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

Standing amongst the seasoned collegians was an 18 year-old straight out of high school, confidently holding the official Spalding game ball on the cover shot. It would be the first of 19 SLAM covers that Kobe Bryant would grace. 

As SLAM celebrates its 30th anniversary throughout 2024, we’ve teamed up with brands around the industry to celebrate the most iconic covers, athletes and sneakers from throughout the magazine’s three decades through a series of new collaboration designs. 

It was in those early days that Kobe Bryant and Adidas created some game changing sneakers in the late 90s heading towards the turn of the millennium. His signature series went to another level in 2000, when Adidas took design inspiration from Audi coupes and brought a new look to the game entirely. 

As we highlight that Issue #15 cover and Bryant’s start with Adidas, we’re also looking back on Kobe’s final signature model with The Three Stripes. 

SLAM is bringing to life one of Adidas’ most forward-thinking and polarizing designs in company history — the Crazy Two — which is getting the full retro treatment for the very first time. 

“Really, it was all about just doing a new look,” original designer Eirik Nielsen had told me a few years back. 

With the brand looking ahead to the 2000s, design legend and Adidas executive Peter Moore put together a team that aimed to define the futuristic design language that was expected for the new millennium. Bryant would be the vehicle to push Adidas forward into new territory. 

Of the fourteen voters from SLAM’s staff that each named their rookies “Most likely to…” in fifteen different topics, Kobe Bryant was only mentioned three times in that 15th issue of the magazine. Once as an ambitious Rookie of the Year pick — twice as most likely to “piss off Jordan.” 

By 2000 though, he had become a global icon. 

Bryant was on the cusp of helping lead the Lakers to a three-peat, and he was the face of Adidas Basketball around the world. To try and level up, the brand teamed up with Audi designers at the car company’s creative studio in Malibu to concept his next signature sneakers. 

Drafting off of the Audi TT roadster for inspiration, it was an entirely different way of designing a shoe. Shoes were first modeled in clay and sculpted, like a car. The results were proportions and sharp lines that gave the silhouette a stance unlike anything before it. 

“They were very, very different,” joked Nielsen.

Inspired by the vivid shades of teal and yellow on Kobe’s first-ever cover, this new SLAM edition of the Crazy Two comes in two separate base color pairs, all wrapped in suede. 

SLAM’s signature Three Stars are embroidered along the tongue of each shoe — with brick graphic insoles highlighted by SLAM’s 30th Anniversary crest on the heel, tying back to the cover backdrop. 

The sneaker was every bit as boundary pushing as it was polarizing when it originally launched in 2001, and still looks just as futuristic and unique today as it did more than twenty years ago. Adidas is expected to also re-release some of the original colorways as we get into 2025.

As SLAM closes the chapter on its 30th Anniversary series of sneaker collabs to cap off 2024, we’ve looked to celebrate the eras, players and covers that helped to shape the magazine into the Hall Of Fame-awarded definition of basketball culture all these years later. This friends and family retro edition of the Adidas Crazy Two honors one of the most impactful players in SLAM history and one of the most storied magazine covers, all through the lens of an equally forward-thinking and defining sneaker.

The post SLAM’s Adidas Collab Welcomes The Return Of The Crazy Two For The First Time  appeared first on SLAM.

My 40-year-old knees are worn out. Worn out like the lawn behind my childhood home, and for the same reason. It’s the reason I bought a rim and backboard set with the cash I saved on my 12th birthday. It’s why I had my dad lower the rim after the first week. It’s why I replaced it with a spring-loaded rim a year later. Before that, it was the reason that my Spalding Micro-Mini hoop snapped within an hour of purchasing. The reason the old lady next door complained. The reason why Shawn Kemp was (and still is) my hero. It’s the reason why, even all these years later, the skin on my palms at the base of my fingers is rough. It’s why my 1994 NBA All-Star Weekend VHS tape went fuzzy.

It’s because all I ever wanted to do was dunk.

The problem was that I did most of my growing early so, by the age of 16, my height was just about scraping 5-10 and my fingers just about scraping the rim. Hope, as usual, would be found within the hallowed pages of SLAM. It wasn’t in a frame-by-frame SLAMADAMONTH spread, either (although those were insanely dope). No. It was the ads that provided a solution to my problem with gravity. The range of Jump Higher programs on offer in our first two decades was wild, and within our magazines were scattered a medley of options. It wasn’t just me who wanted more bounce. We all did.

The ad that initially stood out to me was from the late ’90s. What’s crazy is that the program didn’t even have a name; it was just a lot of writing (we had larger attention spans back then…) and a black and white pic. The text implied that someone was giving away some top secret, Area 51 type of info. This, combined with a mysterious photo that was giving “Loch Ness Monster” style vibes had me completely locked in. The pic featured a young-looking kid jumping freakishly high (a trampoline?! definitely not…) with a defender helplessly waiting to have a basketball smashed into his unathletic face. It was significant that the kid featured was white. I was (and still am) also white and, until YouTube and Mac McClung (shout out to Rex Chapman, too) proved otherwise, our destiny was to replicate Larry Bird’s dunk package, if we were lucky. If this program could get a white kid dunking, then there was hope for us all. Surely.

I never did meet anyone who got their hands on that report—it claimed to be free—but the brand name, “Why Almost Everyone is Wrong About How They Train to Increase Their Vertical” was possibly a little long and not too catchy. Others, though, really stayed in the memory bank and, despite being pricey, saw a lot of success.

Jumpsoles and Strength Shoes were the early big hitters. For a long stretch, it would be common to find both brands battling it out in an issue, fighting for our pockets and their share of a bunny-hungry market. While basically the same product, Strength Shoes provided an entire shoe, along with Bob Knight and Bobby Hurley Sr’s approval. Jumpsoles, on the other hand, were strapped onto your existing shoe. This flexibility, as well as an athlete endorsement from the greatest short dunker (at the time) ever witnessed in Spud Webb, made sense. Although he was winning dunk contests almost 10 years before this product hit the market, we didn’t ask questions.

For a short period, we saw ads from imitation products such as Gainers and Skyflex, who apparently didn’t get off the ground (pun intended, always). Jumpsoles and Strength Shoes would hold their solid grip on the market and remain in our pages for a long time. My skeptical assumption, combined with the fact that I didn’t want to risk spending more money than I ever had in my bank account, was that they probably didn’t work. I’d heard reports of Yeah, right moments where a dude who couldn’t touch the rim wore them for five minutes and went on to throw down a windmill, all in an effort to sell units to kids at a camp. Others reported that the shoes would blow out your knees or that just working the calves would never be enough. Still, there have been countless others who claim them to be totally legit, and the fact that both of these brands exist today is perhaps proof of this.

Other equipment-based products available included ankle weights, vests, even a board with bungee straps that promoted itself with the tagline, “INCREASE YOUR VERTICAL BY ACTUALLY JUMPING!” Still, other programs boasted “No special shoes or weights necessary” and products like the Air Alert series began to push plyometrics over physical products. The fact that these brands required no actual equipment (other than books or DVDs) to be shipped, combined with the rise of the internet, meant that this section of the market was even more competitive. Names such as AIRBORNE!, JUMP ON, Mad Bounce and Vertical Leap Beyond Belief would fight for the attention of SLAM readers, all following a similar format. Some would refer to their information being “top secret…until now!” Quotes would be included from happy customers whose lives had been drastically altered by jumping higher. An ad by Leapfrog attempted to hook us in by sending customers a “dunk montage of 75 slams including a 6-1 LEAPFROGGIN’ jam over a 6-3 person.” I would’ve loved to have seen that whole thing. Oh, and they all, of course, guaranteed a specific gain of inches, a claim that was awkwardly comparable to a completely different industry that was spamming our in-boxes at the time. Fulfilling the desire to perform and/or impress is big business.

In the end, I never did invest in a “jump higher” type of program (three-pointers are cooler these days anyway, right?) but I remain fascinated by how synonymous they are with SLAM and, in turn, basketball culture. If I could go back to when I was a teen, I don’t think I’d opt for Strength Shoes or Jump Soles, not even Air Alert (which is still going btw!) for that matter. Too much effort. Instead, I’d give the Vertical Growth supplement pills a go. What could go wrong? If not then the Vertical Blast 2000 would have done the job. They worked for Todd from Phoenix, AZ, (pictured with a female companion no less) so why not Sammy from Erdington? If I wasn’t too late (this particular ad states that it’s only available to the first 125 “athletes” who respond) then a bottle of Adenotrex looked like a safe bet.

If all else failed, then there’s one product that couldn’t. Genuinely. The Slam Station springboard—”a stable but portable ‘mad ups’ producing dunking machine that gets you where you want to be…ABOVE THE RIM.” Incredible.

I barely ever dunked on a regulation rim ( a couple of times, maybe), but my dunking fantasy remains. And sometimes, after bending down to rub my aching 40-year-old knees, I still think to myself, “Why didn’t I send for that top-secret jumping info in SLAM…” 

The post These OLD SLAM ADS Promised to Help You Dunk and Improve Your Vertical—Guaranteed appeared first on SLAM.

The last 12 months have been a flurry of camps, tournaments, events and enacting his own clinics on defenders and offensive threats alike. And the wide-spread recognition has rightfully poured in. “It’s just kind of recent, like my freshman, sophomore year. I realized that I loved basketball once I shot out my sophomore year and I just kept wanting to play,” Chris says. “Because most people, they’ll just stop and quit, but I kept going and worked harder, and it motivated me.”

The 6-10 center with the bag of a guard has always been one of the tallest among his peers. But it wasn’t until his freshman season at Riverside Academy that he began building toward his future. Alongside his trainer, coach James Parlow, Chris crafted the foundation of the skill set that we see today. One dribble, with a shoulder into the chest, straight into a two-hand flush. Face up fadeaways from the same spot. Pull-up middies off the pick-and-roll. The handles to create coast-to-coast in transition and for others. 

“I feel like every year I got two times better than where I was the year before, which is the goal. Just development. A lot of skill work, working on having a lot of skills,” Chris says. “The goal was to be a versatile big that can guard all positions, handle the ball, shoot the ball, take a guy off the dribble, all those types of things. That was our plan, and I worked and got better and it came to life.” 

Despite the pieces falling into place, Chris was forced to sit out the entirety of his sophomore season after transferring to Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. Transfer rules ruled him ineligible. While the team went on to capture its second straight state championship, Chris was holed up in the lab trying to close the gap between himself and the top-ranked prospects who had been grinding for their keep since middle school. “I was just thinking, Be in the gym and catch up to everyone,” Chris says.

He entered the summer with a Big Easy-sized chip on his shoulder and led the school to its third consecutive state title the following season, averaging 13.9 points and 10.2 boards a game. Now, he’s taking his double-double game to the acclaimed Link Academy in Missouri. 

At the program that’s produced the likes of Ja’Kobe Walter, Jordan Walsh and current Texas freshman Tre Johnson, Cenac Jr is taking advantage of every glimmer of opportunity that presents itself. He’s assumed the role of the squad’s head honcho, electing to lead through actions and let his voice follow as he builds out the habits for his future. “The main thing right now for me is winning the national championship with these guys that I’m at Link with,” Chris says. 

The journey has been rewarding, ranking as high as the No. 7 player in the class of 2025. But that feeling of catching up still hasn’t faded. There are more levels to climb before reaching the ultimate goal. 

“It feels good, but at the same time, it’s not the only place that I want to be at. The rankings now, it’s cool. But the NBA, and lasting in the NBA for a long time, is the main goal. I can’t be complacent.”

Photos via Getty Images. Portrait by Marcus Stevens.

The post Chris Cenac Jr Has a New Home at Link Academy and His Sights Set on a National Championship appeared first on SLAM.

Ever since he was a teenager, LaMelo Ball has been SLAM Fam. 

He was doing full-scale SLAM photoshoots with his brothers throughout his high school run at Chino Hills in California. First covered at just 13-years-old, his starpower and basketball journey have taken him around the globe ever since, even before entering the NBA in 2020. 

“I felt like I could play in the League when I was 14, 15,” Ball told SLAM years back. “I probably couldn’t have, but that’s just how I thought.”

After his Rookie of the Year start in the League, the face of Puma Hoops saw the launch of his first signature shoe coincide with his first All-Star Game appearance the following season in early 2022.

It was on Issue #237 that he pulled up for his SLAM cover shoot in his unlaced infrared MB.01s, hitting the league’s longtime logo pose in a custom LaFrance jersey from his own clothing line.

“It’s a little bit of a reach to say he’s already achieved ‘NBA Logo’ face-of-the-League status, but he’s on his way there, and we’re not afraid of a bold call,” SLAM Ed. Adam Figman wrote at the time. “Consider this our prediction that one day we’ll all look back and realize that this cover made perfect sense.”

As we continue to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of SLAM this year and look even just a few years back — it did make perfect sense. 

Highlighting the most iconic covers, players and sneakers over the last 30 years to tell the story of SLAM’s impact on the basketball world, we teamed up with PUMA for this special edition pair of LaMelo’s latest signature shoe, the MB.04. 

In a loud infrared and metallic silver upper inspired by that Issue #237 cover and his “Out Of This World” game, Melo’s 4th signature model features blue accents throughout, and custom SLAM logos along the heel and tongue label. 

It was in that cover shoot that Melo debuted his iced out UFO chain, with the graphic coming to life once again here on the insoles of each shoe, and on the bottom of the MB.04 model. 

The packaging itself is crazy, featuring a SLAM cover-inspired outer sleeve with a portrait from that 2022 photoshoot, along with custom logos along the metallic shoe box. These joints are as loud as it gets — pure Melo. As he’s shown over the years, being subtle is never his style.

“From the beginning, I always felt like no one was really fucking with me,” Ball said in the cover story. “I just always had that attitude.”

As SLAM continues to celebrate its 30th anniversary, the magazine has been there for every step of LaMelo Ball’s rise. Now, it’s only right that SLAM is officially teaming up with Melo to bring things full circle.

This limited edition SLAM x PUMA MB.04 will be dropping in exclusive quantities on both SLAMgoods.com and puma.com this Friday, December 27 at 10 AM EST.

SECURE YOUR PAIR OF SLAM x PUMA MB.04 HERE

The post SLAM’s PUMA MB.04 Collab Celebrates LaMelo Ball’s “Out Of This World” Game appeared first on SLAM.

Those were the exact words that Corey “Homicide” Williams said the day he called me in 2015 to let me know that he had just landed a TV broadcasting job in Australia’s National Basketball League.  

The New York playground legend hadn’t even finished his playing career (played in Australia, Sweden, China, Germany, France, Lebanon and Iraq, among many other countries) when the NBL approached him to be a commentator for the league. Despite not having any previous experience as a broadcaster, Homicide’s larger-than-life personality was suited to be in front of a camera, an infectious energy that then General Manager of the NBL Jeremy Loeliger understood was missing from Aussie television screens. 

I was working for ESPN Australia based in New York when Homicide rang me at my Queens apartment from Melbourne to tell me he’d just been made an offer by the NBL. In typical Homicide fashion, he’d already mapped out his 5-year plan for making the transition from the court to television and leaving his mark on the NBL. 

He officially became a full-time media personality with the NBL prior to the 2017-18 season and it came as natural to him as Steph Curry pulling up from the logo. His opinions on topics, infused with a touch of his New York braggadocio, endeared him to the Australian public from the very jump. 

He figured that to get the people going, you needed to be provocative. 

Homicide interacted with fans—and haters—on social media. His weekly power rankings, which he posted on his Instagram page, became a motivational tool for players wanting to prove him wrong, or, in some cases, correct. 

Once the league started gaining traction globally, he coined the now famous phrase, “this ain’t no cupcake league.” It let import players know that the NBL was to be taken seriously, and if you didn’t, you’d would be out of a job real quick. 

As his career flourished, Homicide decided he wanted to do his own podcast, giving listeners an insight into his world beyond basketball and the NBL. He wanted a platform to voice his opinion on his life, basketball, music and culture. I was back in Australia by this time, and he reached out to me to co-host with him. 

“There’s nobody else I wanna do this with, b,” he said. 

When it came time for us to record the first episode of “UPFRONT with Corey Williams,” he hammered home the point that this was a joint venture. He didn’t want me to take a back seat, even to him. 

“I want the people to know your story, too. This [show] won’t work if it’s just me,” he emphasized. Homicide never wanted the spotlight to himself. If he shined, you shined, too. 

He wasn’t afraid to tell it like he saw it, and no player or coach was safe if they were underperforming. Even as he battled cancer, he was still unafraid to speak his mind on our podcast, calling out Melbourne United head coach Dean Vickerman during the 2024 NBL Grand Final series. 

He connected with Australians because he was unashamedly himself. His love for the game, and desire to see the NBL grow, shone through. Attending NBL games with him meant at least a thirty-minute detour before you could get to your seat, as fans stopped and asked him for selfies. 

He galvanized NBL fans, and in the end, even the ones who may have hated from a far can’t deny that the NBL was better for having had him champion it. 

A legend of the game, on and off the court, and across opposite ends of the hemispheres.

Photos courtesy of Nick Metallinos and Getty Images.

The post From NBL MVP to Becoming a Renowned Broadcaster: the Legacy of Corey “Homicide” Williams appeared first on SLAM.

Penny Hardaway has never forgotten the first time he saw the Foamposite. 

Nike designer Eric Avar was meeting with him to talk sneakers and show him some upcoming samples, as usual, when a sneaker tucked inside of a Nike duffel bag caught his attention. 

“I was just like, ‘Oh my god! What is that?’” Hardaway told me years ago. 

On the spot, it became his next signature shoe. The molded neon royal shoe was groundbreaking then and ever since, and became an instant classic, stamped by Penny in 1997. 

Even all these years later, the Foamposite One, with its subtle Swoosh along the toe and One Cent logo hits along the heel and tongue, has been one of the most beloved sneakers of all time.

“It was just a crazy shoe,” he added. “And I had never seen anything like it in my life.”

As SLAM celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, we’re looking back on some of the most iconic issue covers and most impactful players throughout the Hall of Fame-inducted magazine’s history. We created some fire collabs for the occasion. 

The 30th issue of SLAM in late 1998 featured Penny Hardaway, just as he was looking to make his return from a series of repeating knee injuries in Orlando. The feature was graced with a Scoop Jackson-penned cover story that perfectly captured his immediate rise with the Orlando Magic and his mission to stay on top of the game that he poured everything into. 

The cover story featured lyric laden bridge paragraphs between the candid Q&A — yet another Scoop masterpiece that broke the mold for formatting. 

“Leave you black & blue like a pair of Penny’s / or Foamposites” 

Even before that first sample made its way to the meeting with Penny, we must first go back to the fall of 1995, when Avar was sketching away in Beaverton, Oregon. It is completely insane to consider the time and era in which the Foamposite was first conceived, as the shoe not only had a viral-before-there-was-social-media $180 price point, but required an all-new manufacturing process entirely. 

The shoe was decades ahead of its time — and still is.

While the “Galaxy” Foams in 2012 instantly shut it down and created an entire era of graphic-printed sneakers, it was years ago in ’95 that Avar actually first imagined a printing process atop the shoe’s Foamposite material. One of his earliest sketches incorporated shaded hues of blue along the upper.

This SLAM collab, for the first time ever, brings that sketch to life.

The Eric Avar sketch, from the fall of 1995.

The SLAM edition’s molded Foamposite upper features a printed graphic inspired by Avar’s concept sketch, with the details dialed in from there. For the first time, there’s a Swoosh along the shank, just as Avar had originally sketched it. 

The tongue and heel logos alternate between Hardaway’s sleek 1 Cent logo and the SLAM logo, inspired by Penny’s longtime insistence to keep his logo in place on collaborative designs. To this day, it’s one of the greatest signature logos ever created, that he instantly approved of when he first saw it.

“Right away I knew that they had done an amazing job with this logo,” he told me. 

“Back to back 40s. Miami Heat. Unforgettable.”

Along the insoles, the graphics from the Scoop Jackson cover story are recreated throughout, along with SLAM’s 30th Anniversary logo crest. The packaging integrates the original Avar sketch, and lyrics from Jackson’s prolific penmanship.

Three vertical stars found on every cover throughout the magazine’s 30 years are woven into the heel tab, while a number 30 honors Penny’s cover and SLAM’s 30th Issue. 

As the magazine turns 30, and the legend of the Foamposite lives on, this Friends & Family limited edition of Penny Hardaway’s most memorable sneaker brings the original design concept full circle.

The post SLAM’s Foamposite One Collab Celebrates Penny Hardaway’s Iconic Original Design appeared first on SLAM.

Back when FILA was a major player in the basketball space and Grant Hill was at the forefront of its marketing efforts, SLAM featured bold, wild and hella fun ads throughout the magazine. Over the past 30 years, we’ve had everything from a Jordan perfume ad to brands that marketed products that allegedly helped increase your vertical jump or even helped you grow taller.

In honor of all those timeless classics, we’re hyped to announce SLAM Presents OLD SLAM ADS.

In this exclusive special collector’s issue, you’ll get to peek behind the curtain and hear from those members of the brand partnerships team who were tasked with selling ad space at SLAM throughout the years, as they offer up some behind-the-scenes gems of how many of these ads ended up in the pages of the publication.

You’ll also find a couple of other features that dive deep into the phenomenon of the aforementioned jump higher/strength category of ads that ran in SLAM throughout the decades, as well as a look back at the legendary D-Band headband product of the early 2000s and more.

The post The Best, Boldest and Wildest Ads Ever Published in SLAM appeared first on SLAM.

You already know this was a must. 

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

“I AM SLAM.” 

“I say I AM SLAM because together — with me living it and SLAM covering it — we made it OK to be you, to be authentic, in the NBA,” Iverson writes. “Shit, we made it OK for athletes to be themselves in all of sports. Now that might sound cocky, but it’s not. It’s just facts.”

The bond and timeline of the two have been linked ever since Iverson was first featured on the mag’s ninth cover in early 1996, while still in college. When Issue #32 dropped though, the impact reached beyond basketball. 

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

“In SLAM in the beginning, we would just cover the culture,” founder Dennis Page recently told Iverson. “But after ‘Soul On Ice,’ I like to think that we became part of the culture, because of that cover. Allen gave us the credibility.”

Throughout the detailed Russ Bengtson feature interview with The Answer, there’s a layout graphic featuring Iverson that’s centered around “The 3 of Diamonds.” As we all know, there isn’t much explanation needed to explain Allen’s affinity for ice. 

The throwback “PHILA” jersey he’s wearing in early 1999 was custom made by a local nearby manufacturer named Mitchell & Ness, to highlight the history of the league in an “Old School Issue” as the NBA was dealing with a lockout that year. It was the chain, the tats, the bracelet, the watch and the earrings that let you know this was a modern icon of the next millennium. 

“I fell in love with that magazine,” Iverson told Page. “Just the loyalty, and the way y’all had no problem with letting me be me. It was no situation to where I had to deal with being on the cover and my tattoos are airbrushed off. All authentic. It was, ‘You be you, and we’ll take care of the rest.’”

To celebrate the original cover and the magazine’s 30th anniversary this year, SLAM and Reebok teamed up on a limited edition pair of Iverson’s iconic first signature shoe. 

Throughout Iverson’s career, diamonds were often incorporated into anniversary moments or celebratory launches, like the time Reebok put a $65,000 diamond-laced Question up for sale on Eastbay. When Iverson celebrated his 10th anniversary with the company, Reebok gifted him with a diamond-laced pair of Answers from his MVP season. 

Inspired by “frosted” diamond watches, the midsole of the SLAM x Reebok Question Low features a metallic frosted texture that extends up into the shoe’s unmistakable toe cap. 

The SLAM and Reebok logos alternate on the tongue and heel, while the lettering up the eyelets have been switched out to read Allen’s longtime nickname among his closest friends: “Bubba Chuck.” 

“SLAM was everything to my career,” added Iverson. “Still today, I walk past a magazine stand and I see that magazine — I’m grabbing it.”

Along the insoles and the box, Iverson is featured in alternate portraits from the era where he left a mark on the game for good.  

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

“It was an honor for all of us to be able to embrace the cover, be in it and have our story told, the way that we wanted it to be told,” Iverson reflected. “It was so great for the culture, and so great for basketball. And it’s going to live on forever.”

The post SLAM’s Reebok Question Collab Celebrates Allen Iverson’s Iconic “Soul On Ice” Cover appeared first on SLAM.

A popular saying created by the younger generation emphasizing the transition of eras. Basketball has gone through a massive culture shift. It’s definitely easy to forget how we got to where we are now as the memories and styles of years ago grow older. But some things remain timeless. Time for a quick trip down memory lane.

Baggy shorts and buzz cuts. These two ruled the ’90s. That era had some of the sickest swag the sport could offer. The Memphis State Tigers and Runnin’ Rebels are proof.

In honor of their upcoming matchup, which will only be the sixth time they’ve ever faced off (UNLV is leading the series 4-1), we’re paying tribute to the foundational elements of college hoops: the gear. 

The Memphis State Tigers have been around for a long time and their style has inspired plenty. They possessed a clean look that stood out, much like the players who came through the program (and notably their head coach, the late Larry Finch). But it was the 1991-92 season that those in Memphis still reminisce about. The glory days. Their home unis were crisp white. Striking blue accents lined the waist and trim while their away uniforms flipped the script with a sea of dominant blue and sharp white details. Thick grey block letters stitched above and below the numbers. The loose-fitting shorts, labeled with an MSU patch, were illuminated with their iconic tiger logo just above the knee, capping off the perfect blend of simplicity and style.

On the other side of the aisle, the Rebels were Runnin’ rampant in the ’90s with a timeless aesthetic. Black kicks, knee-length shorts, team huddles on the floor. When you see red, you think bold, tough and rigid. When you see UNLV on your schedule, the exact same feelings come to mind. Their jerseys evoked as much chaos as their open court offense, featuring a predominantly white home design with fresh red accents that extended onto the shorts that fans in Nevada still rock to this day. The away unis were just as fire; a powerful red with white details, creating a fierce and intimidating look. The baggy fit of the shorts with the stripes bleeding down the side and small UNLV logo completed the audacious yet encapsulating aesthetic of the era. This cohesive and fearless look mirrored the Rebels’ aggressive and high-energy play. Just ask Larry Johnson how formidable Las Vegas was.

As these two teams prepare to meet tomorrow, we can’t forget their past. The resurgence of the two programs this weekend doesn’t just exemplify the diverse landscape that continues to expand across the game, it’s cementing the eras that got us here. The ’90s brought flashy individualism both on and off the court, which we still see in today’s game and tunnels. The baggy styles we witness across the NBA and the high school ranks may look different now, but they originated from decades’ past. So respect the OGs for paving the way.

Still done with the ’90s? We thought so…

From the iconic shorts to throwback logos and gear, head over to the SLAM Store to rep your school, whether you’re runnin’ with the Rebels or rocking with the Tigers.

Action photos via Getty Images.

The post Timeless Threads: How Memphis State and UNLV Helped Pave the Way For Today’s ’90s Obsession appeared first on SLAM.

Now that we’re back, it’s only right that we predict what this insane rookie class will achieve. Some of the most versatile players of the new generation have arrived and we suggest you buckle up for the ride.

So check out our official Rookies Most Likely To list, which appears in SLAM 252. Get your copy and cover tees here.

Houston, we solved your problem. After averaging 20 points in Summer League, Reed definitely proved he’s got that shooter’s touch. He’s our pick to take home ROTY honors.

Greatness flows through his veins. Since he was young, Bronny’s always had some of the best feets on the court, and nothing changes now.

That massive poster dunk Matas Buzelis had against the Warriors in Summer League was just a preview of what he’ll do to opposing players this season. If anyone’s going to end the 36 year dunk contest win drought for the Bulls, it’ll be this guy. The last winner in Chicago, who we all know, went on to have a pretty good career…

The 7-foot Duke product is underrated and we don’t really know why. When he wakes y’all up and starts balling with the Jazz, we told you so.

The shiftiest rookie in the class will be a walking highlight reel. Scary hours coming soon from the Timberwolves…

There aren’t many players with a smoother shot than Risacher. The number 1 pick will put the League on notice as he and Trae light it up from downtown.

Zach Edey is a walking double-double and he’s our lock to average 10 boards a game. Being one of the tallest players in the league will undoubtedly help.

Jared McCain is a man of many talents. The social media star is always turning heads with the latest trends and he’ll be turning heads on the court this year as well.

Already one of the best dressed players in the League, Cody Williams is always going to put that ish on. Don’t be surprised when you see that same swag on the court…

Arguably the hottest shooter in the class, Reed Sheppard is a certified scoring machine and he’s going to prove that this season.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post SLAM’s Official 2024-25 NBA Rookies Most Likely To List: Rookie Superlatives and MORE appeared first on SLAM.

Following a four-year career at Dayton, where he led the nation in three-point percentage last season, Washington Heights native Koby Brea is heading south to the school of his dreams, the University of Kentucky.

It all started at those courts on Nagle Ave. In the heart of Washington Heights, a neighborhood north of Harlem, tucked behind the hallowed main court of Dyckman Park, lies a smaller half-court lined with a singular black fence. It’s there that a young Koby Brea fostered his love for the game. Just a few blocks away from his parent’s apartment, Koby would go to the court and meet up with his friends and other local kids to draft their own teams and hoop throughout
the day.

When he was 6, he would lace up his kicks, grab his ball and head down the street with his dad, Stephan, to meet up with his pop’s friends. They’d travel from park to park, hooping to their hearts’ content. “They still play to this day. I don’t know how, but they do,” Koby says. And there was Koby, witnessing that love for the game in real time.

“Being around it, all you can do is really watch and enjoy the ride,” he says. “Any time they ran down one way, I’d be on the other half trying to shoot, trying to get my ball and be quick before they came back down.”

A few years later, he was waking up at 5 a.m. to work out at those same courts. Everyone sleeping while he was working? That was the best motivation.

Dyckman set the standard for who Koby Brea wanted to be. In 2024, that would be the best shooter in college basketball and the latest addition for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats.

Fifteen years after first being introduced to the concrete courts, Koby is back at Dyckman. It’s a piping hot mid-August afternoon and the sun is unrelenting. Pay it no mind, Koby’s suited in a full Eric Emanuel baby blue tracksuit with matching “Industrial Blue” Air Jordan 4s on-foot. After watching him learn to play and eventually compete in the summer Dyckman tournaments, his father, mother and youngest brother Tyler now stand off to the side as we snap photos. It’s a family affair. For the Breas and Washington Heights, that’s always been the case.

“Growing up in Washington Heights, it’s like having a really big family around you,” Brea explains. “You’re just around a whole bunch of people that are just like you, that come from the same culture, the same background. We have a lot of Dominicans, a lot of Latin people, and any time you’re walking down the street, you see somebody that’s just like you, that looks just like you, talks just like you. It just feels like family.”

The endless hours spent surrounded by his community, on and off the court, set the stage for his commitment to those who have poured into him. As he stands at center court with Tyler dribbling around his legs, he sees his own childhood mirrored back at him. It’s an eerily familiar feeling, one he experienced just a few weeks prior to our shoot when he first stepped foot inside the Joe Craft Center in Lexington. For years, Koby envisioned himself suiting up in the Big Blue. Now it’s a reality.

“You see all the blood, sweat and tears that was put into that gym that I just walked into,” he says of that visit.

When Koby wasn’t dicing it up at Dyckman, he was watching Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker and the rest of the mid-2010s Wildcats. He longed to get shots up underneath the weight of the eight banners that hung above. That level of prestige was captivating. So he aimed for it. 

Koby remembers the first time his coach at Monsignor Scanlan High School brought him to the campus in the Bronx. As they made small talk about the team and the school, the coach asked Koby where he wanted to play at the next level.

“I remember I was a kid with big dreams and I told him, I want to go to the University of Kentucky,” Koby says. “And he looked at my dad and he was like, You’ve got a wild one. I don’t know if I can get you to Kentucky, but I’ll make sure I get you somewhere. That just goes to show that when you have people around you that are confident in you, want to push you the most you can, you also have that confidence in yourself that this is what I want to be and that’s how I’m going to make it. It sets it off for yourself.”

Heading into the 2024-25 season, Koby Brea’s not only suiting up for Kentucky, he’s expected to help the program capture national prominence once again.

But the Washington Heights native didn’t just get to the blue blood of his dreams. He grinded his way toward the opportunity. Coming out of Scanlan as a second team All-New York selection, Koby set his sights on a career as a Dayton Flyer. He took home A-10 Sixth Man of the Year in his redshirt freshman season, but suffered a pair of stress fractures in each of his legs the following year that prevented him from taking that next leap he was ready for.

Instead, he spent the summer getting form shooting in while sitting in his wheelchair. It took the entirety of the offseason and a portion of the preseason to fully recover. With just two weeks of practices and conditioning under his belt, Koby proceeded to light nearly every net in the nation on fire, leading the Flyers into the second round of March Madness.

On 201 attempts, Koby led the nation in three-point percentage, nailing 49.8 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Sorry, not sure if you caught that. Koby Brea hit damn near half of his shots from downtown. Throw in 11.1 points and nearly 4 boards a game and the accolades started to flow. A second A-10 Sixth Man of the Year honor was appropriately bestowed and just like that, Koby was instantly on the radar of every major powerhouse in the country. At the end of the day, Kentucky always had the upper hand.

“This year I just really wanted to take the opportunity to take a step back so I could take a couple steps forward. I came back to college with the expectation that all I was going to do this summer was work,” Brea says. “Work as hard as I could, work the hardest that I ever had, just to ensure that I had a great year at a great new place.”

The wait, the work, it was all worth it. He made his stamp at Dyckman. He found himself at Dayton and inscribed himself into the college basketball record books. Now he’s putting up shots in the same gym Booker did nearly a decade ago, as visions of the 2025 NBA Draft grow closer and closer to reality. But in the here and now, Koby Brea is letting those years worth of lessons guide him as he takes it day by day. He’s stronger, healthier and more lethal than ever with the ball in his hands. And as he turns the chapter to his collegiate epilogue, there’s a looming goal that Koby’s longed for ever since he took those walks to Dyckman with his dad.

“The expectation is simply to hang the ninth banner. Me, I’m a true competitor, and I pride myself on winning. I definitely want to leave my stamp everywhere I go. Being at Kentucky, the standard is so high and everybody expects success,” Koby says. “I just want to have the opportunity, day by day, to keep growing and be the best version of myself.”

Portraits by Alexander Zhang and UK Athletics.

The post Washington Heights Native Koby Brea Talks Realizing His Dream at Kentucky and Overcoming Obstacles as Best Shooter in College Basketball appeared first on SLAM.

What would you do if you could bring a star down to eye level? What if you were just an arm’s length away? Would you try to recreate its shine? Or would you stare into its beauty, both incomprehensibly bright and painstakingly supernatural?

Being that close to greatness would make the average person’s eyes pop out of their head, like a scary gimmick in the windowsill of a Halloween store. However, for recent BYU freshman Kanon Catchings, he’s been holding onto stars since the time he was born.

The legacy begins in the fall of 1974 with Harvey Catchings, who made his NBA debut with the Philadelphia 76ers. In the middle of what would be an 11-year career in the L, Catchings became the basketball equivalent of Serena and Venus Williams’ father, Richard Williams Jr. Harvey’s daughters, Tamika and Tauja set the stage for a family-wide takeover on the hardwood.

If you were wondering what it would be like to touch a star, you’d have to either ask someone on the 2002-2016 Indiana Fever, or her own nephew to truly understand how bright of a star Tamika Catchings is.

“I looked up to her a lot,” Kanon reminisces. “She was one of the first basketball players I really knew.”

Tamika Catchings, despite an under-the-radar hearing disability, kick started her legacy winning three high school state championships in two different states (Illinois and Texas). Stepping into her college career, she made her presence known on the court, helping the Tennessee Lady Vols to an undefeated season and NCAA championship in 1998 under legendary coach Pat Summitt, paving the way for recent college stars like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.

Spending her entire career with the Fever, Catchings led the team to a championship in 2012 and racked up a long, decorated list of accomplishments, including WNBA MVP (2011), 10 All-Star selections and five Defensive Player of the Year awards. Not to mention, four consecutive Olympic Gold medals (2004-2016) and holding the all-time WNBA record for steals (1,074).

A unique star, Catchings transcended familial expectations, and set the precedent for what greatness moved like. “I wanted to be just like her,” Kanon explains. 

The next closest star in Kanon’s orbit was Tamika’s sister and Kanon’s mother, Tauja, who led her high school team to two state championships (’95-96), and was named Illinois’ Ms. Basketball in 1996. At the University of Illinois, Tauja became the first player in Illini history with more than 1,400 points, 700 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 steals, earning her All-Big Ten honors and the status of one of the best players in Illinois history.  

Almost a decade later, another branch of the Catchings family tree has emerged with Kanon. Standing at 6-9 and known for his athleticism, the youngest Catchings has stepped into new beginnings at Brigham Young University (BYU) where he’s quickly made a name for himself.

“An aspect I’d like to show a lot of people is that I can guard every position on the court,” he explains. Being able to be anywhere on the court is where Kanon feels like he has a leg up on other recruits.

Dating back to his junior season in high school, Kanon averaged 17.5 points and 4.8 rebounds before joining Overtime Elite (OTE). There, he maintained his collegiate eligibility, playing at a high level and averaging 14.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.

Kanon’s decision to suit up for the Cougars had a lot to do with a lot to do with his former OTE coach Tim Fanning.

“That was a big drawing point for me when I came to BYU,” he explains. “It means a lot to have somebody that knows you and has coached you before on the staff.”

At BYU, Catchings hopes to refine his shooting and physicality, notably looking forward to improving on his skill set in a way that transcends the expectation that comes with his family name. His defensive instinct—a hallmark of the Catchings family—is something that he wants to showcase, and with his Hall of Fame aunt as a mentor, he’s looking forward to growing all parts of his game.

“I feel like I’ve improved a lot,” he says. “In ballhandling, passing the ball, [and] defense especially, but also, just ripping out shots—[I’m] just trying to be as consistent as I can in everything that I do on the court.”

In the wake of what could potentially be a breakout freshman season, the four-star recruit has every bit of pressure on his shoulders come November. But, with that transcendent familial stardom looming in the background, Catchings has all the guidance and tools he needs to add to the legacy—perhaps not only reaching for the stars, but becoming one himself. 

Portraits via BYU Athletics.

The post Family Ties: The Beginning of Kanon Catchings’ Journey and The Continuation of the Catchings Legacy  appeared first on SLAM.

Growing up the youngest of four siblings, Nate Ament did everything his brothers did. It’s why when it comes to sports, soccer was the first thing he gravitated to. His older brothers played it, so he did, too. And when his third oldest brother Frederick started to pick up basketball, Nate was more than game.

By the time he was 10, the rapidly growing Manassas, VA, native realized that he was going to be too tall to stay on the pitch. So hoops it was. It started out as 1s and 2s at the local elementary school. After a two-minute walk, Nate and his brothers were on the blacktop, meeting up with Nate’s classmates and Frederick’s friends from high school. The battles were fun, but it was pride that Nate was seeking, even in middle school.

“The part that I fell in love with was being able to play a sport where you can take someone 1-on-1 and you can try to beat them, not just offensively but defensively,” Nate says. “Being able to have a matchup is being able to say, I’m gonna guard you the whole game. I’m gonna stop you from scoring on me. I’m gonna make sure my team wins. So, I really fell in love with the competitiveness of it.”

Seven years later, that will, love and determination serves as the foundation of Nate’s game, a game that has seen him blossom into a consensus top-5 player in the Class of 2025 and the No. 1 player in the state of Virginia. Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn, Virginia and many, many others have stamped the five-star do-it-all wing as a future difference-maker for their squads.

Between the 3SSB circuit and his tape out at Highland High School, it’s easy to classify Ament as the modern NBA archetype. He’s a lengthy 6-9 forward who’s continuously fine-tuning the framework of his three-level scoring. The locks on defense are there, too. Mind you, with a handle and quickness to break down defenders in transition and off the wing. Size-ups, step-back treys and low-post fades, it’s all his game.

