that we’re trying to bring to my shoes, but also, like, the sour and sweet—killer instinct behind the smile. That’s something I have always resonated with, and it’s cool to bring that back.”

The killer behind the smile. It really, really, really isn’t sweet with Curry. It never has been. He’s just done a good job of hiding his carnal competitiveness from TV cameras and social media. Until this year, that is. This year, he was decidedly more demonstrative, in the far fewer moments that didn’t go his way and in the many more moments that did. There had just been too many people disturbing his calm waters. Everyone knows about the now-famous “night, night” celebration, but there were also several moments against the Celtics where he let his emotions out. We saw him express the pain, the frustration, the anger, the aggression, the joy and, finally, the tears. 

The vulnerability of a deity. 

For several years now, he’s used the word “expression” when speaking about the game in interviews. That word choice consistently gets glossed over by those conducting the interviews. But just that one word offers an illuminating insight into how he’s been so wildly prosperous. Basketball isn’t just basketball for Stephen Curry. 

“Basketball was kind of always an expression, but that was the natural part of how the game came to me,” he says. “I didn’t think I really realized the impact it could have, or the unique way that I play the game and how much joy you have, the flair for the dramatic, the creativity, and all that, I didn’t realize that until probably Davidson, during the tournament run my sophomore year. Not only were we winning, but you found ways that people resonated with your style and kind of became a part of the narrative a little bit. You can show your killer instinct, you can show your competitiveness, you can show your level of care. You can show gratitude, selflessness. All those things can be demonstrated without saying words with how you play. But that killer is probably the biggest thing you can say with how you approach every game.”

The borders of normal life start to transcend amid years of pursuit. Try to quantify the number of jumpshots that Wardell Stephen Curry II has taken in his 34 years on this planet. The exorbitant digits that immediately accompanied that thought probably isn’t close to how many he has actually put up. There has been more work, more thought, more peaks and more valleys than anyone else could ever know. All of that dedication, everything that has been sacrificed, physically and mentally, it has to be joined by something greater than just the game. Under the magnitude of all that commitment, the adventure begins to have deeper meaning. The game’s scope increases without intention. It happens almost subconsciously. The more time spent playing, the more grand it grows on its own, until the stark realization one day that it has passed through to a different realm of meaning for the player, one where the lessons learned are enlightening. The game is a door to one’s self. Everything Curry said he can say through the game, his “killer instinct,” his “competitiveness,” his “level of care,” his “gratitude,” his “selflessness,” is on the other side of that door. And as the greatest explorer the game has known in the modern era, Curry has used the game to venture out to what lies much farther than the three-point line.

In return for his exploring, the game has given him back a key to creativity, a key to fearlessness and a key to expansion. 

He wasn’t afraid of obsoleting rubber on his sneakers. He wasn’t afraid of shooting 30-footers in the NBA Finals. He wasn’t afraid of crying on national television. 

He’s been expressing himself. 

“The look-away three is something that when I do it, is the utmost self-expression of confidence, of the work that I have put into it,” Curry says. “All the reps and just the idea that I am my biggest fan in that moment because I feel like all the work that you put in is paying off, where I can’t do any wrong and I’m not missing the shot. And it feels so good that I gotta turn away. It’s not really about anyone else or showing anyone up. It’s about me and the expression of self-confidence to a whole other level.”

It’s about him. There is no competition left. There is only one Lord of the Water. 

But it’s not just about him at this point. What he has perhaps unintentionally done is bring more and more people to the coast. More and more people want to leave the beach because he’s shown them the power of the natural element that covers more than 70 percent of Earth. His style of play has become some type of collective, near spiritual agent that gathers divers, other explorers not skilled enough to be him. But they can appreciate him. 

To be able to inspire is a huge gift. To show people that limits are just perceptions is something sacred. Where does the inspirer find his inspiration, though? In the same game that he rules over. 

“There is room in my mind and spirit for more imagination,” Curry says. “More self-expression, more moments where people see a different side of you because every year is so different. The challenges are different. It requires more of you, and that brings out the different reactions, different forms of self-expression and presence on the court. But the mystery of what that is and the unknown is what makes it so dope and so much fun. I have no idea what that’s gonna look like, but I’m going to keep living it. You know, what happened this year and our journey to win a championship, all the accolades that I got, the night, night stuff, all that stuff I had no idea was going to be happening, but I fell in love with the journey and all that stuff takes care of itself. So now the challenge is to maintain that energy, maintain that perspective, go back to the drawing board and try to continue to be the best version of yourself. Because you’re never, ever complete.”

Brooks and streams, rivers, lakes and bays find their way to the ocean, where under the surface, out of the deepest, darkest, coldest trenches, come the most ruthless killers. The real rulers. 

KICKS 25 is available now in this exclusive gold metal edition. Shop now.

Photos via Getty Images and courtesy of Under Armour.

The post With the Curry 10 on the Horizon, Stephen Curry Has Left His Indisputable Mark on the Game appeared first on SLAM.

Although she’s only been styling for a year, she worked with a handful of clients around the W and even has plans to expand to work with NBA players and other professional athletes. 

“Fashion is important to these WNBA players for so many reasons, but for one, it’s getting more people involved. It’s getting people attached to them, it’s getting people to be able to see their personalities. I just feel like it helps get people intrigued or interested. It gives them an inside look to these players’ personalities and who they are. And then when you go watch the game, you’re like, Oh, wait, this game is fire! They’re good as hell!”

We sat down with Sydney to learn more about her career as a stylist, WNBA fashion, what goes into styling players around the L and her plans for the future. 

SLAM: You have degrees in sports management and you played basketball throughout your life. It’s clear that you have an interest in the sport, but when and where did you find an interest in fashion?

Sydney Bordonaro: I think it’s from Allen Iverson. He was always an inspiration to me, not only his game but his style. I feel like he was the one that really started this, you know, the way he would come to the games dressed up. I feel like that’s something I’ve always paid attention to as a young kid growing up. 

When I was in school I had all different Iverson jerseys and I was always wearing them. I always wanted to look good and feel good. That was important to me, even when I was playing basketball. I always cared about what I was wearing. When I moved to the West Coast for college, I felt like I was able to branch out with fashion. I would try different things, and maybe be a bit more outlandish with how I was dressing. I was really portraying how I feel.

SLAM: How did you start styling WNBA players? 

SB: So actually, I haven’t asked anybody to be my client thus far. My start in styling was actually kind of random. It all started off with Jewell Loyd. She’s been like a longtime friend of mine and she liked the way that I dressed. It was August or September of 2021 and she randomly was like, “Yo, what’s up, bro? You tryna style me?” Of course I said yes. So that’s really how it started. But since then, everything and all of my clients have happened organically. It’s always been through other people or by word of mouth. 

SLAM: How do you plan out a fit for one of your clients?

SB: This whole process is so new to me and I’m refining it as it goes, so the more often I get to do this, I can get more of a structure. One of the first things I do with a client that is non-negotiable is I need to get on FaceTime with them. I need to talk with them a little bit, get a feel for their personality. I can’t just start styling someone if I don’t know what they’re like on the inside.

Rae Burrell is a perfect example. We talked and she asked me to style her for a game and it was her birthday. I remember I went to Urban Outfitters, got a few things together and just pulled up at the house. From there, she literally became one of my best friends just like that. It was crazy. We get together like three hours before her games and it’s almost like we’re playing dress up. It’s hilarious.

So I think I need to get a feel for a person, you know. If they live in LA, I want to pull up on them. I just want to speak with them and get a feel for their personality and what they got in their closet. 

SLAM: Could you talk about the different WNBA players that you do style? How do they speak through their style?

SB: Everybody’s different. Like Kelsey Plum doesn’t want to take any risks. Her style is very clean cut, almost like a businesswoman. Very professional. Jewell Loyd wants to be in cargo pants and like oversized tees. And then Rae Burrell or like DiDi Richards, they don’t give a damn. I could put them in anything and they’re all for it. 

I’m putting them in these outfits, and the whole thing is like a growing process. They can get a sense of trust for me and sometimes it’s gonna take a minute. But I think I’m able to ask them how they want to dress, and I get a feel for what they’re thinking. I always check out their Instagram, too, so I can see how they are trying to dress and then I can help elevate and personify how they are.

SLAM: Does your own style ever influence what you are creating for a client?

SB: So at first, it really did. This is all so new to me; I’ve only been doing this for like less than a year. 

In the beginning, with Kelsey for example, I wanted to dress her how I would dress myself. But then I realized that isn’t her, so I would try not to do that. You have to look at each of them individually as their own being. I have whiteboards in my room to separate their different styles. I need to be focused on one at a time. I can’t shop for multiple clients at the same time. Like for example if I’m in DiDi-mode that’s all I do. Each client is so different so I need to lock in on one of them and do it one at a time. It’s almost like switching languages when you are looking for a client that is into streetwear and then going to a client that is more formal. 

SLAM: You haven’t been styling WNBA players for too long, but have you had any ‘pinch me’ moments so far? 

SB: I’d say probably working with Kelsey. Kelsey was someone who I watched growing up. She’s only three years older than me, but when I would watch her play, I wanted to style my game after hers. She was my favorite player when I was in high school, so it’s super cool that I’m now working with her. I looked up to her on the court. To have a relationship with her is one of the most amazing things for me. Her work ethic is second to none. I feel like I kind of manifested that relationship. I wanted to work with her and I kind of got a lob thrown to work with her. It happened through a friend. And now it’s just unbelievable to me. 

SLAM: It seems like you’re making really solid connections with your clients.

SB: Yeah. That’s how I want it. Like, It’s fun. I’ve always wanted to be an agent, and that is kind of how agents are. They have a close relationship with their players. I want to do deals. 

SLAM: Speaking of agents, you started your own agency, called Innovative Icon Group, which represents cultural icons in sports and entertainment. Can you tell me about that?

SB: Yeah, so after I had finished school I was going to work for a sports agency, but because of COVID, I was back home on the East Coast and the job kept getting pushed back. I decided to move back to LA to better myself. I put my head down and started working on creating my own agency. Then the styling stuff came along. Now I am completely doing my own thing, it’s very cool. At first the agency was just going to be like a marketing management agency, but now I want to shift the approach a little bit to help professional athletes with marketing deals. Along with that, I think a stylist is something that almost all of them need. It’s crazy. No one has a stylist. So I think I’m trying to combine the marketing with the styling. I want to help these athletes with their image, because that is huge. 

SLAM: It seems like you really want to be a liaison between athletes and everything that comes along with their image?

SB: I want to help athletes with their whole image. And I feel very strongly about working with athletes because I was an athlete and I can relate to them.

I know I can help these athletes a lot, like finding deals, getting them this money, putting these players’ names in with these brands. I have connections to a lot of these cool brands. I’ve always been connected with clothing brands and they’ll offer to send me stuff. And this I think benefits everybody because I can get sent this stuff and then put them in all this gear. 

I’m having so much fun with all of this, too. This is everything that I feel like I’ve always wanted. I have big goals for myself. I want to do big things and I’ve already worked so hard. I feel like I have an opportunity right now. I’m not gonna let this slip for nothing. I’m gonna bust my butt and do anything I can [to] keep going and keep growing. You know?

SLAM: Absolutely. On the note of connecting with players, do you have a dream WNBA player that you’d like to work with and style?

SB: I have a few people that I want to work with. I think in the WNBA, I’d say Skylar Diggins-Smith and then Liz Cambage. I would love the possibility to style them. Maybe Olivia Nelson-Ododa, too. She looks like she would be a high fashion model on a runway or something. Then also there is a women’s soccer player named Trinity Rodman. I think that she’s really effortlessly fly. I would love to style her at some point.

Then in the NBA, I would love to style like a Jalen Green or a Jordan Clarkson-type of guy. I think they’d be a dream to style. 

SLAM: In your opinion, what type of role does fashion play in the lives of WNBA players? Why do you think fashion matters for them? 

SB: This is really important. I think there’s a few reasons. I feel like for a very long time, everyone wanted women’s basketball players to have a particular look. They couldn’t dress too masculine, needed to wear a dress, and so on. And once you get them in the dress and heels they just look so uncomfortable! 

I think now there is this crazy switch where people who aren’t even WNBA fans will see players and become fans of them as people. Especially with social media. Like even when I was younger, because in Pittsburgh there wasn’t a team there I grew a love for Allen Iverson and I attached myself to him. 

Now it’s cool to see these WNBA players are role models through social media. I think the way people dress is just a representation of how they feel on the inside, who they really are. 

Like for example if I’m wearing all-black, baggy clothes, it’s probably because I’m feeling sad. It’s all just how I’m feeling on the inside. So I feel like it’s important that these women are able to portray how they feel and who they are, and for that to be easily transmitted when you see how they’re dressed. You see them and get a feel for who they are based off of how they’re dressing. Also, women are such a huge consumer of clothes. So this is another sort of marketing opportunity here. I just feel like this is a huge opportunity for these women to capitalize off of these social media deals they need to be making, with whatever fashion brands.

SLAM: You also play a huge role in helping these players express themselves, too.

SB: It’s crazy how people just don’t know how to dress how they feel. For me, it is something that comes very easy for me. It doesn’t come that easy for other people, so it’s so cool that I could just kind of assist them with it. I’m helping them come into their own, helping build out their closet, and they might not need me in a couple years. To me, that would mean that I did a good job. 

SLAM then showed Sydney two fits that she’s put together in the last year and asked her to talk us through what went into the styling...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SYDNEY BORDONARO (@sbordonaro21)

SB: This was [Rae’s] birthday fit. We were going with a Hendrix vibe. That is my jacket and I was like “Hold up, this would look so cool.” I told her when she walked she better hit her Hendrix and at first she was like “No bro, I can’t.” But she did it! 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelsey Plum (@kelseyplum10)

SB: I had wanted Kelsey in this one for a while. I liked this suit a lot and I knew it would fit her really well, but she had a lot of anxiety about it. It was for the first game. I said to her, “Mob. We on mob sh*t this year Kelsey.” With this fit we were thinking like we mean business, mob ties, MVP Kels, all that. She actually wasn’t sure if she wanted to wear this at first. She was skeptical. She ended up loving it and everybody went crazy over it. I feel like with a lot of Kelsey’s looks we have a similar vibe; she’s very serious before games. So, I think all of the fits are very clean, like she looks like a boss. But that’s Kels. She’s coming into her own. She’ll come out of it every once and a while with a little streetwear look but for the most part she wants to be like a professional boss woman. That’s how I found her vibe. 

Photos via Sydney Bordonaro and Getty Images.

The post Sydney Bordonaro on WNBA Fashion and Styling Players Around the W, From Kelsey Plum to DiDi Richards appeared first on SLAM.

Cheryl Reeves is the head coach of the World Cup team and will be joined by Mike Thibault, Kara Lawson, and Joni Taylor as her assistant coaches.

The training camp will take place September 6-12 in Las Vegas. An intrasquad Red-White game will headline the camp on Sept. 10 before the final roster comes out for the FIBA World Cup that runs Sept. 22-Oct. 1 in Sydney, Australia.

The following is a complete list of expected training camp participants: Ariel Atkins, Shakira Austin, Boston, Kahleah Copper, Elena Delle Donne, Diamond DeShields, Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray, Chelsea Gray, Dearica Hamby, Myisha Hines-Allen, Natasha Howard, Rhyne Howard, Sabrina Ionescu, Brionna Jones, Betnijah Laney, Jewell Loyd, Kayla McBride, Angel McCoughtry, Arike Ogunbowale, Kelsey Plum, Aerial Powers, NaLyssa Smith, Breanna Stewart, Alyssa Thomas, Courtney Williams, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young.

Invitees will report “pending the conclusion of their WNBA seasons and the progression of the national team selection process,” USA Basketball said in a release.

“I am looking forward to welcoming this amazing group of athletes to a productive training camp as we prepare for the 2022 FIBA World Cup,” national team coach Cheryl Reeve said in a release. “These athletes will report to camp having just completed their WNBA seasons, and it says a lot about their competitive drive and commitment to USA Basketball that they will come to Las Vegas prepared to participate at the highest level.”

Atkins, Chelsea Gray, Loyd, Stewart, and Wilson won gold with Team USA in Tokyo. Alisha Gray, Dolson, Plum, and Young — members of the gold-medal-winning 3×3 team — will be headed to Vegas. Wilson, Stewart, Delle Donne, Loyd, Plum, and Young were members of Team USA’s World Cup team that won gold in Spain in 2018.

Delle Donne and McCoughtry didn’t play in Tokyo due to injuries but were contributors to the 2016 Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro. McCoughtry had appeared in three WNBA games in two years due to knee injuries and is currently a free agent after the Lynx bought her contract out before the season started.

This will be the first Team USA roster that won’t feature Sue Bird, and Sylvia Fowles is retiring. Tina Charles, Diana Taurasi (season-ending quad injury), Skylar Diggins-Smith (personal reasons), Napheesa Collier (played one week of basketball after giving birth in May), and Brittney Griner, who is controversially imprisoned in Russia due to drug possession and smuggling charges.

The post Aliyah Boston Headlines Invitees Tor Team USA Training Camp appeared first on SLAM.

One question that Green was asked was what player he thought reminded him the most of himself. The four-time champ gave a unique and unexpected answer, revealing that he thought the reigning Most Improved Player of the Year award winner Ja Morant resembled him the most. Not necessarily because of how Morant plays, but Morant’s approach towards the game and how he leads his teammates.

“I’m going to have to go with, in a much different way, Ja Morant,” he said. “I ain’t bowing down to none of y’all. I don’t care what you’ve accomplished before I got here. That has absolutely nothing to do with me. I believe in myself and my abilities. I’m going to show you that. I’m going to lead. I’m going to talk to you and let you know about it while I’m doing it. I’m gonna carry others with me, and most importantly, I’m gone do it my way. And all of those things that I just named, I see Ja Morant do.”

Which younger player reminds @Money23Green most of himself?

We were not expecting this answer… pic.twitter.com/0EvEWlIUhx

— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) August 11, 2022

When Green elaborated more about his stance, he admitted that he’s “nowhere near the same player” that the electric Morant is. Morant has already developed a reputation for his downhill attack-the-rim style and “he got that dog in him” mentality. Last playoffs, Green and the Warriors witnessed it first hand when they played the Grizzlies in the second-round of the conference playoffs.

The Grizzlies ultimately lost the series in six games; the tide turned when Morant suffered a knee injury that forced him to miss the final three games of the playoffs. The rivalry between the two franchises has gotten more intense and physical as each game went on. This summer, Green and Morant had a back and forth Twitter exchange where Morant challenged he Warriors to a Christmas day game.

The post Draymond Green Believes Ja Morant Reminds Him Most of Himself appeared first on SLAM.

Wiggins has since brought the Larry O’Brien Trophy to Canada as he hosted youth camps in Vaughan and Mississauga. The 2022 All-Star returning to his hometown allowed him to prove to the kids attending his camp that when you believe in yourself and shut out the outside news, you can reap a lot of awards.

“I feel great,” Wiggins said per the Toronto Star. “There’s been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of people had counted me out, but to be back and … winning a championship? All the sacrifices, all the ups, and downs, all the stuff was worth it. It makes the story that much better.”

HOW'S THE AIR UP THERE WIGGS? (via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/dR3ehMFnft

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) June 14, 2022

It was a challenging and humbling lesson Wiggins learned as he went from being a volume scorer in Minnesota known for putting up empty calorie stats on losing teams. When he arrived in Golden State, Wiggins was able to thrive as the third star on a group headlined by Stephen Curry and Klay Thomspon.

