It’s hard to believe but there was a time when the Boston Celtics weren’t a top team. You’ve gotta hand it to them, though, they had a solid start—winning almost 11 successive titles from 1957 through the following decade. Following that, if the trophy wasn’t residing in Bean Town, they pretty much remained in the championship conversation until the late ’80s. Despite their rich, dynasty-defining imprint on NBA history, something changed in the early ’90s. The combination of Larry Bird inevitably calling time on his storied legacy, then the tragedy of Reggie Lewis, passing away in 1993 meant that some shaky seasons followed.

Sure, some solid draft picks made for potential franchise players (we see you, Toine), and there were a couple of savvy signings (much love, Dana). But chemistry lacked and the newly built TD Garden (then the FleetCenter) felt like an unworthy new address for the banners imported from their old home. Boston’s lack of success would be reflected in their notable absence from the first five years of SLAM covers (not counting iconic gatefold joints), with a worthy face not emerging until 1999—Issue 35, to be exact.

In the 1998 NBA Draft, the Celtics would use their 10th pick to select Paul Pierce. Despite Pierce’s hatred of the franchise (understandable, being from Cali), he would prove to be an excellent choice, putting up numbers that placed him in the Rookie of the Year conversation toward the end of the ’98-99 season.

This conversation was seemingly wide open and crashed into the SLAM offices in what would prove to be a toxic fashion. Some team members chose Vince (the eventual Rookie of the Year), Scoop was counting on J-Will and Tony G had The Truth as his pick. “If we were a band, we would’ve split up,” was how Tony described how real it got at the SLAM Dome. Three dope covers was the compromise and, as a result, the Celtics would solidify their biggest basketball achievement of that particular decade: their first solo SLAM cover.

Boston’s journey to the championship over these past few years has been a long flight with turbulence. I know I speak for the worldwide hoops community when I say that it’s dope to see such a storied franchise continuing to build on its legacy and reclaim its place as the best in NBA history.

No doubt.

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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.

In 1980, Stephen King published a novel called Firestarter. The title character was Charlie McGee, a little girl who could harness a vast power to—among other things—start fires. One important lesson she learned early on was to always push the power out, because to absorb it would destroy herself. Hold that thought.

Kevin Garnett never talked before games. And it’s not just that he didn’t do interviews; he didn’t talk, period. If he knew you, he might give you a nod, maybe a tap on the chest. But he didn’t say anything. Afterward he’d talk, but always last. The equipment guys had long since gathered the sneakers and the uniforms and bagged it all up for the next destination; reporters were getting antsy about deadlines and airtimes. But you waited for the same reasons producers ask Andre 3000 for features—because while you might have to wait forever, it was always worth the wait. KG had bars. He’d tell you things about the game you’d never have noticed in a way you’d never have thought of. 

In between, KG did things on a basketball court you’d never seen before. He’d start plays and finish them, guard every position, somehow be everywhere all at once. Dude was like this from the start, from Mauldin, SC, to Chicago—he came into his first pre-NBA workout and by the end had converted even the most staunch nonbelievers in guys making the high school jump. He went fifth and should have gone first (sorry Joe Smith). He soaked up the NBA like a sponge, put his imprint on ’Sota right away, got the Wolves to grab Stephon Marbury in the following year’s Draft. We documented it with a classic cover: “Showbiz & KG.” Nike slid him their coolest shit—he wore Jordans against MJ—before lacing him with a signature sneaker and making him head of the Fun Police. When we did that first Nike-sponsored KICKS issue, there was no question who’d be on the cover. 

For the December 1999 “100 Percent Real Juice” cover—we shot KG on a gold background but switched it out to orange—Jonathan Mannion and I flew out to Minnesota to shoot him at his crib. Garnett shot hoops in his driveway in his full road Wolves uni, the new Mobb Deep bumping from outdoor speakers. He had “It’s Mine” on repeat, trying to memorize Nas’ verse. By the end of the day, I was like, Man, I need to pick this up—only to find out at the closest record store that it wasn’t due out for another couple of weeks. We did that adidas KICKS cover with him and TD and T-Mac and the roundtable interview that anchored it was one of the most fun interviews ever. KG—never listed at 7 feet despite clear evidence to the contrary—busted on Mac for actually being 6-10 or 6-11 and then acted all surprised when it got turned back around on him.

On the court, his intensity spilled out of him like sweat. He burned so hot he had to constantly push it out lest it burn him up. He talked, yes; he cursed up a storm, but he was always talking to himself, pushing and pushing and pushing. KG picked up an MVP in Minny—but couldn’t make it all the way. By the time he decamped for Boston, it was almost a relief. 

“ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!” He messed up the adidas tagline, but that happens when you add that final (or Finals) touch. That chip. It took him a minute to say anything at all, he said it quiet first before primal screaming it into the TD Banknorth Garden rafters. Achievement unlocked, weight lifted, program complete. Not that he was finished quite yet; there’d be another Finals trip, a Brooklyn stop, a final return to Minnesota as elder and sage—21 seasons for 21.

And now. Kevin Garnett at 48. He’s a Hall of Famer, a media mogul, doing production and a podcast with Paul Pierce. We did a whole special issue on him in 2021. He’s out in Cali, a Midwest guy retired to the beach. He doesn’t hoop anymore because hoop goes just one way for him—the demon comes out, as he puts it, and the demon needs to stay away. At long last, after two decades of relentless intensity, peace. 

Portrait by Benoit Peverelli. Photo via Getty Images.

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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.

The three-time All-Star officially passed the three-time MVP for most 50-point games in Boston Celtics history after he scored a season-high 51 points on 15-23 shooting from the field, 7-12 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 14-14 from the charity stripe to lead Boston to a 130-118 win over Charlotte. Tatum has posted more 50-point games than Bird and Paul Pierce COMBINED.

“He makes me look like a better coach,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said per ESPN. “He didn’t settle for shots; he got catch-and-shoots, he got off the dribbles, he got layups. The other piece of that is the humility of our team to really work with him to get those 51 points.”

JAYSON TATUM 51 PIECE

HE DROPPED 18 PTS IN Q4 pic.twitter.com/dinmve9N8T

— NBA (@NBA) January 16, 2023

Tatum’s 51-point effort was his first 50-point outing since he scored 54 and 51 last season and notched a career-high 60 points during the 2020-21 campaign. Tatum has tied Gilbert Arenas for the third-best scoring performance on MLK Day after Agent Zero dropped 51 points in 2007.

“It’s been a while since I scored 50,” Tatum said per Yahoo Sports. “So I needed that one.”

Tatum scored his 51st point with 38 seconds left after knocking down his seventh triple of the evening, which drew “MVP ” chants from the Charlotte crowd. After Charlotte cut Boston’s lead to 98-95 following a pair of free throws from Jaden McDaniels, Tatum came in and responded with 18 fourth-quarter points to put the game out of reach.

Boston (33-12) holds the top spot in the League after Tuesday and is 4.5 games ahead of Brooklyn (27-15) for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

The post Jayson Tatum Breaks Boston Record For Most 50-Point Games appeared first on SLAM.

My name is Sammy, and I’m a collect-aholic. It’s an addiction—more like an obsession. My pursuit to possess every SLAM cover ever released is something that I act upon daily. It’s the eBay search that I’ve saved and the hashtag that I follow. It has me empathizing with the hoarders documented on TV shows. Like them, I want to hold on to something and store it away to capture a moment. It’s a nostalgic task to complete.

Collecting back issues of SLAM is cool (at least I think so; my wife, not so much…), but it’s not unique. Although they’re not as commonly collected as sneakers, trading cards or jerseys, old SLAM mags are widely available, with a community of us who carry a vulture-like quality when it comes to pouncing on a 30-something-year-old hoops fan who happens to be clearing out their parents’ garage. There are small pockets of basketball collectors, however, who obsess over items that are not so common…

Simon Jackson, Autographs

When Simon Jackson (@dallasmavsautos) began collecting Dirk Nowitzki trading cards in 2008, he was quickly impressed by Dirk’s speedy responses to fan mail, specifically autograph requests. His commitment to building a Dirk card collection soon got weighed down by a ton of Dallas Mavs cards. 

“I realized that I’d gained a surplus of Mavericks trading cards by searching for Dirk, which got me thinking…” he says.

Now a Mavs fan, and putting his cards to good use, Simon has made it his mission to get an autograph from every player who has ever stepped on the court in a Mavs uniform. He says there have been 358 players in total (at the time of this writing) and he has 325 of them.

This is some achievement—as an Aussie living in Australia, he acquires autographs by sending stamped envelopes to former players with cards for them to sign and return. He reaches out via Instagram, Twitter and emails. The fact that he has an autograph from Randall Jackson, a man who played 39 seconds for the Mavericks, confirms what I already knew: Simon Jackson isn’t playing around.

Chris Jungwirth, Armbands

When Chris (@nbagameworn_chris) was 14, he noticed players throwing armbands into the stands at the Target Center in Minneapolis. It was the early 2000s—prime KG era—and Chris would sneak from the cheap seats down to the court to grab a grail band from Garnett, or from the visiting Paul Pierce or Vince Carter. He even caught a Rookie LeBron James headband when the Cavs came to town in ’04. Before armband customization was banned for a few years in ’06, players would rock them with short messages, tributes and nicknames.

Chris made note of the ones he needed by studying the SLAMUPS posters on his bedroom wall. Waiting by the team bus, getting to know equipment managers, befriending ball boys and even getting to know players while hanging out by hotels—all of these tactics helped his collection grow.

In more recent years, Chris has splashed a little cash acquiring some of the big names of the past: the iconic “Pip” armband that Scottie rocked while winning hardware, the Reggie Miller finger sleeve that he wore while tearing the beating hearts out of our chests (Yes, I’m a Knicks fan…). He’s also got the unmistakable “Mailman 32” band that Karl Malone rocked while racking up countless buckets. Chris recently dropped $300 on a Jayson Tatum one and has seen a rare Penny Hardaway go for $1,000. I’m still trying to figure out how he managed to talk a Lakers locker room “source” into parting with some Kobe No. 24 finger sleeves for just $150! 

“There are only about five of us continually looking for armbands,” he says. “It gets competitive at times. I’ve been offered $3,000 for my LBJ rookie headband.”

Chris’ collection is currently at 130 armbands and rising. I didn’t even mention the signed PE sneaks he has…

Gerard Starkey, Sneakers

Arguably, basketball sneaker collections are only truly worth discussing if they’re game-worn, and not only that, but worn by the greatest player ever to step onto a basketball court. Gerard Starkey (@gerard_og_vi) had been buying Jordans since he was a 9-year-old skateboarder but when he was 15, he took a leap, figuratively of course, when he got his hands on a pair of Michael Jordan PEs (“Carmine” Jordan VIs). His previous collection suddenly eclipsed by the glow of an MJ exclusive, Gerard set his sights on the shoes that told stories. 

“If you just collect stuff, you end up boxing it and not really enjoying it,” he says. “If the items have a story, then they have context and meaning. If you don’t just have the VIs, but you have the VIs that MJ cut his toe on, then it means a lot more. I started off trying to collect a PE in every style he wore, and then it snowballed.”

He forged a network through his skateboarding and basketball communities. Before social media tied the whole world together, Gerard became tied in with a few of the OG basketball sneaker collectors, guys who’d built up deep catalogs before the market went crazy. He’d help them sell stuff and even claim a pair of game-worn Js in exchange—gathering items that he adamantly says he’ll never let go of. “I don’t sell stuff,” he says. “I don’t sell stuff ever.”

Not only has Gerard built up one of the best MJ sneaker collections in the world, but he’s also built a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable in the game. From offering advice and photo-matching to confirming that a pair has been laced by Mike himself, Gerard provides a service used by Christie’s Auction House as well as high-end collectors who need help sourcing legit items. If there’s a top-tier item sold that has touched Jordan’s feet, it’s usually been through Gerard’s reliable hands.

The game has changed drastically since Gerard started collecting, with the current market allowing millionaire collectors to build a viral-worthy arsenal of MJ PEs in six months. Gerard, though, is unfazed: “They bought their collections. I built mine.”

Ferran Salavert, Jerseys

Hoops hoarders often set out on one path, but become sidetracked by a different obsession. Spanish native Ferran Salavert (@fibawhatelse) initially began collecting FIBA jerseys, primarily from teams in Spain. His favorite, Club Joventut Badalona, produced the likes of Ricky Rubio and Rudy Fernández, and his love for the team prompted Ferran to hunt for game-worn jerseys of Joventut Badalona players who made it to the NBA.

“I like the NBA,” he explains, “but my roots are in European basketball.” 

This mission then expanded to Spanish NBA players, which eventually led him to expanding to jerseys of NBA players who hooped in Spain. Needless to say, this has created one of the most beautifully eclectic collections—“The European focus of my collection is what makes it unique”—of game-worn jerseys around. His collection currently stands at 250 jerseys, with his most valuable ones being the Gasol brothers and Ricky Rubio gamers.

Marcin Wójciuk, John Starks Gear

Even though he’s in Poland, Marcin Wójciuk (@john_starks_3) found himself collecting jerseys of each New York Knicks player who took the floor in the ’94 and ’99 NBA Finals. The collection grew, but so did his focus on John Starks. Marcin loved Starks. He could relate to the passion, the hustle and the sporadic nature of his game. This new focus on Starks led to a condensing of the initial collection. Quality over quantity was his new goal—game-worn jerseys and sneaks, the rarest trading cards, signed photos, but only the highest quality Starks items would suffice. 

“The first Starks jersey I bought was a fake,” Wójciuk says. “I waited three months for it to arrive in Poland from the States. I keep it as a reminder of where it all started.”

At the last count, he has 460 pieces. Marcin is still on the hunt for the adidas Intruders (rocked on the cover of SLAM 4) and has a friend who owns the pair that Starks wore in the ’94 Finals. If he’s reading this, I hope he sees sense and sends them to the place where all John Starks-related items can find their true home.

Leo Klein, All-Star Weekend Basketballs

The beauty of basketball collections is that most are never truly complete. New items are released, fresh players join the League and the hunt for another must-have grail item continues. One of the most complete collections I’ve ever seen, however, belongs to long-time NBA fan Leo Klein.

Like others, Leo has some of the more commonly collected items—jerseys and signed photos—only his are in mind-boggling quantities and presented beautifully in a man-cave-style basement to die for. The centerpiece of his incredible collection, though, is something much less common: a full run of NBA All-Star Weekend Three-Point Contest money balls dating back to when the competition began in 1986. There are 35 in total, all displayed in custom Lucite cubes. Leo has been to every All-Star game since 1994, picking up much of his collection in person. 

“I was often in the right place at the right time,” Klein says, “and so got handed things that someone in the regular crowd wouldn’t be privy to. Traveling to 25 All-Star games was part of the catalyst in why I decided to see if I could collect a full run of money balls.”

Others weren’t so easy. Despite knowing many of the top NBA personnel, grabbing any of the pre-1990 balls presented a difficult task, primarily because so few were produced. Klein contacted sponsors of the competition, tracked down collectors via auction houses and even placed an ad, specifically to find the balls from ’86 and ’87. 

Leo’s commitment to such a specific item, the way the collection was acquired and the fact that the last ball in his collection was the end of Spalding’s NBA era, make it all so unique. The collection has been valued at anywhere between $150,000 to $500,000, and to the right buyer, he might just consider selling. 

Photo credit Nathaniel S. Butler.  

The post The Most Elite Hoop Collections Out There: From NBA Jerseys to Rare Jordans Game-Worn by Michael Jordan 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.

When he thinks about who he sought out for advice on how to reach their level of superstardom and legendary status, KD pointed out the game Kobe put him on to as an up-and-coming centerpiece on the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“Really, just don’t be a crybaby,” Durant said Wednesday, per ESPN. “I was at that age at 23 where I thought the world revolved around me. And I know we’ve talked a lot about Kobe; he was real humble in how he approached the game, how he approached his teammates, just life in general. So I learned just from watching his movements.

“He was an example; he didn’t say much, but he was an example just by how he moved, and I try to emulate; like I said, him and Mike are two dudes I emulate on and off the court what they do, and I know it will make me better.”

The subject and memories of the Black Mamba came up because Hornets head coach Steve Clifford compared th two former Finals MVPs to each other. He specifically called out how the two legendary hoopers are “very similar in terms of the way work,” how they’re “both students of the game,” and he’s noticed that Durant and Bryant are both passionate and “care deeply about the results more than they like individual numbers.”

When Durant heard about Cliffords’ analysis, he was appreciative.

“It’s hard to fill them shoes and be a Kobe Bryant,” Durant said. “But Kob is somebody I’ve been around and still study to this day. And basically, I just try to copy everything he does, same with Michael Jordan. Those two guys just set the tone for everything you want to be as a basketball player. So I just simply try to copy them as much as I can.”

Another Kobe disciple and a close friend and teammate of Durant also notice the similarities. Irving noticed the sacrifices Durant and Bryant made in the pursuit of greatness. Irving also reflected that for Bryant and Durant and players chasing greatness, there are similarities like “the hours that are put in,” as well as “the way that they prepare” and, of course, “how serious they take what they do.”

“And they’re very competitive, Kobe and KD. Obviously, with Kob transitioning in the last few years, he would definitely be giving us some gems to continue on, and you can tell that K got a lot of advice from him and watched him a lot.”

The post Kevin Durant Shares the Advice Kobe Bryant Gave Him appeared first on SLAM.

Afterward, the Boston locker erupted in joy as they gave Mazzulla a customary water bottle shower to celebrate the first win of his career and team owner Wyz Grousbeck gave Mazzulla the game ball. The locker room commemoration was a fantastic moment for a team dealing with controversy after Ime Udoka was suspended for violating team rules days before training camp started.

“I’m grateful for the relationship we have,” Mazzulla said, per ESPN. “These guys have been through a lot together, and they’re great players. So it’s just a matter of working together. So I appreciate their trust and buy-in, but they come up with a lot of good stuff as well, and we kind of just figure it out.”

On a mission. : @sammironko pic.twitter.com/5aZy88VquF

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) October 19, 2022

Boston opened the season with a win due to their speed and quickness over Philadelphia. The Celtics outscored the 76ers 24-2 on the fast break and were torching the nets over the final 36 minutes as they shot over 60 percent from the field to erase an early Philly eight-point lead.

“Pace is the virtue of this team,” Grant Williams (15 points) said. “We have a bunch of guys that can bring it, a bunch of guys that are playmakers for one another, and we trust everybody. We trust everybody to make the right decision, to make the right read, to make the right play. So that’s why we keep the ball ahead, and we play freely. That encourages players to be who they are and that allows a lot of freedom and opportunity. It makes everybody a threat.”

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum became the first pair or teammates to each score 35+ plus during a season-opener since Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West did it for the Lakers in 1996. Tatum added 10 rebounds on the night and became the first Celtic to drop 35 and 10 during the first game of a season since Paul Pierce did it in 2004.

The last Boston Celtics to drop 35+ points and 10+ rebounds in the first game of a season:

Paul Pierce (11/3/2004)
Jayson Tatum (10/18/2022) pic.twitter.com/bJkUacfiKQ

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) October 19, 2022

The Celtics were filled with praise for Mazzulla during post-game interviews. Offseason trade acquisition Malcolm Brogdon complimented Mazzola for his even-keeled demeanor, Marcus Smart (14 points and seven assists) said it’s apparent the interim coach is “oozing” with confidence, and Brown said he’s “tough as nails.”

“He wouldn’t have took any of the credit for tonight, but the thing that I like about Joe and admire about him is that he’s very honest that he doesn’t know everything,” Tatum said. “He wants us to help him out as much as he’s helping us out. It’s like we’re in a relationship, and we’re all on the same page and trying to accomplish the same thing. We’re all in this together.”

Fly high. : @sammironko pic.twitter.com/x9AzxZGrv7

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) October 19, 2022

After their convincing opening night victory over Philly, it looks like Boston will be going about the season like it’s business despite a messy start to the season. Boston’s All-Star wing duo of Tatum and Brown will remain dominant, they’ll be reliant on their speed, quickness, and length to rev up their offense and defense, and Boston will continue to play with the intensity that helped fuel their run to the 2022 NBA Finals.

The most important thing to understand is that Mazzulla seems to have gotten a resounding endorsements from the Celtics players. This season, that’ll be the most important difference in whether or not they can replicate their success from last season.

“It was a proud moment,” Mazzulla said. “I think it started with the Bill Russell ceremony and just talking to the team about the legacy he left on and off the court and the responsibility we carry to be able to hold that and build our own legacy.

“I think at the end of the game, the ‘Let’s go, Celtics’ chant, we picked up right where we left off. I pride myself in the Boston fans and the city of Boston, and when they’re cheering for you, it means you’re doing something right.”

The post Celtics ‘All in’ On Joe Mazzulla After Gifting Him First Win of His Coaching Career appeared first on SLAM.

Utah has been transparent in its desire to jumpstart a rebuild after trading All-Star cornerstones Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert over the summer. Through those trades, Utah acquired plenty of draft capital and some solid talent to build their talent around.

Olynyk averaged a career 10.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game on 36.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc. The veteran stretch-center will be focusing on fulfilling whatever role rookie Coach Will Hardy will assign him. When he was asked about Detroit trading him and Saban Lee to Utah, Olynyk said he was surprised and felt like the trade “came out of nowhere,” but he’s “excited to be a part of this out here.”

“I’m excited — I’m excited to be here, and I’m excited to be a part of this out here,” Olynyk said per the Salt Lake Tribune. “I love the people they have in the front office; I think they have a great direction and plan in place in where they want to get to and want to go and how to get there. I believe in them.”

Kelly Olynyk makes his Jazz intro pic.twitter.com/DYdeYZlMI4

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) September 27, 2022

Because of Utah’s rebuilding aspirations, Olynyk compared this process to what he went through in Boston with Jazz CEO Danny Ainge, as that Boston team built an Eastern Conference titan after trading Franchise legends Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn.

“It’s crazy because when I got drafted by Boston, we were almost in the exact same situation with Danny that they’re in here right now. You have some older guys with experience, you have some young guys, you got a bunch of draft picks coming in for the next few years, and you’re just trying to get better every single day, whatever that is,” he said. “And in Boston, we had a young first-year coach in Brad [Stevens], and now we have a first-time, young head coach in Will [Hardy]. And I think it’s going to be great for us — everybody’s going to be pulling the rope in the same direction. And that’s how you move things.”

Olynyk also told reporters that he had come to appreciate Hardy and his coaching staff in the days he’s been around the team. He believes that Hardy has a “basketball mind” and is willing to “let guys play free” and allows players to “be themselves on the court.”

“Kelly is a really versatile player. He’s been around the NBA for a while, so he has a lot of just sort of corporate knowledge of how to play in the NBA,” Hardy said. “But he’s a really smart, skilled basketball player. He can play in a couple of different positions on the floor, and just provides us with a lot of intelligence.”

Above all, Olynyk is looking forward to one thing playing with the Jazz

“It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

The post Kelly Olynyk ‘Excited’ to Play in Utah After ‘Out of Nowhere’ Trade appeared first on SLAM.

Russell was a five-time MVP, 12-time All-Star and four-time rebounding champ with the Celtics. On top of anchoring one of the NBA’s greatest dynasties and retiring as one of the greatest defensive players of all time, Russell was the first Black head coach in NBA history and an outspoken political activist. The NBA Hall of Famer, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011, was at the march on Washington as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech and publicly supported the late-Muhammad Ali when the iconic boxer refused induction into the military draft in 1967.

Russell died “peacefully” with his wife, Jeannine, at his side, according to statement posted via Twitter.

“Bill’s wife, Jeannine, and his many friends and family thank you for keeping Bill in your prayers. Perhaps you’ll relive one or two of the golden moments he gave us, or recall his trademark laugh as he delighted in explaining the real story behind how those moments unfolded,” the family statement said. “And we hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill’s uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle. That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6.”

Two years ago, the NBA legend contributed a powerful essay in SLAM’s special issue devoted to social justice, where he detailed his fight against racism throughout his life. Read here.

The entire basketball community from legends such as Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to current players including Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum and more took to social media to pay their respects to the late and great Bill Russell.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

Stephen Curry:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wardell Curry (@stephencurry30)

Boston Celtics:

Charlotte Hornets:

Shaquille O’Neal:

Charles Barkley:

Magic Johnson:

Paul Pierce:

Jayson Tatum:

Marcus Smart:

Dwyane Wade:

James Harden:

WNBA:

Photos via Getty Images.

The post NBA, WNBA Community Remembers Bill Russell on Social Media 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.

Today’s Texas sun is becoming increasingly unobstructed on the trip to Mac’s spot. On the roll, with the wind blowing through and the rental car’s engine roaring, the Texas sun is most definitely keeping the warmth. Early January doesn’t feel like early January. 

Cerulean and cloudless above.

Slow and steady pace.

More ease than worry.

Not late.

Not early.

Right…on…time.

Then it appears, a huge spot where one of the game’s most unstoppable individual talents lays his head. 

Black gates keep Mac’s home safe. There’s no answer to the exterior intercom’s inquiry, but the gates open sesame. They don’t reveal 40 thieves like in the famous tale. Instead, Mac suddenly appears just to the left of the front door of the main house. Calm as always. His pace is slow and steady, with more ease than worry. His hands are in the pockets of his personalized black adidas sweatpants, which he’s styled to rest stationary above his white adidas socks, which then lead down to a pair of adidas Forum Lows that shine and sparkle with their first wear. 

He introduces himself with all the reserved yet knowing energy of the coolest kid in high school. 

He was that. Still is. 

An entire special issue dedicated to T-Mac’s unmatched creativity.

It takes just a beat for Mac to turn and saunter over off to the side of the main house. The Texas sun that was coming out to play during the drive is dropping out of sight behind the tall building that we’re being led to. Sturdy double doors open, Mac hits a light switch and it all comes to life. An NBA-sized court is the star, flanked by a weight room to the right and a kitchen, along with a hallway that leads to an office and a separate room with a barber’s chair, to the left. Moving at this slow and steady pace allows for more to be seen. So when the light flicks on, it’s cinematic, and all that’s missing is a rising orchestral piece to accentuate the grandeur of the one and only T-Mac Arena. 

But, if that music were to be playing, it’d make it more difficult to hear all the late-night swishes that have rang out in here, or all the weights that have clanked together, or all the times that his signature adidas sneakers have squeaked against the hardwood. There are ghosts in this building. Not bad, scary ghosts, but rather the ghosts of T-Mac’s greatness as an NBA player. Ghosts of T-Mac helping the local youth who get to come into this gym and learn from one of the coldest to ever play. To see everything that’s here, but not here at the same time, is an exercise in thinking like Mac, in imagining like Mac. He’s one of the few whose claim of changing the game isn’t just a claim—he did things on the court that nobody had seen before. As a ballplayer, he was a mind-opening inspiration, someone who laughed at previously-perceived boundaries on his way to breaking new ground, or, most often, soaring to new heights. 

The rims in the Arena are soft and forgiving, and their nets offer a serenade when swishes sustain enough to stick in the soul. Treasures, both physical and otherwise, wait here. 

Some of those treasures sit just to the right of the main entrance in the form of a duffle bag overflowing with T-Macs made just for T-Mac. They’re all adorned with the “sample” tag, in his size 16, and they range from 1s to 2s to 3s to Millenniums. Black paint runs the length of the baseline underneath the duffy. “T-Mac Arena” is stenciled in big italics, joined by solid black italics on both sides of the floor, near the half court line, that read “HOF17.” Self-explanatory. The court itself is bouncy under-foot and accented by all the goodies that any ballplayer could ever want. Shooting guns, d-fenders and medicine balls dot the sidelines. A giant T-Mac logo is at halfcourt, directly underneath the highest point of the A-framed building, where the white ceiling slopes all the way up before coming back down again. 

Mac gets the music going on the loudspeakers and we hear Hov, Jada and a bunch of others while he poses with his kicks in celebration of being Striped out for 25 years.    

Before time feels like time, it turns out that nearly four hours have passed us by. We got lost in conversation and in photo shoots and in the confirmations of stories that have long been rumored (the game at Rucker Park on August 14, 2003 would have been the best ever, if not for that blackout). See, what happened was we time traveled, melded the past, present and future, and forgot about the Texas sun. It had gone from high in the sky to closer to the earth. Slow and steady pace. 

The first stop we made was high school, back to Mount Zion Christian Academy, back when he did something he would become famous for. 

“I always wanted to be creative,” Mac says. “You know, I’m a creative thinker, and I want to be the first to do something. I want to do something that nobody’s done, especially on the NBA level. And when I was in high school, a team was playing a 2-3 zone, and I just got tired of the two guys [at the top] stopping me from penetrating to the basket. So I got pissed and I said, I’m gonna split these two dudes, I’m gonna throw it off the glass and I’m gonna catch this off the glass and dunk it.”

He pauses for just a moment to grin. 

“So when I get to the NBA, I wanna throw it off the glass against the best players in the world,” he continues. “I would love to do that. I’ve never seen this in an NBA game, right? Never seen this. We’re in Boston, preseason. Score is 2-0, us. Ball coming down. Kenny Anderson, Paul Pierce, right there. Throw it up. I come out of nowhere. Bahhhh.”

He mimics the throwdown with the animation in his voice sounding like he’s wrapped in the moment all over again.

“Preseason,” he goes on. “I see my teammates Troy Hudson, Pat Garrity, all of them going crazy. Man, wouldn’t that be dope to do that at the All-Star Game with all the best players, with all the celebrities? Philadelphia. So to do this, right, you got to have supreme confidence within your ability. At this point in 2003, I feel like nobody can touch me. In 2002 to 2003, feel like nobody can touch me at this time. I’m highly skilled, I’m confident. I feel great. I’m quick, fast, like, I am at my best. We’re at All-Star Weekend. Jermaine O’Neal gives me the ball coming down on the left side. I see Dirk [Nowitzki] standing right there, I see GP [Gary Payton]. Got the ball in the left hand. Left hand coming around. Everybody do this. Just come out of nowhere. Boom. Boom. Go crazy, everybody go crazy, it was legendary. And I’m like, That’s the moment I’ve been waiting on. Because that, what I just did, I know that’s going to be around for years, for decades. Right? So I was the first one to do that. And that was the creative mind that I had. I just wanted to try different stuff, man. Why not? I worked too hard, bro. I put in a lot of work. You know, waking up 5 in the morning, three workouts a day. I put that in, you know what I’m saying? And that gave me the utmost confidence to be able to try anything on the basketball court because I believed in my ability and I wasn’t afraid to do that.” 

There seemed to be two different versions of McGrady on the court. There was the calmer guy, the one who would accept double-teams and snap crisp cross-court passes to the open man. Then there was the superpower version. That version was able to easily traverse the unseen and narrow bridge between knowing and flowing. That’s a bridge where all the conscious years of skills training, physical training and mental training lead to a disconnection from all of that intention and into a state of complete instinctual expression. Off-the-board tosses and 62-point outbursts and the otherworldly 13 points in 33 seconds, for example. 

And while Mac confirms that there were moments where he slowed down as an individual to get touches for his teammates, he says that he was never disconnected from his mind or body. It was the opposite. 

“I’m aware. I’m aware,” he says again for emphasis about those moments that look like unfiltered genius. “When I could tell one of my teammates ahead of time, Yo, I’m about to throw this off the glass, bro. Chris Whitney, when we was playing against Toronto in Orlando, Chris, watch this, I’m about to throw this off the glass. I know how the flow of the game is going, right? I know there’s nobody out here that can touch me on this basketball court, right? And the moment’s going to present itself. I know it, right? I’ve played too many games, I worked too hard to get that feeling, right? To get that feeling and to be that confident. When you got control, when you know you in control, just play ball, man, and the defense will be at your mercy. I think when you are solely confident in your ability and you know the temperature of the game, the Florida game, when you’re highly skilled, you can pull these things off. That’s all it was. I just, I knew I could go behind my back because when you create this persona, guys know us. It’s real. Guys know you’re the shit. They know this is T-Mac they’re guarding. I’m not saying this is everybody, but some of the guys that are guarding you, you can tell they’re a little timid. That’s what I mean, I’ve got control of the situation because I know these guys [and] they know there’s nothing that they can do with me.”

He credits all that to waking up before the daylight would wash over Toronto, Orlando, Houston and everywhere else he played. It looked easy because it wasn’t. He acknowledges that there was a lot of natural ability at his disposal, but he also emphasizes, multiple times, that he worked as hard as he could. 

There’s this thing that keeps happening with Mac during all this time traveling. His body language and the cadence of his voice keep on illustrating how much this all means to him. Those same hands that used to shoot from anywhere or fling passes from his hip are waving throughout the air. He’s using them as instruments to further add to all the life in his spirited speech. Given the space and time to speak and reminisce, he’s an artist sharing the secrets of his craft. And given that we’re in the physical space of T-Mac Arena, his artist studio as it were, he seems to be somewhere in between then and now, physically sitting in a chair at his home while spiritually floating through memories.  

What that craft did was expand the minds of all the kids who watched him. He introduced possibilities, thought to be just fantasies, into reality. There aren’t many who have been able to accomplish that. 

SLAM Presents T-MAC is OUT NOW! Shop here.

McGrady even surprised himself. He points out the behind-the-back dribble move against Shaun Livingston (salute to the three-time champ) from the left post. It was 2006. Out of that move came a fadeaway to the baseline. The shot lofted into a net-ringing swish. Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler was on the mic for the broadcast. He used the word “creativity” in his astonished call of the moment. 

It’s just a snapshot of the brilliance. The snapshots add up to make the mosaic that adidas, all the way back in 1997, was aware would one day be painted. 

This marks the 25th year of the Tracy McGrady and adidas relationship. It’s rare air for one player to be with one brand for that amount of time. 

“It’s unheard of,” Mac says of the longevity. “I think Mike [Jordan] and AI [Allen Iverson] are the only ones that are still doing that at this rate. It’s because of that reason, because we built something that is still relevant to today. When you announced some T-Macs are coming out, they’re still selling out. Why go anywhere else? We’re still doing good things. And you got to understand, I’m still one of the only guys that is selling shoes 25 years later. It’s not many. It’s not many. And I’m talking about guys [in] my era that was superstars. I’m one of those guys that are fortunate enough to still be doing it. So you gotta keep going.”

The line has kept going with the recently released T-Mac Millennium 1s and 2s. The Stripes have retroed his line with the Restomod versions of the 1s, 2s and 3s. That’s where it stands today, after 25 long years. But how did the line start?