“From when I first started playing basketball to now, I knew that you just have to be consistent, always getting in the gym. In anything I did, I just knew that I wanted to be the best,” Nate says. “I just kept it consistent. I knew that I had the capabilities to be one of the best in the country. But for me, it was just important not to rush things and to stay patient with my journey, because my journey’s different than anyone else’s.”

As of late, the game has taken him from the gleaming lights of Times Square to the gold medal podium at the FIBA AmeriCup with the U18 USA Team. And to cap off a summer driven by years of commitment to his craft, he took home the Terrence Clarke Spalding MVP Award and the dub at the SLAM Summer Classic Vol. 6. While he netted contested jumpers and rose up to meet the rim more than a few times while playing at the Rucker Park, memories from his days on the blacktop resurfaced. He wanted to get the best of his matchup, just like his brothers.

“They try to be the best at everything they can do, whether that’s sports, whether that’s school, life or anything. I try to do that with basketball as well,” he says. “They’re kind of my motivation. I play hard for them. Not just for my brothers, but for my whole family, just to make sure that I’m representing the name on the back of my jersey in the best way possible.”

Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

The post Smooth Operator: Class of 2025 Highland Park Star Nate Ament Details How Family and Competitiveness Shaped His Journey appeared first on SLAM.

The pair of six-story structures are wrapped in abstract silver paneling with crystal clear glass composing the full face of the main wing’s entrance. Ten white beams sit at an angle supporting the L-shaped walkway above. Black adirondack chairs and tables are sprawled out underneath the shade that the canopy above provides. It’s a sick scene. Flick worthy for sure. 

SLAM 253 featuring Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper is available now.

As we wipe away rain that fell on the chairs just 15 minutes before, the doors of the building swing open. Class is out. Students wearing sweatpants, backpacks, slides and with iPhones in hands pour out of the automatic double doors. 

Initially, the kids don’t pay any mind to the 6-10 and 6-6 freshmen who will be leading the Scarlet Knights into the 2024-25 season as one of the most talked-about teams in the country. And then Dylan starts messing with his boy.

“Free pictures with Ace Bailey! Ace Bailey’s here!” Dylan, who’s wearing a black Rick Owens jacket and black PRPS jeans, calls out to the crowd of students trying to make it to their next class. Ace isn’t having it. 

“THE Dylan Harper. Five dollars for a photo with Dylan Harper!”

The two go back and forth for 30 seconds, until a group of students starts to gather. This wasn’t the intention. They were just trying to mess with each other. A healthy balance of embarrassment, if you will. But before we know it, a line has formed and the two have created a routine that’s down pat. 

Dylan holds the adidas basketball stamped with the Rutgers R and stands to the right. Ace, who’s wearing a black sweatsuit with red accents from the Lifestyle Sports Agency, which was founded by Sharife Cooper’s dad, Omar, and currently reps the Tennessee native, stands to the left with room in between them. They wave someone over and Dylan asks if they want to hold the ball. They smile while a friend takes the photo. A few dap-ups follow and encouragement for the season, then it’s off to class, the dining hall or the dorm. After about five minutes, the line disperses, and Ace and Dylan go right back to posing for their SLAM cover shoot.

This has never been the norm for Rutgers basketball. Impromptu meet and greets. Sold-out season tickets months out from the season. Thirty-plus journalists showing up for media day. It all represents just a bit of the hype that this pair of freshmen have injected into the program. 

As the No. 2 and No. 4 players in the Class of 2024 (per ESPN), Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper are the highest-ranked recruits to ever suit up in the Scarlet red. And that’s no shade to the likes of Phil Sellers, James Bailey and other Rutgers legends, but the energy around campus this year is different. These kids don’t just walk with the gusto of rock stars, they play like it, too. NBA scouts, head coach Steve Pikiell and the students who just got out of class all know it. And to think it all started with a Big Ten win nearly two years ago.

It’s January 15, 2023, and Ace Bailey is on his official visit to Rutgers. He’s with now-sophomore Jamichael Davis, sitting behind the bench waiting for Ohio State vs. Rutgers to tip.

“And then Coach Pike’s coming down talking to me and J-Mike [Jamichael Davis] like, Come on, put your stuff on. Y’all ready? That just showed us right there that he’s excited for us to come down,” Ace says. “And I’m still a junior, I wasn’t even a senior yet. So, him saying that, it meant a lot to let us know he’s ready. He’s ready to pour into us and give it his all. So we’re ready to give our all for him.” 

Amid the hype and excitement in the locker room after watching the team rally together for a thrilling overtime win, Ace knew that this was where he was supposed to be. He leaned over to Coach Pikiell and verbally committed to the program on the spot. 

“I didn’t have any idea that I was going to commit that day, but what I felt in the locker room was something that I wanted to be a part of. So I committed, and from there we went out to eat,” Ace says. “B. Knight [associate head coach Brandin Knight] called Dylan and was like, Talk to Dylan. And I was like, I just did it, it’s your turn now. He was like, I got you.”

In truth, Ace had no idea who was on the other end of the line when Brandin Knight handed him the phone. It took a second for the two to figure out who they were talking to. But once they did, they fell right back into the brotherhood that’s been fostered since they first met at Sharife Cooper’s camp a few years ago. 

“Off the court, it was never about basketball for us. It was about building a friendship and a bond,” Dylan says. “I think from day one, we connected and clicked right away. And it would be little stuff. [I’d] call him, FaceTime him like, Yo, how was class? How was school? We got practice later. Stuff like that. So it was never about the basketball part, it was about being a brotherhood and coming together as one.”

It took around 11 months, but Dylan came through. Surrounded by his immediate and extended family, the No. 1 point guard in the country announced his commitment live from the Fanatics HQ in New York City. After going back and forth with his brother, Ron Harper Jr, about their battles growing up and passing the torch of the program, Dylan decided to return the favor to Ace. 

“I was in school when he called me, too,” Ace says. 

“Yeah, he was laying on the couch,” Dylan says while Ace laughs. “I think it was before practice. It was just, like, a brother thing. After you do something good, you want to call your family, your people, and tell them what happened. So that’s what I did right there.” 

Dylan’s connection to Rutgers runs deep. Between middle school and high school, he was running around the RAC (now referred to as Jersey Mike’s Arena), getting shots up while his older brother led the program’s resurgence with back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. 

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“His four years here, just seeing how the coaching staff really worked with him, I was just like, Why can’t that be me? So that was probably the biggest thing. The family lineage, I want to be myself and [know] I can come here and be myself,” Dylan says.

While Dylan was building out the framework of his game, he was equally immersed in the program’s cultural fabric. He watched Rutgers basketball climb from winning less than five games in Big Ten play to flirting with AP rankings. He witnessed his brother rise from being a four-star recruit (per Rivals) to making the League under the guidance of Coach Pikiell. Now it was his turn to build off of the foundation his brother constructed. 

For the past few months, Ace and Dylan have been building chemistry and rapport with their teammates and coaching staff. Workouts preceded and followed their daily practices from June to August. They’ve been putting in the work. No doubt about it. 

“We learned a lot from the summertime. That was just a time to bond with our teammates,” Ace says. “We’ve got great bigs, great guards, great shooting guards. We bonded, see how they play, they see how we play, and we just connected and put everything together.”

It’s only been a few months and they’ve already built out an uncanny cerebral connection. Dylan knows when it’s time for Ace to turn up. He can feel the pockets within the game where Ace can build his confidence through buckets, and vice versa. Backdoor cuts and alley-oops are signaled with the bat of an eye. At the same time, Ace knows when Dylan’s going to find him for a slashing cut off the baseline. He’s taking advantage of the moments where he can break open his bag and rain down pull-up threes while expanding his playmaking.

They’re adjusting to the pace of the college game and “not wasting your energy on doing a lot of moves. Being exact in what you want to do, stick right to it. Don’t try to play around,” Dylan explains. “These are grown men. Like 23, 24. You’re not going to have time to really do everything that you were doing in high school.”

“Get to your spots,” Ace chimes in. 

“Get to your spots,” Dylan repeats in affirmation.

Even when they’re not connecting on displays of basketball genius, Ace and Dylan are in sync. Target runs are routine, most recently copping a new comforter for Ace. So are late night stops at Shake Shack or hitting up the dining hall after practice. Since arriving on campus in the midst of June for summer workouts, Ace and Dylan have been stacking on the bedrock of their brotherhood. When one calls, the other answers. It’s been that way long before the commitments. 

“Yeah, we go to Target, like, every other week. If y’all want to catch us, catch us at Target. We’ll be at Target. All the time, I’m telling you,” Dylan says. “But, probably in the summertime it was more like, practice early, then the rest of the day we’re with each other. No class, chilling in the room, playing the game. Doing kids stuff, honestly, just being ourselves and bonding.”

Inside the third floor of the practice facility, Ace and Dylan pose for flicks in their Scarlet Knights uniforms. Despite standing in front of a matching backdrop, the bond between them is clearer than the panes of the business school they’ll be next to 30 minutes later. Jokes get thrown back and forth like the rock on the perimeter. They call out to passing teammates in unison, checking in to see what their guys have been up to. And when Josh Turner’s “Your Man” blares from the speakers above, an unanticipated karaoke session ensues.

Piscataway has become a second home. There’s a sense of comfort, family and loyalty that runs through the campus. Their commitment to Rutgers’ prominence is being met with a trust to be themselves, to keep their feet grounded in the present while holding each other accountable to what they set out to accomplish almost two years ago. Team up. Dominate.

Welcome to the new norm. Rutgers, you ready?

Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

The post Range Brothers: Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey Talk Coordinated Commitment to Rutgers, Building a Brotherhood and Sights on the NBA appeared first on SLAM.

Non-New Yorkers might think the Big Apple seems like one compact unit where everyone is familiar with the boroughs and neighborhoods, but that is definitely not true. Especially for a teenager who lived in The Bronx’s Mitchel projects in the 1980s.

“I never came to Brooklyn,” chuckles Long Island University’s men’s basketball coach Rod Strickland, a New York City Point God who spent 17 years in the League and more than a decade on high-level college staffs before getting this, his first head coaching job, in the summer of 2022. “I came here a couple of times to play, but I was so young I barely remember… I played in The Bronx, obviously, and we played in Harlem.

“So when I first got the job here, it was a whole different environment. I just had to get adjusted to that, which was fine. At the end of the day, it does look like The Bronx and Harlem. I just hadn’t been here. Now it feels like home.”

And isn’t that lovely for the LIU Sharks? If you’re doing a double take on what one of your favorite point guards ever is doing at a school you may not have even heard of…let’s take a step back.

LIU, formerly known as the Blackbirds, were a national power going back to the 1930s, when legendary coach and author Clair Bee led them to undefeated seasons in 1936 and ’39 and NIT championships in ’39 and ’41. The program crumbled in the 1950s after a point-shaving scandal and did not resurface in DI until ’68. The only reasons fans under 50 might be familiar with the program are the dope ’97 and ’98 teams that featured New York City ballers Mike Campbell, Charles Jones and Richie Parker or the ’10-13 teams that made three straight NCAA Tournaments.

Since that time, the university’s Brooklyn and suburban Brookville locations officially merged and the school has officially been known solely as Long Island University. What’s more, the sports teams are now the Sharks.

Rod Strickland, who in 1998 led the NBA in assists (he ranks 13th all-time in career assists) and was subsequently named second-team All-NBA, has been coaching the LIU Sharks for two years and we’re just getting around to covering them? Well, that’s OK with him, because it took about 24 months for him to get fully comfortable. “I had to get the experience and feel things out,” says Strickland (whose teams went a combined 10-48 in his first two seasons) from the comfort of his office in LIU’s Steinberg Wellness Center. “As of today, I feel like I have a great understanding of the environment. Now it’s a clean slate. These are my recruits. Whole new staff. It feels good.”

OG NYC hoop heads should consider this team a must-watch on the strength not only of Rod but his newly hired assistant Derrick Phelps, who starred at Christ the King in Queens before a stellar four-year career at UNC. But we get it; that demo is aging. Why should a modern hoop fan tune in to see the Sharks? Because they’re gonna be good!

The newcomers LIU fans are most excited about include freshman Roc Lee, a highly touted shooting guard from Atlanta considered a contender for NEC ROY, and Malachi Davis, a senior transfer wing from the Toronto area by way of Power 4 program Arizona State who has NEC POY potential. We find Davis overlooking the Sharks’ court from an office across the hall from Coach Strickland. “The important thing is building the LIU brand,” Davis says. “We’re trying to change the culture. We’re trying to change the environment. And bring the community together and do something real special this year.”

Sophomore forward Jason Steele, a Queens native who played his high school ball at Our Saviour Lutheran in The Bronx, is one of a select group of returnees for the Sharks. “The realistic goal for us is to win,” Steele says firmly. “We have people who want to compete. I would refer to them as straight dogs. Everyone here wants to work and everyone wants to win.”

The de facto team leader is another returner with a very familiar last name: senior point guard Terell Strickland. Terell had a great high school career in the Tampa-St. Pete area (Dad used to coach at South Florida) before playing in 50 games for James Madison University between ’20-23. Rod got the job too close to the ’22-23 season for Terell to get up here, but there was no doubt he’d arrive for the ’23-24 season. Terell had a solid junior campaign at the point, averaging 7.2 ppg and 3.6 apg, and everyone expects an even better performance this year.

“There was no debate about me coming to play for him,” Terell says. “I really enjoyed my time at James Madison, but this was just too special of an opportunity to pass up. Not only is he my dad, but he’s an NBA player who’s played the game at a high level. The chance to learn from him was something I couldn’t pass up.”

As Rod says, “I was quoted as a player as saying I never wanted to coach because I wouldn’t want to coach five of me. But when I was done playing, I needed a job. I called my guy at Memphis—William Wesley—and he got me with Cal [John Calipari]. Cal was so forward-thinking; he knew I was a point guard, and he got Derrick Rose, Tyreke [Evans], J-Wall.”

Strickland followed Cal from Memphis to Kentucky and then did stints at South Florida and with the NBA G League. “I wasn’t ready to be a head coach at first. But after being in it—at a high level at Memphis and Kentucky, playing for national championships—I don’t know exactly when, but it just got to a point where it was like, the next step. I played. Then I was an assistant coach. Then the next thing was to be a head coach.”

It’s an all-around, feel-good New York story that just needs some success on the floor to reach the happy ending everyone in the building seems to think is inevitable.

When asked about his father, who is obviously the key to the whole LIU hoops rebuild, Terell says, “I’m really happy for him. Very proud of him. It really is an amazing opportunity for him, especially for him to be back in New York to do it, surrounded by his family and a big group of supporters.”

Action photos via Getty Images and David Patalano.

The post Shark Sighting: How the Legendary Rod Strickland is Leading Long Island University Back to Prominence appeared first on SLAM.

Brickley initially named the runs “BlackOps” because he wanted the workouts and open runs to be discreet. Here, he gives us his breakdown of another year of BlackOps Basketball and his award picks.

The 2024 SLAM x BlackOps Awards

Breakout Season: Paolo Banchero

Photo by @kees2life

This was the fourth summer I worked with Paolo. His energy was laser-focused! We would go 60-75 minutes, and he did every drill at game speed. Coming off his first All-Star season and playoff run, he wanted more. I believe we will see Paolo in many more All-Star Games and many more playoff runs. The Magic will be very good this year.

Best Summer Shooter Award: Klay Thompson

Klay came in this offseason looking like a completely different player. He seemed a step quicker, and he shot incredibly well all summer. He literally broke every shooting record this summer. But, in CJ McCollum’s defense, Klay locked in with me in August/September, while CJ held many records and worked with me in May/June.

Best Middle Schooler I Have Ever Worked With: JJ Crawford

During the workout, JJ’s father (Jamal Crawford), Jordan Clarkson and Boardroom’s Nick DePaula were watching. Ju was hitting NBA three-pointers at a high percentage, picking up the ballhandling drills I was giving him and getting buckets on my interns! The internet always gives the interns a hard time, but they can really defend. After the workout, Jamal and I talked hoops for about an hour, and it was one of my favorite conversations of the summer. Jamal is a true student of the game. I’m calling it now: JJ Crawford will be a top-five pick one day!

Draft Day Award: Matas Buzelis and Tyler Kolek

I believe both of these guys will have long NBA careers. Matas will be a name we see on ESPN’s Top 10 plays many times this season. Tyler Kolek is my sleeper from this past draft. The Knicks got a great playmaker and scorer at No. 34. I think he’ll bring great energy with the second unit.

NCAA Award: lan Jackson

The best thing that happened to Ian Jackson was that to start his senior season, he dropped in the rankings. His entire workout approach changed at that moment, and Ian became a man on the basketball court. He worked out with me five days a week—sometimes twice a day—and went hard! I put him in situations where he played 1-on-1 with NBA players, and he more than held his own—he was wowing everyone in the gym. I can’t wait to see what he does at UNC this season.

High School Award: Kiyan Anthony & Chris Cenac Jr.

I’ve seen Kiyan Anthony develop from a little kid running around MSG to getting buckets in the NBA BlackOps runs. He is constantly texting me, showing his urgency to get in more workouts and keep improving. Chris Cenac played in the Brickley Invitational and shocked me during the workout portion. At 6-10, he can shoot the three, finish around the rim, play in the mid-post and try to dunk on you by the rim. It’s no surprise he’s skyrocketing up the rankings!

Chris Brickley Invitational Award: Tyran Stokes and Jasper Johnson

Tyran Stokes is ranked No. 1 in the Class of 2026 for a reason—he’s a matchup nightmare. He can shoot and find his teammates, and his motor is always on 100. Jasper Johnson went crazy in the game, hitting tough shot after tough shot. He really reminds me of D’Angelo Russell. Kentucky is producing high-level prospects right now.

Mentor Award: Russell Westbrook

People can say what they want about Russ, but the reality is he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of the Top 75 NBA players of all time. This was the second offseason in a row where he took the time to mentor a younger player. Last summer, it was Azzi Fudd from UConn, and this summer it was New Jersey legend Isaiah Briscoe. Russ invited Briscoe to a few of his 6 a.m. workouts and shared some gems. Russ and I have developed a genuine relationship over the years, and I’m thankful to have him as a friend.

GOAT Award: LeBron James

I was blessed to help prepare LeBron for his Gold medal run. His work definitely paid off, as he ended up getting MVP of the Olympics at 39 years old! Aside from his great workouts, toward the end of the summer, I was offered a lot of NBA coaching positions, and I needed someone to talk to who knows the game and the business. I reached out to LeBron with no expectations—if he didn’t respond, I wouldn’t have been upset at all, knowing he has a million things going on. But he sent me some great advice, and it was exactly what I needed to hear. So, thanks to the GOAT for taking the time to do that.

Best Group Workout of the Summer: Kevin Durant and CJ McCollum

There was something special about the energy at The Summit, with music blaring through the Bose speakers. Normally, players gradually work up to game-speed actions, but this workout was different. KD caught the ball in the corner, ripped through hard with two dribbles and hit a beautiful pull-up–just like he was in a playoff game. Then I passed the ball to CJ, and he did the same thing. For the next 65 minutes, both players gave it their all. That was awesome.

Best Rapper Basketball Player: Russ

Russ decided to take basketball seriously and came to me after training with his Atlanta trainer. He became a knockdown shooter. The transformation in his game was insane. He had dribble moves, was hitting NBA threes with consistency and just played with confidence. I think Russ became the best rapper-shooter l’ve ever worked with.

Best BlackOps Matchup: Jalen Brunson vs. Immanuel Quickley

Immanuel Quickley, fresh off signing his $175 million deal with the Raptors, was playing with supreme confidence against All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson. There was definitely a sense of major competition. Quickley backed up Brunson for the Knicks before being traded to the Raptors, so it felt like Quick was playing with a chip on his shoulder. Watching these two go at it for almost two hours was super entertaining. It was like watching a great boxing match. They were giving it their all and not letting up. Man, that was a great run!

Photos by @nextsubject.

The post The 2024 SLAM x BlackOps Awards: LeBron James, Jalen Brunson and More appeared first on SLAM.

There’s nothing quite like being drafted into the NBA. A decade’s worth of blood, sweat and tears has all led up to that surreal, life-affirming moment when one’s name is called to the stage. But even in a place where one’s wildest dreams come true, rarely do the stars align like they did for a then-18-year-old Carlton “Bub” Carrington.

Mere minutes after being selected 14th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers, Carrington was informed that he’d be traded to the Washington Wizards. He couldn’t believe it. He recounts thinking, “There is no way … Wait, what is happening right now?” Because, to Carrington, there’s more to repping the Wizards than individual pride; he’s repping his home state, too.

Take a 40-minute drive northeast of Capital One Arena, and you’ll arrive at Carrington’s childhood roots in Baltimore, a city that exudes its own grimy, uber-competitive basketball culture. However, compared to the abundance of opportunities in cities like New York or Los Angeles, there are only so many spots to be filled in Baltimore. “You’re trying to make that one team, you’re trying to go to that one school, trying to be in that one area,” Carrington says.

Point-blank, if you want to make it in Baltimore, you have to earn it. Carrington is no exception to the rule, and it’s not far-fetched to presume that’s where the battle-tested guard developed his pedal-to-the-metal tenacity. Just ask the man himself. “In some way, shape or form, [you’re] a product of your environment,” Carrington says. “On the court, it’s always been that one mode for me: you got to kill that person in front of you. Figuratively, of course.”

As Carrington puts it, it doesn’t matter if your opponent is someone you’ve never played before or someone you’ve been rivals with for as long as you can remember, every ball game is a battle. For Bub, some of his most formative memories came from those long-standing rivalries. Those battles became his statement to the city that he’s got the drive and game to back up his merciless mode of playing.

One battle stands above the rest, however.

When Bub first arrived at St. Francis Academy, one of the city’s most well-known prospects, Jahnathan Lamothe, was also there. 

“He blew up big,” Carrington says. And for the rest of high school, whether it was the final minutes of practice or the AAU circuit, an overlooked Bub made it a point of emphasis to earn his stripes through his battles with Lamothe. “I wasn’t, like, talked about, or anything … [so] he was on my list. He was on me and my dad’s list, telling me you had to go at him every day. [My dad would say] wherever you see him, you got to go at him.”

Those are words you don’t take lightly. Bub’s father, Carlton Carrington II, is a revered local AAU coach, and his insight into the sport allowed Bub to stay one step ahead of his contemporaries. “You see the game from a different perspective, from a coach’s perspective. A lot of kids see from a coach’s perspective for an hour, for however long you’re in practice…I see it every hour of the day,” he says.

That father-son, coach-player dynamic is unique. It’s a high-wire balancing act for them both, and sometimes, when players are younger, those lines are blurred beyond comprehension. “When I was younger, I used to think there was no switch,” Carrington recalls. But once Bub matured, he began to see the fruits of his labor as his understanding of the people around him started to crystallize. “I stopped trying to think I’m smarter than him. He knows what he’s doing…[and] it’s always a good thing to have someone that knows what they’re talking about.”

All this culminates in the player he is today: a 6-4 guard who’s a magician pulling up from the mid-range and a smooth operator from the pick-and-roll; a player who, in an effort to be the best player he can be for his team, embraces the little things and the not-so-glamorous aspects of basketball.

But, with all of Baltimore’s unrelenting competitive spirit, there is also a cherished sense of community. Ask any basketball player from Baltimore, and they’ll tell you everyone is trying to be nothing less than the best in the city. But when that once-in-a-generation player reaches the top, and their sky-high aspirations carry into college and beyond, the whole city relishes in their success.

That pride only intensified with Carrington playing so close to home, and to Bub, it’s only right to give back to a community that shaped him into Washington’s guard of the future. So, while the NBA eagerly waits for Carrington’s first game, he hasn’t wasted any time putting his charitable activism into effect. He’s already taking part in local back-to-school and annual Thanksgiving food drives while also conceptualizing community-oriented projects with fellow teammates.

“I’m trying to be a voice. I’m trying to actually be active in the community,” Bub says. “I like helping people. I help people because I was helped.”

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Washington Wizards Rookie Carlton “Bub” Carrington Reflects on His Baltimore Roots and Playing Close to Home appeared first on SLAM.

A year after being selected #1 overall in the 2020 WNBA draft, SLAM stamped New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu as “The Next Queen of NY” for the mag’s Future Issue.

Two years after SLAM #231, Sabrina was launching her very own signature shoe with Nike — just the 12th player in W league history to have her own namesake sneaker — a distinction both historical to reflect on, and aspirational to look ahead towards.

“I know the numbers — only 11 players in 27 years have come before me,” she beamed after the launch. “It’s one of the highest honors in our game and something beyond humbling to be a part of.”

The moment immediately took Ionescu’s starpower and impact on the game to yet another level. 

An All-Star and All-WNBA PG in each of the last three seasons since, the 3-Point Contest record setter is once again running point for a loaded Liberty squad that reached the WNBA Finals a year ago, and aspires to yet again this year. 

Her debut signature model broke barriers and saw adoption at all levels of the game, inspiring “anyone, anywhere,” just as she had hoped. 

“It’s crazy to think about now, but the vision that Nike and I had together has really come to life,” she added.

The momentum around her second sneaker made it one of the most anticipated models of the entire year. It’s led to players of all positions, at all levels and from all backgrounds feeling inspired whenever they’re lacing up their pairs of Sabrinas. 

“That’s been something that we’ve been able to see happen, from NBA players to college players and now young boys,” said Ionescu. “They’ll be able to put these shoes on and feel like they can go out and accomplish anything.”

With the expectations rightfully high as Sabrina entered her fifth season this summer, there were also equally high expectations for her follow-up signature shoe, the Nike Sabrina 2.

Returning a sleek silhouette and versatile colorblocking options along the upper, her second shoe has offered up both a lighter weight sneaker and a more responsive cushioning platform. The recognizable Swoosh placement on the inside of the first shoe returns yet again, angled upwards through a shattered glass graphic to signify Sabrina’s barrier breaking series.

To highlight her impact in the sneaker game and on the signature shoe business, SLAM teamed up with Nike to create a Sabrina 2 that will be unmistakable on court — flooded out in all seafoam.

As SLAM celebrates its 30th anniversary and the magazine’s upcoming induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, we collaborated with a batch of brands to highlight the most memorable covers, most impactful players and defining sneakers that made their mark during the past three decades of SLAM. 

Amplifying the bright seafoam teal throughout, the SLAM x Sabrina 2 features a variety of additional details throughout. The heels of each shoe incorporate SLAM’s logo along with a nod to the 30th anniversary, while the insole also includes our celebratory 30th banner icon. 

The Swoosh logos are elevated throughout, standing out with a mirror finish that speaks to the young girls and boys that can take inspiration from the shoes and “see themselves” in Sabrina’s path.  

“My favorite detail is the Swoosh and being able to see your own reflection,” said Ionescu. “I want everyone to see themselves, what it is that they want to create and what it is that they want to dream — to be able to go out and do that in my shoe.”

As SLAM turns the literal page, with not only 30 years of impact and a Hall Of Fame designation cementing the legacy of “the basketball bible” into hoops lore for good, it’s the future of the game of the game that the magazine is also centered on celebrating and highlighting going forward.

A future that Sabrina Ionescu is helping to define. Both through her play, and the impact of her signature series with Nike. 

“I know what some people might think: ‘It’s just a shoe…’

“But really,” she continues. “I think signature shoes like this can help continue to push the game forward, for all.”

As SLAM celebrates 30 years in the game, our newest Sabrina 2 collaboration looks ahead to The Future, linking back up with one of the magazine’s iconic cover athletes that is sure to continue to pave the way for the next generation of the game. 

The post SLAM’s Nike Sabrina 2 Collab Celebrates The Future Of The Game appeared first on SLAM.

Everything he needs is here, including a state-of-the-art gym, where we’ve set up to shoot the cover of SLAM 252. Behind one basket, stretching the entire length of the wall, is a blown-up image of Lillard’s series-clinching three-pointer against the Rockets in 2014; behind the other, the unforgettable shot that knocked out the Thunder in 2019. Other photos marking significant moments in Lillard’s life and career surround the court—of family and friends, of award ceremonies and celebrations, of dunks and game-winners. “All part of the story,” he says.

SLAM 252 featuring Damian Lillard is available now.

A year ago, Lillard wasn’t sure where the next chapter of that story would unfold. After requesting a trade in July, his summer plans had to be altered. He couldn’t play competitively—couldn’t train as rigorously as he likes to—knowing that an injury would compromise negotiations. He waited three months until the deal with Milwaukee was done, leaving him with just a few days to pack his bags and adjust to his new situation before training camp began. It was all so hectic.

This summer has been a refreshing change. Less business, more family. Less uncertainty, more peace. Less waiting, more action. Lillard has been able to focus on his training, embracing a holistic approach that includes a strict anti-inflammatory diet. He even spent four days in Las Vegas working out with retired Navy SEAL David Goggins.

As the 2024-25 season looms, Lillard is prepared in a way that wasn’t possible last September, both physically and mentally. Here, he reflects on the past year, his transition to Milwaukee, building chemistry with Giannis Antetokounmpo and much more.

SLAM: What was it like to work out with David Goggins and how did that come about?

Damian Lillard: We had had many conversations over the last two-and-a-half years about getting together and training. And he would always tell me, like, ‘Man, I could take you to the next level as far as your conditioning and your mind.’ And I wanted to do it. It was just a matter of finding the time and opportunity that fit both of our schedules. And that time came this summer.

It was definitely a challenge physically. A lot of those exercises and conditioning drills that he pushes you through are a challenge. It pushes you past your limits. But I think it was more of a mental thing than anything. You realize how hard it is to do those things, and then he’s constantly demanding more. I walked away from it just understanding myself a little bit better, as far as like what you have to give. There were a lot of moments [where] I was ready to quit. And he didn’t say, ‘Just give me a little bit more.’ He was demanding a lot more when I had nothing left. He kept saying, ‘Don’t just survive, you gotta conquer it.’ And the fact that I was able to do that, I think it did change something for me mentally as far as when I feel like I’m breaking down and wearing down.

SLAM: Reflecting on last season, what are the challenges that come with adapting to a new team that people on the outside tend to overlook?

DL: I think the number one thing people don’t understand is the change that it is for the person—the change that comes with picking up and going into a new environment. Sometimes you leave one job for another job and you might have to relocate, but a lot of people go job to job locally. They don’t have to pack up their lives and go to a completely different place. And that’s not something that everybody experiences the same as us.

The number two thing is having to learn to work with somebody new. And not just having to—being expected to work together and figure it out right away. And I think that’s something people don’t understand. They just look at, This player’s great, that player’s great, you got this, you got that, and they just think it’s supposed to work. But you gotta figure out how it works for everybody. Me playing with Giannis is one thing, but we have to figure out how we work best and how that works for everybody, because there are a lot of guys that have to be able to do what they do best and be in a position to succeed for the team to succeed. So I think a lot of people look at two [people], and they don’t look at the big picture of the entire team.

SLAM: Now that you’ve been able to get settled a bit in Milwaukee, is there a level of comfort and peace that you think will translate to the court?

DL: I definitely think there is. Like I said, being able to come back and do everything to prepare myself to the best of my ability is the first thing. I know that when this summer ends and I get ready to go back to Milwaukee, I’m gonna go back prepared, not just because of what I did for my body, my PT, my strength and conditioning and my diet—all of those things are great for me physically but being able to come here and I didn’t say, All right, this summer I’m gonna take off and go on all these vacations and do all these things. I spent a lot of time with the people that I really care about and that I want to be around, and that’s my kids, my mom, my nephews, my sister, my brother, my cousins. We didn’t do a whole lot, we just spent a lot of time around each other. And I think that that did me very well this summer. So going back knowing that I’m physically prepared and I’m mentally prepared and it’s a more familiar situation. We gained some stability with [head coach] Doc [Rivers]. Knowing who I’m gonna go play for, having a much better understanding of the team, knowing guys now—I mean, it’s just different. And all of those things give me a different level of peace going into it than I ever could’ve had last year.

SLAM: You talked last year about the challenge of figuring out who you are on the Bucks. With a year under your belt, have you figured it out?

DL: I think I definitely have a much better idea coming off of last season and only getting to know the staff better. Even over the summer, spending time around them, talking to them, and also being able to step away and look back, I have a much better idea what is necessary for me. I know that I don’t need to play the same type of game that I played for the first 11 years of my career, but I think my mentality has to be what my mentality has always been. Instead of trying to come and overly fit in, I think I was brought in to be who I am. I spent too much time trying to ease my way into, What does it look like?, instead of just asserting myself and being who I am. Looking back now and also being there for some time, I think my understanding of that is much better.

SLAM: How has your relationship and chemistry with Giannis evolved and where is it at now?

DL: I think it developed great over the course of the season. He’s not a super talkative person and I’m not a super talkative person myself. Over time, I’ve become [more outspoken] the more that I start to build relationships with people, especially on the team. And I think as the season went on, me and him definitely started to talk more and more, and I started to come to his house to do conditioning or work out together. We’re on the phone. I’m sending him clips and stuff like that. And this summer, we’ve been in constant communication. We both know that we need each other. I think he’s excited coming into the season just like I am, because we became a lot closer as the season went on and we started to learn [about] each other a lot better. So having a full offseason of being connected to each other and being able to go into this next season, I think we’re both going to be ready. And we’re both excited to do what we gotta do.

SLAM: Can you talk specifically about building pick-and-roll chemistry with Giannis? How has that developed?

DL: To start the year, we just weren’t in a lot of pick-and-rolls together for a long time. We were playing in transition, or I was in ISO, or he was in ISO. It just wasn’t a lot of pick-and-rolls. The best way to get chemistry in pick-and-rolls is to be in a lot of pick-and-rolls together. And I think it got to the point with Doc where he was having us in practice, just, Set it. Throw it to Giannis. Giannis, give it back to Dame. All right, Dame, throw it back. All right, Giannis, uphill DHO. It was almost like the team was laughing at us, just repping it out over and over.

Then in games, we ended up being in a lot of those actions together a lot more the second half of the year. I started to see what he was thinking, and I think he started to see what I was thinking, and then we would talk about it. Once you start to build chemistry, then I can start directing a little bit more because we are more connected, instead of me just trying to tell him what I want him to do [when] we haven’t even really worked together on it. [I was] wanting to give him the respect of, like, he might have something that he wants me to do a little bit different, but it’s hard to figure that out when you’re not in a lot of pick-and-rolls together. And as the season went on, I started to see how I can make the game easier for him, and I think he started to see what I needed from him to be free out of the pick-and-roll. And from here, I think it’ll continue to just get better.

SLAM: Do you feel like people are overlooking the Bucks heading into this season?

DL: Yeah, I think people are definitely [doing that], and that’s how the league is. It’s like, on to the next thing. There are younger teams on the rise, you have teams that made big free agency moves, teams that made trades, all types of things took place. So obviously that’s going to be what’s sexy. When I got traded to Milwaukee, it was like, Oh, the Bucks gonna win! Everybody just jumped on it, you know? So when something major happens or something big happens for a team, especially if it’s already a good team, like of course [that’s the reaction]. Rightfully so, all of those types of teams are going to be mentioned at the top.

SLAM: On the Club 520 Podcast, you talked about how consistency tends to get boring for people, to the point where it starts to go overlooked. Can you elaborate on that a bit and how you’ve seen that play out during your career?

DL: I think early in my career, I always felt like I was underappreciated. I had an underdog mentality. Sometimes even when I was getting credit, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough credit or they were ignoring what I was doing. And then I think I reached a point in my career where I started to get acknowledged how I felt I should be acknowledged. And then fast forward to being named to the 75th Anniversary Team, [that was] like, the ultimate nod to what my body of work has been and how consistent I’ve been since I stepped foot in the NBA.

But on the podcast, I was really just saying, like, I’m not loud and I’m not saying too much and doing all these things, but I’m always productive. Even in a season like last season where I feel like I could have been better in a lot of areas, I still had a productive season, and we were still a successful team throughout the season—a two-seed for pretty much the entire season. I think people just kind of look past it because of what they think we should be or whatever their personal opinions are. But the fact of the matter is, I’ve always been productive. This is gonna be my 13^th season, and I continue to just show up and be productive. And my team is always a good team. Over time, people are just like, Yeah, you don’t have a ring. What’s next? But I think they get bored with the fact that I just do it over and over and over and over and over. It’s like, Do something else. When it’s really, like, I’m showing up, putting my best foot forward.

SLAM: We see how much fun you’re having with your kids today. Can you describe the motivation that you get from them?

DL: I get a lot of motivation from being a dad and from my kids because how I was raised—like, the principles and the values that my parents raised me with—having my own kids, now I got even more pride about those things. There are some mornings where I gotta work out at 6:30 and I’ll get my kids up and bring them in here. They might have a tablet or whatever it is so they’re entertained and not getting in the way, but they’ll sit over there while I work out because I want them to be able to see, like, this didn’t just come out of nowhere. You gotta work hard for stuff. You gotta do stuff that you don’t want to do. A lot goes into the life that you guys have. And I want them, from a young age, to understand what it means to work hard for things and sacrifice. I say that to say, they have to see me be the ultimate example of what I preach to them.

And the motivation comes in where, if I’m being criticized, or if I’m struggling, or if something makes me uncomfortable, I think about my kids when I’m having to respond to those types of situations. I know that, especially with the internet and cameras being everywhere, there’s gonna come a day where my kids will be old enough to understand like, This was happening to my dad or, This was what people were saying about my dad, and there will also be evidence of how I responded to those things. Whatever the situation is, I’ll be the example for my kids and my nephews and nieces, where they’ll be like, He’s not just telling us this, there will be proof of, like, This is who I am. I think that’ll give them a sense of pride, because they’ll see it with their own eyes. And I feel that way because that’s how I feel about my dad. He said all this stuff to me and I see him walk that out. So that’s the kind of motivation I have. It’s not about—if I win a championship, that’d be great. That’s a cherry on top. But how you represent yourself and what you stand on as a human, I think that’s most important. So I get a lot of motivation from the opportunities to show that even when it’s a tough or a bad situation.

Portraits by Gabe Pineda, Victory Creative Group.

The post Home Team: Damian Lillard Talks Offseason, Building Chemistry with the Bucks and How His Family Motivates Him appeared first on SLAM.

Jrue immediately points to Derrick, the winner.

“I won the blocks, I think Jrue won the steals. I was pretty confident I would beat him in blocks, and we discovered that,” Derrick says, before flashing a quick glance to Jrue as he prepares for a potential comeback. “The Stock Exchange, they both count,” he continues.

Steals, blocks, dropping 30-pieces and everything in between, it’s no exaggeration to say that the Celtics’ starting guards do anything and everything that’s required to win. And as a result, they’ve experienced a summer that only six other NBA players ever have: winning an NBA championship and an Olympic Gold medal all within the span of two months. Now add SLAM cover stars to that list. They just won’t stop winning.

SLAM 252 featuring Derrick White and Jrue Holiday is available now.

Derrick White and Jrue Holiday aren’t just dedicated to their many, many responsibilities. They achieve greatness through them. They excel at being great at everything, so at a moment’s notice, they can fulfill any role needed. They defend the best players, no matter the position. They initiate the offense. They operate out of the dunker spot. They put their bodies on the line. They make the game easier for everyone around them. So when it came to the construction of the 2024 US men’s national team, the transition from the Cs was damn near seamless.

Jrue started in three of the team’s six games as the primary ballhandler, dropping 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals against Serbia in the opening contest. Off the bench, Derrick went 3-3 from downtown and swiped 3 steals against South Sudan. While a surrounding cast of superstars soaked up the spotlight, Derrick and Jrue held down the intangibles in the backcourt.

“Everybody was making a big deal about roles and everybody’s got to play a little bit differently. But for me and for Jrue, we just kind of played the way we play, just do the same things that we do with Boston,” Derrick says of playing in Paris with Team USA. “We didn’t have to change too much. Obviously, the minutes and everything looked different, but I didn’t feel like I had to go in there and be somebody I wasn’t or change anything.”

There’s a stoic confidence to Derrick White, one that was fully realized by the rest of the League’s fan bases after being torched again and again by the Parker, CO, native. From Boston’s outpouring of appreciation to receiving All-Star chants in San Antonio—where Derrick spent his first five years in the L—last year’s campaign was the best of his career: 15.2 points, 5.2 dimes, 4.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 1 steal per game. On a ridiculous 39.6 percent shooting from three.