Under the watchful eye of GM Bob Myers, Coach Steve Kerr, Curry, Thompson, and Draymond Green, Maple Jordan embraced being a two-way wing that could be relied on to get a bucket late in the shot clock while guarding the toughest perimeter threat.

“When I step on the court, I’ve always been confident in what I can do,” he said. “When I was in Minnesota, I put up numbers. But people said, ‘He put up numbers on a bad team.’ So, I go to Golden State, and I’m not scoring as much, but I’m doing a lot at a more efficient rate, so the whole world gets to see.”

Wiggs is so damn smooth.
(via @warriors) pic.twitter.com/T9unmLqnet

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) June 14, 2022

He played a pivotal role in guarding offensive threats like Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, and Jayson Tatum. He took on each assignment and won more than his fair share of battles, averaging 16.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game on 46.9 percent shooting from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.

“It’s been a different type of summer, but the best summer of my life,” he said. “It’s been amazing coming down here and feeling all this love and positivity. It’s been great. Just being able to bring the trophy back home to where it all started for me —— where all my friends and family are, that helped me get to the place where I’m at now.”

Wiggins hopes to come into the 2022-23 season with a freshly minted extension after carrying a significant two-way load last season. The Warriors will likely have to lean on Wiggins as they implement Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga, and James Wiseman into the lineup after they let several veterans walk away in free agency.

The post Andrew Wiggins Feeling ‘Great’ During ‘Best Summer’ of His Life appeared first on SLAM.

The eighth-year head coach identified Kevon Looney, Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green as the Warriors’ “foundational six,” with the latter three serving as the team’s established core.

Kerr believes Golden State’s core is among the best in the League, especially after adding the younger trio of Looney, Wiggins, and Poole to the mix.

“We have probably more continuity than anybody in the League with our core group,” Kerr said. “Add Wiggs and Jordan and the institutional knowledge they’ve gained, and we have a really strong foundation. That’s the most important thing you can have in this League.

“We had it going into last year. But the difference was, a year ago, we didn’t know if we were really contenders. That’s why the 18-2 start was so big. It reinforced it. This year, being defending champs, it doesn’t guarantee anything, but you have a confident sense in who you are. We have our main six guys back, the foundational six that we know are going to be on the court for big minutes every night. That allows us to bring our young guys along.”

The Dubs’ roster also features future stars such as Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga, and James Wiseman, all of whom Kerr claims “have shown really good signs.” Moody and Kuminga saw action in the playoffs during the Warriors’ Finals run last season (and also impressed in the most recent NBA Summer League), while Wiseman was sidelined due to injury.

The Warriors will have a lot to prove as they focus on their win-and-develop mindset. Their future success will be predicated on their young core of Moody, Kuminga, Wiseman, Poole, and Wiggins being able to successfully takeover once Golden State’s “foundational six” leave the Warriors.

Next season will be a different journey after the Warriors’ lottery-bound seasons but coming off a championship brings a different level of confidence. Furthermore, being able to get substantial contributions from Moody, Kuminga, and Wiseman on top of his “foundational six” next season, the future could hold another championship for Golden State.

“I don’t know that it’s a bigger challenge because last year felt like a huge challenge going in,” Kerr said. “Last year felt more daunting because we’d had two lousy seasons in a row. This year feels different because we’re the defending champs. It feels like we’ve got our groove back. We’ll have Klay back for a full season. Our foundation in place. While we’re absolutely going to play a lot of young guys, we kind of have a core six, a foundational six players who are really the ones that make everything happen and will allow us to bring the young guys along.”

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Steve Kerr on the ‘Strong Foundation’ the Warriors Have Built appeared first on SLAM.

Underrated.

Allisha Gray is—understandably—over the word that has often been used throughout the WNBA to describe her.

“It’s time to get rid of that underrated label. I’m tired of that,” the typically quiet, unassuming Dallas Wings guard laments. “Every year that’s all you hear: Allisha Gray is the most underrated player in the League…She’s so underrated…

“She’s underrated because no one is paying attention to her but she’s doing her thing on the court,” Gray continues. “Allisha’s been underrated her whole six-year career, maybe it’s time to pay attention to her.”

If you do pay attention, what you’ll see is a real life Energizer bunny in braids and goggles (hence the nickname “Goggles Lish”). You’ll witness Gray diving to the floor and tussling with opponents for loose balls; blocking shots with a vengeance; seemingly coming out of nowhere to steal the ball and sprint coast-to-coast, scoring on a layup; passing to an open teammate and playing both ends of the court like it’s an extreme sport. She tops her team in minutes played at over 30 a game and literally goes crazy offensively and defensively, sprinting up and down the court the whole game, scoring on one end then getting back on defense to make sure her opponent doesn’t score.

She’s a crucial member of this young Wings team looking to make a deep playoff run this season. Currently, Gray is the team’s second leading scorer with 14.6 points per game and leads the team in blocks (she’s No. 7 in the League in blocks per game at 1.2 as of June 8). Through the team’s first 11 games of the season, she had two 20-point games, including a season high 24 points in a matchup against the Las Vegas Aces.

The six year WNBA veteran—the League’s 2017 Rookie of the Year and an Olympic Gold medalist (3×3)—impacts the game in ways not revealed on a stat sheet. She’s having a fantastic season, one that could end with her reaching a goal close to her heart: landing a spot on one of the WNBA’s All-Defensive teams.

“I feel I have been under the radar. We all know people pay attention to scoring and not the whole body of work of a player,” Gray says. “People pay attention to the person who puts up 40 points but won’t notice the person who had 5 or 6 steals, 10 rebounds and no points, but impacted the game just as well. I am an all-around player. I do it both on the offense and defensive ends.

“I expect my name to be on one of those defensive teams at the end of the season. I’m playing the best defense of my whole career this season. I guard the best player on the team every night and have to produce on the offensive side as well.”

One person who doesn’t overlook Gray’s game or contributions is Dallas Wings coach Vickie Johnson, who calls Gray “one of the top three two-way players in the League.

“I think now you see her growth on both sides of the basketball; now you see her maturity on the court,” Johnson said. “With her six years in the League, it’s huge now. She understands who she is, she takes pride in guarding the best players on the other team and she doesn’t drop her head.

“I wouldn’t say she’s underrated. I think it’s a matter of her speaking out for herself,” Johnson said. “Like she [Allisha] said, she deserved to be on the All-Defensive team [last year] and that’s huge for her. That’s one of her goals. I think she’ll accomplish that goal this year.”

The 27-year-old soft-spoken Gray won the 2017 national championship in her first season of eligibility at South Carolina under legendary coach Dawn Staley (in a championship game that ironically was played in Dallas). She has never been an attention-seeking person, opting instead to lead by example and allowing her on-court play to tell her story.

But she also understands the importance of advocating for oneself and has finally found strength in not just her game, but in her voice as well.

“I am glad I am now getting the attention I deserve. My dad always told me the squeaky wheel gets the oil, so it’s just like within me,” Gray says. “I’m at a point in my career—in my sixth season—it was just time for me to speak up and let people know I am here and I work hard. You can look at the numbers and I can have 0s all across the board, but I held my opponent to 8 points; well, that’s a win for me because I did my job.”

Her ability to be an effective two-way player lies in her consistency. Now there’s a word she doesn’t mind being associated with.

“Consistency. That’s a trait that many people don’t have. You know what you will get from me every night; you never have to guess what you will get from me in practice, on the court, in the game,” she says. “I feel like I am just that same, consistent player that will give you the same thing every night.

“I’ve always worked on my game to get better. I have been the same consistent player the whole six years in this League. My stats have also increased, especially assists, blocks, steals, rebounds and free-throw percentage,” Gray continues. “Each year I’ve improved my game so, yeah, it’s time to get rid of that underrated title.”

While enjoying another breakout season, Gray is also looking toward the next five-to-10 years on and off the court. On the court she “definitely sees some championships, All-Star appearances and another Gold medal.”

Gray put on a spectacular performance as a member of the US Olympic 3×3 Women’s Basketball Team. They competed in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and went 8-1 en route to earning the first Gold medal in Olympic 3×3 basketball history.

“That Gold medal was a big achievement, representing America, all eyes are on you to compete and win,” Gray says. “The USA has that standard of winning Gold medals—especially on the basketball side. I am glad we won and were the first to do it. We will always go down in history for that.”

However, Gray reveals she has officially retired from 3×3 and has set her sights on a new Olympic goal: becoming a member of the 5×5 USA Women’s National Team. “Hopefully, I pray that I am in Paris [2024 Olympics] to win a Gold medal there.”

Off the court, she is carving out space in the business world as a budding entrepreneur. “One day the ball has to stop bouncing. I’m looking at what’s next,  what other ways can I make money and go into business,” says Gray. Currently she dabbles in crypto-currency investments and runs an RV-rental business with her brother who handles the mechanics, and her boyfriend, who along with Gray handles the bookings and communication with the customers.

“We bought an RV and we just rent it out to people. It’s like an AirBnB on wheels. We deliver it within a 60-mile radius or they come to pick it up [in her hometown of Georgia]; take it for a couple of days or however long they want,” she says. “Business is really booming right now!”

In the meantime, Gray remains focused on the Wings’ season and helping her team make it to a deep postseason run. She starts her mornings getting into a positive frame of mind by listening to gospel music from some of her favorite artists like Rance Allen, Mary Mary and Kirk Franklin.

“It just helps me start my day off in a positive light and just hearing the word of God,” she says. “I just love the positivity that comes from the music.” Gray is also an avid gamer who can be found during her downtime streaming on Twitch and playing Call of Duty Warzone, GTA and more recently FIFA 22.

She remains grounded and mentally strong through constant communication and a closeness with her parents, whom she calls her “real-life heroes.”

“They sacrificed so much for me in life. I am glad I was able to make it to the League to show them that all the sacrifices they made for me paid off,” says Gray, recalling her parents driving her “up and down the road” throughout Georgia when she played AAU basketball.  

“They didn’t complain once about it. They could have been doing something else but they put everything they were doing on hold to help me get where I am today,” she says. “That’s why I am very thankful for my parents. They turn clouds into sunshine; they are my rocks; they mean everything to me. They are my happy place.”

Another happy place for her is the basketball court, where she hopes more people will see her in action.

And that spot on a WNBA All-Defensive team? She’s coming for it.

“I feel like last year I was snubbed honestly, of being on one of those defensive teams, and now I’m putting it out there so people can pay attention early and realize, Yeah, she deserves to be on this defensive team.”

Watch her in action and you’ll probably think so, too.

WSLAM 2 is available now. Get your copy here.

Photos via Getty Images.

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But Draymond Green apparently doesn’t see the 2022 Finals against Boston as fierce as previous challenges, such as defeating LeBron James in the NBA Finals. Green opened about the mental hurdles it takes to defeat James per the Athletic:

“It doesn’t compare to mentally playing against LeBron James, who I think is arguably the smartest guy to ever play this game,” Green said. “Not one of; he is arguably the smartest guy to set foot on a basketball court. To say that it compares to that, it’s disrespectful to LeBron, and it’s a lie to you.”

Green, a three-time champion with the Warriors, had to defeat the four-time Finals MVP in three of his five NBA Finals appearances to secure his rings. Green’s first Finals loss came from the infamous 2016 Finals, where Golden State blew a 3-1 lead, and the second loss came against Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 NBA Finals.

The Warriors and the James-led Lakers have also met in the 2021 play-in tournament for the seventh seed in the Western Conference playoffs. James ultimately led the Lakers to a win after hitting a clutch fadeaway three to secure the Lakers’ date with the Suns in the first-round of the playoffs.

Green did acknowledge that Boston is challenging in their own way, per Yahoo Sports:

“Now, in saying that, they do have a guy over there in Marcus Smart who is extremely smart, who it’s like a chess match going up against him. He is kind of the brain of that team. I think every team you kind of have that guy,” That’s the brain of that team, and they have that in Marcus Smart, a guy who I have a tremendous amount of respect for and his basketball IQ. So it’s a challenge for sure. Ime [Udoka, Celtics coach] is extremely smart. We know his pedigree.”

Green and the Warriors will look to wrap things up in Thursday’s Game Six in Beantown. If Boston wins Game 6, the series will shift to San Francisco for a win-or-go-home Game 7 in Chase Center.

The post Draymond Green Speaks On Facing LeBron James Versus Closing Boston appeared first on SLAM.

On Monday, Wiggins didn’t need to be the alpha dog to save the Warriors from a dismal performance from Curry. The 2015 Rookie of the Year finished Game 5 with 26 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block. It was the type of performance that reminds you why Wiggins was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. Most importantly, it gave the Warriors a 3-2 series lead and pushed them to within one win of a title.

“We knew we needed his athleticism and defense and his versatility,” Kerr said per Sports Illustrated. “We had no idea that he would make this kind of contribution. But I think it’s a reminder that for almost every player in the NBA, circumstances are everything. You kind of need to find the right place, the right teammates, that kind of stuff. Wiggs has been a great fit.”

HOW’S THE AIR UP THERE WIGGS? (via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/dR3ehMFnft

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) June 14, 2022

After Wiggins helped lead the Warriors to a pivotal win, his teammates gave him his flowers. Draymond Green gave Wiggins particular kudos with an enthralling story he told reporters about the 2022 All-Star. Green said the Warriors knew that they could trust Wiggins to deliver in big moments based on the belief the notoriously demanding Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau had in Wiggins.

What really punctuated the moment was the fact that the equally demanding Jimmy Butler raved about Wiggins despite his ugly and infamous departure from Minnesota in 2018.

“I mean that trust has been building for two and a half years now since he got here. A lot of people looked at the trade as it’s another piece that they can move,” Green told reporters. “And we looked at the trade from the very beginning like that is a guy who can fit next to a healthy group absolutely well. When he first came here, and I’ll never forget, it’s when Thibs wasn’t with the Knicks, and Thibs was like, ‘you guys are going to love him. He competes, he defends’ — and he was telling us Jimmy (Butler) loved him, and we all know how Jimmy Butler is, if you got any softness to you Jimmy don’t like you. That’s just how Jimmy is cut, and he’s continued to show that, he’s continued to get better, he’s taken on every challenge that we’ve thrown in front of him, and it’s huge, and we need him to do it for one more win.”

Draymond Green on the trust they have in Andrew Wiggins. Some great perspective, and even something Tom Thibodeau told the Warriors after the trade happened: pic.twitter.com/imd2iWZDB7

— Shane Young (@YoungNBA) June 14, 2022

Wiggins has averaged 16.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game on 47.4 percent shooting from the field in 20 games this postseason. Wiggins has thrived as a two-way player in Golden State’s vaunted system and will play a key role in guarding Tatum and being a security blanket late in the shot clock as a capable off-the-bounce bucket.

The Finals shifts to Boston for Thursday’s Game 6, and the Celtics will likely play with force and urgency to tie the series back and force a do-or-die Game 7 back in San Francisco.

The post Draymond Green Raves About Andrew Wiggins After Game 5 appeared first on SLAM.

The three leading men of Boston became the first trio of teammates to finish a Finals game with at least 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Michael Cooper did it in 1984.

Brown got the Celtics off to a strong start attacking the rim, scoring 22 of his 27 points in the first half. Brown also posted nine boards and five assists. Tatum helped Boston cross the finish line, scoring 15 of his 26 points in the second half while contributing nine rebounds and five dimes. Smart finished Game 3 with 24 points, seven points, and five assists.

“I was born in ’98, so that’s way before my time,” Tatum said in a postgame interview with ESPN’s Lisa Salters. “But that’s great company to be in.”

With two 3-pointers from Jaylen Brown… Brown & Jayson Tatum are the first pair of teammates in Celtics history to each make 50 3-pointers in a single postseason pic.twitter.com/O94a6VrMLD

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 9, 2022

Tatum and Brown are also the first Boston teammates to knock down at least 50 three-pointers in a single postseason. The All-Stars accomplished the feat after Brown hit the first of his four triples in the first half.

In previous playoff runs, Ray Allen made at least 50 threes when Boston made a run to the Finals during his tenure in Beantown. However, his closest teammate, Paul Pierce, maxed out at 40 during Boston’s 2008 and 2010 run to the Finals. Larry Bird only made 80 three-pointers in the postseason for his whole career.

Boston is up 2-1 in the Finals after Wednesday’s Game 3 and has a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead on Friday. Celtics and Warriors fans will wait with bated breath for an injury update on Stephen Curry’s foot injury he suffered in the fourth quarter.

The post Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart Join Elite Company With Game 3 Outing appeared first on SLAM.

Stephen Curry deserves a lot of credit for the Warriors leading for much of the game after scoring 34 points, five rebounds, and five assists. His 21 points in the first quarter were the most scored in a quarter in the NBA Finals since Michael Jordan had 22 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4 against the Phoenix Suns in 1993. 

Curry’s six three-pointers also set a Finals record for most triples in a single quarter; the previous record was five made triples in a quarter. He shared the record with Ray Allen and Kenny Smith.

However, despite the spectacular exploits of the only unanimous MVP in NBA history, the Boston Celtics were never too far behind through the first three-quarters of Game 1. Yes, they were down by 15 at one point in the third quarter, but the Celtics were routinely able to cut any deficit down, tying the game up five times and exchanging leads up to nine.

Boston bided its time until the final frame, knocking down their first seven three-point attempts to outscore the Warriors 40-16. The onslaught was led by Jaylen Brown (24 points, seven rebounds, five assists) and Al Horford (26 points, six boards, and a Finals-debut record six threes), who scored a combined 21 points to help Boston retake the lead late in the fourth quarter.

Horford scored 14 points during Boston’s decisive 17-0 run to take Game 1, giving Boston a lead it wouldn’t give up after scoring eight straight points, including back-to-back three-pointers late in the fourth quarter. Boston also kept Golden State scoreless for nearly five minutes as they scored 17 unanswered, only ceding two meaningless field goals to Klay Thompson and Nemanja Bjelica over the final 69 seconds of the game.

“They gotta good defense,” Draymond Green (four points, 11 rebounds, five dimes), “We knew that coming in. There was no surprises; we know what they wanna get to on the defensive side and how they like to play; they know what we’re tryna get to. So, yeah, no surprises, they are who we thought they were, and now we’ll watch the clips, watch the film and figure out what we need to do to attack it.”

“They are who we thought they were.”

Draymond Green addressed the media after Game 1 of the #NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/PtWlkoMNr3

— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 3, 2022

Green elaborated a bit more on his thoughts a moment later during his press conference. In his eyes, the Warriors were dominant for as much as “the first 41, 42 minutes” of the game. However, Golden State trailed in the first half at one point, and their most dominant stretch came in the third quarter when they built a 15-point lead and outscored the Celtics by 14 points.

Green also pointed out that Boston hit 21 three-pointers in Game 1, the bulk of which came from Horford, Marcus Smart, and Derrick White, who hit a combined 15 long-range bombs. Green directly downplayed the hot shooting of Smart and White, saying:

“They hit 21 threes, and Marcus Smart, Al Horford, and Derrick White combined for 15,” Green said. “Those guys are good shooters, but they combined for what, 15 out of eight, Smart seven, eight, 15-23. Is my math right? Eight, seven, and eight. Eight, seven, and eight. Yea, that’s 23, right? 15-for-23 from those guys. Eh. We’ll be fine.”

To counterpoint, Horford went from hitting 33.6 percent of his regular-season three-point attempts to improving that mark to 46.3 percent in the playoffs. White was shooting 20.8 percent from deep before catching fire over the last three games, managing to hit 11 out of his previous 18 three-point attempts, good enough for a 61.1 percent clip over his last three outings. Smart is hitting threes at a 34.5 percent clip also.