“I knew in my third season with adidas that I was going to be a signature guy,” Mac remembers. “Through conversations, through my play and how I was making a name for myself. People saw the talent and the skill level and having that coming out party against New York in the playoffs, where, first game I think I had 25, 26 points in my first-ever playoffs [It was 25 at MSG against the Knicks.—Ed]. And I averaged, like, 16 [points per game] that whole playoff series against a tough Knicks team. I knew I was going to get it, it was just a matter of time. And God bless, he did. My brother Kobe turned down adidas. Kobe was about to sign a $200 million deal with adidas. Who was next in line? I was like, Kob, thank you, brother, thank you, brother. I’m glad you turned down that $200 million because you left me a $100 million, bro!”

T-Mac ended up being the sole face of adidas Basketball throughout the early and mid-2000s. The Stripes didn’t push out other designers alongside of him and they made him the star of some amazing and memorable commercials. He says there wasn’t a discussion about that. It was just natural. He was in the moment and that moment called for him to be the Stripes’ star. 

Like everything he did, from his sneakers to his scoring, No. 1 was No. 1. 

But it’s not like Mac is done accomplishing. The Ones Basketball League will be touring the country this summer, bringing his idea of a one-on-one league to life. He also just started a sports agency with six-time All-Star Jermaine O’Neal. And as we start to wrap up our shoot for the day, a team of elementary school-aged kids start to file into T-Mac Arena. They work on form shooting and ballhandling. Even at that young age, they’re learning the fundamentals. They’ll be next in line, at some point, after the current crop of high school sophomores that Mac has been mentoring through his AAU program. That group of 10th graders, Mac says, has been with him for six or seven years.

“I put in a lot of effort, energy, money behind the youth,” he goes on. “I don’t broadcast that, I don’t show that off a lot. But it’s what I do because I want these kids to win. I know how tough it is to make it and what they’re trying to accomplish. But it’s my job to really give them the tools and information so they can be successful and help them understand that if basketball doesn’t work out, it’s OK, you can win at other things. It’s not everything. There is life for us. We would love to make it to the mountaintop, but when you got an AAU program, maybe one or two of those guys make it. What about the other guys? Like, what are you instilling in them to keep them confident? And I think for me that’s what I really thrive on, is building up the confidence of the kids so when they leave my program and leave me, they’re extremely confident and they know where they’re going, they know the journey that they’re on. And if basketball doesn’t work out for them, there’s still this confidence to feel like they could be successful in life because I gave them the tools in life to be successful.”

That’s the last thing Mac says before standing up out of his chair and walking across the bouncy hardwood floor of the Arena. He’s left the treasures of his sneakers behind him. The patent leather of the 2s and the faux croc skin of the 3s are the ghosts of the past in the present. There’s also the treasures of everything he just said and didn’t say. The ghosts of the future for the kids reading this somewhere who got to see the love and care for craft, the pride in passion, even the way that the old can be experienced anew.   

He exits through those sturdy double doors, revealing that the Texas sun has become the Texas moon. It’s glowing high above a sprawling estate hidden away, where deer roam across guarded grass flatlands that lay behind black gates. 

Portraits Jon Lopez, action photo via Getty Images.

The post Tracy McGrady on How His Basketball Imagination Became His Reality appeared first on SLAM.

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.

The post Jayson Tatum Crowned First Larry Bird Trophy Winner appeared first on SLAM.

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.

Get your copy of SLAM Presents TOP 75 NBA Teams Of All Time

The post SLAM’s TOP 75 NBA Teams of All Time: No. 32-22 appeared first on SLAM.

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.

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Photos via Getty Images.

The post SLAM’s TOP 75 NBA Teams of All Time: No. 65-55 appeared first on SLAM.

Not only did Butler drop 41 points, 27 of which came in the second half, but he also posted nine rebounds, five assists, four steals, and three blocks, including a block on Jayson Tatum when the Duke alum attempted a three-pointer in the left corner. Butler is now the first player in NBA history to put together a 40/9/5/4/3 game in the playoffs, according to Statmuse.

“Jimmy Butler is an elite competitor,” Spoelstra said, per ESPN. “There’s a lot of guys in this League that are playing basketball. He’s competing to win. That’s a totally different thing, and he does that as well as anybody in this League.”

Masterful in the midrange.
(via @ESPNNBA) pic.twitter.com/Q57Dh8Pgtx

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 18, 2022

Butler has now become the second player in franchise history to score 40+ points in five games this postseason, the first being Dwyane Wade. Butler has also recorded his fifth career playoff game with 40 points on 60 percent shooting, tied with Charles Barkley for third-most in the last 30 postseasons, followed by Shaquille O’Neal (8) and LeBron James (12) via ESPN Stats and Info.

The only other players to have a 40-5-5-4 playoff game are James, Russell Westbrook, Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Larry Bird, according to ESPN Stats and Info. Per Statmuse, Jimmy G. Buckets surpassed James and Wade for most 40/5/5 playoff games in Heat history.

“I don’t do this to score 40 points; I play the way that I play to win,” Butler said following the game. “It just so happened I scored 40, but if I scored 40 and lose, I’m gonna be really ticked off.”

Jimmy Butler is everywhere.
(via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/d8eKSNt2CK

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 18, 2022

Miami will look to take a 2-0 lead on Thursday’s Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The post Erik Spoelstra Praises Jimmy Butler After 41 Point Effort in Game 1 Win 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.

Two seconds later, a 25-year-old Pierce side-stepped to his left and launched a trey ball to the back of the rim and through the net as TD Garden exploded.

Coming off the heels of a first-round sweep against the Brooklyn Nets, Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum dished out some commentary on Pierce’s clutch step-back bucket.

Jayson Tatum shares his thoughts on this big-time Paul Pierce shot from this day in 2003! #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/qiVVdgk4Nl

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) April 27, 2022

“I felt like he told him what he was about to do. Talking to him, side-step trey ball in the Garden. Something I might do,” Tatum said.

Tatum’s duffy has been on full display since hitting a game-winning layup in Game 1 against the Nets at home, while the side-step trey ball has been a staple in the young star’s bountiful arsenal of offensive weapons. In their sweep against Brooklyn, Tatum averaged a team-high 29.5 points, 7.3 assists, and 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting a scintillating 41.9 percent from beyond the arc.

He’s taken the step as a two-way superstar against one of the game’s best scoring threats, holding Kevin Durant to just 12 points and 3-18 shooting as his primary defender throughout the series.

With Milwaukee entering Game 5 tonight against the Chicago Bulls with a 3-1 lead, the Celtics and Tatum might soon find their matchup for the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The post Jayson Tatum Shares His Thoughts on Paul Pierce’s Clutch Three 19 Years Later appeared first on SLAM.

In Chicago tonight, Jayson Tatum just scored his 2,000th point of the season. pic.twitter.com/TzE0y6bepK

— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) April 7, 2022

The Duke alum joins Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Paul Pierce, and Isaiah Thomas in the exclusive club.

Tatum averaged 26.9 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game, all career-high numbers, in 75 appearances this season. He has scored 40+ three times and has scored 50+ twice this season, including a season-high 54 against the Brooklyn Nets in March. Tatum has also posted 30+ points 28 times this season.

Per Keith Smith, the Boston Celtics can clinch no worse than the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference if they get one more win over their last three games or if the Bulls and the Raptors have to lose one more game over their final stretch of regular-season games.

The Celtics have road games with the playoff-bound Bulls, Bucks, and Grizzlies to close out their regular season.

The post Jayson Tatum Becomes Seventh Ever Celtic to Score 2k Points in One Season 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.

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.

The Utah Jazz are hiring Danny Ainge as alternate governor and CEO, sources tell ESPN. Ainge will oversee basketball and Justin Zanik will remain GM.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 15, 2021

Smith hired Ainge after he stepped down as the Celtics’ president of basketball operations after last season. Ainge was the Celtics’ top basketball executive and helped build the first Big 3 of the modern NBA when he acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to team up with Paul Pierce. Those additions helped the Celtics win a title in 2008 and led to him winning Executive of the Year the same year.

As CEO, he will be in charge of basketball operations for the Jazz and will be working closely with Utah general manager Justin Zanik.

“We have big aspirations for Smith Entertainment Group and the Utah Jazz. Danny is one of the best basketball minds in the world, and he’s also passionate about this state and our community,” Smith said in a statement. “We believe in adding the best talent to all facets of our organization and are lucky to have Danny’s acumen and experience.”

Ainge was reportedly a candidate for an executive position with Trail Blazers recently. Ainge replaces Dennis Lindsey, who helped build the Jazz into a championship contender after drafting Rudy Gobert, and Donovan Mitchell, who have morphed into All-Stars. Last summer, Lindsey moved into a consultant role after serving as executive vice president of basketball operations for nine seasons.

“Rarely do you get an opportunity to come into a franchise that is this close to being a special team. It’s a very unique opportunity.” Ainge told Tim McMahon of ESPN.

The post Danny Ainge Returns to the NBA as Jazz CEO and Governor appeared first on SLAM.

The only player left in the NBA from that team is Los Angeles Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo.

When speaking with Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register, Rondo opened up about his experience on that Celtics championship team and talked about being the only player left from the roster.

“It’s life. I’m on my last leg here in the League. I think I got another six years, but other than that,” Rondo joked.

Rondo also talked with Goon about how his stint with the Celtics was a great period of his NBA career and mentioned how great it has been playing for their rival.

“It’s been an amazing journey in my career,” Rondo said. “To start in Boston, nine years, this is kind of place that raised me and possibly ending my career with the rival, but for me, like there’s been a great journey, a great story and fans have been amazing in both places.”

Led by Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, the 2008 Celtics took down a Lakers team led by Kobe Bryant in six games.

Rondo has put together a solid career for himself, being named to four All-Star teams, four All-Defensive teams, one All-NBA team, and won a second NBA Championship in 2020 with the Lakers.

Still contributing in his 16th season in the NBA, Rondo provides valuable minutes to a Lakers team looking for its second championship in three years. Rondo is averaging 15.3 minutes, 3.3 points, and 3.8 assists per game this season.

The post Rajon Rondo Reflects On His Career: ‘I’m On My Last Leg Here in the League’ appeared first on SLAM.

Those who were there from the beginning will tell you that Kevin Garnett didn’t want to make a documentary solely about himself. They’ll tell you that as a storyteller, he simply wanted to be a character who was part of a larger story, and everything he’s ever done, every basket he’s scored (or blocked, or rebounded) are domino pieces stacked within a long trail of other dominos. One decision led others to fall, and the story of Kevin Garnett, the story that will be told in Kevin Garnett: Anything is Possible, is a visual representation of that domino effect. 

Co-directed and produced by Eric Newman and Dan Levin, along with producers Mike Marangu, Marc Levin and Brian Bennett—KG’s partner at his production company, Content Cartel—the documentary is a look at KG’s past, diving deep into the impact he’s had on the League and the legacy he’s currently leaving as a Hall of Famer.

Garnett had expressed his interest in filmmaking way before the documentary even came to fruition. Stephen Espinoza, president of SHOWTIME Sports, recalls the first time he met KG, back in 2014 while on a flight from New York to China. SHOWTIME, one of the Barclays Center sponsors, was invited to join the Nets on the trip, and Espinoza recalls chatting with KG on the plane about boxing as well as Kevin’s post-career plans and goals. 

“We ended up talking so long that eventually, they had to separate us because we’re keeping everyone else in the cabin awake talking and laughing,” he says. “When we finished that conversation, I remember thinking that if there was ever an opportunity to do a project with him, I would jump at it because he is such a great dynamic, peripatetic personality and has really been an icon and a trailblazer in the League and in the culture for a long, long time.” 

Marc Levin, who first met KG during a Super Bowl LIII party, remembers having earlier conversations with him about his interests in exploring filmmaking and production. Garnett, who had seen Levin’s earlier film, Gang War: Banging in Little Rock, was intrigued by notorious gang leader Larry Hoover and interested in telling his story. 

Garnett also shared his interest in documentaries with Mike Marangu, who had previously worked with Levin on a number of sports documentaries, including Freeway: Crack in the System, along with being a producer on Iverson. The two had been introduced in 2018, just two years after KG retired, by Brian Bennett. 

No shade to other sports docs, but having grown up in the era of hip-hop and the heavy influence of Nas, Tupac and Biggie, KG told Marangu that he wanted his own documentary to be, in his own words, some “gangster shit.”

“When you’re talking to him and he’s literally acting it out, he can’t just tell you a story,” Marangu says on a Zoom call. “He’s full sweat, acting out and imitating everyone’s voices. He’s just an amazing storyteller and he always says that came from hip-hop…from day one he was like, I don’t do anything soft. I see what other players are doing, and I love those guys and all that, but I just want to do all gangster shit.” 

After that conversation, Marangu reached out to Levin, who reeled in Newman—who at the time was building his work as a filmmaker and producer covering sports. Newman had served as a producer on both The Legend of Swee’ Pea and created the vision and executive produced the DeMarcus Cousins film, The Resurgence, with SHOWTIME. Together, Newman, with Dan and Marc Levin created the concept of what Kevin’s documentary would be and put together the dense story deck that was presented in the pitch meeting with SHOWTIME.

“I tend to go mad scientist mode with story decks, and I took this to a different level,” Newman recalls. That includes “The Butterfly Effect,” a diagram he created, which was inspired by an earlier conversation he had with KG, that shows just how much KG impacted the League, the culture and how he paved the way for future generations.

The first meeting with SHOWTIME took place in June 2019, during the NBA Finals. KG, Marangu, Bennett, Newman and Brian Dailey, SVP of SHOWTIME Sports, all sat in one of SHOWTIME’s West Hollywood offices, while the Levins called in. 

The initial pitch meeting went well and led to another one getting scheduled in July at SHOWTIME’s office in New York. Newman and Garnett spent nearly the entire day together, getting breakfast and bouncing around the city. Newman shared his own story about how basketball has played a huge role in his life, a moment of vulnerability that he feels helped create a level of trust and respect between the two early on. 

During that meeting, everyone was ready to execute the pitch to the SHOWTIME Sports team. But, as soon as the meeting began, the plan went out the window and the 15-time All-Star immediately took the reins. Garnett had something to say and went into full KG mode. He knew what he wanted this film to be, and just as with anything involving Kevin Garnett, everyone simply watched with amazement. 

“He was so animated and couldn’t sit still. He’s going from sitting straight across from me staring at me to leaning back in his chair to his feet up, to getting up pacing the room, to getting in a defensive stance,” says Newman. “He was like, I want to make this about the domino effect of going from high school to the pros. I don’t want this to just be about me. I want this to be about all of the other elements and lanes. We kind of had to bring him back and be like, Hey, we’re going to cover all of that!”

When Garnett and everyone who was in the room that day (physically and virtually) shook hands and officially greenlit the film, they knew that not only were they about to produce the first documentary about him, but they were going to create an important body of work with cultural significance. Kevin had never gone into tons of detail about his past, simply telling bits and pieces to the media: growing up in South Carolina, moving to Chicago, playing in a pickup game that included Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, witnessed by Isiah Thomas, having a heart-to-heart with Thomas about his future. This film would dive deeper into all of it and then some. 

“Garnett was always the ultimate story to tell from my generation,” says Newman, who grew up rooting for the Boston Celtics and, as a former high school coach and basketball clinic director, was deeply impacted by that ’08 championship team. “Our senior year of high school was his rookie year in the NBA, so watching that leap while also having a very meaningful basketball experience of my own was very impactful. Just thinking back on that time, part of our story is looking at this magical 25-year framework—which was launched by his decision and everything else that came with it.”

The film, produced by Blowback Productions, Content Cartel and SHOWTIME, is centered around Garnett’s impact and journey during this 25-year period. Garnett wanted to keep it real for the film, and for the first time, he opens up about his accomplishments in one-on-one interviews and is honest about the moments that have made him who he is. 

“Kevin was drawn by a range of SHOWTIME documentaries,” Dailey says. “Kobe, Iverson, most recently Ron Artest, DeMarcus Cousins, the Shut Up and Dribble project with LeBron [James]—there is a connection between all of those subjects. This resonated with KG, and he wanted to be part of our brand of storytelling: bold, unfiltered unapologetic.”

“The bar was set high,” adds Espinoza, about SHOWTIME’s array of films on legendary players around the game. “And Kevin was a trailblazer. I think part of what also makes this film special is to celebrate his career, the competitor that he was, what he brought to the League. Part of it is to sort of show respect and recognize the contributions he’s made on a cultural basis, on a sports basis and even on an individual basis with a range of young players today.”

Life is oftentimes unexpected, and so was the filming of the documentary, right from the very start. Two days into production, which began in January 2020, the Levins, Newman, Marangu and the rest of the crew joined KG on a beautiful beach in Malibu where he often enjoys working out, meditating and clearing his thoughts. None of them could have known then that nearly 10 miles away, a devastating tragedy would take place 24 hours later on January 26. The news was unimaginable: Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and her teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, tragically passed away in a helicopter crash.

Kevin’s demeanor changed from that moment on. He had lost his little brother and friend.

“[Kevin and Kobe] came in around the same year,” Marangu reiterates. “Kevin ’95, Kobe in ’96. Kobe and [Allen] Iverson were the youngsters that looked to Kevin like, Hey, you made it. What’s the NBA like? [Kevin] was really downloading all those guys that came in that ’96 year about making the jump, so [Bryant’s passing] hit him pretty hard.”

“Everything felt different after that, the world was different, he was different after that,” Newman adds.

Stream KEVIN GARNETT: Anything Is Possible on SHOWTIME. 

During All-Star Weekend in Chicago last year, the crew joined KG on a trip to visit his former high school, Farragut Academy. They saw the banners, the trophies, the glass windows Garnett often refers to, and, most notably, the star reuniting with his old coaches and laughing and joking as though no time had passed. The producing team saw firsthand just how much that time he spent in Chicago shaped who Garnett is, and the documentary will show a side to him that not many have ever seen before.

“You felt from the moment he had that reunion with his coach and the assistant coach that, that experience [and] that one year at Farragut really is what made him Kevin Garnett. You felt it. You saw his picture in the gym and all the trophies and the retired jerseys,” says Marc Levin. “This country kid, who obviously was incredibly talented, was just a [boy] from South Carolina thrown into [an environment like] west Chicago. The gangs, Farragut [had] students fighting every day, and [Kevin] was just thrown into that. Then, [he has] this incredible moment where he made this decision that he was going to take a chance at going pro—it was all palpable, emotional and I had never realized that his high school year was such a crucible in terms of forming who he was.”

While the trip to Chicago had its celebratory moments, including the announcement of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame finalists, a dark cloud also lingered. The world was still mourning the loss of Kobe Bryant.

“The Hall of Fame press event was at All-Star Weekend in Chicago and that became a whole Kobe tribute, so that affected him, and [it seems like] he still hasn’t been able to really talk about it,” Marangu says. “That’s the most impactful thing during production that happened.”

“Chicago was supposed to be a celebration of 25 years, but instead it was this somber, reflective [moment] on Kobe. [Kevin] did two hours on ALL THE SMOKE and it was almost like therapy…which made the Farragut visit that much more meaningful. He was really reflective after that. We finished and did that exit shot of him leaving the building and to me, it was so much more than filming a guy leaving the building. The whole day was really impactful.”

One tragedy practically led straight into another. The COVID-19 pandemic hit, and production was halted for three months. Once it started back up in June, everyone felt like they were making a different type of film with a handful of uncontrollable factors: loss, tragedy and a global pandemic. Everything felt different, and even Kevin—with all of his bubbly energy and excitement—wasn’t the same person from the beginning of the year.

“Kevin needed, and I’m comfortable saying this, Kevin just needed time,” says Newman, looking back. “Everything that’s happened in our world weighs on us all differently and these things were weighing on him, and a lot of the times I have to remind myself, OK, this film is obviously very, very important to the people making it, it’s very important to the subject, but it’s not the only thing that he’s conscious of every day when he wakes up. He’s a father, he’s launching different things, he’s involved in different ventures and projects, so when the timing is right to pick it up, it’ll be right and thankfully that happened in June.

The crew eventually had to conduct some of the interviews virtually and had to administer COVID tests when filming in-person at Dream Magic Studio in L.A. Still, they were able to interview Kevin’s former teammates, friends and peers, including Paul Pierce, Sam Cassell, Ronnie Fields, Doc Rivers, Rajon Rondo, Isiah Thomas, Danny Ainge, and even Snoop Dogg—all of whom shared stories and insight into who the big man is and the impact he’s had on so many people.

Garnett also opened up more and more as production continued and showed moments of vulnerability. 

Last October, they all traveled back to KG’s old stomping grounds in Minnesota. While there, they took time to pay respect to and mourn the loss of George Floyd. It was then that both of them saw just how impactful these moments they spent with Garnett were. Making a documentary about him was one thing, but in many ways, it felt like 2020 was another character in the film. 

“It would be A, foolish and B, completely irresponsible, to ignore what is going on in the world,” Dan Levin says. “Whether it’s Kobe, whether it’s social injustice, police brutality, all of these things and how they affect us—how we were going to do that remained to be seen but we knew we weren’t going to shy away from it when the cameras were rolling.”

Subjects, in all their glory and accomplishments, are simply humans who have done extraordinary things, but they’re also multi-faceted rather than one-dimensional. Many know Kevin Garnett as the dominating, all-imposing and destructive force that he was on the court, with an intensity that oftentimes followed him off of it. That’s the KG we’ve all seen, cheered for and marveled at. He’s honest, energetic, personable and entertaining all at the same time, someone who will tell you like it is. Newman, Marangu, Bennett and Marc and Dan Levin have described him as a one-man show, someone whose magnetic personality commands a room. Yet they’ve also seen him get somewhat uncomfortable with having the spotlight be entirely on him. From the start, Garnett was intensely passionate and hungry for storytelling, ready for the next chapter in his career. 

In his own words, Garnett wants this film, and his production company, to keep it just as real as he does. “He was like, Everything I’m watching is soft! Man, it’s all treble. I want this to be about the BASS,” Marangu recalls Kevin saying. 

“It has to be about bass.” 

Photos courtesy of KEVIN GARNETT: Anything Is Possible.

The post Behind the Scenes of the Making of Kevin Garnett’s Documentary ‘Anything Is Possible’ appeared first on SLAM.

It’s mid-morning on the West Coast, where Kevin Garnett lives now, and the sun is shining through the window behind him, gleaming off his Larry O’Brien trophy (“Just always know when you see me, you see her, and when you see her, you see me”) as well as his luxuriously moisturized bald dome (“It’s all coconut oil and sunshine, it ain’t built for everybody, you know what I’m sayin’?”). KG is 44 now, five years removed from his last NBA game, but he still looks like he could get out there right now and give somebody buckets.

This is not going to happen, of course. KG spent his 20-plus-year NBA career squeezing it all out down to the pulp, retired—if I can mix metaphors here—with the tank on E. But that intensity, that drive, that demon that drove him, that didn’t just go away. The fire still burns. So what’s supposed to be a half-hour Zoom call goes on for an hour, then an hour and a half, despite the fact that he’s got a whole gang of other interviews to get to. KG might be retired from the NBA, but he sure ain’t retired-retired.

Back in his playing days, Garnett was always the last to speak after games. He’d get his half-hour or so of treatment in the back, then get dressed, and only then—when everything was perfect—would he come out and answer questions. The entire media contingent was always still out there waiting, because we all knew he always had something to say. 

That, at least, hasn’t changed.

SLAM: I want to start going back to—I think this was the very first time I ever met you—and it would have been the Wheelchair Classic at Madison Square Garden.

KG: Wheelchair Classic, Wheelchair Cla—oh wow. Wow, wow, wow. That’s a throwback.

SLAM: Do you remember what it was like getting out on the court with those guys?

KG: Anytime when I was in high school I stepped on the court with any pro player, I was always in awe, I was always in awe of the difference and I always wanted to see the difference in what makes this mug a motherfuckin’ pro. And then when you play, you actually saw, you actually experienced a pro. You saw the difference in the style of play, the style of pace, the patience. And that’s what separates, to me, the professional from just a regular basketball player. You learn how to attack, you learn how to defend on all genres, on all categories—fast, big, strong, long, lean, you learn how to guard it all. So whenever I would step on a court, I would always be in awe of pros just because of that reason. But man, the Wheelchair Classic, you took me back. That’s deep.

SLAM: With young guys coming up back then, it flowed the other way, too, because you guys were so different from people who were already in the NBA. There was definitely a shift coming.

KG: Mm-hmm, definitely an energy coming, definitely a different—I think after you saw UNLV start making their run, you start seeing, like, the Fab Five come into it, the energy started to change a little bit, at least for me. Growing up during the crack era, kids getting killed for they shoes was, like, a new thing. Remember the first time you heard a kid got killed in Chicago for a pair of Jordans? That changed everything for me, man. Like, kids at school and all of us growing up and the way we competed. MJ made it cool to dress up and be professional, and then it’s like, Onyx came out and it was like “Duh duh duh, duh, duh, duh. Let the boys be boys!” It was a different energy vs the Anita Baker and the Luther Vandross. Our generation was coming off a bunch of, like, Yo, my dad ain’t in here, we single mom kids, we coming up like this. You learn to slap box, you learnin’ the street. It was just all of it, all of it at the same time, kind of rush the door and hit it all at once. And it was crazy that SLAM was, like, the birth of all of that, was at the same time.

SLAM: Did you feel that extra weight on you coming into the League? From that?

KG: Not weight, but I felt like I was representing. When I came out, no bullshit, this is a true story, I actually thought Felipe Lopez had the tools and the confidence and the skills to actually do what I did. When I actually sat back and thought about why more people didn’t actually take this route, it was really because of the education. I don’t think too many kids, any city kids, country kids, kids from the suburbs, didn’t matter. Overseas. All that. I didn’t think people was educated enough on the possibilities and the options of actually going from high school to the pros. And with that, I felt like I was representing Steph [Marbury]. I felt like I was representing AI [Allen Iverson], Shareef [Abdur-Rahim], Big [Robert] Traylor, Paul—Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, because I had played with all these guys. And I felt like I was representing that. I was representing the next wave of players that wanted to come in and make their mark and be impactful in the League.

SLAM: Your first game you were 4-4, you were pretty comfortable right from the start. Was there a moment when you thought, Wait a minute, I belong with all these guys.

KG: Comfortable, but I went through a couple preseason games against Big Dog [Glenn Robinson], which was like a grand opening for the League. He was the first superstar I played that didn’t take it easy. Big Dog was talking shit, it was bucket for bucket, and it grew a fire in me. And you know, the first couple games I was—I won’t say gullible, but I knew all these guys and I looked up to ’em, even Joe Smith and Rasheed [Wallace] and Stack [Jerry Stackhouse] and all those guys, even though we was all in the same [draft] class. I was a true fan. I was a kid who had posters on his wall. So Webb [Chris Webber] was my favorite player. And when I played Webb, he shot a jump hook on me, and I was looking so googly-eyed, and Sam Mitchell—to his credit—slapped the shit out of me like, Look, hey, you can’t come out here and appreciate these guys like this. I know you got these guys on your wall, fuck all that, we out here now. And it wasn’t until then, I can honestly say that moment there for me, was actually like, OK, OK, you can appreciate these guys and respect them, but not out here.

SLAM: Do you think about how coming out straight from Farragut shaped you? How maybe you would have been different had you gone to college? I know you were talking about Michigan, Carolina… 

KG: If I’m being honest, I’m glad I came out of high school, man. I see how college muzzles these kids and how these kids don’t really have a voice, how they get told and controlled so much. You know my biggest thing coming out of high school was [deep breath] just the control of me, man. I felt like so many times, you didn’t really get to make a decision, someone was making the decision for you. You know part of what took me so long in picking a school was me actually liking it vs a crew of people around me or people that want the best for me telling me. I wasn’t feeling that. I was like, Look, when I make a decision, I’ll make a decision. When I got to Chicago, I was a lot more mature than I was in South Carolina. I grew up a lot faster and the city helped me deal with a lot of intangibles and little things that kids really go through. I ain’t had no Mom and Pop to bounce things off of, I had to grit and grind and make decisions on my own, and those decisions, I had to stand on ’em. And they had to be decisions that carried a workload, and I was committed. I was committed to basketball day one, and I wasn’t gonna let anything stop me. And although I did have some, you know, bumps in the road, I kept it moving and I kept it going.

SLAM: Was there an exact moment when you’re like, OK, NBA, we’re doing this?

KG: I played Scottie Pippen in the summer one time. And we got to, like, a little shit, like, a little, I don’t even know. A little pushing match? Elbow? Some shit, I don’t know what Scottie was doing. But you know, he’s Scottie Pippen, and he’s a beast. Super GOAT. And I just stood my ground. But it wasn’t until then that I had confidence in myself and my skills, that the stuff that I was having confidence in was working, which built my confidence even more after playing him. 

Then I sat and I had a conversation, probably like a three-, four-hour conversation with Isiah Thomas about the West Side of Chicago and 16th Street and what I have to deal with every day, and he knew all of it. And the ABCs that goes with Chicago. Again, I’m gonna use the word “intangibles,” that come along with Chicago and going to school and playing in the Red West [Conference]. Like, he understood all that. We got to talk about street shit and just everyday stuff, right? Soon as I talked to Isiah Thomas, I knew it. I was committed. I came in, I knocked on Wolf’s [William “Wolf” Nelson, Farragut’s coach—Ed.] door. I was like, Yo, sit down, I need to tell you something. He thought something was wrong, he thought I got a girl pregnant or some shit, he was looking at me like, What? I was like, I’m going to the League. I need you to write this down. Tomorrow I need you to look up these agents…and da, da, da. He was looking at me and laughed. He’s like, What? He saw my face. And he saw how I was looking. And he saw how I looked at him. And I wasn’t smiling. I was deadass and I was looking at him like, I ain’t fuckin’ around, after you get through laughin’ I need you to get a piece of paper and write this down. This is what I need you to do. And I was talking to him with so much conviction that it wasn’t no laughing in the room. It felt like a Sunday but it was really a Saturday, and Monday got here and it started. And I can honestly say that that moment, after speaking to Isiah, and feelin’ that synergy, feeling like, I’m about to do something that everybody else ain’t did, I ain’t going to junior college, I’m not going to college. I’m about to bet on myself. I’m one of the hardest-working people I know. Don’t nobody work harder than me. Don’t nobody want this more than me. I’m fittin’ to go all in with this, and I jumped out and I jumped right in the rabbit hole. I didn’t care what it was. And in my mind, it couldn’tve been no harder than getting up, surviving every day in Chicago from the time I walked out of my house to the time I walked back in it. I looked at the League like it couldn’t have been harder than the West Side. I was like, No, it can’t be harder than this shit.

SLAM: I feel like from the moment you stepped on the floor, first game, your rookie year, you were influencing people, people who maybe never thought you could make the jump from high school to the pros. But you stepping on that floor made that real. Were you aware of that from the get-go?

KG: I wasn’t aware of it, but you know, you know how something is there, like a consistency of something being there? I felt that. And then people who know me, know I have, like, a little presence about myself. As a rookie, I would talk, but then I was listening so much and I was trying to soak up so much. And again, you’re trying to prove yourself so much that you find yourself just in this state of just always, always soaking up something, always gravitating toward something. Always. I don’t care what it is, it was always a learning moment for me. So I felt like I didn’t have the privilege of going to school like these other guys. I didn’t have the privilege of coming in here learning and all this other stuff. But Kevin McHale put me in a position that I can learn under him. And he put me in position to where I can be transparent with him and all the older guys that were there. And then I had a great group of older guys. Sam Mitchell was probably the best fit for me, very aggressive guy, from the South, he’s from Georgia. So he kind of understood, but he understood my motor, too, and that I wanted things. And then you know, when we got on the same page as far as where we come from and start peeling back layers about who we are, that’s when our relationship grew. And he knew I was a competitor, and I wasn’t backing down from nobody. And he loved that. I was a fucking pit bull. And I didn’t care about who—after that Webber incident, I didn’t care about any of that shit no more. I took more of a West Side kind of Chicago attitude with some South Carolina skill and discipline. And I worked my ass off. 

SLAM: When were you able to take the time to start looking back? Was it after you retired?

KG: I still haven’t looked back on shit. Fans send me videos or stuff all the time—fans make fan pages, tag you in shit, fans make YouTube joints and all this, and I like to thank all the fans, too, because half the shit that I’ve done I forgot about. You don’t really think about how much time you’ve actually put into this until you look up and your kid is 12 or 13. The only reason I think I actually look back at it now is because my kids actually want to converse and talk about it, and then I get younger fans coming up to me and their friends. That’s the only time I really talk about it. I don’t really like going back in time, unless I’m talking to [young players], I used to train some of these young guys, so giving them examples of things that I’ve been through and stuff I recall. But I never wanted to be the guy to be like, Hey, man, when I played…

SLAM: It’s funny to me that people talk about you acting in Uncut Gems, but my introduction to Kevin Garnett the actor was the Fun Police commercial with Cherokee Parks—you, Cherokee and Tom Gugliotta.

KG: The Fun Police was fun. I remember Cherokee and Googs being in it. I remember my best friend Bug being in it with me. Fun Police was fun—Trump was in one of my Fun Police joints, too. You remember that? Fun Police was probably one of my favorite commercials that I’ve ever done. And Uncut Gems was just a gem within itself, if I’m being 100. It fell in my lap. Adam [Sandler] was unbelievable. I got to see the true essence of his greatness. Julia Fox was great, she was unbelievable in this. The Safdie brothers was…they was just so easy to work with. They was so simple, so down to earth, so encouraging. I was like, You motherfuckers should be some goddamn coaches the way y’all do this shit.

SLAM: Do you want to do more acting? 

KG: I have a production company called Content Cartel, and we are co-producing my documentary along with Blowback Productions. Shout out to Marc Levin. Shout out to SHOWTIME. Got a bunch of projects coming up. This is my second calling. I love storytelling. Believe it or not, I have a ton of stories that I don’t tell on purpose. Production is something that I think I get, and it’s a lot of stories that need to be told. 

SLAM: What about from an NBA perspective? I don’t want to bring up sore subjects, but I know the Timberwolves thing didn’t necessarily go the way you wanted it to go. Is there still interest in being involved at an ownership level? 

KG: I noticed that in this boys club of owners, you have to play the game and know the game. And, you know, I think at this point, I’m considered a worker from that standpoint, I don’t think that the [owners] overall see the value in players coming back in ownership, which is sad, because, you know, Michael Jordan was once a player. Needless to say, I felt like the new wave of things to be done is coming. And this old wave is on its way out. So I’m just gonna wait for this old way to just kind of die out and new ways of business start to take over. And I think that’s the way that kind of fits me and suits me. If not, if I’m not able to be in an ownership group, then it’s all good. But it’s not gonna stop my greatness and other things that I want to accomplish. 