The playoffs were his playground. Thirty-eight against Miami in Game 4 of the opening round. Four blocks on the Pacers in Game 3. Five steals two nights later.

But it’s the absurd amount of blocks that Jrue’s consistently amazed by—87 of ’em on the season, to be exact. Go to YouTube and there’s a three-and-a-half minute masterclass dedicated solely to rim protection.

“Nobody else in the League can do it the same way,” Jrue says of Derrick. “He blocks shots like a big man. To me, that’s amazing. Not only having the talent, the ability, the timing to block a shot—he’s also guarding your best perimeter player, where in this League, it’s super difficult to guard anyone. To have a backcourt mate like that and know the drop-off isn’t there at all, I feel like for other people, it’s scary, but it’s exciting to know that every night is going to be a tough night for any team.

“Putting on this jersey isn’t easy. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with it,” Jrue continues. “Even the season he’s had is a testament to the work he’s put in. How he plays, how he came out and played from the beginning of the season, how he ran the team. Even starting us off in Miami, like, the first series. I mean, just cooking. That means a lot to us, but he put in the work.”

There’s a common thread throughout the duration of our conversation: Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are unselfish to the core. They can’t help but give the other their flowers. This isn’t just how they play, this is who they are. Compliments get thrown back and forth like they’re working the perimeter. They’ve earned them. And as the both of them can attest, these are lifelong habits.

“I think our parents did a good job of raising us and being able to show us that giving is the way to go, and that’s how you, I guess, get happiness—by serving other people,” Jrue says. “I think over time you start to realize that service to other people is very important. For us, I think it just translates to our game. Yeah, Stock Exchange.”

The joy they’re looking for doesn’t come from posting a career-high. Winning takes care of that—as well as the assists and persistent displays of defensive brilliance that result in 64 regular-season wins and gleaming gold hardware.

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A blend of pride, skill and fearlessness anchors the Celtics’ two lockdown artists. Sprinting back on D. Poking the ball away on drives. Deflections on the help side. Cutting off the pick-and-roll. Diving for loose balls while chipping teeth. It’s a concerted effort of chaotic beauty.

“As long as I’ve been in the League, it’s been known that Jrue is the elite of the elite on that end. Just being on this team, you see how guys don’t even want to dribble the ball up the court when he’s on ’em. As soon as they see Jrue, it’s just like, Give it to somebody else, let them figure it out,” Derrick says. “Playing against him, you really get a deeper appreciation seeing it night in
and night out.”

While Derrick had two seasons to get acclimated to playing alongside Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Co., Jrue arrived in Boston on the first day of training camp. A handful of weeks remained before the tip of the season, and Derrick was already comfortable running the point. So the two worked through what their version of the Celtics offense would look like. The more reps they got together, the more comfortable they felt.

“When we came into training camp, Derrick was so sure of himself at the point guard position that it helped me,” Jrue says. “I think being able to mirror him from the beginning was great for me. Him being confident and knowing that I’m here to run the team and do whatever it takes to win, it just gave me confidence, knowing alright, If I follow him and I follow his direction, I’ll be fine.”

More often than not, Jrue has been the one leading the direction throughout his career. In Philly, in New Orleans, in Milwaukee, each stop had him running the show as the head honcho of the offense. Then 33 years old, entering a situation that had already been somewhat solidified, Jrue’s mindset was the same as always: help where he’s needed.

Game averages of 12.5 points and 4.8 assists might have been a drop compared to years’ past, but the game is so much greater than the context stats provide. The work Jrue did this season didn’t always show up in the box score—unlike his career-high 5.4 rebounds—but it more than resonated with the team and the greater Boston area.

“This season, I feel like the city of Boston is kind of like how we play. Hard nosed, blue collar, no excuses. Whatever they ask me to do, I’m going to do, and I feel like the city of Boston is like that,” Jrue says. “You should see these fans. I’m telling you, literally from the first preseason game to the last game of the season, they’ve been there supporting, they’ve been there cheering in a way that I’ve never seen before. It’s like one of the craziest experiences that I’ve been a part of. I feel like they appreciate that because [they] understand my game and how I play.”

The recognition is shared from Dorchester to the front office, with both Jrue and Derrick signing four-year, nine-figure contract extensions. The best defensive backcourt in the League is back in Boston, and so is the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Even though they’re fitted in their green and white Icon threads, an overwhelming amount of gold fills the facility. Light dances off the Olympic Gold medals that dangle from their necks, reflecting off the Finals trophy that they carefully hand to one another. Standing in front of a row of cushioned bleachers, even here the weight of the 18 championship banners that hang in the rafters off to the left can be felt.

Derrick and Jrue know the expectations will be higher next season and they’re embracing it. They’re leaning even more into the trust that they’ve built in the backcourt, and the infamous mentality of head coach Joe Mazzulla.

“Right now, we’re just getting back into it, getting our minds right. Knowing that when the season starts, Joe’s gonna have us ready to go,” Derrick says before Jrue laughs.

“That’s for damn sure,” he says.

“He’s probably more excited than anybody to have a target on our back. Y’all heard the quote. That’s legit who he is. That’s the kind of guy you want to play for,” Derrick says. “Last year was last year. You just got to continue to have that same mindset of getting better, improving and focusing on the things that we do.”

Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

The post Surreal Summer: Derrick White and Jrue Holiday Discuss Winning an NBA Championship, Olympic Gold Medals and Doing the Little Things appeared first on SLAM.

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

AND1 had been around for a few years as a rising apparel company by that point and their transcendent streetball Mixtapes were moving major, but now, their footwear was taking off too. 

The Tai Chi became the first shoe in company history to sell more than a million pairs.

“Not only was that maybe the best series of dunks I’ve ever seen — because it was just dunks that you’d never even seen before — but it was almost like the dunks that he had done were tailor made for the colorblocking of the shoe,” said the brand’s former head of footwear. 

The opening reverse 360 perfectly showcased the white and red sides of each shoe rotating through the air. The between-the-legs dunk — off of a bounce pass — immortalized the shoes in mid-air forever.

The iconic photo is so classic that the Raptors’ new unis feature the pose right on the front. Earlier today, Vince and the franchise unveiled a new outdoor basketball court featuring the silhouette at half court.

As the buzz back in 2000 after that mid-February All-Star Weekend continued, on the very next SLAM cover slot that was available, VC laced up a simple black and white pair of the Tai Chi for the cover shot.

The header text was straightforward:

“The Greatest Show On Earth” 

As SLAM continues to celebrate its 30th Anniversary this year, we created a new version of the AND1 Tai Chi to honor the 2000s era of AND1 and the impact of the Tai Chi on sneaker culture.

The timing couldn’t be better, as both SLAM Magazine and Vince Carter will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame next month in October. 

Our AND1 Tai Chi collab features SLAM’s heritage colors of white, grey, black and orange, fittingly the exact shades from that Issue 41 cover shot. 

The white-to-black mesh fade is a nod to the brand’s unique materializations from the start of the decade, and a way to bring the Tai Chi’s original yin and yang inspired split read to the side of the shoe.

As always, the shoe looks best with a suede color along the inside panel — a bright orange suede is seen here on the SLAM edition. 

The contrast stitching, split color laces and chrome shank all tie back to the added touches that initially made AND1 footwear such a force in hoops during the turn of the millennium.

To layer in more detailing, our 30th anniversary crest can be seen along the inner right collar, opposite of the three vertical stars on the left collar that signify each issue’s edition number.

The 3M hits throughout tie back to the bright lights of All-Star Weekend, and the impact that The Greatest Show On Earth has had, all these years later, on both AND1 and SLAM Magazine. 

The post The Greatest Show On Earth // This AND1 Tai Chi Collab Celebrates SLAM’s 30th Anniversary  appeared first on SLAM.

This story and so much more sneaker coverage is included in latest issue of SLAM KICKS 27. Grab your copy now.

First Team

DeMar DeRozan

No one else has the range that DeMar possesses when it comes to Kobes. This has been firmly established, especially on our page. And if we’re being real, DeMar’s collection on its own is enough to make this list year after year. The 1s, 6s and 9s all made their expected appearances, but it was seeing the Kobe 10 Elite HTM and the return of the Kobe A.D. from his Spurs days that cemented his status, yet again.

P.J. Tucker

In a reality where the grails of 10 years ago are being re-released every few months, P.J. Tucker remains pulling up to arenas with unspeakable colorways in tow. Nike KD 4 samples and Off-White Kobe customs should paint the range that the man displayed night after night. 

Devin Booker

A storyteller, a tastemaker and a sneaker historian. Devin Booker proved to be all those and more with the debut of his first signature sneaker. Colorways honored the Beaverton brand’s past icons and Booker’s own memories. Appearances were mapped out with a thematic-level of care. Documented and televised, the Nike Book 1 not only laid the foundation for Booker’s line, it set the standard mad high. 

Stephen Curry

When you’ve spent 11 years with one brand like Stephen Curry has, you get to dip back into the archives as much as you want to. Especially when all of your models have been updated so you’re floating on Flow cushioning. From headlining the Curry 11 to the Anatomix Spawn FloTro and the Curry 4 FloTro, the 2023-24 season saw the best shooter on the planet merge the stories of today with the silhouettes of years past.

Tyrese Maxey

The tides of opportunity turned to Tyrese Maxey all season long as the 76ers point guard of the future. But it was his diverse rotation of New Balance TWO WXY v4 colorways that cemented Mad Max’s first-ever First Team selection. From dollar bills with his face to revealing his own logo, the Boston brand isn’t pulling any punches with the rising star.

SECOND TEAM

LeBron James

The LeBron 21 got funky when it came to colorways. Shaggy suedes, pearlescent oranges, glossy metallics; even a second layer to the silhouette was revealed in clad grey. The extent of the experimentation culminated in the return of Deion Sanders’ Nike Air DT Max ’96, revealing a hybrid sneaker slashed by the football trainer’s iconic claw marks. The sandbox remains full of opportunity.

Paul George

When one door closes, another opens. In Paul George’s case, at least a dozen did. A stream of Kobe 4s, 8s, PG 1s and 2s all flowed through in his second season removed from his signature deal with Nike. And if you thought we saw the “Philly” Kobe 4 a lot last year, just wait until 2024-25 season.

Malik Monk

When you have an arsenal of Kobes like Malik Monk, balance might be the last thing on your mind. But the Kings guard has proven to be tasteful in his on-court output, shifting between his own PEs, original colorways and the recently updated run of Protros without leaning too far one way or the other. 

Jayson Tatum

From “Taco Jay” and flavored lemonades to wavy denim treatments, Jayson Tatum already has a thoroughly thought-out roster of colorways. The Jordan Tatum 2 extended the efforts of his first signature and established a lengthy connection to the brand’s wider athletes, from the WNBA to the League’s rising stars.

Trey Lyles

Let’s be real, no other big man in the L is putting it on like Trey Lyles. The Kobe aficionado has been well recorded on our socials and his collection of 4s through 9s remained in peak form this season. Toss in a duo of Yeezy and Mambacurial-inspired customs and you’ve got a second-straight Second Team selection for the Sacramento forward. 

MVP: P.J. Tucker

We’ve been over it before and we’ll say it again, P.J. Tucker is not the sneaker king, but he is the MVP of the 2023-24 SLAM KICKS Awards. Kicking it in the Nike Kobe 3 and Mookie Betts’ Air Jordan 11 PEs puts him in a tier of his own. But it’s the stories behind the likes of his own Nike Air Flight ’89 and exclusive Nike Book 1 colorways that remain at the heart of P.J.’s continued sneaker excellence. 

Most Improved Player: Devin Booker

After years featuring an assortment of sleek, Suns-appropriate Kobe PEs, Devin Booker was handed the keys to his own signature series. He’s not just the face of the silhouette, he spearheaded every part of the process, from its shape and color blocking to the eventual releases. An exclusive rotation of orange, black, purples and greys shifted to reach every corner of the color palette as tasteful colorways arrived in droves from October to April.

Rookie of the Year: Victor Wembanyama

The Nike Air Zoom GT Run was Wemby’s running mate all season long. Block after block, one jaw-dropping display of indescribable basketball artistry after another, the alien moniker has become more than fitting. Self-drawn extraterrestrial doodles served as his stamp of expression until the arrival of his own GT Hustle colorway at NBA All-Star Weekend. Sporting a sea of galactic imagery, the Swoosh doubled down with the reveal of Wemby’s own logo chiseled into a corn field. If anything, this is just the beginning of Wemby’s ascension in the sneaker space.  

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Undeniable Heat: Presenting The 2023-24 SLAM KICKS Awards appeared first on SLAM.

Whether you’re a longtime basketball junkie who already knows everything there is to know about Hoop Dreams, the cinematic masterpiece about Arthur Agee, William Gates and their families, or a young buck just learning about the film for the first time, you have to understand how utterly improbable it was that the single best movie of any year was a basketball doc. Quadruply so back in ’94, when there was no such thing as 30 for 30 and you were lucky if you found a documentary on any subject anywhere other than PBS. In fact, filmmakers Steve James and Frederick Marx originally set out to make a 30-minute piece they hoped would make it to PBS and on the back end, well, there’d be no such thing as 30 for 30 if Hoop Dreams didn’t show the world how powerful a documentary rooted in sports could be.

It was no short-lived phenomenon, either. Hoop Dreams has appeared in numerous lists of the greatest documentaries of all time and tends to be passed down from one generation to another in basketball families like a treasured heirloom. “I think the biggest impact is knowing folks in my generation are watching with their kids. I just saw a clip of Carmelo Anthony saying Hoop Dreams is a film his son needs to watch,” says Gates, who during the film commutes 90 minutes from the Cabrini-Green Homes in Chicago out to the private St. Joseph High School in Westchester and eventually overcomes a knee injury to earn a scholarship to Marquette. “At the core of it, the film is as relevant today as it was then because the issues still remain…You’ve still got kids who have the dream of making the League, and there’s two elements of the story. There’s injuries, there’s grades, there’s lack of opportunities. These issues still exist. Just change the faces.”

Says James, who directed Hoop Dreams as his first major project and subsequently worked on numerous successful films with Chicago-based Kartemquin Films, “I’m shocked and surprised how many people still talk about it. It’s not every day, but I do get approached about Hoop Dreams a lot. It helps that it’s out there and available—people can still watch this film.”

While James and Marx had the idea for Hoop Dreams and started the work on it, Peter Gilbert came on shortly thereafter and served as the Director of Photography and a producer. Gilbert has also gone on to produce many movies and remains prolific to this day—but nothing has hit quite like Hoop Dreams did.

“It’s an interesting thing. I’ve made 30 or 40 other films, including one about the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Innocence Project films about people who were wrongly convicted, all different kinds of stuff, as well as narrative stuff,” Gilbert says. “But Hoop Dreams is the thing that people define me by. [It’s] not a bad film to be defined by.”

Where Gates, James and Gilbert have all branched out since Hoop Dreams came out three decades ago (the former as a pastor and motivational speaker who moved to San Antonio and the latter with all their subsequent movie projects), Agee is, effectively, “Mr. Hoop Dreams.” He’s got his Classic HD Basketball Clothing Co. and is working on Hoop Dreams 2. He also teams up with Gates on Agee and Gates The Podcast: What’s your Hoop Dream? Asked over text if Hoop Dreams feels like a daily part of his life all these years later, Agee doesn’t hesitate. “It’s never ending, it’s always there no matter where I’m at,” he types back quickly. “It’s just a real cool thing to live every day.” Dreams are real, indeed. 

SLAM has and would celebrate a film such as Hoop Dreams no matter how old we or the film might be, but there’s special resonance that the movie is turning 30 this year just as we are. In February, we brought the guys together at the first annual SLAM Film Festival to celebrate the 30th anniversary, which kicked off a year-long celebration of the film.

Now, Alamo Drafthouse will be re-releasing the film in theaters this week as part of their 1994 look back series, Project Backboard is refurbishing the court at Garfield Park on Chicago’s West Side as part of JDS Sports’ Play With Purpose initiative, with a court unveiling this weekend, and SLAM will be dropping a capsule collection this Friday. You can join the stars and filmmakers of Hoop Dreams for an exclusive 30th anniversary panel at the prestigious Chicago Humanities Festival on November 9th. For more details and tickets, visit chicagohumanities.org.

Photos via Kartemquin Films.

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Ja Morant’s first signature sneaker set the standard high. Clean colorways and a smooth, comfy ride stamped the low-top sneaker’s wide-spread adoption from the high school circuit to college and NBA arenas. The debut was built on a clear cut foundation that screamed success since its debut, and for the sequel, Jarrett Mann, Head of Design for Nike Men’s Global Basketball Footwear, and Ja found even more areas to explore.

“The Ja 2 is building on a lot of the fundamentals of the Ja 1 and his style of play,” Mann says. “We know that Ja is a high flyer, and we also know that he changes direction and requires control. So really, the icons of this shoe were about bounce and control.” 

Ja solidified the check list for his signature series throughout the process of the 1. Comfort, stability, homages to his family along with a number of other items show up in the Ja 2 through an evolved lens.

To support the bunnies of the highest flyer in the L, the Ja 2 doubles down on its forefoot Air Zoom unit with the inclusion of a full-length Cushlon cushioning system. Other enhancements for comfort include a more pronounced ankle collar system, a sleek waterfall-inspired inner lining and a ballistic mesh vamp. But the hallmark of the sneaker resides in the ribbed midfoot panel. The molded aesthetic is more than just for show, bringing functional support as the model’s mainstay lockdown system for the 25-year-old who routinely evades the laws of gravity. Pair that with the raised sidewall guardrail and a stitched medial panel, and the checklist’s nearly complete. 

“Definitely the comfort level is obviously the first thing I recognize when putting on the shoe. That’s the first thing that everybody looks for,” Ja says. “Once I stepped in those shoes, I felt real comfortable in them. After that it was lacing ’em up and getting right. Making sure I can do everything I normally do on the court when you see me play, and I was able to do that at a very good level. And that was the whole goal with the Ja 2, to make sure I’m the best Ja out there on the floor.”

Improvements have been made, but “the core things always stay the same,” Ja says. “My checklist, that’s locked in stone. We know that every time we step in the room to speak on the Ja [line]. So it’s really just what other stories am I comfortable expressing through my shoes?”

The Nike Ja 1 served as the testament to his rise. Those images of sun-stained cones, flipping tires–which inspired the 2s traction pattern–and 12 a.m. workouts, now embroidered at the heel, are still present. The Nike Ja 2 amplifies those experiences and searches for even more by delving into the strength of the palette and his stash of stories.

On top of the personal memories exists a collection of shades and tones that aim to evoke the same feelings we all experience when watching No. 12. The “Purple Sky colorway paints that on-court energy in a galactic collection of plums, mismatched neon Swooshes and paint-splattered midsoles echoing the sights of the night sky.

The vibrant red, gold and black “Nightmare” composition captures the nightly reality for Ja’s opponents: an unstoppable display of speed, hops and will that you can’t shake loose. Light greys, ice blues and hits of metallic gold envision his trips to the top in the “Tree Topper” colorway. But of all the upcoming releases, the one Ja’s most excited for represents those closest to him. 

“‘In the Woods’ is probably one of my favorites and pretty much the biggest one for anybody who knows me or my family and how we get along,” Ja says. “We call where I’m from back home ‘The Woods.’ And it’s pretty much sitting around a cook-out and we’re all there together just bonding, listening to music, you play cards. It’s a lot of fun.”

When asked how the chosen colors correlated with those memories from South Carolina, Ja points to the light brown highlights, royal blue Swooshes and evergreen collar lining. “You’re gonna see dirt,” Ja laughs. “And then my grandma’s porch and the house color. It’s all in there.”

And as Mann explains, using different textures and finishes only magnifies the end result. 

“Texture is extremely important, and it’s all the team who obsesses over the work. Something as simple as ‘In The Woods,’ you’ve got a textile that feels a bit more rugged and tactile,” Mann says, as he floats the heel of the Ja 2 colorway in front of the camera.

“And if you look at the “Purple Sky” colorway, you get this sheen and shine with star graphics. So really, this shoe as you see it, you’re going to see a ton of colorways, a ton of expression all brought to life with those materials. [There’s] a lot more to come, but definitely, we’re looking at how do we interpret the things that we hear from Ja and put those into the shoe.”

Turns out, Ja and the Swoosh struck another gold mine. 

Photos via Nike and SLAM KICKS.

The post The Second Generation: Behind the Design of the Nike Ja 2 appeared first on SLAM.

These are just some of the WNBA players who have had impressive, eye-opening rookie seasons.

Add to that list Caitlin Clark, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft.

Not since Parker—who went on to be the first and only player to win both Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season—has a rookie impacted the League and everyone and everything around it as much as Clark.

Call it the Caitlin Clark Effect.

SLAM 252 featuring Caitlin Clark is available now.

Record-breaking performances. Game sell-outs across the country. Fans packing up and traveling wherever she goes. More eyeballs than ever on the W. Clark has been the talk of the W.

But there’s a flip side to it, too. Heated arguments and debates on sports talk shows and across social media are nonstop, all about Clark and her effect on the League. Is she getting too much press? Is she being painted as the WNBA savior when there are other players who have been here holding up the League for so long? Depends on who you ask—and the time of day you ask.

One could argue that never has so much pressure been put on a player coming into the League. Expectations were high from the jump, even while Clark was still in college at Iowa. There, she set the NCAA Division I scoring record with 3,951 total points. A lightning quick point guard with fast hands, she also became the Big Ten’s all-time assist leader (1,144) and hit the most three- pointers in a single season with 201. So, coming into the League, all eyes were expectedly on her.

But, ironically, Clark has not said much about the hype and fanfare surrounding her first season in the W. She appears to have chosen, instead, to just play her game and seemingly be content with breaking record after record after record and helping her Indiana Fever team do the same. All the while, she is assisting in a brand of excitement for women’s basketball, the likes of which haven’t been seen in a while.

The list of WNBA records broken by Clark is long and exhaustive. There are almost too many to name. They include setting the WNBA single-game assist record (19) against the Dallas Wings, recording the first triple-double for a rookie in WNBA history against the New York Liberty, and breaking the record for most assists in a season by a rookie.

You can’t leave out tying the rookie single-game three-pointers record—Clark made seven of those early in the season in the Fever’s game against the Washington Mystics. Other records include 21 games with at least 15 points and 5 assists, the most ever in a single WNBA season, and becoming the first rookie in WNBA history to record 400 points, 100 rebounds and 150 assists in a season.

Clark was also named to the WNBA All-Star Game in July and finished with 10 assists, the most by a rookie in the prestigious game’s history.

This unbelievable rookie season has also included a not-so-great statistic: She recorded the most turnovers in a debut game in WNBA history, with 10 in the Fever’s opener against the Connecticut Sun. She also has the most turnovers in a single season by any player in WNBA history. There’s definitely work to be done in that department, but overall, the Caitlin Clark Effect can’t be denied.

And it has extended beyond just her individual game.

The Fever clinched its first playoff spot since 2016 and currently sit at No. 6 as we head to print. In addition, the WNBA announced that the 2025 All-Star Game will take place in Indianapolis. The 21st WNBA All-Star Game, set for Saturday, July 19, 2025, marks the first time that Indy will host the League’s midseason showcase.

The Fever—already on an upward trajectory after last year’s acquisition of No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, along with Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Hull and NaLyssa Smith—have soared to new heights with the addition of Clark. This starting five earned a playoff spot after going on a hot streak following the Olympic break, rattling off seven wins in eight games. Collectively, they have transformed into a team whose ceiling keeps rising.

Hot shooting from Hull has landed her in first place in the League in three-point percentage (49.2 percent). Mitchell, who has been on her own personal tear this summer, is fifth in three-pointers made this season (96) and ninth in points per game. Clark is the assists leader, averaging 8.5 per game and is first in the League in three-pointers made at 111. Boston is fifth in field-goal percentage (52.8 percent) and eighth in blocks per game (1.3).

In August, the Fever led the entire League in scoring (89.7 ppg) and hit a season-best 100 points in a win against the Chicago Sky on August 30. Indiana also knocked down the most three-point field goals in the month with 72.

On August 16, the Fever beat the Phoenix Mercury 98-89, marking the first time since the 2015 regular season that Indiana has swept its regular-season series with Phoenix. Less than two weeks later, Indiana toppled the Sun, 84-80, for the first time since 2021.

The team’s success has also extended to its coach, Christie Sides, who formally entered the Coach of the Year chat and was named WNBA Coach of the Month for August after guiding the Fever to a 5-1 record. Sides is the first head coach in franchise history to earn the honor.

Clark has racked up accolades League-wide as well. In August, she was named both WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month and WNBA Rookie of the Month. It was the third time she earned Rookie of the Month honors, having also received the recognition in May and July, while marking the first time she was named Player of the Month. She was recently recognized as the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second time in her young career, and she also leads her rookie class in scoring, assists, steals, free-throw shooting and minutes played. And on September 13, she broke the WNBA’s all-time assists record, previously held by the legendary Ticha Penicheiro.

The player many call the female Stephen Curry has been under the microscope since before she entered the League, and the heat has been turned up all season long. Whether you agree or not, whether you’re a fan or not, Clark has dealt with the pressure, lived up to the expectations (even exceeded them in many ways) and has cemented her name in the sport after only one year as a pro.

The Caitlin Clark experience has only just begun but it’s already in full effect

Buckle up.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Simply Undeniable: Caitlin Clark Covers SLAM 252 appeared first on SLAM.

SLAM 252 featuring Jewell Loyd is available now.

Before Jewell fell in love with basketball, her world revolved around tennis. She was exposed to basketball because her older brother, Jarryd, played, but tennis was her thing, and she was destined to be a pro. During her early years growing up in Lincolnwood, IL, a suburb outside of Chicago, she played tennis “every single day, for six hours a day,” she says. And chances are, if she had stuck with tennis over basketball, she’d probably be competing in the same US Open match she was heading to watch after shooting her SLAM cover at our office on a cool and sunny September morning.

But one day at the park changed her outlook forever. 

Loyd played at the park all the time as a young kid. “Of course, after my homework,” she’s sure to add. But on this particular day, when she was about 7 years old, two older boys wouldn’t let her play on the basketball court. Jarryd, about 15 years old then, saw what was happening and offered a solution: We’ll play you for the court. So, it was game on. Two-on-two. The first to 10 points wins. It was Jewell and Jarryd’s first time teaming up together.

With the game on the line, the boys double-teamed Jewell, who was inches away from committing a turnover. In doing so, they left Jarryd wide open near the basket. Throw it up, throw it up! Jewell recalls her brother saying.

In dramatic fashion, she tossed the ball backward over her head and toward the rim, and Jarryd caught it for a game-winning flush. “Jarryd was just flying in the air, and it’s the first time I [had] ever seen my brother dunk. We won, and in that moment,” Jewell says, “I knew that basketball was something that I wanted to be a part of.”

She spent the next few years making a name for herself in the parks around the neighborhood. In many ways, this is what shaped her approach to the game.

“You started at Drake Park, and that’s where you play 21, knockout—it’s kind of the beginners’ court. Then you go to Columbia Park and play three-on-three. And then, once you get a squad, you go to Proesel Park and you represent and play five-on-five. So, you kind of have to move your way up.

“Growing up in Lincolnwood was a privilege,” she continues. “Being in an environment like that allowed me to just be myself, and it challenged me in a lot of ways because I was one of four or five girls to play with the guys, and that was a great experience for me.”

By the time she was in high school, Loyd developed into one of the best players in the country. She was a four-year starter at Niles West High School in Skokie and essentially broke every school record, averaging 24.8 points, 11.9 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 3.2 steals and 2.2 blocks for her career.

While in high school, she had the opportunity to be a practice player for the Chicago Sky. Jewell says this experience is what really put her untapped potential in perspective. She had a front-row seat to observe what it takes to play at the highest level. “Seeing their routines and their lifestyle and the games up close opened my eyes to really be like, Wow, I think I could really do this,” she says.

She committed to play for Notre Dame and joined an already-loaded roster led by All-American guard Skylar Diggins. It didn’t take long for Jewell to adjust to high-major hoops; she was ready from the jump. She understood that she wouldn’t be the strongest and most athletic freshman, so she focused on what she could control.

“A lot of it is your body’s still growing and developing. I knew I wasn’t going to be the strongest right away, so I focused on conditioning,” she says. “When I got to college, I was making sure I was in the best shape, and that’s something that’s been with me since leaving college and going to the pros.”

At Notre Dame, Loyd etched her name in the history books as one of the best players in program history. She was a two-time All-American, two-time All-ACC selection, two-time ACC All-Defense selection, two-time NCAA All-Tournament selection and the 2015 ACC Player of the Year. For good measure, let’s not forget she also has a 2013 Big East Freshman of the Year under her belt (before Notre Dame moved to the ACC her sophomore year).

She accomplished all of this in only three years, and in a move not so popular in women’s basketball, decided to forgo her senior year and enter the 2015 WNBA Draft. And to nobody’s surprise, the Seattle Storm drafted her with the No. 1 pick.

Loyd arrived to the W with enormous expectations, not only because of her pure dominance dating back to her high school years, but also because she was tabbed with the nickname “Gold Mamba” by the Black Mamba, the late great Kobe Bryant himself. Now, that’s a lot to live up to. But if there was anyone built to carry that weight, it was Loyd. She embraced the lofty expectations head-on. It’s extremely hard for a No. 1 draft pick to meet expectations; she has exceeded them.

“Throughout [my rookie] year, it was just about understanding who I am, the belief that I could do something, the belief that I could stay in the League and be part of this League and grow the League. I really thought I could do that,” she says.

“And I’m the kind of person where, if I really believe I can do something, it’s probably going to happen. I’ve always been that person since I was young. I’ve never been afraid to say what I want to do, believe it and write it down. And I don’t dream small. I always dream big, and that’s something no one can ever take away from me.”

The Gold Mamba is cut from the same cloth as her namesake. She’s naturally gifted, has a relentless work ethic and is simply willing to do what the average aren’t. But the similarities run deeper than that. Like Kobe, Jewell has an unquenchable thirst to learn.

“It’s pretty cool as a professional athlete to still be learning and building your game up. For me, the best part about the game is that I’m still learning so much about it,” she says. “That’s the best part about life in general—you constantly learn and build, and you don’t know until you make mistakes and you can learn from those mistakes. A lot of people go to the next level, nervous to make mistakes. But you need them; you need a lot of experiences to help you grow and get better.”

Now, it’s Loyd’s turn to pay it forward. As eager as she is to continue learning and acknowledge those who paved the way for her, she understands the importance of mentorship and is now in a position to help guide the next generation of hoopers. She’s been seen working out with USC star Juju Watkins; she’s been very supportive of Seattle Storm rookie Nika Mühl and the exceptional 2024 rookie class; and she makes herself available to any of her younger peers seeking wisdom or advice.

“I understand that I’m here because people helped me. I didn’t get here by myself,” she says. “If it wasn’t for my family, if it wasn’t for the people in my circle, I don’t know if I actually would have been able to go to the next level.”

The honors are plentiful: two-time WNBA champion, six-time All-Star (and 2023 All-Star Game MVP), three-time All-WNBA selection, the 2015 Rookie of the Year and a two-time Olympic Gold medalist, her most recent coming this past August at the Paris Games. And from the looks of things, all of these accolades, aside from Rookie of the Year, of course, should probably be qualified as “and counting.”

The 2023 WNBA season was a contract year for Loyd, and she played like it, averaging a career-best 24.7 ppg (which was also a League-best that season) and 4.7 rpg. Yet, the Seattle Storm struggled as a team and finished with an underwhelming 11-29 record. 

Instead of jumping ship to team up with other All-Stars, she signed a contract extension with the Storm in the offseason, and bet on herself that other players would be interested in joining her in Seattle and building a championship contender. It seemed like Seattle was heading for a rebuild until a pair of elites, Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith, hopped on board.

As we go to press, Loyd is averaging 20.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3.5 apg and 1.5 spg. More importantly, the Seattle Storm have clinched a playoff berth and are looking to make a deep run. And while they may not be the odds-on favorite, trust us when we say that nobody is looking forward to matching up against them.    

Loyd doesn’t have an in-your-face type of personality but rather a sort of quiet confidence that’s felt by her mere presence more than her words. She doesn’t ask for extra attention, though her game demands it. She isn’t typically the loudest in the room, but when she speaks, you want to listen. She has a wealth of knowledge and insight and is one of the most eloquent and thoughtful people—let alone athletes—you could come across.

Since she was a freshman in high school, Loyd says she’s been asked about the legacy she hopes to leave, and she says her answer constantly changes. This time, though, her answer has nothing to do with the game she loves, one that’s defined her life for the past 23 years, ever since that day at the playground with her brother.

“I just want my legacy to be that I’m a really good person, honestly,” she says. “I’m here to serve. That’s what I want people to understand about me. As much as I receive from the world, I’m going to give that back. And you don’t have to take it, but I’m here to let you guys know it’s all love here.” 

Portraits by Luke Schlaifer.

The post Jewell Loyd Discusses Her Journey to Becoming The GOLD MAMBA | SLAM 252 Cover Story appeared first on SLAM.

It’s a typical sunny day on the west side of L.A. and Trevor, Tajh and Tristan Ariza are trying to see who can hit a half-court shot first. It’s been two years since the NBA champion and L.A. native retired, and today, he’s back on the campus where his basketball dominance began. Except Trevor’s not the one in his old white, red and black threads. His oldest son, Tajh, is.

Tajh is currently one of the top 16-year-olds in the nation, and come next fall, he’ll be running the gambit on the same court his dad did. After finishing the basketball season at St. Bernard HS, Tajh soon after transferred to Westchester this spring.

Inside the school’s gymnasium, Tajh stands at halfcourt surrounded by a sea of red, black and white, from the “Comets” branded bleachers and walls to the shades of his dad’s original No. 4 home jersey that he’s wearing. The faded banners showcasing Trevor’s two state titles with the Comets hang proudly as father and son pose for flicks. Even in this moment, Trevor’s influence is ever-present. It’s surrounded Tajh since he was a baby, dribbling around with Kobe and Derek Fisher. Yes, he’s the son of an NBA player. But Tajh Ariza’s game is entirely his own.

“I gotta keep putting in work every day,” Tajh says. “You know, my dad [had a] great career, but I want to have my own name and show people like, Oh, I want to be like him, you know? So I just gotta keep working so I can get there.”

The 6-8 rising junior exploded on the recruiting circuit and is now considered top-10 in the class of 2026. After his freshman year, he held just three major DI offers. In the span of five months last year, he racked up five more. This past spring he received an invite to USA Junior National Minicamps, and over the summer he was playing up with Team Why Not 17U on the EYBL circuit. Things are just clickin’.

But the path wasn’t so easily laid out. Trevor let Tajh find his own love for the game. He didn’t push, he didn’t nudge; he sat back and watched his son discover their now shared passion.

“My idea for him was always right before he got to high school, if he was serious about it, I would give him all the tools that I use or the things that I learned to help him. So I would say when he got serious—about wanting to get better or actually work at basketball—was going into the ninth grade,” Trevor says.

Tajh agrees. He loved the game, but there’s a vast difference between loving to play and loving something enough to commit yourself to 5 a.m. workouts, two-a-days and a grueling 82-game season.

“I had to change my habits. Before maybe middle school, I didn’t really take it as seriously. It was just fun for me I guess. Of course, it’s still fun,” Tajh says, “but now I see that I have a real chance at what I want to do and be great. And I just kept going. I just took it.

Right before Tajh entered his freshman year, Trevor laid out what it would look like for his son to reach his highest potential. It ended with a soft yet subtle reminder: It’s time to kick it into the next gear. “I sat down with him and told him that it’s not gonna be fun. A lot of the time, it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna take a lot of sacrifice. And most kids, when they hear sacrifice or take away fun or free time, they kind of shy away from things. Lucky for me, he wanted to do it. So it was easy,” Trevor says.

In the year since, Tajh and Trevor have built out a dedicated plan. At least three times a week before school, they either lift or grind through sand drills with Trevor’s old Hoop Masters teammate. Working in the soft sand of L.A.’s beaches is taxing, exhausting, unnerving—all the above. But his explosiveness has taken off. “I started dunking on people, so that’s when I noticed that it started helping,” Tajh says. Off the court, he’s studying the ways larger guards like Paul George and Brandon Miller create space off the bounce.

After a shower, breakfast and school, Tajh will hit whichever program they didn’t do in the morning before heading to the court for myriad of shooting and ballhandling drills. From the gym to the sand dunes, Trevor is right there with his son.

Tajh’s dedication is persistent, a combination of witnessing the professional traits of his dad’s career and the will to carve out his own legacy. Getting up at 5:30 a.m. to run in constantly shifting sand is as much of a mental workout as it is a physical one. While Tajh embraces the results of his work, Trevor views it as a mile marker for how far his son has come since their freshman year conversation.

“It’s easy, for him especially being so young, to get the attention that he’s getting and kind of, like, be complacent and stuck in that. And my message to him is always just put your head down and focus on the work that you put in,” Trevor says. “Focus on the hours that you’re putting in, in the gym, in the sand, watching the game, learning the game, just focus on that. Everything else will take care of itself.”

When he moved from North Carolina to L.A. to attend Saint Bernard HS as a sophomore, Tajh says the talk around his game remained relatively quiet aside from the allure of his last name. That was until the beginning of the season when he received his first two offers from the University of Washington and USC. He’s still got the reaction video on his phone. “I was so excited. I was jumping up and down, yelling. It felt good to finally get, you know, what I felt like I deserved. But it also just motivated me to keep going. [To] just keep on stacking on that,” Tajh says.

Witnessing that joy in his own kin is a pride only a parent can experience. At the same time, Trevor has come to curtail his advice even after an 18-year career in the L that featured a 2009 championship with the Lakers and stops with 10 different organizations. The guidance he provides his sons is often rooted in the steps that he took in his journey to the NBA. And just like their games are different, so are the options and decisions available to them.

As Tajh prepares to enter his junior season and his younger brother, Tristan, gets set to start school, too, Trevor knows he can’t assume the roles of coach, dad and teacher all at once. He has to be selective and mindful of the hats he wears, and when he wears them.

“If there’s a week where I’m heavy on, like, Clean up your room or Take the trash out. How many times I gotta tell you to take the trash out? I gotta ease up on what’s going on on the court, because I’m hard on them at home,” Trevor says.

If Tajh is taking care of business at home, Trevor will drop some more knowledge. “But again, it’s his canvas. So he has to paint it the way he sees it. I can only tweak little things or give him little nuggets until he comes to me for big things.”

Big things like transferring to your dad’s alma mater.

As he looks up at the banners placed by his dad decades ago, Tajh can feel the target on his back expanding. Teachers are already flooding him with memories of the school’s past legendary battles with crosstown rival Fairfax. But the noise is just that: noise. And as his dad walks down the halls that he once occupied, he knows Tajh is ready to fully walk into his own. 

“I think for Tajh, he’s always been around it. So, it’s almost like second nature,” Trevor says. “He’s been around the environment since he could walk, since he could talk. It’s tailored for him. Some kids are born to do certain things. And to me, in my eyes, I feel like he’s one of those kids that was just born to be in this space.”

Portraits by Sam Muller.

The post Passing the Torch: With Guidance From His Dad’s Career in the League, Rising Junior Tajh Ariza is Ready to Make the Family Name His Own appeared first on SLAM.

Cam Thomas has always gotten his buckets in bunches…a lot of buckets in bunches.

He led the entire Hampton Roads area in scoring as a freshman at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, VA. He left Oak Hill Academy as the program’s all-time leading scorer despite having only played there for his junior and senior seasons. He then led all NCAA DI freshmen in scoring during his sole season at LSU. It didn’t matter who Cam played with or against. His responsibility was always the same: score, score and score some more.

That all changed when he fell into the Brooklyn Nets’ lap at pick No. 27 in the 2021 NBA Draft. Not only would he be joining an organization with championship-or-bust expectations, but he was also joining a roster that wasn’t hurting for scoring. Do the names Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden ring a bell?