“They stayed within striking distance, and they made shots late,” Green said. “We’ll be fine. We’ll figure out the ways we can stop them from getting those threes and take them away. I don’t think it was a rhythm thing. We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes, so we’ll be fine.”

Draymond Green: “We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes. So, we’ll be fine.” pic.twitter.com/5eXa49pIFp

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) June 3, 2022

Regardless, the championship core of the Warriors and Coach Steve Kerr will have some time in between now and Game 2 to readjust and formulate a new game plan. The Warriors will look to tie the series up and retake home-court advantage with a win Game 2 win on Sunday before the series shifts to TD Garden in Boston.

The post Draymond Green Not Dwelling Much On Late Game 1 Loss to Boston appeared first on SLAM.

10. 2012-13 Miami Heat

Coach: Erik Spoelstra

Record: 66-16

Roster: Ray Allen, Chris Andersen, Joel Anthony, Shane Battier, Chris Bosh, Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Josh Harrellson, Terrel Harris, Udonis Haslem, Juwan Howard, LeBron James, James Jones, Rashard Lewis, Mike Miller, Dexter Pittman, Jarvis Varnado, Dwyane Wade

After LeBron James made his famous announcement that he had decided to play for Miami, he sat on a stage with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade and talked about how many championships the trio would win with the Heat. “Not two. Not three…” And so on.

Well, after two years in South Beach, James had one title, not two. Nobody was restless, but there was clearly an expectation that after winning it all in 2012, Miami was about to start rolling.

The Big Three was on hand to try for a repeat, but the Heat had also added sharpshooter Ray Allen, who, though 37, provided some needed long-range production and finished the season making 41.9 percent of his three-point attempts. The formula worked. Miami rampaged to 66 wins, 12 better than any other Eastern Conference team.

James once again was the biggest star, leading the team in points, rebounds and assists. But Wade and Bosh were big every night, too. And while Allen was past the days when he could dominate with his long-range shooting, he was an undeniable weapon, as was do-everything forward Shane Battier, who actually shot a higher percentage from behind the arc than Allen did.

The regular season presented few hurdles for the Heat, and neither did the first two rounds of the playoffs. Miami swept Milwaukee in the first round and dusted away Chicago in five after that. But things got interesting in the Eastern Finals, when Indiana—led by Paul George and Roy Hibbert—extended the Heat to seven games in a series so heavy on defense that only one time did a team hit triple figures. In the finale, James scored 32, and Miami routed the Pacers, 99-76, to earn a Finals meeting with San Antonio.

The Eastern Finals series was great, but the Heat-Spurs showdown was even more dramatic. After five games, the Spurs held a 3-2 series lead, and it looked as if Pop’s bunch would close things out in the sixth contest. With 28.2 seconds left, the Spurs led, 94-89, but an Allen three-pointer with 5.2 left forced overtime, and the Heat ultimately prevailed. Game 7 was similarly dramatic. With San Antonio trailing by 2, Duncan missed a pair of shots close to the hoop, and the Heat held on to take the title. Though Miami wouldn’t win seven, as James had insinuated, the Heat had put up back-to-back banners, and that was still pretty darn good.

Get your copy of SLAM Presents TOP 75 NBA Teams Of All Time

Photos via Getty Images.

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The Celtics’ Eastern Conference Finals series win was largely thanks to their efforts of inaugural Larry Bird winner, Jayson Tatum. Tatum finally helped the Celtics get over the ECF hump after three tries since Boston drafted him third overall in the 2017 NBA Draft. The Celtics have made four conference finals appearances since 2017.

Jayson Tatum hoists the Larry Bird Trophy awarded to the Eastern Conference Finals MVP #PhantomCam #BleedGreen pic.twitter.com/vRMUNs1sqm

— NBA (@NBA) May 30, 2022

The former Duke Blue Devil finished Game 7 with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in 47 outstanding minutes. He averaged 24.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game for the series, never ceasing to make the most critical plays when Beantown needed him to make them. Tatum put together the sublime Game 7 performance while wearing a No. 24 armband in honor of mentor Kobe Bryant.

“It’s a great honor,” Tatum said. “This is my third time, and to get over the hump with this group, it means everything. So i couldn’t be prouder of these guys — the road that we took to get here, not a lot of people believed in us. We took the toughest route, and it worked out.”

Jayson Tatum discusses winning the First-Ever Larry Bird Trophy awarded to the Eastern Conference Finals MVP, and getting to the #NBAFinals presented by @YouTubeTV. pic.twitter.com/CrM0vfBjMj

— NBA (@NBA) May 30, 2022

The 2022 NBA Finals begin on June 2, with Golden State hosting Game 1 taking place in Chase Center. It will be the Warriors’ sixth appearance since 2015 and the 10th they’ve made in franchise history. The Celtics have made the NBA Finals 20 times in their history, winning 17. Their most recent title run came under the leadership of Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen.

The Celtics’ improbable road to the Finals comes after Boston finished the regular season with the best defense in the League and won 26 of their last 32 games after going .500 in the first 50 games of the season. Boston (51-31) earned the No.2 seed in the playoffs, eliminating the Nets in a four-game sweep, finishing the defending champion Bucks in seven, and beating the Heat in seven games.

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At this point in the list, we’re getting into dynasty territory. Clutch moments and high-pressure situations were the norm for these squads, many of whom won multiple championships over a three to five year period. Different.

From iconic three-peats to historic dubs, here’s our picks for No. 32-22:

32. 2004-05 San Antonio Spurs

Coach: Gregg Popovich

Record: 59-23

Roster: Brent Barry, Bruce Bowen, Devin Brown, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Dion Glover, Robert Horry, Linton Johnson, Sean Marks, Tony Massenburg, Nazr Mohammed, Rasho Nesterovic, Tony Parker, Glenn Robinson, Malik Rose, Beno Udrih, Mike Wilks

The Spurs and Pistons came into the season having split the previous two NBA championships, and both upset higher-seeded opponents (the Suns and Heat, respectively) in the Conference Finals that spring. That set up a title bout that made up for a relative lack of star power with heavyweight intensity and dominant D. Five of seven Finals games ended with the losing team not breaking 80 points. The series ended with Tim Duncan securing his third ring.

31. 1963-64 Boston Celtics

Coach: Red Auerbach

Record: 59-21

Roster: John Havlicek, Tom Heinsohn, KC Jones, Sam Jones, Jim Loscutoff, Clyde Lovellette, Johnny McCarthy, Willie Naulls, Frank Ramsey, Bill Russell, Tom Sanders, Larry Siegfried

Yawn, another title run, but at least Boston got a new Finals opponent to break up the monotony. The San Francisco Warriors tried to play immovable object to the Celtics’ unstoppable force, and in Wilt Chamberlain, the Dubs at least had the firepower. But Boston had the balance, experience and pedigree: John Havlicek and Sam Jones led the offense, and Bill Russell did his usual work, dominating defensively and on the glass to lead Boston to its seventh championship in eight tries.

30. 1969-70 New York Knicks

Coach: Red Holzman

Record: 60-22

Roster: Dick Barnett, Nate Bowman, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Bill Hosket, Don May, Willis Reed, Mike Riordan, Cazzie Russell, Dave Stallworth, John Warren

When a new decade brought an end to the Celtics’ dominance, the Knicks asserted themselves as the class of the League. Behind MVP Willis Reed’s 21.7 ppg and 13.9 rpg and Walt Frazier’s stylish 20.9 points and 8.2 dimes per, New York rolled to the League’s best record and a Finals meeting with the Lakers. What followed was a seven-game classic against West, Wilt and Baylor, best remembered for Reed’s Game 7 effort on a bum leg that inspired his teammates to victory.

29. 1981-82 Los Angeles Lakers

Coach: Paul Westhead, Pat Riley

Record: 57-25

Roster: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brewer, Michael Cooper, Clay Johnson, Magic Johnson,Eddie Jordan, Mitch Kupchak, Mark Landsberger, Bob McAdoo, Mike McGee, Kevin  McKenna, Norm Nixon, Kurt Rambis, Jamaal Wilkes

Pat Riley was second choice. When Paul Westhead was fired (at Magic Johnson’s urging) 11 games into the ’81-82 season, Lakers owner Jerry Buss named Jerry West head coach. Only West didn’t want it, so Riley—the former player turned broadcaster turned inexperienced assistant—got the gig. Duly motivated, Magic, Kareem and Jamaal Wilkes led L.A. back to the Finals, where they bounced the Sixers in six. Showtime was in effect, and one of the greatest coaching careers was born.

28. 2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers

Coach: Phil Jackson

Record: 58-24

Roster: Kobe Bryant, Joe Crispin, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox, Devean George, Robert Horry, Lindsey Hunter, Mark Madsen, Jelani McCoy, Stanislav Medvedenko, Shaquille O’Neal, Mike Penberthy, Mitch Richmond, Brian Shaw, Samaki Walker

The third title of the Shaq-Kobe axis didn’t come easily. That Western Finals series with Sacramento was brutal, and there were those who thought the Lakers shouldn’t have won it. But they did, and then L.A. dusted Jersey in the Finals, behind another overpowering performance from O’Neal. The dynamic duo was again tremendous, while Derek Fisher provided stability at the point, and supporting players like Rick Fox and Robert Horry stepped up when needed.

27. 2006-07 San Antonio Spurs

Coach: Gregg Popovich

Record: 58-24

Roster: Brent Barry, Matt Bonner, Bruce Bowen, Jackie Butler, Tim Duncan, Francisco Elson, Melvin Ely, Michael Finley, Manu Ginobili, Robert Horry, Fabricio Oberto, Tony Parker, Beno Udrih, Jacque Vaughn, James White, Eric Williams

These Spurs scored when they needed to, and they moved the ball like no one else. But the real strength of the team was on defense, where San Antonio could stifle rivals, just like it did Cleveland in the Finals sweep. Tim Duncan was a no-frills frontcourt star, with point guard Tony Parker’s creativity and Manu Ginobili’s flair and passion the keys to the team’s success. Role players like Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley helped complete a pure team.

26. 1980-81 Boston Celtics

Coach: Bill Fitch

Record: 62-20

Roster: Tiny Archibald, Larry Bird, ML Carr, Terry Duerod, Eric Fernsten, Chris Ford, Gerald Henderson, Wayne Kreklow, Cedric Maxwell, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Rick Robey

After Magic Johnson got his title in 1980, it was Larry Bird’s turn. He and the Celtics waged a year-long battle with the Sixers that culminated with a seven-game Eastern Finals series that featured three big Boston comebacks. Kevin McHale and Robert Parish were interior forces, while Tiny Archibald, Chris Ford and Cedric Maxwell patrolled the perimeter. The Rockets were tough in the Finals, but they weren’t tough enough to stop the Celtics machine.

25. 1989-90 Detroit Pistons

Coach: Chuck Daly

Record: 59-23

Roster: Mark Aguirre, William Bedford, Joe Dumars, James Edwards, Dave Greenwood, Scott Hastings, Gerald Henderson, Vinnie Johnson, Stan Kimbrough, Bill Laimbeer, Ralph Lewis, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, Isiah Thomas

The Bad Boys went back-to-back with the same formula that won their first title: ferocious defense, timely offense and a Mean Streets attitude. Isiah Thomas smiled a lot, but he was a killer. Joe Dumars quietly piled up the points. Bill Laimbeer made no friends inside. Dennis Rodman rebounded and defended like a dervish. Mark Aguirre scored in many ways. James Edwards was a force in the post. And nobody wanted to mess with John Salley.

24. 2008-09 Los Angeles Lakers

Coach: Phil Jackson

Record: 65-17

Roster: Trevor Ariza, Shannon Brown, Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar, Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol, DJ Mbenga, Chris Mihm, Adam Morrison, Lamar Odom, Josh Powell, Vladimir Radmanovic, Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton, Sun Yue

The first of back-to-back titles was Kobe Bryant’s initial one as undisputed leader of the Lakers and redemption for the Mamba. A year after losing in the Finals to ancestral rival Boston, the Lakers piled up 65 wins—third most in franchise history—with Bryant leading the way but receiving plenty of help from Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum inside. The anticipated Finals matchup with Cleveland and LeBron James didn’t happen, so L.A. whipped Orlando instead.

23. 2007-08 Boston Celtics

Coach: Doc Rivers

Record: 66-16

Roster: Ray Allen, Tony Allen, PJ Brown, Sam Cassell, Glen Davis, Kevin Garnett, Eddie House, Kendrick Perkins, Paul Pierce, Scot Pollard, James Posey, Leon Powe, Gabe Pruitt, Rajon Rondo, Brian Scalabrine

Depending on how you define it, the Super Team era started in Boston in the summer of ’07, when future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined Paul Pierce to give the Celtics their best team in (at least) 20 years. Behind Pierce’s scoring, Allen’s shooting and KG’s two-way play, the Cs posted an NBA-high 66 wins and bounced LeBron and the Cavs en route to the Finals, where they renewed their rivalry with the Lakers. Not long after, they hung banner No. 17.

22. 1992-93 Chicago Bulls

Coach: Phil Jackson

Record: 57-25

Roster: BJ Armstrong, Ricky Blanton, Bill Cartwright, Joe Courtney, Jo Jo English, Horace Grant, Michael Jordan, Stacey King, Rodney McCray, Ed Nealy, John Paxson, Will Perdue, Scottie Pippen, Trent Tucker, Darrell Walker, Corey Williams, Scott Williams

The Lakers and Pistons had taken some of the magic out of title repeats by the time the Bulls
won their second straight, but no team since the Celtics’ ’60s dynasty had won three in a row. The Bulls felt like making history. The formula by now was familiar: Jordan averaged League-
highs in points (32.6) and steals (2.8), Scottie Pippen was a terror at both ends and Chicago made the big plays when it mattered, edging Barkley and the Suns in the Finals to seal the threepeat.

Read here to find out who made it on the rest of the list, including No. 75-66, 65-55, 54-44 and 43-33.

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The post SLAM’s TOP 75 NBA Teams of All Time: No. 32-22 appeared first on SLAM.

From the visionaries to the managers and all of those who helped blaze a trail while battling discrimination, the Black Fives helped strengthen and uplift their communities during Jim Crow.

Below is an excerpt from Johnson’s new book, which you can purchase here:

CHAPTER 26 

“TRUE WORLD CHAMPIONS” 

FEBRUARY 19, 1937, was a big night in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. That’s because  the Oshkosh All-Stars, a local all-White basketball team, were on the eve of  playing in a “World Series of Basketball” that would put the small city and the  state of Wisconsin on the national professional hardwood stage. 

Their opponents were the all-Black New York Renaissance Big Five. One  would think that in the Midwest, during the Great Depression, and during Jim  Crow, that the appearance of an African American team in an all-White town  would be of concern. But actually, the Rens were universally considered the  champions of basketball, and Wisconsin residents were some of the country’s  most passionate basketball fans. So they eagerly welcomed the visitors. 

Wisconsin was not new to interracial basketball. The Renaissance Five  had begun visiting Wisconsin in 1934. That year the Milwaukee Raynors, an  all-Black club, barnstormed the state from their home base of Milwaukee. The  Milwaukee Colored Panthers were also popular, and the all-Black Chicago  Crusaders toured through Wisconsin during the mid-1930s. 

Formed in 1931, the Oshkosh All-Stars had played the Rens for the first  time in February 1936 in a two-game series. The games drew so many specta tors that local promoter and Oshkosh team manager Lon Darling decided to  do it again in 1937. This time the two squads staged a five-game series to be  played in Oshkosh, Racine, Green Bay, Ripon, and Madison. Darling declared  that the winner of the series, which the papers dubbed the “World Series Of  Basketball,” would be considered the world’s champions of basketball. 

“It was a money-maker,” recalled former Renaissance Five star and future  Basketball Hall of Fame member John Isaacs. Each venue saw huge attendance,  and in local newspapers, race as a point of difference was rarely mentioned. It  seemed to matter only as a descriptive term. Prejudice was, if not trumped, at least mitigated by love of the game. According to Isaacs, on this trip the Rens  were able to stay in hotels and eat at restaurants like everyone else. “We had  trouble when we first started with all these white All-Americans, and when  we first started playing them, damn near every night we had to knock one  or two of them out,” said the Rens travel secretary and road manager, Eric  Illidge, many years later. “For two or three years straight, two or three jaws  were broken,” he continued. “Every night, every GAME we played, we had a  fight, not with the customers but with the players themselves—they couldn’t  stand us beating them,” said Illidge, whose only concern was keeping the score  down so they would get invited back. “I had two fighters on the team, they  broke about four or five different jaws, Pop Gates and Wee Willie Smith” he  explained. “And we kept doing it until everybody respected us.” Illidge had no  regrets. “My job with the Renaissance was easy and I’ll tell you why, we had  the best team at that time in basketball,” he said. “We was the biggest drawing  card in basketball.” His duties included making sure players would “leave on  time, be at the game on time, check the gate receipts, collect the money, give  them their lunch money, in fact, I took care of all the business.” Yet, Illidge  was always prepared for inevitable trouble. Often, the cash accumulated so  fast that he had to wire it back to Harlem using Western Union, unless it was  close to payday. “All this goddamn money in my pocket,” Illidge said. “One time  in Louisville some guy came and grabbed me and tried to take my money off  of me, but, he was so scared,” Illidge laughed. “I had my pistol in my pocket,  and I stuck it in his jaw, and he flew!” 

While the Rens faced all kinds of challenges on the road, none were as  bad as what happened to the New York Harlemites, an African American  barnstorming squad based in St. Louis. While driving toward Chester, Mon tana, on February 6, 1936, for a scheduled game, they encountered a blizzard.  Their car broke down and “the entire party was forced to get out and walk  to a farm house three miles away,” according to the Fort Benton River Press.  “The lowest reading of the thermometer was approximately 42 degrees below  zero” that week, the paper reported. They were rushed to nearby Shelby for  medical attention treatment of “frozen faces, feet and hands.” They continued  playing on schedule into March, when it was reported that the players, whose  frostbite injuries had “necessitated their playing with their hands taped, are  again able to play without bandages.” About 260 people showed for the game,  which the Harlemites won, 44-43, and “the colored artists performed perfectly despite the loss of their classy forward who died at Shelby when gangrene set  into his hands after they were frozen near there during the recent blizzards.”¹ The twenty-six-year-old professional basketball player, Benson Hall, had lost  his life after being sent home “because his mother back in St. Louis refused  to let them amputate parts of his body,” according to the daughter of Donnie  Goins, one of his teammates.

Getting back to the Rens, just in case, their team bus, a custom-made REO Speed Wagon, had two potbelly stoves on board for heat. These also  served to dry their sweat-soaked woolen uniforms when it was too cold to  let them air-dry with the windows open. “The bus was your home, when you  come to think of it,” said Isaacs in 1986. “The hard part wasn’t the playing,  it was the traveling.”³ Still, according to Isaacs, the Rens’ game strategy was  always the same. “Get ten points as quickly as you could, because those were  the ten points the refs were gonna take away.”  

Meanwhile, the Oshkosh All-Stars were trying to build a case to join the  National Basketball League, a proposed new circuit of teams from the Midwest  representing both large and small companies, from the Akron Firestones and  Akron Goodyears to the Indianapolis Kautskys and Richmond King Clothiers.  This league was still only just an idea at the time. The All-Stars lost that 1937  series with the Rens, three games to two, but Bob Douglas agreed to a return  engagement, a two-game series in March 1937. 