I love Minneapolis dearly. I do have an opinion on the reactivation or at least the reoccurrence of the city in which I think some real development in capital dollars in education, police reform—like all that needs to be addressed. We need education, we need our communities to feel like they’re safe. Real shit. And I think Minneapolis has a bunch of underlying issues that need to be addressed. And I think the ownership can play a huge part in not just educating, but bringing two parts together and bringing people together. Sports, believe it or not, and, you know, you can agree or disagree, but I think that sports brings the world together like music, you know? And my only real take in all of this was to be able to bring the city back together for what I know the city to be. 

And that was my real influence with trying to go in so hard and trying to make this work. But you know, in all things, if you’re gonna dance, if you’re gonna dance with somebody or if you’re going to partner with somebody, it’s got to be a two-way street. And it’s got to be something that both of you see the vision of, and I just, I think that in this situation, the vision wasn’t valued, nor looked at, and I think that it was ignored. I’m looking forward to being part of a different group, if it’s in Minnesota with the Timberwolves, cool. It doesn’t look like that. But if anything else comes up, I know Vegas is on the rise for getting a franchise soon. I know Seattle has roots, so we’ll see, I’m not going anywhere. And that situation too, it helped me and it educated me. So, you know, the second time that I come, I think I’m gonna come a whole ’nother way than I actually went this first time. But it was a great education for myself, all parties involved. I appreciate the experience. But yeah, I’ma fall back, I’ma regroup and then I’m gonna come back at this again. So you ain’t seen the last of me. So we’ll see. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

SLAM: You’re sounding like somebody who could be governor of Minnesota instead of just the owner of the Timberwolves.

KG: [Laughs] Hell no, hell no. There’s too much responsibility, man. I’ve been really, you know, chill, playing the shadows, I’m watching everything. I’m paying attention. I’m staying in tune. I’m staying in tune with the street. I’m listening to the community, I’m listening to all the kids that’s going through it. A lot of those kids that’s going through it and are really standing on the front line in Minneapolis are kids that I actually know, been through programs that I actually set through with the city. 

I went back to see the George Floyd memorial and the monument and just walk through there to get like a real feel for myself and, you know, get down on ground zero and feel the people, man, and it was one of the better things I did because I haven’t done it in a long time. I haven’t been back to Minneapolis in a minute. I still have a home there, I still have family there, still live there. Yeah, so things like that are just in my heart to do, but you know, I’m not a politician, I’m more the people’s champ. I fuck with the people. I don’t want to get mixed up with lobbyists and a bunch of other shit that I don’t really truly understand at the end of day. Nor will I give something to be something, you know. I stand on my square, you know what I’m saying, I’m five all day. And people know that. That means more to me than anything. But if the governor wants to reach out to me and help to bring some type of reform or some type of balance back to the city, I’m all ears, but it’s gonna be something of my own imagination and vision that I would like to see for the city and my people.

SLAM: I know the actual ceremony got pushed back because of COVID, but have you thought a lot about getting into the Hall of Fame and what that milestone means?

KG: When it first happened, I was all gassed. It’s just, it’s hard to actually feel good about the Hall of Fame with so much real-life issues and stuff that’s going on. I’m super gassed. And I’m just overwhelmed with the concept of being one of the best ever to do this. It hasn’t really settled in for me. COVID got everything effed up, you know what I’m saying? COVID got everything kind of, you know, sideways. But yeah, it wasn’t expected, to be honest. I got so much other shit going on in my life that I forgot about the Hall of Fame, if I’m being honest.

SLAM: It hurts with Kobe not being there for it.

KG: Yes, Kob’ fucks with me to this day, man. I still haven’t gotten over that. I feel some type of way when I look up and they just got him on TV every day. Like still here and…yeah. For all of us who had a relationship with Kob’, that’s gotta be hard. Because we’re all trying to get past it, we’re all trying to move on. And his energy and his legacy is still here. Somebody was asking me something the other day and before you answer you got to always take a breath, you know what I’m saying? Shout to Kob’, rest in peace to Mamba, man. Always. Till we meet again.

SLAM: What would it be like if you had a chance to do it all over? What would it be like if 19-year-old Kevin Garnett was joining the NBA in 2021?

KG: If I was joining the League in 2021? Well, my energy and my vision to be the best wouldn’t change, none of that. None of the intangibles would change for me. You gotta know, I competed differently, I competed angrily, I competed very aggressively. But that was the time. That’s not really the energy now, the energy now is more skilled, it’s more—it’s probably more skilled than ever. Like, do you see some of the shots that these kids are making? Jayson Tatum, every time I watch him, every shot that he takes looks difficult. He’ll shoot a turnaround going over his right shoulder, and I’ll be like, man, you really—for anybody who knows that move, you really got to get your right leg around and square up and—I’m just amazed at the skill level, man. 

If I was playing today, I definitely would have a three ball. I probably would have displayed a lot more one-on-one. I was really an unselfish player to a fault and my mentality was more of, If I can get everybody else involved and they get going, then I can have chances to take advantage of one-on-one opportunities because of double teams. I had a lot more one-on-one game than I actually displayed in the League, because during the time that I played, you had to, it was more systematic, it was more plays being called, you didn’t really break the play. You know, I actually like to blame Kob’ and T-Mac for that shit, they broke more plays than anything, you know what I’m sayin’? And the Mamba Mentality wasn’t always accepted either. 

I saw Joker [Nikola Jokic] do a step back off the so-called wrong foot and it was so unorthodox, but I had to sit back and as a student of the game I said, Hmm, there goes the Dirk part of his influence in our League and what Dirk brought to our League with that whole one-legged fadeaway off the glass with the 6-11, 7-foot guy shooting threes, being mobile. You know, as I go through and I watch the League and what we’ve actually given the League, I started looking at it like, Wow, I see Dirk’s influence, I see Timmy’s influence, I see Rondo’s influence, I see P’s [Pierce’s] influence, I see LeBron’s—I started to see my own influence. And then where they’ve taken our influence and doing one-legged step backs off the glass and facing up one dribble? The moves, man, the moves. The skills! Like, I heard Shaq say this, and just shout out to Shaq, man, and I love you Big Fella, but I don’t know if everybody from the older generation could have played in this generation. Just because it’s a faster pace, no one’s been at that Golden State pace as a League when you scorin’ 136-133. 

SLAM: Did you ever think 25 years ago that you would be in this position? Did you think your career would last as long as it did? That you would reach the heights that you did?

KG: I want you to go and ask Kevin McHale a lot of the stuff you been asking me, and I’ll tell you, he’ll tell you, Day one, he wanted to be the best player in the League, he wanted to outlive everybody in the draft, he wanted to outplay everybody, he wanted to be the best hands-down in the All-Star Game, he wanted Olympics, all that. I wanted to cross everything off the list that you got to actually cross to be a master. You know? And I went in there like that, and more importantly, I worked my ass off. Part of why I definitely can’t run as fast or I can’t run after my kids is because I did go so hard, but there’s no regrets. And you asked me earlier what I would change, and I wouldn’t change anything. Maybe some tweaks here and there but nah, nah, working with Kevin McHale was a gift. I could never thank him more. Or, I couldn’t thank him enough for the knowledge in the stuff that I was able to get, I couldn’t have gotten that anywhere else but him. I’m very fortunate. I took that and I ran with it, and I grew it, and I put my own little vision on it. And it was only right to give it back and be able to give it to players so they can use it. Anything that you go into as a young kid, you hope that you come out on the other end as someone that is accomplished. I felt like I reached a lot of those things.

SLAM: Does that intensity go away? If you stepped out on a court right now and somebody rolled a ball out—

KG: I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t. The demon never goes away. And if you do put the demon up, it’s banging on the door at times to come out so I have to be under control. I do a bunch of yoga, I do a bunch of meditating, manifesting, just to keep things at bay. But yeah, I’m pretty sure that if we started racing and I got to losing, or anything competitive and I start losing, then you start to hear the banging at the door, Uh oh, the demon’s trying to come out. So these days I keep shit real chill and calm. I haven’t played ball in a very long time, believe it or not. But I’m shooting stuff in the basket, I have a little son so we mess around and stuff. Basketball is something that I put in the closet for a reason. Whenever I have a long day or I’m having difficulty or something, I take a ball and I’ll just go dribble at the beach or just kinda get lost in it. That’s kinda always been my therapy. It probably always will be. 

KEVIN GARNETT: Anything Is Possible is a feature-length chronicle of Kevin Garnett’s remarkable career and the pivotal moments that defined it. Stream the documentary on SHOWTIME. 

Photos courtesy of KEVIN GARNETT: Anything is Possible and via Getty Images.

The post Kevin Garnett Opens Up About the Early Years and How He’d Have a ‘Three Ball’ If He Was Playing Today appeared first on SLAM.

In the age of the constant scroll, multidisciplinary artist Victor Solomon seemingly does the impossible. With his distinctly unique take on the blend of art and hoops, he grabs your attention, not with a gimmick but by sparking curiosity. Like Magic Johnson throwing a no-look pass on a fast break in the ’80s or Luka Doncic working his Luka magic to find a teammate no one else had a clue was open, Solomon’s pieces draw OMGs from his audience by being the modern thread between classic and unprecedented.

But just like the aforementioned point gods, Solomon’s medium isn’t really just the sport of basketball. It’s creativity in itself. He doesn’t force his art. He can’t. He just reads the defense of limitation and reacts by creating his one-of-a-kind pieces dedicated to the game. 

“I think the journey of anyone getting into this creative kind of art space is very mysterious with the way that it plays out,” says Solomon. “I was always drawn to creative pursuits. It was fun for me to come up with ideas and then work back for what creative execution would be required for that. I had this idea that would be a really good painting. Or a really good film and then letting the idea dictate how you explore creativity to get to that destination.” 

Growing up in Boston, Solomon often felt as if he didn’t fit in with his surrounding community, but he used basketball to find common ground with his peers, cementing his love for the game and the community it creates. After moving to San Francisco to pursue a career in film, he soon became immersed in the city’s unique approach to stained glass work. While apprenticing under the tutelage of glass work artists, Solomon created a stained glass backboard and posted a picture of it on Instagram in 2015 with the hashtag #literallyballing. 

Fast forward to 2021 and Solomon’s Literally Balling series has taken him to shows at Miami’s famed Art Basel and across the country. He’s sold pieces to LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Paul Pierce, Swizz Beatz and Rick Ross (to name a few), and collaborated with KITH, Hennessy and the NBA. Solomon is also kicking off SLAM’s ØNE ’N DØNE campaign, a celebration of the game we love, as the first of many creatives whose collaborations will drop throughout the season. His piece, the Archive Halftime Vessel, a crystal basketball with hand-painted gold enamel seams, is filled with some of SLAM’s 28 years of magazines and represents preserving SLAM’s history through the lens of a permanent piece of art. The collaboration includes 75 pieces, all unique from each other. 

“When we started talking about this project, we were exploring the idea of taking what’s typically this kind of, like, ephemeral material and recontextualizing it as a sculptural form, and putting it into this crystal basketball vessel that I’ve been using,” says Solomon. “Just to kind of canonize SLAM’s media into this permanent piece of art [that] someone can have and share.” 

As Solomon’s Literally Balling project continues to blur the lines between balling on the court and balling with high-end art, his journey leads the way from actually hooping to paying homage. With ØNE ’N DØNE, it’s about moving iconic images into new spheres of artistry, and with his upcoming work with the League for their 75th anniversary year, he’ll be taking on the task of giving the NBA’s individual award trophies new life as the game continues to grow. 

“A trophy is a culmination of a life’s work,” says Solomon. “So for the 75th anniversary, I’ll be taking over all the production for trophies. The MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, the whole flight. Super exciting. Super honored to be a part of that moment.”  

The Archive Halftime Vessel is a 100mm molded crystal basketball form with hand painted gold enamel seams, filled with the archive of SLAM’s 28 years of covers and magazine content. It is limited to 75 pieces and individually handmade to order, no two vessels are alike.

Photos by Tom Bender.

The post Victor Solomon, the Go-To Artist For High-End Hoops-Inspired Glass Art Pieces, Collaborates With SLAM appeared first on SLAM.

Sports Illustrated took over a decade to figure out a blueprint for what their magazine should look like.

SLAM took one issue.

The magazine would change over time. Their voice would evolve. The magazine cover looks drastically different today. But flip through a present-day issue of SLAM, and it still reads pretty much the same from front to back as the very first issue, which came out almost 30 years ago. 

The first issue of SLAM featured short-bit culture stories on Pearl Jam’s near-decision to name themselves after Atlanta Hawks guard Mookie Blaylock and basketball’s growing popularity in Japan. There’s a dunk of the month. There’s a one-page feature on high schooler Steve Wojciechowski, along with profiles of college point guard Jason Kidd, perennial NBA All-Star Charles Barkley, and New York–playground legend Joe Hammond. There are full-page photospreads of the latest sneaker releases, and a six-page photo essay on playground hoopers around the country, including a cameo from a 16-year-old Paul Pierce. 

This is what SLAM still is today: a magazine celebrating the sport of basketball. A casual voice. An all-encompassing approach of covering high school, college, and the pro game. A magazine highlighting sneakers and athletic apparel. A personality-driven publication. A magazine that didn’t tie themselves to the current news cycle.

Founder and publisher Dennis Page established a blueprint for what a modern-day basketball publication could look like from the very beginning.

“We were passionate,” he said. “The feel of the magazine was like if you were playing in the playground. That’s how people spoke.”

Page was inside the Paramount Theater at Madison Square Garden where the 1994 Source Awards was taking place when record label executive and friend Alan Grunblatt tossed out the idea of a magazine merging basketball and hip-hop. He went home that evening and drafted up a table of contents.

A Trenton, New Jersey, native, Page studied broadcasting and film at Boston University and got his first full-time job selling ads for the alt- weekly Boston Phoenix. Page loved magazines. He dreamed of running his own one day. The goal was always Rolling Stone. Page was working for another rock ’n’ roll magazine, Circus, in 1980 when Stanley Harris called. Harris was the founder of Harris Publications, a New York–based publisher started in 1977 with a portfolio of special-interest magazines. They had puzzle books and monthly magazines on topics ranging from gardening to guns. Page was offered a job to manage a new guitar magazine. It was a chance to run a magazine even if it wasn’t Rolling Stone. 

“I didn’t know shit about playing guitars,” Page said. “But I was good at the advertising and publishing business. So I said yes.”

He became the publisher of Guitar World, which arrived on newsstands in 1980 and became the number one guitar magazine. The success of the publication earned him a lot of goodwill with Harris. Page kept searching for the next idea. He convinced Harris to start another magazine in 1987. It was called New York Talk.

“We launched it during a huge snowstorm and couldn’t get the issue out to the newsstands,” Page recalled. “It was an omen of failure.” 

The magazine borrowed from the concepts of Village Voice and the East Village Eye and covered the local news along with the New York film, television, and music scene. The newsstand was about taking a successful idea you liked and trying to improve upon it yourself. A lot of these publications failed, including New York Talk, which folded after three years.

Page’s new magazine idea, inspired by his conversation with Grunblatt, was more aligned with his interests. He fell in love with basketball in sixth grade watching a high schooler named Lew Alcindor, became a high school and college hoops junkie, watched streetball legends at New York playgrounds, and joined the NBA craze during the era of Julius Erving, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson.

But he couldn’t figure out the table of contents.

“I started by building a hip-hop magazine about basketball,” Page explained.

He had the two components in the wrong order.

Another lightbulb moment hit.

It would be a basketball magazine with a hip-hop voice and not the other way around.

It would look like Vibe.

It would read like The Source.

He pitched the idea to Harris, who asked him to get it on newsstands immediately.

Page needed an editor-in-chief. He called Village Voice editor Tom Curtis, who said no, but recommended Time Inc. writer Cory Johnson, a St. Joseph, Michigan, native who studied journalism at NYU and wrote for a bunch of magazines, including Sports Illustrated, People, and TIME.

“Tom told me this guy who makes Guitar World wants to start a new basketball magazine and asked me if I had any ideas for it,” Johnson recalled. “I said, ‘Abso-fuckng-lute-ly I have ideas.’ I was in the thick of learning how magazines were made. It was what I did all day.” 

A meeting was set at a French bistro restaurant located in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, New York, named Raoul’s. Johnson sat down and pitched his vision to Page. He read a lot of Marvel comics growing up and loved how comic book writer Stan Lee would engage readers at the back of every one of them. Lee responded to fan letters and sent no-prizes—an envelope with no contents inside, which became a running joke with the readers—to anyone who wrote to him about continuity errors or typos. Johnson wanted the magazine to start by engaging their readers in the letters section.

“I presented a pretty laid-out plan,” he recalled. “There would be short features in the front like New York Magazine’s Intelligencer section. There would be one-page profiles like Interview magazine. The features section would be in the style of Vanity Fair. The sections in the back would be devoted to angles around the business of hoops. I wanted the last page of the magazine to be a dunk of the month.

“I wanted it to feel like Surfer magazine. I loved that magazine so much I taught myself to surf. Their ideal was: surfing was not about the celebrities at the top of the pyramid who did it, but instead it was about the everyday experience of the sport. I always thought Sports Illustrated had this pyramid when it came to basketball where they didn’t love the game, but instead they loved the heroes of the game. Their editors thought it was all about the stars and not about the game itself. I wanted to flip that approach upside-down. I wanted the magazine to be about the experience we all had playing the game of basketball. Sports Illustrated was only about Michael Jordan. I wanted us to be about the game of basketball.” 

There was one last thing they needed to figure out together.

A name for the magazine.

The two tossed out every basketball-related term they could think of. 

Crossover.

Dribble.

Jam.

None of them felt right.

They finally landed on SLAM.

Johnson was hired and moonlighted as the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “I would be fact-checking a murder story for People and I’d get a phone call from Dennis,” Johnson said. “I would hop in a taxi, race downtown to approve a layout, then race back. It was like I had moved on to my new girlfriend without telling my existing girlfriend.”

Page scrambled to place ads in the magazine. Today, he credits The Source and Vibe for making his job easier back then. Page didn’t have to explain what hip-hop was to advertisers. Guitar World art director Susan Conley designed the magazine layout. Johnson assigned stories to people he knew in the industry, including basketball writer and New York–streetball historian Vincent Mallozzi, People reporter Nancy Jo Sales, and Vibe senior editor Bonz Malone. He also wrote a couple of stories himself and attributed them to made-up names in the masthead. “I wanted to make it look like a real magazine since it was just a couple of other guys and myself working on it,” Johnson explained. “Russell Shoemaker, the senior editor in the masthead, that’s me. Russell was my best friend from church. Shoemaker was my godfather’s last name. I just put their names together.” 

Page cringes at some of the stories today, especially a SLAM NBA All-White Team feature where the magazine interviewed white players around the league and nominated Chris Mullin, Dan Majerle, Detlef Schrempf, Tom Gugliotta, John Stockton, and Rony Seikaly. Scott Hastings, a white power forward from Independence, Kansas, who played 11 seasons in the NBA, nominated Karl Malone, who didn’t make the team. “The guy drives a diesel and raises cattle,” he explained. “You don’t get any whiter than that.” 

Fortune business writer Andy Serwer flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, and wrote the cover story on Larry Johnson. The Hornets forward was one of the most exciting young stars in the league. Selected first overall by Charlotte in 1991, Johnson won Rookie of the Year after averaging 19.2 points and 11.0 rebounds in his first season. He played an above-the-rim game and was a product of a UNLV team that embraced a hip-hop aesthetic. Johnson was a signature sneaker athlete with Converse, starring in a series of popular commercials wearing a grey wig and flower-print dress as Grandmama, an elderly woman alter-ego. He fit the profile of what SLAM envisioned as their ideal cover subject.

The first issue was finally ready for the newsstand. 

The cover featured a photo of Johnson soaring in mid-air wearing Charlotte’s famous white-and-teal jersey. The basketball in his right hand sat just above the magazine’s logo. Above the logo was the magazine’s slogan THE IN YOUR FACE BASKETBALL MAGAZINE. The caption said LARRY JOHNSON, LIVIN’ LARGE! Cover lines filled the rest of the cover, including BARKLEY: KING WITHOUT  A CROWN; KILLER BLOCKS! SHAQ, ROBINSON, MOURNING, OLAJUWON & MORE; JASON KIDD’S KRAZY MAD MOVES; KENTUCKY’S BLUE MADNESS; SLAMBOYANT SNEAKS; and SLAMADAMONTH! Every caption was a way to draw a potential reader into picking up the magazine.

Page waited to see if anyone was interested in his new project. 

“That was the business at the time,” he explained. “There was no internet, Instagram, or Facebook. The newsstand was the true test of whether there was a community out there who cared about your idea. We would have three issues to test whether there was an audience. If it sold, we would keep it rolling. If it didn’t, then we wouldn’t.”

There was some concern about starting a basketball magazine immediately after Jordan retired, but they were alleviated when Harris delivered some excellent news. The newsstand sales were strong enough for SLAM to continue. A second issue arrived on newsstands in October of 1994, with Seattle Supersonics forward Shawn Kemp on the cover. Johnson was replaced by Tony Gervino on the masthead three months later when Shaquille O’Neal appeared on the cover of the magazine’s third issue. He had accepted a job offer to become a Vibe senior editor.

“We sold more copies of our first issue than they did,” Johnson explained. “They spent like $15 million to launch it. We spent $100,000 tops. I was called into their office, and they asked me, ‘How did you do it?’ I explained how the magazine worked and what our editorial focus was. They asked me if I would be interested in being a senior editor. I figured I would eventually have a shot at the editor-in-chief role, so I made the jump.”

Today, he is still proud of leaving an editorial blueprint behind for his successors.

“The magazine unquestionably looked better in the years after I left,” Johnson said. “But the fact it is still largely all the same ideas I brought to the table is enormously gratifying to me and tells me I got a lot of stuff right. I didn’t get it right because I was a genius. I got it right because there was something wrong with the way magazines were covering sports.” 

***

IF YOU SCAN THE FIRST THREE ISSUES OF SLAM today, you’ll notice the cover photos didn’t come from original photoshoots. The photos of the early covers were licensed from the NBA. “None of the players would pose for us,” Page said. “We had to buy existing photography in the very beginning.” SLAM had a vision to one day follow the lead of Rolling Stone. Founder and publisher Jann Wenner was a 21-year-old UC Berkeley dropout who couldn’t get anyone to take his music writing seriously in 1967 when he scraped together $7,500 from family and friends and convinced San Francisco Chronicle writer Ralph J. Gleason to help him put together a new magazine. The first issue of Rolling Stone arrived on newsstands in the same year, with John Lennon of The Beatles on the cover. The magazine debuted at the height of the hippie movement and became the definitive counterculture magazine of their era, introducing a new generation of artists, including the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, to the world. Wenner described Rolling Stone as “a publication not just about music but also about the things and attitudes that music embraces” in his first column. The magazine plucked writers from obscure places and turned them into culture-defining voices. Their photographers captured defining images of an entire generation of rock stars. The magazine’s portrait photography of cover subjects set the standard for every other publi- cation. Being selected for the Rolling Stone cover became the highest honor for any music artist. 

“Jann broke the mold on alternative magazine publishing,” Page said. “As far as I’m concerned, they changed print publishing. The way Rolling Stone shot their covers provided the vision for every magazine that came after them. Nobody had shot athletes that way before and we wanted to be the first. We would consider ourselves lucky if we could shoot a cover that was one-tenth as good as Rolling Stone.”

By the time SLAM published their first issue, Rolling Stone was no longer a cultural force on the newsstand. The magazine, which was once bursting with creative energy, grew into a $250 million conglomerate in the 1980s and lost the qualities that defined them. The Rolling Stone cover increasingly became a landing spot for established celebrities and was no longer a birthplace for new stars. A writer who joined the mag- azine in 1993 compared his new job to showing up to the party just in time to see a cigarette floating in the last cocktail of the night.

SLAM’s goal was to become the modern-day basketball version of Rolling Stone, embracing the same rebellious streak which gave birth to the rock ’n’ roll magazine three decades earlier.

But they needed to find their voice first. 

Cover Story: The NBA and Modern Basketball as Told Through its Most Iconic Magazine Covers is reprinted with permission from Triumph Books. All rights reserved.

The post The Story of How SLAM Was Founded, as Told By Those Who Were There appeared first on SLAM.

On Saturday night, former NBA forward-center Chris Bosh received the recognition they truly deserved by finally getting inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame.

The former fourth overall pick from the famed 2003 NBA Draft class reached the pinnacle of success in the NBA, winning two championships during the Miami Heat’s Big 3 Era with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. Individually, Bosh holds 11-time All-Star appearances and has gotten his jersey retired by Miami, having led the team after James’ departure in the same way he led the Toronto Raptors prior to joining the Heat.

The highlight of the iconic event—in which former NBA stars Paul Pierce, Chris Webber and Ben Wallace amongst others were also inducted—came from no other than Heat president Pat Riley.

In 2010, Riley gave Bosh one of his championship rings, telling Bosh to “return it once we win one together,” igniting a fire in the Dallas native that eventually lead him to his first ever NBA Championship.

Last night, Bosh had the opportunity to finally return the Godfather’s ring on stage, living up to the promise once made 11 years ago. Bosh went on to recall iconic moments experienced in Miami, bringing up the 2011 loss to the Dallas Mavericks and winning two consecutive championships, and the Heat’s historic 27-game winning streak.

He went on to finish his speech with a very powerful message about setbacks and never giving up because of them.

One of the most skilled big men to ever step on the court, Bosh averaged 19.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game over the course of his 13-year career but ultimately retired in 2019 due to ongoing health issues.

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A new hypothetical has hit the horizon as former Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce reveals that he was nearly traded to the the Dallas Mavericks in 2007.

In an article in Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, Pierce discusses the events leading to the near-trade, one that would have allowed him to team up with All-Stars Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd.

“I’m in my Prime and I’m watching all these other guys in the playoffs,” Pierce told Mannix. “It was depressing I thought was out of there. I thought it was over.”

Pierce goes on to recount meeting Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in Las Vegas and telling the gregarious billionaire, “I’m your missing piece.”

Chiming in on Twitter, Cuban recalls that there was indeed a three-team trade orchestrated to bring Pierce to Dallas but that the deal fell through because one of the team’s was unwilling to send a first-round draft pick to the Celtics.

It gets better. We had a deal done. We had a 3 way trade done. All teams agreed to their part of the deal. When we get on the trade call, the 3rd team killed the deal because they didnt know that a first was going to the Celtics. They chose not to do the deal at all.

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 7, 2021

In the 2006-07 season, Boston went 24-58, the second-worst record in the NBA prior to Pierce’s trade request.

However, the Celtics would go on to acquire star guard Ray Allen in the 2007 offseason in a draft day trade involving Jeff Green, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West before trading for former Minnesota Timberwolves cornerstone Kevin Garnett a month later.

While Boston would go on to win the 2008 NBA Championship after defeating Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the most memorable NBA Finals matchups of all-time, the Mavericks would take down the newly-formed Miami Heat “Big Three” in 2011, in what was another unforgettable moment in hardwood history.

All’s well that ends well, as they say.

The post Paul Pierce, Mark Cuban Recount Near Blockbuster Trade Between Celtics and Mavericks appeared first on SLAM.

Kyle Korver’s shot is part magic, part perfection. There are layers and levels to it, mechanics and technicalities layered within each release, from a bend of the elbow to the way he’s catching the ball. It’s a full-body experience, he once said. It’s a motion that involves every part of the body, the same way drawing comes from the wrist. Every meticulous detail gets noticed and considered: how he lands in front of the line, how he’s squaring up his shoulders, how he’s finding the ball, even squeezing the ball. They say the greatest shooters of all time approach it like an art form. If so, then Korver Picasso’d the catch-and-shoot game of the early ’00s.

He sensationalized it. One beautiful, clutch play at a time.

Korver was drafted, technically, out of his dorm room, Kiewit Hall, at Creighton. At least, that’s where he watched the draft with a friend, back in ’03. As the night progressed deeper into the second round and more people filled Korver’s room, the room suddenly became quieter.

Is he gonna get picked? Should we leave if he doesn’t get picked?

The pre-draft process, he admits, was tough for him. He had never been a big workout type of guy, preferring to live in his own imagination and get lost in his head while he trained. But, as he discovered during those workouts, teams wanted to see him try to lock down more athletic guards. One-on-one workouts against Dwyane Wade, Dahntay Jones, Josh Howard and Travis Hansen. First, they did the physical assessment, testing his vertical, and then he went head-to-head with other draft prospects. By the end of the workout, he was asked to shoot stand-still threes.

“My confidence wasn’t so high,” he admits over email, which he sent in June while on vacation with his family at a camp in the “sticks” in South Carolina, with minimal cell phone reception. 

He was drafted, 51st overall by the New Jersey Nets, then traded to the Sixers, during the last commercial break of the night. When the broadcasting resumed, his name was there, at the bottom of the screen.

As a rookie, Korver was joining a Sixers franchise that was hitting a rough patch. Their superstar guard, Allen Iverson, specifically, was starting to get testy with management. Head coach Randy Ayers was fired midway through the season. Injuries plagued the team so much, they even earned the nickname “the City Line 9,” a moniker that refers to where the team practiced, on City Line Avenue, and the number of healthy bodies they had on a given night. Korver, a shooting guard/small forward, played center at times and only saw a minute, minute-and-a-half at a time at the end of most quarters. But what he learned, especially in that first year, even in the first few weeks of the season alone, was what it was like to hoop in the L.

“I remember the first week of games,” Korver says. “One night we played Boston [and] Paul Pierce had 40, and I’m like, Yo, Paul Pierce is the best player I’ve ever seen! The next game we played New Orleans. Baron Davis had 45 and I’m like, Yo, Baron Davis is the best player. But AI is on my team and he’s matching everyone! Until opening night, I had only ever been to one NBA game and I think I was eight years old. Until you watch NBA games in person, you can’t understand how good everyone is.”

And it was Iverson who really pushed him to keep shooting the ball. But that came with an expectation; he’d make his shots.

“I can’t overstate how important AI was for me,” Korver says. “So much of a young player making it in the League is finding the right fit from a team standpoint and earning the trust of your best players. AI wanted to make plays, [he] wanted to pass. But if he didn’t think you were gonna make it, he was like, Why would I pass it to you? I’ll just shoot it! We didn’t have a lot of shooting on our team, so those first couple years he was always in my ear to be ready and to let it fly. If I passed up a shot he thought I should shoot, he would let me hear about it all the way back down the court. And AI, he’s more than a superstar. He’s a legend. So to have him put me under his wing like he did, it was everything.”

GET YOUR COPY OF SLAM PRESENTS THE ’03 DRAFT NOW

By his second year in the League, Korver went from averaging only 4.5 points as a rookie to double digits (11.5), shooting 40 percent from three. When Iverson dished the rock to him, Korver let that thing fly every single time. Even in crunch time.

Against the Pacers in January of ’05, the Sixers trailed by four going into the fourth quarter. After a comeback, Iverson drove into the paint with 10 seconds left and was damn near at the rim and just a layup away, when he decided, suddenly, to dish it out to his second-year shooting guard. Korver got himself on balance with a single dribble and pulled up for a two-point jump shot. The Sixers won, 89-88, and Korver, who had hit five three-pointers on the night, finished with 17 points.

Iverson, who had hit the game-winner in overtime against Indiana months prior in November, saw something in Korver.

“You see a guy in his second year who’s able to hit a big shot like that, it says a lot about him as a player,” Iverson said in the postgame presser. “It says a lot about his confidence and the confidence the coaching staff and we have in him.”

His catch and release game, which has made him so lethal throughout his time in the League, has often been described as clutch. Early on in his career, he was once called “the prototypical catch and release guy,” a sentiment that reflected the inside-outside offense that was mainly run in the early 2000s—back when the ball went inside, first, before it was kicked out to catch-and-shoot guards like Korver.

Playing in Philly “toughened” Korver up a bit. And as a starter, now playing 82 games in his third season, he learned that consistency mattered most. You don’t start averaging double-digit numbers (11.5) and leading the team in three-pointers made (184) and attempted (438) without being consistent.

“As a shooter, that’s what I care about,” Korver told CBS Sports in ’14. “It’s not just about having hot days when you couldn’t miss. It’s, How do you be consistent through an 82-game season? And that’s hard. And that takes a lot of work and a lot of mental preparation. As a young guy coming in, that’s a thing to work through.”

GET YOUR COPY OF SLAM PRESENTS THE ’03 DRAFT NOW

By the time he landed in Utah in ’07, he only averaged 9.8 points, putting up solid numbers midway throughout the season, including 20 points against the New Orleans Hornets and 27 against Denver two nights later. But by the following season in ‘09, he found himself dealing with nagging knee and wrist injuries, opting to have surgery in October that caused him to miss 23 games.

Years later, Korver says that injury made him start getting more “serious” about his shooting mechanics.

“If my elbow wasn’t straight, if I wasn’t using my legs properly, I was getting pain,” Korver says. “But if I was doing it correctly, I wasn’t feeling the pain. And then also when I was doing it correctly, my shot was going in more. So it’s one of those things where, like in life and in basketball, sometimes through adversity, that’s when good things happen. It’s the same thing with my shot. I feel like I’ve been better the last five years after dealing with some injuries and having to work with them and get more serious about my craft.”

After a stint in Chicago, he went on to set records when he landed in Atlanta. In 2012-13, he made at least one three-pointer in his final 73 games of the season, setting an NBA record for the longest active streak at the time, and the fourth-longest streak in Hawks history—Dana Barros, Michael Adams and Dennis Scott are also on that list. His historic streak didn’t end until the following season, marking 127 consecutive games. He made his first All-Star appearance the next year, having passed Jason Richardson for 15th all-time in threes made. And by that March, he had passed Kobe Bryant for 12th all-time on that list.

And it was in 2013 that he was introduced to the practice of misogi by Marcus Elliot, the founder of Peak Performance Project. As he writes poetically in his email, the practice itself changed his perspective on both shooting and life. 