On one hand, Cam had first-class access to work with and learn from three of the best offensive players in hoops history. On the other, he had to wait his turn and deal with inconsistent playing time, something he’d never experienced at that point in his young career. Even then, Cam never lost even the smallest bit of confidence. It was tested, but that confidence is what got him here. And there’s a tad bit of “crazy” mixed in there, too. All the greats have it. But we know how the phrase goes: It’s only crazy until you do it.

In the sparing minutes he was given, Cam showed flashes of his scoring brilliance. Yet, on any given night, he could play anywhere from four minutes to 17 minutes or even have a DNP. It was like this for most of his first two years in the League.

And then, in February 2023…he erupted. Amidst the Nets moving on from their big three of KD, Kyrie and Harden and trying to figure out what direction they’d move in, Cam got a few more windows of opportunity. And he took full advantage. With Harden long gone, Kyrie just traded to Dallas and KD in trade rumors, Cam was unleashed. It all came together as he made history, becoming the youngest player to score 40-plus points in three straight games. And these 40-pieces were efficient, the works of a true professional scorer.

This past ’23-24 season, it started to slowly but surely all come together. Cam started in 51 of the 66 games he played in, averaging 22.5 points in about 31 minutes per game, a 12-point increase and 15-minute increase from the season prior.

And now we’re here. The Nets just completed a massive trade, and there are many questions about which direction the team is headed. There’s also an entirely new coaching staff, including Jordi Fernandez at the helm. But even with all the questions, there’s one thing that is for certain. The Nets have a more than capable number one scoring option in Cam Thomas.

It’s a warm Friday afternoon in July at SLAM HQ in New York, and the 6-3, 22-year-old combo guard who sits across from us is on the brink of what will be, one way or another, a defining season in his career. He sat down to discuss his offseason, proving doubters wrong, his love for Kobe Bryant and more.

SLAM: How’s the offseason been going?

Cam Thomas: It’s been good. Just laying low, resetting, getting ready for next season. It’s been real good.

SLAM: Have you developed some sort of routine, or do you approach each offseason differently?

CT: I usually try to go with a clean slate because you never know. Stuff changes from year to year, like coaches, schemes, etc. This summer was probably the longest I took off—about two or three weeks. Then I got right back to it.

SLAM: You’re mostly known for your ability to score at the highest level, and you’ve improved as a scorer each year since entering the League. Are there any specific things you’re focused on improving for next season?

CT: Nah, not really. I just want to keep working on everything. Last summer, I tried to put more emphasis on catch-and-shoot shooting, and I think I was way up in the League percentage-wise on catch-and-shoot [this past season]. So, just continue to work on that and fine-tuning the skills I had coming into the League, like my off-the-dribble stuff and finishing around the basket, [while] still improving on catch-and-shoot, trying to have the best percentage in the League.

SLAM: The Nets were part of one of the biggest moves this offseason when Mikal Bridges went across the bridge to the Knicks. This positions you for the biggest role of your career thus far. How have you begun to approach and prepare for this increased role, not only physically but mentally?

CT: Just knowing that and embracing it. Attacking it head-on. I’ve kind of been having those roles [as the leader of the team] ever since I was in high school and college. So, I’m not really worried about it. I’m just excited to get it going and to try to do it in the League. I’m not really worried about it at all; I’m just ready.

SLAM: You’re on a short list of the most talented young guards in the NBA. What do you think you need to do to get to that next level?

CT: Just doing everything—doing it consistently. I had the biggest jump in points from my second year to my third year. I was at 22.5 [points per game], so I think trying to get into that 25 ppg range, upping the playmaking and just trying to keep improving my all-around game. And hopefully, it leads to wins.

SLAM: Are you inspired by the doubters, or would you say you’re completely self-motivated?

CT: It’s a little bit of both…I don’t really worry about the doubters because I’ve always had them. Nobody really believed in my talent and scoring ability—even at Oak Hill, and even in college, and even in the League. So, I’m used to it. Now, it’s really just self-motivation. Even down to sliding in the draft all the way down to pick 27. I still carry that chip on my shoulder. And even with the Nets, not playing consistently my first two years. I have that in my back pocket so I can keep growing and keep improving…to show why you should have played me in my first two years.

I’m not focused on trying to prove myself anymore. Everybody knows I’m one of the top young scorers—top young guards—in the League now. So, it’s really just trying to maximize my ability, see where I can take it and become the best player I can be, this year, and for years to come.

SLAM: There’s clearly a lofty confidence you must have to be an elite scorer in the League, let alone as an undersized guard. What do you think is the main source of that mentality?

CT: I’d probably say growing up in [the Hampton Roads area]. It’s physical there. Everybody’s fighting for the same goal, sports-wise. I feel that helped me in a way. And really…Kobe Bryant. Just reading his mentality and idolizing him, that’s a part of it, too. That’s really how I shaped my mentality: Kobe and my hometown. At the same time, that’s just in me.

SLAM: Do you have any specific individual or team goals for next season? Are you concerned with All-Star, All-NBA and those types of individual accolades?

CT: Individually, I just try to stay in the moment. Whatever happens, happens. If I get it, I get it. If I don’t, I don’t. I just want to keep improving. As far as the team, the goal is to be better every day and try to win as many games as we can. Honestly, we don’t know what our team could look like going into next season. But whatever it looks like, we just want to be the best team we can be and try to put a good product on the floor for Brooklyn.

SLAM: What should Nets fans and Cam Thomas fans expect next season?

CT: Excitement. Entertainment. [I’m] hoping everything leads to wins at the end of the day. We’ll see. It’s different in the League. But I’m prepared, not worried at all. I’ve done it in the League, but I want to take it to another level, for sure.

Portraits by Marcus Stevens. Action photos via Getty Images.

The post Moment of Clarity: Brooklyn Nets Guard Cam Thomas Discusses His Offseason, Staying True to Himself and Proving the Doubters Wrong appeared first on SLAM.

The soulful piano keys of “Lost One.” The bellowing horns and drum breaks on “Show Me What You Got.” The screaming high hats from “Oh My God.” These are the sounds of Paolo Banchero’s education.

“Jay-Z was one of the first rappers I ever heard in my life,” Paolo says. “That was when I was growing into my own, just as a kid, as a player. So that CD was always on in the car. I heard it countless times, just running it through, and I just grew to love it.”

SLAM KICKS 27 featuring Paolo Banchero is available now.

Glance at Hov’s discography of album covers. Then watch the way Paolo plays the game. It’s an eerily similar sight. Dimly-lit backdrops and a polished getup. There’s a suave commotion going on. A don-like figure stands center stage with thousands of eyes thrust upon his every move. In turn, the figure speaks an eloquent truth. Both words—and pivots in the post—tell the tale of one wise beyond their years.

Paolo Banchero is here. His days as a Blue Devil are gone. That Rookie of the Year award is off in the distance. He’s dropping 30 on ya head, denting defenders’ chests with his shoulder and towing the Orlando Magic back to the playoffs, with the Air Jordan 39 on his feet. Rarified opulence.

Paolo may have grown up a Hov disciple, but the self-proclaimed music connoisseur is an old soul with an ear for the new school. By February of the 2023-24 season, the soon-to-be All-Star realized he had strayed too far from his roots.

“I just caught myself listening to the same music, kind of getting bored of it,” Paolo says. “And so I was like, Man, I ain’t listening to Jay-Z! I was like, Why am I not listening to Jay-Z? I’ve been listening to all this for months. I’m like, Man, I need to go tap back in.”

He did a bit more than just tap back in. Just like he did with the stack of CDs in his pop’s car, Paolo was swiping through the legends in his music library in search of that old shit. The throwbacks. The music that nurtured his soul.

Between the last two months of the regular season and through all seven games of the Magic’s opening round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Paolo was shuffling through nothing but Lil Wayne, Jay, Nas and Jeezy. “I felt like it gave me a new energy,” he says.

The Pelicans got served a 20-point triple-double in late March. Then there were the back-to-back 32-pieces on the road in early April. Jalen Duren got as close as humanly possible to contest Paolo’s step-back jumper, but Banchero still hit the game-winner back in February. And to close it out, a 26-point double-double to clinch the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference with a dub over the Milwaukee Bucks in the regular season finale.

This isn’t the stuff of a typical second season. His numbers—22.6 points, 6.9 boards and 5.4 dimes a night—weren’t just an increase in production from year one. We all watched as Paolo took that next step in a future superstar’s career. And he did it in year 2. Wayne’s rhymes, Jay’s tone and Nas’ cadence all fueled the master class that unfolded before our eyes.

In the week of practice leading up to the Magic’s first postseason appearance since 2020, Paolo switched everything up. Lil Baby turned to Lil Wayne. The braids that were once tied to each side of his head were now in tightly bound cornrows. And the slew of Jordan Luka 2 PEs he’d been wearing throughout the season were swapped out for the pair that sits boldly on these pages, the Air Jordan 39.

Those at the AdventHealth Training Center out in Orlando in April got the first look at the sleek mid-top solution in the wild. For days, Paolo couldn’t take ’em off. The Air Jordan 39’s cushioning set-up is fueled by the same magic that propelled Eliud Kipchoge’s world-record marathon time and Mike’s fifth championship in the Air Jordan XII. Combining that full-length ZoomX foam with Air Zoom cushioning became an addictive feeling.

“Once I put the shoe on, though, that was when I was like, It’s over. I gotta be in these. I told Sam [Druffel, Paolo’s sports marketing rep at Jordan Brand] this 39 is their best work in my opinion. As long as I’ve been with the brand, it’s their best work. It’s a super comfortable shoe, I love wearing it,” Paolo says.

That love eventually turned into us seeing the 39 earlier than even the brand had planned. Paolo was diggin’ the sig so much, he asked the team out in Beaverton if he could be the one to debut the model in Game 1 of the playoffs. With a game that so effortlessly paralleled the silhouette’s ethos, the answer was a resounding hell yes.

The 39th iteration of Michael Jordan’s signature sneaker began with Mike’s infamous cross-step. From his three-dribble rule that forced the offense to create art within simple parameters to the fluid footwork that left defenders stuck in the mud, the foundation of Michael Jordan’s game lay in trusting that simplicity. It’s why there’s only nine colorways set to release from now through next spring. It’s why the haptic print upper, the textured tongue and the tumbled leather toe box are most prominent amidst a sea of hidden premium tech. The Air Jordan 39 is the epitome of refined elegance.

The essence of clarified minimalism that permeates around the Air Jordan 39 is exactly why Paolo is leading the charge for the game shoe. His movements on the block and in transition are that of a calculated craftsman. A polished spaceship hardwired with a jet engine.

“How can I get to the basket or make a play without taking seven or eight dribbles? I think in the playoffs, that was what I really honed in on and realized,” Paolo says. “That was something that I knew coming into the playoffs—I was going to have to make a lot of mid-range shots. I was going to have to shoot catch-and-shoot threes. I was going to have to take what the defense gives me and basically cut the fat from my game and just be as efficient as I could.”

The triple-white “Sol” colorway—marked with a dash of red at the tongue’s Jumpman logo—rode with Paolo through a combined 45 points in the first two games of the series.

“It felt like I was floating. Obviously, I’m a big guy. I play with a lot of force, I cut a lot, I jump, and there’s just a lot of force being thrown around in my shoes,” Paolo says. “But those shoes, I don’t feel limited at all. I feel like I can make any movement, any cut. I can put however much force I need to into the shoe, and it’ll hold up. It just performed really well. I think I noticed it right away. Sometimes, a shoe feels stiff or a shoe feels too narrow and stuff like that. I think there was just a sense of freedom when I was in the 39 where I felt like I could move and do anything.”

At 6-10 and 250 pounds, Paolo is a walking force of nature, yet he glides across the hardwood with an unmatched fluidity. Getting bullied is unavoidable. Every team knows it. It’s why they routinely pack the paint and force him to operate in the midrange any chance they get. But that’s where the magic happens.

In that seven-game playoff series, Paolo was straight spot hunting. He wasn’t taking half the shot clock to break his guy down or analyze the rotations. Everything was an instinctive reaction. If he drove toward the paint and saw bodies, he was pulling for a middie. If he saw the slightest crack of daylight, he was absorbing contact and dishing to the open shooter. If they sagged off at the top of the key, hand down, man down.

He wasn’t worried about the stats, wasn’t worried about the percentages. He “just wanted to do whatever it took to win and get the job done.”

“That whole series, I progressed and I learned every game. The first two we lost and everyone thought we weren’t ready, and Cleveland was talking a bunch of smack, saying we were kids,” Paolo says.

The last thing that Paolo Banchero is is a kid. Scratch that. It’s not even in the vocabulary. We all watched the same maturation this year. The Magic may have dropped their first two games in the playoffs, but in Game 3? The production that played in the background of those car rides with Dad started to emerge in the back of his mind. Back to the basics. A surgical 31 points through three quarters. Jumpers met nylon. Fadeaways stood unbothered. Getting to the rim was the regimen. Drop-steps were imposing. The Magic pulled Paolo before the fourth up by more than 30.

Game 5 featured 39 points on 57 percent shooting from three. Game 6 consisted of 27, 10 of ’em in the fourth to tie the series at three a piece. “That was just dope to do in front of the fans, in front of the home crowd, just to be able to protect home court like that,” Paolo says.

From October to early May, sellouts at Kia Center became common practice. For the first time in what feels like a long time, there’s a bonafide superstar wearing the Magic blue. He rocks with the old and the new. He’s laser focused on his growth. And since the season wrapped, he’s been back in his hometown of Seattle, surrounded by the love, comfort and inspiration that raised him. He’s been refining his tools, trusting his instincts and evolving every day.

“When I first got to Orlando, there weren’t a lot of expectations for the team, and so there were a lot of expectations for me. But I wanted to have that rub off on the team. I wanted it to be team success. I wanted people to come back and start coming to the games,” Paolo says. “So it’s just been awesome seeing the fan base grow, obviously, the organization grow, us just getting more serious and being in the playoffs.

“But now I think it’s time to transition, kind of from that beginner stage of success and being happy about having success. Now, we’re trying to be one of the household names of the East and of the League. That’s not going to be easy—I know that, we all know that—but I think we’re all ready for it and we’re all excited.”

The 2023-24 season saw Paolo storm the Magic Kingdom, take the throne and reveal a path to immediate success for an entire organization. The time of chipping away at the end of the tunnel is over. The lights are shining bright, the expectations are thunderous and the hopes of an entire fan base rest upon his shoulders.

“I think eventually, when it’s all said and done, I’ll look back to my second year, last year, and kind of look at it as the start,” Paolo says. “That was kind of the start of something special.”

Portraits by Marcus Stevens. Action Photos via Getty Images.

The post Refined Elegance: Paolo Banchero Covers SLAM KICKS 27 with the Air Jordan 39 appeared first on SLAM.

June 26, 2024. NBA Draft Night. We’re in NYC, where else? AJ Storr is on a Zoom from… Athens, Greece!?! We’ll explain all that in a second. More importantly, he knows the meaning of tonight as a prelude to his future.

“Literally one year from tonight, is it crazy to think you will be up on the stage…” we say before Storr interjects excitedly, “…in a suit and tie!”

Ten points for honesty with this one. Storr, now a rising junior for the world-famous Kansas Jayhawks and a projected 2025 NBA Draft pick, is not dancing around a topic many college players with eligibility remaining play hot potato with. “Yes,” Storr confirms, “I’m planning to be in the draft next year.”

Now that we have that very logical business decision covered, let’s backtrack and share one of the most unique and thoroughly modern basketball journeys of any high-profile player in the world.

We’ll start with the world business. Storr is in Greece at the moment because the Bahamian national team, of which he recently made the roster (pending some lingering paperwork), is playing a couple of exhibition games before an Olympic qualifying tournament in Spain that will determine if the small island nation with the increasingly outsized basketball talent advances to Paris.

The 6-7 Storr, a smooth-shooting, scoring guard tied to The Bahamas because his father was born there, is excited to be in Greece. Partly for the experience of what he calls his “world tour,” but even more so for the chance to play with folks who have gotten where he wants to go. Bahamas basketball has quietly built an explosive roster featuring current NBA players Deandre Ayton, Eric Gordon, Buddy Hield, Kai Jones and Isaiah Mobley, as well as other talented college and pro players. The squad is coached by longtime Golden State Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco.

“It is a really great experience to be out there with all these pros,” Storr says, a day after scoring 15 points (on 7-9 shooting) in a 93-80 loss to Montenegro. “I played a couple of games with them last summer and then we had training camp in Houston earlier this month, and now I’m playing real games with them. It’s great to be around all this talent.”

Whenever The Bahamas’ run ends, the world is on notice that it’s a program to watch out for in the future, and then Storr will have more time to spend in his latest “home”—Lawrence, KS. And what a home it is. Perhaps the most storied program in all of college basketball—“I hadn’t known that James Naismith founded the program here. That’s who founded basketball!” Storr exclaims—and a program with typically high expectations for the ’24-25 season. As ESPN’s Jeff Borzello put it in his recent “Way-Too-Early Top 25,” the Jayhawks are No. 1 after Bill Self responded to a disappointing ’23-24 “with the most loaded roster in the country. He went into the portal and landed AJ Storr (Wisconsin), Zeke Mayo (South Dakota State) and Rylan Griffen (Alabama); then, All-American big man Hunter Dickinson opted to return for another year.”

It says here that Storr, with a shooting touch that the Jayhawks sorely missed last season, may be the biggest piece of the puzzle. As for all the places he’s been before Kansas, that unfolds like a bit of a puzzle in its own way.

This young man is in the sweet spot for a proper SLAM profile because he’s “big” enough—thanks to playing one year in New York City and another year going viral as the athletic leading scorer for B1G power Wisconsin—to be heard of but without his full story being known because he was not a super high-profile recruit. We’ll tell you the story now so you’ll be in the know when he blows up even more at Kansas and then flies into the NBA in 12 months.

Storr grew up in Rockford, IL, a city of nearly 150,000 about 90 minutes west of Chicago. It’s most relevant in modern hoops as the home of current Houston Rocket Fred VanVleet. AJ came up alongside one older sister, Ambranette, who scored more than 2,900 points in her high school career before playing in college, and five younger brothers, raised primarily by his mother, Annette Brandy—a former Chicago high school star who played in college as well—and his stepfather.

AJ attended Rockford Lutheran as a high school freshman, showing promise as a hooper who was still just 6-1. After that, a ride started that has yet to end. The family moved to the South Chicago suburb of Kankakee when his mom, a teacher, got a better job offer, and AJ spent his sophomore and most of his junior year at Kankakee High. Then Covid hit. As Brandy explains, it was time to make some decisions. “The whole state of Illinois shut down. He had some offers—Chicago State, IUPUI—but he still hadn’t gotten major looks. We knew he was a Power Five kid, he just hadn’t been seen,” she says. “His dad lived in Vegas, and AJ was hesitant about it, but I convinced him to go. Build a relationship with your dad and put yourself out there with basketball.”

It worked. Storr started playing for Vegas Elite and Bishop Gorman High School and his exposure—and ranking—skyrocketed. He was set to play his senior season for Bishop Gorman and then…Clark County, NV (which includes Las Vegas) announced there would be no winter sports due to Covid. “After Vegas shut down, he transferred to AZ Compass and they made it all the way to the GEICO Nationals,” his mom says. “By then he had gotten a lot of offers, but I thought he needed to mature a bit.”

So it was off to renowned IMG Academy in Florida for a post-grad year that went great. In the end, AJ had attended five high schools in five years, albeit for reasons that were outside his control. When the time came to make his official college choice, Storr enrolled at St. John’s, firmly hitting the (admittedly biased) radar of the #SLAMfam’s college fans by putting together a Big East All-Freshman campaign highlighted by 40 percent shooting from three-point range, 9 ppg and an exciting style of play. Alas, the Johnnies fired Mike Anderson and Storr decided to transfer back to the Midwest, putting together an All-B1G Second Team season (17 ppg, 4 rpg, 1 apg) in Madison and establishing himself as a future pro. Storr flirted with entering this year’s draft before instead deciding to transfer one more time. To the best team in the county. 

“Playing for all the different teams has really helped my IQ. I’ve learned different plays, different coaches, different cultures,” Storr says, explaining the benefits of his journey. “Off the court, every school has welcomed me and made it like a family. I’ve got friends from every school.”

In Storr’s mind, the ascension from unknown high schooler to likely first-round NBA pick is not because he recently got good at the sport. For better or worse, exposure still matters. “I’ve been pretty good at basketball my whole life, but I had to get around the right platform and coaches and take advantage of the opportunities,” he says. “St John’s is in a great conference. Then I went to the Big Ten and the Badgers, who have made Final Four runs and are known worldwide. Being there helped me a lot. Now I’m looking forward to taking my game to another level at Kansas.”

Storr describes himself as very coachable and has learned bits and pieces from all the coaches he’s played for, but none of them have been around him consistently enough to have developed a deep mentorship. For daily support as he pursues his dream, Storr points to the people who have been around the longest. “I’ve got a team with my mom, my sister, my management,” he says. “It takes a team to accomplish your dream. You can be the most talented player, but if you don’t have the right people around you, you’re not going to make it.”

For her part, Mom could not be prouder. “I’m so excited for him,” says Brandy, who recently got a new job—and bought a house—back in Rockford. “He has put in so much work to get here.”

And to reiterate, Storr himself views his varied experiences as a positive. “My game translates to a lot of different places,” he says. “I know how to buy into a program. I respect all my coaches. I’m a great teammate. Once you step on that court or in the weight room, you become brothers. Where I’m trying to go, you gotta be prepared. In the NBA, guys get traded all the time. So this could be an advantage.”

Portraits via Missy Minear Kansas Athletics.

The post From Undiscovered to Unrivaled, AJ Storr Has His Sights Set on the League After Transferring to Kansas appeared first on SLAM.

A little over 24 hours before being drafted 17th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2024 NBA Draft, Dalton Knecht was in our office getting up shots on the mini hoop.

While the SEC’s scoring average leader from last season made his way around to the 10 designated shooting spots we’ve laid out across the floor, we realized that the final sticker got swept up in the hustle of the day. So instead, we gave him the option to shoot from anywhere on the floor. He could go back to the faux free-throw line, try another from the couch or hit a simple layup. Instead, with a pure shooter’s mentality, Knecht took several steps back into the hallway, putting at least 25 feet of distance between himself and the hoop that’s bolted to the opposing cement wall and netted the shot.

“I felt that confidence arise from the moment I touched a basketball,” Knecht says. “My parents have always made me super confident, always told me [to] trust your hard work. I always felt like that. So no matter what, when I step on that court, I’m gonna be the most confident player on that court.

Knecht is a gym rat, whether that’s on a regulation-sized hoop or not. He’s drawn to the hardwood and its sights and sounds; the screeching of herringbone traction patterned outsoles, the smell of repolished floors and the sound of the leather ball falling through aged nets. It’s an obsession that he’s fostered meticulously over the past five years while on a journey exclusive to him and him alone. 

“I’d say it’s just kind of like home. When you’re in the gym, playing your own music, whatever you want, and you just go out hooping, either with some friends or just by yourself, you just go there to fall out of reality, just being on your own, flow on your own stuff,” Knecht says.

Hailing from Thornton, CO, the 6-6 23-year-old, in a purely figurative sense, lit the Thompson-Boling Arena ablaze every single night as a fifth-year transfer at Tennessee. From JUCO to the Big Sky to playing under head coach Rick Barnes, Knecht stormed into the SEC with a chip carved into his shoulder this past season, averaging a team-high 21.7 points and 4.9 boards a game while shooting a ridiculous 39.7 percent from deep. He dropped a 40 burger on Kentucky in early March, became the first player in the SEC since Shaquille O’Neal to score back-to-back 35-pieces and took home SEC Player of the Year in unanimous fashion.

Knecht’s story is the annual reminder that there are guys all throughout mid-major programs who belong on the biggest stage in college basketball. All they need is a sliver of opportunity. And Knecht snatched his in an instant.

Without an influx of offers after graduating from Prairie View High School in 2019, Knecht elected to go the junior college route. Surrounded by acres of prairie fields in the high plains of Sterling, CO, he poured his days into the gym. After two seasons and a first-team NJCAA All-American selection to his name, he set his sights on the Power Five conferences. And then the pandemic happened. So he adjusted, transferring from Northeastern Junior College to Northern Colorado in the Big Sky Conference. 

As a junior, Knecht acclimated himself to DI competition amidst a nagging injury and a stacked roster filled with upperclassmen. Enter his senior year, where his 8.9 points per game from the season prior erupted into 20.2 alongside the Big Sky scoring title, only confirming what he’d believed for years: betting on himself was worth it. So he decided to do it again.

On March 23, 2023, with a year of eligibility remaining, Knecht entered the NCAA transfer portal. Colorado, Oregon, Indiana and Tennessee all came knocking. But there was a glaring difference between the Volunteers and the rest of the pack: head coach Rick Barnes had coached Knecht’s favorite player of all time, Kevin Durant.

Knecht will be the first to admit he’s painstakingly combed through all of KD’s highlights on YouTube. He may not have the same funky warm-up routine as the two-time NBA champ, yet Knecht has drawn an affinity between their games.

“I tried to apply as much as I can to my game, and it kind of just carried on to watching—at Tennessee with Coach Barnes—a lot of Kevin Durant’s highlights, as well as Devin Booker’s,” Knecht says. “So, I just try to take as many players as I can and put it in my game.”

Throughout the year, Barnes and his starting guard sat in the film room and dissected Durant’s highs and lows from his lone season in Austin. They studied his cadence with the rock, his mastery of time and possession and his fluidity in iso scenarios. But mainly, they’d watch Durant’s monumental game against Texas Tech that featured 37 points and 23 rebounds.

It didn’t even take a full game before Knecht started amassing his own mix of highlights that Barnes will surely show to his pupils in the future. “I’d say that dunk was Coach’s favorite memory.”

“That dunk” was actually a full-on poster. With 15 minutes left in the second half of a “friendly” exhibition against Michigan State in late October, Knecht found himself pushing the pace up the backcourt. In a moment’s notice, he turned on the jets, lost his defender with a clean wrap-around the back at the three-point line, took two steps, rose up with the ball cradled in his right arm and threw down a silencing dunk on another Spartan defender. Straight filthy. The epitome of a body.

“The first thought was…I don’t even know. To be honest, I can’t even remember. But I just know before the game, one of my coaches, Rod Clark, he told me to go punch it on somebody if you get the chance. And I had the chance in the first half and I didn’t,” he says. “Then the second time, you kind of saw what happened, and to see my teammates’ reactions, like Josiah [-Jordan James] running up to me, was priceless. It was fun, just putting on a show and showing what I could do to the world.”

The poster heard from East Lansing to the Rocky Top set the standard of what was to come from No. 3 in Knoxville. Knecht has a knack for leading conferences in scoring. Go ask the NJCAA, Big Sky and SEC. Lights out shooting was a constant, curls in the midrange were automatic, putback dunks came and went and dusting defenders at the three-point line while finishing contested lays became routine.

“He also taught me on the offensive side about showing where gaps are and reading my secondary guy, ’cause Coach [Barnes] always told me you can get by your guy at any time, you just gotta worry about the secondary people,” Knecht says.

With around 20 hours between him and his hometown, Knecht scored tons of buckets night after night, helping to lead the Volunteers to the Elite Eight, where they fell to Zach Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers, despite Knecht dominating with 37 points and cashing in 6 threes.

After long years spent honing his craft and waiting for the opportunity to place his bet, Knecht saw decades of self-belief and confidence validated by the highest entity in hoops on June 26, when the Lakers snagged him with the No. 17 pick.

Some say he came out of nowhere last season, but the good people of Thornton, Sterling, Greeley and Knoxville have been tapped in for years. Meanwhile, Rob Pelinka told reporters that new Lakers coach JJ Redick has already started drawing up pindown and ATO actions for his rookie sharpshooter.

“My journey’s not like everybody else’s, and that’s OK,” Knecht told reporters in his first press conference as a Laker. “Just creating my path is something special, and a lot of kids will look up to it. It’s really cool to write my own story.”

Portraits by Eli Selva. Photos via Getty Images.

The post Knecht Four: Lakers Rookie Dalton Knecht Talks About His Rise From Junior College, to Tennessee to the League appeared first on SLAM.

In its fifth year, the Red Bull Half Court, with 8,000 men’s and women’s players from 21 different countries, are bringing the World Finals to Brooklyn Bridge Park where qualifying teams from countries around the world including Australia, Belgium, Egypt, India, Japan, Serbia, the Philippines, Italy and the UAE, will play for the right to be crowned world champions.

For the USA, the path to the finals begins with the men’s and women’s qualifiers on August 17 in Atlanta and New York City at Happy Warrior Playground. We’ve assembled our own squad for the occasion with a stacked women’s roster set on moving to the US finals on October 18. The winner of the New York City qualifiers will face the winners from Atlanta, with the USA champs moving on to the World Finals on Oct. 19-20 where a surprise awaits.

In collaboration with Project Backboard, Red Bull will unveil a new court at Brooklyn Bridge Park, courtesy of their court design contest. From now until September 1, local designers, street art lovers and basketball fans have the opportunity to design the basketball court of their dreams for a chance to have it brought to life at the Red Bull Half Court World Finals in October. The winning court will be chosen by a jury of NYC and basketball tastemakers, including Alex Taylor of Hoop York City, Brian Kortovich of Smokin’ Aces, Project Backboard, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Project Backboard and your very own here at SLAM.

At last year’s Red Bull Half Court World Finals held in Belgrade, Serbia, the hometown heroes Team Serbia beat Team Poland in a nail-biting overtime thriller. On the women’s side, Team Egypt took home their first-ever women’s title after beating the defending champs, Team Japan.

This year, the competition is introducing a new flair to the sporting rules. A three-point shot, marked by two circles with a three-foot diameter drawn 6.5 feet behind the arc, will add a new level of intensity within the tournament.

“The art of shooting continues to be the most critical skill set for a player at every level of competition,” says shooting coach Chris Matthews, aka Lethal Shooter, who coaches numerous NBA players. “With the new three-pointer coming into Red Bull Half Court, every team from every country will have to hone this shot to secure a bid to the World Finals at Brooklyn Bridge Park.” As Team SLAM gears up to take care of business this weekend, all eyes are on the City of Dreams.

Photos via Red Bull.

The post Red Bull Brings the Half Court World Finals to New York City to Crown a New 3on3 Champion This October appeared first on SLAM.

When asked how this story should start, Sienna Betts was a little taken aback as she prepared her answer. She emphasized how important one specific year was to her journey. In 7th grade, Betts decided to walk away from soccer and focus on her true passion for basketball. “Something switched, and I realized what I wanted to do,” she says. The eagerness to be better pushed her to understand what was needed in order to be one of the greats. “If I want to succeed in basketball, I need to focus.” It was a pivotal moment that would define the next year for her as she began training.

All it took was for her to be in the right place with the right people. Sienna’s trainer, Derek Griffin, saw potential in her at an early age, challenging her to see that her dream school, UCLA, was more than possible. “He made me realize what I could possibly become in the future and he brought me to that,” she says.

During the pandemic, Betts would stay in the gym day in and day out, working on her game from every angle. As an 8th grader, she was practicing with Colorado royalty: Raegan Beers, Sam Crispe and, of course, her older sister Lauren.

The amount of accolades Sienna and Lauren have brought to their home state is remarkable. At Grandview High School, they delivered two state championships and four Gatorade Player of the Year awards. With Lauren currently at UCLA and Sienna committed to the program, the future duo is bound to do incredible things together in Westwood.

How does Sienna scout her own game? “I would describe my game as versatile, high IQ, and specialized,” she says. “My whole goal [in the game] is I don’t care about my stats or anything like [that]. Whatever I can do for a win, that’s what I’m going to focus on.”

From the development of her handles to her strong footwork, Sienna has found her rhythm and has yet to let up. The recipe for success has been to keep her feet planted in the moment and maintain her confidence—because she has prepared for this. In a year’s time, Sienna went from a role player off the bench to leading in every statistical category for the Hardwood Elite club team.

Speaking about the year Sienna went all-in on basketball, Michelle Betts, her mother, says, “She wanted to do it, so she did it.” Painting the picture of that moment back in 7th grade, Michelle remembers Sienna saying, I don’t want to just be the girl who goes in to play defense and blocks shots. I want to be a great player.”

She became just that. “All of a sudden, all the things she said she wanted to do, she could do them and then some,” Michelle says. “She went and grinded and became all the things she wanted to become, which I think is incredible.”

The outpouring of support for Sienna has fueled her. “My dad sends me a reminder text before every game,” she says. His most recent text before the FIBA AmeriCup Championship was: Just run the floor, rebound, I love you so much. You’re amazing. The impact of the text was huge. “I repeat this to get it in my head, and throughout the game and halftime, I repeat it to myself,” Sienna says.

As a gold medalist, two-time Gatorade Player of the Year and state champion, the 7th grader who made the decision to take basketball seriously and is now the top post player in the country is simply “just playing my game.”

“I’ve worked to be here,” Betts says. “I should have confidence in what I do.”

Portraits via Garrett Ellwood.

The post The Rise of Sienna Betts: The No. 2 Player in the Class of 2025 Talks Accolades, Her Work Ethic and What’s to Come Next Year at UCLA appeared first on SLAM.

Like any young hooper, Caleb Wilson tended to look to the most obvious sources for inspiration. “When I was younger, I used to only look at the stars—LeBron, Kobe, the big names,” he explains. “But my dad brought it to my attention that there were a lot of people I didn’t know about.”

A willingness to accept his father’s guidance helps explain how, when asked to name some of the players whose games he admires, the 18-year-old rattles off a list of guys who would impress any hoop-savvy dad—and probably a lot of grandfathers, too. “I watch Tracy McGrady, Penny Hardaway, John Stockton, Steve Nash, David Thompson, Alex English. I watch Clyde Drexler, Rick Barry, Chris Mullin and Run TMC, Nique, young Shaq in Orlando, and then the Lakers—I could go on and on about Magic and Kareem…”

He smiles. “I can keep going. I know a lot about basketball.”

Of course, his appearance in this magazine means Wilson is more than just a well-informed fan. The 6-9, 205-pound forward at Atlanta’s Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School is also a consensus top-10 prospect in the 2025 class, with a game informed both by that multigenerational collective of NBA greats and current stars like Nikola Jokic. With the game’s positionless revolution firmly entrenched, it only makes sense that a dude like Wilson would look far and wide for inspiration. “I feel like every player has aspects you can learn from,” he says, “especially the great ones.”

Wilson has a long way to go before he hears his name mentioned in the same breath as the aforementioned All-Stars and Hall of Famers, but then he’s already come a long way. He was a relatively late bloomer compared to most of his peers near the top of the rankings, and the memories of how far he felt from the game’s elite provides ample motivation now that he’s among the best high schoolers in the country. “I feel like a lot of younger kids look up to me because of that, so I want to talk about my humble beginnings, my struggles as a young player,” he says. “I remember not being the best player—it sticks with me. Just because you’re not good at something now doesn’t mean you can’t be good at it later.”

Wilson’s rise is proof of that, as evidenced by his production at Holy Innocents (he averaged 21 points, 15 rebounds and over 4 blocks last season) and on the Nike EYBL circuit, as well as his invite to this summer’s USA Basketball U18 junior national team camp. Of course, big-time programs have noticed. As we went to press, Auburn, UNC, Stanford and Duke were among the favorites to bring him to campus in 2025.

Low-key off the court—“I like to play video games, I watch a lot of TV, especially anime, and sometimes I do Legos,” he says—Wilson is committed to the game and usually in the gym. Still somewhat raw offensively, he’s athletic and savvy enough to still get his points or get teammates involved, and as those blocked-shot numbers attest, he’s got the potential to be a game-changer on D. Talent and motivation go a long way, of course, but ultimately, Wilson says the foundation of his game comes down to nothing more complicated than holding himself accountable and putting in work.

“I feel like it’s just discipline and commitment,” he says. “Once you tell yourself, I’m gonna do something, and you follow through with it, you build trust with yourself. I became true to myself about that: Caleb, you’re going to dribble every single day for 30 minutes, you’re going to do push-ups, you’re going to do sit-ups every single day. It allows for belief that you can do better. You’re competing with yourself.”

Portraits via Omar Rawlings.

The post Caleb Wilson Studied the Legends of the Game, Now He’s Channeling Their Wisdom as He Makes His Own Mark as a Top 10 Player in the Class of 2025 appeared first on SLAM.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He points to his April 16 post as proof. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos via StatMuse.

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

SLAM 251 featuring Naz Reid is available now.

The name of the reigning Sixth Man of the Year represents more than just a name at this point. Naz Reid has become a greeting between Minnesota Timberwolves fans outside of home games. It’s turned into a consistent stream of car horns outside of Parkway Pizza in Northeast Minneapolis with the now famous “Honk If You Love Naz Reid” sign sitting right outside. It’s transformed the seats of the Target Center into a beach day with Naz Reid towels in late March. It’s seen hundreds of yard signs plastered with his face strewn about lawns across the greater Minneapolis area.

It’s the name of a Jeopardy contestant’s cat. It’s even become the first tattoo for everyone from 18-year-olds kids to 82-year-old grandmothers. Naz Reid has got a hold on the Timberwolves fan base and the greater NBA community. There’s no explanation, no broader details. This is the epitome of if you know, you know. And trust us, after this past season, everyone and their momma, and their mommas, knows about the rise of Naz Reid.

But at first, Naz didn’t think the ink was real.

After the Timberwolves took down the Denver Nuggets by 26 points in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals—featuring 14 points, 5 boards, 4 blocks and 4 threes from the man himself—two lifelong Wolves fans and artists at Beloved Studios in Roseville, MN, set the stage for the community’s latest outpouring of admiration.

At 12:29 a.m. on May 7th, tattoo artist JC Stroebel tweeted out, “Will tattoo ‘Naz Reid’ on anyone for $20. I’m dead serious.”

Hundreds of requests followed.

“It was crazy. I think the 82-year-old lady was the first person that I saw, and then the list just goes on, I think 200-plus,” Naz tells SLAM. “It was up to the point where I was at the barbershop one day and two kids came in [and] my name was their first tattoo. So, that was crazy to experience. Definitely super exciting. It’s something you obviously dream about as a kid, to have that type of fan base and that excitement around your name is huge.”

From the back of the tricep to the lower thigh just above the kneecap, that excitement is on permanent display in Times New Roman font. The feeling has been surreal, in Naz’s words.

His name has become celebrated among a small market fan base longing for a return to prominence. Yes, the Timberwolves have a bonafide superstar in Anthony Edwards, alongside All-Stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert manning the paint. But it’s the 6-9 versatile New Jersey native with the bag of a guard that has completely won over the hearts and minds of Timberwolves fans. And it’s the reason he’s on this very cover.

Naz Reid is the unsung hero of Minnesota. His quiet confidence is on full display as soon as he walks into the gym we’ve rented out in Las Vegas for his first SLAM cover shoot. Summer League games are taking place just a few miles away, but Naz is suited in his midnight blue and white Timberwolves threads with contrasting “Reverse Grinch” Kobe 6s on his feet as we snap away flicks. He’s paying no mind to the record-setting 116-degree heat that awaits just outside. 

Reid is only the third-ever undrafted player to win the Sixth Man of the Year award—joining John Starks and Darrell Armstrong—and the first Timberwolves player to take home the honor. His 13.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game on 41 percent shooting from three weren’t just a bump across the board from years’ past. The 2023-24 season served as his arrival as a full-fledged force in the L.

“This is the craziest I’ve ever seen it, especially this past season with how far we made it in the Western Conference Finals,” Naz says of the culture in Minnesota. “It’s been crazy. We have posters everywhere, chalk on the ground everywhere. It’s super exciting. Definitely something that we’re looking forward to for years to come.”

If you were to truly dive into why the Timberwolves fan base has such a deep-rooted love affair with the stoic 25-year-old, the overwhelming answer would probably be the relatability of his journey. And definitely the way he moves with the rock.