Ever the shrewd promoter, Darling declared that those two extra games  would extend their previous “World Series” to seven games. In other words,  if the All-Stars won both, they would be the new world champions, instead of  the Rens. The All-Stars managed to pull it off, and the following season the  NBL added Oshkosh as a founding member. 

Beyond delighting Wisconsinites, the series between the All-Stars and  the Rens served a purpose for basketball fans around the country: It helped to  determine which top-notch team was truly the best. For a long time, any team  (like Will Madden’s Incorporators) could claim they were “world champions,”  and often the public was understandably confused. Behind the scenes, promot 

ers took notice. A team’s won-loss record might speak for itself. But no hard  stats could prove the greatness of a barnstorming team without a doubt. Which  was why Edward W. Cochrane, a Chicago Herald-American sports editor,  came up with the idea for a World Championship of Professional Basketball.  “At the time there were no less than a score of professional basketball teams, all advertising themselves as world’s champions,” Cochrane remembered in  1941. The annual tournament was born “out of the chaos of these conflict ing claims,” he said. So, they decided to settle the chaos once and for all. The  clear-sighted inclusion by the Herald-American of all-Black teams from the outset gave legitimacy to the tournament as well as to pro basketball itself.  Twelve teams were invited to the inaugural tournament in 1939, the best  pro teams in the country, including the New York Rens, Oshkosh All-Stars,  Harlem Globe Trotters, and New York Celtics. It tipped off on March 26, at  the 132nd Regiment Armory in Chicago, a cavernous drill hall, where eight  thousand fans saw the Rens defeat the New York Yankees 30–21. The follow ing day, the Rens took down the Globe Trotters, 27–23 at Chicago Coliseum,  a historic structure that had been the site of six Republican National Conven tions and the home of the Chicago Blackhawks early in their existence. Bob  Douglas and his Renaissance Five had made it to the final, which was played  on March 29 against their familiar rivals, the Oshkosh All Stars. New York  triumphed, 34–25, making headlines across the country. But when champi onship jackets were awarded to the players, star guard John Isaacs famously  borrowed a razor blade from a teammate and carefully removed the stitches  that attached the word colored off of the back of his, so that it read, simply,  world champions. 

John William Isaacs, aka “Boy Wonder,” a bruising, powerfully built six-foot,  three-inch, 190-pound guard, was a star player from East Harlem. He led  his Textile High School squad to the 1934–5 Public School Athletic League  championship, with a defeat of New York City powerhouse and defending  PSAL champion DeWitt Clinton High School. Following a successful 1935–6  season, Textile lost in the city PSAL playoffs when Isaacs, being twenty years  old, was ruled ineligible to play in high school.”⁴ 

Being ineligible had its perks. Isaacs played games with the St. Peter  Claver Penguins, a Brooklyn-based “colored” team that featured Puggy Bell, a  future pro teammate, and in the fall of 1936, he appeared with the New York Collegians, another all-Black squad.⁵ These brief stints not only proved that  Isaacs could play at the next level, they also caught the eye of Bob Douglas. 

Excerpt from the new book THE BLACK FIVES: THE EPIC STORY OF BASKETBALL’S FORGOTTEN ERA by Claude Johnson published by Abrams Press

Text copyright © 2022 Claude Johnson

The post ‘The Black Fives’ Tells the Monumental History of the Black Pioneers Who Revolutionized the Game appeared first on SLAM.

“I just wanted to let the city know [that] I’m fully behind the message. I think the team is [too], at the same time. We’re trying to bring Detroit back on top in the sports world because that’s what we control, but Detroit got a lot of things going on. I think the city’s gonna continue to grow.” 

SLAM 238 featuring Cade Cunningham is AVAILABLE NOW!

Moments earlier, Cunningham was dripped out in a furry, fire-engine red Des Pierrot coat, his Pistons City Edition uniform and a blinged out gold chain while posing for his cover. He was hip to the Detroit scene long before his arrival: he started listening to Detroit rap in high school, from 42 Dugg to Sada Baby, Babyface Ray and Veeze. He messes with the movies heavy, too. “I don’t know if you know about Buffed Up. It’s a little movie. Tough! See, I can put y’all on, fam! Y’all gotta watch McGraw Ave.” 

It’s crazy to think that there was a time, especially in the beginning, when many doubted Cunningham’s potential in the League. The hype was real coming in. As a senior in high school, he averaged 13.9 points and led Montverde Academy to a 25-0 record. At Oklahoma State, he averaged 20.1 ppg and led the Cowboys to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Despite the Pistons’ struggles this season, the 20-year-old rookie didn’t shy away from the moment.

Some might have questioned him at first, but make no mistake now: Cade Cunningham is a certified superstar in the making.

He’s had conversations with Pistons Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas about leadership and what it takes to bring a team together. He’s well aware, too, of what it’ll take to earn respect.

“I think the biggest thing I learned is that the League, the media, nobody will care until you’re winning,” he tells SLAM. “I could feel bad for myself all I want about [how] people didn’t respect or appreciate the season I had, or anything, but I didn’t win a lot of games. So, I think that’s been the biggest thing that I’ve locked in on and I decided within. I have to win games if I want people to respect my name, and if not, then I can’t be mad at people not watching enough games and how I really play. That’s the challenge that I’ve tried to take on. I’ve talked to teammates [and] we’re all trying to take that challenge on. I think that’s the next step for us.” 

Just a week before our interview, it was announced that his Montverde teammate, Scottie Barnes, had won Rookie of the Year. Cunningham, who led all rookies in scoring (17.4 ppg) and was second in assists (5.6 apg), finished third in voting behind Barnes and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley. He isn’t sweating the outcome, though. “Scottie is my brother, I’m happy that he got that award. I feel like it’s great that it’s him, [my] Montverde teammate. I’m super excited [for him]. I mean, it’s never really been about that award for me. I’ve had a ton of questions asked about it, you know—Rookie of the Year, what do you think about you winning? So, I’ma answer the question, you know? I feel like I should win it. That’s natural. But it was never a knock on those guys. I love their game and I’m happy that now we can quiet that question down. Congrats to Scottie, man, I love my dog.”

Cunningham’s own emergence this season, one which catapulted him into the running for ROY after missing all of the preseason and the first four regular season games due to an ankle injury he suffered in training camp, is a conversation worth having. The expectations were very high for him coming in, and while his debut was underwhelming—just 2 points against Orlando, followed by 6 against Milwaukee three nights later—even Pistons head coach Dwane Casey had made it clear during media day that Cade would need some time to get adjusted. Still, the media, and social media, reacted immediately. Some called him a flop and a bust. There were memes and tweets that claimed he should get traded.

“I wanted to take it slow, but at the same time I was so anxious to hurry up and get out there for my first NBA game,” he says in retrospect. “It was a balancing act, [and] I think it was something that was definitely a lesson learned as far as who I am and my body. It taught me a lot of patience, for sure. I dreamed of being in the NBA, and to have my first game be a bit of a tease from me, like, You can’t play yet. But when it did come, I felt like all of that stuff was behind me.”

He was well aware of what people were saying about him. When he became the first Pistons rookie to put up a double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds) in just his third career game, joining the elite company of Grant Hill and Isiah Thomas as the only Pistons rooks to do so, everyone had something to say about how he was shooting 17.9 percent from the field at the time. The reality was that, in the beginning, he was just as hard on himself. 

“I think I was bothered with myself more than anything, just because I wasn’t playing the way that I had expected myself to play, where I dreamt of coming into the NBA and playing. Everybody comes in and dreams of dropping 35 in their first game and everybody’s shocked. You know, everybody dreams of that. Whenever I got into the League and I played and that didn’t happen—I scored one bucket my first game—you just kind of take it for what it is and then move on. Hope that things get better. Not even hope but make sure that they do.”

His teammates, coaches and family continued to reassure him that he was straight. Keep going, keep pushing, they’d tell him. Keep being aggressive. He put up 17 points against Brooklyn in November, showing off his court vision and shot-making ability, and earning props from Kevin Durant, who has known him since high school. The narrative was starting to shift. Headlines went from calling him on the “wrong side of history” and “struggling early” to suggesting that he could take over for Detroit. A week later, he had 25/8/8 and hit five threes against the Kings to become the youngest player (20 years, 51 days) in League history with that stat line.

“I think anybody that says, I didn’t hear it, that’s cap,” Cunningham says. “But, I try not to put too much weight on [it] whenever I’m playing well, and everybody’s praising me—the same way as I try not to put too much weight around when people are hating, because at any time you have a good game, people are gonna love [you and] when you have a bad game, people are gonna hate you. You can’t put too much of your feelings into that, the Twitter game, Instagram, whatever it is, because it’s not gonna help me on the court. I just tried to lock into what the locker room needed, what they wanted. I think just keeping my mind in the right place allowed me to end up turning the corner.”

Rather than get caught up in the outside noise, good or bad, he looked inward. Cunningham, who has been practicing yoga since last summer, is big on meditation. He does it daily, even multiple times a day, but it really started as something he did before games. “I think it’s really helped me. Anytime that I feel like I need to kind of reset, I can do it in the moment a little bit.

“In some of these instances, it feels like there’s really nothing you can do to fully take it off—the anxiety of going into a big game,” he adds. “Sometimes it’s impossible to relieve that. But, I mean, that’s what we asked for. That’s what I asked for, to be in the NBA, to be in these moments. I try not to just completely shy away from those times, where I’m like, you know, my head is all over the place. And you know what happens whenever you go into games feeling like that, so, just trying to tune that stuff out. And then, like I said, just locking in to who I am and being unapologetic about what I look like out there.” 

Even during a 14-game losing stretch, the 6-7 guard continued to show flashes of his potential. A triple-double, his career’s first, against the Lakers, 26 points against Portland, 28 against OKC. The losing not only tested him and the team, but looking back, he says it will only prepare them moving forward. 

“What we [were] going through in that time, mentally, emotionally, having to get through that and overcome that, as a team, I feel like that’ll set us up for [dealing with] the adversity that we’ll run into in the future. I had never went through anything like that, losing. I feel like it taught me a lot about myself and how I can lock back in and get back on the right track.” 

The wins, few as they were, did start to come. He was clutch in an upset against the Celtics, dropping 20 points and helping deliver a crucial block on Jaylen Brown in the final seconds to end Boston’s nine-game winning streak. He pulled up to All-Star Weekend and won MVP of the Rising Stars Game. In March, the Pistons went on a three-game winning streak, their first in three years. Even after a loss to the Nets, Cade matched his own career-high of 34 points. When a reporter pointed out the Pistons’ struggles to KD, he clapped back. “What do you mean, a team like Detroit?” Durant asked. “I know their record isn’t good, but they’ve still got pros over there.” He had some more words about Cade, too. “When you got a 6-7 point guard, it’s a good start…Somebody that can wreck a whole defensive game plan with his size, his talent, his skill…I could see this team being a force to be reckoned with in the future.” 

Legends have shown him love. The whole city is rockin’ with him. The excitement is building around not only the team, but Cunningham as the face of the franchise. He has a few things planned this offseason as he trains for year 2: taking care of his body, getting stronger in the weight room and packing on some protein (he’s vegan). He recently took a trip up to Joshua Tree in Cali and plans on taking his daughter Riley to Disney World for the first time. (Riley, who was born during his senior year of HS, loves princesses.) Fatherhood, he goes on to say, has taught him that he’s not just doing this for himself, but for her, too. “I had her in high school and [she] changed my whole lens on life, really,” he says, adding, “I know that I’m doing everything for a greater purpose now.” 

And even when he’s felt like it’s Cade versus everyone, he knows that this is just the beginning. The Pistons did put up more wins this season than they have in the past few years, and their young core of Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart and  Killian Hayes all averaged career-highs in their second seasons. Jerami Grant averaged almost 20 ppg. The come-up is real. 

“Within, I think it’s me versus everybody, but I got a squad behind me, too. It’s us versus everybody.” 

SLAM 238 is available now in this exclusive Gold Metal Edition and Cover Tee. Tap in.

Portraits by Jonathan Lewis.

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While it helps, you don’t have to win a championship to be on this list. There were some pretty incredible NBA teams that fell short of championships but were still so far ahead of the rest of the League (besides the champion) that they deserve to leapfrog some actual champions. 

This week, we’re unveiling who we think deserves to be included on this list, which is featured in our SLAM Presents TOP 75 NBA Teams of All Time special issue. Here’s our top 65-55:

65. 1983-84 Los Angeles Lakers

Coach: Pat Riley

Record: 54-28

Roster: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Cooper, Calvin Garrett, Magic Johnson, Eddie Jordan, Mitch Kupchak, Bob McAdoo, Mike McGee, Swen Nater, Kurt Rambis, Byron Scott, Larry Spriggs, Jamaal Wilkes, James Worthy

The Lakers would have to wait one more year to finally beat the Celtics when it mattered most. Led by Kareem’s 26.6 ppg and 8.1 rpg in the series, the Lakers forced a Game 7 on the road. But whether it was the mystique of Boston Garden, that famously tricky parquet floor or simply a deep and talented Celtics team that had the benefit of homecourt advantage and League MVP Larry Bird, L.A. couldn’t quite vanquish its franchise kryptonite.

64. 1976-77 Philadephia 76ers

Coach: Gene Shue

Record: 50-32

Roster: Jim Barnett, Henry Bibby, Joe Bryant, Fred Carter, Harvey Catchings, Doug Collins, Darryl Dawkins, Mike Dunleavy, Julius Erving, World B. Free, Terry Furlow, Caldwell Jones, George McGinnis, Steve Mix

This Sixers squad might be best remembered for a roster that included future coaches (Doug Collins, Mike Dunleavy) and the fathers of future All-Stars (Joe Bryant, Harvey Catchings, Henry Bibby). Of course, Philly also had Dr. J in his first NBA season after a legendary five-year ABA run, and second-year big man Darryl Dawkins, a few years shy of his Chocolate Thunder prime. A fascinating roster, but no match for Bill Walton and the Blazers in the Finals.

63. 1967-68 Philadelphia 76ers

Coach: Alex Hannum

Record: 62-20

Roster: Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Costello, Billy Cunningham, Ron Filipek, Johnny Green, Hal Greer, Matt Guokas, Luke Jackson, Wali Jones, Bill Melchionni, Jim Reid, Chet Walker

Philly finished with the League’s best record, eight games clear of the Celtics in the East, thanks to balanced production from future Hall of Famers Hal Greer (24.1 ppg), Billy Cunningham (18.9 ppg), Chet Walker (17.9 ppg) and of course, Wilt Chamberlain, who put up 24.3 points and pulled down 23.8 boards per. The Sixers didn’t lose more than two straight all season…until the East Finals, when they blew a 3-1 lead against Russell, Havlicek and the eventual champs from Boston.

62. 2001-02 Sacramento Kings

Coach: Rick Adelman

Record: 61-21

Roster: Mike Bibby, Chucky Brown, Doug Christie, Mateen Cleaves, Vlade Divac, Lawrence Funderburke, Bobby Jackson, Scot Pollard, Brent Price, Jabari Smith, Peja Stojakovic, Hedo Turkoglu, Gerald Wallace, Chris Webber

For Kings fans, it is still a crime, the grandest larceny ever. Game 6 of the Western Finals against the Lakers was flat stolen from Sacramento. Missed calls. Allegations of referees fixing the proceedings. It was ugly, nasty business. And it robbed the team with the NBA’s best record, the one with Chris Webber in charge down low, Peja Stojakovic shooting from everywhere and a deep supporting cast of a title. It’s that simple. And that outrageous.

61. 1995-96 Seattle Supersonics

Coach: George Karl

Record: 64-18

Roster: Vincent Askew, Frank Brickowski, Sherell Ford, Hersey Hawkins, Ervin Johnson, Shawn Kemp, Nate McMillan, Gary Payton, Sam Perkins, Steve Scheffler, Detlef Schrempf, Eric Snow, David Wingate

What happens when one of the greatest teams in franchise history meets the greatest team in NBA history? Well, you can figure it out. The Sonics won the Pacific by 11 games and had a star-studded lineup with ferocious Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton on the perimeter, talking junk and stealing everything, smooth Detlef Schrempf all over the place and Hersey Hawkins shooting the lights out. Seattle was great. Really great. Unfortunately, the Bulls were greater.

60. 1956-57 Boston Celtics

Coach: Red Auerbach

Record: 44-28

Roster: Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, Dick Hemric, Jim Loscutoff, Jack Nichols, Togo Palazzi, Andy Phillip, Frank Ramsey, Arnie Risen, Bill Russell, Bill Sharman, Lou Tsioropoulos

The birth of a dynasty. Led by the in-their-prime backcourt of Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, and the frontcourt pairing of rookies Tom Heinsohn and Bill Russell, the Celtics made the franchise’s first Finals appearance in the spring of ’57. St. Louis took Boston to double OT in Game 7, but Heinsohn (37 points, 23 boards) matched Bob Pettit (39 and 19), and Russell went for 19 and 32 to help the Celtics claim the first of their 17 banners.

59. 2017-18 Houston Rockets

Coach: Mike D’Antoni

Record: 65-17

Roster: Ryan Anderson, Trevor Ariza, Tarik Black, Bobby Brown, Markel Brown, Isaiah Canaan, Clint Capela, Eric Gordon, Gerald Green, James Harden, Nene, RJ Hunter, Aaron Jackson, Demetrius Jackson,  Joe Johnson, Luc Mbah a Moute, Chinanu Onuaku, Chris Paul, Zhou Qi, Tim Quarterman, PJ Tucker, Briante Weber, Troy Williams, Brandan Wright

Unfortunately, these Rockets, which featured the dynamic backcourt of James Harden, Chris Paul and Eric Gordon, won’t be remembered for their NBA-best record or high-scoring ways. They will be remembered for that 25-point second half in Game 6 of the Western Finals against Golden State and then a homecourt loss two days later that ended the series. Houston played fast, used Clint Capela to handle the rough stuff inside and still wonders what might have been.

58. 2004-05 Phoenix Suns

Coach: Mike D’Antoni

Record: 62-20

Roster: Leandro Barbosa, Zarko Cabarkapa, Steven Hunter, Jim Jackson, Casey Jacobsen, Joe Johnson, Maciej Lampe, Shawn Marion, Walter McCarty, Steve Nash, Bo Outlaw, Smush Parker, Quentin Richardson, Paul Shirley, Amar’e Stoudemire, Yuta Tabuse, Jake Voskuhl, Jackson Vroman

These Suns didn’t care much about defense, and they flamed out in the Western Finals against San Antonio, despite having the NBA’s best record. But what a fun team to watch. Led by League MVP Steve Nash, Phoenix pushed the tempo feverishly and featured a talented collection of scorers. Nobody could dunk like Shawn Marion, unless it was Amar’e Stoudemire. Joe Johnson was deadly from three, and Quentin Richardson shot from everywhere. Good times.

57. 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers

Coach: Frank Vogel

Record: 52-19

Roster: Kostas Antetokounmpo, Avery Bradley, Devontae Cacok, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso, Quinn Cook, Troy Daniels, Anthony Davis, Jared Dudley, Danny Green, Talen Horton-Tucker, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, JaVale McGee, Markieff Morris, Zach Norvell, Rajon Rondo, JR Smith, Dion Waiters

One year after failing to make the playoffs, the Lakers won it all in the COVID-19 bubble. Anthony Davis joined LeBron James in a formidable pairing, and the duo combined for 51.4 ppg. The Lakers lost only five games in their four playoff series. James led the NBA in assists, the supporting cast handled its roles without complaint and the Lakers won it all in a season they dedicated to the late Kobe Bryant.