“The heart of misogi is to keep learning about yourself and push your boundaries,” he writes. “Oftentimes, as we get older, it’s easy to start settling. We worked through younger years where maybe there were more unknowns. We were trying to establish ourselves. We were probably more willing to try something new. But along the way we probably took some losses. We got burned. And so as we age, we can easily move into a more careful mindset. We get more concerned with protecting the things we’ve accumulated. ‘Risk’ moves from a positive relationship to a negative one. On top of that, when you get more careful, you stop working hard! You feel like you’ve got things figured out and you lose that endurance muscle…and I felt that. I felt it with life. I felt it with basketball. It’s harder as you get older to keep trying to evolve. Getting better can easily turn into being more specialized in every way. But you have to ask yourself, does your world getting smaller and more specialized lead you to the life you ultimately want? Nah.”

Through physical exercises and activities, like stand up paddleboarding 25 to 30 miles from the Channel Islands to Santa Barbara, Korver learned how to endure, how to push through the pain, how to become completely present in the moment and in the task at hand. How out there, in the middle of the ocean on a paddleboard, each stroke was important. 

“We start and right away, I’m falling,” he says. “Can’t even get back on my board to stand up. And my mind is only partially present because I keep thinking about sharks. But my friends are way ahead of me, so I start paddling from my knees. After an hour, my knees are killing me and my toes are bleeding from rubbing on the rubber on top of the board. But the waves go down just enough that I can start standing better. So I start trying to paddle from standing. I’d get to 3-4 strokes and then fall. Try again. Fall. And out there in the middle of the ocean, you can’t gauge your progress. When we are young, we’re taught to set goals. And if that goal feels far away, to set smaller goals that lead to that bigger goal. But there weren’t smaller goals to set out there. There were no mile markers. No houses or streets to try to make it to. So I started to think about what I could actually control and the smallest thing I could control was this stroke. What if I got lost in trying to make the perfect stroke? So I did. I started thinking through every part of my body, from my toes—turning my toes slightly towards the edge of the board gave me better balance to my knees, to my hips, to my core, to how I positioned my shoulders over my toes, to how I held the paddle, to where I put the paddle in the water, what muscles I pulled from, what muscles I didn’t pull from, where I pulled the paddle out of the water. Every little detail I could find, I tried to explore as deep as I could. And once I found what I thought was optimal, I tried to duplicate—one in a row. Two. Three. Fall. Get up. One in a row. Two. Three. Four. Fall. But I got lost in it, and before I knew it I was finding new details. And then I realized I hadn’t fallen in a while. Or thought about sharks. 8.5 hours later, we made it. It was one of the most gratifying feelings.”

It’s clear, even in his email, that his passion for the details, for explaining the intricacies of things like misogi, hasn’t left him. Even after a three-year stint in Cleveland, a return to Utah, a one-year deal with the Bucks, and, ultimately opting out of the 2020-21 regular season to spend time with his family, Korver is still detailed as ever.

The greatest shooters of all time find solace in the specifics and it’s that attention that has made him one of them. His methodical approach to the game will surely help him this upcoming season as he moves on to his next venture as a player development assistant coach on the Brooklyn Nets.

“It’s become ingrained in me, to always keep pushing,” Korver writes. “Always keep evolving. To me, it’s vital.”

While he’s referring to his approach to shooting, it’s perhaps another commentary on life, too. That when the ball stops bouncing, or when a time in our lives reaches an end, we’re all just humans, moving forward. There’s beauty in the details, the moments that have made us who we are, but we’re not to be defined by what we’ve done or what we’ve accomplished. What’s vital, human nature, really, is how we’ve grown and evolved since then.

SLAM PRESENTS THE ’03 DRAFT AVAILABLE NOW.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post How Kyle Korver’s Methodical Approach to the Game Made Him One of the Best Shooters in the League appeared first on SLAM.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Danny Ainge is stepping down from his role as Team President of Basketball Operations. Ainge will be replaced by current head coach Brad Stevens, who will lead the search for a new head coach.

Ainge joined the Celtics in 2003, and famously orchestrated the formation of Boston’s “Big 3”—Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen—who led the Celtics to the championship in 2008, which was their first in over 20 years. Ainge also spearheaded arguably the most lopsided trade in NBA history in 2013, where the Celtics sent the aging Pierce and Garnett to the Nets for three first-round picks and a pick swap (these picks ended up becoming, among others, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum).

Ainge has been contemplating leaving the job for several months and had been talking about possible succession plans with ownership, sources tell ESPN. Stevens turns out to be the franchise’s choice. Ainge also moved from head coaching in the NBA to the front office with Phoenix.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2021

Woj also reports that Ainge had been “contemplating leaving the job for several months.” Stevens, who has never occupied a front-office position, is now tasked with shaping the direction of the Celtics’ future.

The post Danny Ainge Retires as Celtics’ President of Basketball Operations appeared first on SLAM.

15 of the finalists were added to the 2021 USA National Team roster on Thursday, with U.S. Men’s National Basketball Team managing director Jerry Colangelo revealing the rationale for an expanded field of finalists in an official press release:

“With the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics from 2020 to 2021, it’s important that we continue to remain flexible and consider all players who can contribute to our efforts to field the best USA team possible. These additions we are announcing today will help ensure that we are doing that.”

The 15 finalists that were added to the original list of 42 players is as follows:

Center Jarrett Allen (Cleveland Cavaliers); guard Eric Gordon (Houston Rockets); forward Jerami Grant (Detroit Pistons); forward Blake Griffin (Brooklyn Nets); guard Jrue Holiday (Milwaukee Bucks); center DeAndre Jordan (Brooklyn Nets); guard Zach LaVine (Chicago Bulls); forward Julius Randle (New York Knicks); forward Duncan Robinson (Miami Heat); center Mitchell Robinson (New York Knicks); Guard Fred VanVleet (Toronto Raptors); guard John Wall (Houston Rockets); forward Zion Williamson (New Orleans Pelicans); center Christian Wood (Houston Rockets); and guard Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks).

Among the 57 finalists, 29 players have participated in international competition, whether it was the Olympic Games or a FIBA World Cup. This includes 11 players who were represented on the 2019 FIBA World Cup roster.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, who remains noncommittal about playing in the upcoming Olympic Games, has the most Olympic appearances in the player pool, appearing on the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympic rosters.

Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul and Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant both have two Olympic appearances each.

Of the 57 players, only two have never represented the United States internationally or participated in a United States Basketball training session: Wood and Robinson.

Meanwhile, only 24 of the NBA’s 30 teams are represented in the player pool, with only the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder not represented.

The U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball Team will be coached by San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, with Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Villanova head coach Jay Wright and former Atlanta Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce joining him on the bench as assistants.

The 2021 Olympic Games are scheduled to take place from Jul. 23 – Aug. 8 in Tokyo, Japan.

The post USA Basketball Men’s National Team Announces 57 Finalists for Tokyo Olympics appeared first on SLAM.

There are seven players nominated for their contributions as NBA players:

Two-time NBA Champion and 11-time All-Star forward Chris Bosh; 2008 NBA Finals MVP and 10-time All-Star forward Paul Pierce; 1987 Defensive Player of the Year and five-time All-Star shooting guard Michael Cooper are finalists for the first time.

Chris Webber, Tim Hardaway and Marques Johnson — all of whom were five-time All-Stars — are all reappearing as finalists, along with former center Ben Wallace, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year.

There are two WNBA players nominated for the Hall of Fame class this year in Lauren Jackson and Yolanda Griffith.

Jackson played 12 seasons with the Seattle Storm and averaged 18.9 points and 7.7 rebounds during her career. She also appeared in seven WNBA All-Star Games, won the WNBA MVP award three times and won the WNBA Championship twice.

Griffith played 11 seasons in the WNBA and is most remembered for her nine-year stint with the Sacramento Monarchs. Griffith averaged 13.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game over her career and was a seven-time WNBA All-Star and the 1999 WNBA MVP.

There are five people nominated for their contributions as coaches to the game of basketball and two have been nominated as NBA coaches: Rick Adelman and Bill Russell.

Adelman coached five NBA teams over 23 years (the Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves). The 74-year-old ended his coaching career ninth all-time in wins with a record of 1042-749 and appeared in two NBA Finals.

Russell is already a member of the Hall of Fame as a player but is being re-nominated for his contributions as the NBA’s first Black head coach. Russell spent eight seasons as an NBA head coach with the Boston Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics and Kings, finishing his coaching career with a record of 341-290.

The only men’s collegiate coach to be nominated is Villanova Wildcats’ head coach Jay Wright.

Wright has spent 27 seasons as an NCAA head coach, coaching Hofstra and Villanova. Wright has won two National Championships, two Coach of the Year awards and was a recipient of the John R. Wooden “Legends in Coaching” award in 2018.

Two coaches are nominated in women’s basketball: Marianne Stanley and Leta Andrews.

Stanley had success in both the NCAA and the WNBA and has spent over 40 years coaching. Currently the head coach of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, won an NCAA Championship, Stanley went to three Final Fours and won WNBA Coach of the Year in 2002.

In high school basketball, Andrews has proved herself to be one of the best, if not the best. She is the all-time leader in wins at the high school level and has already been inducted into the High School Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

The full list of Hall of Fame inductees for the Class of 2021 will be announced during the enshrinement ceremony for the Class of 2020 on May 16.

An enshrinement ceremony for the Class of 2021 is set to take place later this year in September.

The post Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Announces 14 Finalists for Class of 2021 appeared first on SLAM.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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After coaching Tracy McGrady’s Orlando Magic at the turn of the millennium, Rivers bounced back from an in-season firing in 2003 to coach Paul Pierce’s Boston Celtics the next season. Then, after walking away from the Celtics in 2013 as they released him from his contract, he lands a head coaching gig with the ‘Lob City’ Los Angeles Clippers in 2014.

Now, after being fired by the Clippers shortly after they were eliminated from the 2020 NBA Playoffs, he’s been named the head coach of the Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers.

However, despite his strokes of good fortune, Doc was ready to take a break from coaching; his first extended period without a head coaching position in 17 years.

Per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, if the teams that had interest in him didn’t have sufficient talent and weren’t “ready to win,” that could have been the case for the 58-year-old Rivers:

“I was not going to just coach anybody, I can tell you that. I was ready to take a break … it just depended on the team that was available, and if that team in my opinion was ready to win.”

Fortunately for the Sixers, their roster and prior success presented Doc with an offer he couldn’t refuse:

“You look at these players, these young players, and their potential … the fact that they’ve had so much success in so many ways at the ages they are already, and where I think they can go, for me it’s a job you just couldn’t turn down.”

Led by two All-NBA players in Embiid and Ben Simmons, Philadelphia has a roster littered with players who can be difference-makers in Josh Richardson, Tobias Harris, Al Horford and Matisse Thybulle.

Rivers hasn’t always maximized the collective talents on his roster but he’s often gotten the best out of players individually. Should he get the 76ers to play with the chemistry the Celtics had in 2008, impressive feats may be on the horizon for Philly.

Related: Doc is ready to go by ‘Glenn Rivers’ out of respect to Dr. J

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“Players today are scared of LeBron… My era is out of the league. We weren’t afraid of LeBron but these guys today, he strikes fear in these guys. I can see it.”

It didn’t take long for one of the most vocal players in the NBA to speak out on Pierce’s take. Shortly after hearing the news, Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors went to Instagram to clap back.

In the social media era, trash talk has evolved in a way that expands even off the court. Regardless of whether Paul Pierce is right or wrong, Green seemed to disagree strongly. James has had success in the league both during and after Pierce’s era of the NBA, although they did have many great head-to-head battles.

After all that has been said, just yesterday Pierce said that if LeBron wins a title this year, he puts him right behind Michael Jordan as the greatest all-time.

The post Paul Pierce: ‘We Weren’t Afraid of LeBron’ appeared first on SLAM.

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

Thing about Mike, though. He had this itch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM PRESENTS JORDAN HERE

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

Photos via Getty.

The post THE FINAL CHAPTER: Michael Jordan’s Stint with the Wizards appeared first on SLAM.

“You’re talking about nine years now and I’ve gotten so much hate,” added Allen, who reveals that he bolted due to “so many unresolved” locker room issues.

The Hall of Fame guard felt “removed” from Beantown’s “Big Three” by former teammates Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

Per NBC Sports Boston:

“I left as a free agent,” Allen told [Cedric] Maxwell, via CLNS Media’s Josue Pavon. “I left because there were so many unresolved issues that the team wasn’t considering or willing to change.”

Allen turned down a two-year deal from the Celtics in 2012 to join LeBron James and the Heat, who had just defeated Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals.

“These guys kind of removed me from the ‘Big Three,’ said so many negative things about me and I haven’t had one negative thing to say about any of them,” Allen said. “We had tough times, we’re brothers. We went through a lot. But that doesn’t change anything that we’ve done. It hurt me over the course of this time just to hear some of the things that have been said.”

Former Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said recently he hopes Allen will return to Boston for Garnett’s jersey retirement ceremony next season, noting that C’s fans would give the Hall of Fame guard a standing ovation.

“You’re talking about nine years now and I’ve gotten so much hate, death threats, vitriol from Boston fans,” Allen said. “As far as me being there, I think that is a subject that is really undecided yet. It would take Kevin and I to have a conversation moving forward.”

Related Ray Allen Says Rajon Rondo Stopped Passing Him the Ball

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“Nobody was really talking about us, you know?”

Kemba Walker is seated in the Optum Lounge of the Auerbach Center, where the Boston Celtics practice, thinking back on this summer. When he was in China for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, along with Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the four of them discussed the doubt placed on their team at home.

“Granted, they lost a few guys who made this team go,” Walker continues, “but I still felt like we would be pretty good just because of the talent that I knew we had and how much the young guys wanted it. Guys like Smart, JB and JT, I could tell how much they wanted to become better players and how disappointed they were about last year. Those kinds of things played a part in how I felt like we were going to be this season.” 

Of course, last season informed a lot of the early projections. The Cs were favorites to come out of the East in ’18-19 but did not live up to expectations, finishing as the No. 4 seed and getting bounced in the second round of the playoffs. That fact, combined with key losses in free agency, bred skepticism. But skepticism is OK. In many ways, it’s welcomed. 

There’s less pressure in being the underdog. And once the wounds of a disheartening year began to heal, those remaining could find the positives in it. Sometimes, there have to be lows to be highs. The group had to learn from their mistakes. They used failure and doubt as further motivation, and they set out to prove everyone wrong. 

“We were just talking about what we wanted to do this season, how we wanted to come out and really shut people up,” Smart recalls of those conversations in China. “We just knew everybody was going to doubt us. So for us, it was just coming out and being able to show what we were capable of.”

—

“I’ve got sunshine…”

“…on a cloudy day” 

Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart have spontaneously broken into a duet of The Temptations’ “My Girl.” They harmonize and trade lines, singing into the shotgun microphone set up for our video shoot. It’s so seamless that it sounds rehearsed.  

“When it’s cold outside…”

“…I’ve got the month of May” 

Spirits are high at the newly constructed Auerbach Center. It’s early January and the team has entered a new decade near the top of the Eastern Conference. As of this writing, they are 31-15 and 18-5 at TD Garden. 

There’s a laidback, relaxed vibe to the shoot. Guys arrive one by one, led by the veteran Gordon Hayward, rocking their green and gold City Edition jerseys. They joke with each other and gang up on one of the equipment managers, who walks on set in a full uniform. 

“That’s how you know you don’t hoop, because nobody wears their socks to their calves like that,” Smart says. 

“You got to stop skipping leg day, Andy,” Brown chimes in. 

“He’s skipping every day.”

The returning players will freely admit, there was, at times, an absence of joy in the locker room last season. It was due in part to a reluctance to open up about personal issues outside of basketball. No one wanted to share, and the chemistry and happiness of the whole team suffered because of it. Bottling their problems didn’t work, so they’ve taken the opposite approach this year.

“We’re happy [now]. Everybody’s actually talking to one another,” Smart says. “Last year, we didn’t really talk to each other as much as we do now for whatever reason. Everybody was dealing with their own things personally, so it was kind of hard to sit down with one another and really listen because you were dealing with your own things and you were trying to figure out things for yourself.”

Marcus was coping with the death of his mother. Gordon was fighting back from his gruesome ankle injury. Jayson wasn’t making the jump he anticipated for himself and dealt with outside scrutiny. Coming off an impressive 2018 postseason run, Jaylen had to take a step back and battled anxiety and self-doubt. 

“It’s kind of hard to listen to somebody else’s problems when you have your own,” Smart continues. “This year, everything we have—internally and externally—it’s out in the open. We’re always around each other, laughing and smiling. Just trying to really enjoy being around each other.”

By his own admission, Marcus is the team comedian. 

“He’s just nonstop, he always got jokes” Tatum describes. “Or often—I ain’t gonna say nonstop. It’s just often.”

“I bring joy to the locker room, that’s what he wanted to say,” Smart responds. 

“That ain’t what I wanted to say.”

“Is it my turn?” Brown asks. He seems eager to share his opinion about Marcus. “No comment. I plead the fifth.”

Smart will fire back, naturally. He pokes fun at Jayson’s beard (“He finally got it to connect!”) and Jaylen’s aloofness (“You be in the sunken place”). He confidently assures everyone that he’ll win a shooting contest. The others lightheartedly accuse him of messing up the backdrop for our photos—it’s suddenly crumpled and folding—and he objects. 

“We’re a fun group,” Walker says. “I don’t think a lot of people understand how much fun we have with each other. We love being around each other, love playing basketball with each other, love helping each other get better.

“One through 15, we all get along. It’s just a really fun environment to be a part of. Nobody wants to come into work and it not be good vibes, but that’s not the case here. We have really high character guys. Everybody has one goal, everybody wants to win, everybody wants to become better players. It just makes things easier.”

The core of that group, featured on the cover above, has meshed easily. It’s a combination of veterans and youth, of reserved personalities and, in Marcus’ words, more “off the wall” ones. They complement and balance each other out.

On the floor, they are versatile and dynamic, capable of playing multiple positions and filling various roles. 

“It makes us really tough to guard,” says Hayward. “I think it’s a team that can make adjustments and morph in a game. That makes us pretty special.”

“I think we’re all interchangeable so it’s kind of hard for teams to game plan because you never know what position somebody might be in,” Brown explains. “They might be bringing the ball up, they might be in the corner, they might be coming off the action. It makes it a little bit harder to defend when everybody’s interchangeable.” 

All five of them have the ability to take over a game—some by scoring, some by playmaking, some by defending. There’s no strategy as to who will be “the guy” on a particular night—they just react to who gets the hot hand. When Jayson has it going, for example, they feed him the ball and slide into different roles. They can shape shift in ways most other rosters can’t. With Jayson or whoever shouldering the load offensively, the rest of the squad has more energy to invest on the opposite end. Boston currently has the No. 3 defense in the NBA. 

“It takes a lot of pressure off me, not having to do too much [offensively,]” says Walker, who carried much of the weight during his tenure in Charlotte. “I definitely think it allows me to tap into different parts of my game.”

Kemba, a three-time All-Star, is averaging 22.3 points and 5.0 assists. Normally soft-spoken, he perks up when asked to talk about his new teammates.

“Marcus, he’s the heart and soul of our team. He’s just the ultimate competitor. Always gets us going, always gets our energy going. We definitely feed off of him tremendously.”

“Gordon has that veteran leadership and to me, he’s the X factor for us. As Gordon goes, it just makes our team that much better. He’s definitely a very special talent and I’m just happy to see him back to his comfort zone. I know it’s been a rough couple of years for him and I’m just happy that he’s back to his old self.”

“JT, the ability that he has for his age [21] is just scary. As he gets older and matures, he’s just going to continue to get better because he works so hard and he wants to be great. That’s something that you can’t take away from him. He wants it. That’s one of the special attributes about him—how much he really does want to be a special player in this League and he definitely will. He’ll be a top-five player in this League one day, for sure.” 

“Jaylen, he’s a guy who’s worked extremely hard at his game. And this season, you can see how much it’s paying off. He can do it all. He can score, he can pass, he can rebound, he can shoot. He’s fearless. He’s a competitor. And he still has so much room for improvement. He’s going to be a special talent, which he already is to me.”

JT and Jaylen are prime examples of the turnaround for this franchise. They’re making the leaps that many predicted, only a bit delayed. Tatum is posting career-highs in points (21.5) and rebounds (6.9). The same goes for Brown (20.1 points, 6.6 rebounds), who’s also shooting 50 percent from the field and 39 percent from three. They’ve been spreading the floor and understanding when, where and how to pick their spots.  And, as Smart adds, “JT finally grew out the rest of his beard, so that was good for us.” 

Both have benefitted from their previous struggles. They learned a lot through the difficult times and have relished the absence of pressure this go-around. 

“I think just hooping has been a key for us, instead of thinking about so much of the stuff that we had to think about last year,” Brown says. “Just play basketball and let the cards fall where they may. This year has been totally different, but I think we all needed last year. I think everybody right here [he gestures to Smart, Tatum and Hayward] has gotten better through the experiences of last year.” 

“We understand how last year went,” Tatum says. “Obviously not trying to have a repeat of that. I think this year focusing more on ourselves and the guys in the locker room and not paying attention to the media and kind of enjoying being the underdog, whereas last year we were expected to win a championship.”

The strong bond between the two young cornerstones has continued to grow as well, even if it’s veiled in sarcasm. 

Jaylen: “I ain’t even like this dude.” 

Jayson: “I’m sick of him.”

Jaylen: “Nah, JT cool.”

Jayson: “I know I’m cool.” 

Jaylen: “He’s aight, you know what I mean? I think we got a few similarities but we got a lot of differences at the same time. But it kind of, like, works. I don’t disrespect him for none of the stuff that he’s into—whatever that may be.”

Jayson: “What am I into? [laughs]” 

Walker is the new piece to this puzzle, but also perhaps the biggest one. He’s fit in perfectly thus far. Like several of his teammates, he identifies as an underdog, someone perpetually slept on. He sees a lot of himself in Marcus, Gordon, Jayson and Jaylen. Suffice it to say, the marriage has worked. 

“I think that’s why we get along so well, because we all have one goal,” Walker says. “We want to win and we want to become great players. We’re all gym rats. We’re all always in the gym. So yeah, that’s what makes us so special.” 

—

All around the Auerbach Center are reminders of the Celtics’ storied past. Large images of former franchise legends (Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Larry Bird/Kevin McHale, Ray Allen/Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett) adorn the walls. Banners (a lot of them) hang from the ceiling over the practice court. The leprechaun logo, which has become synonymous with winning, is everywhere—at the bottom of recovery pools, on workout equipment, blown up on the exterior of the facility, etc. 

The long and winding road has led here—to the Optum Lounge on this January afternoon, where Jaylen and Marcus are entertaining the room with karaoke duets. Armed with confidence and free from burdens, the Celtics have established themselves as contenders once again.

“Look at the League now, the talent is more dispersed,” says Brown. “I think this year is kind of unique. It hasn’t been like this in a while. So I think that it’s anybody’s game. We probably don’t realize how close we can be to getting the job done.”

“Certainly the Celtics have a long history and tradition of success. You come here to compete at the highest level, and that means all the way to the Finals,” Hayward says. “So it’s been a goal since I’ve gotten here, definitely a goal of ours this year. I don’t think that as a team we look at that every day. We just look to get better and focus on the task at hand.

“And like Jaylen said, let the cards fall where they may.” 

—

GRAB YOUR COPY OF SLAM 226 FEATURING THE CELTICS

Alex Squadron is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @asquad510.

Photos by Matthew Coughlin and via Getty.

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Toronto rallied back from 30, the biggest comeback in franchise history, behind Kyle Lowry’s game-high 32 points and 10 assists. Chris Boucher had 21 off the bench.

Celtics 119 (20-7), Hornets 93 (13-20)

Jayson Tatum posted a career-high 39 points, scoring 22 of those points in the fourth quarter. Tatum joins Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker as the third youngest Celtics player with a 30-point, 10-rebound game. Kemba Walker scored 23 points against his former team.

Thunder 118 (15-14), Clippers 112 (22-10)

Paul George returned back to OKC, but was unable to give his new team a W at Chesapeake Arena. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tied his career-high 32 points in the victory. Dennis Schroder (28 points) came up huge down the stretch, knocking down a triple late in the game to put OKC up and a layup that pushed the lead to six.

Bucks 117 (27-4), Pacers 89 (20-10)

Four of Milwaukee’s starters finished in double figures with Wesley Matthews scoring a team-high 19 points. George Hill (17 points) and Robin Lopez (13 points) put up 30 bench points.

Nuggets 128 (20-8), Lakers 104 (24-6)

Denver defeated the Lakers to give them their third-straight loss. Paul Millsap scored 21 points in 21 minutes, Garris Harris finished with 19 and Nikola Jokic finished with 18.

The post Post Up: Raptors Defeat Dallas in Biggest Comeback Win in Franchise History appeared first on SLAM.

Garnett appeared to imply that Irving wilted under the passionate fanbase’s intense pressure.

KG adds that Kyrie and Brooklyn Nets teammate Kevin Durant would’ve earned more glory in New York by joining the Knicks instead last summer.

Per The NY Daily News:

Kevin Garnett was quick to answer whether he was surprised Kyrie Irving left Boston.

“No,” he said flatly before pausing for laughs.

“Boston’s a tough town, dawg. You have to have some major cojones to be there. You got to want that. The people want it for you. That’s why Paul (Pierce) is perfect for it. Paul wants the shot every time. Like, ‘You’re 0-for-14.’ And he’s like, ‘I know, but they WANT it.’”

As Garnett experienced n his 1 ½ seasons with the Brooklyn Nets, the Knicks, despite their 20-year run of largely disastrous seasons, drive the city and its attention.

“If they did the Nets, I thought they should have done the Knicks, if I’m being honest.” Garnett said. “I’m not a Knick fan by far. But if they come to the city and dominate, man. …The first superstar to hit New York and be vibing is going to be bigger than life. Remember I said that. Any piece of hope in this city is going to skyrocket. People are waiting.”

Related Kyrie Irving Responds to Angry Taunts from Celtics Fans

The post Kevin Garnett: Kyrie Irving Lacked the ‘Cojones’ to Play in Boston appeared first on SLAM.

Rivers argues that present-day teams aren’t nearly as deep as the C’s were back then.

Doc adds that the ’08 squad, which won a single championship but featured three Hall of Famers, will be ultimately vindicated by history.

Per Sports Illustrated:

“I think so, and it’s because of the mental toughness of that group,” said Rivers. “That was a very skilled, very deep team, and the depth made them so special.

“When you think of the Celtics, you think of ‘The Big Three’ [Paul Pierce, Garnett, and Allen], but that doesn’t include [Rajon] Rondo or Perk [Kendrick Perkins], who were both phenomenal players, or Eddie House, Tony Allen, James Posey, PJ Brown, Big Baby [Glen Davis], and Leon Powe. That was a deep basketball team. Teams aren’t as deep now. But I also believe that every team that’s won an NBA title can compete. Each team may be different, but there is a certain quality about championship teams that separate them from everyone else. Our 2008 group is another example of that.”

Rivers agreed that there is no 2020 basketball equivalent to Kevin Garnett.

“Kevin Garnett is the greatest superstar team-builder that I’ve seen in the history of the game,” said Rivers. “He always considered the team before any action that he took on or off the floor, and for that to also be your superstar player is unusual. Kevin Garnett, like Tom Brady, is a culture-builder. When you have a guy like that, you’re going to win. Kevin is one of the greatest of all-time, but he’d be the last one to tell you.

“He was in the right mental place to win in Boston, as were Paul and Ray. They’d already done so many other things in their careers, but the one thing that stood out was something they couldn’t buy, something they couldn’t do alone. In order to do this, they had to come together as a group. Kevin really understood that, and he was willing to sacrifice anything for that, including his numbers and his fame.”

Related Doc Rivers: Kawhi Leonard is a ‘Quiet Version’ of Kevin Garnett

The post Doc Rivers: 2008 Celtics Would Be NBA Title Favorites Today appeared first on SLAM.

Anthony Davis, James Harden, Bradley Beal, and CJ McCollum are among the stars to withdraw from USA Basketball’s training camp. Damian Lillard, Tobias Harris, Kevin Love, Paul Millsap, and DeMar DeRozan have also decided against attending.

What we do know is that Gregg Popovich will coach Team USA. Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, and Villanova coach Jay Wright will serve as assistants.

Donovan Mitchell, who is arguably the top player remaining on the Team USA training camp roster is committed to playing. Kemba Walker also has declared his intention to suit up for the team and Kyle Lowry plans to give it a go. Here’s a list of players who are attending training camp:

• Bam Adebayo, Heat.
• Harrison Barnes, Kings.
• Jaylen Brown, Celtics.
• De’Aaron Fox, Kings.
• Joe Harris, Nets.
• Kyle Kuzma, Lakers.
• Brook Lopez, Bucks.
• Kyle Lowry, Raptors.
• Khris Middleton, Bucks.
• Donovan Mitchell, Jazz.
• Mason Plumlee, Nuggets
• Marcus Smart, Celtics.
• Jayson Tatum, Celtics.
• P.J. Tucker, Rockets.
• Myles Turner, Pacers.
• Kemba Walker, Celtics.
• Thaddeus Young, Bulls.

Montrezl Harrell was among the late invites to camp, though he turned down the opportunity. J.J. Redick was also invited to attend but like Harrell, he turned it down. Andre Drummond recently turned down the chance to join Team USA at training camp, opening the door for Miami’s Bam Adebayo to secure an invite, as the organization’s website shows.

Julius Randle also dropped out of the competition. DeAaron Fox, who was previously on the Select Team, has been invited to participate with Team USA and the point guard has a good chance to make the team, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.

The FIBA World Cup has traditionally taken place every four years, alternating even-numbered years (2010, 2014) with the Olympics (2012, 2016), though it recently made the change to push it back a year and play a year directly before the Summer Olympic Games.

*This post has been updated.

The post Who Will Play For Team USA In The FIBA World Cup? appeared first on SLAM.

A clarification to the report that we initially covered in our AD story provides extra insight into New Orleans’ haul and, quite frankly, makes this an even more appealing deal for the rebuilding franchise.

As Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times reports, the trade comes with reverse protection on that 2021 first-rounder, there’s an additional sweetener attached to the 2024 pick and there’s no outright 2025 pick swap.

Here’s a complete list of what the Pels will acquire:

• 2019 1st Rd. (No. 4)
• 2021 1st (if top-8, otherwise unprotected in 2022)
• The right to swap 1sts in 2023
• Unprotected 1st in 2024, with right to defer to 2025

Given the complexities involved, it’s easy to see how some of these concepts were miscommunciated on the day of the deal. Let’s hammer down on some more details about these picks.

The 2019 1st Rounder (No. 4 Overall)
Draft experts have operated under the assumption that the Lakers would be making this pick, as such Darius Garland was the expected pick here. Now that this pick belongs to the Pels (or any number teams showing significant interest in it) all bets are off. We wrote about how this trade shakes up this week’s NBA draft.

The 2021 1st Rounder (Reverse Protected)
When we see protections on picks, it’s usually to protect the seller. This reverse protection mechanic protects the buyer. The only way New Orleans will receive this pick is if the Lakers struggle in 2020-21 and this pick ends up in the top eight. You can imagine that the mood in Los Angeles will be quite sour if their second season of the AD-LeBron James pairing ends in a high lottery pick.

More likely, this pick will become an unprotected 1st in 2022 and that’s more appealing than it sounds. It’s a very distinct reality that the 2022 NBA Draft would be the first draft without the One-and-Done Rule. That means teams drafting will have two batches of classes to pick from, the 2022 high school seniors and the 2022 NCAA freshmen.

Even if all goes well for 37-year-old James and the Lakers, a 20th overall pick would be the equivalent to a 10th overall pick in a typical draft class.

The 2023 Swap Rights
By now, four years beyond the date of the trade, it’s difficult to project what the NBA power landscape will look like. Will a 38-year-old James and 30-year-old Davis be terrorizing the Western Conference? It’s not hard to imagine. That said, this is the NBA and things can change quickly. This time four years ago, Finals MVP Andre Iguodala had just led the Warriors to the first title of their dynasty.

The 2024 1st Rounder (Unprotected)
The Pelicans will have the option to take this pick or defer it until 2025. These will be James Age 39 and Age 40 seasons, if you haven’t been doing the math at home.

Yes, if there’s any human on the planet capable of dominating a professional spot into their 40s, it’s presumably none other than James but that’s just such a daunting concept.

While any natural regression shown by an aging James may be cancelled out by a mid-to-late prime Davis and 28-year-old Kyle Kuzma, David Griffin and the Pelicans have to be immensely pleased with the constant stream of perennial draft gifts they’ll inherit from this franchise.

The pressure, now, is on the Lakers to win and win consistently, lest this turn into the second coming of Brooklyn’s shortsighted decision to surrender their draft assets to Boston in exchange for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

Suffice it to say, even if this gets ugly toward the back half of the deal, there’s no denying that a 26-year-old Davis is exponentially more valuable than the 37-year-old Garnett and 35-year-old Pierce that Brooklyn gambled for.

The post Everything You Need To Know About The Draft Picks In The AD Trade appeared first on SLAM.

While we’ve known for a few months that the veteran intended to return next season, he never officially said that the upcoming campaign would be his last.

On paper it makes sense that the end is near for the 42-year-old but the 21-year vet averaged 7.4 points in over 17 quality minutes per game for the rebuilding Hawks last season. Carter played in 76 games for ATL in 2018-19, dropping double digits in 28 of them.

Despite his success in Atlanta, Carter is set to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason and after cashing pay cheques with six different teams over the course of the past decade, there’s no indication exactly where he’ll host his farewell tour.

Those keeping score at home may remember that Carter once said a return to Toronto would happen. Masai Ujiri, too, has suggested as much. (h/t Raejhon Johnson of Raptors Rapture).

Of course that could simply mean that the iconic 1998 draft pick would consider signing a ceremonial one-day deal prior to formally hanging up his Nike Shox. (Paul Pierce did exactly that with Boston in 2017).

Nostalgia aside, Carter earned the veteran minimum this season and could provide depth and an historic amount of experience for any team willing to take on the veteran.

There are obvious benefits to bringing a greybeard like Carter aboard, especially one that shot .389 from beyond the arc last season, but understandable distractions too.

Regardless of where Carter does end up, the 2019-20 season will be his 22nd in the league, giving him the most career seasons of all-time ahead of Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Robert Parish and Kevin Willis who all played 21.

The post Vince Carter to Retire After 2019-20 appeared first on SLAM.

Cooper was the first African-American player to ever be drafted into the National Basketball Association, Lloyd was the first black player to ever play in an NBA game (Washington Capitols vs. Rochester Royals) and Clifton was the first black player to ever sign an NBA contract.