It’s the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs and the Wolves are cruising with a 17-point lead over the Phoenix Suns. With 9:53 left in the fourth quarter, Naz snags a loose ball and sets out in transition. A duo of rapid in-and-out dribbles follow, keeping Eric Gordon from planting his back foot confidently. As Naz finishes the second move with the ball, he whips it wide over his right shoulder, high above Gordon’s head, into a fluid pro hop. Time stops for a moment, as he cradles it in his chest and Bradley Beal enters the scene to contest. Except this is Big Jelly we’re talking about. With ease and a calming finesse, Naz pulls his momentum to the left side of the basket and lays the ball onto the glass and through the net with a clean right-handed reverse.

These routine displays of basketball artistry have sent home crowds into a frenzy, but for those in Asbury Park, NJ, they’re reminiscent of the days Naz was cooking at Roselle Catholic and dropping highlight after highlight as an official member of the Jelly Fam.

“That’s just my go-to. I’ve been doing that for a long time, long time,” Naz says of his transition excellence. “I think Jersey guys are just shiftier than a lot of other people. We just come with a different type of swag and game to any move that we put into play. That’s just kind of how we roll. You think about all the guards that have been in the NBA or near the NBA. You’ve got Kyrie Irving, Isaiah Briscoe, Kyle Anderson; you’ve got a lot of guys who are shifty and move with a different type of swag. I think it’s just kind of how we roll and where we come from.”

Looking back on the days when high school phenoms were stitching a new era into the cultural fabric of hoops, Naz now appreciates the impact being surrounded by guys like Jahvon Quinerly, Atiba Taylor and Luther Muhammad had on his game. “Everything has definitely translated and taken off to what it was back then to where it is now,” Reid says.

Twenty-seven points, 6 rebounds and 7 threes against Dallas in mid-December. A 31-piece and 11 boards while shooting 75 percent from the field in an early April dub vs. the Lakers. Twenty-three points on 78 percent shooting from three in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals.

From Roselle Catholic to Minneapolis, Naz has blended a guard-like fluidity and pace with the size and skills of a stretch big. He punishes smaller mismatches in the low post with surgical footwork and hook shots while dusting slower opponents at the elbow. He cashes in corner threes before his defender even realizes he left the paint. And he thrives, absolutely thrives, in any position head coach Chris Finch puts him in.

“We’ve had lineups this past year where I was the 3. We’ve had big lineups, so that’s something that I’ve been working on and continuing to work on,” Naz says. “Time will tell, but I can probably transition to a 3, 4 or 5 in this League. So, I’m just going to keep working on it and keep expanding my role.”

In that role as first off the pine, Naz recorded the most consistent season of his career in ’23-24. Fourteen 20-plus point performances in the regular season behind a career-high shooting from deep. And his defensive instincts began to shine. With No. 11 on the floor, the Timberwolves recorded a League-best 107.9 defensive rating. The infamous Game 2 that spawned a litany of tattoos saw Naz enact a defensive masterclass. In the first half alone, he stuffed Jamal Murray twice, then rejected Nikola Jokic on a pair of shots.

Ahead of the ’23-24 season, Naz signed a three-year, $42 million extension with the Timberwolves. The deal was five years of tumultuous work in the making.

His illustrious rise from Jersey to LSU wasn’t met with the same amount of enthusiasm you might have expected when he set his sights on the NBA. After a lone season in Baton Rouge, the 6-9 forward went undrafted in 2019.

His 13.6 points and 7.2 rebounds during that season were enough to receive SEC All-Freshman team honors, but the League wasn’t biting. Concerns around his draft workouts and size were highlighted.

“It just made me more hungry. It kind of rose, kind of changed to where I was the hunted, now I’m hunting at that point,” Naz tells SLAM. “In high school, I was a top recruit, five-star, McDonald’s All American, things like that, to where now I had to grind to be in a position where I had to compete against others who were at high levels, who were drafted and things of that nature. So [I was] putting myself in that perspective of just hunting.”

Over the past five seasons, Naz has hunted for more minutes, more shots, more defensive assignments and more responsibility. In every role he’s found himself in, he’s progressed. Dialing into the specifics matters—who he works out with, his daily routines, even what time he goes to sleep at night—all of his habits are predisposed to how things carry over into the next season. Consistency in his role, in his growth, “that’s just the key to the sauce, to be honest.”

As a result, the fame, the outpouring of love and the appreciation he’s received have reached yet another peak. From influencing an entire generation with how they lay the ball up as a 17-year-old to the cult following of his name in the League, Naz has been dealing with the many waves of notoriety for years.

“I treat it as second hand and whatever comes with me putting the work that I put in, I’m excited to have,” Naz says. “Obviously, I’m truly humbled to have all that. I think as anyone should at the professional level, take that along with the bumps and bruises. Just keep being you and playing your game.”

Standing in front of a blue seamless backdrop that lets the aurora green piping of his shorts pop, Naz holds the infamous “Naz Reid” towel outstretched across his back. That March 22 evening was his favorite from this past season. As 18,000 faithful unfurled the towels throughout the arena, Naz dropped 18 points en route to a 13-point win over the Cavaliers. “That moment was a moment where I had to really take it in,” he says. “I haven’t really explained how much I appreciated that moment and how much that really made me feel as far as excited and wanted and loved.”

So we asked him to expand on that appreciation, to speak directly to the fans. From Naz to the Timberwolves fan base, NAZ REID the cat and those who hold his name in ink, this is his message:

“I appreciate every single one of you guys. You guys have seen me come in and work since day one, since the two-way signing to where I am now to this point,” Naz says. “I think everybody knows how much work and dedication I put in and [the] aspirations that I put in to get to where I am now. It’s not going to stop now. This is only the beginning.”

Portraits by Erik Isakson. Action photos via Getty Images.

The post Naz Reid Explains His Cult Following, Winning Sixth Man of the Year and Building a Newfound Culture in Minnesota appeared first on SLAM.

Twelve circular neon orange portals appear out of thin air. The citrus hues fly off the spheres’ edges in sparkling fashion, rotating in a clockwise direction as the views of various cities from across the U.S. grow wider and wider. Bellowing horns in the background build to a crescendo. You’ve probably seen this scene before, in a movie theater in 2019. Except this isn’t a movie: These are the greatest hoopers in the United States of America.

While USA Basketball representatives flew around the country presenting each player on the 2024 Men’s National Team with their USA threads in April, users on X flooded the timeline with the only comparison that made any conceivable sense: a 20-second clip from Avengers: Endgame.

In the film’s climax, the full totality of the Avengers team appears, journeying across the universe to join Captain America for one final showdown against Thanos. One by one, the greatest heroes in the galaxy stand shoulder to shoulder. It’s the perfect parallel for this year’s squad: one last ride with the best basketball powers ever assembled.

The USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team has descended on Paris with the sheer force of the Infinity Gauntlet. When the official roster was announced in mid-April, the basketball community erupted in excitement, and rightfully so. We couldn’t stop talking about it either. This amount of talent, all on one team, makes them the modern day Avengers: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Derrick White, Joel Embiid, Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Haliburton, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum.

On paper, the roster is stacked. For the first time in USA Basketball history, the Men’s National Team will feature four former NBA MVPs: Durant, James, Embiid and Curry. Then there are the team’s 11 combined Olympic appearances, 10 total Gold medals, three FIBA World Cup titles, seven returning Olympians and a combined 84 NBA All-Star selections…yeah, the U.S. ain’t playing fair.

When USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team Managing Director Grant Hill set out to achieve a seemingly simple yet complicated task—construct the best basketball team in the world—what he put together was a 12-man roster, which will be led by head coach Steve Kerr, that can hold their own against one of the toughest Olympic fields in recent memory.

The path to glory and the highest view from atop the podium won’t be easy. It never is. But then again *checks roster* we haven’t seen anything like this before.

It’s been 12 years since we last saw LeBron James bounding down the court with the letters “USA” stamped across his chest. Olympic memories of tomahawk dunks, out-of-nowhere alley-oops and utter dominance from baseline to baseline haven’t been a reality for more than a decade.

James elected to rest his body and opt out of the 2016 and 2020 Games. Now, at 39 years old and with a catalog of accolades longer than Santa Claus’ wish list, he’s back. And 2024 is a different story; it’s his one last shot at Gold.

This isn’t the same LeBron who tore through London while debuting the legendary Nike LeBron X all those years ago, but don’t get it twisted. The explosiveness is still there, the low-post game is omnipresent, the court vision is still staggering and anyone can get clamped at any time. Coming off his 21st season—where he shot a career-high 41 percent from three—LeBron’s refined touch and years’ worth of wisdom will be the soul of the pack. And right next to him will be Kevin Durant, netting jumper after jumper.

The Olympics are KD’s playground. Every four years, the best scorer on the planet toys with defenders and lights nets on fire with a FIBA-certified ball. Durant boasts the most experience of this team with three Gold medals on his résumé, a journey which first started when he was the team’s go-to bucket-getter after stamping his arrival in 2012 at the London Games. He’s got the USA Basketball record books on lock: all-time leader in points (453), scoring average (19.8 ppg), we could go on and on. If this summer goes as planned, Durant will walk away as the most decorated player in USA Basketball men’s history with a record four Olympic Golds.

Stephen Curry, however, is shooting for his first. “We obviously want to go get the Gold, and for this being my first experience, I’m super excited,” Curry told Inside the NBA in mid-April. “I’m 36 now and I don’t know if I’ll have another one, so this is definitely the year.”

After back-to-back Finals runs in ’15 and ’16 and the continuation of the Covid pandemic well into 2021, Curry, much like James, has sat out the past two Olympics to rest and heal some nagging injuries. In the meantime, the country has patiently waited to see him reign down threes against the world’s best.

It may be his debut, but Curry has been instrumental in the team’s success on the international stage, winning Gold at the FIBA World Cup in 2010 and 2014. Now, the future Hall of Famer will get to check “Olympics” off his bucket list.

Anthony Davis was just 19 when he was selected to the 2012 USA Men’s National Team. After taking home the Gold, the five-time All-Defensive Team honoree is now responsible for manning the paint for the U.S. alongside his first-time Olympic teammate, Joel Embiid.

Embiid could have played for France—where he has citizenship—or Cameroon, his native country, but instead, the 2023-24 NBA MVP chose to play for the USA.

“After talking to my family, I knew it had to be [USA Basketball]. I want to play with my brothers in the League. I want to play for my fans because they’ve been incredible since the day I came here,” Embiid posted to X in October of 2023. “But most of all, I want to honor my son who was born in the U.S. I want my boy to know I played my first Olympics for him.”

This year’s team has a bunch of returning members from the USA Basketball’s last Gold medal squad, including one of the most underrated players in the game: Bam Adebayo. A point guard in the open floor, a small forward in the mid-range, a center on the block—the 2020 Olympian is a cheat code in international competition. While Bam, AD and Embiid preside down low, Jrue Holiday, another returning member of the team, lurks on the perimeter.

Holiday will pick your pocket, sneak into the passing lane and sit with the best of them. For years, the two-time NBA All-Star has been the glue for championship-winning and contending teams. He plays to win, and he leads by action. He’s tasked with much of the same in tandem with defensive stalwart Derrick White, who joins Embiid and Curry as the third first-timer on the Olympic team. The NBA is filled with a plethora of scorers, but the selection of various tacticians assembled for the U.S. Men’s National Team is what takes this roster from Gold to Certified Platinum.

“This guy next to me will be the next one,” Kevin Durant told The Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy after becoming USA Basketball’s all-time leader in points in July 2021. The “guy” he was pointing to was Jayson Tatum.

Tatum vividly remembers the 2020 team’s first scrimmage against the USA Select Team in Las Vegas. Someone kicked him the ball on the wing and, instead of getting his, the 23-year-old deferred to Durant who was to his right.

“I remember he got mad at me,” Tatum told Draymond Green on “The Draymond Green Show” in April 2022. “He was like, Yo, don’t look to me. Be yourself. I need you to kill. And I was like damn…he needs me to do me on this team.” So that’s what he did.

After dropping their first contest of the 2020 Tokyo Games to France, the U.S. won its second game in a 54-point blowout against Iran, and then in the third, Tatum led the U.S. squad with a team-high 27 points on 10-16 shooting from the field in a win against the Czech Republic. Point taken. The next talisman had emerged.

And so have Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker and Tyrese Haliburton. With Durant, LeBron and Curry gearing up for one last ride this summer, USA Basketball is looking toward the future of the country’s success on the world stage. It starts with building the next generation of flag bearers.

This past NBA season served as Ant-Man’s official inauguration as the League’s next superstar. When the offense falls flat and energy begins to dissipate, Edwards will smirk as he plans his next jaw-dropping display of athleticism that will ignite a 20-0 run. Haliburton’s arrival extends the country’s long line of offensive orchestrators and visionary passers in transition while Booker’s devotion to the mid-range and mastery of the iso routinely makes for instant offense in the most unlikely scenarios. The next generation of USA Basketball players is a not-so-subtle reminder of why this squad is so damn exciting. Everyone can make their claim for playing time. This isn’t just a 12-man roster, it’s a 12-man deep rotation.

The schedule will be grueling, but the experience will be unforgettable. Memories will be made, legacies enshrined and the next chapter of USA Basketball will be written. Meanwhile, Durant wants to see complete dominance.

“I want to really make a statement on how dominant our players are,” Durant said in his Boardroom cover story in February. “Like 40, 50-point wins. I want to do that.”

SLAM PRESENTS USA BASKETBALL IS AVAILABLE NOW

Photos via Getty Images.

The post Gold Rush: Previewing the 2024 USA Men’s National Team Ahead of the Paris Olympics appeared first on SLAM.

To celebrate Boston winning their 18th title, we just dropped SLAM 251, the Champs Issue, featuring none other than the Jays; Jayson Tatum and Finals MVP Jaylen Brown.

SLAM 251 FEATURING THE CELTICS IS OUT NOW

Get your copy of SLAM 251 right now so you can reminisce on the season, whether that’s in Beantown or beyond. And we’ve got Gold Medal Editions on lock, too. Go grab a piece of history and celebrate the champs accordingly.

The post The Champs Are Here: The Boston Celtics Cover SLAM 251 appeared first on SLAM.

SLAM 251 featuring Alyssa Thomas + DeWanna Bonner is available now. Shop here.

An uplifting energy was flowing throughout our office on a Monday morning in late June. After a two-and-a-half hour drive from Connecticut to NYC, all that can be felt and heard is an abundance of love and laughter shared by the couple as they pose for photos at their first-ever SLAM cover shoot.

Rocking their bright orange Explorer Edition uniforms, both Alyssa and DeWanna are fully present in the moment, while creating pockets of time where they fall into a world all to their own. They’re holding staring contests while we snap flicks and poking fun at their height difference.

“I love playing with Alyssa. She’s one of the hardest working competitors in the League, so it kind of makes me want to go harder,” DeWanna says. “Even at my age, I’m like, I’ve got a little bit more in there to give because I see her going just as hard.”

The two have been dating for the past few years, and during 2023 All-Star Weekend out in Las Vegas, Alyssa proposed to DeWanna underneath the shade of palm trees accented by candles and hundreds of roses. They started off as competitors and still are in some ways. DeWanna drafted to the Phoenix Mercury in 2009. Alyssa drafted to the New York Liberty and immediately traded to the Connecticut Sun in 2014. Ahead of the 2020 bubble season, a blockbuster trade sent the two down the path of a relationship as teammates that eventually turned into partners.

The past five seasons have been a journey of ups and downs: new teammates, new coaches, new positions, new responsibilities. And yet, the two remain anchored to the culture they’ve instilled since they first teamed up four years ago. It’s a culture that has the Sun sitting at 18-6 as the second-best team in the W with both DeWanna and Alyssa dominating, again. The wedding’s gonna have to wait ’til after the Olympics, though.

Before the morning of June 11, Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner had never been inside the Connecticut Sun offices. As Alyssa walked down the hallway with DeWanna closely behind, the four-time All-Star peered through the frosted glass of the room to her right. She instantly dropped her head to the side as the emotions began to build. A familiar figure stood in the room, Connecticut Sun president and USA Basketball’s Women’s National Team Committee Chair Jen Rizzotti. In her hands were Alyssa’s deep red, white and blue USA Basketball threads, honoring her with a spot on the 2024 US Women’s Olympic team.

“Honestly, they told me I had a meeting,” Alyssa says. “I turned the corner and I see her [Jen] through the glass and my heart kind of just dropped that it’s finally happening. I’m probably the second-oldest on the team at 32, and I’m getting my first opportunity to be on a team like this—it meant a lot to me.”

In the video posted to USA Basketball’s Instagram, the loudest voice in the room is DeWanna’s, cheering and clapping for her person with pride. “It’s funny because I think I was more anxious than her during that waiting process. I’m just like, When is it going to happen?” she says. “So for me, I’m just so proud of her, I’m so happy for her. It’s something that she really, really worked hard for, like she said, at 32. Yeah, we’ll be in Paris.”

Throughout her 11-year career in the WNBA, Alyssa’s offseason timeline has rarely matched up with the Olympics. She prefers to recoup her mental and physical in what little downtime there is between the season ending and the start of her overseas schedule. The 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021 due to Covid) were at one point an option, but the rehab process for a torn Achilles that she suffered in January took priority.

AT was back on the court nine months later. And when the season wrapped, Cheryl Reeve convinced Alyssa to suit up for her and Team USA in the 2022 FIBA World Cup. Winning Gold has been an inescapable feeling ever since.

Just three days before our shoot, the first voting update for the 2024 WNBA All-Star roster was revealed. DeWanna ranked in the top 10. Knowing the festivities this season will see the USA Basketball roster face off against the WNBA All-Stars, the two are already looking forward to playing opposite one another in Phoenix. “Oh, I’m gonna whoop her up,” DeWanna chimes in immediately.

“She’s not scoring. She’s not getting a bucket,” Alyssa interrupts.

“Shut up,” DeWanna says in a playful tone as Alyssa laughs out loud. “Please. I don’t care where I am, I don’t care how crazy of a shot it is, I’m going to try and make it. And if I make it, oh, I’ve won a championship. If I make one shot on her, it’s over.”

“It won’t happen,” Alyssa fires back.

The back-and-forth is more than just a great sound bite—it’s a peek into their unique dynamic, one filled with love, teasing and a very, very healthy amount of competitiveness.

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“We almost had the opportunity to do that overseas, but I got hurt, which I was happy about,” DeWanna says about playing against each other. “I was a little nervous playing against her, because Alyssa is a little rough and I’m not. But in this environment, where it’s not too much on the line, it can be friendly. But I promise you,” she says looking right at AT, “I’m trying to bust you up.”

“It’s not friendly at all. It’s all business,” Alyssa replies.

For the past five seasons, it’s been just that: straight business. After DB was traded from the Phoenix Mercury—where she won two championships and was a three-time Sixth Woman of the Year—to the Sun, the two quickly formed one of the most dominant duos in the history of the W.

Under their purview, sustained success has become routine out in Uncasville, CT. Numbers 24 and 25 have led the Sun to four straight semifinal appearances plus a trip to the 2022 Finals. They’re insurmountable in high-low actions, transition and half-court defensive schemes. In the midst, a list of collective and individual accolades has been running longer than the Susquehanna River.

“They really are the heart and soul of this franchise,” head coach Stephanie White told the AP. “You think about not just what they do on a day-to-day basis, but the consistency with which they’ve done it since they’ve been here.”

Unstoppable doesn’t even begin to describe AT’s game. She’s a point-forward who sets the game to easy mode for everyone while leading the team in assists, rebounds and steals. This season, she’s putting up 11.5 points, 9.4 rebounds and a League-high 7.9 assists a game. And to start the season against the Indiana Fever, she threw down a 13/13/10 triple-double. Yeah, last season wasn’t just a one-off.

In her 15th season, DeWanna has only continued to expand the mastery of her offensive repertoire. The midrange is lit up with hot spots like a Christmas tree for DB. Transition treys stick to the net and post-up fadeaways sing of swishes. She uses her length to snatch steals on the defensive end, plugging up gaps and sending shots into the third row. As of press time, the 6-4 bucket-getter is pouring in a team-high 17.1 points, pulling down 6.3 boards and swiping 1.3 steals a game.

“I always say we have to be that much better than other teams. We’re not a super team or anything of that sort, so our margin for error is a lot smaller than other teams,” Alyssa says. “And just trying to get everybody to buy into that and understand that there are no off days. There’s no relaxing or taking plays off. We’ve got to go hard for 40 minutes.”

This season, the two have been clocking in overtime. Alyssa’s already popped off for two triple-doubles and DeWanna’s posted eight 20-pieces. Between Alyssa, DeWanna and two-time All-Star Brionna Jones, the only other constant that resides in Connecticut is change. The past five years have seen a revolving door of coaches, players and front office personnel.

“I think that’s just the nature of the beast in Connecticut,” Alyssa says. “It’s not a favorable market for people that like to do the other things, be in the spotlight, things like that. It’s a quiet area, you’ve got to be a different type of player to come there. We don’t have all the bells and whistles that other people do, so it’s really about the basketball for us.”

The 2024 campaign has been filled with even more adjustments. DeWanna and Alyssa spent the majority of last season surveying the paint at the 4 and 5. With center Brionna Jones back from a torn Achilles, they’ve dipped back into their typical roles while infusing elements of last year’s success. They’re developing chemistry with the new backcourt pairing of DiJonai Carrington and Tyasha Harris, who have stepped in to the starting guard positions. The newest additions of Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson coming off the pine have been an added piece to juggle, too.

“I don’t want to say we started over again, but it’s implementing new people and trying to get them to understand the system. But in the same way, reworking it to fit everybody’s style of play and get the best out of everyone,” Alyssa says. “We’ve had our ups and downs so far, and it’s still a work in progress, but it’s going to come down to us and the coaches coming together and figuring out what is best for this team. That’s why it’s a long season and it’s about playing your best basketball come playoff time.”

The playoffs are still a bit in the distance, but in June, the Sun were already in midseason form, posting an early 13-1 record and becoming just the seventh team in League history to win 13 of their first 14. All six of those previous squads reached the Finals, and four of them won it all. We’re not saying it’s destiny, but history has a way of repeating itself.

“We’ve been right there on the cusp, so now this year, I think we’ve kind of taken the fun out of it a little bit, but we’re trying to get that back,” DeWanna says. “It’s championship or bust for us. That’s where we are.”

As seamless as the highlights look, the couple warns that playing basketball every single day with your partner isn’t as magical as one might think it is. There are angles, reads and passes that Alyssa may see that DeWanna doesn’t, and vice versa.

“It’s like a gift and a curse. You’re playing with somebody that’s the best in the world and she’s also your partner, so you get to bounce ideas off of each other, you talk basketball. But also, it’s competitive; we go at it on the court as well,” DeWanna says. “But I still want to bust her up on that court.”

“It’s mostly that she wants to bust me up on the court,” Alyssa responds. “Nine times out of ten.”

“Tune in! When is the [All-Star] Game? July 20th. Vote me in, ’cause tune in,” DeWanna exclaims.

“Drinks on me the night before,” Alyssa says with a laugh.

Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

The post Power Couple: Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner Talk The Olympics, Their Engagement and Building A Winning Culture With the Connecticut Sun appeared first on SLAM.

Seeing Moore grace the front page of SLAM 217 had me scrambling, the problem was, I couldn’t find her cover anywhere. Sold out on SLAM Goods, not a sniff of it on eBay. It was looking as though anyone lucky enough to grab that coveted first retail run was holding onto it tight… and with good reason.

To say that Maya Moore is one of the greatest female players ever witnessed shouldn’t be a statement that’s thought little of. She has been a champion at every level possible. From High School to College to the WNBA, even on the Olympic stage–titles were secured. Not only that, but the list of accolades that accompanied these championships and medals is almost unimaginable. She’s an undisputed Hall of Famer, and if you’re taking her as your basketball GOAT, I’d be reluctant to argue.

There was something more to Maya Moore’s game than hardware, though. Less tangible than trophies, but with more impact, somehow. A trait not so easy to describe. While she was fierce on the boards and had hands so quick that steals felt like camera tricks, her style of play and scoring ability possessed a majestic quality. A magic. The ‘poetry in motion’ type of magic. The type that gives you goosebumps and watery eyes when replayed in slow-mo. The kind that reminds us of the beauty of the game that we once fell in love with.

As MJ is one of a handful to have had this effect on us previously, it was fitting that Maya would be picked up by Jordan Brand before she even stepped foot on a WNBA court – and when she walked away from it in 2018, she did so in a pair of signature Jordan 10s, and as an icon of the Jordan Family.

Stepping away from the game in her prime was far from insignificant, and wasn’t without purpose. Aside from basketball, Moore had been fighting for social justice long before cries for freedom were allowed to be printed on team uniforms. She was a voice for a suffering community during a time when disciplinary action was taken towards players who refused to be silent in their political views. It was her specific commitment to reform in the criminal justice system that saw her forego the 2019 and 2020 WNBA seasons, and ultimately retire in early 2023. If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that some things are bigger than basketball.

In some ways, Maya Moore’s presence on issue 217 was bigger than SLAM. It burst open the floodgates, with a flurry of female hoopers subsequently hitting the cover, and catapulted our coverage of Women’s Basketball into a new era. Some of the dopest covers we’ve dropped since have featured the likes of Candace Parker, Sabrina Ionescu, Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese. We’ve also seen three rounds of WSLAM specials. Each drop points us back to Maya Moore’s Mona Lisa smile, quietly confident, affecting change without breaking character.

As a SLAM enthusiast with a deep admiration of Moore’s journey both on and off the court, it was paramount that I added her cover to my collection somehow. It would appease the innate notion we have as humans to somehow align ourselves with those whom we respect – like signed autobiographies, game-worn jerseys and signature shoes – this would demonstrate my allegiance to her cause. Eventually, I went in-house, with a member of the SLAM fam (shout out to Peter Walsh) hooking me up with a personal copy. For me, this could never just exist as another spine on a shelf. It had to be framed and placed in a prime position. It’s to be observed, discussed and remembered… and when the inevitable Maya Moore life-story movie is released someday in the future, I’ll proudly point to Maya on SLAM 217 and will let it be known, just like any true SLAM-head should, that I’ve been down since day one.

Photos via Getty Images.

The post SLAM’s Official Archivist Details Maya Moore’s Excellence and Tracking Down Her Illustrious SLAM Cover appeared first on SLAM.

Hosted by AND1 as they continue pushing the envelope of streetball, the Open Run Tour was jam-packed with high-flying dunks and whiplash-inducing crossovers. Beyond the classic five-on-five matchups, the event featured a dunk contest, electric one-on-one matchups, shootarounds and a women’s three-on-three game. By bringing back some OG mixtape legends as judges, the Open Run built an atmosphere and energy that starkly contrasts that of the League; it’s physical, expressive, and most importantly, requires a completely different mindset.

“It’s a physical thing, but I think it’s also a mental thing. I think with streetball, as well as the NBA, you have to have a lot of mental toughness, you know?” says AND1 Brand Director Dexter Gordon. “It’s no blood, no foul. It toughens you up, and that’s the whole thing. … You’re gonna get knocked down, you’re gonna have the fans talking trash shit. … You get bumped around, [but] you know what, you learn a lot.”

Dating back to the days of Julius Erving and Wilt Chamberlain playing at Rucker Park, New York City has been the Mecca of streetball. The parks are where hip-hop meets basketball, where people come together through the power of sport. And though most will immediately think of Rucker Park when they hear the word “streetball,” it’s Coney Island that holds a special place in the hearts of many, including AND1’s. “It’s just good to get back out in the community. The first [NBA Ambassador] we ever signed, Stephon Marbury, was born and raised in Coney Island,” Gordon says. While Marbury and the history of his inaugural AND1 signature sneaker were felt from afar, another Coney Island native and longtime member of the AND1 family, Lance Stephenson, pulled up to the runs.

And in the decades since its humble origins in the parks of New York, streetball has forever permeated itself into basketball culture. Not only for what ensued on the court—with Shane “The Dribbling Machine” Woney, Leaky Roof, Whit3 Iverson, The Pharmacist, Skip 2 My Lou, Aaron “AO” Owens, Duke Tango and Hot Sauce selling tens of thousands of mixtapes, racking up millions of views on YouTube and leaving a mark on every streetball event they attend, including this year’s Open Run at Coney Island—but off the court, as well. Whether that’s the two headbands, the high socks or the big baggy shorts, those fashion sensibilities had ’00s hip-hop and NBA circles routinely rocking the infamous AND1 aesthetic.

Nevertheless, a lot can change in over a decade, and it’s no understatement to say the basketball landscape has radically shifted in a post-Mixtape Tour world. Dexter Gordon encapsulates this sentiment, saying, “We really kind of started the mixtape, but now look, every kid has a mixtape.” And when everyone’s playing catch-up, you have to stay one step ahead.

But Gordon isn’t too concerned with acclimating to the age of social media; quite the opposite. “As big as AND1 was in the ’90s and early 2000s, think about this: there was no social media. But we still reached other countries with the Mixtape Tour and the VHS mixtapes, and then they went to the DVDs, but now everything is online,” Gordon says. “So I think social media is a great tool, you know?”

Looking forward, AND1 is undergoing a balancing act of sorts, introducing streetball to a new generation of fans while preserving its decorated roots. “We’ll never stop celebrating our past, our legacy, our culture. … [But] moving forward, we kind of have to meet the younger kids where they are. So, of course, some things have to change, [and] you have to adapt to what’s going on,” Gordon says. And that starts with finding new talent to represent the culture, with current Globetrotter and former national champion Alexis Morris—AND1’s first female athlete—being one of their key additions.

This isn’t just basketball; it’s about creating a community and giving out opportunities. And nothing captures that better than streetball.

When asked about the impact the Open Run holds off-the-court, Dexter Gordon had many things come to mind—whether that’s the gratitude people expressed towards the OG Mixtape Legends or young NBA players recounting memories of watching Hot Sauce. But one stood above the rest: “We were going to the communities and, you know, for that day and that time of that event, man, there was no violence. You had gang members, guys that had beef with each other that would come together in this park [and play ball].”

Portraits by Evan Bernstein.

The post AND1 Celebrates Decades of History With The Return of The Open Run in Coney Island appeared first on SLAM.

Darryn Peterson’s game is a lot more polished than you’re typical top-ranked high schooler. The No. 3 player in the Class of 2025 is a pure three-level scorer. Go check in with the adidas 3SSB, the dudes out at the NBPA Top 100 Camp and his teammates at Huntington Prep. They’ll tell you what’s good.

With offers from North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas and Baylor–just to name a few of the heavy hitters–there’s a reason that Peterson is widely regarded as one of the most heralded recruits in his class. 

But before he won Gold with Team USA at the 2023 FIBA U16 Americas Championship and was dropping buckets in front of James Harden out in Italy this past June, Darryn Peterson’s connection to the game was fostered in the backyard of his home in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  

Basketballs wrapped in plastic bags, cones strewn about, a basketball hoop anchored by liquid cement and a well-used agility ladder; Darryn Peterson and his pops would train for hours outside growing up. 

“That’s where it all started,” Darryn says. “The stuff he was saying started to make sense. Cause you know, you feel like your Dad is just gettin’ on you and stuff, you don’t always want to understand it. But after a while, I started understanding what he was saying. I started to see it in games and stuff.”

Darryn’s Dad, former Akron guard Darryl Peterson II, had been invested in helping his son realize his dreams since day one. And as a massive Kobe fan, Darryl shared the same meticulous search for ambidextrous perfection. For as long as he can remember, Darryn’s been laying the ball off the glass with his right and left while finishing through contact. Now, he’s in the gym three to four times a week, wadding through pools in defensive slides and running hills. 

“Focus has been the main thing for me since I was a youngin,” Darryn says on what he’s learned from his Dad. “When you find something that you wanna get good at, you gotta really buy in and you gotta sacrifice. That’s the main thing. You gotta sacrifice, hanging out with your friends and staying up all night playing the game. [There’s] certain things you gotta sacrifice if you wanna be great at something.” 

Great doesn’t even begin to put things into perspective. 

The 6’5 consensus five-star recruit plays the game with an effortless finesse. One dribble pull-ups in the midrange, bottoms. Tomahawks in transition are paired with the smoothest of size-ups. Hop steps through the lane, post fades and sidestep treys; no matter where he stands, the ball always seems to find the net. He’s been touted as the best scorer in the country, but that belief wasn’t always so widespread.

“The knock was, ‘he’s getting 30 against guys that aren’t really good,” Darryn says. 

In his sophomore year at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Peterson was posting 31 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 1.3 assists a night. But he yearned for something more. He wanted to be surrounded by and play against like-minded players who shared in his aspirations of the League. He wanted to be pushed. He wanted to play the best. So he transferred to Huntington Prep. 

“I just wanted to be able to go to a school where I was playing against competition and showcase that I was really like that. That was something I wanted to show, that I could go play against top guys,” Darryn tells SLAM. “I just wanted to play against people that were gonna make it hard for me every night.”

Despite dealing with a nagging injury throughout the season, Darryn proved that those 30 pieces weren’t reserved for his hometown, anybody in the US of A could get it. He dropped 31, 10 boards and seven assists against the Kentucky Christian Knights to open the season in November. Then he went head to head with Jalil Bethea and Archbishop Wood and hung another 31-point performance to go with four steals and three blocks. 

As Darryn poured it in from across the states, he was eyeing his final eight major Division 1 programs. But by the midst of the spring AAU circuit, he decided to open up his recruitment back up. In late April, he let everybody know that it was open season. 

While an influx of additional coaches began inquiring, Darryn was putting his game on international notice. After averaging 16.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game with the USAB Junior National Team in 2023, Darryn was lighting Italy up at the adidas Eurocamp. That first week of June overseas served as another measuring stick as the combo guard played alongside and against fellow five-star hoopers in his class and walked away from the week with first-team honors.

“Now I feel like I gotta outwork everybody. I felt like that already, but now I’m taking it to an extreme,” Darryn tells SLAM. “Every day, I’m playing like it’s my last every time I’m on the court. So just, how hard I’m going every day. I’m just tryna get ready for college and the NBA.” 

Now back on the grind of the summer circuit, Darryn says he’s been making the push towards playing at the point guard position after hearing from numerous NBA scouts and college coaches that “on-ball is probably where I could have the most success at playing in the NBA at the next level.” At 6’5 with an otherworldly athleticism that only just surfaced a few years ago–in his words– he’s been leaning on those same backyard drills with his pops as he brings the ball up court and initiates the offense more frequently. 

He’s not the only one who’s realized his potential as the orchestrator of the offense. Former Sixth Man of the Year and NBA Champion Jason Terry recognized it too. 

As the coach of his team out at Eurocamp, The Jet was giving Darryn as much reps at the point as possible. At times, he thought Darryn was being too passive as the five-star guard worked through the balance of setting others up while getting his. Just because he was running the point, didn’t mean he couldn’t be a scoring point guard, Terry told him.

When Darryn eventually makes his collegiate selection, that lucky program will be getting one of the hungriest workers in his class. With the scoring on lock and a growing bag as the facilitator, it’s the defensive side of the ball where Darryn knows he’ll make his mark. Put all three together and you’ve got a surefire lock for the League.

“I’d say just a great guy, on and off the court. I wanna see everybody eat,” Darryn tells SLAM. “There’s going to be nights where I probably won’t be the best player on the court. I’m willing to not get any points and do everything I can to win. That’s my type of guy. Off-court, I’m a scholar first. So, they won’t have to worry about that, and [I’m] just a winner. So that’s a big thing for me that we get a winner, a hard worker and somebody that’s willing to do anything to get better and win.” 

Portraits by Christian Quezada.

The post After Transferring to Huntington Prep, No. 3 Ranked Rising Senior Darryn Peterson Is Proving Why He’s The Smoothest Scorer in the Class of 2025 appeared first on SLAM.

The epic showdown drew 18.9 million views, making it the most watched basketball game since 2019. The world saw not only how undeniably dominate the Gamecocks are, and have always been, but got a glimpse at just what to expect from the future of the game: with a talented roster that included a future first-round WNBA draft pick in Kamilla Cardoso, they were also equipped with a core group of freshman and sophomores, including Johnson, MiLaysia Fulwiley, Raven Johnson and Chloe Kitts, they could’ve easily faltered under the pressure. As Staley told us for the cover of SLAM 250, rather than having “balked” for minutes or playing time, they carried themselves with grace, were guided by veteran leadership and showed up every game with a can’t-lose mentality that, eventually, became a reality.

“It got harder every level in the competition,” Johnson told us in May, just a month after the title game. “We played Texas A&M twice, probably, and in the regular season, compared to in the SEC tournament,  that was a whole different team. So just, the competition, and the fact that everyone was either winning or done—I think the level of competition grew a lot it was way more physical. You had to be on your A game. The preparation is key and I think our coaches did a good job of mentally preparing us as well as physically preparing us. And also, the leaders on my team, the older people, they told us what to kind of expect. MiLaysia [and I], they told us just to play our game, forget the big stage or whatever.”

As the entire world watch Staley’s squad power their way through the NCAA tournament, the National Championship was the pinnacle of must-see TV. And when the lights were the brightest, Johnson, who played the most minutes (25) for a freshman, shined like the star that she is and led her squad with a career-high 19 points off the bench. To say that she was clutch would be an understatement, Johnson was pure perfection whenever the moment called upon her, which was quite often. In the second, she was out there knocking down silky-smooth midrange jumpers and finishing at the rim with ease, and by the third, she was dishing dimes to teammates like Bree Hall and hitting clutch threes that had everyone in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on their feet.

Not only was she the most efficient on the floor, shooting 63 perfect from the field, but she was absolutely fearless.

Fearless is a word the Minnesota-native resonates with on an even deeper, spiritual level.

“Before the games, I pray because I play for God out there. Besides the fact that I play for South Carolina, my family and my teammates, I really play for God. I represent Him on the court and so I pray to just ease my mind, give me peace, and I pray for the other team, [too]. [For] no injuries and stuff like that. That calms me down when I get on the court. I was also thinking of the word fearless, because, when I was younger, I would play fearless. [I’d think], Why am I afraid to make mistakes? Like, everyone’s gonna make mistakes out there on the court.”

It’s a pregame practice that Johnson’s always had as part of her routine: during warm ups, she sits in the fourth chair from the end. The number four is a symbolic one for her: a four-star recruit, Johnson wore No. 4 throughout her high school career as a star at St. Michael-Albertville. It also reminds her of her sister, Rae, who rocked it as her jersey number while hoopin’ at Iowa State, and in the Bible, the number also represents the creative work of God, specifically in creating all of life in a four-day span.

“I just prayed [for] what I felt in my heart,” Johnson adds. “If I remember correctly, I was praying for guidance, for peace [and] for strength on the court.”

All season long, Johnson says her mindset was to just trust the process, especially given that she was new to the team and felt that she had a lot to learn in terms of comfortability on the hardwood. “I’m a beginner, I’m not as comfortable on the court, I haven’t played with them before, so just trust the process, trust my coaches, and trust myself out there. Because, at the end of the day, like I’ve worked, I don’t know how long, I don’t know how many years, but I’ve worked for it, and just to trust myself out there, and have confidence out there.”

Then there’s the trust that Staley had in her. Revered for being a “player’s coach,” Staley has credited her coaching style as wanting to be a “dream merchant” for young people. What she saw from Johnson, and others on the team, was just that: an unwavering confidence and willingness to learn and be guided. “Tessa [Johnson could’ve been like], I could play with the best of them. Let me get some of Breezy’s time. Let me get some of Raven’s time. [But] they didn’t,” she told WSLAM. “Actually, the youngsters just allowed the older players to guide them to the point where they were so confident entering the basketball game that they knew that they were going to make an impact.”

It’s that type of support that drew Johnson to South Carolina in the first place. Growing up, Johnson was always ultra competitive—her mom, Danielle, who was us in our office when Johnson stopped by for a photoshoot—admits that she’s always had a yearning to be the best.

“You always wanted to be a dawg,” she chimes in and says to Tessa during our interview. “The best at whatever they were doing. When you worked hard, you wanted to be the first one done with something. You wanted your journaling at school to be better than the other kids. Not in a bad way, but just that she wanted to always do her best.”