56. 2009-10 Boston Celtics

Coach: Doc Rivers

Record: 50-32

Roster: Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Marquis Daniels, Glen Davis, Michael Finley, Kevin Garnett, JR Giddens, Eddie House, Lester Hudson, Oliver Lafayette, Marcus Landry, Kendrick Perkins, Paul Pierce, Nate Robinson, Rajon Rondo, Brian Scalabrine, Henry Walker, Rasheed Wallace, Shelden Williams

The Celtics’ Big Three led the squad on another trek to the Finals that included an Atlantic Division title. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were again the engine on an Eastern Conference title team, with help from point man Rajon Rondo and center Kendrick Perkins, while Rasheed Wallace provided support up front. Boston led the Lakers, 3-2, in the Finals, but ultimately lost a seven-game decision.

55. 1996-97 Utah Jazz

Coach: Jerry Sloan

Record: 64-18

Roster: Shandon Anderson, Antoine Carr, Howard Eisley, Greg Foster, Jeff Hornacek, Stephen Howard, Adam Keefe, Karl Malone, Chris Morris, Ruben Nembhard, Greg Ostertag, Bryon Russell, John Stockton, Brooks Thompson, Jamie Watson

The Jazz had plenty of great seasons during the Karl Malone-John Stockton years, but this might have been the best. Malone was League MVP, and Utah set a franchise record for wins that still stands. Stockton once again ran the show and set up everyone, while Jeff Hornacek and Bryon Russell were valuable on the perimeter. The Jazz looked good, but as usual, the Bulls looked better, taking the Finals in six.

Read here to find out who made the No. 75-66 spot on the list.

Get your copy of SLAM Presents TOP 75 NBA Teams Of All Time

Photos via Getty Images.

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Luka Magic had led the Mavs to their first Western Conference Finals appearance since 2011, when Dallas won their first NBA title. Following their first conference finals practice on Tuesday, Doncic and the Mavs have loved life and enjoyed getting to work the greatest job in the world, playing basketball. When Dallas faces off against the Golden State Warriors, they’ll be playing with house money and less pressure than the Dubs.

“I’m living my best life – a dream,” Doncic said. “Before Game 7, I said this might be my last game of the NBA season, but I was ready. I wanted to play basketball.

“Tomorrow is another basketball game that I’ll enjoy. I get to play at least four (more games). You never know, so I’m just happy to be playing basketball. It’s incredible.”

Doncic has been deep in his bag through the Mavericks playoff run, as un-guardable as he’s ever been. Honestly, Doncic getting a bucket is as inevitable as Thanos is. In their seven-game series win against Phoenix Suns, Luka Legend averaged 32.6 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 7.0 assists per game, scoring 30+ three times, starting the series off with some fireworks after dropping 45 points in 44 minutes.

When the Mavs take on the Dubs, Doncic will have to figure out to solve a defense headlined by Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Andrew Wiggins. The Mavs will surely attempt to force a Doncic-Stephen Curry matchup off a switch to counteract those potentially tough matchups. When the Mavs and Warriors played on March 3, Doncic finished the 122-113 win with 41 points, 10 rebounds, and nine dimes.

Will double-teams work in slowing down Doncic? Luka Magic won’t tell.

“Then, everybody would play that defense,” he said. “For me, I’ll probably see a couple more double team this series, and that’s fine. We faced double teams the whole season. I think we play the best when they double team – four-on-three basketball in the NBA. We have a lot of great players.”

When Doncic finally faces the playoff defense of the Warriors, Coach Jason Kidd is confident the three-time All-Star will find a way to figure out the different looks Coach Steve Kerr will throw at Doncic to slow down the superstar point guard. Because Doncic has faced so many different coverages since playing in Europe and the NBA, he’s not worried about what Luka Legend will do because “The bigger it gets, the better he plays. So hopefully, that’s what happens for us.”

Doncic is most looking forward to being defended by Green, who has a DPOY in his name and has embraced the challenge of slowing down superstars like Doncic throughout this career. It will be interesting to see how Green, Thompson, and Wiggins counteract Luka Legends’ isolation prowess, Doncic being great at playing at his own speed, and his ability to throw passes out of the post to his snipers around the perimeter.

“I have so much respect for Draymond,” Doncic said. “Obviously, Klay and Steph are incredible, but I think the key to the Warriors’ team is Draymond.

“He’s just unbelievable, and I really respect him. He impacts the game in every other category.”

Game 1 of the WCF between the Mavs and Warriors will undoubtedly be primetime viewing on Tuesday night. Especially with Dallas being able to lose and freely fresh off their Game 7 blowout over the Suns. All the pressure will be on the Warriors, who are likely the favorite to win the series and advance to their fifth NBA Finals since 2015.

The post Luka Doncic Thinks Draymond Green is the ‘Key’ to the Warriors appeared first on SLAM.

As the League celebrates it’s 75th anniversary, there’s quite a few Top 75 lists out there already. In fact, we’ve got quite a few of our own, from SLAM’s Top 75 Players of All Time Special Issue to most recently our Top 75 NBA Teams of All Time (shop here). We could’ve easily left it at that, but after checking out Tracy McGrady’s new Ones Basketball 1-on-1 League, we started thinking about the best 1-on-1 NBA players of all time.

So, we decided to have some fun with it and put together a bold list, categorized based on height, of all of the names that should be included in that conversation.

6-3 AND BELOW

1. Allen Iverson
A one-man revolution where the cross was just the beginning. He’s the master mixer on
our list for a reason.

2. Kyrie Irving
Hang it in the Louvre. KAI’s game is entirely its own art form.

3. Stephen Curry
The greatest shooter of all time needs just a sliver of space to make you pay, all while
staring down the crowd as the ball drops through the net. Uncanny.

4. Derrick Rose
Athleticism that was unparalleled and the nonexistence of fear had D. Rose bullying the
League as the youngest MVP ever.

5. Chris Paul
A mid range savant. A floor general. A Point God.

6. Gilbert Arenas
Agent Zero was lethal, tactical and surgical in leaving defenders guessing what portion
of the bag was about to be unleashed.

7. Damian Lillard
You can pick him up, but what comes next is entirely on you.

8. Russell Westbrook
Shot out of a cannon, if No. 0 is barrelling down the court, you best clear the runway.

9. Isiah Thomas
Lower to the ground just meant more ways to attack as the handle powered the
creativity that No. 11 enacted on his way to snagging two.

10. Jerry West
The Logo was constantly carving up defenses to drop buckets and dimes left and right.

11. Ja Morant
The ascension has been recognized. Call 12, and he’s always gonna answer.

12.Baron Davis
A blend of everything. Baron gave birth to the uber athletic displays of guard play that
we’ve become enthralled with over the years.

13. Trae Young
There’s a new villain in town and he’ll take your heart and your team’s straight to the
offseason.

14. Tiny Archibald
Ain’t nothing tiny about this man’s game. Nothing.

15. Stephon Marbury
The inspiration behind one of the greatest hoops flicks of all time attacked the game entirely on his own terms.

16. Tim Hardaway Sr
Having a killer crossover named after you is a mic drop moment.

17. CJ McCollum
The slipperiest shooting guard in the L. Shaking and baking is his M.O

18. Deron Williams
D Will mastered his own pace to the game. Separation was key and once he created it, you might as well just head back down for O.

19. Donovan Mitchell
Picking up this man is like taking a trip throughout the Spida-Verse, sprawling, spinning and overstimulated with flashes of colorful creativity and blinding moves.

20. Jrue Holiday
Always reliable, always locked in, always ready to pull it in your eye. Second-guessing is the greatest compliment a hooper can recognize and Jrue sees it often.

21. Steve Francis
Constantly sending defenders stumbling, Steve Francis doesn’t often get his due as one of the shiftiest guards to ever step on the hardwood.

22. Tony Parker
Some speed is built, some is gifted. TP’s froze defenders in a picture frame as he weaved around the paint for dimes and buckets.

23. Kemba Walker
We know y’all remember THE step back. Nuff said.

24. Chauncey Billups
Decidedly different. Big guard, big body, big buckets.

25. John Wall
Revolutionary athleticism instilled John Wall as the next box-office point guard. Go do your Google searches and watch his mixtapes to see what we’re seeing.

26. Lou Williams
Lou Williams is too smooth with it: a certified bucket, 3x NBA Sixth Man Player of the Year and a derserver of the utmost respect. 

27. Monta Ellis
Those 360 layups were just a regular thing for Monta Ellis. That’s what type of time he was on. 

28. Nick Van Exel
Nick Van Exel was waaaaaay too quick with it, from the crossovers to the high-flying drives to the lane to those insane dishes and dimes.

29. Jamal Murray
We’ve already told you this before: there’s music in Jamal Murray’s game. Try not to get lost in the melody, though, because he will drop 50 on you. Again and again.

30. Brandon Jennings
Dropping 55 points as a rookie is quite the statement, but then again, Brandon Jennings was never one to shy away from any moment. His game was too electric.

6-4 TO 6-8 

1. Michael Jordan
   The greatest. Put MJ in any situation, matchup or moment and you already know the outcome. Nothing more needs to be said.

2. Kobe Bryant
   He was constantly ascending past the depths of what competing truly meant. He knew your next move before you’d even had a chance to formulate the thought.

3. Tracy McGrady
   Scoring 13 points in 33 seconds is wild, but that’s just what T-Mac was about. One of the most complete scorers in the history of the Association.

4. Carmelo Anthony
   The fadeaway. The jab step. The spot-up jump shot, and his signature “washing machine” spin move. Carmelo Anthony remains one of the game’s most unstoppable scorers of all time. 

5. Kawhi Leonard
   Best believe, any matchup against the Klaw will result in him getting the last laugh. Trying to defend him in a 1v1? Now that’s pure comedy. 

6. Dwyane Wade
   The nickname was fitting: the Flash was one of most elite and efficient shooting guards who attacked the basket with an explosiveness that couldn’t possibly be contained. 

7. James Harden
   Equipped with a signature-move so iconic, a few names on this list have tried it out, the Beard is truly lethal with the rock in his hands.

8. Julius Erving
   A wizard who truly transcended the game. Every move was a symphony of basketball played at its finest. 

9. Charles Barkley
   A relentlessly physical rebounder with an attitude to match, Sir Charles was a force to be reckoned with.

10. Devin Booker
    With the words “Be Legendary” tattooed on his forearm, D-Book has continued to transcend his game towards just that no matter if he’s pullin’ up from midrange or hitting clutch shots from deep. 

11. Scottie Pippen
    One of the game’s greats could really do it all, from dishing out dimes and orchestrating an offense to snagging boards and holding it down on the defensive end. Versatility at it’s finest.  

12. Paul George
    PG’s all-around game is just one of the many things that define his greatness. His explosiveness and ability to create his own shot is another.

13. Paul Pierce
    The Truth can be hard for many to accept, but his dominance was nothing but pure facts. Shaquille O’Neal had a thing for nicknames, and when Paul Pierce dropped 42 on the Lakers in ’01, Shaq went over to the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett and told him to write this down: “My name is Shaquille O’Neal and Paul Pierce is the truth. Quote me on that and don’t take nothing out.” Enough said.

14. DeMar DeRozan
    The King of the Fourth is a true revolutionary when it comes to the art of the midrange.

15. Jimmy Butler
    They call him Jimmy Buckets for a reason. That’s exactly what you’re gonna get.

16. Jayson Tatum
    JT moves different out there on the parquet floor, from the lethal step back and sidestep threes to the sheer dominance every time the rock touches his hands. That’s what happens when you’re mentored by none other than the Mamba.

17. Vince Carter
    Once Vince Carter got within eyesight of that line, it was over before it had even begun.

18. Zion Williamson
    You can’t be contained when the limits never existed. The same goes in the paint, or anywhere on the floor, when it comes to Zion Williamson. 

19. Penny Hardaway
    One of the greatest guards ever. That spin fake into a stepback, move? Pure magic.

20. Luka Doncic
    Luka plays at his own pace while completely dominating in the process. Different.

21. Dominique Wilkins
    With legs like propellers and arms that could absorb contact, Nique had underrated shot-making ability that went along with his otherworldly athleticism. 

22. Grant Hill 
    Versatility in a human being. Grant Hill was a threat to score from all three levels.

23. Elgin Baylor
    Surrender the skies to Elgin Baylor. Aerially gifted with merciless finishes at the rim.

24. George Gervin
    Smooth, refined, patient, disciplined and measured. Ice’s game was where fundamental met flash.

25. Alex English
    Nobody scored more points in the 1980s than Alex English. Nobody.

26. Joe Johnson
    His nickname is Iso Joe. Nothing more needs to be said.

27. Bradley Beal
    Bradley Beal technically has a perfect jumpshot. Pair that exquisite form with his handles and the result is a scoring machine.

28. Klay Thompson
    One of the best shooters ever is also a big body that precisely clamps players of all heights and weights.

29. Gary Payton
    Possibly the best perimeter defender to ever play, Gary Payton could also get to the tin whenever he wanted.

30. Jamal Crawford
    Jamal Crawford is creativity unleashed through instinct and intellect.

6-9 AND UP

1. Shaquille O’Neal
   The most physically dominant player ever. Realistically, there’s nobody stopping the Diesel.

2. Kevin Durant
   Size, skills, smarts. There have been very few other players that are more offensively complete than Kevin Durant.

3. LeBron James
   The case can be made that LeBron James is the best player ever. Full stop.

4. Giannis Antetokounmpo
   Try guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo without any help defense. Get the picture?

5. Kevin Garnett
   The only part of Kevin Garnett’s game that outshined his skills on both sides of the ball was his competitiveness, a trait that’s gone nearly unmatched throughout history.

6. Hakeem Olajuwon
   Possibly the best two-way center ever, who dominated with equal doses of agility and nimbleness, power and force.

7. David Robinson
   Dunks and jumpers with the left, blocks and steals with both of his hands and a compressed trampoline in his right leg, David Robinson’s basketball IQ was just as ridiculous as his athletic capabilities.

8. Karl Malone
   Brute strength. Left side of the post to the right side of the hoop every single time. Never could be stopped.

9. Wilt Chamberlain
   Scored 100 points in a game, averaged 50 points for a season and if blocks and steals were tallied when he played, Wilt Chamberlain’s mythic status would be even greater than it already is.

10. Joel Embiid
    Joel Embiid is a guard stuck inside a 7-2, 280-pound body.

11. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
    The author of the game’s most unstoppable shot, its leading scorer and a shot-blocking terror.

12. Larry Bird
    Larry Bird was so good at scoring that he would tell bigger, stronger and more athletic defenders exactly what he planned to do with the ball and they still couldn’t contain him.

13. Anthony Davis
    Middies, catch-and-shoot threes, barrels to the rim, pick-and-roll ball containment, weakside shot-blocking and passing lane invader properly describes Anthony Davis.  

14. Moses Malone
    Quite possibly the most underrated great in NBA history, Moses Malone was unstoppable from the block and even if he did miss, he’d consume offensive rebounds with such ferocity that the ensuing putbacks would be uncontested.

15. Dirk Nowitzki
    It’s real when a singular shot is credited to a player. Basketball now has the one-legged fadeaway thanks to Dirk Nowitzki.

Subscribe to the official podcast of the basketball bible, SLAM’s “No Pump Fakes.”

Follow host Theus McBee on Instagram @theuselijah and Ahmad Smith, @akisnba.

The post SLAM’s Official Top 75 Greatest 1-on-1 NBA Players of All Time List appeared first on SLAM.

But before I decide where to call home, there’s something else to think about: How and where could SLAM exist in another dimension? That question has been answered, a few times over. 

The biggest world, a universe really, where SLAM has a presence is the Marvel Universe. Luke Cage series creator Cheo Hodari Coker—who also wrote SLAM 24’s cover story on Kobe Bryant—showed some love to his SLAM Fam by including a fictional excerpt of the PUNKS column (our former HS section, now called The Come Up) in the first episode of the Netflix show. Fast forward to a scene in Pop’s Barbershop, and some of the article’s finer details can be seen in the freeze frame. I strained my eyes to read more about “RUN-DSC…”

You’ll also find SLAM in the world of comedy, thanks to Shea Serrano and Arturo Torres, the bestselling writer and illustrator of a ton of New York Times’ hits like Basketball and Other Things, who immortalized fictional Sixers fan Jim Halpert from The Office on a cover that I’d happily buy multiple copies of. There’s also a rumor going around the SLAM Dome that the publication’s fine literature can be found in STARZ’ Survivor’s Remorse. Any world with a character played by Mike Epps could be fun. 

Back in 1998, two universes almost intertwined for real, for real. Filmmaker Spike Lee was working on his next masterpiece, He Got Game, and the film’s lead character, Jesus Shuttlesworth, was (at the time) about to be an even bigger deal than Ray Allen. By then, SLAM was kind of a big deal too. Spike shared SLAM’s love for the Knicks, the playful hate of Reggie Miller and understood that the magazine’s readers were his viewers. Our mutual audience would be flooding movie theaters to watch Denzel Washington rock a pair of Jordan XIIIs and battle Ray one-on-one. He also understood that (in the basketball world of the late ’90s) a SLAM cover was as big of a promo as anyone could get. SLAM Ed. Tony Gervino also saw it as a chance to pull just about any stunt necessary.

A plan was formed. Spike wanted a Jesus Shuttlesworth cover and SLAM was the only mag who could legitimately pull it off. The movie was in production, yet no one knew about it or Allen’s involvement, so the idea was to drop the Jesus cover as the ultimate April Fool’s prank in the spring of 1998. It would make history as the first SLAM cover featuring a fictional character. But it didn’t happen. An irritating leak meant that the element of surprise was gone and the concept was void.

While the Shuttlesworth cover may not have entered our galaxy, fans of Spike’s classic movie will have observed that “Coney Island Jesus” did in fact get a cover. It sits in pride of place above the TV of Jesus’ humble abode…and in Spike Lee’s office in Brooklyn.

Before emails and comment sections in social media, SLAM’s Trash Talk section was made up of physical letters. Not only would fans complain to the editors about stories, yell at readers who made up the previous issue’s Trash Talk and vent about their team’s losing streak, some would also submit carefully crafted pieces of art. Sometimes it was a sketch of an older cover, sometimes their favorite player, sometimes just their own version of the SLAM logo. One such submission came from a storyboard/design team based in L.A. who happened to be huge fans of SLAM. In writing, they requested back issues, t-shirts and even offered content suggestions. Those letters were from the team who worked on a little up and coming animated series called South Park.

The crew at South Park sent SLAM a few letters in the early days, but the one that really caught the staff’s attention was a reworked SLAM cover sent in the form of a greeting card. It featured  Kobe’s Issue 24 joint, only with Kenny’s head replacing the Spalding ball under Bryant’s arm. They wanted to work it into a story that would be aired, but (in true South Park style) would take it a step further, with Kobe holding an AK-47.

World events in the spring of ’99 led to this cover never happening—it’s probably better that it didn’t—but we’ll always remember when Kobe was hanging out in South Park.

Seeing the magazine immortalized in animated form is wild. It was Christmas 2020 when we were once again reminded of that feeling. The pandemic had me, my wife and our 1-year-old daughter stuck in our tiny flat in London on Christmas Day. It wasn’t all bad. We bought some fancy food and drinks, didn’t need to travel anywhere and Pixar was premiering a movie called Soul that gave us something to look forward to. We loved the film and appreciated the finer details of the world that the lead character, Joe Gardner, called home.

One such detail was something I’d missed completely. It sat—of course—in the barbershop scene, on the table by the lollipops. A copy of SLAM. It was instantly recognizable as a rework of Issue 106, LeBron’s logo cover, with a fictional baller from the Pixar universe. No one at SLAM knew about it ahead of time, but everyone thought it was dope.  