All three were landmark professional hoopers struggling for equal rights, acceptance and inclusion in a racially-charged America where tensions against minorities were at an all-time high. The three of them endured racist taunts and threats and often couldn’t stay in the same hotels (once in North Carolina, Cooper had to spend the night on the train), go to the same movie theaters or eat in the same restaurants as their teammates, especially on the road. But they persevered through it all.

“I remember in Fort Wayne, Ind., we stayed at a hotel where they let me sleep, but they wouldn’t let me eat,” said Lloyd. “Heck, I figured if they let me sleep there, I was at least halfway home.”

It was 1950—three years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in baseball, but 15 years before “Bloody Sunday,” when nearly 600 civil rights supporters marched across Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama for equal voting rights. Cooper, Lloyd and Clifton didn’t set out to change the world by being pioneers in the annals of Black History—they just resolved themselves to chasing basketball dreams and playing the game they loved at the highest level.

Following a brief stint with the Harlem Globetrotters after graduating from Duquesne University, where he was an All-American, Cooper was selected 14th overall by the Boston Celtics. According to The Boston Globe, when Celtics owner Walter Brown was reminded that Cooper was black, he reportedly said, “I don’t care if he’s striped, plaid or polka dot!”

Cooper averaged 9.6 points and 8.5 rebounds in his rookie season under head coach Red Auerbach and was able to fend off the race-baiting hostilities against him partially by attending jazz concerts with fellow rookie and teammate Bob Cousy.

The 6-5, 210-pound forward spent four years with Boston before ending his career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Fort Wayne Pistons.

Lloyd, who was drafted by the Capitols in the ninth round (100th overall), scored six points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds in his NBA debut, a 70-78 loss to the Royals. The 6-6 defensive-minded forward believed that he was given a chance to be the first black player to hit the court in the League because the Celtics had drafted Cooper with such a high pick.

“If the Celtics did not draft Chuck in the second round, you could not tell me that the Washington Capitols in 1950 were going to make me the first black player to play in this league,” Lloyd told The Boston Globe. “No way…The Boston Celtics had a tremendous influence on my acceptance in the NBA.”

The Capitols folded in 1951, so the Syracuse Nationals picked Lloyd up off waivers before he spent the 1951-52 season fighting in the Korean War. The U.S. Army veteran then played six years for the Nationals, winning a title in 1955, and two for the Detroit Pistons.

Once his playing career was over, Lloyd went on to become the first black head coach of the Pistons in 1971 after paying his dues as an assistant and scout. He died in 2015 at the age of 86.

Renowned as a multi-sport athlete, Clifton played baseball (first base) for the Chicago American Giants of the Negro American League and basketball for the Globetrotters and the New York Renaissance before signing his barrier-breaking contract with the New York Knickerbockers in 1950.

As a 27-year old rookie center, “Sweetwater” helped the Knicks make it to the NBA Finals, where they lost to Rochester in a seven-game series. Clifton averaged 10 points and 8.2 rebounds over eight years in the NBA (seven with New York, one with Detroit) and defied father time by getting his first All-Star nod as a 34-year-old in 1957. He passed away in 1990.

Both Clifton and Lloyd were later enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but Cooper, who died at age 57 due to cancer, has yet to receive the nod.

“It would be a tremendous honor,” Chuck Cooper Jr. told ESPN. “He was proud of becoming the first African-American drafted. I can only imagine how proud and honored he would be to be elected to be in the Hall of Fame.”

Accolades aside, it’s vital that these three integrationists are properly appreciated for changing the course of history and blazing a trail for early black NBA players like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson and so many of the league’s current superstars.

“There’s so many different guys who paved the way for where we are now, so many different guys in our league and we’re so grateful for them,” nine-time All-Star Chris Paul said of Cooper, Lloyd and Clifton. “Not just during Black History Month, but I think every month. All year round, we need to be grateful and thankful to those that paved the way.”

—

Maurice Bobb is a contributor to SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @ReeseReport. 

Photos via Getty. 

The post BHM 2019: Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd and Nat Clifton Broke the NBA’s Color Barrier appeared first on SLAM.

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So let me guess this is cool cause they had to do what was best for the franchise right??? Traded this man while he was literally playing in the game and had ZERO idea. I’m not knocking who traded him because it’s a business and you have to do what you feel what’s best but I just want this narrative to start to get REAL/CHANGE and not when a player wants to be traded or leaves a Franchise that he’s a selfish/ungrateful player but when they trade you, release , waive, cut etc etc it’s best for them! I’m ok with both honestly, truly am. Just call a a !!

A post shared by LeBron James (@kingjames) on Feb 6, 2019 at 8:43pm PST

Barnes, for his part, expressed gratitude for his time in Dallas and said he was looking forward to joining the Kings.

pic.twitter.com/xLRQjjriMN

— Harrison Barnes (@hbarnes) February 7, 2019

Sacramento is parting ways with second-year forward Justin Jackson and veteran big man Zach Randolph.

.@paulpierce34 says Harrison Barnes knew a trade to the Kings was in the works prior to the game, and still wanted to play for the Mavericks Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/06wuxZERBC

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 7, 2019

Per ESPN:

“He’s a better man than me, for sure,” said Dirk Nowitzki, the longtime face of the Mavs who frequently raved about Barnes’ character and work ethic. “Everybody else would have bounced. He’s just a generally good dude. He’s obviously got bonds with some of these players here for life, and that’s the kind of guy that he is.”

After the game, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle thanked Barnes in front of the team for “being the model professional and a great example.”

“I am going to miss him an awful lot,” Carlisle said. “We’ll miss him an awful lot, but I believe he’s going to have a great situation where he’s going, and we’ll just go forward from here.”

Related
Harrison Barnes: ‘Difficult’ Transition from Warriors to Mavs

The post LeBron James Sounds Off on Harrison Barnes Mid-Game Trade appeared first on SLAM.

Pierce took it as a compliment, and says he was simply stronger than The Black Mamba and others at his position.

Per ESPN (via NESN):

“He really understood how to use his body,” Bryant wrote, via ESPN. “He would use his heft to shield you, and he would use his size to shoot over you.”

While some might be offended by the insinuation they weren’t exactly svelte, Pierce loved what Bryant had to say.

“That’s what I’m talking about Kob, finally some respect around here,” Pierce said Thursday on ESPN’s “The Jump.”

“He knew what it was, finally. I was just stronger than him, look. I put that body on him, come on now. Imma put that shoulder on him, put that hip on him, get the layup. Come on, I was just too strong for these guys. I couldn’t jump over them, so I just go right through them.”

Tracy McGrady, meanwhile, was simply appreciative that Bryant recognized his greatness by calling him perhaps the toughest matchup of his 20-year career.

So @KobeBryant has a new book out and he’s got plenty to say in it about @PaulPierce and Tracy McGrady…we read some of it to them, and a bunch of the old stories came out pic.twitter.com/UHEIqlJGRe

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) October 26, 2018

“Listen man, thank you Kobe for giving me my roses while I’m still here on this earth,” McGrady said. “He was, listen, I came in, I used to stay at this man’s house. I just knew how gifted he was gonna be, right? So watching him, seeing him blossom before I ever reached you know my stardom, I was like OK, I’m gunning for him, right? This is the guy that I’m gunning for. And he just brought the best out of me.

“I worked religiously of trying to get better and have no flaws in my game. And as you see, I mean, he praised me for that, for not having any flaws.”

Related
Andy Bernstein Captured All the Iconic Moments from Kobe Bryant’s NBA Journey

The post ‘I Was Just Stronger’: Paul Pierce Responds to Kobe Bryant’s Book appeared first on SLAM.

According to ESPN, in making its decisions on penalties, the NBA analyzed court-side footage that appeared to show Rondo spitting. He eventually got hit with a three-game suspension, with CP3 getting two games.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpNET5Ggmwq/?utm_source=ig_embed

Here’s what the L.A. point guard had to say about the incident on Tuesday, via ESPN:

“This is the only time I’m going to address this. I had a mouthpiece in my mouth and I was exasperated because I was about to tell him to ‘get the [expletive] out of here.’

“Look at my body language [in the video]. My hands on my hips. I turn away for a second. Look at Eric [Gordon] and Melo in the video. If they saw me spit, they would have turned their face up or something. They had no reaction.

“Of course, the NBA went with [Paul’s] side because I got three games and he got two. Everyone wants to believe Chris Paul is a good guy. They don’t know he’s a horrible teammate. They don’t know how he treats people. Look at what he did last year when he was in LA; trying to get to the Clippers locker room. They don’t want to believe he’s capable of taunting and igniting an incident.

” … He comes out and says I spit and the media sides with that.”

Rondo went on to say that he believes the evidence has been tampered with and the story twisted:

“Y’all are playing me with these tricks or these mind games, tampering with the evidence. Ain’t no way that I intentionally spit on you with my body language the way it was. One, if I spit on you, bottom line, there is not going to be no finger-pointing. If you felt that I just spit on you, then all bets are off. Two, look at my body language. If I spit on you on purpose, I’m going to be ready for a man to swing on me. You ain’t going to have my hands on my hip and my head look away at someone if I spit on them. After the [expletive] goes down, within 30 seconds, you run and tell the sideline reporters that I spit on you? If I spit on you, you are trying to get to me. You not trying to make up a story so you can look like a good guy. It makes no sense to me.

“I was going to let it rest. I wasn’t going to say much. But now I have kids and I teach my kids to speak up for themselves and don’t let the world tell their story.”

Glen “Big Baby” Davis, a former teammate of Rondo and CP3, chimed in as well:

RELATED
Paul Pierce ‘Not Surprised at All’ By Chris Paul-Rajon Rondo Fight

The post Rajon Rondo Calls Chris Paul a ‘Horrible Teammate,’ Denies Spitting on Him 😳 appeared first on SLAM.

Here’s what the young forward had to say about the incident:

Brandon Ingram details the events that led to his suspension. pic.twitter.com/F1M9JdwkVL

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) October 22, 2018

“I’m going to take full responsibility for every action that I did. 100 percent, I was wrong for my teammates, but I also stepped up for my teammates, and that’s what I’m going to do 10 times out of 10.”

And here’s video of the fight, which was escalated by Rajon Rondo (3-game suspension) and Chris Paul (2-game suspension):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLuWXng1qV/?utm_source=ig_embed

RELATED
Paul Pierce ‘Not Surprised at All’ By Chris Paul-Rajon Rondo Fight

The post Brandon Ingram Speaks on Lakers-Rockets Brawl 🎥 appeared first on SLAM.

If anything, Pierce was shocked it took this long for a fight to breatk out between the two veteran point guards.

“I am not surprised at all,” Pierce said on the ESPN postgame show.

“Rondo and Chris Paul have never liked each other. This goes back to maybe Rondo’s rookie year or second year. I’m surprised that this is their first fight actually, because they have never got along.”

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A post shared by SLAM (@slamonline) on Oct 21, 2018 at 10:51am PDT

Paul, Rondo and Brandon Ingram were all suspended for their roles in the brouhaha.

Per ESPN:

The last major fight in the NBA was almost 12 years ago, when current Rockets forward Carmelo Anthony received a 15-game suspension while playing for the Denver Nuggets.

Anthony said that [NBA vice president Kiki] Vandeweghe should do “what is right” in his decision, and Rondo’s actions were “unacceptable.” Anthony said he saw Rondo spit in Paul’s face to spark the altercation.

“Chris had to retaliate,” Anthony said. “In that situation, the New York situation, you can’t let that fly.”

Related
Mike D’Antoni: Chris Paul Suspension for Rajon Rondo Fight Unfair

The post Paul Pierce ‘Not Surprised at All’ By Chris Paul-Rajon Rondo Fight appeared first on SLAM.

Pierce can envision the Boston Celtics or Los Angeles Lakers making a run at AD in 2018-19.

Anthony Davis is reportedly changing agents…to work with Rich Paul. Who also represents LeBron. Is that Something, Nothing or Everything?
Also: Lonzo's new shooting motion and @PaulPierce34 says he's got a better chance at an NBA comeback than Andrew Bynum pic.twitter.com/BfosnF2anY

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) September 12, 2018

Davis, 25, was an MVP finalist last season with averages of 28.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.6 blocks per game.

He has three years remaining on his current deal with the Pels.

Per ESPN’s “The Jump”:

“If things don’t go well in New Orleans this year and they’re hovering around 500 or not looking like a playoff team, Boston’s going to make a run at him or the Lakers,” Pierce said on Tuesday’s show.

“I guarantee you that. He will not be in New Orleans by the end of the year.

“If they’re not playing well, he will not make it to All-Star weekend.”

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Report: Anthony Davis Parts Ways With Agent

The post Paul Pierce: Pelicans to Trade Anthony Davis if ‘Things Don’t Go Well’ appeared first on SLAM.

The decision to leave Boston created a rift between Allen and his former teammates, many of whom don’t speak to Allen to this day. Former Celtics coach Doc Rivers told The Athletic’s Jay King he wished there was more he could do to mend the relationship:

Doc Rivers said he “hates” seeing the fracturing of the 2008 Celtics championship team. “If I had one wish, I wish I could do a better job of getting that team back together.”

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) September 4, 2018

Allen, the current all-time leader in 3-pointers made, told The Athletic’s Shams Charania that he doesn’t expect to receive any congratulatory messages from his former Celtics teammates when he’s inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.

RELATED: Ray Allen Disappointed That Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce Still Won’t Talk to Him

The post Doc Rivers: I Wish I Could Repair Relationships Between Ray Allen, Former Celtics 🍀 appeared first on SLAM.

Love says he felt like was having heart attack.

Watch @kevinlove's full interview with @CarsonDaly about his battle with anxiety. @NBA pic.twitter.com/tgmHRXvzRa

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 20, 2018

Per Cleveland.com (via The Today Show):

“I had a moment where I thought I was going to die,” Love said to Carson Daly on NBC’s The Today Show in an interview which aired Monday.

“I thought I was having a heart attack,” Love continued. “I was running around looking for something that I couldn’t find. I just wanted to get air. And so I ended up basically unconscious on the floor and putting my hand down my throat and trying to get something out of there, but there was nothing there.”

In addition to Love, Paul Pierce and Chris Bosh also open up about their own mental health struggles.

Kevin Love has been open about dealing with anxiety … but the stigma of mental health remains alive in the NBA. https://t.co/KNbWdiLP8G pic.twitter.com/CXzYzdeEqD

— ESPN (@espn) August 20, 2018

Per ESPN:

“I have anxiety, but I also come from a family with a history of depression,” Love told me on that February afternoon. “It’s difficult to talk about. It’s difficult to confront. I finally had to say to myself, ‘Your whole life these things will affect you, so how are you going to manage it?'”

Kevin Love is hardly alone. Houston Rockets assistant coach John Lucas, a retired NBA player who has struggled with addiction and now runs a wellness aftercare program for athletes, estimates that more than 40 percent of NBA players have mental health issues, yet less than 5 percent of them are seeking help.

“It’s an epidemic in our league,” he says. “I’m talking about everything from ADHD to bipolar to anxiety and depression.”

Related
NBA And NBPA Establishing Independent Mental Wellness Program

The post ‘I Thought I Was Going to Die’: Kevin Love Details Panic Attack appeared first on SLAM.

Pierce doesn’t envision any modern player sticking with a single NBA team for a very long stretch.

.@BostonSportsBSJ: Q&A: Paul Pierce dishes on Jayson Tatum, LeBron to LA, Kyrie’s future and loyalty in today’s NBA https://t.co/Ip2WOZ4bfs pic.twitter.com/VZf5kfvBwh

— BostonSportsJournal (@BostonSportsBSJ) August 14, 2018

The Truth, however, does believe Kyrie can lead the Celtics back to the promised land.

Per the Boston Sports Journal (via NESN):

Boston Sports Journal’s Brian Robb recently asked Pierce whether he thought Irving really would leave the young, loaded Celtics, and Pierce’s answer wasn’t exactly reassuring.

“You know what? It’s hard to really get a read on the players these days. There are so many changes being made,” Pierce told Robb. “Who would have expected Kevin Durant to go to the Warriors? (DeMarcus) Cousins to the Warriors? LeBron (James) to Miami a few years ago? Players are just showing that they have the control and the power to do what they want.

“There is no loyalty to a franchise anymore. You are not going to see a player stay with one franchise for 10-15 years. That’s the generation we live in. You have to brace for it. Guys want to play with certain teams, they want to play with certain guys they know, their friends. They’re showing they have the power.”

Related
Report: Celtics Confident They Can Re-Sign Kyrie Irving

The post Paul Pierce: ‘There Is No Loyalty to a Franchise Anymore’ appeared first on SLAM.

Pierce says “the talent is definitely there.”

I talked to @paulpierce34 about the Celtics' championship ambitions this season, Kyrie Irving's contract situation, and what he'd tell the team before Game 7 with a trip to the Finals on the line. https://t.co/F7t4XTB7We pic.twitter.com/jQ7V2SlHVk

— Mark Dunphy (@m_b_dunphy) August 13, 2018

The Truth adds that Kyrie Irving‘s looming free agency won’t be a distraction for the C’s.

Per the Boston Globe:

“You have to sacrifice if you are truly committed to trying to win a championship,” he said. “They’re going to win a lot of games, but unless they sacrifice — because we know they’re going to be better than probably what their numbers show — if they can sacrifice they’ll win a championship this year. Because the talent is definitely there.”

However, Pierce doesn’t think the point guard’s uncertain contract status will affect Irving or the locker room.

“Kyrie is a competitor,” he said. “He’s won a championship. He knows — if they win again he’ll get whatever contract he wants. He’s an extraordinary talent and he knows that winning trumps everything. If you win, everybody wins.”

Related
Jaylen Brown: Celtics ‘Getting to the Finals’

The post Paul Pierce: Boston Can Win a Title ‘This Year’ With Sacrifice appeared first on SLAM.

It’s essential that we never forget, and celebrate in every way we can, Antoine Walker the hooper—a fearless, confident, entertaining competitor who was ahead of his time.

It started at Kentucky, where Walker starred on one of the best college basketball teams ever. The 1995-96 Wildcats also had Tony Delk, Walter McCarty, Derek Anderson and Ron Mercer and went 32-4 (16-0 in the SEC) en route to a National Championship.

What made Walker truly special, and caught the eye of NBA scouts, was his versatility. At 6-8, he could handle the rock up top, hit from the outside, score from the post, attack the boards, and had the vision and passing ability of a guard.

In a 1996 draft that is considered to be among the greatest in League history, Antoine was selected No. 6 overall by the Celtics. He took center stage on their rebuilding squad, captivating the Boston Garden crowd on a nightly basis. As a rookie, he averaged 17.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Those numbers are absurd for a 20-year-old dealing with the pressure of playing in such a historic hoops city.

Walker was an All-Star by his second go-around, an automatic double-double (22.4 points, 10.2 rebounds) and a ray of light for a franchise struggling in the aftermath of the Larry Bird era. Paul Pierce came on board the following year, and the two pumped even more excitement into the passionate C’s fanbase. Together they led Boston to the Eastern Conference finals in 2002, averaging a combined 47 points through 16 total playoff outings.

After one more postseason run, Walker was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. He bounced around a bit before landing in Miami; and in 2006, helped the Heat win a championship as a key contributor. Antoine led the title squad in three-pointers made and was the only player to appear in every single game.

Two years later he hung up his sneakers, leaving a significant imprint on the League and a montage of shimmies to remember.

Of course, you can’t talk about Walker without mentioning that iconic shimmy.

Throughout his career, Toine was often criticized for relying too heavily on his outside jumper. Over a three-year stint from 2000-03, he averaged at least seven three-pointers per contest. Truth is: Walker was ahead of the curve—a stretch 4 before that role took over the NBA. He would fit perfectly in the modern era of small ball and pace and space. A prime Antoine would be a PROBLEM for opposing defenses given today’s trends.

Not that he wasn’t a problem back in his playing days. A fearless, confident, entertaining competitor.

Never forget.

—

Alex Squadron is an Associate News Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @asquad510.

Photos via Getty. 

The post The SLAM Legend of the Week: Antoine Walker 💪 appeared first on SLAM.

An exciting, highly ranked prospect out of North Carolina, Carter was selected by the Warriors with the No. 5 pick in the 1998 draft and immediately traded to the Toronto Raptors. The move came as a shock to Vince, who wasn’t made aware of it until after he had put on the Golden State hat.

Antawn Jamison, the No. 4 pick and other player involved in the swap, was apparently trying to alert Vince of the deal while he was still on stage shaking hands with commissioner David Stern. But overcome with emotion, Carter wasn’t concentrated enough to make out what Jamison was mouthing.

20 seasons, seven teams, one Rookie of the Year award, eight All-Star appearances, and countless highlights later, Vinsanity is still going strong. Half-Man. Half-Amazing.

We caught up with VC recently on behalf of Verizon to discuss draft day memories, favorite dunks, his transition to the L, and more:

—

SLAM: Can you talk about your memories of draft day and what that whole experience was like for you?

VC: My memory of draft day was kind of up and down. I mean, you’re always thinking about, where am I gonna go? I hear what they’re saying, but I was a realist. I was like, I don’t want to hear the speculation. I don’t want to hear none of this. I just want to know. Then you start thinking about, OK, did I have a good workout? Who are the top 5 teams? Did I have a good workout in Denver? OK they’re at three. Because I knew I wasn’t going 1 or 2. It was either Mike Bibby or [Michael] Olowokandi. So it was like, Did I have a good workout in Denver? Yeah, I had a good workout there. Toronto? Eh, there was a lot going on. I don’t know if I played well enough. Come to find out I had a great workout for them, I just didn’t think I did. And then the fifth pick — Golden State — I had a good workout there, and down the line, in Dallas, I had one of my best workouts there where they cut it short. There and Sacramento, they cut the workout short because I had such a good workout and they were like, Oh you won’t be available [when we pick]. You leave those workouts like, OK, I feel good about some of them. And some of them you don’t.

And then you get to the day, the actual day. Now, it’s reality. Your dream is hours away and some of these guys have the fortune of knowing, I’m gonna be the number one pick. I’m gonna be the seventh pick. And some of the guys are just like, I don’t know. I’m on a sliding scale. Like myself, I knew I could go from 3, as high as 3, or as low as 8.  I just didn’t know, and I think that’s the kind of nerve-wrecking thing about the draft, and once you hear your name called, it’s like, Yes, finally [smiles].

SLAM: What was the range of emotions for you specifically, because you get drafted and then instantly find out about the trade? 

VC: Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say next. So it was like, Yes, finally it’s here. And you walk up, and you see it on TV all the time. You see the guys walking up the steps. You adjust your hat. You practice it all the time and then all of a sudden, David Stern says, ‘uh, yeah there’s about to be a trade.’ But you don’t know it’s going to be yourself so…

SLAM: Oh, so you had no idea? When he announced it that was the first time you heard about it?

VC: Yeah. So walking up, Antawn was at the bottom of the steps. He was trying to tell me, come to find out, he was trying to mouth it to me but I was on stage. There’s like cameras. David Stern has his hand out trying to shake my hand as I’m walking up and he’s talking to me. I was like [to Antawn], What, what? Never mind. Once I got [to him] to take pictures, he was like ‘Yo wait a second, he’s about to announce a trade.’  I was like, Damn, somebody getting traded [laughs]. So there you go.

SLAM: What was the biggest surprise for you, either on or off the court, when you made the jump to the NBA?

VC:  You’re on your own, obviously off the court. You have to learn how to prepare and do all that. But the biggest jump I think is you’re not playing against college kids. You’re not a junior or senior, and playing against freshmen, with a kid whose body is trying to develop or what not, or you’re playing against a senior who, he’s older but, he’s still not developed. You’re playing against grown men who’ve been around and the game is faster. Your position is a little different now, so you’re playing against a guy who might be two, three, sometimes four inches taller than you that weighs 30, 40 pounds more than you, and they have speed. They have, you know, mentioning LeBron is just a different beast but I’m talking about like, I remember coming in playing shooting guard, small forward sometimes. I’m playing against Scottie Pippen who’s 6-9. A 6-9 guy in college was a power forward, you know what I’m saying? So that was an adjustment.

Understanding these guys’ wingspan, the timing from getting the ball and getting the shot off against good defenders. All of that stuff mattered, and you had to learn how to get your shot off a lot quicker. Wasted motion is kind of the biggest thing that these guys are gonna have to understand…Now you’re playing against the next-level guys who, the wasted motion is what you have to get rid of, and who can get rid of it fastest is probably the guys who have the most success early, and then some of the others kind of learn that years later. So that was the biggest thing. I was fortunate to have some guys in my corner to kind of learn that lesson immediately, plus having a lockout season so I got to play with some of the NBA guys more, work with some of the coaches from Carolina that could prepare me.

SLAM: Is there a memory or highlight from your rookie season that stands out?

VC: I think dunking on Dikembe [Mutombo]. The Indiana dunk under the baseline, and of course the number one was probably winning Rookie of the Year. I know Mike Bibby was probably the hands-on favorite. I just had a great second part of the season where it was just between Paul Pierce and Jason Williams.

On this date in 1999, Vince Carter was named Rookie of the Year.

Young VC averaged 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 1.1 steals per game pic.twitter.com/wQKr2wQDXz

— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) May 26, 2018

SLAM: What was the first thing you copped when you signed that NBA contract?

VC: The first thing I actually bought was, I started my foundation. That was the first thing I did before I even got a car. Part of my first year I still had the truck that I had in college, and then I got a Navigator which I still have today. I still drive it, a ’99 Lincoln Navigator silver. It’s still in my garage. I just drove it two days ago [laughs], and then my mom, [I got] my mom a car and a house. But the first thing was my foundation, which I still run right now.

SLAM: Last question, I gotta ask. Do you have a favorite dunk from your career, and could you walk me through it?

VC:  I’ll just do the most talked about. Favorite for me? It’s just too tough.  I’ll talk about the Alonzo Mourning dunk at Miami — that happened because in the first quarter I dunked on him and Richard Jefferson dunked on him. At halftime,  we’re sitting in the locker room, waiting for coach to come in and we were just talking like, Man you dunked on him, and oh man you dunked on him [too]. I said, There’s no way we’ll be able to dunk on Alonzo again, unless we take the hit. We gotta take the hit because he’s gonna try to knock us out. Because back then, you could knock guys down and it wasn’t, Oh let’s go look at the monitor to eject him. It wasn’t any of that. So I said, you’d have to take the hit and hopefully you’re high enough and you’re still able to dunk the ball. And that’s actually what happened.

Go up there, and I remember turning my body because I was like, Ah man he’s gonna hit me. And I could feel like, the momentum — the way he hit me just bumped me up higher in the air, so I was like, Oh man, the rim is right here. I see him go flying and I dunked the ball and I go down and I just tried to keep a straight face, like inside I was just like, Woah, this is crazy. I mean obviously the dunk was great and the bench was going crazy but, we literally, that was the exact scenario that we talked about at halftime, and it came to fruition and it was unreal.

That and the dunk in Indiana. That’s the other one I always talk about just because, everybody was in awe of the dunk because I went under the basket and dunked it behind my head. But I did that out of fear that Dale Davis was gonna knock me out of the air. That’s why [I went to] the reverse, because I was going baseline and I’m going up and I see Dale take a step and, I don’t know that he’s gonna stop and let me dunk. I’m already in the air, so at that time I had already stopped and I’m looking at him. He’s coming so I was like, Oh shoot there’s the basket, and I dunked and just ran down the court. After the game he tells me, ‘Hey man, you know I could’ve…

SLAM: Knocked you out?

VC: Knocked you out was the clean version. But he said, ‘I like you man. You’re a good player, so I’ll let you live.‘ And all these years later we’re friends and we laugh about it.

—

Alex Squadron is an Associate News Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @asquad510.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Vince Carter Talks Transitioning to the NBA, Favorite Dunks And More appeared first on SLAM.

Below you’ll find the case for SLAM Legend of the Week J-Will, made by former editor Scoop Jackson.

—

I know what you’re saying: Why him? Why is he in this debate? Does he even matter? Is he really relevant? Don’t let others fool you, don’t fool yourself. In other words, don’t be a damn fool.

Obstacles. Those damn obstacles. Inexperience, illegal defenses, speed, color, Gary Payton, playing for the Kings. The one who is able to overcome the most obstacles, the most stereotypes, the one who is player-hated the most and the least likely to succeed—in this case, the intruder, wins.

Impact on all levels has value. Especially when the odds against you are stacked higher against you than against both your counterparts combined. Vince Carter and Paul Pierce are supposed to be here, battling for the R.O.T.Y. Not you. When the season started you were an afterthought, dismissed as a “maybe.” “Maybe…he can cut it. Maybe…he’ll make it.” That’s what they said. Now they are all frontin’, claiming they saw you coming all along. Saying they meant “Jason Williams” when they publicly said Dirk Nowitzki was going to be Rookie of the Year.

State the case: THE POINT GUARD POSITION IS THE MOST DIFFICULT POSITION IN BASKETBALL TO PLAY. PERIOD. Vince and Paul got it easy. As do Ben and Russ. See, carrying a team and running it are two different things entirely. You can carry a team forever, never win anything and still come out looking shined. Dominique Wilkins did it in ATL for years; Shareef Abdur-Rahim is doing the same thing in Vancouver. The weight of running a team is much heavier. If the right person isn’t running that team, nothing happens. So understand that Chris Webber may put Sac on his back every night, but the future of the franchise is in who’s running it.

Plus, right now the point guard position is the premiere spot in the NBA. There is no night off. Every night Jason Williams goes head up against seriousness: Stockton, Marbury, Payton, Iverson, Kidd, Hardaway—both of ’em. He’s the only rookie who can’t afford to make rookie mistakes. This is what makes Jason Williams more valuable than Carter or Pierce.

I know what you’re saying: Who’s selling you the crack you on? Whose hands are in your pocket, making you write this nonsense? No one. This is about giving credit where credit is due. And although my choice may not be the popular one, it will be the most valid, which doesn’t always stand for much these days. Maybe if he braided his hair you’d feel him.

It was once said that 1’s aren’t made, they’re born. Only God can deliver great point guards, not Rick Adelman. Jason Williams, because he was born into this, will re-redefine the position as we know it. Vince Carter and Paul Pierce won’t. They will do the phenomenal no doubt, but their games won’t be Ripley; JW’s game, on the other hand, will. Believe it or not.

70-foot, alley-oop passes to Tariq Abdul-Wahad; over-the-head dimes to CWebb; one-handed, in-the-lane, behind-the-back grooves that make us watch SportsCenter over and over again; ill Dr.J-like reverse layups that put NBA Showtime producers on edit; murderous crossovers that freeze defenders like Han Solo, wrapping opponents up like an Erykah Badu headpiece; 21-point/9 assist/ 4 steal games on a semi-regular basis; 11 assist/ 1 turnover game against the Lakers his first time on national TV. He be pissin’ on defenders like they fire, putting out the flame. Truth be told, if Eminem’s on the cover of Rolling Stone, why shouldn’t JW grace SLAM alone?

See, Jason Williams was not even supposed to be in this conversation. He wasn’t expected to do anything close to what he’s done. Bibby, Olowokandi, Carter, Pierce, Jamison, Larry Hughes—they entered the stage celebrated. What Pierce and Carter have done is nothing less than what they were supposed to do. Tournament-tested All-Americans need to wreck it. That’s expected. The League is built for them to shine. To hand either Carter or Pierce the award for most valuable freshman in the NBA is the safe move. Think about it. Now, without frontin’, ask yourself who really deserves the award?

I know what you’re saying: You think I forgot the rule—it ain’t where you from, it’s where you at. Believe, Jason Williams is at the point right now where he has other players in the League talking about him as one of the better point guards in the game, not just rookies. Mentioning his name ahead of the Terrell Brandons, Sam Cassells, Brevin Knights and Mark Jacksons. He has the ability to change the complexion of a game with his playmaking ability, his scoring or his three-point range. Now, imagine Jason Williams with the Rockets. Or the Lakers. Or the Spurs. You can see the trophy can’t you? Close your mouth. You’ve been busted.

That’s what Williams brings to the table. You can’t put any other rookie in the league on a team and instantly visualize a championship. You can’t do that with Paul Pierce or Vince Carter or anyone else. This is what separates WC from the mad circle of players vying for the crown. His impact is that significant. No other rookie can claim that.

Cats like JW only come around once or twice in a generation. He’s that special, that rare. Like a Black quarterback. There have been only a few who revolutionize: James Harris, Doug Williams, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham. They become the spirit according to which all other African-American quarterbacks will be judged. Any player given comparisons (ie. Daunte Culpepper), has to be very special and rare one. The weight of that legacy must be upheld simply because the racism involved in sports doesn’t allow the opportunity to occur very often. Before Jason Williams, there were Bob Cousy and Paul Westphal. In between them was Pete Maravich, the one to whom Williams is most often compared. It’s been a long time since someone has reawakened the ghost of Pistol Pete. Made us see visions of basketball brilliance from ground level. For this alone, Jason Williams’ rookie campaign must be recognized for how special it really was, because something like it may not happen again for another generation.

I know the last thing you’re saying: Scoop, I thought you were a racist, thought you hated white people, especially ballplayers? The white boy got you selling-out with those tricks.those un-fundamental, sugar-coated, extra-pastry moves he does are not what basketball is about. Wrong. First, I’m a realist. The truth always supersedes race, that’s why I’m able to write this and look in the mirror next morning. And those tricks he does, they’re for adults—not kids. Those tricks are only for prodigies. Only for those who pull ’em out of their bags and bless the world with them. To say that tricks aren’t important is ignorant. Earl Monroe and Pete Maravich had tricks. Isiah Thomas and Bob Cousy had tricks. Top 50. All time. Allen Iverson got ’em too. But two years ago the NBA wasn’t really ready for his tricks. Too ghetto. Now Jason Williams comes along with his bag of tricks. Too trailer park? That’s what I thought. If White Chocolate doesn’t get the Rookie-of-the-Year Award, he’ll definitely get the coveted, Charles Barkley-issued “playground Rookie-of-the-Year” award. Which may be good enough. You see what that did for Iverson.

—

Scoop Jackson is a SLAM legend. Follow him on Twitter @iamscoopjackson.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Why Jason Williams Should Have Been the 1999 Rookie of the Year appeared first on SLAM.

The King has to “figure out a way to win.”

Bryant defines every great player’s legacy by how many championship rings they collect.

So how do we view LeBron's legacy now?