Despite having a bubbly, upbeat personality, plus a sense of humor that’s unmatched (go watch our latest video with her, the 6-0 guard is so charismatic on camera, she absolutely needs her own television show one day), Johnson’s ability to tap into that level of competitiveness whenever she’s on the court is part of what makes her a star on the hardwood. “I didn’t care what it was, I just wanted to do better than them. And then, after doing it, another competitive piece of me is, I want to do better than what I just did. So, like, always getting better every day is what motivates me.”

Johnson saw herself being able elevate her game to that level in Columbia. After averaging 6.6 points in her first year, she’s now focused on not just elevating her game physically this summer, but is even more focused on her mental health. It’s always served as a key component of her breakout success, even dating back to high school when she missed her sophomore season due a broken leg injury. Johnson returned as a junior and helped her team emerge as runner-up to the state title, and by her senior year, she led her squad to its first state title since ‘09, dropping a double-double in the championship game. “I feel more like, powerful out there because I went through that and I’m back now,” she told Kare11 News in 2022.

Even as an NCAA champion, Johnson feels like she can approve her mental approach even more. “Yes, I need to work on all my physical stuff and just my skills and fundamentals but I think basketball is a very mental game,” she says. “Me being able to overcome all my mistakes and just having a growth mindset and being able to listen to whoever’s trying to help me. I think that’s what I need to get better at.”

How exactly does she plan on going about that? “That’s a good question. Getting deeper into my faith,” she explains. “I think that always helps and that’s what I do every day. I try to build a better relationship with God. But, going about it, I think I just need to always take moments out of my day and just reflect on myself  and think of what I need to do better and what I have overcome in general because you have to think positive. I know for me sometimes that’s hard because I have such high expectations for myself. And so when I don’t reach it, I’m like, I just get a little negative with myself. Like, the fact that I want to be better than my yesterday self. That helps me.”

As for how life’s been since winning the ‘chip, Johnson admits she’s still processing. It was a legendary moment, one that’ll go down in not just women’s basketball—but all of college hoops—history, but that doesn’t mean that the grind is over. As the Gamecocks look to embark on the “Repeat Tour” for the 2024-25 season and run it back, they’ll have to bring that same energy and then some.

“[The recognition], it’s good, but then I’m thinking of next season because that’s what we have to do,” she says. “We can take all the moments and enjoy the moments. But now, we’re on to summer. And school is over, so we’re thinking of next season, just working out and getting better because teams are going to scout us harder and play us tighter. [They’ll] know more of the little things that we do. So, that’s kind of the mindset.”

Photos via Getty Images. Portraits by Evan Bernstein.

The post The Emergence of Tessa Johnson: South Carolina Star Reflects on Winning the Title, Mental Approach and Being Guided by Faith appeared first on SLAM.

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

The day’s work beckons. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inside the green-accented gym of Myers Park High School in Charlotte, NC, stands 6-7 senior Isaiah Evans. In front of him, a sea of white t-shirts screaming obscenities. But here’s the thing: Slim—one of his many monikers—was bred for this environment. Hell, he lives for it.  

The nation’s No. 13 overall prospect in the Class of 2024 (via 247 Sports) is simply built different. Nights like these are filled with overwhelming expression and talking mad trash to the crowd—only after it’s been dished his way. With his tongue swaying from side to side as he begins to unfurl a contested side-step middie, it’d be a good business decision to just get out of the way. Though there are few—very few—who have been successful doing so.

Draped in his royal blue and red North Mecklenburg threads, the future Duke Blue Devil pulled his squad across the finish line against the defending 4A state champions in a tension-filled atmosphere that rivaled the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef. And yet, Showtime Slim enacted a masterpiece: 48-piece no fries—21 of them in a row during the second half.

“I always had an energetic feel toward me, but I really started getting real active my sophomore year, right after that ninth-grade summer,” Evans says. “I was really taking it personal.”

After being placed on the JV team during his freshman year, Evans spent the entirety of the following summer grinding his way into the varsity rotation as a sophomore. In Slim’s words, “It was time to activate.” After flipping the switch two years ago, the 18-year-old forward now holds the title of one of the most lethal scorers in his class. Gatorade State Player of the Year in North Carolina, McDonald’s All-American, reigning state champion and SLAM All-American—the list of accolades has only cemented his legacy. 

It was just over a month into his sophomore campaign before the major college offers began to trickle in, transitioning quickly into a downpour. While his peers began to stack themselves on prep school rosters, Slim chose to stay home, finishing the last of his high school days in the city that raised him. 

“Once I had gotten those first couple of offers [my] sophomore year, there wasn’t really any reason to leave,” Evans says. “You’re playing a national schedule every year, you’re going to these tournaments with these top teams, so I’m going to gain exposure. And I feel like I’m getting better year by year, so what’s the point in leaving?”

After pouring in 23 points—including four treys—Evans’ journey in his hometown was cemented with an undefeated season and the 2024 state championship. While visions of Cameron Indoor and hostile enemy crowds are in the near future, Evans knows he’ll miss the memories of those lively Friday nights when he bent the game to his will. But there’s still one solvent, a memento of his legacy. 

After igniting North Carolina’s historic basketball community as its latest homegrown star, Evans was cemented in North Mecklenburg history by having his jersey retired at the end of April. He let us in on the honor when we spoke. 

“A lot of people don’t know this, but I’m going to be the first and last person to wear No. 0 [at North Meck]. It really meant a lot to me.”

Portraits by Luke Schlaifer.

The post Future Duke Blue Devil and SLAM HS All-American Isaiah Evans Talks Staying Home for His Senior Season, Confidence and Being a State Champion appeared first on SLAM.

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

SLAM: How’s the offseason been so far?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos via Getty Images.

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

“I think that is a lot of where I found a love for the game,” Taylor tells us. “Just seeing them compete and get after it every night–as I got older, [it was] Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray. [I was] able to see women be really successful in their profession.”

For Taylor, the reality that she’s playing in the same League as those she’s always admired is surreal. The former 2023 ACC Defensive Player of the Year–who averaged 10.1 points and 3.4 assists after transferring to Ohio State for her fifth year–knows she has a lot to learn if she wants to elevate her game at the next level. “The first thing that comes to mind is just how crazy it is, and how crazy it will be to see people that you saw playing when you were little right in front of you. To either be playing next to them or against them, I mean, it’s just really exciting and cool, honestly.”

When asked if she’s ready to hold her own, Taylor doesn’t hesitate. “I am.”

Photos via Getty Images. Portrait by Evan Bernstein.

The post From New York to Indiana, Fever Rookie Celeste Taylor Talks Adjusting to the WNBA and Playing Against the Stars She’s Always Admired appeared first on SLAM.

An actress then in her seventies, Allison peered out at the group and saw one figure towering above the rest. 

His name was Rueben Chinyelu.

He was 14 years old and stood around 6-8.

Allison couldn’t believe her eyes. What was this boy doing here? Why was he selling clothes? She maneuvered through the crowd to find him. 

“Do you play basketball?” she asked Chinyelu.

He smiled and laughed, as he did every other time someone asked him that question. 

“I’m serious,” Allison said. “You could go to school playing basketball. You could further your education.”

This caught Chinyelu’s attention. The idea of playing basketball had never been framed to him in this way—as a possible ticket to a better education. And for some reason, it struck a different chord coming from Allison. Chinyelu had never played basketball before in his life. But suddenly, he felt compelled to pursue it. “I just think everything happens on God’s timing,” he says.

That was the summer of 2018. Six years later, Chinyelu is a 6-11 rising sophomore at the University of Florida. He transferred from Washington State University, where he played in all 35 games last season and finished fourth in the Pac-12 in blocks.

Growing up in the eastern region of Nigeria, Chinyelu was six years old when he lost his father. His mother raised him and his three older sisters, emphasizing discipline and education above all else. Chinyelu didn’t play any sports as a kid—not even soccer, which is by far the most popular sport in Nigeria. Instead, he focused entirely on his schoolwork and dreamed of one day becoming a doctor.

Everything changed that afternoon in 2018 when Allison, whom Chinyelu now refers to as his grandma, walked into his brother-in-law’s shop. Less than a week later, Chinyelu went to the National Stadium to register to join Raptors Basketball Academy. Despite his inexperience and rail-thin frame, he made an immediate impression on his new coach, Charles Ibeziakor. 

“I saw something that was different from the other boys that come to learn basketball,” Ibeziakor says. “I saw that this guy is going to be a potential player, a prospect, because of his hard work. He did not relent.”

Chinyelu’s discipline carried over from academics to basketball. If I’m doing this, I’m all in, he told himself. The team practiced Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon during the summer, but Chinyelu would come to the court at 6 a.m. for extra work. He trained individually with Ibeziakor every Sunday and watched tutorials on YouTube to tackle the fundamentals. Soon, his dream was to make it to the NBA.

Within a year, Chinyelu was picked to represent Nigeria in the 2019 FIBA U16 African Championship. He averaged 12.3 points and 17.6 rebounds (best in the tournament) to help his team place third. “He was one of the best,” says Ibeziakor. “From there, I knew that this guy was going to go places.”

Even before his debut for the junior national team, Chinyelu received interest from high schools throughout the United States, but his request for a visa was denied by the embassy. Eight times. And Chinyelu never really found out why. He was hurt, but undeterred. He just had to find a new path. “If I cry or get mad about it, I’m just doubling the problem,” he says. “I just never doubted myself.”

Coach Ibeziakor is also a scout for NBA Academy Africa, an elite basketball training center in Saly, Senegal. The Academy was established in 2017 to provide top high school-age prospects from across the continent with the tools necessary to pursue a future in the sport. Chinyelu arrived in 2021, having gotten much stronger after working out at home during the pandemic. He now had access to state-of-the-art facilities and was surrounded by the best young players in Africa, all of whom shared his ambition to reach the next level. In the school’s multi-purpose room, where the students eat, watch TV and socialize, pictures of African players who have made it to the NBA adorn the walls—a constant reminder of the goal they are all chasing.

With expert guidance from staff members such as technical director Roland Houston and head coach Alfred Aboya, Chinyelu improved dramatically at the Academy. “They have plays. Back home, we don’t have plays,” Chinyelu describes. “Just go play basketball, catch the rebound, pass the ball, make baskets. It was different getting breakdowns, extra workouts, when to work out, how to maintain your sleep. In the Academy, they didn’t just teach us about basketball—they taught us how to be a basketball player and also how to be a man. Because it all works together.”

Chinyelu founded the “6:00 a.m. Club” with Coach Aboya, a morning workout ritual that his teammates, who typically reported to the gym closer to 7:00 a.m., eventually joined. “He’s a tireless worker,” says Aboya. “He will bug you to work him out.”

The Academy competes in exhibitions and showcases across the globe, and Chinyelu also participated in the 2022-23 Basketball Africa League (BAL) season, averaging 5.4 points and 7.9 rebounds for Stade Malien. Since he started so late, his game—particularly on offense—is still being polished, but Chinyelu always brings energy and intensity. He becomes “a different person” on the court, according to former Academy teammate Seifeldin Hendawy. “Rueben’s game is so emotional,” Hendawy, an incoming freshman at Loyola Chicago, continues. “Super aggressive. When he comes between the lines, he just forgets everything. He doesn’t care. He’ll be dunking on people, destroying rims.”

Hendawy remembers one game of full-court two-on-two when Chinyelu “just went crazy” battling against fellow Nigerian and current Louisville big man Emmanuel Okorafor. The trash talk was flowing and the match-up was becoming increasingly physical. At one point, Chinyelu threw down a vicious dunk and let out a scream so powerful that it startled Hendawy and other spectators. “The gym was shaking,” Hendawy recalls with a chuckle. Houston eventually had to interject to settle things down a bit. “I’m him, Coach!” Chinyelu hollered at Houston, pounding his chest. “I’m him!”

That image stands in stark contrast to Chinyelu off the floor. He is soft-spoken, polite and eloquent, his comments peppered with the same sort of inspirational phrases that are taped up in classrooms at the Academy.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“The easy road is not always the way.”

“The only thing I can control is the present.”

“I know that something that is meant to happen is definitely going to happen.”

He has a calming presence that one could easily foresee translating into an excellent bedside manner. While his main objective remains to make it to the NBA, Chinyelu is also studying to become a dentist and plans to take summer classes to finish school should he leave early for the draft. 

Chinyelu joins a talented Florida squad (slotted at No. 20 in ESPN’s current rankings) and should assume a much bigger role this season after averaging just 13.8 minutes per game for Washington State. The Gators have several solid frontcourt options, but Chinyelu is projected to start at center. He arrived on campus at the beginning of June following a brief trip back to Africa, during which he visited family in Nigeria and caught the BAL Finals in Rwanda.

Watching him today, his first coach, Ibeziakor, is not surprised by the player Chinyelu has become. “Because I know the kind of person that Rueben is,” he says. “I know that Rueben will work extra to get there—to play in the NBA. And I believe that he will play [there] one day.”

Photos via Getty Images.

The post From Nigeria to Gainesville: The Improbable Journey of New Florida Big Man Rueben Chinyelu appeared first on SLAM.

It’s a beautiful afternoon in mid-May and we’re at the Pippens home for a “Day in the Life” shoot with Tissot, and Justin and Scottie are going back and forth in their game of PIG. Well, initially, they were playing HORSE, but as the ball continued to find the net, both father and son quickly realized they’d be there until dusk if they didn’t make a pivot. So, PIG it is.

Scottie’s got just one letter; P, while Justin looks to save himself from elimination on the right wing. As soon as the shot clanks off the back iron, Scottie begins to celebrate. But Justin still has a shot at redemption. Right?

“I feel like I defeated that kid twice,” Scottie explains. “I’ve played PIG numerous times in my life, and I’ve never heard of you getting a second shot after you miss. I went with his rules, but in my world, I won twice. But in his world, he won once. So, I’ll let him win once.”

In Justin’s mind, and by the book for some players, if you miss your first shot on the last letter of PIG, you automatically receive a second shot to redeem yourself. If you make the second, you play on. If you miss, game over.

“There was not a new rule,” Justin says in his defense. “We played PIG, he had me at P-I and then for the last shot on G, you get two shots if you miss it. I don’t know [how] he never heard that. That’s how me and my brothers grew up playing. I can call [them] right now and I’ll ask [them] and [they’ll] tell me the same thing.”

Right on cue, the youngest Pippen whips out his phone and Facetimes his older brother Scotty Pippen Jr., who just finished his second season in the League with the Memphis Grizzlies. There’s no brotherly catchup, no “How are you doin?” It’s straight to business. Justin asks and Scotty Jr. answers: “When we grew up playing, yeah.”

Competitiveness runs in the Pippen family, from the hardwood to Connect 4 and Monopoly. As we prepare to walk with the two through a typical day in their lives, both father and son are giving each other a hard time. The quips aren’t negative, they’re purposeful. As Scottie puts it, the banter builds a competitive edge while instilling confidence. Coaches say it all the time: “Worry when I’m not giving you a hard time.”

Scottie’s got six NBA championships to his name, Scotty Pippen Jr.’s carving out the beginnings of his career in the L after dicing up the SEC at Vanderbilt. Now, it’s Justin’s turn.

The post The Pippen Hoops Lineage Lives On appeared first on SLAM.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SC: It’s practice, though [laughs].

DC: It’s OK, I don’t lose.

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

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

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

DC: I just want to win [laughs].

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

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

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

Portraits by Joe Pinchin. Action photos via Getty Images.

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

Campers receive mentorship from current and former NBA players and follow an advanced training regimen designed to prepare them for the next level. In addition, every camper participates in group discussions and classes centering on topics such as stress management, recruiting pressures and more. 

Since ’94, hundreds of NBA players have come through the Top 100 Camp. This year’s event is set to take place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, FL, from June 8-13.

But first, to celebrate 30 incredible years, we’re looking back at the top 30 NBPA members who have hit the court at the Top 100 Camp.

30. Zach LaVine 

Of all the high-flyers on this list, Zach LaVine might have the craziest hops. At 6-5, 200 pounds, he somehow makes zipping past defenders, soaring through the air and punching a nasty jam over a seven-footer look effortless. His jaw-dropping highlights and incredible performances in dunk contests—like his legendary duel with Aaron Gordon in 2016—alone make him a suitable candidate for this list, but LaVine is also a two-time All-Star and an elite all-around scorer who has averaged over 20 points per game for his career. 

29. Zion Williamson 

It’s rare for a high school player to land on the cover of SLAM. But then again, it’s rare for a high school player to be like Zion Williamson was in 2017. The kid from Spartanburg, SC, demanded our attention, regularly going viral on social media for his unfathomable dunks and blocks. The eventual cover line: “He’s 16. He’s 6-7. He’s explosive like Russ. He dunks like LeBron. Are you ready for Zion Williamson?” No lies told. In fact, at the Top 100 Camp in 2016, he was named MVP. Unfortunately, the Zion experience has been limited in the NBA due to injuries, but when the New Orleans Pelicans star has been healthy, he’s been an unstoppable force who still lights up social media.

28. Bam Adebayo

In an interview with SLAM in 2019, Jimmy Butler described his teammate Bam Adebayo—now a 3x All-Star—perfectly: “He works super hard and he’s everywhere on the floor. You need him to pass it, he can pass it. He rebounds, he handles the ball, he sets great screens. You can’t take him off the floor. He’s a key part to what we want to do and what we will continue to do. [Head coach Erik Spoelstra] knows—in order to win, you gotta have Bam out there on the floor.” That all still applies today.

27. De’Aaron Fox

Don’t blink—you might miss De’Aaron Fox do something spectacular. The lightning quick guard was a McDonald’s All-American in high school, ranked as one of the top recruits in the nation. He went to the University of Kentucky for one year, starring alongside Bam Adebayo and Malik Monk, before entering the 2017 NBA Draft, where he was picked fifth overall by the Sacramento Kings. Slowly but surely, Fox has developed into an All-Star and made the Kings exciting and relevant for the first time in a long time. 

26. Karl-Anthony Towns

We have seen very few big men in the history of the NBA with the versatility and skill set of Karl-Anthony Towns. That’s to say: We have seen very few big men in the history of the NBA who are just as comfortable behind the arc and in the mid-range as they are in the paint. KAT, now 28, stands seven feet tall, has averaged 10.8 rebounds per game over his nine seasons in the League and is a career 40 percent three-point shooter. And he just helped lead the best Timberwolves team in two decades all the way to the Western Conference Finals.

25. DeAndre Jordan

During those peak Lob City years, DeAndre Jordan owned the paint for the Los Angeles Clippers. He controlled the glass, averaging 13.1 rebounds per game from 2013-18. He protected the rim, averaging 1.8 blocks over that same span. And occasionally, he threw down a dunk so vicious, so powerful, so unbelievable, that teammates and fans were left wondering what the hell just happened (please go rewatch his poster on Brandon Knight). Jordan now brings veteran leadership to the Denver Nuggets, where he helped the franchise capture its first championship in 2023.

24. Donovan Mitchell

Twelve teams passed on Spida in the 2017 NBA Draft. Twelve. Mitchell, who hails from Elmsford, NY, and went to college at Louisville, made most of those teams regret that decision almost immediately. He averaged 20.5 points as a rookie and was an All-Star by his third season. He’s now made five straight All-Star Games, including in 2023 when he was named a starter. Very few players in the League possess Mitchell’s combination of athleticism and skill. To put it plainly: the explosive guard—currently on the NBPA Executive Committee—is impossible to stop. And at 27 years old, he’s just entering his prime.

23. Al Horford

For the past 16 years, Big Al has been a big presence in the NBA. The reliable center is still playing a pivotal role for a historically good Boston Celtics team that just tore its way through the Eastern Conference. Horford was a star at Grand Ledge High School in Michigan, won back-to-back national championships at the University of Florida (2006, 2007) and has been named an All-Star five times during his lengthy NBA career (four times with the Hawks, once with the Cs). And he ain’t done yet. 

22. Kyle Lowry

When he entered the League in 2006, Kyle Lowry didn’t take off right away. In fact, it wasn’t until his fifth season in the NBA that the 6-0 point guard, who had been traded by the Grizzlies to the Rockets in ’09, became a permanent starter. Lowry hasn’t looked back since, guiding teams in Houston, Toronto, Miami and Philly with his hard-nosed, aggressive, energetic style of play—a style that has made him a fan favorite and earned him six All-Star selections. In the North, where he won a championship in 2019, Lowry will always be known as Mr. Raptor.

21. Baron Davis 

Baron Davis was an artist with the basketball. Ridiculous dribble packages, flashy assists, monster posters—the 1997 Gatorade National Player of the Year and two-time NBA All-Star always put on a show. After starring at UCLA, Davis was the third overall pick in the 1999 Draft and helped lead a formidable Hornets team for the first stretch of his pro career. He later joined the iconic “We Believe” Warriors squad that advanced to the second round of the 2007 playoffs as a No. 8 seed. Injuries robbed us of more years watching him play, no question, but when the electrifying guard was at his best, that was some of the most entertaining ball to watch.

The post NBPA Top 100 Camp Top 30 Players: 30-21 appeared first on SLAM.

We’re commemorating Luka’s unbelievable run to the 2024 NBA Finals with this cover of SLAM 250, which is also available in an exclusive orange and gold metal edition. Tap in.

The post The World is Mine: Luka Doncic Covers SLAM 251 appeared first on SLAM.

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

SLAM 250 featuring Dawn Staley is available now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GET YOUR COPY OF SLAM 250 + COVER TEE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portraits by Diwang Valdez. Action photos via Getty Images.

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

He was in class that morning when the text came through. It was John Calipari: I’m coming to the game today. Knowing the guy who had just recruited him would be in the building, the Arkansas commit suddenly had even more motivation for that night’s game. “My family was there, my future head coach was there—and just for him to pop up like that was very special,” Fland says. “I just wanted to put on a show.” 

It all hit even harder at the gym that night. “I was tearing up before the game, and then once I saw they were honoring me for making the McDonald’s All American Team, the tears came running down,” he says. Once the game tipped, Fland immediately made clear that the emotion of the occasion wouldn’t derail him from performing at the level that has made him a top-20 recruit and arguably one of the top point guards in the 2024 class. The line: 29 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals to lead his Archbishop Stepinac (NY) squad to a senior-night dub. 

His only slight disappointment afterward? “Man, I was trying to get 50,” Fland says. “I was locked in.”

It was a dominant but not at all surprising showing from Fland, the 6-3, 175-pound, Bronx-born guard who checks all the boxes for an elite floor general. Explosive and in-control, he dictates pace as a scorer and playmaker, a skill set made clear by the players whose games he works to emulate: everyone from LeBron and SGA to Ja Morant, Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley. That includes working to perfect one of the game’s most unstoppable shots.

“If you go on YouTube and search my name, you’ll see a step-back as the thumbnail. Just watch how many step-backs I do,” he says. “I’m so quick, they try to play the shot and the drive, and when I see that they’re playing the drive, it’s easy for me to snatch back and step back.”

The path that took Fland from the Bronx to White Plains (where Stepinac is located) and will see him in Lexington leading a typically loaded Wildcat recruiting class next winter has included plenty of stops that allowed him to show his skill set and sky-high potential. He’s been among the best hoopers at his age level since anyone can remember. “When I was in, I think, second grade, we were ranked top 25 in the country,” he says of his AAU squad. “Yeah, second grade, but it was something to us.”

A few years later, he led his AAU team to the national championship game, where he missed what could have been a game-winning shot. “That moment taught me that, you know, there’s going to be lows,” he says now. “I was so used to winning. That was an eye-opener for me. That taught me I gotta get better.”

The improvement really hasn’t stopped, as he’s shown time and again against elite competition. He was a member of the U17 US national team that took gold at the 2022 FIBA World Cup and was selected to join the stacked US roster for the 2024 Nike Hoop Summit. With that résumé, where can he still improve? “Before Coach Cal left on senior night, he said I need to talk more, be more vocal—it helps everybody on the floor, and it helps me.”

That shouldn’t be too difficult. Fland brings the same energy to every court he steps on, with his Bronx roots always on display. 

“New York is different. When people say that, it definitely is true,” he confirm emphatically. “You gotta have some swagger to you. You can’t be stiff. When you walk in the gym, they gotta know, Oh, he’s from New York.”  

Portrait by Marcus Stevens.

The post Stepinac’s Boogie Fland is Ready to Put on a Show at Arkansas appeared first on SLAM.

30 YEARS OF SLAM fully chronicles our history in 256 beautiful pages and includes a forward written by Allen Iverson.

The post The 30 Years of SLAM Book is OUT NOW! appeared first on SLAM.

“I was just out there having fun, I didn’t really care about talent. We just wanted to play to have fun,” Edgecombe says.

But talent is something the now-18-year-old has always possessed. It was just a matter of time before those outside of the islands came to know his name. After going toe to toe with juniors and seniors as a 13-year-old at Buddy Hield’s basketball camp in the Bahamas, V.J. decided to capitalize on his powers and potential by heading to the States to chase his dual dream: make the NBA and support his family.

The transition was smooth, Edgecombe says, but the reality of spending your teenage years in an entirely new country hasn’t been without its challenges. “I know it’s all for the best,” he says, “so I can sacrifice that for sure.” 

Ahead of his freshman year, V.J. headed to Florida, where he was initially unable to hoop due to the pandemic. His sophomore campaign was spent on the local AAU circuit with the South Florida Kings before he caught the attention of the Southeast Elite squad in the adidas 3SSB circuit.

“I was playing with a sprained wrist so I couldn’t shoot or anything. [I was] just on the court to play defense, go to the rim and make plays,” V.J. says of the summer going into his junior year. “I left those last two sessions with no offers. I was just hooping. I was just having fun, that’s all that mattered to me.”

Despite not being able to demolish defenses with a barrage of pull-up jumpers and spot-up threes, Edgecombe’s dominance quickly garnered traction at the grassroots level. Chase-down blocks and help-side pins off the backboard were a constant occurrence, alongside emphatic tomahawk dunks.

Imbued with lessons of determination grit and from his childhood in the Bahamas, V.J. brought an unrelenting hunger to Long Island (NY) Lutheran the following season. In his junior year, he exploded with the sheer force of a supernova.

“I came to America to play basketball, knowing I’ve got to feed my family and all of that. That’s definitely helped me and the person that I am right now. Just work harder than everybody else,” Edgecombe says. “I don’t want to be in that [percentage] that don’t make it out. I want to be in the part that makes it out and sets the standard high and sets a path for all the younger kids behind me.”

In his first year playing against the nation’s top prospects in the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (NIBC), a new league for elite prep teams, Edgecombe earned Gatorade New York State Player of the Year honors while also securing the League’s Player of the Year and scoring titles by pouring in 17.3 ppg. The offers started flooding in. In mid-January, Edgecombe announced his collegiate decision, becoming Baylor’s highest-ranked commit in over a decade.

Edgecombe has cemented himself as one of the most physically imposing players in his class. The athleticism is just unfair. And that J is smoother than the threads of his LuHi uniform. Trust that we’ve put you on game, because the Bimini native is holistically locked in to the next chapter of his journey.

“I feel like it’s going to separate me, to be honest,” V.J. says of his defense. “You have a bunch of prolific scorers in the country. I’m gonna be honest—everyone can score. I just need to do something that’s going to set me apart from everyone else. I’m not trying to be the same, I’m trying to be different.”  

Portraits by Erick Sasso.

The post Baylor Commit V.J. Edgecombe Left the Bahamas as a Teen. Now, His NBA Dreams are Within Reach appeared first on SLAM.

NBA Academy Africa, an elite basketball training center in Saly, Senegal, had been founded in 2017, roughly a year before one of its coaches, Joe Touomou, began recruiting Chomche. At first, the answer was no. Chomche’s parents had been reluctant to let him play basketball in the first place, so this was out of the question. “My parents didn’t want me to do any activities except school because my family values education a lot,” Chomche tells SLAM. In order to join the local team, he had struck a deal with them: Chomche could play, but if his grades suffered at all, he would have to quit.

So far, Chomche had not slipped up. But this was a much bigger ask. Basketball was new to the Chomche family. None of Ulrich’s 16 siblings played, instead gravitating to soccer, by far the most popular sport in Cameroon. Ulrich grew up helping out on the family farm—not dreaming of a future in the NBA. 

Initially rejected, Touomou returned to Cameroon to meet with Chomche’s parents again. He outlined just how much the Academy could benefit Ulrich, both on and off the court. Not only would he work with topnotch coaches to improve as a basketball player—he would also receive a first-rate education and have the chance to travel the world with his new classmates. This time, Touomou was able to convince them.

Not long after, the kid from Bafang arrived at the impressive campus in Saly. Everything had changed in a blink. Chomche was shy, quiet and surrounded by strangers, many of whom he struggled to communicate with. Courses were taught in English—a language that the French-speaking Chomche didn’t know. He was set up with a tutor, while also adjusting to a strict new basketball regimen. At his size with his agility, Chomche certainly had the tools to become a dominant big man. But he was still learning the basics of the game. 

“When Ulrich came, he did not know basketball,” says Franck Traore, Head of Basketball Operations for NBA Africa. “He could move [well], we evaluated him properly, and the coaching staff at the Academy obviously worked with him every day. We believed in him.”

Chomche’s team back in Bafang had practiced just a few times per week; at the Academy, he was practicing multiple times per day. He trained with experienced basketball minds like Touomou, who played four seasons at Georgetown University (1995-99), served as an international scout for the Indiana Pacers and is a longtime camp director at Basketball Without Borders Africa (where he coached NBA stars Joel Embiid and Pascal Siakam). 

“What really [made Chomche] take off was the mentorship piece,” Traore explains. “He needed that. As soon as we had that in place, his mindset shifted. He believed in himself—that he could do it. And his game took off.”

From the beginning, Chomche displayed an incredible work ethic. His current schedule at the Academy sees him report to the gym around 5:30 am every day for an individual workout, followed by a team practice and an hour of weightlifting—all before morning classes start at 10:00 am. For a while, Chomche was also taking night classes (after a second team practice from 5:30-7:30 pm) so that he could graduate early (which he did).

“What I like about the Academy is that they don’t only teach you how to play basketball, they teach you how to be a man, too,” Chomche says.

Every time he took the floor—whether it was in practice, a global exhibition game, the Basketball Africa League, or a premier scouting event—Chomche looked less lost and more confident. Less clumsy and more polished. Over the past five years, he has matured from a complete novice into one of the most promising international prospects. 

Last week, Chomche, who now stands 6-11 with a 7-4 wingspan, officially entered his name in the 2024 NBA Draft. He is expected to become the first NBA Academy Africa graduate to be picked. Given the rise of basketball across the continent, there will be many more to come. Chomche’s close friend Khaman Maluach, a 7-2 center from South Sudan headed to Duke in the fall, is projected to be a top-three pick in 2025. The two proudly represented the Academy in the recent Nike Hoop Summit, an annual high school showcase held in Portland, OR.

“It’s a good thing that I have my brother with me because every time we practice in the Academy, we say we are preparing for a war,” Chomche says of Maluach. “Every time we practice, we are competing. And I’m very grateful to have him with me because he helps push me every time.”

Together they have been a dynamic duo for the Academy, often carrying the team. In December, they led their squad to two impressive victories at the G League Winter Showcase, starring in front of hundreds of NBA executives and scouts. Chomche flashed what makes him such a special prospect: mainly, his defensive versatility. He possesses both the athleticism to protect the rim and the mobility to switch onto guards on the perimeter. At the 2022 Basketball Without Borders camp in Cairo, Egypt, Chomche won the Defensive MVP award.

“His biggest strength is defense,” Traore says. “First of all, his size and length—you cannot teach that. He was born with it. It’s a gift. Great rebounder. Great shot blocker. The timing is exceptional. And his lateral movement, being able to defend, that’s already a gift for him. I think that’s half the battle for him. He’s adding a nice three-pointer. He can shoot from the corner and make them consistently. During the games, when we need it, he’s able to make those shots.”

Chomche is still developing his offensive game and will need time to adapt to the NBA. He’s just 18 years old—the youngest player eligible for the 2024 Draft. Training at the Academy over the next few months, Chomche is focused on improving his ball-handling, shooting and finishing around the basket. He has shown signs of being able to spread the floor—during Basketball Africa League qualifiers in November, he shot 38 percent from behind the arc (8/21), while also averaging 13 points, 9 rebounds and 2.7 blocks.

Marshall Cho, who coached Chomche at the Nike Hoop Summit, says the Cameroonian center has “some of the most elite feet for a guy that size.” Cho points to Chomche’s help defense and screen-setting as evidence. “Those are two things that he can do that don’t require shooting,” Cho stresses. “So all the criticism of his touch around the rim or whatever it may be—that he’s raw—he has a base that the League needs right now. Beyond that, if you’ve seen him shoot the three, he can actually really shoot it. He has that in him.”

Above all else, Chomche is “a winner,” says Traore. He does the little things and always finds a way to make an impact, even if it doesn’t show up in the box score. “I would be surprised if Ulrich went his entire career in the NBA without a championship,” Traore continues. “Having some of the best coaches in the world work with him every day, Ulrich will be a starter in the NBA for over a decade. That’s who he is.”

Regardless of what the future holds, Chomche is already one of the Academy’s best success stories. How far he’s come since joining the program is validation that the initiative is working—that leaving Bafang was definitely worth it.

“He comes from a very humble background,” adds Traore. “He’s representing his family very, very well.”

Photos via Getty Images.

The post The Remarkable Journey of NBA Academy Africa Star and 2024 Draft Prospect Ulrich Chomche appeared first on SLAM.

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

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

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

SLAM: Where’s your skiing skill level?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo via Getty Images.

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

Jimmy Butler is everywhere these days.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To win at everything he does. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why? 

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

He pauses for a moment and flashes a sly smile. 

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

Portraits by Alex Subers

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

These guys are friends. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still, he has a ring. 

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

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

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

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

These guys won together on the biggest collegiate stage. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portraits by Marcus Stevens.

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

In South Carolina’s season opener against Notre Dame, MiLaysia Fulwiley made headlines after she blew by a swarm of green jerseys with an elite behind-the-back move, finishing with flair.

The Gamecocks would go on to dominate the Fighting Irish, 100-71, in their season opener held in Paris, France. Fulwiley finished the game with 17 points, six assists and six steals in her collegiate debut. And it didn’t take long for her compelling stat line and highlight clips to flood timelines.

Word traveled 4,000 miles back to the United States: a star was on the rise. 

Gamecocks fans were enlivened, haters were quieted and the world was put on notice. Since then, Fulwiley has just kept on hoopin’. The Columbia, S.C. native is a burst of speed, undeniable swagger and equipped with a shot-making ability and handles. It’s been clear from the start that she is special, and since then, she’s been in her first season, averaging 11.7 points and logging 82 assists and 63 steals. Her season crescendoed into the SEC Tournament final matchup against LSU, where she dropped 24 points off the bench. The silky-smooth sorcerer of the basketball was then rightfully crowned the SEC Tournament MVP. 

“MiLaysia is a generational player, an artist who is expanding her understanding of how to marry all aspects of her game every day,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said, per a press release announcing Fulwiley had signed with Curry Brand. “We are learning things from each other about how to maximize her game, and it has been incredible to work with her on that process.” 

Her flashy game is transcendent. “When it comes to the ability to change the game for good, nobody can speak to that more than MiLaysia,” Stephen Curry said. “She’s changing the women’s game on the fly with how she plays and moves on the court.”

While Fulwiley’s offensive prowess is undeniable, that isn’t all she can do. Despite being a natural scorer, Fulwiley isn’t afraid to show up on the defensive end of the floor: she grabbed nine boards against East Carolina and has multiple games with six steals. And most impressively, she does all of this while coming off the bench.

It’s crazy to think Fulwiley is only a freshman, but then again, she’s helping lead a new generation of phenoms who don’t just got next, but right now. Look no further than her, SLAM 248 cover star Juju Watkins, Hannah Hidalgo (to name a few), and even her own teammate, Tessa Johnson, who also dropped buckets in last night’s iconic championship win against Iowa.

Under the guidance of head coach Dawn Staley, Fulwiley has shined all season long.  What we witnessed from her in this year’s NCAA tournament is just a glimpse of what she can do: jaw-dropping plays, unreal dimes and finishes at the rim. She’s fun, she’s got flair and she’s just getting started. 

Photos via Getty Images.

The post South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley is an ‘Artist’ with Crazy Court Vision and Transcendent Talent  appeared first on SLAM.

Get your copy of SLAM 249, also featuring Caitlin Clark, the Knicks and Jimmy Butler, right now.

The post Anthony Edwards Covers SLAM 249 appeared first on SLAM.

But for Edwards, this is just the beginning. 

“When I go to South Carolina, my main goal is to just get on the floor, be a defensive player—because you can’t get on the floor without defense—and then sculpting my offense to be what the team needs,” she says. “I’m not coming in looking to be, like, the star player and none of that. I’m just trying to come in and do what the team needs and fit into my role.” 

She’s set to join a program that’s synonymous with winning. By the time we go to press, South Carolina has just posted back-to-back undefeated regular seasons, won its second SEC Tournament championship in a row, and is gearing up for March Madness as the No. 1 seed. It’s that prestige—as well as the legacy of Dawn Staley, now in her 16th season since taking over the program in ’08—that led Edwards to commit to the Gamecocks in the first place. After narrowing down her top three schools to SC, LSU and Clemson, Edwards was contemplating signing later in the signing period, and it was Dawn who she felt truly respected her decision.

“The way Dawn responded was completely different from everybody else. She was like, OK, why do you feel this way? I feel like it was really just the coaching. What Dawn said just hit me a little bit different than every other coach.” 

Over the years, Dawn has molded future WNBA legends, from the 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston to A’ja Wilson, a two-time WNBA champion and the 2023 Finals MVP, whom Edwards had a chance to meet when South Carolina beat Maryland this past November. Wilson even gave her some advice.

“[She] was talking about how when she came into South Carolina, and they had her starting,” Edwards recalls of their conversation, “and she came out the next game and did whatever she had to do. I feel like her transition from being more of a role player at SC to her having to be that more dominant player in the paint and take them to the national championship. Just the whole process and her mentality throughout and the progression she had through that, that’s one of the biggest things that I took away from it.” 

Edwards sees similarities in their games, too, and says her dad often compares her to Wilson. “Obviously, she’s left-handed, but she has the middy in the bag. She can drive, she can face up, she posts up. All those things that she does—obviously, I’m not doing it [at] as high a level as her—but I’m doing a lot of similar things at my age.” 

As she wraps up her senior year at Camden—Edwards also plays soccer, which she says has helped with her conditioning and footwork on the court—she’s already looking forward to the opportunities that await just 40 minutes away in Columbia. 

“I feel like for some players, it could definitely be intimidating,” she says. “But then I just remember that I play my best when I’m going against and playing with great players in practice and stuff like that. I feel like at South Carolina, with the competition I’ll be playing against in practice, like, these are WNBA legends. These people are about to go to the League and do great things. Going up against them in practice will just make me better, and hopefully when I show up in a game, I think I’ll be really prepared.”  

Deyscha Smith is an Associate Editor at SLAM. Follow her on Instagram and X, @deyschasmith.

Portraits by Kai McNeil. Follow him on Instagram, @thekaimac.

The post No. 2 Ranked Senior Joyce Edwards Talks All-Around Game, Dawn Staley and Her Future at South Carolina appeared first on SLAM.

That’s the word Taiyanna Jackson uses when asked to describe how she’s gone from playing at Trinity Valley Community College to becoming the No. 2 shot blocker in the country at Kansas. The Jayhawk has always known that her time is coming, but it’s also been a journey to get there.

Prior to coming to Kansas, Jackson played two years of JUCO ball. Her decision to go that route—despite being a four-star prospect in high school at East Chicago Central HS and originally committed to Ole Miss—came down to her wanting to explore her options and open herself up to something new. At Trinity Valley, Jackson was a NJCAA Region 14 Freshman of the Year and averaged 10.3 points per game throughout those two seasons. 