The movie was the work of Kemp Powers, a writer from Brooklyn who understood the cultural importance of SLAM. Soul’s release capped off a year marred with tension, yet Pixar’s world felt like a place of solitude. 

These SLAM covers may be fictional, but they provided a hint of familiarity and were a nod of appreciation from the designers of alternate universes. For those of us who need to escape, even for a moment, they’re as real as it gets. 

The post From the Marvel Universe to Spike Lee, SLAM’s Connection to Film Runs Deep appeared first on SLAM.

“I’m the guy that will never count something being done until it’s done. Ray Allen hit a shot to take away a championship ring my first year as a coach [as an assistant with the Spurs in 2012-13], and so that’s always in my mind… one thing can happen to flip a series, and you don’t want to be on the wrong end of that.”

Udoka also shared the slow-churning ‘one game at a time’ mentality that he instills into the minds of his players.

“Our message is ‘enjoy what you’re doing, but do it better.’ When it’s all done, we’ll enjoy it for a second and move on to the next one. That’s our mentality. One game at a time. One quarter at a time. One play at a time. Don’t look at the big picture.”

Udoka and the Celtics will get a chance to move forward in the bigger picture tonight, as they’ll head to Brooklyn with hopes of completing the series sweep over the Nets.

The post Ime Udoka on Possible Sweep: ‘Never Count Something Being Done Until It’s Done’ appeared first on SLAM.

The one issue that remains is the Golden State backcourt. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Jordan Poole are still hot, and each was on fire in Game 3.

Steph
Klay
JP
BUCKETS. pic.twitter.com/cKcxHKYLe2

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 22, 2022

Curry and Poole each finished with 27 points apiece, and Thompson dropped 26 points on his own to cancel out a monster 37-point, 18 rebound game by Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 118-113. The Warriors now lead 3-0 in their first-round series with a chance to sweep over the weekend.

The three guards have led a small ball lineup that has been the difference in this series. Each player has had their chance to shine individually and collectively throughout this series. In Game 1, Jordan Poole got rolling with a historic start. Then it was Curry who exploded in Game 2 to eclipse the playoff career 3,000 point mark while scoring a game-high 34 points in only 23 minutes.

In Game 3, all three made history. Thompson passed Ray Allen for third all-time in playoff three-pointers made. Chef Curry passed James Worthy for 26th on the playoff scoring list. As for Jordan Poole, he became the first guard since the merger to score 25 Pts on 60 percent shooting in three straight playoff games. Jerry West, Lou Hudson, and Brian Winters were the only guards to have done it in history, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole are the 3rd trio in Warriors history to each record 25 points and 50% shooting in a playoff game and the first since 1989.

1989: Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond & Terry Teagle

1958: Neil Johnston, Paul Arizin & Tom Gola pic.twitter.com/wJbmus6noh

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 22, 2022

All three became the first trio in franchise history to record 25 points on 50 percent shooting and the first to do since Chris Mullin, Mitch Redmond, and Terry Teagle did so in 1989.

“He looks like a seasoned vet,” Thompson said about Poole via Yahoo Sports. “The shots he’s been making and taking, he’s kind of been our catalyst on offense. JP, I’ve seen him put in so much work behind the scenes that he deserves this.

“I’m incredibly proud of him.”

Not only is Thompson enjoying his teammate’s play but the opportunity to be back on the floor with his teammates in general.

“So much,” he said when asked how much he missed playoff games on the road. “It’s what you dream of, it’s what you prepare for and I don’t take granted nights like these. That was a ton of fun and just a gutsy win by our squad.

“Everything I worked for the past two years has come to fruition. I’m just incredibly grateful to be here and having fun.”

Golden State will try to close out the series on Sunday.

The post Golden State Warriors Take Command Of Series With Backcourt Brilliance appeared first on SLAM.

Warriors say Stephen Curry is progressing well in recovery of sprained ligament in left foot and will miss remaining five games of regular season as he will be re-evaluated on April 11.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 1, 2022

Curry first suffered the injury two weeks ago, on March 16, after a collision with Marcus Smart while the two hustled for a loose ball. Since the two-time MVP went down, the Warriors have fallen to fourth place in the Western Conference after losing six of their last seven games, including a loss to the 12th place Washington Wizards last Sunday.

Curry has progressed well in recovery and will reportedly be re-evaluated in a week per multiple reports. ESPN’s Kendra Andrews reported that Curry is out of his walking boot as of Thursday; Andrews also said that with the season-ending on two sets of back-to-back games, it’s likely that Warriors vets like Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson will sit out while Draymond Green and Otto Porter Jr. are flexible to sit out as well.

“We were hoping that maybe he could play one or two games at the end of the regular season, but that was kind of a long shot. Kerr told Andrews, “This is how it’s turned out — I’m not too worried about him.”

The post Warriors Announce Stephen Curry Will Miss Last Five Games of the Season appeared first on SLAM.

Dangerous in a manner that it should invoke and inspire you to re-imagine an established world. 

To challenge conventional thought. 

To re-envision what generations have developed in order to create something new. 

The same should be said for coaching. 

For years, there has been a set of standardized systems in basketball. A form of coaching that damn near secured wins. A blueprint for winning a national championship at the collegiate level.  But there comes a time when evolution is not only needed but craved. A time when a world moving on autopilot requires a shock to its system, like a lightning bolt shooting down from the heavens. A necessity for a movement toward the future. 

Dawn Staley is that movement. 

SLAM 237 featuring Dawn Staley, Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Destanni Henderson Cover SLAM 237 is available now!

The first coach to challenge the norms set forth by the UConns, Notre Dames and Tennessees of the world. The first to play in the WNBA and coach in the NCAA at the same time. The first Black female head coach to raise the national championship trophy over her head in nearly 20 years.

But it wasn’t always back-to-back No. 1 recruiting classes in Columbia. The roster wasn’t always stacked with WNBA talent like Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson. It wasn’t always easy. 

With change comes fear. Fear of the unknown. Trepidation of the uncomfortable feeling that accompanies growth. But for Staley, the concept of a challenge is what has fueled the South Carolina women’s basketball head coach from the very beginning. 

“I grew up in North Philly, in the housing projects, the Raymond Rosen housing projects. I’m the youngest of five. So, every day was a challenge,” Dawn shares with SLAM. 

Even when speaking of her early years and the struggles she faced, she speaks with such pride and ease. Those moments made her the player, coach and overall person she is today. 

A three-time Olympic gold medalist, a six-time WNBA All-Star, and most recently, an NCAA national champion as a coach. This was the path meant for her, even if she didn’t always see it herself. 

“Obviously, someone had to plant the seed, because I never wanted to be a coach. And it’s funny how this game finds you in the likeliest or unlikeliest ways,” Staley says. 

It was in 2000 when Dawn was gearing up for her second Olympics with Team USA. It ultimately became the year when her life would change. 

With a job playing in the WNBA, she had no interest in thinking about any other opportunities, until Temple’s then-athletic director Dave O’Brien came calling. 

“The AD posed two questions. One was, Can you lead? Can I lead? I’m the captain on every team that I played on, I’m a point guard. The position demands that you lead. And then I answered the question. I know my facial expression showed that that was not a good question. All questions are good, but that wasn’t a good question. And then he asked me the next question, which was, Can you turn Temple’s women’s basketball program around? And that was the aha moment, where he challenged me. I never looked at coaching as a challenge, and if I did, I probably would’ve been coaching a lot sooner than what I had done.”

She went on to do exactly what she promised and led Temple to four A-10 conference championships and a 172–80 record—the program’s best overall record—all while finishing out her final playing years in the WNBA.  

“Coaching is like…No day is the same. I like that, but I also like being a dream merchant for young people,” she says. “My cup runneth over when it comes to being successful and what the game has given to me. I want people to feel it.”

As I listen to Dawn speak, I don’t feel like I’m on set in a gym with one of the greatest figures this game has ever seen, but rather like I’m in her living room just chopping it up, talking about life, laughing at the good old days and just soaking up every nugget of advice from lessons learned. It’s easy to see why she resonates so deeply with players. Sometimes it feels like she’s less of a coach and more of your auntie, there to guide you through the ebbs and flows of life. That connection to her players at Temple and the proof that she can turn a program around is what landed her at South Carolina.

It was 2008, and practically no one in women’s basketball even thought of the Gamecocks program as a contender. Wasn’t even an afterthought. 

Dawn knew what she was up against, but with that Philly toughness stored deep within the core of her soul, it wasn’t an obstacle she was going to shy away from. 

“When I first took the job here at South Carolina, I wanted to change the culture. I wanted to make sure that we’re all cut from the same cloth. I work hard, everybody around me works hard. So, we wanted that reciprocated, with everybody that has a hand in our program and the players are a big part of it.”

She was meticulous and hungry to make it happen, but most of all, she treated herself and those around her with compassion, understanding that she had to coach each team and each player differently over the years. Most importantly, she had to have patience as she took the time needed to begin building (and recruiting) the team she wanted in order to become one of the best in the country. 

But she did it her way. 

It was just six years later that she went on to lead South Carolina to the program’s first Final Four appearance and its first No. 1 overall ranking. 

Then the movement came to fruition. 

Dawn had one of the best college basketball teams assembled, with what would eventually be four WNBA lottery picks. The roster was unbelievably stacked with star A’ja Wilson, Kaela Davis, Allisha Gray and Alaina Coates, not to mention future WNBA draft picks in freshmen Kiki Herbert-Harrigan and Ty Harris. 

It was the culmination of what Dawn had worked years toward. A vision finally realized. 

“[The year] 2017 was pretty special for a lot of reasons,” Dawn recalls. 

She would go on to lead the Gamecocks to their first-ever national title in their first-ever national championship game appearance. 

“Selfishly, it was one of the goals I set for myself in the projects in North Philly because I only saw women play on TV in two events. One was a national championship game, and then the other one was the Olympic Games. Those were the two things that kept me just going. I got the gold medal, several gold medals, but I never got the national championship. When I got that, I selfishly loved it and then I switched, and I just put it outward.”

That moment wasn’t just for her. 

It was for the women who played for her all those early years at Temple. It was for the residents of the Raymond Rosen housing projects. It was for everyone in her life who helped her get to that historic moment. 

In The Last Dance, Michael Jordan said that all it took was “one little match to start the whole fire” when speaking on the greatness he achieved with the Bulls. Dawn Staley was that match in women’s college basketball. Winning that title changed everything. 

Now she has one of the toughest rosters in the country. For starters, there’s National Player of the Year favorite Aliyah Boston, who recently set the record for most consecutive double-doubles in the SEC. Then there’s Ohio-made superstar Zia Cooke, whom the world remembers for dropping a defender and pointing after it happened. And Destanni Henderson, a senior who made her name known in last year’s NCAA tournament and now is a top WNBA prospect.

“I got to keep it honest. I just fell in love with Coach, as far as how real she was with me. I’ll never forget the first time I met her. I was super nervous,” Cooke says. 

Staley has now had the top recruiting class two years in a row and a roster already in position to win another (and possibly multiple) national championships. She doesn’t take any of it lightly, though. 

“[Forward] Laeticia Amihere, her mom [is a] God-fearing faithful woman. She’s got strength, and you could tell she’s a people-feeler. I had, probably, several conversations with her on the phone, and you really can’t get it until she’s sitting across from you and she’s talking to you. And then at the end of our visit with both of them, she came up to me and she was like, I give you my daughter. I’m from Philly—I’m hard, I’m tough—[but] that almost brought me to tears because I’ve never heard a mother say that,” Dawn recalls with a softness in her voice. 

That’s how she approaches not only building a championship-contending team, but a family. 

“Coach Staley has been through it all. She’s experienced it,” Boston shares.  “She’s someone that we look up to. She helps us with everything, on and off the court.” 

A coach who’s been through it all is especially what this group has needed over the last few years. Aliyah, Zia and Destanni, like everyone else, had their world put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was South Carolina’s year to take back the throne, but they never got the chance. 

“I feel like we’re on track as a team. It was the first time I felt like our team actually had a bond, and then COVID happened,” Henderson says. “We had to take a step back and reflect on life outside of basketball.”

They picked up right where they left off last season, only for it to end in heartbreak. Down 1 to Stanford in the Final Four, Aliyah’s final put-back effort fell just short. It was a moment of anguish for the then-sophomore, whose tears streamed down her face after leaving it all out on the floor. It’s an image that mainstream media lazily uses over and over. 

“After the game, we were sad, obviously. But when the coaches came in, Coach Staley told us that she was proud of us and that we worked hard and basically that we’re going to use this to continue to fuel us. We didn’t get what we wanted this year, but we still have another shot,” Boston says. 

Another shot is right. This year’s South Carolina crew has steadily remained the No. 1 team in the country. As we walk into the practice facility to set up for our cover shoot, while practice begins to wind down, evidence of why the program has been at the top of the standings all season becomes quite obvious.  

The gym is roaring as the Gamecocks scrimmage. You can hear every player (both on the sidelines and on the court) involved. They’re fully coaching themselves. No one is needed to get on the players who are making mistakes or talking through plays; the players are doing that together, for each other. 

“I think we’re a lot more mature. I feel like our games have all matured in a way,” Zia says. 

It is truly the Dawn Staley effect. Her mantra is simple, and she holds herself to the same standard. 

“You got to be vulnerable, you got to stand in your truth even when it doesn’t make you look good. That’s your truth,” Coach says passionately. “Everybody doesn’t live in their truth because everybody wants to paint a picture of being perfect. Hell, nobody’s perfect. Nobody.”

It’s that openness that’s allowed three of the best college basketball players right now to become the stars that they are. This resilient group has been through the ups and downs of everything and has now reached a point where they honestly play for each other more than themselves. 

What does their living legend of a coach want to see at the end of this year, when it’s all said and done? 

“I want to turn Aliyah’s frown upside down,” Dawn says definitively. 

Zia interjects after a long pause. “HELLO!!!”

Dawn continues: “Because that is something that media outlets use a lot. She’s more than the frown. 

“I want them to use the picture of her crying happy tears.” 

SLAM 237 is also available in this exclusive gold metal edition. Shop now.

The post Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks Are College Basketball’s Authors of Evolution appeared first on SLAM.

Jaylen Brown with a poster dunk to welcome the Big Three back to TD Garden.

(via @SportsCenter) pic.twitter.com/FMrt9kYoAO

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) March 13, 2022

Garnett is just the 23rd Celtic in franchise history to have his jersey retired. There were video tributes from his peers offering congratulations to Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman saying he wanted to hug then-President Danny Ainge after seeing Garnett play for only one half of basketball, to Paul Pierce who had played with KG as far back as their AAU days.

Then after one of the numerous standing ovations, Garnett talked about his championship era in Boston.

“I looked up at the rafters and I just manifested, not only a championship but seeing myself immortal”

Kevin Garnett shares his thoughts from his first moments as a member of the @celtics. pic.twitter.com/VIKePmWbwE

— NBA (@NBA) March 13, 2022

One of the best moments of the ceremony was the public reconciliation between Garnett and Ray Allen, who was considered “questionable” to attend throughout the week. The crowd erupted as the two hugged to close a 10-year rift that began when Allen signed with the Miami Heat as a free agent, effectively ending the five-year “Big 3” era.

Ray Allen’s appreciation was evident when he spoke after the ceremony.

“Just because I moved away doesn’t mean that relationship, that friendship, ends.” Allen said via ESPN, “So it did center around Kevin and myself because I did get the sense that the people here felt how Kevin felt. Once he accepted me, then the people accepted me. That was the sense. I was glad we could do that and people could see, ‘We won with this guy in 2008, and that’s what matters most.'”

This moment between Ray Allen, @paulpierce34 and @KevinGarnett5KG pic.twitter.com/J5sL1fIWG2

— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 13, 2022

Kevin Garnett has a six-season resume that showed that his No. 5 deserved to be in the rafters. KG collected five All-Star teams selections was named to four NBA All-Defensive Teams with a first-team All-NBA selection in 2008. He rode that momentum along with the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award to the NBA title that year.

With Phil Collins’ famous tune “In The Air Tonight” blasting throughout the arena, a tearful Garnett raised his banner along with his two daughters. His number ended up next to Paul Pierce’s.

Kevin Garnett sheds a tear as he raises his jersey in to the rafters.

Congrats KG! pic.twitter.com/QLVz1e66ca

— NBA (@NBA) March 13, 2022

Kevin Garnett’s legacy may be forever attached to this quote, cementing him as a Celtic forever.

“You know, I was listening to the videos, and everything in here, and I kept hearing that it was saying that I came here to make players better,” Garnett said, “And in all actuality, those players made me better, and I like to think that we made each other better.”

You’re gonna want to turn your sound on. KG is amazing. (via @celtics) pic.twitter.com/IwMIJFzXdD

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) March 13, 2022

The post Kevin Garnett Cemented As Boston Celtics Legend With Jersey Retirement appeared first on SLAM.

As long as Tatum scores the ball at a high rate, the Celtics can’t lose. In a special night honoring former Celtics legends leading up to the jersey retirement this weekend, Boston turned in one of the best defensive performances of the year, completely shutting down the Detroit Pistons 114-103 for their fifth straight win.

Tatum dropped 30+ points in his fifth straight game, matching the longest streak of his career with the 2019-20 campaign from Feb 23-March 4.

.@jaytatum0 refuses to cool down

Check out tonight’s @gatorade Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/PiBwlmRzBY

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 12, 2022

Tatum finished with 31 points on 13-27 shooting after scoring 33, 37, 54, and 44 points in his previous four games.

The Celtics took some time at the intermission to honor some former players who traveled for the jersey retirement ceremony of Kevin Garnett on Sunday. A few members of the 2008 NBA championship team attended the game, including Paul Pierce, James Posey, Leon Powe, Brian Scalabrine, Dana Barros, Antoine Walker, and even current Pistons forward Kelly Olynyk, who played four years with the franchise.

Bill Russell was a part of the celebration but did so from home.

While we missed him in Boston tonight, @RealBillRussell joined in on the celebrations from home pic.twitter.com/Io51eHYIZU

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 12, 2022

The Celtics take on the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday when Kevin Garnett becomes the 24th Celtic to have his jersey retired.

The post Jayson Tatum Scores 31 On Boston Celtics Legends Celebration Night appeared first on SLAM.

Alex Caruso said the bone is healed, he has no limitations but he has soreness with soft tissue that just needs to be strengthened over time. “We’re close,” Caruso said. No target date. Definitely sounds like he needs more contact practices.

— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) March 11, 2022

According to Johnson, the only issue Caruso is dealing with is some soft tissue soreness that needs to be strengthened over time. Although there is no target date for the Bald Mamba to return to the Bulls lineup, he said, “we’re close” to coming back.

In the 28 games Caruso played before he got hurt, the 28-year-old guard averaged 8.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game in 27.7 minutes per game.

The Bulls (40-26) are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference standings and are just three games behind the Heat for the number one seed in the conference playoffs. For now, they are in pursuit of the 76ers and Bucks, who lead the Bulls by one game and 1.5 games in the playoff chase.

The post REPORT: Alex Caruso ‘Close’ to Returning From Fractured Wrist appeared first on SLAM.

According to The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn, the Celtics are looking to reunite the 2008 championship-winning team at Kevin Garnett’s jersey retirement ceremony on Sunday night.

Notably, Ray Allen, part of the Celtics’ infamous “Big Three,” is also on the invite list for the Sunday night game. Allen and Garnett have publicly spoken about their rift over the past few years, stemming from Allen’s decision to leave the Celtics in 2012.