I put that question to @kobebryant, @paulpierce34, @IsiahThomas, @realgranthill33 @JalenRose, @Dennis3DScott, Vince Carter and others for a virtual panel discussion. https://t.co/lv8McJHzPt

— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) June 11, 2018

The Black Mamba is happy to share the same kind of tough-love advice Michael Jordan gave him years ago when he was struggling to get past the Celtics.

Per Bleacher Report:

LeBron has three rings. He’s been to more Finals than any player in modern times. But he’s 3-6 after this series. Does that matter to his legacy?

Kobe Bryant: “All I thought about as a kid personally was winning championships. That’s all I cared about. That’s how I valued Michael. That’s how I valued [Larry] Bird. That’s how I valued Magic [Johnson]. It was just winning championships. Now, everybody’s going to value things differently, which is fine. I’m just telling you how I value mine.

“If I’m Bron, you got to figure out a way to win. It’s not about narrative. You want to win championships, you just gotta figure it out.”

How should we weigh a star’s supporting cast? Does LeBron get credit for carrying Jordan Clarkson and JR Smith this far, or penalized for losing with them? We saw how the role players blew Game 1 of the series.

Bryant: “Michael gave me some really good advice after the ’08 Finals: ‘You got all the tools. You gotta figure out how to get these guys to that next level to win that championship.’ Going into the 2010 series, I said, ‘Listen, Boston, they got Ray Allen, they got Paul Pierce, they got [Kevin] Garnett, they got Sheed [Wallace], the talent is there. They’re stacked.’ That was the first superteam. [Michael] kind of heard me lament about it, and he just goes, ‘Yeah, well, it is what it is; you gotta figure it out. There’s no other alternative.’ And that’s the challenge LeBron has. You have pieces that you have to try to figure out how to work with. Excuses don’t work right now. …

“It has everything to do with how you build the team, from an emotional level. How do you motivate them? … Leadership is not making guys better by just throwing them the ball. That’s not what it is. It’s about the influence that you have on them to reach their full potential. And some of it’s not pretty. Some of it’s challenging, some of it’s confrontational. Some of it’s pat on the back. But it’s finding that balance, so now when you show up to play a Golden State or a Boston, your guys feel like you have the confidence to take on more.”

The post Kobe Bryant: LeBron James Must ‘Figure Out a Way to Win’ appeared first on SLAM.

Tatum finished with a team-high 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting with seven rebounds over 42 minutes for the Boston Celtics, and afterwards, James said the 20-year-old is “built for stardom.”

LeBron says Jayson Tatum is "built for stardom." Snapple facts. (via @nbatv) pic.twitter.com/hHCg8WF6YH

— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) May 28, 2018

“I just love everything about the kid, the way he plays the game, his demeanor, where he comes from,” James said.

“I just know he’s built for stardom. He’s built for success. And that’s both on and off the floor.”

Tatum even dunked in LeBron’s grill, saying he “had to get him back” for what the 33-year-old did to him in Game 6.

Per the Boston Herald:

“I had to get him back for the two shots he hit on me in Cleveland,” the Celtics rookie said of James’ two game-breaking 3-pointers in Game 6.

There will be more from Tatum. It was appropriate that Paul Pierce took in the game from the front row, in a seat between Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Tatum’s first-year rise hasn’t been witnessed in the Garden since Pierce was a rookie.

“The postseason has been a lot of fun, from the first game to today,” Tatum said. “I’ve learned so much. I just enjoyed everything we accomplished, everything we went through. I just had so much fun out there each and every night, no matter if we won or lost, just how we competed and gave it our all. It was my first year, so I was out there having fun.

“Just learning everything that I didn’t know from the first game until today. It was such an adjustment the first year in the league – new teammates, new system, living on your own, traveling, playing so many games. I think the biggest thing was just getting used to it and comfortable. There were ups and downs, but I had great teammates. When times were tough they told me to stick with it and keep working. I was able to get more comfortable and have more confidence in myself throughout the season that I didn’t have early on.”

The post LeBron James: Jayson Tatum ‘Built for Stardom’ appeared first on SLAM.

April 29, 2018: Cavs 105, Pacers 101

45 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists

James turned in a monster performance earlier in this postseason. He went off for 45 points, including 26 in the first half. It was his layup that put the game away for good.

June 19, 2016: Cavs 93, Warriors 89

27 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists

In the face of impossible odds, LeBron helped the Cavs overcome a 3-1 series deficit when he hopped into the phone booth to deliver the highlight of his career; a late game block on Andre Iguodala.

June 20, 2013: Heat 95, Spurs 88 

37 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists

After an entire series of being dared to shoot jumpshots, LeBron nailed five three-pointers and drilled a clutch midrange jumper with 27.9 seconds remaining to win his second championship.

https://youtu.be/RhNIKCV1uMc

June 3, 2013: Heat 99, Pacers 76

32 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists

James and the Heat made quick work of Game 7, closing out a tough series with a blowout. He shot 8-17 in the game and threw down a couple of big dunks.

June 9, 2012: Heat 101, Celtics 88

31 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists

James finally beat the Celtics after years of being bested by them. He even posterized Rajon Rondo and then swung on the rim right on top of the point guard.

https://youtu.be/IAe2Iz7o1Io

May 18, 2008: Celtics 97, Cavs 92

45 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists 

LeBron, five years into his career, walked into Boston and dropped 45 points in an all-time duel against Paul Pierce. Though his squad lost the game, James took the eventual NBA champs to the distance nearly by himself.

May 21, 2006: Pistons 79, Cavs 61

27 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists

Young LeBron put up a valiant effort against one of the East’s beasts, facing off against an all-time defensive squad. He didn’t have enough help but he did all he could, relentlessly attacking Detroit’s defense.

The post LeBron James Goes Crazy in Game 7s appeared first on SLAM.

Looking back on 2018’s first half, we’d bet Atlanta Hawks forward Taurean Prince has March 11 marked with a Sharpie. Dude had a big game that night. The energetic wing had stat-stuffing games before, no question, but he never had an eye-opener quite like this.

The Chicago Bulls were in Philips Arena. Neither team was in playoff contention, but you couldn’t tell it from how scrappy they were playing. The Hawks’ $17 million-a-year man, Kent Bazemore, went down with a knee injury in the second quarter. Though saying something like, “Taurean Prince stepped in when his number was called” is super cliché and inaccurate — even before Baze’s season-ending injury, Taurean was an everyday starter for the Hawks — you can’t deny the magic in his performance that evening. Prince dropped a career-high 38 points and dished out seven assists, easily the best stat line of his two years in the NBA.

https://youtu.be/hw2QwXfrsDE

“With a guy down,” Prince recalls a month or so after the game, “knowing that the production level would have to come from someone, I was just trying to be more aggressive. Not saying I was trying to take over that role [of a scorer], but just trying to be more aggressive. I was looking to score the ball a little more and do what needed to be done.”

This wasn’t a case of Prince lacking confidence before March 11; conditions merely called for more assertiveness, and he responded. The rest of the season his moves had self-assurance. He dribbled with a purpose. When a defender took his eyes off Prince for a split second, he made them look silly. Prince scored 20 or more in 11 of the Hawks’ final 16 games. He ended the campaign as the team’s second-leading scorer (14.1 ppg), just behind point guard Dennis Schroder (19.4).

“It was just one of those things that I just took upon myself,” Prince says about his offensive explosion towards the end of the year. And when Schroder’s season ended on March 23 due to an ankle injury, that assertive dial had to crank up even more. “But that just [goes with] the type of up-and-down season we were having this year,” adds Prince. “Guys being out certain games and playing certain games. You just had to pick and choose [when to attack]. You knew when it was time and you knew when it wasn’t.”

It wasn’t only the scoring that trended upwards for Prince this past spring. He rebounded with fervor and recorded at least five assists in seven games down the stretch, too. The Hawks were limping, but No. 12 was soaring.

Things didn’t just magically start happening for Prince on March 11. If you look back over the man’s career, you’ll see moments that may have foreshadowed his success. Take September 17, 2011, for example. That day, a young Taurean Prince announced his collegiate choice. Though the Texas-born kid, who stretched from a 5-9 high school freshman to a 6-7 senior, had solid numbers at San Antonio’s Earl Warren, bigger schools in the area weren’t checking for him.

Prince didn’t sulk. He merely signed with the university that did want him—Long Island University-Brooklyn.

When LIU coach Jim Ferry dipped for Duquesne, Prince was afforded the opportunity to talk to other schools. And this time, Baylor’s Scott Drew didn’t mess around.

Though Prince’s time in Waco, Texas, started out a bit unceremoniously — Taurean’s freshman (3.7 ppg) and sophomore (6.2 ppg) years won’t go down in anyone’s memory bank — things picked up during his junior campaign, when he averaged nearly 14 a game, was named to the second-team All-Big 12 squad, and selected as the conference’s Sixth Man of the Year.

His senior year saw even more accolades come his way. Taurean was Baylor’s leader in scoring (15.9 ppg); an All-Big 12 first-teamer; and the only player in the conference to rank in the top 15 in points, blocks, steals and rebounds.

The Hawks were intrigued with his speed and shot-making. So, on June 23, 2016, the team (by way of a trade with the Utah Jazz) selected Prince with the 12th pick in the 2016 draft. The franchise would grab Saint Joseph’s similarly built forward DeAndre’ Bembry just a few slots later. And that was on top of the fact that Atlanta already had Bazemore on the roster.

Needless to say, Taurean knew he’d have his work cut out if he was going to get some real playing time. So, like he did back at Warren High and at Baylor, Prince put his head down and got in the gym. NBA scouts loved that about him. You could almost envision the kid punching a time clock before entering a game. He had a blue-collar energy and hustle that stood out. He had a consistent spot-up jumper, too.

Over his first two years in the League, Prince’s main question marks have centered around his ability to create his own points. But Taurean acknowledges these weaknesses, saying that his handles and on-ball defense are aspects of his game he’ll focus on this summer. “Turning defense into offense—that seems to be a key,” he adds. “But most importantly, ball handling. If you tighten up your ball handling, everything else becomes easier.”

On May 11, 2018, the Hawks named 76ers assistant Lloyd Pierce as Mike Budenholzer’s replacement at head coach. The move should be a good one for Prince and Atlanta’s other young core players, as Pierce has earned a glowing reputation over the past decade for being a strong developer of talent and a player’s coach who guys would jump on a grenade for.

“I don’t think any of the guys that are on the roster are going to tell you that they’ve played their best basketball yet,” said Pierce, during his introductory press conference on May 14. Taurean Prince certainly wouldn’t. He knows that there’s much to learn before he’s reached the level of Paul George and other versatile vets he’s been compared to.

With three first-round picks in the 2018 draft and some unanswered free agency questions, Pierce and Hawks GM Travis Schlenk have major decisions to make over the next few months. If either wanted Prince’s thoughts on the roster, though, they’d be out of luck.

“To be honest,” Prince says, “I’m not even the type to think about that ‘cuz that’s not something I can control. All I can really focus on is myself right now. The summertime is a time to be a little more selfish than you are in the season. You can focus on your game and get better. But as far the organization, the Atlanta Hawks, I can’t really speak on that part.”

What he will do, however, is give the front-office peace of mind. Prince, who became a father in the spring of 2017, isn’t the guy you’ll catch on TMZ. “I am a home body,” says the Call of Duty fanatic. “My rookie year, I really stepped out. But right now? I don’t really do much. I stay at home and play games. I don’t really go out to eat ‘cuz the chefs slide by [the house]. Besides that, I really just kick it. I pick and choose when I go out.”

Between COD campaigns, Prince will do everything to make sure that the game he showed on the hardwood towards the end of the ’17-18 season extends into next year. “I’ll just continue to do the work,” says Prince, who has an intense daily routine of workouts, massages and shoot-arounds planned for the next few months. “Just work and try to apply the things that you do over the summer into next season. If you do your work early and stay diligent, you’ll be good to go.”

With focused young players like Taurean Prince, not to mention a new head coach breathing a renewed zeal into the franchise, you can understand why some Hawks fans already have opening night circled on their calendar with a Sharpie.

—

DeMarco Williams is a SLAM contributor. Follow him on Twitter @demarcowill.

Photos via Getty Images. 

The post On The Rise: Taurean Prince is Putting on for The 🅰️ appeared first on SLAM.

Akron native Aaron Carey started the GoFundMe account that seeks to raise $1 million for the statue.

“First of all, thank you. It would be cool not only for myself, but for my family and all the people that had anything to do with this journey thus far,” LeBron said. “Just appreciative of even the thought. That means a lot.”

Carey, a former basketball player at St. Vincent-St. Mary, says the statue presents a chance for Ohio to “give something back to cement [LeBron’s] form and structure in history.”

Renowned sculptor Omri Amrany—creator the Michael Jordan‘s statue outside of the United Center—designed the first rendering of LeBron’s statue.

LEBRON JAMES NEEDS A STATUE NOW!

Pleas read, donate (if possible) and at least share this link! https://t.co/GQ2aOe1NxP#TwitterDoYaThang

— AC Legend (@AC_TheLegend) May 8, 2018

RELATED:
Paul Pierce Says History Could Be Repeating Itself For LeBron

The post LeBron: ‘Appreciative’ of Effort To Build Statue in Akron appeared first on SLAM.

In a story by the Boston Herald‘s Steve Bulpett, Pierce said “[LeBron] is gone” if the Cavs lose to Boston—just like in 2010.

NEW: Paul Pierce on…

— why Cleveland will always be a rival to him

— LeBron taking his shirt off and leaving the Cavs in 2010 (“We could be seeing history repeat itself")

— the Celtics going this deep (“I’m more than surprised, man")

and more… https://t.co/mIxSAWf5Ac

— Steve Bulpett (@SteveBHoop) May 16, 2018

Paul Pierce was on the phone talking about his 2010 Celtics and the second-round series against Cleveland. He seemed to take particular joy in the video of LeBron James walking off the court in the Garden and removing his jersey on the way to the dressing room — the prelude to a departure for Miami two months later.

“We could be seeing history repeat itself,” Pierce said through laughter. “That’s the funny part about it, because if Boston beats them, we all know he’s gone. He may be gone anyway.”

RELATED:
Ex-Cavs GM Says LeBron’s Contracts Are ‘Unsustainable’ For Teams

The post Paul Pierce Says History Could Be Repeating Itself For LeBron appeared first on SLAM.

So, we enlisted some help. It’s not that we couldn’t do it alone—we’ve done it many times before—but we wanted to create a system that could protect ourselves from the inevitable “They don’t really know hoops!” that haters spew if (OK, when) they disagree with the list in any form. What we did was create a “board” of voters, a group of individuals who represent the sport of basketball in some fashion, and collected a Top 100 Players of All-Time list from each of them. (SLAM’s editorial staff submitted one list into that group.) Then we averaged them together using a fancy spreadsheet and voilà: We had a list, which became the one we used for our TOP 100 issue.

The folks we gathered lists from are connected to basketball in all sorts of unique ways. We wanted to make sure we were covered from top to bottom. Among those whose experience is on the court, we’ve got a Hall of Famer, a current NBAer, a current WNBAer, an NCAA stud/rookie-to-be and a top high school prospect. Off of it, we’ve got people who cover the sport for a variety of platforms—television, newspapers, books, social media—plus a basketball-obsessed celebrity and a single vote to our edit staff. The group of individuals span just about every age demo and all approach the game a little differently. It’s a good mix, and if our list looks a little awkward at times (like the run of consecutive Lakers in the top 10), it’s because it’s authentically an average of a bunch of other lists.

As for the rankings, we allowed those who submitted lists to dictate how they believe players new and old should be ranked against one another. Most people skewed young, favoring newer legends over old-school favorites—a practice we at SLAM stand behind more often than not—but enough people showed love to the forefathers that they’re repped well throughout.

(A quick note on those lists: They were compiled and averaged in very early 2018, so any amazing performances by active players over the past five or so months were not taken into consideration. Don’t worry, we’ll do all this again soon enough.)

Feel free to let us know what your Top 100 would look like in the comments or on any social network (@SLAMonline), or just argue about it with your friends. That’s what they’re there for. Enjoy.

—Adam Figman, Editor-in-Chief

—

Here are the people we asked to submit their rankings:

—

Below you’ll find 100-51 on the SLAM TOP 100. Here’s more of the list:

50-11
No. 10: Larry Bird
No. 9 Tim Duncan
No. 8: Wilt Chamberlain
No. 7: Bill Russell
No. 6: Shaquille O’Neal
No.5: Kobe Bryant
No. 4: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
No. 3: Magic Johnson
No. 2: LeBron James
No. 1: Michael Jordan

All player write-ups by Michael Bradley, Peter Robert Casey, Ryan Jones, Max Resetar, Drew Ruiz, Abe Schwadron, Alex Squadron and Yaron Weitzman.

*Active players

100. Shawn Kemp (6x All-Star)

He dunked like he had a point to make, and no wonder: Kemp skipped college and endured a difficult rookie season before finding his footing, averaging 18 and 10 over the next decade, including that unforgettable run in Seattle. He was far from perfect, but at his best, he made it reign, man.

99. Lenny Wilkens (Hall of Fame, 9x All-Star)

This left-handed PG could do a little bit of everything. Wilkens was a tremendous passer, stout defender, strong rebounder and was capable of scoring just about anywhere from 15 feet and in. The Brooklyn native was a classic New York City guard: tough, but savvy enough to run a successful team.

98. Spencer Haywood (Hall of Fame, 4x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

For the first seven years of his career, Haywood was one of the most imposing frontcourt players in the game. A strong, athletic specimen, Haywood exploded on the scene with Denver of the ABA before becoming one of the NBA’s top forwards. Injuries and off-court problems derailed him later in his career.

97. Dave DeBusschere (Hall of Fame, 8x All-Star, 2x NBA Champion)

Turning this over to this writer’s dad, a New Yorker who idolized DeBusschere’s 1970 and ’73 championship Knicks squads: “An all-time great defender and rebounder and an excellent shooter. This ranking is too low.” Two fun facts: DeBusschere spent two years pitching for the White Sox and he was a player-coach for the Pistons at the age of 24.

96. Tim Hardaway (5x All-Star)

In his prime—an eight-season run in which he averaged 20 points and 9 assists—Hardaway was as good as any point guard in the League. But forget the stats, and know that anyone connected to two of the best nicknames in hoop history—the UTEP Two-Step and Run TMC—was a lock on this list regardless.

95. Carmelo Anthony (10x All-Star)*

In late January 2018, Carmelo became the 21st player in NBA history to score 25,000 points, joining Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James as the third active player to reach that milestone. Over the course of 15 seasons, Melo’s showcased why he’s one of the most elite scorers the League has ever seen.

94. Sidney Moncrief (5x All-Star)

Moncrief was a key member of the ’80s Bucks teams that were a perennial contender in the East. While Moncrief is most remembered for being able to jump out of the gym, he was also a fine shooter, rebounder and passer. He averaged more than 20 points a game for four years and was a lockdown defender who won the Defensive POY award in ’83 and ’84.

93. Pau Gasol (6x All-Star, 2x NBA Champion)*

Six times an All-Star, twice an NBA champion and a legend in Europe, Pau Gasol will go down as one of the most well-rounded big men to ever lace ’em up. With career averages of 18 and 9, the 7-foot Spaniard remains a matchup nightmare well into his late-30s.

92. Penny Hardaway (4x All-Star)

The numbers don’t do justice to his impact, although averages of nearly 20 points and 7 assists in his first four seasons come close. For that fleeting moment, he was Magic 2.0, and alongside a dynamic young Shaq, he looked ready to take over the League. Injuries cheated him, and us. But we don’t forget. 91. Jack Twyman (Hall of Fame, 6x All-Star)

91. Jack Twyman (Hall of Fame, 6x All-Star)

No player had averaged 30 points a game in a season until Twyman and Wilt Chamberlain accomplished the feat in the 1959-60 season. Twyman was a swingman with a good shooting stroke and the ability to get to the basket. A Hall of Famer, he is perhaps best known for becoming the legal guardian of teammate Maurice Stokes after Stokes became paralyzed following a fall during a game.

90. Hal Greer (Hall of Fame, 10x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

An old-fashioned 2-man who excelled at shaking loose to shoot—and hit—the foul-line jumper, Greer is one of the most underrated guards in NBA history. A 10-time All-Star, he played a key role on the Sixers’ 1967 championship team.

89. Dwight Howard (8x All-Star)*

Don’t let the low free-throw percentage fool you. Dwight Howard, who jumped straight to the League from high school in 2004, is an eight-time All-Star, eight-time All-NBA selection, five-time All-Defensive team member and three-time Defensive Player of the Year. In 2008, he anchored the paint for Team USA’s Gold medal run at the Beijing Games.

88. Chris Webber (5x All-Star)

Had his career not been slowed by injuries, Webber would have been much higher on this list. A highly skilled forward with some of the best hands in NBA history, he provided offensive versatility and strong board work for Sacramento’s early-2000s contenders but faded late due to knee woes.

87. Alex English (Hall of Fame, 8x All-Star)

It’d be damn near impossible to find an old-school player who was as smooth as Alex English, who appeared to glide across the court and was a centerpiece of the high-scoring Denver teams of the ’80s. English was outstanding with the pull-up jumper and could finish around the basket with tremendous consistency.

86. Dave Bing (Hall of Fame, 7x All-Star)

Long before guys like Westbrook, Curry and Harden took over, Bing helped originate the role of high-scoring combo guard. He averaged 24 points and 6 assists over his first seven seasons in Detroit. They might not know it, but today’s dominant lead guards are following the Duke’s lead.

85. Giannis Antetokounmpo (2x All-Star)*

Antetokounmpo’s “Greek Freak” nickname refers to his combo of 7-foot wingspan, 6-11 height, insane athleticism and All-Star guard skills. At 23 years old, he’s already one of the best players in the NBA. In 2016-17, Giannis became the first player in history to finish in the top-20 in total points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.

84. Chris Mullin (Hall of Fame, 5x All-Star)

A member of Golden State’s “Run TMC” teams under Don Nelson, Mullin was a versatile scorer and master of completing old-fashioned three-point plays. Mullin lacked overwhelming speed and didn’t jump that high, but he excelled at getting open, burying shots from inside and outside the arc and finishing in the lane.

83. Joe Dumars (Hall of Fame, 6x All-Star, 2x NBA Champion)

The ’89 Finals MVP and a two-time champ, Dumars teamed up with Isiah Thomas to form one of the greatest backcourts in NBA history on the Bad Boy Pistons. Primarily known as a menace on the defensive end, it’s easy to forget Joe D averaged over 20 ppg in his prime.

82. Kyrie Irving (5x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)*

Arguably the best ballhandler in the history of the game, Irving made the biggest shot of the 2016 Finals, lifting the Cavaliers to their first-ever title alongside LeBron. After a blockbuster trade sent him to Boston, the five-time All-Star and former ROY is now the face of one of the NBA’s most talented squads.

81. Grant Hill (Hall of Fame, 7x All-Star)

It’s too easy, where Hill is concerned, to focus on what could’ve been. For once, focus on what was: He averaged 22, 8 and 6 over his first six seasons, and despite the career-altering injuries, still averaged 17, 6 and 4 over 18 seasons. Yes, he could’ve been an all-timer. He was still awfully good.

80. Dikembe Mutombo (Hall of Fame, 8x All-Star)

The finger wag was Dikembe’s go-to taunt as he let opponents know they failed countless times when attempting to score anywhere near Mt. Mutombo. His defensive prowess to contest shots against some of the League’s best players during his 18-year career made him one of the most respected rim protectors.

79. Artis Gilmore (Hall of Fame, 6x All-Star)

By the time Gilmore made it to the NBA, he was something of a legendary figure, having dominated ABA lanes with his 7-2 frame (7-5 with the Afro) and tremendous strength. Gilmore remained an imposing figure in the paint with the Bulls and Spurs, scoring well inside and cleaning the glass.

78. Alonzo Mourning (Hall of Fame, 7x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

A two-time Defensive Player of the Year who averaged more than 20 points six different times, Zo was everything you could want in a center. But forget all that for a moment because this might be the only Mourning fact that matters: He played six seasons after undergoing a kidney transplant in 2003.

77. Adrian Dantley (Hall of Fame, 6x All-Star)

An undersized forward at 6-5, Dantley was a classic scorer who topped 30 ppg in four straight seasons. AD was not known for his willingness to pass the ball and defended with a decided lack of enthusiasm, but when the ball was in his hands, he was an unstoppable offensive force.

76. Kawhi Leonard (2x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)*

Kawhi Leonard has always let his game do the talking. And damn if it doesn’t scream “All-Time Great!” He’s already got two Defensive Player of the Year Awards, a pair of All-NBA First Team nods, a ring and a Finals MVP trophy to his name, and he’s only 26 years old.

75. Billy Cunningham (Hall of Fame, 4x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

A bouncy small forward with the ability to drive to the basket furiously, the Kangaroo Kid was a dervish who could score, rebound and set up his teammates like few others at his position could. A knee injury and a detour to the ABA curtailed his career, but he became a successful coach who led the Sixers to the 1983 NBA title.

74. David Thompson (Hall of Fame, 4x All-Star)

As legacies go, you could do worse than being the primary inspiration for a young Michael Jordan. Thompson’s career was cut short by injures and offcourt issues, but for that soaring six-year run in Denver when he averaged 25 points per game, there were few better, or more fun to watch. Mike knew.

73. Dennis Johnson (Hall of Fame, 5x All-Star, 3x NBA Champion)

A three-time NBA champion and the 1979 Finals MVP, DJ was regarded as one of the best defensive guards of his era, earning All-Defensive honors nine consecutive seasons from 1978-87. He finished with career averages of 14.1 points, 5.0 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals.

72. Manu Ginobili (2x All-Star, 4x NBA Champion)*

The stats are nice—two-time All-Star, 2008 Sixth Man of the Year—but don’t do justice to the significance of Ginobili’s career. He starred for the 2004 Gold medal-winning Argentinian Olympic team that knocked off the US, and was an irreplaceable part of the four-time champion Pop/Duncan-led Spurs. Manu is a basketball legend, a player whose importance far outshines his career stats.

71. Walt Bellamy (Hall of Fame, 4x All-Star)

Bells announced his presence in the NBA with a remarkable rookie season for the Chicago Packers that included 31.6 ppg and 19.0 rpg. A 6-11 big man who could run the floor and bang inside, Bellamy was known as much for his curious behavior off the court as he was for his talent on it.

70. Vince Carter (8x All-Star)*

It was impossible, back when he led SportsCenter seemingly every night, to imagine the businesslike way that VC would extend his career to its 20th season. But nothing that’s happened since can change the legacy he set in those first few seasons. When you’re the greatest dunker of all time, people don’t forget.

69. Dolph Schayes (Hall of Fame, 12x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

As the bridge between George Mikan’s early dominance and Wilt Chamberlain’s reinvention of the position, Schayes was a legendary center in his own right. He averaged 20 and 13 over his first dozen seasons, and when he finally retired in 1964, he was the leading scorer in league history.

68. Bob Lanier (Hall of Fame, 8x All-Star)

He came into the League a year behind Kareem, and he never did manage to emerge from the shadow of his sky-hooking rival. But Lanier’s own lefty hook was nearly as unstoppable, and career averages of 20 and 10 over 14 seasons confirm that shadow or not, Dobber was a star.

67. Tony Parker (6x All-Star, 4x NBA Champion)*

A six-time All-Star and four-time champion, Tony Parker has been a staple at point guard for the Spurs for two decades, helping build the League’s winningest culture. He’s rarely mentioned among names like Kidd, Nash and CP3 when discussing this century’s best PGs, but he’s right there with ’em.

66. Bob McAdoo (Hall of Fame, 1x NBA MVP, 5x All-Star, 2x NBA Champion)

Only six players have averaged more points in an NBA season than the 34.5 McAdoo put up for the Buffalo Braves in ’74-75 (which occurred over a three-year run where he averaged 32.1 and 13.8 rpg). He never matched those numbers in later stints with the Knicks, Celtics or Lakers, but old heads know.

65. Sam Jones (Hall of Fame, 5x All-Star, 10x NBA Champion)

Jones was good during the regular season, but come the playoffs, Mr. Clutch really made his mark. He helped the Celtics win 10 titles, specializing in hitting big shots. Jones teamed with KC Jones to form the League’s sturdiest backcourt and was a mid-range machine who could get to the hoop against practically anyone.

64. Nate Thurmond (Hall of Fame, 7x All-Star)

A defensive juggernaut, Thurmond thrived in the ’60s and ’70s, protecting the rim with his athletic and chiseled 6-11, 225-pound frame. He recorded the first-ever quadruple-double (22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, 12 blocks) in 1974 and his No. 42 jersey was retired by Cleveland and Golden State.

63. Connie Hawkins (Hall of Fame, 4x All-Star)

His legacy should not be the fact that he was blackballed by the NBA and spent some of his best years playing in the ABL or goofing with the Globetrotters. His legacy should be the dominant athleticism and game-changing skill that inspired Doc, Jordan and countless others to fly.

62. Paul Pierce (10x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

What’s so cool about Pierce’s career is how he smoothly transitioned from volume scorer (26.8 ppg in ’05-06, despite seemingly operating in slo-mo) to member of Boston’s Big 3. It’s a shift that landed him a championship ring and transformed him into a future Hall of Famer.

61. Pete Maravich (Hall of Fame, 5x All-Star)

Known for his shaggy hair, floppy socks and flick-of-the-wrist flair, Pistol Pete Maravich shattered every college basketball scoring record—including career points (3,667) and single-season average (44.5)—in just three years at LSU before becoming a five-time NBA All-Star and Naismith Hall of Famer. In 1988, Maravich tragically passed away at the age of 40 while playing pickup ball.

60. James Harden (6x All-Star)*

As a Sixth Man of the Year playing third fiddle in OKC behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, James Harden needed a change of scenery to reach his full potential. As the face of the franchise in Houston, The Beard’s been an All-NBA First Team performer three times, and is the favorite to win his first MVP trophy in 2018. Yeah…he’s just now entering his prime.

59. Dennis Rodman (Hall of Fame, 2x All-Star, 5x NBA Champion)

Beyond the tattoos, piercings, crazy hair colors and wild off-court antics, Rodman was a furious rebounder and defender who brought toughness and fearless physicality to championship teams in Detroit and Chicago. A little-known college player, Rodman became one of the NBA’s biggest personalities and impacted games without scoring very much.

58. Ray Allen (Hall of Fame, 10x All-Star, 2x NBA Champion)

Allen is one of the greatest shooters of all time, but what made him a legend was that he was more than just a deadeye marksman. He both leads the NBA in career three-pointers and defeated Denzel Washington on-screen in a game of 1-on-1.

57. Tracy McGrady (Hall of Fame, 7x All-Star)

The 13 points in 33 seconds will never be forgotten. With his 6-8 stature, he was a mix of Kevin Durant and Paul George in the early 2000s, and it earned him a trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

56. Bob Pettit (Hall of Fame, 2x NBA MVP, 11x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

During 11 seasons with the Hawks, Pettit never failed to score fewer than 20 points or pull down 12 boards per game. A 6-9 bully who could also shoot from the outside, Pettit helped the Hawks to the 1958 NBA title, the only interlude in the Celtics’ 10-year championship run.

55. Reggie Miller (Hall of Fame, 5x All-Star)

Reggie was raining three-pointers and sinking clutch shots—usually against the Knicks—long before his career as a TV analyst. The Hall of Famer and Indiana Pacers legend is No. 2 all-time in three-pointers made (2,560), and is one of only seven players to record a 50-40-90 season (’93-94).

54. Robert Parish (Hall of Fame, 9x All-Star, 4x NBA Champion)

The Chief spent 21 years as a stoic force in the paint primarily for the great Celtics teams of the 1980s. He lacked flash and thunder but was a reliable post presence capable of hitting the mid-range jumper, muscling up other big men and running the floor with surprising agility. It was Larry’s team, but without Parish, there would be no rings.

53. Jerry Lucas (Hall of Fame, 7x All-Star, 1x NBA Champion)

A seven-time All-Star (and two-time College Basketball Player of the Year), mostly because he was a double-double machine. Also, the only NBA player that we know of to become a best- selling author for a book detailing how to improve your memory.

52. Dave Cowens (Hall of Fame, 1x NBA MVP, 8x All-Star, 2x NBA Champion)

Imagine trying to replace Bill Russell. Undersized but undeterred, Cowens stepped up fearlessly to that impossible task, averaging 17 points and 15 boards as a rookie—numbers he’d maintain for 10 seasons in Boston—claiming MVP honors in ’73, and leading the Celtics to titles in ’74 and ’76.

51. Bernard King (Hall of Fame, 4x All-Star)

King torched anyone who came at him during the 1984 NBA playoffs and was even better the next season before a knee injury flattened the scoring machine. He returned to score plenty but could never recapture the period when he could score at will.

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SLAM Presents TOP 100 is Out Now!

The post SLAM’s Top 100 Players Of All-Time: 100-51 appeared first on SLAM.

While guesting on the I AM RAPAPORT: STEREO PODCAST, Chauncey Billups said that Pierce made the decision to not pay attention to the negativity in Allen’s book.

“[Ray and Celtics] had a great thing going,” Pierce told Billups. “We won a chip together. I’m on that. I don’t want this negativity.”

(@1MrBigShot) Chauncey Billups is on @iamrapaport podcast with @MichaelRapaport to discuss: Difference Between NBA Regular Season & Playoffs, how close he was to taking a Front Office job in Cleveland, LeBron James & Cavs’ chances in the playoffs & more:https://t.co/x54YgiDQaW pic.twitter.com/oHrfdL2e8K

— IAMRAPAPORTPODCAST (@iamrapaport) April 12, 2018

“I was talking to Paul about [Allen’s book] just yesterday and some of that stuff.

“He was like, ‘Man, I’m not reading that book. We had a great thing going. We won a chip together. I’m on that. I don’t want this negativity.’”

RELATED:
Ray Allen: Paul Pierce Took Nights Off Against Non-Elite Players

The post Chauncey: Paul Pierce Won’t Read Ray Allen’s Book appeared first on SLAM.

According to Allen, former Celtics teammate Paul Pierce used to inform the locker room that he was “taking the night off” when facing opponents he didn’t consider worthy of him expending too much energy.

I read Ray Allen's upcoming memoir and he says A LOT of things in 265 pages. https://t.co/F4aosiodPt

— Nicole Yang (@nicolecyang) March 21, 2018

Kevin Garnett, as you might image and Allen reports, was the exact opposite.

Per the Boston Globe:

Allen also appreciated Garnett’s everlasting tenacity — an intangible trait that he felt didn’t necessarily light up the stat sheet.