Stats aside, what Jackson gained from the experience prepared her not just athletically, but mentally, for the DI level. “JUCO is totally different: the class sizes, the games, how we travel, how we prepare for games and everything is just different. Trinity Valley was fun and I would say, like, it prepared me for the mental side DI,” she says, later adding: “Being patient and just knowing that [my] time is coming [and] everything [I’ve] worked for, everything [I’ve] thought of [and] dreamt of [is] eventually going to come to life just by being patient,” Jackson tells us over Zoom in early March before Selection Sunday. 

By the time you’re reading this, Jackson and her squad are gearing up for March Madness—the Jayhawks will take on Michigan in the first round on March 23. To say Jackson has settled well into the Jayhawks program would be an understatement: she’s thrived. As a junior she was the first-ever Jayhawk to be selected to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team and this season she’s become so much of a defensive ace, her 3.1 blocks per game has her currently ranked No. 2 in the nation in blocks, just behind Stanford’s Cameron Brink. 

Jackson has always had a knack shot blocking, but since arriving in Lawrence, she’s been challenged with playing against opponents that are bigger, and more experienced at the DI level, then she was coming in. But it’s how she’s met that challenge—and discovered that her footwork and approach to defense is her speciality—that’s allowed her to make a major impact. “[It was] my first time playing against, like, DI basketball players,” she says looking back at her first season at KU. “I always knew I was a great defender [and] I’m quick on my feet and that’s just something that I have [as] an advantage in my position. I just took pride in that. I let my offensive game come to me and let my defense take over.” 

Jackson is fearless when she matches up against opponents. Don’t sleep though: her offensive game is there, too—she’s currently second on the team in scoring with 12.6 ppg—but on the other end of the floor, Jackson really gets in her bag. “I really just love defense. It’s just like, the excitement and the joy you get when you’re blocking somebody’s shot. I don’t know, I just like it,” she says now with a smile and a slight chuckle. 

The passion in her voice is evident, and at one point, Jackson motions a chef’s kiss with her hand, as if comparing the feeling of blocking someone’s shot to a delicacy. When Kansas played Houston in February, Jackson posted nine blocked shots amidst a double-double performance, propelling her to the top of Jayhawks record book with the most career blocked shots in program history (270). 

 “Just stop sleeping on her,” teammate Zakiyah Franklin told The University Daily Kansan. “She’s been doing this. It’s not new to us…but people around the country should be put on notice more.” All season long, Jackson has been proving time and time again that this is just what she does: a few games later against UCF, Jackson ran all the way from the post to the top of the key and blocked sophomore Taylor Gibson right as the buzzer went off in the second quarter. She had yet another monster double-double performance of 29 points, 10 rebounds and even four blocks to help seal the 65-53 win. 

The Jayhawks will need that same energy from her ahead of the NCAA tournament, where they’ll look to make a run past the second-round for the first time since 2022. Regardless of what happens, this is only the beginning for Jackson, who has her sights set on the WNBA in the future. We can only imagine how her game will grow at the next level. 

“I would like to go play at the next level. That’s the goal.”

Photos via Getty Images. Portrait via KU Athletics.

The post Kansas Standout Taiyanna Jackson is Putting the World on Notice, One Blocked Shot at a Time appeared first on SLAM.

“It didn’t take but a second, maybe a minute,” Jensen told the Associated Press. “That little step-back sassy three, this little seventh-, eighth-grader. Yeah, she’s diff. You could just tell. They’re easy to identify but really hard to get. Everybody can see the true, true ones. The trick is to get them.”

Jensen played a major part over the years in recruiting Clark, who was intrigued by Iowa’s playing style and what head coach Lisa Bluder had done with the program and the point guard position, specifically. At Iowa, she could play freely. Fast. And, with senior Kathleen Doyle leaving for the WNBA Draft, she would be next in line to not only orchestrate the offense, but make an impact.

Years later, Jensen admitted that they talked to Clark about what she could do at the collegiate level. How she could take them to the Final Four and beyond. It matched perfectly with Clark’s own vision for herself: “I have goals for a Final Four,” she told Sports Illustrated back in 2020. “I have big hopes and dreams, which I think any person should if you’re playing basketball with them. Who wouldn’t want to win and be the best?”

It’s one thing to dream; it’s another to do it, and then a lot more. Could Clark, or anyone who knew her during those early days, have ever imagined that she’d become the greatest college basketball player Iowa has ever seen? Or, arguably, the greatest in the college game today, man or woman? What about the way she’s transcended the sport—not just women’s basketball, but the game entirely. The NCAA all-time scoring record. The logo shots. The Nike commercials. Selling out arenas like a rock star, having rappers like Travis Scott and WNBA legends like Maya Moore pull up to watch her play, the constant crowds of people wanting her autograph after games. What did Beyoncé say again? You know you’re that [girl] when you cause all this conversation. What was it Drake said, too? You know it’s real when you are who you think you are.

SLAM 249 featuring Caitlin Clark is available now. Shop.

Caitlin Clark is bigger than basketball, bigger than any box score, viral clip or logo shot. She’s more than the list of awards she’s won so far during her four-year career at Iowa, too. An exceptional person, woman, human, at the forefront of a very specific moment in history we’re all living in right now. A basketball Renaissance, a new era for women’s basketball. She’s not just doing it alone—there are so many stars who are changing the college basketball landscape right now, and Clark has an entire squad dominating alongside her, too.

To fully appreciate what’s happening in women’s hoops right now, we first have to acknowledge the past and the many, many women who helped paved the way before them: the legends who held the records Clark has now broken—no, not just Pistol Pete, but Lynette Woodard and Kelsey Plum. Then there’s the program Lisa Bluder has built at Iowa over the past two decades, before Clark even arrived. And what about all the Iowan women who competed in 6-on-6 basketball, including Jensen and her grandmother, long before women were even allowed to play fives.

And to even fathom what that young girl, now a woman, from West Des Moines has done, you have to go back. Here is where our story really begins…

***

If you’re new to women’s hoops, this history lesson is for you. While basketball was technically invented by a man we all know of in Springfield, MA, just down I-91 N, it was a woman by the name of Senda Berenson Abbott who first introduced the game to women at Smith College in 1892. This was 80 years before Title IX was passed, but girlie was on to something. Ditching Dr. James Naismith’s peach baskets for wastebaskets, the Smithies dropped buckets (literally) in a version of the game that divided the court into three sections. While ideologies about women—their delicacy, physical activity impacting their ability to reproduce—definitely existed back then (to keep it real, even Berenson once said that “desire to win…will make our women do sadly unwomanly things”), that was truly the catalyst.

The game only grew from there, from the east to the west, eventually reaching rural Iowa in the 1900s. There, women were already used to working on farms alongside their brothers and fathers, bailing hay and sweating, so the idea of them playing basketball wasn’t too scandalous. Rural high schools were really the first in the nation to allow girls to play 6-on-6, a version of the game that split the court in half, involved three forwards and three guards and had rules like players only being allowed to dribble twice.

It’s no coincidence that one of the most electric women’s college basketball players of today was born in the Hawkeye State. The throughlines in Clark’s story really start here.

By 1920, the first state tournament was held in her hometown of Des Moines at Drake University. The following year, Audubon beat Ottumwa in the championship thanks to an 18-point performance by the MVP, Dorcas Anderson, who just so happens to be the grandmother of Clark’s associate head coach, Jan Jensen.

More than half a century later, Jensen, too, would star on that very same court her grandmother did. By 1990, Jensen was averaging 29.6 ppgs as a senior at Drake, where she was coached by none other than newly-hired Bluder, who also played 6-on-6 basketball in high school at Linn-Mar in Marion, IA. After 10 seasons at Drake, Bluder took over at Iowa and eventually hired Jensen, first as an assistant.

“She was just tremendous. She was really just a player’s coach and intense but knew how to make it fun. Obviously, it benefited me,” Jensen told The Athletic.

Bluder’s coaching résumé at Iowa speaks for itself: with an 850-391 overall record, she’s the program’s all-time winningest coach and currently ranks 14th in NCAA DI women’s basketball history. She’s led the Hawkeyes to 21 postseason appearances, including their first-ever national championship appearance just last season. Over the years, she’s coached three Big Ten Player of the Year standouts, including Clark, who’s won it in back-to-back years, as well as Megan Gustafson and Kathleen Doyle. Her success is as much a testament to her brilliant basketball mind as it is her ability to connect with her players; as Clark told The Athletic, Bluder can strike a balance between “serious” and “fiery,” but also “fun” and “goofy.”

The program Bluder has built is now a powerhouse. This year’s squad can run opponents into the ground, shoot the ball in your face, and then stuff you on the defensive end. Not only is the team equipped with Clark but a whole roster of certified bucket getters. Look no further than Kate Martin, a 6-0 graduate student and guard who joined the program ahead of the 2019-20 season, is currently averaging double digits, including a career-high 12.9 points as well as 6.5 boards. Having grown up in a family of Hawkeye fans—Jensen is her aunt—Martin has known that she wanted to suit up in the black and gold since she was 5. Flash forward to today, and she’s emerged as a versatile standout who can do it all: block shots, finish at the rim and knock down threes from beyond the arc. But her impact on the program, and this Hawkeyes team, can’t be measured in just individual stats or accolades. Often referred to as “The Glue,” in the media, she is undoubtedly Iowa’s heartbeat and their tenacious leader.

Then there’s Gabbie Marshall, another sharpshooter with a crazy step-back game who is also Iowa’s defensive ace. Marshall is the first Iowa women’s basketball player to record 200 threes and 200 steals in a career and has been key in matchups against teams like Nebraska this season. Who could forget those final 31 seconds of the Big Ten Championship thriller when she displayed pure grit and blocked an attempted three by Nebraska’s Logan Nissley in overtime. “[Marshall is] one of the best shooters, but I don’t think she gets enough credit for her defense,” Clark said of Marshall, in The Daily Iowan. “She takes the challenge of guarding the best player every single game.”

Sophomore Hannah Stuelke was also key in Iowa’s Big 10 championship win, combining with Clark for 59 points to help bring the Hawkeyes their sixth conference title. The matchup, which averaged over 3 million viewers on CBS, is now the most-watched women’s basketball game on the network since UConn-Tennessee in ’99. Stuelke’s been putting up big numbers all season long, including 47 points against Penn State in February, which is the second-most points ever scored in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. And what’s even tougher is that she did it without attempting a single three. Scary.

All of the hype and media attention we’re seeing around the program now is just part of the cultural fabric of Iowa’s renowned hoops history. Not just the program, but the entire state, which has been supporting women’s basketball since before anyone on Bluder’s current roster was even born. Girls’ basketball drew sold-out crowds of 15,000 people. People bought their tickets way in advance. Sound familiar? We’re not talking about just today, but back in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. When the Hawkeyes defeated South Carolina in the Final Four last year, Bluder was just as surprised to hear that Iowa legend Molly Bolin, who also played 6-on-6 and dropped 83 points as a senior at Moravia High School in the ’70s, was in attendance.

Now, imagine if Clark, or Martin, or Marshall or any star college basketball player today was playing back then. The last year 6-on-6 basketball was played was ’93, but stories about that time have been passed down through generations. Even Clark knows what type of time these women were on. “I used to joke with her and be like, Man, Caitlin, you would have been so good at 6-on-6, or, you could have just played offense,” her high school coach Kristin Meyer tells us. “[She] would have averaged over a hundred points a game, but she would have hated it because she would have had to wait on her half and she can’t go get the ball.”

Now picture this: what if those very same Iowan legends—like Denise Long (the first woman drafted by an NBA team, the San Francisco Warriors) and Deb Coates, to name a few—had what Caitlin now benefits from: social media, NIL deals, a magazine cover like this one. Clark isn’t just rewriting women’s basketball history; she’s authoring the next chapter. And she knows her history, too. “When I hear from a lot of people that played basketball, whether it was 6-on-6 however many years ago, I think they’re blown away at where women’s basketball is now and the platform we get to play on,” Clark said in USA Today. “That doesn’t come if it’s not for the people who came before us.”

For those who study and teach women’s sports history, including Jennifer Sterling, a lecturer in the American Studies department at the University of Iowa, Clark’s place in history is monumental. “It’s important history taking place right now,” Sterling says. “What she’s done on the court and off the court, what the team has done, and the coaching and how athletics has supported this moment, I think is all really exceptional.”

And so, our story continues…

***

The “Caitlin Clark Effect” didn’t just happen when she arrived at Iowa. It’s always been something innately within her. Before she’d ever even picked up a basketball, Clark’s parents would hear from her daycare that their 2-year-old had “exceptional motor skills and coordination,” as they told HawkCentral. She was always competitive by nature, too, whether she was playing Candyland on their living room floor or hooping against her brothers. At the age of 5, her grandfather, Bob Nizzi, recalled in HawkFanatic a time when she stood up to a bullyish boy on the court and “put on the best downfield block that I have ever seen and rolled this kid out of bounds and stood over him.”

Always a gifted athlete, her father, Brent, soon noticed Clark could hit shots from 15 feet on a six-foot hoop, and when he was unable to find a girls youth basketball program for her, he put her in a boys league in second grade. They ended up winning the tournament, and as the story goes, someone’s mom was so pressed that Brent remembers them saying that “a girl shouldn’t be allowed to play in a boys tournament.”

But Clark’s always been unafraid and unapologetically herself. She’s always pushed boundaries, too. Today, we’ve seen her hit the MJ shoulder shrug after a deep three and wave off opponents like a G, things she’s been both celebrated and criticized for. “Everybody wants to critique her, everybody wants her to be nicer. They want her to be more ladylike. They want her to be less arrogant. They want her to pass. That kid loves it. She’s an entertainer. She is passionate,” Jensen told the Hawk Central in 2023.

She remembers Clark like that in high school, too. Energetic, even in the classroom. So much so that, as a junior, Meyer remembers one of Clark’s history teachers telling her that on exam days, Clark would finish her tests so quickly that they started having to send her to Meyer’s office, just to keep her preoccupied. “She always took school very seriously, but she needs to be entertained,” Meyer says.

The same goes for on the court. When they’d have conversations about her shot selection, there would be times when Meyer would say to her, Caitlin, we’re not going to do that. But did she listen? “I never really gave her the green light,” Meyer says. “She just always took it to be honest.” As a junior at Dowling, Clark averaged 32.6 ppg and dropped 60 points against Mason City HS, one off the state record. Now she’s doing the same at the collegiate level; as we head to press—and she heads to the NCAA Tournament, Caitlin’s currently averaging a career-high 31.9 ppg, has had multiple 40-plus point performances and is still setting records.

“Her game [now] is very similar to what it was when she was a freshman in high school,” Meyer says. “Her attacking the basket, her court vision and her ability [to make] just incredibly difficult passes look easy. Her range—she didn’t shoot from half court or from the logo necessarily in high school—but she was testing the boundaries a little bit as far as definitely shooting behind the high school three-point line.”

And that is exactly what makes her exceptional: natural talent and work ethic aside, Clark has always been just wired different. “Caitlin, she’s just fearless and she is confident and she is bold and she is brave and courageous,” Meyer says. “It took those natural skills, with the work ethic [she’s built], and to have the courage to just play big.”

***

As for the rest of Caitlin Clark’s story, that is still being written. By the time you’re reading this, Iowa is a No. 1 seed going into the NCAA Tournament. We don’t know yet how this college chapter will end and if she’ll end up winning her first, and the program’s first, NCAA title. Or, how the next one, her arrival to the WNBA, will begin. Will she be able hold her own in the WNBA as the Indiana Fever’s projected No. 1 pick? Regardless of what happens, her impact won’t be tainted in the slightest. Longtime college basketball fans, new fans, young fans, are all enamored by her. At Dowling, Meyer’s current players hear stories about her 60-point game, her competitiveness and her approach to practice and commitment to making her teammates better.

“Whenever she’s stopped by [the school], the girls are just nervous around her. They almost feel like she’s famous, which to me is so weird because she’s just Caitlin,” Meyer says.

Some call Clark the “female Stephen Curry,” while others haven’t stopped comparing her to Pete Maravich since she broke his all-time NCAA scoring record this year. But Clark made it clear to the media after she broke the record that she doesn’t want to be remembered for just her accolades, but rather, “for the way I played with a smile on my face, my competitive fire.”

And that is her legacy. That is what we’ll be talking about in the years to come—Caitlin’s passion, her talent, what she’s done for women’s basketball. When we asked Sterling about Clark’s impact—and whether we can expect a chapter about her in seminar syllabuses one day (the answer is yes)—our theory was proven correct: the legend of Caitlin Clark is just beginning. It’s all part of a larger history.

“Hopefully this is the beginning of more amazing things to come,” Sterling says. “And the culmination of the many changes in women’s sport that have happened along the way.”

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.

The post The Legend of Caitlin Clark: How the Superstar is Writing the Next Chapter in Iowa Women’s Basketball History appeared first on SLAM.

It’s crazy to think there was almost a moment when five-star recruit Aaliyah Chavez didn’t play basketball. Growing up in Texas, Chavez admits that when she was younger, she’d mostly sit at home and watch television on the couch, or she would see other kids playing basketball in the park. That’s when she got an idea. “I was like, Oh, that looks fun to play.” 

The way her dad and trainer, Sonny, remembers it, the Monterey High School star wasn’t exactly the athletic type when she was little. “She couldn’t ride a bike, couldn’t ride a skateboard, you know, all the things that I grew up [doing] as a kid,” he says over the phone. Despite initially telling her no, young Aaliyah didn’t give up. “She just was pretty adamant about playing,” he adds. 

Sonny, who played football, decided he’d see just how badly Aaliyah, who was in third grade at the time, really wanted it. So, he started putting her through workouts that had nothing to do with basketball but tested her mental toughness. They’d work on plyometrics with boxes he had built. He’d have her jump and try to touch the door frame or work on ballhandling in the driveway with tennis balls. “[I was] just trying to push her to quit and to realize that sports was not for her. [But] she did everything I asked, so I ended up signing her up.” 

A few days before tryouts, Sonny taught her how to block a shot, but that was really the extent of her basketball training before she played her first game. Back then, Aaliyah couldn’t score a layup, but her grit was on full display. She’d go out there and snatch the ball from the other little girls, and block shots, too, just like her dad had taught her. In fourth grade, she tried out for a local AAU squad with older players but was told during practice that she wasn’t good enough. That was a defining moment for her. “I think that was really [when I was] like, Oh, I’m gonna prove you wrong.”

That’s not the only hate Aaliyah has had to deal with throughout her journey. From doubters to jealous parents complaining about her minutes to people telling her father that “she’s not gonna
be that good because she’s Hispanic,” and that he was pushing her too hard. It’s safe to say that Chavez has proved everyone wrong. Today, she’s the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2025 and has narrowed down her college list to 10 top Division I programs: Texas Tech, Arizona, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, USC, Tennessee, Texas and UCLA.

And both she and her family have done it all on their own terms: rather than go to an elite prep school halfway across the country, she’s chosen to stay at home and play for Monterey. 

When we caught up with Chavez for her SLAM HS Basketball Diary (read here), she had just scored her 3,000th point and claimed she would’ve dropped 50 had her coach not sat her out.

That’s the type of confidence Chavez carries herself with every time she steps on the floor: “I’d describe my game as an all-around player,” she tells us. “I can shoot, I can get to the bucket, I can defend, I’m a playmaker at the same time. If you’re open, I’m gonna find you, and some of the passes I’ve been making are crazy. I think I just make crazy passes because I’m not afraid to try them.” 

Portraits by Zach Tijerina.

The post No. 1 Ranked ’25 Monterey Star Aaliyah Chavez is Taking Over Women’s Hoops On Her Own Terms appeared first on SLAM.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SLAM 238 IS OUT NOW! 

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson.

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

“We love you Jujuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!” 

Now all eyes really are on Watkins. She smiles and humbly laughs it off—later she admits that it could’ve been a teammate or something. “I don’t know what that was,” Watkins says, while sitting on the team’s practice court. “That might have been my teammate honestly just trolling me. Sometimes I get recognized, but not too often.”

Juju Watkins covers SLAM 248. Shop now.

Yeah, OK. While she might be humble about all the attention, there’s a reason everyone calls her “The Juju Show.” Watkins was so big time in high school, Chris Brown and 2 Chainz would pull up to her games at Sierra Canyon to watch her play. The No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2023 has had legends like LeBron James, whose son Bronny is currently a freshman on the USC men’s team, and USC all-time great Cheryl Miller, as well as fellow California natives James Harden and Paul George, give her nothing but high praise. Step onto the USC campus, and you’ll see her No. 12 jersey in the school bookstore.

“I’ve always dreamt of playing for a college that I love and being able to have so much pride in where I go to college,” she tells us. “To finally be here and have made that decision and be confident [in it] is a dream come true.”

Right outside, there’s a newsstand with copies of the Daily Trojan, and the very first thing we notice is that the main photo in the sports section is Watkins dribbling down the court with the caption, “USC will need a big game from her to pull off the upset against the Bruins.”

She did that and more. A few days after her SLAM cover shoot, Juju dropped a double-double in a win against UCLA in front of a record-breaking 10,657 fans. Her 32 points and 10 boards earned her Associated Press National Player of the Week and the Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week. May we remind you: she’s only 18 years old, and yes, she’s already a bucket-getting-dime-dropping-silky-smooth guard with a game so fluid and pro-ready, it’s mesmerizing to watch.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves quite yet. Actually, nah, let’s. That’s what the sports world does with every promising young player, and to keep it real, no one ever hesitates to declare the dudes the next big things. After all, didn’t the world start calling LeBron “The Chosen One” back when he was in high school? Speaking of which, even he’s declared Juju is the future: “She’s the next greatest thing in women’s basketball,” he said in the Los Angeles Times.

As she leads a renaissance of L.A. hoops and a new era of freshman stars, Watkins also represents why women’s sports is not just important to support and invest in, but exciting and special. 

“I think women’s basketball is constantly evolving, so just to be a part of that and be in that mix is an honor.”

It was just three years ago when we were in the gym with a 15-year-old Juju and her pops, Robert, to film her “Day in the Life.” Growing up in the neighborhood of Watts, Watkins was dropping 30 pieces at just 6 years old and was already so dominant that in the middle of a game, a younger boy literally picked her up and tried to take her off the court because he couldn’t guard her. She’d play in the Westchester Park rec league, and according to Robert, would even get “upset” whenever they’d play one-on-one. 

“That’s when I knew she had it,” he told us. “When she started getting mad.” 

Today, Watkins plays with that same fire, but she’s learned to channel it into a competitiveness that’s lethal every time she steps on the floor. She transforms into a different person, she admits, who is drastically different from the laid-back, chill one she is off the court. “Honestly, I just think basketball brings out another side to me. [I’m] very mellow off the court,” she says. “Sometimes it’s too much. Screaming, all that, that’s not really me.” 

The world saw that side of her right from the jump in her college debut against Ohio State. Amid a 32-point performance, Watkins was clapping and screaming in excitement after finishing tough layups at the rim. When the win was secured, there she was again, chest-bumping her teammates. Her performance broke Lisa Leslie’s freshman debut scoring record (30). “I think coming into [my] freshman season, I didn’t really have too many expectations for myself,” Watkins says. “I think just getting my feet wet, I guess as people would say. But now that I’m finally in it, I’m setting more goals for myself and expect more for myself. But honestly, at the end of the day, [it’s] just having fun.”

She’d break another record held by Leslie just six games in, this time for most 30-point games by a USC freshman in program history. She also led the Trojans to a record of 6-0 and their highest AP Top 25 ranking (No. 6) in 29 years. Here’s another crazy stat for you: after a win against Cal Poly, Juju had posted 161 points, 45 rebounds, 19 assists, 14 steals and 8 blocks for the season. According to OptaSTATS, in the last 20 years, only one other NBA, WNBA or Division I men’s or women’s player has put up numbers like that over a six-game span. Guess who it was? LeBron Raymone James.

As of press time, Watkins is posting 26.1 ppg, ranked just below Caitlin Clark for highest average in the nation. For Juju, bringing a winning culture to USC has always been the goal.

“I think I just want to really instill a winning culture here at SC, I think that’s what’s most important—that when my teammates and I leave, SC is still thriving and doing really well,” she says. “[I want to] just make sure that L.A. women’s basketball is always on top and really represent the West Coast and where I’m from [in] Watts.”

Legacy is synonymous with the Watkins family: Watkins Memorial Park is named after her great-grandfather, a local civil rights leader who founded the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. Juju grew up playing either in her family’s backyard or at the Watts gym, which is also named after him. Both her father and mother, Sari, were athletes in high school and raised Juju to be the best at whatever she did. They also gave her the middle name Skies, fitting given that their daughter would one day play at the same institution as the Hall of Famer Miller, who once said that for Juju, “The sky’s the limit,” per the Associated Press.

“[My mom] loved Lisa and Cheryl, she grew up in that era,” says Watkins. Upon watching the Women of Troy documentary with her mom, she got to see just how “inspiring” players like Miller, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke and fellow L.A.-native Tina Thompson truly were, and still are. “It’s really a sisterhood here,” she says. “I love that I can call on them whenever and they’re there for me. I appreciate that.”

Miller and Cooper-Dyke both helped bring the two—and only—basketball championships the Trojans program has ever won (1983, 1984). Those banners are hanging just above the practice court, in clear view from where Watkins is sitting right now. When we ask her about what kind of legacy she wants to leave at USC, Watkins emphasizes bringing USC women’s basketball back to the top. But she’s also thinking bigger. Dreaming bigger. It’s not just about her, but about the next generation.

“I owe a lot of my success to my family and my city, and I’m just planning on doing as much as I can for kids growing up in the same city as me and all around L.A.,” she says, “showing [them] that or being a testament to what can happen when you just work hard and follow your dreams.” 

JUJU WATKINS SLAM 248 COVER TEES AVAILABLE NOW!

Portraits by Atiba Jefferson. Action photo via Getty Images.

The post Queen of LA: Juju Watkins is Leading a Renaissance of Women’s College Basketball appeared first on SLAM.

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

Carmelo Anthony officially retired from the NBA in May 2023, after racking up 28,289 points, making six All-NBA teams and winning three Olympic Gold medals. While he spent his last few seasons barnstorming around the League, he’ll be remembered for his tenures with the Nuggets and Knicks, where he headlined some great teams that were eventually dispatched by greater competition. But I think as time goes on, we will remember Melo for more than just basketball.

Melo was in the same 2003 NBA Draft class as LeBron James, which would put most players in danger of being overshadowed. But he shined his own light and carved his own path, which took serious work on and off the court. On the morning of the 2003 Draft, I sat down to breakfast with Carmelo, right there in the lobby of the Westin Hotel in Times Square where the NBA housed the players. His agents wanted us to meet in advance of Melo taking over the SLAM Rookie Diary, which I would help him write each month. We shared an awkward meal together, Melo just weeks removed from winning the NCAA Tournament with Syracuse, and just hours away from the biggest moment of his life. I mostly just tried to stay out of his way that day. 

But we were in constant contact throughout his rookie year—shout out tmail, IYKYK—and it was remarkable to see Melo gain confidence and start to grow into himself. He matured, became a father, had his own line of Jordans, and was starting to dabble in documentary production. At the time, you’ll remember, there was no real blueprint for an athlete looking to diversify their off-court interests. Michael Jordan was still building out Jordan Brand and yet to purchase the Hornets, and Carmelo and LeBron were feeling out similar lines of inquiry regarding what their business futures might look like. 

In the summer of 2008, we reached out to Carmelo because it was time to put him on the cover of SLAM, his fourth cover since the 2003 Draft. Melo was entering his sixth season, having averaged 24.4 ppg over those first five campaigns (all winning seasons), including two All-Star appearances. Still, it was tough for the Nuggets to break through—things were so stacked that the 2007-08 Nuggets won 50 games and still finished eighth in the Western Conference. 

Down to give us time for a cover shoot, Melo wanted to pitch us an idea: He wanted to be on the cover seated in a director’s chair. Nope, I quickly responded. Because if there was one thing the great Dennis Page taught all of us at SLAM, it was how to make a dope magazine cover. It was hard enough to do something compelling in that rectangular shape, and having someone sitting down really limited your options from a design standpoint. But Melo had legitimately thought it out. His life was changing. He felt like he was in control. He wanted to use one story to tell another story, and how better than by using a photo with him in a director’s chair? 

A compromise was reached. We would get a director’s chair and take pictures with Carmelo in it, but for the cover image, we’d use whatever worked best. As it turned out, the director’s chair worked best, turning into one of the more memorable SLAM covers of all time. 

We talked that day about his growth, and Melo noted, “It took me a while to figure out that I had everything in my own hands. It was hard to fathom that I went from a row house project building to a penthouse. It’s still hard to fathom that.”

Melo’s basketball story may have come to a graceful end, but he’s clearly not finished. He guest-edited SLAM’s Social Justice issue in 2020, addressing head-on many of the social issues in America then and now. The last few years, he’s done everything from owning a soccer team to acting on TV and in movies to launching a podcast to being profiled in Ad Week. And it don’t stop. 

People often ask me who my favorite NBA players are, and the truth is, I don’t have favorite players so much as I have favorite people. While Carmelo Anthony will go down as a Hall of Fame basketball player, maybe the better story is how he’s also grown into a Hall of Fame person. 

Photo via Getty Images.

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

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

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

SLAM 248 featuring Tyrese Maxey is available now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s go back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SLAM 248 IS OUT NOW!

Photos via Getty Images. Portraits by Alex Subers.

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

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

Paige Bueckers’ name is synonymous with greatness. 

Gatorade Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, USBWA Player of the Year, Naismith Trophy winner, Wooden Award winner, Best Female College Athlete ESPY Award winner—the list could fill this entire page. 

Her name is one that the world has become well accustomed to hearing, from her ninth grade phenom days all the way through to the Madness of March. 

SLAM has been a part of Bueckers’ journey since the summer before her senior year, when SLAM high school videographers and photographers would pull up to her AAU tournaments and be amazed by what they were witnessing. It continued in the fall of her senior year, when the Minnesota phenom got her first feature in our iconic pages.

Not long after that, we got to see who Paige was not only as a hooper but as a person, through WSLAM’s first season of “All Eyes On Us”—a digital video series that follows a high school team through a full season—where Bueckers and the Hopkins Royals were on a mission to bring home the program’s first-ever national title. Through that series, the world got to see what our staff saw every time we sat to speak with her for an interview: a superstar. 

She was a hooper with no fear of going for tough buckets who had ruthless handles that dropped defenders almost every game and a passing style so smooth that her coaches compared her to Magic Johnson.

But also, a person with an aura so special that she lifted up everyone around her, both on and off the court. We were with her when she copped a pair of Jordan XI Breds (a “must have” for sneakerheads, as she put it), and we were there when she jokingly messed with her teammates on the bus to away games.

Then the pandemic shut the world down just as Paige and her teammates were in the locker room preparing for their state championship game, and we witnessed the heartbreak of a potential historic season cut short. In the “All Eyes On Us” season 1 finale, Bueckers was raw and emotional about what that season meant to her and her teammates. 

As Paige made history in Minnesota that season, she made history for SLAM, too, becoming the first high school girl to be featured on our cover (SLAM 226). It feels like I was in that gym just yesterday, watching the future superstar step onto the set wearing “Pinnacle” Air Jordan VIs. That day, everyone knew they were in the presence of greatness.

Her freshman year at UConn put the world on notice once again, when she won just about every award possible in NCAA women’s hoops, all while trying to recruit her best friend and the top prospect in the class of 2021, Azzi Fudd. Once Azzi locked in her commitment, we linked up with the backcourt duo and shot another historic cover, for SLAM 235, the “New World Issue,” a themed issue about the way the hoops world was changing in real time.

While Bueckers has cemented herself in history with all she’s achieved at the NCAA level, her story is just beginning. Paige is a competitor at heart, and in what could be her final season in Storrs, she has her sights set on bringing home a national championship. Bueckers will be eligible for the WNBA draft this spring, and whether she decides to go this year or use her last year of college eligibility, she’ll sooner or later become the future of the W. 

Paige has meant so much to SLAM because of what we’ve built together over the years. From iconic covers to months of capturing her final season in high school, Paige is a legend in the SLAM halls—and I mean that quite literally. Her cover photo takes up a full wall inside SLAM HQ. She was the start of SLAM’s expansion into girls grassroots basketball, and we’ve gotten to witness her journey from the start. Whether this year or next, Paige will hear her name called at the WNBA Draft, and as she walks across that stage, you better believe we’ll already be cooking up an exciting way to document the next chapter of her journey. 

Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All portraits by Jon Lopez.

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

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

The process for “discovering” a high school basketball player changed a lot in the social media era.

To set some context: it used to be way different. In the ’80s, ’90s, even early ’00s, you’d read about an up-and-coming player in a newspaper or a magazine, then catch glimpses of them on television if somehow possible (though likely not until they hit the college ranks). You mostly saw very little—a small article here or there with a short text description and a photo; in some extreme examples, some decent footage on a sports highlight television show; and in some super-extreme examples, a magazine cover, the ultimate stamp.

Then came the internet, then Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that. Pretty soon everyone had a camera in their hands 24/7, which meant that when a high school basketball player did something amazing, it immediately hit the internet, and if it was really amazing, it immediately went viral.

In 2017, Zion Williamson went viral damn near every other day. He was a junior forward out of South Carolina with a combo of flight—he could soar up to eye-level with the rim and just sort of hang out there for a few seconds—and power—he was built like a linebacker and dunked with such ferocity it shook the gym and caused a frenzy amongst the kids in the stands—that made every one of his dunk clips, which flew around social media at light speed, a must-watch.

At the time, the world had started to move with such tempo that on Zion’s game nights, those highlights were viral by the time he woke up the next morning. So where did that put SLAM, a publication with a history of “introducing” players like Zion to the world?

It was a question I thought about a lot at the time. I had become Editor-in-Chief the year before, a role I earned in part because of my ability to help SLAM compete in the hyperspeed media universe. And though the answer would continue to change (and still changes often to this day), at the time it was simple: we’re going to put him on the cover and we’re going to tell his story properly, show people the real Zion. 

SLAM 210 was Zion’s first magazine cover shoot. By the time the cover dropped, everyone knew his name (from Instagram), but this was the first time the audience actually heard from him directly. We had an interview with a “longform” video (like, three minutes) and a slew of beautiful, crispy photographs, which I half-joked at the time were the first look anyone got of Zion’s face outside of blurry camera phone footage.

That content was the result of a day spent with Zion and his family in Spartanburg, SC, where they’re from. There’s a mural in the middle of the city that says “THERE’S ONLY ONE SPARTANBURG,” and Zion’s stepfather bolted a basketball hoop to the middle of the mural for our photos. The images of Zion would become iconic in a different way than, say, a 2001 magazine cover would’ve, but in their own new-age way. Months later, when every college fan base was photoshopping Zion in their favorite team’s jersey, they meme’d our cover photo almost exclusively. Two years later, when Zion was drafted and signed with Jordan Brand, the company bought the rights and used that same photo—funny because of the many adidas logos they had to scrub and replace to make that work. The photo looked great, though, and was still the best visual representation of Z more than two years after the initial shoot.

We continued to cover Zion extensively following that shoot. His season at Duke was a blast, and we shot a great cover with him for SLAM 222—The Future Issue—right before he was drafted in 2019 to the New Orleans Pelicans. He teamed up with SLAM favorite Lonzo Ball, so we shot another cover, a group shot that also included Brandon Ingram and Jrue Holiday. Fast forward to summer 2020, post-Covid explosion but pre-Bubble, we rented an Airbnb-turned studio, masked up and shot a cool cover with Z to hype up the forthcoming return of the NBA. A few years later, in early 2023, we celebrated the then-surging Pelicans with a Pen & Pixel-style cover featuring Zion, Ingram and CJ McCollum. And then last summer he got another front page, posing on KICKS 26 alongside fellow Jordan Brand endorsees Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic.

As I’m typing this, Zion Williamson is just 23 years old, and though it seems like he’s been around the scene forever, his career is really still in its early chapters. He didn’t rocket to immediate NBA dominance, but some of the chatter about him not performing is just nonsense; he’s a two-time All-Star who’s averaged over 25 points and 6 boards per game while maintaining a 60 percent (!) field goal percentage. It’s already been incredibly impressive, and again—he’s 23! 

There’s an anecdote in my cover story from 2017 that explains what it was like to watch Zion work out in an empty gym, how it felt like each dunk literally shook the room, the sound of the ball smashing through the hoop reverberating off the walls. That intense, seemingly out-of-nowhere, shake-the-room energy—if a sound could be a mission statement, in that moment, Zion produced SLAM’s. Bold, powerful, striking…for us, it was a North Star in the form of a sound wave. We chase that feeling with our content—our covers, our videos, our photos, our stories—every day, and that shoot crystallized it for me. Plus, it helped me figure out what SLAM’s place in the lightning-fast media landscape should be. It looks different than it used to, but we still stand head and shoulders above the competition because of our elite storytelling and the credibility that a SLAM co-sign provides. 

So yeah—we’re Team Zion. Forever. 

Portrait by Zach Wolfe. Photo via Getty Images.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

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

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

When A’ja Wilson appeared alongside then-Las Vegas Aces teammate Liz Cambage on the cover of SLAM 223, they became the third and fourth women to ever do so. That was back in July 2019. Wilson was in her second year in the W after being selected as the No. 1 pick in 2018, and had already added WNBA Rookie of the Year and All-Rookie First Team honors to her professional basketball résumé. But A’ja had yet to emerge into her full MVP form. The Gamecocks had yet to name the statue in her honor. The WNBA had yet to make her the face of the League. 

As for us, well, not to brag or anything, but we always knew that the Columbia, SC, native was it. Way back in 2014, Ryan Jones interviewed her over the phone for a piece that ran in PUNKS (our high school section, now called The Come Up). At the time, Wilson hadn’t yet graduated from Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, and she admitted in her interview that she was “nervous” leading up to the USA Basketball U18 national team tryouts. The interview, which is featured in the SLAM Digital Archive (go subscribe via slamgoods.com!) is a must-read for any and all basketball fans because it shows, in its truest form, the story of a star before even she knew she’d become one. 

“I can say definitely the two things that stick out from the interview are just her poise and her confidence,” Jones told me. “You’ve interviewed enough of the HS kids so you know how it is—some of them really come off like the kids they still are, but a relative few have this maturity that gets your attention. A’ja definitely had that. And the confidence, too—she wasn’t cocky, but just very self-assured. Especially now as a parent of teens myself, I’m always so impressed when anyone has that sort of confidence at 17 or 18.”

Wilson’s decision to attend South Carolina was then a bold move for a top recruit, but Dawn Staley’s program, in A’ja’s own words, was “on the rise,” and Wilson, like her teammates, had the goal of winning a national championship. She’d do that and a lot more during her college career. First, SEC Freshman of the Year. She’d become an NCAA champion and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player in 2017, plus the consensus National Player of the Year and the Lisa Leslie Award winner the season after. Oh, and she was a First Team All-American and the SEC Player of the Year from 2016-18, and the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2016 and 2018. That’s all before she made it to the League and graced the cover of SLAM not once, but on three different occasions—including the WNBA champs issue two years in a row—and last year’s third issue of WSLAM. 

When I sat down with Wilson and her Aces teammates at the WSLAM 3 cover shoot, she exuded poise. She was unapologetically herself both in front of the camera and off it. It’s that confidence that’s driven her to take over the League and become a two-time MVP and two-time champion. 

Our 2023 Champs cover of Wilson rocking black Air Force 1s and standing so valiantly is the epitome of what makes women’s basketball so exciting and so damn fun. She’s the face of the League, of WSLAM, of where the game is heading in the years to come. And just as we’ve shown her love over the years, she’s shown it right back, from attending our 2023 WNBA All-Star party which celebrated the WSLAM 3 cover release to consistently reposting our content. Relationships like these are bigger than magazine covers and interviews, but we’re so grateful that we get to do what we do with stars like her. 

“Watching her in the [almost] decade since [the PUNKS interview], she’s definitely one of those players I look back on with a little bit of pride, not that I predicted HOF-caliber greatness, but just that from talking to her at that age, I expected her to be really, really good,” Jones says. “It’s been very cool to see her basically be the whole package, as far as one of the handful of players with both the game and personality to basically carry the W into the next generation.” 