However, when Garnett appeared on the Showtime Basketball show, the Big Ticket said that he and Allen settled their issues at the NBA-75 ceremony during the All-Star Game in February.

Garnett, Allen, and Paul Pierce made up the dominant Celtics’ “Big Three.” in the Eastern Conference, appearing in three Eastern Conference finals, two NBA Finals, and winning one NBA Championship between 2008 and 2012.

The trio would eventually be broken up when Allen elected to join the Heat in free agency in 2012, and Pierce and Garnett were traded to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013.

The Garnett jersey retirement will be before the Celtics game against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday afternoon.

The post REPORT: Celtics to Invite Ray Allen to Kevin Garnett Jersey Retirement appeared first on SLAM.

At the seven-minute mark of the first quarter, he hit that shot using his signature stepback move to pass Reggie Miller for third place on the all-time made three-pointers list.

Sitting courtside announcing the game for TNT, Miller was there to see it happen.

Harden now has 2561 career threes, with more likely to come from tonight’s game. Ray Allen is second on the list with 2973 made three-pointers, 412 more than Harden. While getting past all-time three-pointer king Stephen Curry is unlikely, the dual the two former MVPs will have could be a joy to watch as the two are playing in an era where the triple has become the most weapon in the game today.

.@ReggieMillerTNT @JHarden13 pic.twitter.com/vB9QkWnhcn

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) March 11, 2022

The post James Harden Passes Reggie Miller for Third in All-Time Three-Pointers Made appeared first on SLAM.

When fully healthy, the Warriors have had one of the best lineups in basketball, primarily due to Draymond Green’s role as the ultimate glue guy.

However, since Green suffered a back injury in January, his absence has definitely been missed as Golden State has dropped seven of their last 10 contests.

A Warriors staff member went as far as to tell ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, “He’s the control center of everything we do.”

Coach Steve Kerr agreed with that sentiment. When speaking about the up-and-coming guard Jordan Poole being asked to do more, he alluded to Green’s Swiss army knife effect on the team:

“The change is not him playing off the bench; it’s that Draymond isn’t out there,” Kerr said per Andrews’ story. “Think about the first half of the season. … He was not really our backup point guard. He played with guys who handled the ball. He really focused on scoring and shooting. But with the injuries we’ve had, Jordan has had to take on playmaking duties, and there’s a much bigger responsibility.”

The Warriors’ defensive numbers back up the significance of the Green’s absence.

With Green on the court, the Warriors only give up 100.3 points per game which would rank first in the NBA by 2.4 points. Without Green, they’ve given up 109 points per game, which would be tied for 14th. In addition, Green ranks first on the team in assists (7.4), rebounds (7.6), steals (1.4), and blocks (1.2) per game.

On Saturday night, the Warriors head to the bright lights of Los Angeles to face the downward trending Los Angeles Lakers (27-35).

The post Warriors Call Draymond Green the Missing ‘Control Center’ appeared first on SLAM.

Bones Hyland tweeted that at 10:38 am on July 29, 2021—the day of the NBA Draft. It sums up who he is—and what he brings to the table—pretty perfectly. Later that evening, the Denver Nuggets selected Hyland with the 26^th overall pick. The 6-3 guard, originally from Wilmington, Delaware (just the third player from the state ever to be drafted in the first round), had dominated the previous season at Virginia Commonwealth University, averaging 19.5 points and leading the Atlantic 10 Conference in three-pointers made (69). He was considered one of the most talented perimeter shooters in the 2021 Class, capable of pulling up from anywhere and knocking down tough, contested looks. With his elite quickness and crafty handles, Bones also showed an ability to get to the rim. If it wasn’t obvious from the tweet above, he plays with a lot of energy, passion and confidence—on both ends of the floor. He added 4.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game last year for the Rams.

Still, it was Hyland’s potential to deliver “instant offense” at the NBA level—to be a flamethrower, electrifying sixth-man type—that stood out to most scouts. Here are some of the players he was compared to heading into the ’21 Draft: Immanuel Quickley, Jordan Clarkson, Devonte Graham, Jamal Crawford and Ben Gordon.

Those comparisons should give you a good sense for Hyland’s game, and they have proved apt during his rookie campaign so far. The 21-year-old has been a much-needed scoring spark for the Nuggets, especially with primary weapons Michael Porter Jr and Jamal Murray sidelined. In just 18 minutes per game, Bones is averaging 8.7 points and shooting 36 percent from three. He hasn’t been shy or hesitant at all, ranking 12^th in the entire NBA at one point in three-point attempts per 100 possessions (min. 25 games played) with 13.3. Among rooks, he is fourth in total three-pointers made (80), trailing just Cade Cunningham (89), Chris Duarte (87) and Jalen Green (83). Worth noting: Hyland has played 500 fewer minutes than all three of those lottery picks.

In other words, Hyland is doing exactly what the Nuggets want him to do: providing a lift on offense and being aggressive from the moment he steps on the floor. He also brings an intensity, flair and competitiveness that can be contagious. Stuff like this tends to inspire the whole team: 

Bones has been improving steadily throughout his first year, developing more chemistry with former MVP Nikola Jokic and earning more trust from the coaching staff. Before the All-Star break, he had five-game stretch in which he averaged 12.4 points, including a 22-point outing in a 132-115 win over the Knicks.

As expected, there have been several nights when Bones has caught fire and quickly lit up opposing defenses. He dropped 24 points in 26 minutes—shooting 8/11 from the field and 4/5 from three—against the Hawks in December. A month later, facing the Lakers at Staples Center, he went off for a career-high 27 points and 10 assists, knocking down 6/10 from deep. Watch how fearlessly he attacks in the highlight video below, whether he’s unleashing a stepback, coming off a ball screen or launching from way behind the arc. 

Hyland replaced the injured Davion Mitchell in last Friday’s Rising Stars Challenge and showed why he belonged. He was, unsurprisingly, a source of instant offense, notching 10 points and hitting a pair of threes. Hall of Famer Gary Payton—his team’s coach—was apparently telling him, “They can’t guard you, go get a bucket every time.”

“Man, this is just the beginning for me,” Bones said afterwards. “Just to see everything and knowing what I can be in this league—[with] what I provide, what I can bring, I know I’m going to be an All-Star in this league. So seeing this stuff firsthand, it’s big for me. I’m soaking all of this in.”

The post SLAM x Panini Rookie Spotlight: Bones Hyland appeared first on SLAM.

Three players made early news for the All-Star Game. Donovan Mitchell sat out with a non-COVID-19 related illness, and it was announced on TNT that Chris Paul suffered a thumb fracture which will keep him out for six to eight weeks just before the game. He checked in late in the first quarter.

Suns star Chris Paul has suffered a right thumb avulsion fracture and will be re-evaluated in six to eight weeks.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 21, 2022

Kevin Durant was also unable to attend the All-Star festivities after his mother, Wanda Pratt announced that his grandmother passed away Sunday and left Cleveland to be with his family.

The grandmother of Kevin Durant passed away this morning, Wanda Durant announces. Kevin Durant – named one of the 75 greatest players ever – will no longer attend 75th Anniversary team ceremony tonight at NBA All-Star Game as the family mourns loss.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 20, 2022

The event was not just for entertainment but for a good cause. Team LeBron and Team Durant competed for $750,000 in donations for two organizations. Team LeBron played for the Kent State I Promise Scholars Program, and Team Durant played for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. The competition was spread out over three quarters for $100,000 apiece.

Each organization started with a $150,000 contribution, with the winning team earning $150,000 for their respective organization.

First Quarter:

Defense was optional in the first quarter for the players, with the exception of Stephen Curry, who had the game’s only two blocked shots for an extended period. A point that Draymond Green trolled him for during the TNT broadcast.

“Why are you playing so much defense bro?”

This @StephenCurry30 and @Money23Green exchange pic.twitter.com/5V9Nz4TiLm

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 21, 2022

Otherwise, it was lighthearted, running up and down the floor with some high-flying dunks and long-distance shots. On a side note, Giannis Antetokounmpo finally missed a field goal attempt after hitting all 16 of his shots in last year’s event.

Throwback to last year’s Finals… Book and Giannis trading buckets at #NBAAllStar!

TNT & TBS pic.twitter.com/6iEs9nuxD2

— NBA (@NBA) February 21, 2022

Another great moment was watching Trae Young and Curry match each other in three-point marksmanship. Knowing that these two will be compared to each other for the next several seasons, this moment sends a message that fans will be enjoying 30 footers for years to come.

In the end, despite Team LeBron running out to an early lead, Team Durant’s late first-quarter run was not enough to make up the deficit at the end.

Winner: Team LeBron wins the quarter 47-45. Kent State I Promise Scholars Program receives $100,000.

Second Quarter:

After showing his defensive prowess in the first quarter, Curry reminded NBA fans of his real forte, shooting the long ball. Chef Curry set the All-Star Game record by knocking down an absurd eight 3 point shots in the first half.

#NBAAllStar record for threes in a half.
There’s nobody quite like Stephen Curry pic.twitter.com/dnKw86B04i

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) February 21, 2022

Before the Curry fireworks started, Cavs representatives Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland had some solid moments in the second quarter. Garland looked very comfortable on the floor and used this long-range bomb from the logo to spark a 10 point quarter.

Darius Garland from the logo to hype up the Cleveland crowd! #NBAAllStar on TNT & TBS pic.twitter.com/WgjqAk1P5M

— NBA (@NBA) February 21, 2022

While Team LeBron had all of the flash, Team Durant had the substance with LaMelo Ball combining with Dejounte Murray making plays for his teammates like Rudy Gobert, Devin Booker, and others. They ran out to a lead and never were in any trouble of losing it.

Team Durant win 49-46. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank receives $100,000.

Third Quarter:

Surprisingly, Curry has been shooting 37.9 percent from deep this season, well short of his career 42.8 mark. Well, he found his stroke in this game. If anyone thought SC30 was hot in the second quarter, the greatest three-point shooter of all time was burning up in the third quarter.

The two-time MVP broke the record for most three-pointers in an All-Star game by this point held by Paul George in 2016, and it was the way he was doing it that set the building on fire.

Stephen Curry is heat checking like no one ever has in an #NBAAllStar Game.

He’s got 13 threes.

Get to TNT & TBS now. pic.twitter.com/Fvj2Ep3fjB

— NBA (@NBA) February 21, 2022

Even though Curry was stealing all of the thunder in the third quarter, Team Durant pretty much held the lead the entire quarter. But Team Durant got cold at the end and allowed Team LeBron to pull to a tie at the end of the third quarter.

Even though the period ended in a tie, the third period belonged solely to Stephen Curry, who cemented his claim to MVP after pouring in 45 points on 15-21 shooting from behind the line. At this point, he was only seven points away from the all-time scoring record.

Drive. Give it up. Relocate. Get it back.

Stephen Curry is playing his brand of basketball in the #NBAAllStar Game…

Oh, and he’s made 15 threes pic.twitter.com/FC6cQcdp0p

— NBA (@NBA) February 21, 2022

Team LeBron and Team Durant finish the quarter with a 45-45 tie. Now the score is 139-138 Team Durant.

Final Quarter:

In the final quarter, the target score to end the game was set at 163. The gas Curry was cooking with ran out, and he finished with 50 points. Like in previous years, the ball was given to Joel Embiid in the post to score. But Jarrett Allen, with the assistance of LeBron James and Antetokounmpo, slowed him up just enough.

In the end, it was the Captain’s choice on who would close the game out!

BRON. CALLED. GAME.

Listen to the conclusion of the 2022 All-Star Game on NBA Radio.

https://t.co/AYipQpw9t4
pic.twitter.com/ivRfKU2iI3

— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) February 21, 2022

Team LeBron defeats Team Durant 163-160. Kent State I Promise Scholars Program receives a donation of $150,000 for a total of $450,000. The Greater Cleveland Food Bank received a total donation of $300,000.

All-Star Game MVP: Stephen Curry with 50 points.

The post Team LeBron Wins the 2022 NBA All Star Game Behind Stephen Curry’s 50 appeared first on SLAM.

Looking at the modern NBA, another player is nearly as clear-cut a choice. “Obviously Jokic—he’s crazy,” Timme says of the reigning MVP. “He’s not the flashiest or most athletic, but the way he sees the court, it seems like he can score any way he wants.”

He’s a fan generally of versatile big men, fitting role models for a 6-10 low-post wizard working to expand his own range and skill set. But there’s another guy who Timme mentions, a name that’s a bit less obvious coming from a 21-year-old white dude. “Allen Iverson—I love his swagger, and you know, I wear a headband,” he says with a laugh. But on this, it’s clear he’s sincere.

“What I really loved about him was how he was just himself, every time he stepped on the court. I really looked up to him for that; I think it’s important if you want to be the best.”

Timme’s trademark March Madness mustache will never rival Iverson’s braids for icon status, but his admiration for AI’s unapologetic realness is genuine—as is his commitment to maximizing the impact of his own game as he chases a national championship, national POY honors and a possible NBA future. The next few months will determine the first two of those goals, but in the midst of his third college season, Timme’s legacy as one of the modern game’s most entertaining throwbacks is already a lock—and still arguably the biggest reason Gonzaga will have another shot at a chip this spring.

When we caught up with him in December, Timme was still getting used to the return of fans at games after the empty gyms of the pandemic-limited 2020-21 season. “I love the energy the crowd gives, whether it’s good or bad,” he says. “It’s extra fuel for me.” Not that he or the Bulldogs should need extra motivation: Everyone remembers Gonzaga’s perfect run to the 2021 national title game and how that turned out. What’s easy to forget is that the Bulldogs might’ve won a title the year before, if not for the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament due to COVID-19. Timme came into his junior season as the leader of the preseason No. 1 team and with a combined college record of 62-3.

“We hold ourselves to the standard of being the best version of ourselves we can be, which is being [the] best team in the country,” he says. “We see pressure as a privilege.”

He sure doesn’t play like it bothers him. He averaged 19 ppg as a sophomore last season, doing much of his damage with an array of up-and-unders and put-backs and looping runners that make the game look fun. He returned this year to preseason national POY acclaim, looking to try to finally secure that elusive national championship, to mentor young stars like freshman teammate Chet Holmgren, and to prove that he himself is ready for the next level.

Assessing his progress, Timme says, “My ability to read the game has improved a lot, and my defense has gotten a lot better. I’d say I’m still working on my outside shot, and my perimeter defense on guards—it’s gotten a lot better, but there’s still a long way to go.” 

Whether his game will translate to the NBA is, for the moment, beside the point. “I came back to win a championship and get better,” he says. “That’s all I’m focused on.” 

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Drew Timme is Focused on Bringing a National Championship to Spokane appeared first on SLAM.

On Thursday, during a broadcast on TNT, the NBA announced the reserves for the upcoming 2022 All-Star game, a week after the starters had been announced.

In the West, the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz had two players named: Chris Paul and Devin Booker for the Suns and Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell for the Jazz. The roster comprises Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl Anthony-Towns, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic.

The West will have to add one additional player before the All-Star game, as Green won’t be active for the festivities. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will name Green’s replacement before the All-Star Game draft.

The remaining West All-Stars are made up by the five starters, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, and Ja Morant.

In the East, Zach LaVine, Jimmy Butler, Darius Garland, James Harden, Fred VanVleet, Jayson Tatum, and Khris Middleton all got the nod, representing different teams from each other. They’ll be joining the East’s five starters of Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan, Joel Embiid, and Trae Young.

While there is a boatload of talent in this year’s All-Star game, some names that arguably deserved consideration were left off. Dejounte Murray and Deandre Ayton are putting together excellent seasons in the West but were not named to the All-Star team. Paul George was having another All-Star-caliber season but hasn’t played in over a month due to an elbow injury.

In the East, Jarrett Allen, Jrue Holiday, and Jaylen Brown have seasons potentially worthy of the All-Star distinction.

All-Star captains James and Durant will draft their teams live on TNT on Feb. 10 at 7:00 p.m. EST. The NBA All-Star Game is on Sunday, Feb. 20.

The post NBA Announces Reserves for 2022 All-Star Game appeared first on SLAM.

The four-star forward is sitting beside a few of his newfound teammates—Jahki Howard, Chuck Bailey and Braeden Moore—explaining how exactly they all ended up at Donda Academy, the prep school created and backed by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. It’s December and the Donda Doves have just wrapped up practice at the team’s training facility. 

Most of the players say they found out about the school after someone from Ye’s camp reached out to them and their families. “We had to make sure it was the right position for us [with] so many of the top players playing with each other,” says Hooks, lounging in a pair of YEEZY slides.

Inside the meeting room on the second floor, the rest of the team still has on the YEEZY 500s they were practicing in. Howard claims that he and Robert Dillingham were the first on the team to start wearing them in games, rocking them in the season opener against Minnesota Prep at the Target Center back in November. Ye was sitting courtside that day. Soon, the whole team caught on. 

“[They’re] mad comfortable,” he says. “Only shoe I could really hoop in.” 

Down the hall, Dillingham and Bryce Baker are getting a quick haircut, while the rest of the team is still downstairs, lingering around the court. There’s a pair of newly released adidas “Amber Tint” QNTMs sitting unclaimed on one of the black chairs courtside, which features a clean black and white aesthetic.

Ye’s impact is everywhere around the gym, from the team’s sleek Balenciaga-produced jerseys to the adidas sneakers to the fact that all of these elite prospects—Dillingham, Zion Cruz, JJ Taylor, Brandon White, Omarion Bodrick, Seven Bahati, Bryce Baker, Hooks, Bailey, Moore and Howard—are here because they’ve trusted his vision enough to leave their respective high school programs to play for Donda Academy instead.

Get your copy of SLAM 236 featuring Ye and Donda Academy.

And yet, there’s a lot of mystery behind what exactly Donda Academy is or why the kids have all chosen to come here. People have questioned whether it’s even a real school or if the kids take actual classes. And that’s not even the craziest thing the players have heard.

“A lot of my teammates, when they left [their hometowns], they had some bad reactions,” explains Moore. “People called them clout chasers and said the [school] offered them money.” 

So allow us to fill in some of the actual facts. The very existence of Ye’s Donda Academy is an honor to its namesake. After all, it was Donda West, a professor for 31 years and chair of Chicago State University’s Department of English, Communications, Media and Theater, who wrote in her memoir, Raising Kanye, that her hope was for more kids to get exposure to travel, different cultures and customs.

“I always think, I got Donda looking down on me. I gotta make this right,” says Shayla Scott, the school’s Vice President and Director of Athletics. A former four-year starter at the University of Pittsburgh who served as an assistant coach at La Salle University and most recently athletic director at The Ellis School before coming to Donda, Scott elaborates on what makes the school special. “That’s one thing that we’re constantly thinking about—how can we do things in a way that is beneficial to who we are and what we have going on. And that might not mean that it’s traditional.” 

The school’s official mission statement speaks of using ethics, integrity and care to “prepare students to become the next generation of leaders, thinkers and innovators by providing them with a world-class education.”

The program has a lower school that has in-person classes and serves students from age 3 through eighth grade, and the educational program is powered by K12 Private Academy, an NCAA-approved online curriculum. The players, who all live together in luxury apartments with chaperones, start their daily workouts, which occasionally involve weight training, as early as 8 a.m. Classes start at either 9 or 10 a.m. (depending on the day) and are hour-long blocks with breaks in between, and the online curriculum gives them the option to take them wherever they may be. Scott says that sometimes the players take them in their apartment complex, and when they’re on the road for games, academic support staff accompany them. 

As for meals, at one point the team had Ye’s personal chef cooking for them. 