“He never took a game off. A possession off,” he wrote. “I can’t say that of anyone else I played with, and I played with some of the best.”

Paul Pierce, on the other hand, would explicitly announce he was “taking the night off” when matched up against a player who wasn’t considered to be elite. Although it was partially in jest, Pierce’s attitude ticked Allen off. He was sure to express his disapproval to Pierce, who eventually no longer joked about taking it easy.

“No player should ever have a night off,” Allen wrote. “The worst player in the NBA would not be in the NBA if he weren’t good, which means he has the potential to beat you on any given night. And if you think you have to put forth a greater effort against the top players, you clearly aren’t giving enough of an effort against everyone else.”

Related
Rajon Rondo: Ray Allen ‘Just Wants Attention’

The post Ray Allen: Paul Pierce Took Nights Off Against Non-Elite Players appeared first on SLAM.

And should that happen, former All-Star Paul Pierce thinks Cleveland could be in trouble, via ESPN‘s Rachel Nichols:

So here was the halftime segment of Raps-Cavs where we started by discussing how no LeBron James team had EVER given up 79 points in a half before, but then totally devolved into @PaulPierce34 & @1MrBigShot arguing over how tight a Cavs-Sixers playoff series would be. pic.twitter.com/CT6C9NIiTX

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) March 22, 2018

The Cavs currently hold the No. 3 seed and the Sixers are slotted in at No. 4, but only half a game separates them from the No. 6 spot.

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LeBron James: No Reminder Needed of ‘What My Teams Are Capable of Doing’

The post Paul Pierce: 76ers Could Beat Cavaliers In First Round Of Playoffs appeared first on SLAM.

According to Allen, the incident occurred during a team meeting in the 2010-11 season (via Sporting News‘ Sean Deveney):

Ray Allen has a lot of interesting things to say in his new book, but mostly about the drama that ended his time in Boston, including the time Rajon Rondo told the team, "I carried all of you to the championship in 2008."https://t.co/xNhjqsYbU2

— Sean Deveney (@SeanDeveney) March 12, 2018

In a team meeting, Allen writes, Rondo told his teammates, “I carried all of you to the championship in 2008.”

Allen continued: “The rest of the team, almost in unison, responded, ‘You what?’”

Rondo said everyone on the team had problems with him, and when Allen told him, “None of us had issues with you,” Rondo said to him, “You did, too. You told me I was the reason we were going to be traded (in 2009 for Amar’e Stoudemire).”

RELATED:
Doc: Ray Allen ‘Didn’t Want To Be A Distraction’ On Paul Pierce’s Jersey Retirement

The post Ray Allen: Rajon Rondo Claimed He Carried Celtics To Championship appeared first on SLAM.

“I tell people that I never said I was done. You know, you have to remind guys sometimes. So everybody’s like, ‘Congratulations!’ I’m just letting everybody know that I’ve been a dad, I’ve been taking care of my family. That’s the first priority for me. I’ve been doing that and I’ve been working out. That’s what I do. I don’t play 5-on-5, but that’s always been my intent. That’s always been my goal—to get back. I haven’t been shy in letting people know that. I understand I’m in a certain situation.

[Everybody’s like,] ‘Oh, man, you had a great career!’ I never said I was done. You have to remind people sometimes of where you stand. I feel that I at least have to try. And if it doesn’t work out that’s fine. At least I’ll be in good shape.

Bosh has dealt with blood clots in his lungs and his legs and hasn’t played since 2016. Doctors feared that if he started hooping again, he would be putting his life in danger. The 33-year-old has averaged 19 points and 8 rebounds in his career.

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Chris Bosh Talks About Why He’s Learned to Play Guitar

The post Chris Bosh: ‘Always Been my Goal’ to Play Again appeared first on SLAM.

Rivers said that Allen considered coming, but ultimately thought the focus would shift to him.

Doc Rivers defended Ray Allen and said Allen considered attending the Paul Pierce jersey retirement ceremony but was apprehensive about the potential reaction. Here is his quote. #Celtics pic.twitter.com/nmKy1nnAPV

— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) February 14, 2018

From the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn:

“I did think it would have been great for Ray to have been there. But there’s just angst right now and in Ray’s defense, I know he thought about coming. I can tell you that because I talked to him personally.

“He didn’t know if he should. He didn’t know if it was the right time. He really didn’t want to take anything away from Paul or be a distraction, and he won’t be and what’s what we’ve got to convince him of.

“If he would have been there, the fans would have cheered for him. That will happen eventually. You’ve just got to figure out when.”

RELATED:
Ray Allen Pays Tribute to Paul Pierce, 2008 Celtics

The post Doc: Ray Allen ‘Didn’t Want To Be A Distraction’ On Paul Pierce’s Jersey Retirement appeared first on SLAM.

Pierce had his own his ceremony earlier this week, and says that KG’s No. 5 will hang alongside his own in the TD Garden rafters “without a doubt.”

Pierce: KG's number will be retired in Boston https://t.co/bDEosvJzyk #Celtics pic.twitter.com/SnUxK8ocv4

— ESPNBoston (@ESPNBoston) February 14, 2018

Celtics president of basketball ops Danny Ainge said the team has had informal talks about retiring Garnett’s number, but that no final decision has been made yet.

Per ESPN:

“Without a doubt, KG’s number will be [the next one] retired in Boston,” said Pierce. “It’s going to happen.”

Pierce’s was the 22nd number retired by the Celtics. Some argue that Garnett, who played six seasons in Boston after being acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves, didn’t have a long enough tenure to have his jersey retired.

“It was six years of potential championship-caliber teams and All-Star play from KG,” said Ainge. “I think that it was a pretty significant impact he had in those six years.”

“[Garnett would] rather have his jersey retired in Boston than in Minnesota,” said Pierce. “He’ll eventually have his number retired with the Timberwolves, too, but he’ll have to wait until management sells the team.”

The post Paul Pierce: Celtics to Retire Kevin Garnett’s Jersey appeared first on SLAM.

Allen says that he will “always be a Celtic.”

What we did in 2008 was special! Not only by Boston standards but by professional sports standards. The truth is, without any one of us on that team we would’ve never been able to do the unthinkable. Going from last place in one year to winning a championship is unfathomable. But, we did it! WE did it- Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Tony Allen, P.J. Brown, Sam Cassell, Glen Davis, Eddie House, Kendrick Perkins, Scott Pollard, James Posey, Leon Powe, Gabe Pruitt, Brian Scalabrine, Doc, Danny, everyone at the Celtics Organization, our wives, children, families, the Fans in The City of Boston and yes, me. Over the last few years I have been berated, lambasted and had my name smeared. You may not want to hear this, but I will always be a Celtic. (Fact). I will always cherish the bonds that I shared with all of my teammates and the people in the city of Boston. (Truth). We all gave everything we had. We all won and we all raised the 2008 NBA Championship banner together. (Ubuntu) Paul Pierce is the first guy that welcomed Kevin and me with open arms into his atmosphere from day one and we never looked back. Paul and I have spoken about our time together as teammates- going to battle night after night knowing we could count on one another and we have also talked about my decision to leave during free agency- a choice I made for my family. Despite what you may have heard or read or what is rumored- there is nothing but love. Paul and I are more interested in building bridges than putting up walls. To Paul, number 34, Congratulations on having your number raised up to the rafters. I salute you for your commitment to the city of Boston and to us the 2008 NBA Champions #thetruth

A post shared by Ray Allen (@trayfour) on Feb 13, 2018 at 2:45pm PST

Allen was notably absent from Pierce’s jersey retirement, but The Truth said it was no big deal.

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Ray Allen: ‘I Don’t Have Any Ill-Will’ Toward Celtics Teammates

The post Ray Allen Pays Tribute to Paul Pierce, 2008 Celtics appeared first on SLAM.

But the other original member of the Boston “Big Three”, Ray Allen, was on a golf course somewhere in Miami with George Lopez.

Asked if he was upset Allen did not make the trip, Pierce said he was more hurt that Tony Allen, who he speaks to regularly, was not at the ceremony, per USA Today‘s Andrew Joseph:

Paul Pierce says he wasn’t disappointed Ray Allen was on the golf course yesterday pic.twitter.com/nzMrfuXGJQ

— Andrew Joseph (@AndyJ0seph) February 12, 2018

Pierce and Allen have reportedly squashed their beef, which was caused by Allen leaving the Celtics for the Heat before the 2012-13 season, but Garnett is still bitter about the breakup.

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Robert Parish: Paul Pierce the ‘Greatest Offensive Celtic Ever’

The post Paul Pierce Isn’t Upset Ray Allen Missed His Jersey Retirement Ceremony appeared first on SLAM.

The Chief says Pierce was a better and more creative scorer than Larry Bird.

Robert Parish called Paul Pierce the “greatest offensive Celtic ever.”

The Chief: “I just think that Paul was more creative. He was a better scorer than Larry [Bird] and John Havlicek.”

— Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) February 11, 2018

Pierce spent 15 seasons in Beantown, finishing as the C’s second all-time leading scorer and won the 2008 NBA title.

Per ESPN:

“I just want the younger players to understand that you wear this uniform, not for the name on the back, but it’s all about Celtics pride,” Pierce said. “You hear that so much in this city, and lot of people don’t know what that is. It’s more than just how you are just a player. It’s how you carry yourself. It’s the things you do off the court. It’s how you represent the Celtic family, and these guys up there before you. I’m thankful that I was able to do that. It goes further than basketball, and I want the young generation to understand that.”

Pierce ranks No. 2 all time among Boston’s scoring leaders, compiling 24,021 points over 15 seasons with the Celtics. He is sandwiched between Havlicek (26,395) and Bird (21,791). Parish, who played alongside Bird, boldly dubbed Pierce the best offensive player in team history, which will come as sacrilege to some.

“I think [Pierce] was the greatest offensive Celtic ever, in my opinion,” Parish said. “I just think that Paul was more creative. He was a better scorer than Larry and John Havlicek. I think that Larry and John Havlicek and Paul were the best offensive players that the Celtics ever had. I think Paul tops that list in my opinion.”

The post Robert Parish: Paul Pierce the ‘Greatest Offensive Celtic Ever’ appeared first on SLAM.

The Truth. : @DonCharleone pic.twitter.com/6ZOHb9P23k

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) February 12, 2018

Though the Celtics got destroyed by the Cavaliers before the jersey ceremony, Pierce was accompanied by many of his former teammates and legendary Celtics at the celebration. Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Doc Rivers, Antoine Walker, Leon Powe, Robert Parish, Cedric Maxwell and Tom “Satch” Sanders were among those who showed up to support Pierce.

Doc Rivers: "You were a brilliant player. You were a clutch player, Paul. You're a Celtic and you're a champion." (via @nbatv) pic.twitter.com/v9CRFZvnAw

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) February 11, 2018

Pierce averaged about 22 points per game in his time with the green & white. He’s the team’s second all-time scorer and won the 2008 NBA Finals MVP, after he led the C’s to a championship over the Lakers.

See below for a few clips of Pierce’s jersey ceremony.

No. 34 to the rafters (via @NBAonTNT) pic.twitter.com/3yy2UrUTVx

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) February 12, 2018

"If I never make the Hall of Fame, to go up as a Celtic, that will be enough for me." – Paul Pierce (via @nbatv) pic.twitter.com/1DcCbnu600

— SLAM (@SLAMonline) February 12, 2018

The post Paul Pierce’s No. 34 Jersey Retired in Boston appeared first on SLAM.

Bill Russell, who was the driving force behind 11 of the Celtics’ titles, gave a shout out to Pierce today on Twitter. Russell, now 83, said, “Paul, one of the greatest things that can happen to an athlete is to retire as a Celtic. I’m very proud of you and I’m proud that you were a Celtic. Congratulations.”

Watch the video below.

Congratulations to @PaulPierce34 #TheTruth on a GREAT career! Very proud to have you as part of my @celtics family. Have a great day & embrace the experience. I will see you soon at #NBAAllStar2018 #paulpierce #nba #espn pic.twitter.com/71NKEEFEH6

— TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) February 11, 2018

The post Bill Russell to Paul Pierce: ‘I’m Very Proud of You’ appeared first on SLAM.

There’s plenty of interest in attending Pierce’s jersey retirement ceremony, which will take place after Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at TD Garden. In fact, the level of interest has driven ticket prices over $1,000. According to TicketIQ.com, the current average asking price on the secondary market is $1,092, making it the second-most expensive ticket around the NBA this season. Kobe Bryant’s jersey retirement game at Staples Center on Dec. 18, 2017 ran $1,477. The third highest-priced ticket for the season was for the Golden State Warriors-Cavaliers game on Christmas Day, which cost an average of $818. The get-in price for Sunday’s game is $391.

Boston, which leads the Eastern Conference, hasn’t been a cheap ticket all season, but Sunday’s game is 609 percent higher than the season average of $154. It’s also more expensive than the 2010 NBA Finals, for which a ticket ran $494, according to TicketIQ.com.

When Pierce’s number is raised to the rafters at TD Garden, he’ll join such greats as team founder Walter Brown (1), nine-time NBA Championship coach Red Auerbach (2) and iconic players Bill Russell (6), John Havlicek (17) and Larry Bird (33).

The Celtics drafted Pierce out of Kansas in 1998 and he went on to become team captain. He played 15 of his 19 professional seasons in Boston. The team sent him to Brooklyn after the 2013-14 season. He played a single season with the Washington Wizards and two with the Los Angeles Clippers before retiring in 2017. Pierce signed a one-day contact with Boston in July 2017 in order to be able to retire as a Celtic.

Pierce helped build a team that truly became a force when he was surrounded by young superstars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in 2007. One year later, Boston won the NBA Finals and Pierce, a 10-time NBA All-Star, was the MVP.

The post Tickets For Pierce’s Jersey Retirement Are Second Most Expensive Of Season appeared first on SLAM.

Pierce spoke to Boston’s front-office and insisted that they scrap the I.T. tribute.

Thomas graciously asked the team not to go ahead with the clip.

Per ESPN:

“Danny [Ainge] and I talked about it for 40 minutes,” Pierce explained to ESPN early Tuesday afternoon. “He told me, ‘This is what we have planned,’ and at the end of the conversation, he said, ‘If you don’t want us to do Isaiah, we won’t.’ So I told him, ‘I really don’t.’ So that was it. That’s how we left it.”

 

Earlier in the day, before Thomas’ tweet, Pierce explained why he objected to plans to honor Thomas on Feb. 11.

 

“(Thomas) had a shot to be honored,” Pierce said. “You came to Boston. Whether you are playing or not, you should have had your tribute then. I just don’t see how, if someone is having a jersey retirement, they’re going to be running other tributes for other players.

 

“Danny tried to sell me on it, but I told him, ‘He had a shot, Danny, and he punked you on it. He pretty much dictated everything.’ They let it happen because they felt sorry how (the trade to Cleveland) went down. It’s guilt. That’s what it is.”

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Kevin Garnett To Paul Pierce About His Jersey Retirement: ‘Isaiah Who?’

The post Jalen Rose Calls Paul Pierce ‘Petty’ Over Isaiah Thomas Tribute appeared first on SLAM.

In a story by ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan and Chris Forsberg, Pierce recalled Garnett’s advice: “KG was like, ‘Isaiah who?”

"Danny and I talked about it for 40 minutes. He told me, 'This is what we have planned,' and at the end of the conversation, he said, 'If you don't want us to do Isaiah, we won't.' So I told him, 'I really don't.' So that was it.”https://t.co/H2i4kIS74g

— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) January 17, 2018

Pierce conceded that he gave his position some additional thought after his objections to a joint tribute made headlines.

 

He says he consulted his agent, his wife, his mother and Garnett.

 

“Everyone understood where I was coming from,” Pierce said. “KG was like, ‘Isaiah who? Hell no, you’re damn right you’re not sharing your night with him.'”

RELATED:
Rajon Rondo on Isaiah Thomas: ‘What Has He Done (For The Celtics)?’

The post Kevin Garnett To Paul Pierce About His Jersey Retirement: ‘Isaiah Who?’ appeared first on SLAM.

On Tuesday in Boston, Rondo pointed out that Thomas only led the Celtics to the conference finals, adding, “That’s what we celebrate around here?”

Rajon Rondo was irked to hear that the Celtics would honor Isaiah Thomas on any night. "What has he done?” Rondo asked. Told that he led the Celtics to the conference finals last year, Rondo remarked, “Oh, that’s what we celebrate around here?”

— Bill Doyle (@BillDoyle15) January 17, 2018

More Rondo on IT: “This is the Boston Celtics. This isn’t the Phoenix Suns, no disrespect to any other organization, but you don’t hang conference titles. Do we hang going to the conference finals? What do we hang here?”
Title banners, Rondo was told.
“OK, cool,” Rondo said.

— Bill Doyle (@BillDoyle15) January 17, 2018

RELATED:
Isaiah Thomas Passes On Celtics Tribute Video, Cedes To Paul Pierce

The post Rajon Rondo on Isaiah Thomas: ‘What Has He Done (For The Celtics)?’ appeared first on SLAM.

Nate Robinson, Baron Davis and Rachel Demita have been tapped to host the live-streams together. Demita, who’s been the host of NBA 2K TV since 2014, will be on the mic for each week and she’ll be joined by either Robinson or Davis, who will take turns hosting each week.

We caught up with Robinson, the three-time NBA Dunk Contest champ, to talk about #TheDebut, the new sneakers that he’s been feeling, Isaiah Thomas in Cleveland, keeping his NBA dream alive and the announcement that he’ll be playing in the BIG3.

SLAM: What will your role be with #TheDebut?

Nate Robinson: Interaction with the fans, commentating with the games. Pretty similar to what you see with what Reggie Miller does. Basically calling the game, getting kid’s input on the coverage of the game. How do they feel about certain things, interacting on Twitter.

SLAM: So you’re going to be all business on the air, like Reggie or Kenny Smith?

NR: I’m going to add my own creativity for sure. But for me, it’s always going to be high energy. When something cool happens, if someone gets posterized, you know I gotta step out of my seat and give the crowd what they want. So you know, just getting that energy and giving the crowd what they want, to give it back to them, I think that everyone’s going to have a good time. On top of top, interacting with the fans. Anything to get the fans going and rocking.

SLAM: What does this kind of opportunity do for the kids that are going to be playing?

NR: I’m just jealous that I didn’t get the opportunity to be able to have my high school games broadcast like this. I would’ve gave people a great, great show. But for them, they get exposure. They get their name out there. People know who you are. Back in the day, when we were in high school, nobody knew. You had to be there. Here, they get the opportuneity to broadcast their stuff all over the world. Everybody can see it.

SLAM: You’ve seen a lot of great NBA players when they were in high school. Growing up out there in the Northwest, you got to see Jamal Crawford, Isaiah Thomas, Dejounte Murray, Michael Porter Jr, Brandon Roy and of course yourself. Who do you think had the nastiest high school career out of those guys?

NR: That’s tough because I was there when Jamal scored 43 in the state championships. I was watching Isaiah Thomas kill Franklin. He had 50-something in the tournament. But two players that I’ve seen and that I’ve played with were Lodrick and Rodrick Stewart. They played at USC. People won’t know who they are. But they were top ranked guys, next to LeBron James in high school. They were the best in the West coast. And nobody ever heard of them. We didn’t have a platform like what you guys are getting right here.

SLAM: Are they playing overseas now?

NR: One just had a new son, Lodrick. And Rodrick, he’s in the community here in Washington, helping the youth. Him and his other brother are coaches. They’re in the community doing great things. It would’ve just been good for people to actually know who they are. From what I seen with my eyes, them being in high school, the things that they were doing. Jumping over people, between the legs, reverse, behind-the-back. And I got to see that. And it was pretty cool that I got to play with two of the best players in the country on my team.

SLAM: Will you and Baron get on the court at all, do any light work out there?

NR: I don’t know, but whatever it is that we can feed off the fans. We’re just going to play it by how the fans are feeding off of us.

SLAM: It was just announced that you’re going to be playing in the BIG3. Have you heard of anyone else that’s also signing up to play?

NR: I’m not sure if BD played, but he’s playing. He has my guy, Carlos Boozer, playing. I heard Big Baby Davis is playing. He saw me put my name in so he got in. I want the guys to come back and play, guys like Kobe. It’d be cool to see Kobe, Paul Pierce. Old school guys like that. They really can still ball if they want to play three-on-three. That’d be cool.

SLAM: You’ve got to be pretty excited, right?

NR: I’m very excited. I wouldn’t say that I’m upset that I can’t show my talents in the NBA, which I want to do. Hopefully again one day because I’m in great shape. But I just want to give the fans what they want to see. I want to give that to myself. I want to give them the gift of playing hard, having fun, making shots, playing defense, blocking shots, dunking. I want to give them what they want to see. I talked to Ice Cube and he’s excited. It’s going to be fun, man.

SLAM: Where does all that passion you play with come from?

NR: I watched my mom. My mom is a one-foot dynamite. She’s a little lady, but she packs a mean punch. But her energy, as a kid, watching her raise three children on her own. Or work three, four jobs, not complain about nothing. Just go. Being a parent now I have so much more respect for her. So I play with that same fire. I’ve learned from the best person in the world to learn from, from a little lady. She’s the people’s champ here. Everybody loves my mom.

SLAM: Have you been talking to Isaiah Thomas throughout the season?

NR: Not really. Zeke, once he’s focused and he’s into his craft, he’s locked in. That Mamba Mentality. He has that. The Force is strong with him.

SLAM: You’re a real big sneakerhead. Are there any new joints that have caught your eye?

NR: Yeah, man, the new Russell Westbrooks. He had some blue ones on that were unbelievable. Those new Westbrooks, those are one of my favorites. Those and the Kyrie Irvings. The new 4s. Me and my son waited in line to go buy those, just because. Uncle Drew, what he’s doing, I just love him. I love his game. I love his sneakers. He’s making them affordable for kids to actually go and get a couple of pairs.

SLAM: He didn’t hook you up with the plug? You’re in the Uncle Drew movie.

NR: Nah, he had a pair for everybody. These are the ones that I wanted, had to go buy them with my kid.

—

See below for #TheDebut’s full schedule, tipping off this Friday:

Jan. 19 – Spartanburg vs. Shannon Forest Christian (SC)
Jan. 20 – Vermont vs. Tilton (VT)
Jan. 23 – Apple Valley vs. Lakeville South (MN)
Jan. 25 – Simeon vs. Curie (IL)
Jan. 27 – Montverde Academy vs. TBD
Feb. 2 – IMG Academy v Florida Prep (FL)
Feb. 8 – Windward v Crossroads (CA)
Feb. 23 – Findlay Prep vs AZ Compass (NV)

The post Nate Robinson Talks BIG3, Kyrie Irving’s Sneakers and Gatorade’s #TheDebut appeared first on SLAM.

With IT’s rescheduled tribute falling on the same day as Pierce’s huge honor, February 11th, the future Hall-of-Famer took offense and said he didn’t want to share the spotlight on his special day. But, in a series of tweets on Tuesday night, IT took the high road and relented, allowing Pierce to have the night to himself.

I’d like to thank the Celtics for their gracious offer to play a video tribute on Feb 11th celebrating my 3yrs in Boston. But since it appears this has caused some controversy w/ Paul Pierce’s night I’d ask the Celtics instead to focus all of their attention on #34’s career.

— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) January 17, 2018

I look forward to coming back and playing in Boston on Feb 11th and see all of the great fans whom I will always remember for their love and incredible support the past few years.

— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) January 17, 2018

All class from IT. While he didn’t wear Celtic green-and-white for all too long, he certainly made enough of an impact to deserve his own tribute video so it remains to be seen if Boston honors him in any way when the Cavaliers head to TD Garden for the final time (in the regular season, at least).

The post Isaiah Thomas Passes On Celtics Tribute Video, Cedes To Paul Pierce appeared first on SLAM.

Wall says not only does Beal deserve to be an All-Star, but that he was also snubbed last year.

Let’s face it: Bradley Beal doesn’t have the social media backing for an all-star campaign. But even if he did, you wouldn’t find him tooting his own horn. “My game should speak for itself.”

Story by @dcsportsbog https://t.co/y9dbhBIZK0

— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) January 9, 2018

Beal, 24, is averaging a career-best 23.6 points per game for a Washington team that’s gone 23-17 despite Wall missing eleven games.

Per the WaPo:

“I mean, he’s been the MVP of our team,” John Wall said. “I think it should be an automatic lock for him to be an all star. … I think he deserves it. I think he deserved it last year, and he got snubbed, and sometimes that happens in this league. And I feel like this year there’s no way he could be snubbed, at all.”

 

Wall, though, also acknowledged that Beal earned just 71,000 votes in the first wave, putting him far behind other players who won’t make the team. “That lets you know what it’s all about,” Wall said.

 

Both Beal’s agent and his team have asked him to use his social-media reach to ask fans for more votes. He has declined, making only one exception: for a video starring real-life pandas — one of his nicknames — accompanied by various panda-power get-out-the-vote captions. That, he thought, seemed corny enough not to offend. Good luck getting him to go further than that.

 

“I just feel like I shouldn’t have to do that just to get votes,” Beal explained. “My game should speak for itself. I mean, it’s not like we’re running for president … We just want to play. That’s all. If the accolades come, they come. And if they don’t? They don’t.”

Related
Paul Pierce Calls Bradley Beal the ‘Top Two-Guard in All of the East’

The post John Wall: Bradley Beal ‘Should Be an Automatic Lock’ for All-Star Game appeared first on SLAM.

The Spurs reportedly “tried really, really hard to get him.”

Interesting nugget from @wojespn on @notthefakeSVP about Kyrie just now. "San Antonio tried really really hard to get him."

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) January 4, 2018

In the end, the All-Star point guard ended up in Boston, where he continues to shine for the Celtics.

Per ESPN:

Perhaps it was, as Irving suggests, inevitable that he start searching for the next zenith. As [Byron] Scott says today, “Kyrie is one of those players who gets bored after a couple of years. He’s wired differently than most. He needs to be stimulated. He needs another adventure.”

 

Irving and his agent, Jeff Wechsler, sat down with [Dan] Gilbert on July 9 in The Vault at Quicken Loans Arena. In the meeting, they pressed Gilbert, sources say, about the future of James. Gilbert, in turn, asked Irving for desired trade destinations, and Wechsler rattled off San Antonio, New York and Minnesota.

 

Boston was not mentioned, but, league sources confirm, Gilbert later became keenly interested in securing the rights to Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round pick, which the Celtics had acquired in the 2013 trade that sent Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Nets. When Gilbert, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was presented with the Celtics as a trade partner for Irving, he went to LeBron [James] and tried to secure a pledge from his franchise player to remain beyond the 2017-18 season. James, team and league sources confirm, wouldn’t commit.

Related
Report: Kyrie Irving Willing to Commit to Spurs if Traded

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Isaiah will be back in Boston on February 11—the night of Pierce’s jersey retirement.

While on ESPN’s The Jump on Thursday, Pierce said that he’s “not sure” if he wants to share his jersey retirement with Isaiah (starting at 2:24):

“On February 11, the night I get my jersey retirement, I’m not sure I want to look up at the jumbotron and see Isaiah highlights. After all the years I put in.

 

“I had a chance to watch Kobe’s, and throughout the game, the timeouts, it was a lot of tribute videos for him, and I enjoyed to watch that throughout the game. Now hopefully, the Boston Celtics will do that for me.

 

“I’m not sure if I want to see an Isaiah video that night.”

RELATED:
Isaiah Thomas and Danny Ainge Squash Their Beef

The post Paul Pierce Doesn’t Want Isaiah Thomas Tribute Video During Jersey Retirement appeared first on SLAM.

It was the winter, 2005, and John Thompson, the venerable former Georgetown coach, sat at the foul line, arms folded across his broad chest. In a chair opposite him was the city’s most revered sports star, Kevin Garnett.

These were two great basketball men, on hand to engage in a deep, introspective conversation about life and loss in pro sports, and so this intimate forum was not improbable on its own. What made the conversation unbelievable were the cameras rolling to capture it all.

This was, after all, Kevin Garnett, a recluse in plain sight. Not quite the most reserved mega-talent in NBA history but surely one of its most guarded. For a personality so outsized and passionate on the floor, there was no truly knowing him off of it. Away from the court, he was private, exhaustively cautious to reveal much of any real intimacy to those outside his closest friends and family.

Garnett, the reigning League MVP, could have been excused for not being in a mood to talk about much of anything. The previous year, his Timberwolves had finally broken through in the playoffs, reaching the Conference Finals after seven straight first-round defeats. But in ’04-05, a painful regression: Minnesota, which had fired coach and Garnett confidante Flip Saunders midway through the season, limped into the All-Star break with a .500 record, despite the fact that KG was again among the league leaders in just about every relevant statistical category.

There was little to suggest the famously brooding superstar would speak openly about his frustrations to Thompson, who led the discussion as part of his broadcasting work for TNT, or anyone else in a public setting. But on this day, as the NBA success he labored so long for was slipping away, something inside Garnett released himself to the coach, the burden of unmet expectations finally bubbling up and spilling right out of him. “I hate that I’m like this in front of you right now,” a shaken Garnett told Thompson, his voice catching and his eyes running.

“These,” he said, “are tears of pain.”

It was a watershed moment, a then-unseen peek into the soul of an NBA icon. When the interview aired during that year’s All-Star Saturday, Garnett’s vulnerability made him beloved.

He is no longer a player today, having left the game last fall following 20 seasons that took him through Minnesota, Boston and Brooklyn, and will soon bring him to the gates in Springfield, MA. But in retirement, what once seemed impossible is now true: Garnett has joined TNT as an on-air personality, the star of a signature segment called “Area 21” that debuted on the network last year.

If life moved ahead like the lines on a graph, onward and always upward, Garnett might point to that conversation with Thompson more than a decade ago as the moment he changed for good, when he realized the catharsis of sharing his innermost feelings and set his sights on a post-career try at television.

The reality was different. As soon as KG opened the door to his world, he immediately slammed it shut again. Secretly, after the interview aired, he was mortified that he had publicly displayed such openness. “I fucking hated it,” he says today. “I hated it, to be honest. I’m a very shy person. I like to be to myself. I’m very private.”

What followed was a near total shutdown, Garnett reverting back into himself, adopting an even stricter regimen to conceal his truest self from the brightest lights of the media. “I was different,” he says, “from that interview on.”

And so, as Garnett begins the second season of a TV gig in which he has proven to be an incredibly candid and outgoing on-air personality, the crowning question to one of the more improbable second acts of an NBA superstar remains: How did Kevin Garnett get here?

***

The Big Ticket is certain of one thing. Not in a million years did he picture a retirement quite like this.

Sometime last fall, not long after he called it quits from the NBA following a season-and-a-half farewell tour back with the Timberwolves, Garnett was relieved. He was no longer a player, which gave him some peace, but he was also no longer so actively a public figure, which gave him a tremendous sense of comfort. The spotlight was easy to give back. “I felt like I wanted to step away from all of that, be more of a family man, be there more for my kids,” he says. “I was missing a lot. I wanted to just chill and do nothing.”

It was a fine idea. It was also unrealistic. KG’s energy is legendary, never stopping, always talking. “I couldn’t see him going into retirement to be, like, a soccer dad or sitting around the house,” says Paul Pierce, who became his teammate in 2007 following Garnett’s trade to Boston. “He’s gotta be moving around. Interacting.”

With a motor that did not easily quit, KG found himself listening to opportunities he might not have given consideration to in an earlier life. When TNT approached him last year over a series of meetings in New York, network execs may not have thought they’d find such an intrigued participant. “I never was the one for network TV,” he says. “That shit comes off real scripted. I’m looking at people sounding like a puppet. Real shit, I was turned off. Like, Ew. Nah.”

Garnett’s distant relationship with the NBA media was a well-chronicled affair, though its roots were not so widely understood. Drafted straight out of high school in 1995, Minnesota eagerly rolled out its new franchise star, a beaming teenager with a megawatt smile. But the years in full view hardened him. In 1997, he signed a $126 million extension with the Timberwolves, then the largest contract in sports history, and the magnifying glass under which he lived intensified.

Suddenly, at home and in every city, questions about money were all that KG received. He began to close himself to reporters, if not withdraw from them completely. In Minnesota, Garnett would duck many of his media availability sessions, retreating to a training room instead of standing in front of a scrum. His absence often gave the Wolves’ front office fits. “You kind of had to make excuses for him for a while,” says Kevin McHale, a longtime Minnesota executive who drafted KG in ’95.

He became a brick wall, though in private he was a celebrated teammate, fiercely loyal and in fact quite a chatterbox. After almost every practice or game, Garnett held court in the locker room, regaling younger players for hours with tales of doing battle opposite Michael Jordan and other legends. “Hey, Mac!” he would exclaim when McHale walked by, imploring the Hall of Famer to spin a yarn or two about his own Celtics days.

In Boston, Pierce would survey the scene and marvel. “It was like sitting around a campfire,” he says.

Those who know him say this was the real KG. “That’s more Kevin than the guarded guy,” McHale says. “I promise you that.”

***

TNT had a need.

The network boasts the crown jewel of sports studio TV, Inside the NBA, where Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal hold court every Thursday night. Yet while those stars handle mainstream league discussion, TNT programmers realized there was an entirely separate conversation happening below the surface, a social media-driven dialogue that seemed to care less about which teams were winning and losing and more about what arena Jay-Z was sitting front row in or whatever fun chatter the League was inspiring on any given night.

Garnett agreed last fall to bring his voice to TNT, where “Area 21” would be his barbershop—an unpolished forum featuring a star, often clad in T-shirt and jeans, that carried real weight and authority inside the NBA community. “His credibility,” says Craig Barry, one of the execs who brought Garnett to TNT, “is off the chain.”

He learned the craft over many months, engaging on air with buddy Rasheed Wallace, or discussing with Isiah Thomas and Tayshaun Prince the responsibilities that athletes carry when it comes to issues of social justice. Garnett was growing as an on-screen personality, but “Area 21” would not truly become a landmark piece of TV until the spring, when he and his former Celtics teammates set the Internet on fire.

On May 8, an unofficial gathering of former Boston champs descended on Georgia. In the late morning light of a suite inside the Four Seasons Atlanta, Pierce surveyed the room and felt a warm familiarity wash over him.

There was Rajon Rondo. There was Kendrick Perkins. There was Sam Cassell and Glen Davis, too. By the hotel phone, ordering room service lunch for the group, was Garnett, the de facto host for the day.