Practice is from 1-3 p.m. with additional workouts afterward, but the players say that the gym—which is a short walk from the apartment complex where they stay—is available pretty much whenever they want it. At any given moment Ye might pull up to a practice, and, as many have seen, he’s there at the games, too. This past December, Ye was spotted dapping up a few of the Doves at their “Homecoming” event at Whittier College. 

Scott admits that when she was first brought on to serve as AD, even she wondered what exactly Ye’s involvement would look like. But through her conversations with him, and what she’s seen firsthand, it’s become clear that Ye is invested in every aspect of the program, as well as the players themselves. On one of the first calls that she was on with him and the school leaders of the K12 curriculum, Scott says that Ye was “passionate and loyal” as he expressed his vision for Donda Academy. 

“When I have opportunities to talk with [Ye] about his vision for the school, it’s by no stretch of the imagination something that’s out of reach. He wants to do all the things, and big things,” she says. “I get really excited whenever we have a chance to just sit down and talk about what we’re doing and how it’s so minor in some respects to what he wants to do.” 

When it came to designing the team’s uniforms, Ye brought in his Innovation of Apparel team to get the players’ direct feedback on what style and cut they’d prefer to wear. (They said “not too baggy” and requested a slim fit.) In early October, the team held a media day-style photo shoot and Scott says Ye was there, too, adding his creative perspective and specific ideas into the portrait sessions. 

As the Donda album played in the background, Ye directed the entire shoot, dictating different looks and poses, and he brought out what Scott called a “bag of goodies” with accessories for the players to wear. Inside were wristbands and the same all-black sunglasses that some of the players chose to rock at their SLAM cover shoot, too. 

Aside from photo shoots and courtside appearances, Ye will often check in to see how the Doves are doing both athletically and academically. A few of them got to meet him on their initial visit, while Scott reveals that Ye has even made it a point to call some of them on the phone just to talk one-on-one. “I remember watching JJ [Taylor] talk on the phone with him for the first time,” she says. “That was really cool that he took that time, and obviously they share a bond of [being] from Chicago together.” 

For many of the players, this is their first time being immersed in an environment of this magnitude. They’re spending significant time away from home, living in Los Angeles and playing in front of sold out crowds littered with other high-profile celebrities. They still make time to be, well, teenagers, when they’re not training or going to school; they all mainly hang out together, going to the movies or taking trips to Six Flags and the Santa Monica beach. 

“In actuality, anybody can do school this way,” says Scott. “But, to know that we’re doing it because of the support we have from Ye and all the parents and players, I think is really, honestly, going to build for future years.”

The Donda Doves will be the first to admit that it took a minute for them to learn to play together—most of them were the best players at their previous schools—and in the beginning, a few players told us they were too focused on being ballhandlers and scorers. 

There were some healthy arguments, too, and as a result, the coaches had them in the gym one night, running and working out. 

“Ever since, our bond and chemistry has been like this,” Howard says, crossing two of his fingers. 

“That’s how you build bonds with people, especially when you got elite athletes around and a lot of alphas,” Bailey adds. “Everybody is going to go at each other.”

Having lived through all the noise surrounding the start of their season, and with tons of eyes on each game, the Donda Academy Doves are learning what it’s like to live and play in a special kind of spotlight, all while making history along the way. And each of them is ready for the challenge.

Robert Dillingham had already made a name for himself in North Carolina long before he came to Donda Academy. As one of the top point guards in the Class of 2023, he averaged 21.1 points, 4.9 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game last season at Combine Academy. Still, he felt like he needed a change.

“I really just wanted to get out of North Carolina. It was just, like, a lot of stuff going on with my parents, my dad and my coaches from the school for transferring out here. To keep myself sane, I just blocked all of them out and kept playing basketball. I wasn’t really listening to it. It didn’t really matter to me.” 

Instead, he says he’s been learning from his new teammates and adding a thing or two to his already well-equipped bag. 

“JJ [Taylor] teaches me how to get to the rim and not stop…Jahki [Howard], he just dunks on people, so I guess he’s teaching me how to dunk a little bit. Zion Cruz, he’s teaching me the aspects of dribbling, going faster, slow, changing different speeds.”

It was Rob Dillingham, the self-proclaimed “GM” of the team, who originally texted Zion Cruz about Donda Academy. “He broke everything down,” Cruz says. “It was a no-brainer for me.”

At the Patrick School, Cruz averaged 16.7 points and 2.1 assists. Still, he felt like making the move thousands of miles away from his hometown of Jersey City would allow him to completely dial in on his game. 

“In Jersey, I feel like you see a lot of people outside every day, but here you don’t see a lot of people,” he says. “[There’s] not too much distraction. I don’t got a lot of [other] friends around.” 

At Donda Academy, the No. 2-ranked shooting guard in the country, according to 247 Sports, found the kind of environment he was looking for. “I just wanted to be in the gym 24/7 and I knew I could do that here,” he says. “Anytime I want to get in the gym, I can get in.” 

But he’s also been learning to navigate the mental side of the game, especially now that he’s playing with other high level players. Cruz admits he’s been working on not being in his head so much. “When you go to college, you’re playing with a lot of good players, so it’s good to know that I can do it on any level.”

Cruz recently announced the colleges he’s deciding among: Memphis, Western Kentucky, Xavier, Georgia and DePaul.

JJ Taylor says he never thought he’d leave his hometown of Chicago. The five-star guard was doing his thing at Kenwood Academy and had solidified himself as one of the best small forwards in his class. Ranked No. 5 in the country by ESPN and 247Sports, he’s the first player from Illinois to be ranked in the top 10 since the class of 2014’s Jahlil Okafor and Cliff Alexander, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

And yet, Taylor felt like the chance to play for Donda could give him something new. “A lot of stuff here, they don’t have in Chicago. The training is different. This is all basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball. I’m just falling in love with it.” 

Taylor says he’s had to adjust real quick: “I was pretty much the last one. I had to almost fit in, get adjusted faster, and learn everything faster than everybody else.”

Equipped with an all-around game and absurd athleticism, he’s already starting to see the move pay off. “For me, I like getting other players involved because we all can score. That’s my whole thing, playing unselfish,” he says. “I feel like I’m even [getting] better at making others better.”

Five-star shooting forward Jahki Howard kept it real when explaining why he chose to transfer from Norcross High School. “To be honest, I really just came out here to get better. I’m already a top-five player in my class, [so] for me, I wanted to come out here and get better at my level.” 

Still, he admits that when he first came out to the school, he wasn’t too sure what everyone would be like. “I’m really anti-social with people [and] I think I thought a lot of us would be the same way,” he says. “But no, [everyone] is chill.”

He’s become especially close with Bailey and Hooks, whom he calls his twin, and during their SLAM interview, the three of them excitedly talk about seeing the new Spider-Man movie together. With so many eyeballs on the team, Howard knows that a little hate is what comes with playing at this level.

“If I go to college or the NBA, it’s going to come with it,” he says. “I like it. It’s gotten to the point where it’s entertaining. It motivates me to just do better.”

Jalen Hooks, who averaged 11.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season at Crispus Attucks, might have had the wildest initial visit to Donda Academy. 

Hooks’ first time in Cali went a little something like this: he hopped on a 6 am flight, saw the Hollywood sign, and went out to eat right after he landed. Next thing he knew, Ben Simmons was walking right up to him and sat at his table. “He was like, What’s good, Hooks?” 

Then Hooks hopped on the phone with Kevin Durant. “He was like, What’s up, killah? Just keep working,” he recalls. “I met KD and Ben Simmons in my first 10 minutes.” 

And while he and Dillingham were working out at another of DSTRKT’s gyms nearby, Hooks says he met Ye. “He was like, Thank you for trusting the process, and then he started praying with us.” 

So, yeah, between the training sessions and the meet and greets, Hooks’ visit out west was a movie. He was sold. “I was just like, if I can get this every day for the next two years, that’d be nice.”

After fracturing his nose and injuring his ankle last April, Hooks says the main priority since he’s arrived in Simi Valley has been getting healthy. “I’m still a four-star. I’m [looking] to get back to where I was.”

Brandon White, or B-White as some of his teammates call him, is already regarded as one of the best shot blockers in his class, but at 6-10, the big man from North Carolina says he came out to Donda Academy with one mission in mind.

“I want to do everything, play every position,” the four-star center says. “Dribbling, shooting, just doing stuff that I’ve never done before.” 

White’s versatile game has already caught the attention of a handful of DI schools across the country: Wichita State, Illinois, Purdue and LSU. As he continues to build out his game, he’s sure to be a scary sight at the next level.

Chuck Bailey says that when he first heard about Donda Academy, he didn’t fully believe it.

“My dad told me. I thought he was joking at first when he was like, There’s a school called Donda. They want you to [go] there,” he says. “Then I saw it on the news with Rob [Dillingham] and I’m like, Oh, shoot. It’s a real school.”

While he says he wasn’t a huge fan of all the cameras and media attention at first, he knows that this is what comes with it, and it’ll be there at the next level, too. Whether it’s supplying the room with energy during his SLAM shoot or holding his own against his teammates in practice, it’s clear that Bailey is ready for the bright lights.

“The thing that surprised me is how good I fit in and play at this level, [though] I knew I could. I’m really seeing it every day in practice. I actually see I can play at this level, and I can play really well.”

And, after spending the entire summer and the start of the season dealing with an injury, the 6-3 guard is back and looking to evolve his game even further. “I really just came here to balance out my game [and] learn how to be a true point guard, because that’s what I’m gonna be in college.”

Omarion Bodrick is another player from down south who decided to link up with his former Combine Academy teammates and shock the world by heading to Donda. From the looks of it, it seems like the senior forward has been finding his rhythm out in Cali. 

The day after his SLAM shoot, Bodrick’s athleticism was on full display at the team’s homecoming game against Veritas. During the third quarter, he had the entire standing-room only crowd at Whittier College, including King Combs and OT Genasis, on their feet when he caught a transition pass from JJ Taylor and levitated to the rim for a two-handed dunk. That wasn’t all he did; throughout the game, O was everywhere on the floor, diving for loose balls and dishing out dimes to Taylor on the wing for three-pointers. 

Bodrick will take his talents to Youngstown State University next year.

Braeden Moore was one of the last players to join the team. A standout at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville and a TSSAA Mr. Basketball finalist, he’d always joked that he plays better on the West Coast—he was born in California and has relatives there, including his grandparents, who live only 20-30 minutes away from Donda Academy’s gym. Since he’s arrived at Donda, Moore’s impressed his new teammates from the get-go.

“He’s cold. I didn’t even know he was that good,” Chuck Bailey admits.

After decommitting from Rutgers, a decision he felt he’d “rushed into,” Moore says he’s looking for a program that will not only use his height and sharpshooting talent to “the fullest ability,” but will also offer him an all-around experience. He’s interested in business and entrepreneurship, and now that he’s at Donda, he’s already put himself in a position to be one step ahead. 

“I know how important education is and I have goals that surpass basketball,” Moore says. “That’s another reason [why] I came here, like with Justin [Laboy] and Ye, creating these relationships not only sets me up for success in basketball, it sets me up for life.”

We already knew Seven Bahati was on his own wave when he pulled up to his SLAM interview rocking a pair of all-black square-rimmed shades—and kept them on the entire time. “I was already making a name for myself, so I was just going to stay in my situation,” Bahati admits when asked how he ended up at Donda. “But my parents saw a great opportunity.” 

Although the California native didn’t have to travel very far, now that he’s here, he’s already started to evolve his all-around game. The 6-5 guard has DI offers from programs like UC Santa Barbara and Loyola Marymount. 

“I’m more of an efficient scorer, so I shoot and then I’ll drive,” he says. “I don’t really use shifts or anything like that. I just get to my spots and elevate. But being here with Rob and Z, and seeing how they dribble, it’s more like putting it on [top of] my skills and getting to my bag.”

This isn’t Bryce Baker’s first time playing on a highly competitive squad—he suited up alongside Dillingham and Bodrick at Combine Academy before coming to Donda Academy.  And yet he says this is definitely a first for someone that’s from where he’s from. “I come 
from a small town in North Carolina,” he says. “Really, nobody has done nothing like this.” 

Baker gives a major shoutout to his mom for letting him take advantage of the opportunity, knowing that he’d have to move across the country. “She trusted me and my judgement. And I felt like this was the best path for me to take to get myself to a different level.”

Now that he’s out in Cali, the 6-4 guard who can effortlessly knock down jumpers from behind the arc and block shots on the other end of the floor, says he wants to “grow himself as a person,” on and off the court—especially as he gets ready to head to Old Dominion next year.

“I’m about to go to college, so I feel like this is the necessary step for me to take. Having my friends here and making new friends, this is basically my family now.”

Creative Directed by Ye; Cover and Portrait of Shayla Scott: ONDA; Solo Portraits: KAITO.

The post Decidedly Different: Ye and Donda Academy Cover SLAM 236 appeared first on SLAM.

Markannen suffered the injury to his right ankle in the first half and never returned to the game.

Lauri Markkanen went down on the court with an apparent ankle injury.

He was carried off the court by his teammates and is headed straight back to the locker room. Hope nothing’s serious.

Prayers up for Lauri. pic.twitter.com/MmoLU4wUG2

— NBA Analysis Network (@HoopAnalysisNet) January 23, 2022

The early injury report came from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. He also reported that the injury is not linked to his knee or Achilles, with more information after more tests are conducted. On Monday, Fedor reported that Markannen will miss the Cavs’ game against the Knicks.

#Cavs Lauri Markkanen is OUT tomorrow with a right ankle sprain.

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) January 23, 2022

Markkanen hurt himself landing on his right leg trying to challenge Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s driving layup. Up until that point, the 24-year-old seven-footer had a solid game scoring 9 points to go with two rebounds and one block before exiting the game.

Markannen has been one of several surprises during the Cavaliers’ resurgent 2021-2022 campaign. The Cavs are 28-17, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference playoff race as of Monday. Before suffering his ankle injury, Markkanen hit his scoring stride in the last 10 games scoring 14.3 points per game on 52.0 percent shooting from the field.

The post REPORT: Lauri Markannen Out Against the Knicks With Serious Ankle Sprain appeared first on SLAM.

The NBA is suspending Milwaukee’s Grayson Allen for one game over the flagrant 2 foul on Chicago’s Alex Caruso that caused a fractured wrist, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 23, 2022

The hard foul Allen committed on Caruso caused the 27-year-old Bulls guard to suffer a fractured wrist that will cause him to miss six-eight weeks following surgery. Both Caruso and Coach Billy Donovan have not held back on how they feel about the foul after their 94-90 loss, where the Bald Mamba scored seven points, secured eight rebounds, and dished out four assists in 24 minutes.

“Dude just grabbed me out of the air,” Caruso said per ESPN. “It’s kind of bulls—. I don’t know what else you can do about it. I’m just glad that I didn’t have any major scary injuries right away.”

Donovan didn’t think Allen fouled Caruso with any malicious intent, but he didn’t argue with the referees’ decision to assess Alen a flagrant foul 2 either.

“For Alex to be in the air and for [Allen] to take him down like that, he could’ve ended his career,” Donovan said after the game on Friday. “He has a history of this. That to me was really — it was really dangerous. I hope the league takes a hard look at something like that because that could have really, really seriously hurt him.”

Grayson Allen draws a flagrant 2 for a HARD foul on Alex Caruso pic.twitter.com/NjCJEzo7zu

— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) January 22, 2022

Allen contributed five points, three boards, and one steal before being ejected for the first time in his career. Allen also got called for his first flagrant foul of the season; it’s the second such foul in his career since he was removed from a Summer League game in 2019 after committing two flagrant fouls.

This was the first time Allen has been called for a flagrant foul this season and the second such foul in his career — although he was tossed from a Summer League game in 2019 after committing two flagrant fouls within seconds of each other. Allen cleared up what happened in the aftermath on his Discord channel after being seen laughing on the bench.

“Also to this point. I stood at half court watching till he got up till see if he was okay. Then when I was back by our bench a teammate made a joke and I laughed. I wasn’t laughing at the foul,” Allen said in his defense. “It was very unfortunate how it played out. I jumped to block it with my left and as I’m spinning went to grab the ball with my right hand not throw him down. It was a really hard fall and I’m glad he’s okay. If I could do the play over again knowing he’d fall like that I wouldn’t make the play.”

The next time Allen can play will be when Milwaukee (30-19) plays the New York Knicks (23-24) on Friday.

The post REPORT: Grayson Allen Suspended Over Flagrant 2 Foul on Alex Caruso appeared first on SLAM.

Curry accomplished the feat in the first quarter of the Warriors’ 123-116 win over the Jazz on Saturday. It tops the previous mark, 157, Curry set during the 2015-2016 season, when he won the MVP unanimously for the first time in League history.

Stephen Curry hits a three in his 158th straight game, breaking his own all-time record! #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/6vAmlaqGBF

— NBA (@NBA) January 2, 2022

The noteworthy feat adds to the extensive list of recent accomplishments by Curry. He passed Klay Thompson for most 40 point games with only one free throw on November 15. Just five days later, Curry passed Ray Allen for the NBA’s all-time three-point record (regular season and playoffs) against the Bulls. On December 29, he eclipsed the 3000 mark for made three-pointers. 

The three-time NBA champ and two-time MVP entered the game averaging 27.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game on 43.3 percent shooting from the field. Even though he is shooting a career-low 39.7 percent from the three-point line, he still shoots five percent better than the League average, according to NBA.com. 

Another all-time record for @StephenCurry30! pic.twitter.com/HmEX8fuL5Y

— NBA (@NBA) January 2, 2022

Stephen Curry has his next opportunity to extend the streak on Monday when the Warriors (28-7) play the Miami Heat (23-13).

The post Warriors Superstar Stephen Curry Breaks His Own Three-Point Shooting Record appeared first on SLAM.

Update: On Tuesday, League commissioner Adam Silver announced in an interview with Malika Andrews that the NBA would not be pausing the season for the second season since the 2019-2020 season. Silver also said that the Omricon is ‘beyond dominate’ while constituting 90 percent of positive tests.

REPORT: Per League insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA, and the players union have reached an agreement to lessen the quarantine period for COVID-positive players. Players that tested positive for COVID-19 can clear protocols after five days if their “CT values” are above 30.

If a team has three positive results, two replacement signings are required. For four or more positive tests, three replacement players will be required. Two-way players will reportedly also have no limit to the number of games they can appear in as well. If a team has 13 players available for a game they do not have to sign any players to a hardship exemption.

A game will only be postponed if a team doesn’t have at least eight players available to play. A tactic the NBA frequently utilized last year when officials postponed 31 games. The League has decided to postpone nine games in total.

Below is the list of players and coaches currently in the League’s health and safety protocols.

Atlanta Hawks (three players, head coach)

• Chris Clemons
• Gorgui Dieng
• Cameron Oliver
• Nate McMillan

Boston Celtics (one player) 

• Payton Pritchard

Charlotte Hornets (one player)

• Vernon Carey Jr.

Chicago Bulls (one player)

• Alex Caruso

Dallas Mavericks (two players, head coach)

• Jason Kidd
• Boban Marjanovic
• Kristaps Porzingis

Denver Nuggets (one player)

• Petr Cornelie

Detroit Pistons (one player)

• Frank Jackson

Houston Rockets (one players)

• Usman Garuba

Indiana Pacers (six players)

• Justin Anderson
• Goga Bitadze
• Torrey Craig
• Isaiah Jackson
• Caris LeVert
• TJ Warren

LA Clippers (three players)

• Luke Kennard
• Xavier Moon
• Ivica Zubac