Over the course of several hours, the six were brought right back to the locker room they once shared during the most beloved time in recent Celtics history, which brought Boston its first and only trophy since Larry Bird.

In an era of the NBA when you are nothing without a trio of top-flight All-Stars, the Celtics’ big three of Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen set the standard for the modern superteam.

They had arrived in Atlanta one by one from all parts of the country to appear as Garnett’s guests on “Area 21,” though Cassell, an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers, sat out the televised portion of the panel. On the air that evening at TNT’s nearby studios, they were to ham it up, to revel in their basketball glory and discuss with candor the impossible highs and lows of such sustained basketball excellence.

Yet there was one matter that was not so simple to discuss. It was painful. It was raw. It was unresolved.

Notably absent from this reunion was Allen, who left Boston to join the rival Miami Heat in 2012. The act was seen as a betrayal to his former Celtics teammates. They had devoted themselves to brotherhood above all, and believed Allen’s departure to be an act of treachery.

Addressing thorny items like the Allen issue was precisely the reason “Area 21” had been greenlit in the first place. On the air, the Celtics explained the genesis of their beef, that it was not over Allen leaving but how he had done so, failing to tell any of his teammates he was planning to join another team in free agency. The talk lasted less than seven minutes, though clips of it quickly went viral, as Garnett presided over a revealing and intimate conversation the likes of which he never would have made public as a player.

To those on the panel, the segment was a cleansing experience, a vehicle to address a longstanding basketball curiosity once and for all. It’s where “Area 21” can become special, to be the conduit for Garnett to leverage his standing among NBA peers to get to the bottom of the feuds, controversies and matters fans want a final word on.

He is new to this trade still, but Garnett has fast endeared himself to his TNT colleagues. Johnson has observed the same authenticity with Garnett that Barkley, Smith and O’Neal brought to television. “They never felt a need to be someone other than who they are,” Johnson says. “I think that’s always the key in this business.”

Barkley, for his part, couldn’t resist layering a few digs throughout his praise of the network’s newest star. “He’s much better privately than he is on television,” Barkley quipped. “We’re hoping at some point he takes over for Shaq.”

Perhaps. But O’Neal, goofy and unscripted though he may be, wears a suit and sits at a desk. That is not Kevin Garnett. That has never been Kevin Garnett.

“This is really who Kevin is, who you’re seeing now,” Pierce says. “I just never thought he’d put it on TV.”

—

Jason Buckland is a writer living in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter @jasonbuckland.

Portraits via TNT, action photos via Getty Images

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Allen is putting in work at the New Orleans Pelicans practice facility, where the parking lot is practically empty, it’s pitch black outside, and the inside is library quiet.

The previous night, the Pels beat the reigning Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers to reach .500 for the first time since the 2014-15 season. After the final buzzer, Allen rushed out to the facility to get shots up, ’cause, as he likes to say, “Proper preparation prevents poor performance.”

Less than 24 hours later, he’s back. Grit ’N Grind doesn’t take a night off.

“I want to show you the grind,” Allen says while he puts on his shirt inside a barren Pelicans locker room. “A lot of motherfuckers talk about the grind, but I want to show you.”

Allen has never averaged more than 11.5 points in a season, never grabbed more than 5.5 rebounds per game. But he’s spent the last 14 years bullying opposing ballplayers to the point where Kobe Bryant said he’s the best defender he ever faced. He’s the personification of grit, not glitz.

And while he’s best known for screaming “First Team All-Defense” during a 2015 playoff matchup with the Golden State Warriors, the one phrase he keeps repeating is drenched in humility: “Coming from where I come from.”

“I never ever want to go back,” he says of his childhood neighborhood. “Seeing some of my homeboys in wheelchairs now and seeing some of my guys who can’t even walk the same—they were in areas where shootings can happen at any time.”

Allen was born in Chicago in 1982 and spent most of his upbringing on 95th Street and Princeton Avenue in the Southside part of the city. Allen describes it as a “real rough neighborhood” and fell into a life of crime at a young age.

“You name it, I did everything under the sun,” he says. “I never was a thief, [I was] more trying to hustle. Not scam—hustle. Move drugs. That’s the reality of my situation.”

Once in high school, Allen quickly gave up on academics. He didn’t have the grades to play sports during his freshman and sophomore years, so he’d roam the halls, hitting all the lunch periods, looking for someone with money that he could play dice with. That summer, he decided he was going to drop out of school, help his cousin hustle on the streets and start his “adult life.”

Allen spent so much time away from home, he came back one day to find his mother Ella had moved, refusing to live with him and enable his behavior. He had to find out through family that she had taken off for the Chicago’s West Side and would not tell her son the address until he proved he was in school and staying out of trouble.

That led to what Allen calls his “cold summer.”

The days became a never-ending cycle of hustling, running from the police, getting guns pulled on him, getting in fights, getting shot at and police raids. A gruesome scar that was the result of getting pushed through a window during a fight covers most of his left forearm, a constant reminder of that low part of his life.

Then came rock bottom. Allen and his crew were out selling drugs in a neighborhood they weren’t supposed to be in. They were shot at. One of his friends returned fire and hit the initial shooter.

After fleeing the scene, Allen thought he was home safe. Then retaliation arrived.

“I was sitting on the porch,” he says. “I thought it was over with. All of a sudden I saw 50 guys walk in front of me, like, ‘Who’s the chief in command over here?’ I’m like, Hold on, I’ll go get him. Just don’t do anything to me. That’s when I knew that wasn’t going to be [the end of] my life, ’cause they could’ve easily retaliated. I was like, That was too close.”

Literally the next day, Allen’s life completely changed. He decided to go to a local Pro-Am where he heard NBA players and Chicago natives like Quentin Richardson, Antoine Walker and Michael Finley would be playing. He brought his gear just in case someone needed an extra body. Luckily, a buddy of his asked if he wanted to play, to which Allen responded, “Hell yeah.”

Future NBA player Will Bynum was also in the house and familiar with Allen from when they played together as third graders. He told Allen to attend Crane High School and play with him.

With Allen’s past, he had to attend school from 7:30-4:30 every day to get a diploma, but grinding was never his issue. After enrolling in school, he called his mother to finally convince her that he was turning over a new leaf and should be allowed to move back. Ella told him her address, and as if it was fate, she was living just four blocks from Crane.

Since Allen never played AAU ball, he wasn’t a known commodity to college recruiters. A friend told him to try out at Butler Community College in El Dorado, KS, and Allen took his first-ever flight down to play in a scrimmage at the school. Afterward, the coach asked T.A. to sign a letter of intent. He immediately called his mother to let her know her son was a college boy.

“Momma, I love getting on planes, and guess what else? I’m fitting to go to college,” Allen told her over the phone. Her response: “Get the hell out of here.”

“She didn’t believe me!” he says now.

After getting in trouble at Butler—he politely declined to elaborate on what happened—Allen transferred to Wabash Valley College in Illinois, the then-reigning junior college national champions, for the 2001-02 season.

From there, he started getting looks from a handful of DI colleges, but Oklahoma State showed the most interest. Allen decided to attend OK State for his junior and senior seasons and, during his final year on campus, was named Big 12 Player of the Year en route to a 2004 Final Four appearance. There, Allen and the Cowboys fell to Georgia Tech on a last-second layup from none other than Will Bynum.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Allen says. “It was just a dream come true for us to both be in the Final Four together. Nobody could write that story.“

Allen entered the ’04 NBA Draft and was selected 25th overall by the Celtics. Once in Boston, he was given advice from his head coach and fellow Chi native, Doc Rivers, that changed the path of his career.

“Doc Rivers was always telling me, ‘Defense is going to be your niche, son. You’re going to stay in this league 10-15 years off defense. Trust me. This is your niche, son.’ I believed him,” Allen says.

In Boston, Allen teamed up with Paul Pierce, a player whom he admired from afar and had played as during games of NBA Live 99 on Sony PlayStation.

Allen impressed enough during the beginning of his rookie year that reporters began to ask him about making the 2005 Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star Weekend in Denver. “I remember telling reporters, I really don’t know. I’m really focused on winning ballgames,” Allen says. “I said, I’m not worried about it, and [Pierce] said, ‘Man, quit lying. You know you’d love to play in the [Rising Stars Challenge]. Matter of fact, you make the game, you can have this watch.’ It was a $30,000 Jacob [and Co.].”

Allen ended up making the game. And Pierce ended up gifting him that watch.

T.A. was a member of Boston’s 2008 championship team and stayed with the franchise until 2010, when he inked a deal with a promising Memphis Grizzlies team.

“Memphis was fitting to be something special,” Allen says. “I saw that way before I got there. But when I got there, they didn’t see that in me. Not at first. I had to make them believers as time went on.”

Allen initially struggled to get consistent PT because Memphis was trying to develop its 2010 lottery pick, guard Xavier Henry. Then, during a February 2011 matchup with the Thunder, T.A. scored 27 points and guarded Kevin Durant in an OT win. Following the performance, Allen took a subliminal shot at a teammate who decided he didn’t want to play that night.

That subliminal turned into a way of life for the Grizzlies franchise.

“All heart, grit and grind.”

A few weeks later, Henry suffered a knee injury that caused him to sit for an extended amount of time, giving Allen the opportunity he’d been waiting for.

“He always told young players, ‘Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,’” says Chris Vernon, a Memphis radio personality and friend of Allen. “He got his chance, was shot out a cannon, and the rest is history.”

A few years later in the 2015 playoffs, the nation got a real taste of Allen’s blue collar bravado, which had already become legendary in Memphis. Against the No. 1-seeded Warriors, Allen was mic’d up by TNT. After stealing the ball away from Klay Thompson, Allen looked at his teammates, put a single finger in the air and yelled what has become his catchphrase: “First-Team All Defense.” The All-Defensive teams hadn’t even been announced yet. Allen didn’t care.

“I don’t know what possessed me to do that,” Allen says. “I guess it was the fact that I thought I got snubbed the year before. [2014 was the only year he hadn’t made the First or Second All-Defensive team since 2011.—Ed.] I knew I was one of the top five defenders in the world. That’s a fact. So I was just saying facts.”

This past offseason, Allen left Memphis to sign with New Orleans, where he’s imparting his wisdom on a promising Pelicans team. But his heart, legacy and No. 9 jersey will always be with Memphis. During the preseason, the Grizz announced his number will eventually be retired—news that brought Allen to tears. T.A. got a standing ovation when he returned to The Grindhouse in October.

The 35-year-old Allen thinks he might play two more years in the NBA. After he retires, in an ideal world, he’d work his way up to one day becoming head coach of the Grizzlies.

“I love the city as much as the city loves me,” Allen says about Memphis. “I just gave them the real me, and they embraced the real me.”

—

Yourgo Artsitas is a writer living in New Orleans. 

Photos via Getty Images 

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That 0-2 start for the Celtics seems so long ago. Boston won its 10th straight game despite playing shorthanded — Al Horford missed the game and is in concussion protocol, and Jayson Tatum left in the first half with an apparent ankle injury. In their absence, Aron Baynes stepped up, leading the Celtics with 21 points, while Kyrie Irving had 19. The Celtics shot just 39 percent for the game and 24 percent from three, but forced 21 Laker turnovers. Brandon Ingram had 18 points and seven rebounds for LA, but Lonzo Ball struggled again, scoring nine points on just 4-15 shooting.

The Celtics welcomed Paul Pierce back to Boston with a video tribute in the first quarter. The team will retire his jersey in February.

When Kyrie does this, what more can defenses do? pic.twitter.com/zws7xfSGts

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) November 9, 2017

Magic 112 (7-4), Knicks 99 (6-5)

The Knicks, playing the second day of a back-to-back, were without Kristaps Porzingis, as the Magic pulled away in the fourth quarter to snap a two-game skid. Elfrid Payton returned to the lineup for Orlando after sitting out the last eight games, and made his presence felt to the tune of 11 points and 11 assists. Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier, and Nikola Vucevic all had 20-plus-point games, while Tim Hardaway Jr led all scorers with 26. The Knicks, however, committed 23 turnovers.

We missed this. pic.twitter.com/fcisichpFd

— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) November 9, 2017

Pistons 114 (8-3), Pacers 97 (5-7)

Andre Drummond did what he does best, scoring 14 points and grabbing 21 rebounds to lead the Pistons to their sixth win in seven games. Detroit outscored the Pacers by 15 in the second quarter to lead by seven at the half. The Pistons took control of the game in the third quarter with a 13-0 run which sent the Pacers spiraling to their fourth straight loss. Victor Oladipo had 21 to lead the Pacers, while Tobias Harris had 23 points to lead all scorers and shot 5-9 from three.

The pass
The finish
(via @DetroitPistons) pic.twitter.com/U1JrbKw5RV

— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) November 9, 2017

Heat 126 (5-6), Suns 115 (4-8)

Goran Dragic had 29 points and the Heat never trailed, pulling out an 11-point road win. But that’s not to say that Miami coasted. The Heat led by just eight heading into the fourth quarter and gained some breathing room by opening the final period with seven unanswered points. Miami shot 53 percent for the game and scored a season-high 69 points in the first half. Devin Booker had 30 points in the loss to lead all scorers.

Warriors 125 (9-3), Timberwolves 101 (7-4)

The Warriors, playing without Kevin Durant, outscored the Timberwolves by 18 in the third quarter to turn a tight game into a comfortable victory. This was Golden State’s fifth consecutive win and its second in a four-game home-stand. The Warriors shot 57 percent for the game and made 15 threes with Klay Thompson leading the way (28 points, 6-12 3PT). Andrew Wiggins had 17 for the Timberwolves, who shot just 5-24 from three.

Fly like a bird pic.twitter.com/DrJfNVi7DY

— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 9, 2017

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The newly retired Celtics legend will have his jersey retired later in the year, but the organization gave him a nice tribute in the first quarter of this game to welcome him home.

The @celtics pay tribute to Boston great, Paul Pierce! #Celtics

: ESPN pic.twitter.com/a9q9LIdD9G

— NBA (@NBA) November 9, 2017

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NEW: Paul Pierce says Bradley Beal is the best SG in the East. Move over, Dwyane Wade https://t.co/HgU6kbv6Co

— NBC Sports Wizards (@NBCSWizards) November 6, 2017

Pierce believes Beal should be named to the All-Star squad this season.

Beal, 24, is putting up a career-best 25.7 points, pulling down 4.7 rebounds and handing out 3.1 assists

Per NBC Sports Washington:

“It’s playing with an edge, as I like to call it,” Pierce said. “That’s what you’ve seen more in Brad and that’s what has made him a better player, I believe. I told him when he starts playing with that edge, ‘it’s going to make you a better player.’ You’ve gotta go out there and feel like you’re the best and this guy can’t guard you. It’s gotta be that mindset. It’s all a mindset. This has nothing to with showing that you’re tougher than this guy or having to fight, it’s just a mindset when you come out here.”

 

Pierce made headlines earlier this season when he proclaimed John Wall as the best point guard in the NBA.

 

He thinks Beal is the best at his position in the Eastern Conference.

 

“I think he should be an All-Star this year without a doubt,” Pierce explained. “With Dwyane Wade holding that crown for years, being the top two-guard, I think Bradley Beal should be holding that crown now as the top two-guard in all of the East.”

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For Hield, a rookie, to be traded at all was bizarre, and to go to Sacramento was stunning. Sacramento? It was as far as could be from his native Bahamas, and nowhere near the southern states where he spent his teenage and college years.

“I didn’t watch Sacramento, didn’t know what they did,” Hield says. “I was caught in a daze. But I had to go on to the next team. I decided to try to turn the franchise around.”

That’s a tall order. The Kings have not been good in more than a decade. In 2002, Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Vlade Divac led a memorably selfless team to the Conference Finals. Sadly, though, a litany of injuries and odd trades cursed that era and plagued the ones that followed. Just a few years ago, the franchise nearly left town altogether.

And yet, Hield’s goal is not out of reach. Yes, hope springs eternal in Sacramento thanks to one of the League’s more intriguing young cores. This season, the Kings will feature 10 players with zero-to-two years of NBA experience, with nine first-round picks among them. Hield is the movement’s centerpiece.

Following the big trade last year, Hield started 18 games with Sacramento. In those starts, he averaged around 16 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2.5 threes per game. He hit 47 percent overall and 43 percent from deep. If done over a full season, those numbers would stand alone across the NBA—last year, no player scored as many points and hit as many threes at higher clips.

On the floor, Hield moves with a purpose. He likes to approach half-court sets at a measured pace, surveying the floor. At 6-4, he has excellent handles in traffic; at 215 pounds, he’s comfortable attacking the rim. Most of all, though, he loves to stroke it.

Hield has a simple, quick release from deep, but shoots in a thousand unorthodox ways from inside the arc. He’s shown a Dirk-ish turnaround, a Pierce-esque leaning jumper, a Parker-like floater. Sometimes, those moves will converge, like on a funky 20-footer that he releases with one hand, falling forward, or on a physically improbable fadeaway floater.

“In the NBA, everyone is so athletic, the defense is so good, you just try to find a way to get a shot off quick,” he says. “I enjoy watching Paul George, Steph Curry, CJ McCollum—guys who score the ball a lot. I try to nitpick their moves. But I just be me on the court.”

Hield is calling from L.A., where he’s been training ahead of his sophomore season. He speaks quickly with a heavy Bahamian accent (he was born in the town of Freeport). He likes to say that he has three alter-egos: Buddy Buckets, Buddy Fresh and Buddy Love.

His sister Jalisa, 27, describes them: “Buddy Buckets is for on the court—the raw talent. Buddy Fresh is him red-carpet ready. He has swag. He has a feel about himself that separates him from everybody else. Buddy Love is a big heart. That soul is divine. He’s patient, he’s humble, he’s genuine. It’s all about love.”

Hield grew up in a three-bedroom home filled with seven children, one grandmother, and Hield’s mother, Jackie Swann, who worked as a housekeeper. It was no doubt a modest beginning, one that Hield still carries with him.

This past summer, Hield hosted a number of camps to raise money for victims of Hurricane Matthew, which swept through the Islands last year. Two programs were in the Bahamas—one in Nassau, the other in Freeport. He would donate 150 pairs of Nikes, plus endless backpacks and necessities, to Freeport locals.

Says Jalisa, who helped organize the camps, “Buddy is a big deal there, but for him, it’s not about being a big deal. It’s about the sacrifice—teaching kids to sacrifice. His wish is not to just get kids to the NBA, but for them to go beyond and do greater things, and to then come back for the community.”

Hield also held stateside camps in Wichita, KS, where he played high school ball, and in Oklahoma, where he spent four years as a Sooner.

In his final season at OU, Hield was a first-team All-American and won several player of the year awards en route to the 2016 Final Four. His numbers that season were outrageous: 25 points and 4 three-pointers per game while shooting over 50 percent from the floor. Still, at the time, few imagined Hield finding similar success in the NBA.

Before the draft, Bleacher Report wrote that, “the biggest concern with Hield is his lack of ability to create shots for himself off the dribble. There was a JJ Redickian quality to his game [at OU].” This was a common complaint.

Hield would go No. 6 to New Orleans, who began the season 0-8. Most nights, the rookie was stuck behind the likes of Solomon Hill and E’Twaun Moore—a glosomy sign.

In February, when Hield headlined Sacramento’s return package for Cousins, the deal was met with unanimous shock.

Sports Illustrated called the deal “horrible” for Sacramento, and wondered about a potential rebellion against the front office. The Ringer quoted a league source as saying, “They gave Cousins away for a three-piece meal at Popeyes lol.”

Even NBA players, who usually reserve their negative opinions out of respect for their peers, couldn’t help themselves. CJ McCollum asked if the trade was real. Isaiah Thomas wondered if it would even be allowed by the lenient trade-approvers in NBA2K. Many more players dropped “Wows” and various stunned emojis.

The disbelief didn’t last long. Hield scored 16 and then 15 points in his first two games with the Kings, a taste of what was to come. “Sacramento freed me to open my game,” he says. “I was able to figure out the NBA speed. I found my feel for the game—don’t be in a hurry, be under control.”

His supporting cast developed, too. Specifically, three front-court pieces, who were given increased playing time swith Cousins out of the picture, showed great promise.

Skal Labissiere (21 years old), at 7 feet tall, has a sweet jumper and rebounds well. Willie Cauley-Stein (23) averaged around 13 points, 8 boards, 1 steal and 1 block following the trade. Georgios Papagiannis (20) is on his way to a bruising, double-double-filled career. Each player impressed Hield.

“When I got there, I said, Yo Skal is not bad!” Hield says. “He can shoot over anybody, and he’s progressing every day. He has that swagger when he walks and talks—that he’s it. I like guys like that.”

As for Cauley-Stein: “I love Willie,” Hield says. “He’s a great defender and rim protector.”

And Papagiannis: “That’s a big body, man.”

This summer, the Kings did an admirable job building around Hield and their three bigs. In June, they selected De’Aaron Fox, the lightning-quick point guard, at No. 5. They then flipped a draft pick acquired in the Cousins trade for two lower first-rounders and grabbed Justin Jackson, a three-year wing from UNC, and Harry Giles, a raw, more athletic prospect from Duke, who was projected to go in the top-10 before knee injuries slowed him down during his lone season in college. In the second round, they picked Frank Mason III from Kansas, the reigning National Player of the Year.

In July, the team added veterans George Hill, Vince Carter and Zach Randolph via free agency. Additionally, Bogdan Bogdanovic, the highly regarded Serbian swingman, will make his NBA debut this season at age 25.

“When we made that decision [to trade Cousins], we knew exactly where we were going,” Divac, now the team’s GM, recently told The Boston Globe. “So far, it’s exactly what we want. We have nice, young, talented kids, and obviously with the addition of veteran guys, [they] are going to teach them on a daily basis what it takes to win, what it takes to be a pro.”

Some lessons will also come from the Kings royalty that remains involved with the franchise. In addition to Divac, Doug Christie (local TV analyst) and Stojakovic (GM of G-League affiliate) are constantly around the team, preaching to Hield about defensive intensity and three-point shooting, respectively.

Drawing advice from those guys is sweet, though tapping into their old team success would be even sweeter. These Kings may not be the Webber/Divac Kings—not yet—but perhaps they can emulate the group that preceded that Conference Finals squad.

In ’98-99, following a decade of Kings basketball worse than this one, C-Webb arrived from Washington, Divac from Charlotte, and Stojakovic and the devilish Jason Williams debuted as rookies. The team played to a 44-win pace in a lockout-shortened year.

For Buddy Hield’s Kings, such a revolution begins now. As he says, the pieces are in place—it’s just up to the team’s youngsters to catch up to the resident vets. Indeed, it won’t be long before the young Kings have the rest of the league looking up at Sacramento.

—

Leo Sepkowitz is a Senior Writer at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @Leo Sepkowitz.

Portraits by Cassy Athena.

Action shot via Getty Images.

The post Still Striving appeared first on SLAM.

“Head and shoulders above everyone else,” Bagley Jr says. “It was like, Wow, he might be really tall.”

That’s when Bagley Jr decided that Bagley III should probably get involved with sports—Junior had played college football at North Carolina A&T and then in the Arena Football League—and basketball made sense, for obvious reasons. “It takes height, sometimes,” Bagley Jr says. “It’s a good first step.”

The second step tends to be talent, and Bagley III had plenty of that, too. He kept growing—he never stopped being the tallest kid in his class—and he quickly accumulated skills to match the height. Those skills eventually earned him a scholarship to Duke University, where he’ll be the star of the most stacked NCAA roster in the nation this fall. The team also features top recruits Trevon Duval, Wendell Carter Jr and Gary Trent Jr, along with senior Grayson Allen. Bagley III is set to be either the best or second best player in the country, depending on your opinion of Missouri’s Michael Porter Jr, and is a lock to be a top 5 NBA draft pick in June of 2018.

“There’s a lot of eyes on me now,” Bagley III says minutes after wrapping up his first SLAM cover shoot at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium the morning of his freshman move-in day. “It’s exciting. It’s something I’ve always dreamed of—going to college and playing college basketball, being able to do what I love to do.”

Growing up, Bagley III never struggled to control the post, grab rebounds and generally just toss around smaller opponents. But Bagley Jr wanted his son to learn the entirety of the game, be it dribbling the ball up the floor or making the right pass. This became a bit of a source of contention for those who dealt with the family over the years, with countless coaches wanting to ride Bagley III to tournament wins by throwing him under the basket and dominating the competition, while Bagley Jr preferred his son develop a well-rounded style of play. “Some teams held me back, and that’s when my parents came in and we moved to a lot of different teams,” Bagley III says. “I can’t count how many teams I’ve been on.”

“In the beginning, we played for a lot of programs that played for trophies,” Bagley Jr says. “At a young age, you have to be aware about developing the kid. We left a lot of teams because that development wasn’t there.”

(Bagley Jr has always been his son’s guiding force. Even over the past year, at most of his son’s AAU and Drew League games, he was often spotted somewhere on the baseline holding a camcorder, documenting the action alongside members of the media who were credentialed to capture footage.)

When MBIII was in fifth grade, his pops founded Phoenix Phamily, and on his own AAU team he let his son learn the ins and outs of handling the rock. “I could have 50 turnovers, but my dad still trusted me to go out and play and push,” Bagley III says. “I’m thankful for that—that’s why I’m where I am today.”

It helped that Bagley Jr had some foresight on the evolution of the sport. With the traditional back-to-the-basket center fading away and “unicorns” like Karl-Anthony Towns, Joel Embiid and Kristaps Porzingis—athletic 7-footers who can play inside and out—taking over the center position over the past couple of years, Bagley III is next in line to carry that big man torch. But Bagley III’s inevitable ascension was put in motion before the aforementioned superstars exploded onto the scene. The soft-spoken Arizona native has been ranked top three (and usually No. 1) in his class since he was a freshman at Corona del Sol HS in Tempe, AZ.

That year at Corona del Sol, he averaged 19.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, leading the school to its fourth consecutive state championship. The following season, Bagley III left Corona del Sol for Hillcrest Prep, a basketball program where students take classes at Starshine Academy in Phoenix and spend hours upon hours honing their on-court craft. But mere months after the transfer, amidst a mild controversy in which Hillcrest’s academic status was in question and one of the team’s important games was pulled off ESPN, the family left Arizona for California, where they settled in Chatsworth, CA, so Bagley III and his younger brother Marcus could attend Sierra Canyon HS.

Sure, there’s a little bit of a theme of inconsistency here—with the many AAU programs Bagley III played in as a young child, and the multiple high schools he attended as a teen—but what remained consistent was, if we’re being honest, the only thing that truly mattered: a real commitment to the game of basketball. Over the years Bagley III kept getting better, and at no point did he come close to falling out of the HS prospect rankings. In fact, his grip on the top got tighter.

In 2016-17 at Sierra Canyon, a fully grown, 6-11 Bagley III averaged 24.9 points, 10.1 boards and 2.0 blocks per game, leading the school to the CIF Southern Section Open Division semifinals before the team was defeated by eventual state champions Bishop Montgomery. (Bagley III had 28 and 12 in the loss.) Chris Paul, Paul Pierce and Lamar Odom all attended Sierra Canyon games at some point during his tenure there, and he was named Gatorade State Player of the Year at the end of the ’16-17 season.

“He’s a freak,” says Andre Chevalier, who was an assistant coach at Sierra Canyon while Bagley III played there and will be the team’s head coach this coming season. “I don’t know what to say other than that. The combination of who he is doesn’t come along very often. He’s able to rebound it and dribble it, and he shoots it pretty good. There’s obviously things he needs to improve upon, but on the high school level, he was unstoppable.”

Chevalier also coached Bagley III on the AAU circuit a little bit, which is where he experienced the moment he realized this kid was playing on a different level than anyone else in his age group. In one tournament, Marvin caught a pass while running the baseline, rose up, spun for a complete 360, then soared toward the front of the rim and dunked it. “I was like, Did I just see what I just saw?” Chevalier says. “The freakishness of it—he couldn’t have thought about it. His instincts were just like, How do I get myself to the front of the rim? And he just caught it, did a 360 and dunked it.

“I was like, Good Lord Almighty.”

***

On that Tuesday in late August, minutes after he arrives on campus for move-in day, Marvin Bagley III and his family walk through Cameron en route to our cover shoot. Seemingly every person who bumps into Bagley III says the same thing, something like, “So you’re the guy we keep hearing about!” Kids ask for selfies and parents offer handshakes. Duke’s next superstar is officially present.

Just months ago, most in the college basketball scene couldn’t have guessed things were going to play out like this. Until August 14, Bagley III had technically only completed his junior year, with a full year of eligibility remaining before he could take off to college. But that night on SportsCenter, with a national audience watching, Bagley III announced that he was reclassifying and committing to Duke University.

It was yet another recruiting win for Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has pivoted his strategy to accept—and, well, pursue—the one-and-dones that Duke previously stayed away from. It helped that Bagley Jr grew up in the Durham area (though the fact that the family had been living in sunny California should’ve also given an edge to local USC and UCLA), and it doubly helped that Coach K told Bagley III he could wear his preferred No. 35, despite it being retired as Duke legend Danny Ferry’s former number.

“Hearing the coaches talk to me about how I play and how I could get on the court and fit in with the team, I feel like it was a great fit for me,” Bagley III says. He visited the school for the first time as a ninth grader, and had been back a couple times since then. “I just love the environment here—it’s a calm place, and I feel like I’m going to be around people who want to accomplish high goals like me, so there probably won’t be any distractions. Just a perfect fit for me.

“I want to win the National Championship,” he adds. “That’s the only reason I play—to win. That’s my main goal.”

It’ll be plenty interesting to see how Duke squeezes Bagley III into what was already an exciting roster—he’ll likely play a lot of minutes alongside Carter Jr, another talented big man with a very similar skillset. But there isn’t much reason to worry. Over the summer, Bagley III hooped in the Drew League, facing up against grown men such as current and former NBAers DeMar DeRozan, JaVale McGee, Julius Randle and Baron Davis. He dropped 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a contest against DeRozan, and put up an 18 and 20 performance in the league’s all-star game.

Of course one or two impressive performances during a summer league doesn’t exactly guarantee a long, fruitful career, but it’s hard to doubt Bagley III is on the right path, a path that began sometime around first grade and doesn’t appear to be coming to a halt anytime soon. NBA teams are eagerly waiting for his name to be available in 2018, and whichever team selects him next June will have a legion of fans eagerly waiting for him to hit the court. In the meantime, he’s got a season at Duke to show and prove to the few who might not be sold just yet.

“Every time I’m on the court, that’s on my mind: Be the best player you can be,” he says. “I put so much into this game that it’s hard for me to not want to do that. I work hard every day, and I just feel that I want to be the best at it. If you don’t want to be the best, then there’s no need to play.”

—

Adam Figman is the Editor-in-Chief of SLAM. Follow him on Twitter @afigman.

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson

Video by @VASHR

—

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In an interview with the Associated Press, Wade said he’s not sure how it will happen, but he’d consider signing “a one-day deal like Paul Pierce” (via the Sun Sentinel):

“Miami, the door’s always unlocked. One day I want to retire in a Miami Heat jersey.

 

“I don’t know how that will happen, but I definitely want to make sure that when I decide to hang it up, that jersey is on.

 

“Whether it’s being back there or signing a one-day deal like Paul Pierce, I want to make sure that I go out the way I came in.”

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Dwyane Wade: ‘No Better Place’ to Play Than Cleveland

The post Dwyane Wade Wants To Retire With The Miami Heat appeared first on SLAM.

Ainge doesn’t think Tatum will get enough playing time to earn the award.

For the #Celtics, nothing at this point is certain, and Danny Ainge is OK with that https://t.co/kUz47Inm0w via @BostonGlobe

— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) September 18, 2017

Boston picked the 19-year-old with the third pick in this summer’s NBA Draft.

Per the Boston Globe:

Four years ago, majority owner Wyc Grousbeck promised “fireworks” in an interview with the Globe. It took Ainge years to orchestrate the Fourth of July. He acquired two All-Stars in the offseason (Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward), traded away their most popular player (Isaiah Thomas) and longest-tenured player (Avery Bradley), and then had enough confidence to trade down in the draft from No. 1 to No. 3 to select the skilled Tatum, who has drawn raves since his summer league performance.

 

“I’m excited, no question, as I said, you can feel it,” Ainge said. “You can feel the energy here at our practice facility, you can see it in guys that are trying out for the [G-League], guys that are going to play major roles on our team this year, young and old, you can just see the energy that exists around here and it’s good. It’s exciting. I’m excited to get the season started and see how it all works.”

 

There will be a large void at small forward with [Jae] Crowder’s absence. Hayward will assume the starting role but [Jaylen] Brown and Tatum could be depended on for major minutes. Brown will be 20 on opening night. Tatum doesn’t turn 20 until March.

 

“We’ll see what minutes [Tatum] will earn. I’m not worried about how they will play when the lights go on. It will be unlikely that Jayson is Rookie of the Year because it will probably come from a team that starts their rookies and plays them 35 minutes per night.”

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Paul Pierce: Jayson Tatum ‘Looks Like a Mature Version of My Game’

The post Danny Ainge: Jayson Tatum ‘Unlikely’ to Win Rookie of the Year appeared first on SLAM.

Paul Pierce on Jayson Tatum: 'He looks like an older version of me' – #Celtics @ASherrodblakely https://t.co/N2dsjhjocS

— CSN New England (@CSNNE) September 15, 2017

Pierce says the “sky is the limit” for the 19-year-old.

The Boston Celtics selected Tatum with third pick in this summer’s NBA Draft.

Per CSNNE:

“He looks like an older version of me, when I started doing the step-back and stuff,” Pierce said.

 

“When I’m watching him, he looks like a mature version of my game, like sixth, seventh, eighth year. He sees the defense. He knows what’s going to happen before it happens. He understands his position, footwork, his step-back (jumper) is there. His offensive repertoire seems complete. The sky is the limit for that kid.”

 

But having spent nearly two decades in the NBA, Pierce has seen his share of young talented players come and go, many with similar if not more potential in terms of talent as Tatum.

 

“The thing I see, what makes the guy special, there’s a lot of talent in the league. There’s no question about it,” Pierce said. “Your mentality, your drive, how great you want to be, that’s what separates the good from the great ones. You look at guys from the past, like Kobe (Bryant’s) determination, his competitive spirit. You see guys that were just as talented, they didn’t have the same competitive spirit so they could not reach the levels of other greats.

 

Pierce added, “that’s the biggest thing, the mentality, having a competitive spirit because there’s so much talent, and it’s about how hard you work and the mentality you bring every single night.”

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