Photo via Getty Images.

The post THE 30 PLAYERS WHO DEFINED SLAM’S 30 YEARS: A’ja Wilson appeared first on SLAM.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portrait by Chris Razoyk. Photo via Getty Images.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Featured image via Getty. Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Featured image via Getty Images. Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

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

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

Most players in the “SLAM 30” would, honestly, be in most basketball outlets’ rankings of the most relevant 30 players of the last three decades. Brandon Jennings, however, is a special case. Thanks to a truly symbiotic relationship made possible by Brandon’s love of SLAM, the people he surrounded himself with and our admitted bias to players who fuck with us as hard as we fuck with them, BJ is like “our” All-Star.

The relationship started regularly enough—not that it didn’t mean the world to a young Brandon. He got what we used to call a “little Punk” story in our high school section, shot in his Compton (CA) Dominguez uniform and interviewed by Ryan Jones. Just a sophomore at the time, Jennings remembers it fondly. “That was my first look in SLAM,” he says on a recent Zoom. “In the Dominguez locker room. I was so fucking excited! Like, Everybody is gonna see me. I’m known now. The SLAM thing was always the biggest thing in sports and basketball magazines. When you did the cover shoot with Sebastian [Telfair] and LeBron James and I was a kid in the 7th grade…I had to be like them. SLAM was always that stamp of approval.” 

Jennings’ path got more unique from there—as a player and a SLAM subject—as he transferred to Oak Hill Academy in VA for his last two years of high school. Not a shocking move, but to travel all the way from L.A. and go for two years was rather brave. BJ made a couple appearances in SLAM/related pubs while he was a Warrior. In August ’07, while in NYC for the second annual Elite 24 game (in which, he proudly reminds me, he set a record that was never broken for assists in the game with 23), he posed for the cover of our special PUNKS magazine alongside fellow top guards Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans and Lance Stephenson. Half a year later, back in the Big Apple for the Jordan Brand Classic, we shot Jennings at Grand Central Terminal for our High School All-American First Team. He’s got fond memories of both shoots but does share the one gripe he has with us in our long history. “I’m not gonna front—I was mad I didn’t get the diary that year,” Jennings says of the storied column that was penned by Evans that season.

Jennings’ path took two massively unexpected turns after high school. For one, the University of Arizona commit chose not to wait out any debates surrounding his academic eligibility and turned pro—in Italy! For another, he did so in Under Armours, becoming the first signing the famous “football” brand ever made in hoops. UA’s foray into basketball was largely led by Kris Stone, a former SLAM Advertising Manager who had a flair for marketing, a belief in Brandon and a loyalty to the Basketball Bible. We became, in many ways, the perfect place for UA to hype its move—with Jennings at the forefront. And since we’re always suckers for good access to a dope baller with personality—we were down. After a couple more small appearances in our pages, Jennings’ next SLAM hit was big time: the European adventurer was on the cover of SLAM 128 next to a more conventional Continental prospect—Spanish wunderkind Ricky Rubio. 

Future Shock, indeed.

“That was so unreal for me,” Jennings recalls today. “The decision I’d made. Ricky being who he was. I was a little nervous. The first time I met him was at that shoot, the night before we played against each other in Barcelona. I met his mom, too, rest in peace. Ricky and I just shared a little chit-chat that day. We knew we were about to do some big shit.”

Jennings’ time in the L came sooner than Rubio’s. A little while after that cover, he was in the 2009 Draft, going 10th overall to the Milwaukee Bucks. And soon after that, in just his seventh NBA game, Jennings dropped 55 points. On the Golden State Warriors and their rookie PG, Stephen Curry. What were we supposed to do? Put him on his first solo cover, of course. Behold SLAM 135, an Adam Fleischer-Atiba Jefferson production that featured Jennings bursting off the front page in a fire red Bucks uni. “That meant that I made it,” Jennings says. “I was that kid running to the store to get that magazine. Now I’m on the cover. That was a full-circle moment.”

Jennings played all 82 as a rook and copped a solo KICKS cover the next summer. He’d go on to play 555 games in the League, bouncing from Milwaukee to a few different spots before finishing his career as a Buck in ’18. It was an appropriate ending, because it connected Jennings to the Giannis Era in Milwaukee and greatly extended the lifespan of his #BucksInSix quote.

And even though he stopped playing, Jennings has stayed fresh and relevant. Most notably, he’s the founder of streetwear brand Tuff Crowd. And in another full-circle moment, the brand recently collabed with Under Armour and its current signature hooper, none other than Curry. 

You’ll never guess where you can read more about it…

Photo by Atiba Jefferson. Featured image via Getty Images.

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

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

“Are you serious? Like, for real?” 

Derrick Rose can’t believe what he’s hearing. It’s a Thursday morning in Memphis, and even though the Grizzlies don’t have an official practice on the books today, DRose is at the team’s facility to lift weights, run drills and get some shots up—things a guy in his 16th NBA season has learned how to do to keep his game sharp.

That Rose is even in Memphis at all these days is something of a miracle, a testament to how the world is reciprocal and a chance for Rose’s career to wind down in the same arena where he stamped his spot on the national scene. After playing high school ball in Chicago, where he made his name as another in a long line of celebrated ballers from Simeon Academy, Rose left the Windy City in favor of the Bluff City, joining John Calipari at the University of Memphis. After a 26-0 start, the Tigers made it to the NCAA Tournament with a 33-1 record, eventually losing to Kansas in the championship game. 

After one year in Memphis, Rose went back home, the first overall pick of the Chicago Bulls. He won a Rookie of the Year award, made an All-Star team and became one of the pillars of adidas basketball. In a League of Goliaths, Rose was David, fearlessly attacking giants and slaying each possession as if it was his last. Rose played with breathtaking abandon, and his furious styles earned him legions of fans.

And then, before just his third NBA season, Rose appeared on the cover of SLAM for a third time and called his shot: He wanted to be the NBA’s MVP. Right away. So, he spoke his truth into existence in the pages of SLAM 143. 

“That was really me gauging the talent in the League at the time and feeling like I could compete against that,” Rose says today. “So why not go for it? I wanted to go for it, and I was also thinking about getting a championship, so I said that as a way to hype myself up.”

Whatever the method, it worked. Rose won an MVP at age 22, the youngest player in NBA history to win the nod. And then, not long after, during a first-round playoff game in 2012, Derrick Rose tore his ACL, knocking him out for an entire season. He returned in 2013 and posted four consecutive seasons averaging double-digits, but it was a different Derrick Rose, and not just on the court. Rose used his forced time away from the game to “figure out who I really am as a person…Back in the day, when I first got [to Memphis], I wasn’t able to articulate myself like this. So with me expressing myself like this, someone who has been an introvert, I pat myself on the back, because I had to work to get to where I’m at.”

The changes weren’t only internal. Looking back at some of those old SLAM covers, Derrick Rose is almost unrecognizable today. The eyes are still there—that laser-sharp stare—but the old Rose had short hair and a handful of tattoos. These days, Derrick Rose’s braids brush the tops of his shoulders, tattoos run all the way up to his chin, his neat goatee has blossomed into a full beard. He’s quick with a grin and willing to drop knowledge wherever he can—when the Grizzlies struggled defensively earlier this season, it was Rose who called out their need to improve communication. He may no longer be able to stop on a dime and soar over defenses, but his accumulated institutional knowledge makes him invaluable to NBA teams in need of leadership and experience, like the Grizzlies.

Rose says playing such a pivotal part of SLAM’s history means a lot: “When you think about the AI cover, that was the most iconic one that I can remember—the hair out, everything. For me, it’s an honor to actually be on the cover, and know there are people who still rock that cover, who still have those covers framed.”

And the disbelief? That came from being told that his old covers are among the most popular t-shirts that SLAM has ever produced. 

“Are you serious?” Rose repeats. When confirmed, Rose smiles wide. 

“That’s love, right there.” 

Feature via Getty Image. Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

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

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

I knew right away. Even as the words were escaping Kevin Durant’s mouth. It was the spring of 2007, and the 18-year-old Durant was in the mix to be the first pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. He was tall and lanky, and in one year at the University of Texas had flashed his developing scoring chops, averaging 25.8 ppg. The other candidate for the first pick was Greg Oden, who had led a stacked Ohio State team to the NCAA title game and looked to be the next big man in a long line of next big men. 

For SLAM 110, we had the idea of putting Durant and Oden on the cover together, like one of those old boxing posters, a play on the choice NBA teams had to make. Kevin and his mom showed up to the photo studio just outside Washington, DC, and they were game for our concept, although I remember them wanting to be sure we didn’t frame it as KD and Oden not liking one another; they were rivals, sure, but it was a friendly rivalry between two kids who’d played against each other on the AAU circuit for years. 

For the cover story, I decided to separately ask Oden and Durant the same set of questions, as if I were an NBA team conducting pre-draft interviews, and then put their answers side-by-side, as a way to compare and contrast their personalities and mindsets. We’d report, you’d decide. I interviewed Oden over the phone while he was traveling around for pre-draft workouts, and he was perfectly fine to talk with, answering everything politely and thoughtfully, saying all the right things you would want to hear from a potential No. 1 draft pick. 

The question that cracked the code, at least for me, was when I asked them each why they should be the first overall pick. Oden talked about working hard, being a good person, fitting in and making whatever sacrifices were needed for his team to win. His answer was perfectly fine.

But when I asked Kevin Durant why he should be the first overall pick, he said, “I think I have a winning mentality. Even though I’m young, I can bring leadership to an organization. I’m just cold-blooded. I really don’t care. Whoever’s in front of me, I’m going to do my best to destroy them. Younger people might back down sometimes, but I think I’m a tough player and I won’t back down from anything—I accept challenges. I know it’s going to be hard, but everything you have to face is hard. I’ll be young, and I’m sure people will write me off and say I’m too small or not ready, but I’ve been going through that my whole life.”

That was when I was certain. What else could you want from a kid about to make the leap to the toughest professional sports league available to him? I’ll take all the confidence you can muster. And in retrospect, looking back at all the accolades Durant has compiled, from an MVP to two rings to a few Olympic Gold medals, we all should have known what was on the horizon. 

The rest is his story. The Blazers took Oden first overall, while Durant went to the SuperSonics (who quickly became the Thunder). Kevin Durant fulfilled the promises of so many. During a time in the ’00s when basketball was creeping toward becoming positionless, Durant pressed fast-forward on that evolution and made a series of suggestions into a reality, scoring easily from all three levels, adding defense, ballhandling, turning players like Wemby and Chet into archetypes instead of unicorns.

Durant made his journey with SLAM alongside, from the photos of him in high school as an impossibly skinny kid to the championship covers. When KD launched his own podcast, he devoted an entire episode to SLAM. “SLAM was so important to us because it was all basketball,” he said. 

Today, at 35 years old, KD is currently fourth in the NBA at 30.8 ppg and has settled into life in the desert, teaming with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal to form what should be a formidable squad in Phoenix. Durant also recently slid into the NBA’s all-time top 10 in points scored, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

From beginnings that were somewhat uncertain, Kevin Durant has more than made good on the promise he showed almost two decades ago when he first appeared in SLAM.

It was written. 

Photo via Getty Images. Portrait by Rachael Golden.

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

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

It was very, very simple. Just a pump fake and one dribble to her right. That’s all she needed to win Game 3 of the 2015 WNBA Finals. A pump fake and one dribble to her right gave her all the space required to drill a buzzer-beating three from the top of the key. And that highlight is probably the best way to capture Maya Moore’s greatness. She was always efficient. She was always steady. She was always the closer.  

In 2018, we used Moore’s SLAM 217 cover (and the cover shoot content) to help catapult our women’s basketball coverage. Coming off that shoot starring the prolific winner (four WNBA championships, two Olympic Golds and two NCAA championships), we launched WSLAM, which has now grown to become the best coverage of women’s hoops on every level. 

And what a player to start with. Moore won throughout her entire career. Whether by the eye test or by looking at the stats, her dominance is obvious. This would be a good time to mention how she averaged 18 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in her eight seasons with the Minnesota Lynx. It’d be appropriate to mention how she won the EuroLeague twice. And here, right here, feels like the correct place to mention how she also won the Liga Femenina de Baloncesto title, the WCBA championship three times and the world championship twice. 

We’re not calling her the GOAT. No, no. No, no, no. We’re just saying we understand those who do bestow that title upon her. Because…damn. That’s a lot of winning. Also, can’t forget the MVP trophy, the five different All-WNBA First Team selections, the WNBA Rookie of the Year award and the Finals MVP nod. Or the game-winners. Or the many on-court highlights that defied logic and all the history of previous WNBA players. We had never seen somebody on the floor like Maya Moore. 

Even off the court, Moore was singular, as she remains to this day. For somebody so utterly dominant and competitive when the bright lights are on, she has consistently been a gentle soul away from the flashbulbs and the cameras. Flip to page 41 of SLAM 217 for evidence. 

“My identity is not being the best basketball player,” Moore told us at the time. “Or even being Black. I mean, I’m a Black woman, and I own that. I try just to do as much as I can to live an authentic life and point people to truth. And being authentic means admitting when I don’t know. And admitting that I could’ve been better. And admitting I want to be better if I can.”

That hunger to be better is a little familiar. It sounds like somebody else who, like Moore, wore 23 on their jersey.

Moore was quickly grabbed up by Jordan Brand after she left UConn. It’s an important part of her story, and it contributed to her being on this list. Having the honor of being the first woman signed to Jordan is a quality illustrator of her greatness. The high standard that Michael set was met by Maya. 

Being associated with the Jumpman, as well as everything else she did on the court, combines for a nearly unquantifiable impact. We have to wait a few more years for young players across the country to get drafted to the W, get asked about who inspired them and hear them all speak about how much Maya Moore means to them. But it’ll happen.

Though Moore’s on-court career ended on August 21, 2018, her impact didn’t. She retired from basketball with a mission. She wanted to help a man named Jonathan Irons get released from prison. With Moore’s assistance, Irons’ wrongful conviction was overturned. Moore and her family advocated for previously concealed evidence in his nonfatal shooting case to be brought before the Missouri courts in 2020. He had spent over 20 years behind bars as an innocent man, and Moore gave up basketball to help him get his life back. Then, in the plot twist of our time, Moore and Irons got married soon after he was released. It’s one hell of a love story. 

So in the end, Moore, one of the greatest ever, hung up her Jordans to live her authentic life.

That SLAM 217 cover story opens  with a wry smile on Moore’s face. On some you-know-how-good-I-am-at-everything kind of energy. Both competitive and gentle. 

Photo via Getty.

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

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

I called Chris Paul the “Forrest Gump of the post-2005 NBA” in a 2020 cover story about him. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory but figured I should spend some time here to explain that, because it sets the table for the reason CP3 is on this list.

Let’s quickly run through what earned him that distinction. In 2005, he’s drafted by New Orleans, but due to destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, he spends most of his first two NBA seasons playing home games in Oklahoma City. In NOLA, he becomes homies with Lil Wayne, becomes an All-Star, becomes arguably the best PG in the League, becomes a playoff contender. Then he’s traded to the Lakers, un-traded by David Stern (I can’t emphasize enough how big a deal this was on 2011 NBA Twitter), then traded to the Clippers, becoming the heart of Lob City (another massive part of early 2010s NBA Twitter) and a perpetual postseason contender. He becomes president of the NBA Players Association, signs a long-term contract, and then the Donald Sterling racist audio incident happens, and he’s in the middle of that saga. Eventually he’s traded to Houston, then OKC. Then Covid happens, and Chris is in the middle of setting up the Bubble, lowkey a huge national public health story. Then, while in the Bubble, the Jacob Blake shooting takes place, and Chris—literally on national TV before a Thunder-Rockets game is about to tip—is a part of the group that holds the players off the court, and later as PA president, is the head of the group that figured out how to infuse social justice messaging and action into the NBA’s infrastructure. He leads the Thunder on an impressive run in the Bubble, then later joins the Suns, where he leads the team to the Finals, and is on the team when there’s another racist owner situation with Robert Sarver, who later sells the franchise.

A couple years pass and then CP3 joins the Warriors, where he’s currently attempting to help push the Steph-Klay-Dray group toward another ring. Along the way he played an iconic commercial character (Cliff Paul), amassed 22,000+ points and 11,000+ assists, made 12 All-Star teams and the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team and dropped 13 signature sneakers with Jordan Brand. And he was on the banana boat, because of course he was. The guy is everywhere.

“Forrest Gump of the post-2005 NBA”—undeniably accurate. But that’s not alone enough to make it to this list, because this is the “30 Players Who Defined SLAM’s 30 Years,” and if there wasn’t a direct SLAM connection, Chris would just be a guy who was around the NBA universe for a while, paying us no mind. But CP3 paid us plenty mind. He was first featured in SLAM in April 2003 as a high schooler with a one-page PUNKS article in the back of the mag; his brother CJ once told me that his family had that page framed in their house.

He was on his first SLAM cover in 2006, his second in 2008, his third in 2009, his fourth in 2011, his fifth in 2012 (alongside Blake Griffin), and his sixth in 2020. In his prime, he had a fun, uptempo point guard game that a magazine like SLAM was practically created to celebrate, and in his veteran years, he’s been a methodical game manager who almost exclusively plays on teams we cover deep into the playoffs. He was always relevant in the sneaker world—the aforementioned 13 sigs—and he was early in the tunnel fit game, becoming an @LeagueFits regular during our fashion account’s salad days. (The three hoodies he wore in his most recent cover shoot were produced in collaboration with SLAM and LeagueFits and sold on slamgoods.com, with the profits going to charity.)

A player who’s seemingly everywhere, finding his way into every crevice of basketball culture and NBA happenings for almost two decades, and a publication that covers every crevice of basketball culture and NBA happenings for exactly three decades. It makes perfect sense that the two would have a great, symbiotic relationship.

So, of course Chris was going to be on this list. The guy is everywhere. 

Photo via Getty Images. Portrait by Kyle Hood.

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

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

This was early 2002, a cold winter day in snow-covered Trenton, NJ, in an arena then named for a bank and since renamed for an insurance company, as these things are. Among the more than 8,000 people packed into the building were hundreds of media members; among them was a now-famous NBA reporter, best known for his hashtag social media bombs, then working as a columnist at a midsized newspaper where, a few years earlier, we (briefly) had been colleagues. Like the rest of the media pack, we were there to watch a high school basketball game, but really, we were there to watch one particular high school basketball player.

Chatting pregame near our baseline seats, two or three rows back from the court, he said something about that player that at the time I disagreed with, and that I’ve also never forgotten: “This kid’s like the perfect SLAM magazine guy.”

I disagreed because, well, we already had a few perfect guys. We had Michael Jordan, not far away from his final retirement but still the foundation without which this magazine could not exist. We had Kobe Bryant, a soon-to-be three-time defending NBA champion and Jordan’s polarizing heir apparent. And we had Allen Iverson, the purest representation of an ongoing cultural moment that this magazine has documented like no one else. But…this kid? Generationally special, no doubt. It just seemed a bit early to think of him on quite that level.

Six months later, around the time we gave LeBron James his third full-length feature—not including the year of high school diaries he’d penned for us—and his second cover, all (still) before he’d stepped onto an NBA court, I no longer disagreed.

We did not, for the record, see all this coming. Not all of it, anyway. Not the 21 seasons and 21 All-Star nods, not the four championships and four MVPs, sure as hell not the all-time NBA scoring record. But we were very confident he’d be very good, which is why we gave him feature-length coverage before pretty much anyone outside his hometown had heard of him. And the 27 covers and two special issues in the two decades since would seem to confirm that yes, LeBron James—a fixture in these pages for 23 of our 30 years of existence—is probably the single most iconic player of the SLAM era.

He’ll always be remembered most for his NBA superlatives, the unprecedented statistical output and, of course, those rings. That’s the lead on his Wikipedia page and the inscription on his Hall of Fame plaque. But the story—his story, and the nexus of his story with ours—is so much more than that. LeBron’s story was a movie (not to mention a couple of books) before he ever got to Draft night. That’s the story we told before anyone else, the one that left us uniquely suited to tell the rest. Maybe the only thing more incredible than how it started is that somehow, it still shows no signs of coming to an end.

We’ve told this one before, but for the sake of setting the scene, it bears repeating. Spring 2001, near the end of his sophomore year, we took a flight from New York City to Akron, OH, to spend a day with LeBron James. When we arrived at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, there was a small sign out front bearing the words “WELCOME SLAM MAGAZINE.” Within a year or so, it would be replaced with a sign on the door announcing that media were barred from campus.

But that was later. Back in ’01, the folks at St. V were excited that someone from a national magazine was coming to their tiny high school to write a story about one of their own. They knew LeBron was good, of course—by that point he was a two-time state champ and pretty clearly the best player in Ohio. But SLAM showing up was different. This meant LeBron wasn’t just good. He was about to be famous, too.

LeBron made his mag debut with that feature-length profile that summer, followed immediately by a year-long run as our Basketball Diary writer—the first non-senior to hold that spot. (They might not put that on the HOF plaque, but for both of us, it was history of a sort.) From the beginning, LeBron was telling his story in our pages.

It took a while, but eventually the rest of our sports media peers started catching up. The Sports Illustrated cover came late in his junior year, back when SI was elite and its cover choices could drive the narrative. Steady coverage on SportsCenter, then the place to catch the most important sports news and highlights, followed soon after. By the end of his junior year, Bron’s story was national.

By the middle of his senior year, when St. V was playing a national schedule and LeBron’s highlights were going pre-Twitter viral, it was an unprecedented circus. Ohio’s high school governing body didn’t know how to handle it, investigating the 18-year-old senior—who would be worth more than $100 million by his next birthday—for driving a Hummer gifted to him by his mother, then suspending him for taking a couple of throwback jerseys from a local shop. His first game back from that suspension—initially meant to cost him the remainder of his senior year before a legal challenge shortened it to two games—came on that cold night in Trenton. He scored 52 in a rout, capping the silliest week of the most ridiculous season in his legendary high school career with the loudest possible statement.

Months later—fresh off a second SLAM cover, on which he rocked our logo on a headband (his idea, we didn’t ask)—he was Nike’s $90 million man and the No. 1 pick in the 2003 Draft. Like we said, it was a movie before he ever set foot in the League, an action-packed drama in which the leading man over-came humble beginnings, surmounted every obstacle, and won in the end. And somehow, it was only the start.

It’s gotten difficult at this point to talk about LeBron’s NBA career without focusing on the numbers. The various totals and career averages are almost overwhelming. We’re talking about a dude who put up nearly identical averages—around 30 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists per—at age 37 as he did at 23. We’re talking about a dude who set the all-time NBA scoring record last year, and who’s on pace to blow by 40K by season’s end. He’s 39 now, and even as he’s shown some signs of time finally catching up, he’s still putting up 25, 7 and 7 a night—numbers just shy of the average output for his entire career.

But if you’ve been there as long as we have, the numbers, staggering as they are, remain secondary to the story. He put together arguably the greatest—and undeniably the most high-profile—high school career of all time. He came into the League with unequaled hype, and based on his individual play, lived up to it almost immediately. Championships proved more elusive in the NBA than they had in high school (where he won three), and the fact that he couldn’t carry otherwise mediocre rosters to a title during his first seven seasons in Cleveland led to a narrative that LeBron lacked a killer instinct. It was here that he paled when compared to Mike and Kobe, until he kicked off the Super Team era; with Dwyane Wade as his runningmate and a supporting cast more in line with the groups Mike and Kobe ran with, he finally copped his first two rings.

Eventually he came home(ish) to Cleveland, and with Kyrie and Kev took out the 73-win Dubs for ring number three. Then, perhaps inevitably, it was on to L.A., a more logical home base for both his growing media and business empire and his growing family. This time, Anthony Davis played the elite sidekick as LeBron claimed a fourth chip.

But again, the story—the how of everything he’s done, even more than the what—is what compels us. How he reinvented the idea of player empowerment, determining the steps in his career path in a way no star ever had. How he built on the Jordan and Shaq endorsement model to become not just the face of but a stakeholder in businesses ranging from European soccer to fashion to Hollywood, where he’s a powerhouse behind the scenes and a half-decent actor on them.

And most importantly: how this son of a single mother, a kid who never knew his dad, has embraced his role of husband and father, actively supporting his own family in a way that balances their public life with an entirely authentic devotion.

So here is LeBron, pushing 40, the game’s elder statesman, an icon across sports and culture, an actual self-made billionaire, a man whose influence on the game—both on and off the court—might not be fully measured for years to come. He may or may not be your GOAT, but that hardly matters. He’s never been perfect, but he’s been the perfect guy for this magazine and everything we love about the game. 

Photo via Getty Images. Portrait by Atiba Jefferson.

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

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

Context matters. Context is essential. Context is why a guy who never averaged double digits in 10 NBA seasons belongs in this issue every bit as much as the current and future Hall of Famers he’s surrounded by.

Context starts in Coney Island, Brooklyn, NYC. Once an iconic destination in 20th century American culture, more recently an emblem of what happens when cities shunt poor people into crowded neighborhoods and starve them of resources. The sort of place about which a fellow Brooklynite wrote a famous rhyme about crack rock and jump shots. Maybe more than any single neighborhood in America, a place where a jump shot—or more correctly, a handle and court vision and unrivaled point god swagger—was, for a very select few, the way out.

Sebastian Telfair was one of the few, an inheritor of an immense Coney Island legacy who had to earn the right to claim it.

The legacy was Stephon Marbury’s, a dude whose high school career was crazy enough to inspire a Spike Lee joint and made him the obvious choice to originate this magazine’s Basketball Diary. He, his city, his borough and his neighborhood were all foundational to what SLAM was and became. And, well, Steph and Bassy are cousins. Steph blazed the trail Bassy had to follow, set the bar he had to clear. A blueprint (pun intended, as you’ll see), yes, but the opposite of a handout.

So Bassy followed, younger and smaller and less of a sure thing, and yet undeniable just the same. Visibility and pressure boosted by the lineage, and he embraced all of it. What did we say about handles and court vision and point god swagger? From the first day he suited up for Lincoln High, it was hard to imagine a high school basketball player being more confident, tougher or more fun to watch.

Then came another guy to connect and compare him to, this one a year older, and from somewhere well beyond the five boroughs. In 2001, LeBron James and Sebastian Telfair were co-MVPs in the ABCD Camp underclass all-star game. (If you were in the building, you remember Bassy being the best player on the court.) By the summer of ’02, Bron and Bassy were arguably the best players in their respective classes, and certainly the most talked-about. After that summer, they were linked—for better and worse—for good.

A sneaker industry veteran later referred to it as the weekend that “changed everything” in the grassroots hoops game. With the help of interested parties at one of those footwear giants, LeBron and his people flew into New York on a Friday afternoon in ’02 to link with Bassy and his crew. They went straight from the airport to IS8, a tiny public school gym in Queens that hosted legendary city league games, for the first of two runs against some of New York’s best talent. In between, on Saturday afternoon, they reconvened at the Hunter College gym in Manhattan for a photo shoot. The result was the first SLAM cover for both, and still one of our most memorable front pages in 30 years of doing this.

Bassy had two more years of high school after that, a period in which he won back-to-back NYC public school city titles, a state championship, and the New York state Mr. Basketball award. He also held down our Basketball Diary as a junior, just like Starbury and LeBron before him, further cementing his SLAM legacy. Fellow Brooklynite Jay-Z, then at the height of his hip-hop reign, was spotted courtside at his games, a moment captured in Through the Fire; the film remains an irreplaceable document of a talented hoop dreamer in an unforgettable basketball moment, a time when a 5-10 high schooler could get lottery money and a sneaker deal before the three-point shot and the positionless revolution remade the game. Fans overfilled high school gyms to watch him play, including the woman in Through the Fire who famously declared, “I named my cat Bassy!”

He was the subject of a book, too, not to mention a couple more SLAM covers, a 2004 lottery pick whose NBA career never became quite what he hoped. A year or two of college might’ve helped, and comparisons to his cousin and his guy from Akron did him no favors, nor did landing on rosters that were ill-equipped to compete for titles or to support a young player who had shown that, with the right team around him on and off the court, he could win and handle the spotlight while doing it. He played for eight teams in 10 seasons before he called it a career in 2015. And don’t get it twisted: not just anyone can spend a full decade in the NBA.

What’s his legacy? One of the greatest, most influential high school players in NYC history. The first true point guard drafted straight out of high school. Coney Island royalty. Movie star. And a player our own story simply wouldn’t be the same without. 

Photo via Getty Images.

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

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

Where does he fit on your list? Top 50 ever? Top-five shooting guard? Shoot, a lot of people have him third after the anointed two of MJ and Kobe. Dwyane Wade’s exact placement in the pantheon doesn’t even matter. He’s an all-timer, and no one will ever argue that.

And this same dude, a little more than two decades ago, had to call a press conference to announce if he was turning pro or returning to college. For his senior season. In an era when high schoolers were going in the lottery regularly. And the press conference’s outcome was hardly a given. Media in attendance, to say nothing of Marquette University’s fan base, really didn’t know what Wade was going to announce about his plans. Why do I have such vivid memories of a relatively small moment in a Wade career that was filled with much bigger ones? I was there. I pretty much shadowed Dwyane that whole day, much of it with our man Atiba Jefferson by my side taking photos.

How was this future legend not already in the League like many of his peers? He was the type of late bloomer the game rarely creates these days. Wade was lightly recruited out of Richards High School in Illinois, a suburban school just southwest of Chicago, in part because he was trending toward being academically ineligible as a freshman. He chose Marquette because then-MU coach Tom Crean made Wade his number-one target and promised him he’d take Wade even if he had to sit out a season—which he did. 

As such, Wade did not really become a “national” name at all until he was a sophomore in college. That’s also the year he made his very first appearance in SLAM, a slim “In Your Face” in Issue 62 in which we spelled his first name “Dwayne” [absolutely pathetic, if not as bad as the biter hoops magazine making that mistake on its cover years later.—(Previous) Ed.]. That issue featured high schoolers LeBron James (a recurring theme) and Sebastian Telfair on the cover. Unless this is the first time you’ve read SLAM, you know that the GOATs rarely make it past 16 or at least high school before gracing our pages.

The feature I wrote off the day I spent with Dwyane in Milwaukee (he did indeed declare for the ’03 Draft) ran in SLAM 71. The story—graced with beautiful black and white photographs by Atiba—began immediately after Ryan’s classic story on LeBron, who was making his first solo appearance on our cover. A bit of foreshadowing, all this. LeBron did and has outshined Dwyane, sure. But the closeness of the pages is also analogous to how much closer their careers would prove to be than anyone imagined. Bron was The Chosen One. Dwyane was the unknown. But from that day and story onward, the floodgates were open. 

On the court, Wade was a success from the jump, finishing third in the ’04 ROY voting after averaging 16.2 ppg (Bron won, naturally). By year three, dude was averaging 27.2 per and was an NBA champion—and runaway Finals MVP at that. By 2010, a ring-less LeBron felt compelled to leave Cleveland for South Beach to team up with Wade and their ’03 Draft classmate, Chris Bosh, to chase titles. And it worked. LeBron got his first two. Dwyane ended the partnership with three to his name.

That’s how many rings Wade would end up with, but the accomplishments and accolades flowed well through the 2010s. The 6-4 2-guard ended his 16-year NBA career with per-game averages of 22 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.4 assists, with 13 All-Star appearances and 12 All-League honors to his name. Save for brief stretches in Chicago and Cleveland, the uber-tough Wade spent his career in Miami, embodying #HeatCulture and cementing himself as the greatest player in that franchise’s short but storied history.

Off the court, Wade followed a groundbreaking footwear path that started with Converse, detoured as he became the face of Jordan Brand and ended with a literally game-changing deal with Li-Ning. He married Hollywood superstar Gabrielle Union. He’s become a vocal champion of trans rights in the wake of his daughter’s gender transition. And he made up for his late start with SLAM, appearing countless times in our pages, from McDavid ads (!) to champs issues to a handful of classic solo covers—SLAM 127, “Tropic Thunder” being my personal favorite.

In ’22, Wade received an honorary degree from Marquette and gave the commencement address to that year’s graduating class. Last August, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

But in so many ways, the journey from little-known amateur to globally renowned professional began on that April day in 2003 when he announced he was leaving Marquette. 

And Teebz and I were there. 

Portrait by Atiba Jefferson. Photo via Getty Images.

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

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

The coolest play in the coolest sport in the world is the slam dunk. We love it so much we named our magazine after it, and we’re hardly alone in our obsession/fascination. And as neat as they can be in contrived dunk contests or glorified exhibition games that may also go by the names “streetball” and “All-Star Games,” the greatest dunks of all happen in games. And NBA games are the highest form of the game in the world. And now, for everyone from the front to the back to hear loud and clear: VINCE CARTER IS THE GREATEST IN-GAME DUNKER IN HISTORY.

The run he went on during his truncated Rookie of the Year campaign in 1999 through the Sydney Olympics in 2000 [Doug Collins: “He jumped OVER HIS HEAD”] and maybe another season or two in Toronto had never been seen before. “Fine,” you say. “Dunkers have evolved. Elgin to Doc to MJ to Vince. Of course someone at the turn of the millennium was iller than a dude from the ’70s.” Yeah, well, no one has done it like that since either. And it’s been more than two decades! Go through the SLAM archives and read the SLAMadamonths from back then. They were almost all Vince, and only Russ could make the monotony seem fresh. Or if YouTube’s more your thing, here’s a PSA that will be old news to longtime SLAM and SLAMonline readers but new to many of you: check out “Matt Adam’s Infamous Vince Carter Mixtape” below and sit back.

Nine-plus minutes of joy, and irrefutable proof of the in-game dunker assertion I made earlier.

If Figs and SPT told me to write 250 or so words about VC’s inclusion on this exclusive list, I’d call it a day and feel my work is done. That’s how memorable and impactful Vince Carter’s run as the GOAT dunker was.

Alas, they need more words, and he actually impacted the game three other big-time ways. 

The first is that he saved the NBA in Canada. When Carter got traded to the Raptors on Draft night in 1998, they stunk and their colleagues in Vancouver were even worse—and on the fast track to moving to Memphis. Carter’s arrival on NBA courts, fresh off a terrible lockout and the retirement of Michael Jordan, was a boon to the entire League, sure, but it had actual resonance in Canada. “The most exciting player in the NBA plays in Toronto,” was not a sentence anyone—let alone Canucks—ever expected to utter. He the North, indeed. Not to keep giving you video-watching assignments, but there’s literally a documentary about this: The Carter Effect. Stream and learn.

Another incredible fact about Carter that deserves major props is that he played the third-most games in NBA history. More than Stockton and Malone. More than KG. More than LeBron (at least when you read this). The only players who’ve played more games than Vince Carter are Robert Parish and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who are ineligible for this list because they didn’t play in the SLAM era (the Chief did barely, but you get the point). So at 1,541, Vince Carter is the games-played leader in SLAM history. Further inexorable proof of his relevance and also a stat that you never would have fathomed in those early days when he was literally jumping over defenders. Because as you’d imagine, that style of play came with injury risk, and for much of his career, VC was labeled injury-prone. But he got better at avoiding contact, got better at shooting from distance and morphed into a locker-room favorite who could provide some pop off the bench until he was 43 years young. 

Last but not least, VC deserves eternal props for his impact on the sneaker game. He played in fly Nikes and Jordans at UNC before becoming the rare NBAer to rock Pumas as an NBA rookie. By his second year in the L, he was having issues with Puma and had a stretch of de facto free agency. This led to him wearing the AND1 Tai Chis for the 2000 Dunk Contest. No shade to those shoes, which are classics, but it says here that Vince’s iconic wearing of them is the reason the shoes have lived on to this day. VC circled back to Nike for the balance of his career and rocked pure heat. To quote the famous campaign and one of the more genius SLAMadamonths in Russ’ oeuvre: “Boing.” 

Photo via Getty Images.

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

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

Watch this game long enough and the awareness sneaks up on you. You start to understand how the spotlight narrows in hindsight, how the space for competing narratives is diminished by time. Turns out there’s only so much mental space available to recall the players who define eras. The result, as far as our NBA memories go, is that even some of the game’s greatest and most breathtaking careers can be nudged out of the light of immediate recall. We haven’t forgotten them, exactly. We just need to be reminded.

So here’s your reminder about Tracy Lamar McGrady Jr.

Seven-time All-Star, two-time scoring champ, 2017 Hall of Famer. A preps-to-pros pioneer whose career crossed eras: came into the League a year behind Kobe, made his first All-Star Game three years before LeBron arrived, dropped buckets on Jordan in Washington, KD in Seattle and CP3 in OKC. His peak, when it came in the early-mid 2000s, was crazy, a five-year run with the Magic and Rockets in which he averaged 27.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per. In that extended moment, T-Mac was just about the last guy any NBA defender wanted to see with the ball in his hands.

The peak being 20 years ago now, the aforementioned narrowing of the spotlight hasn’t done McGrady any favors. The MVP winners in those years were guys named Iverson, Duncan, Garnett and Nash, a list that (obviously) doesn’t even include at-or-near-prime Shaq, Kobe and LeBron. The NBA’s top tier was crowded as hell in the first few years of the new millennium. Just know this: Tracy McGrady belonged in the same breath as all of them.

The legend began one summer week in New Jersey in 1996, when a long, skinny Florida kid with no national rep landed at the proving ground of adidas ABCD Camp. By the time that highlight- filled camp week was over, McGrady was the most buzzed-about player in the ’97 class. The college coaches who hadn’t heard of him a week earlier soon learned they needn’t have bothered learning his name. His decision—choose a college by signing day or sign with adidas for $12 million and head to the Draft—ended up being an easy one.

The appeal was still mostly potential when Toronto made McGrady the ninth pick of the ’97 Draft, where he joined the Raptors—and, a year later, was joined by his far-removed cousin and fellow Floridian Vince Carter. A lanky 6-8 bundle of unpolished talent, McGrady was slow to make an impact and quickly overshadowed by his high-flying distant relative. But by the end of his third season, when McGrady emerged to the tune of 15.4 ppg and started giving optimistic Toronto fans visions of a new-millennium Mike and Scottie, he decided he had no interest in sidekick status. T-Mac was ready to be a star.

A free-agent move back to his home state gave him the chance. It’s hard to believe in retrospect that he spent just four seasons in Orlando, where he averaged better than 28 ppg—including League highs of 32.1 ppg in ’02-03 and 28 ppg in ’03-04—got the first of three solo SLAM covers, and made that star-spangled No. 1 jersey iconic. The numbers were undeniable and the highlights ridiculous—he practically made the off-the-backboard self-alley-oop a signature move—but, lacking an elite supporting cast, his individual achievements never led to postseason success.

He tried to find it in Houston, where he landed after a trade in the summer of 2004 and teamed with Yao Ming, giving him the All-Star big man he’d lacked his entire career. But injuries curtailed the partnership, and McGrady’s numbers diminished throughout his five full seasons with the Rockets. After brief stints with the Knicks, Pistons, Hawks and Spurs, and a season in China, he retired in 2013.

Today, Tracy McGrady’s legacy and impact are clear. An icon of the preps-to-pros era. A lethal scorer and one of the toughest finishers in NBA history. Owner of an adidas signature line (and two KICKS covers to go with it) that combined innovative design and on-court performance as well as any in his era. Post-playing gigs with ESPN and Showtime, plus the founding of the trailblazing Ones Basketball League. And yes, that 2017 HOF enshrinement, an honor that some observers, blinded by ringzzz culture, questioned the inevitability of. They shouldn’t have. The résumé is beyond question, the numbers etched in stone and the highlights burned into the memories of anyone lucky enough to be watching. 

Photo via Getty Images. Featured image by Keith Major.

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

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

Twenty-five years ago, we at SLAM didn’t really comprehend the significance of putting Chamique Holdsclaw on the cover of SLAM 29 wearing an authentic Knicks game uniform. To say otherwise would be untrue. However, the importance of her embodying the early SLAM manifesto, in terms of us publishing a basketball magazine from a grassy knoll, taking pot shots at conventional wisdom, is nearly unparalleled.

Holdsclaw was an exceptional college ballplayer and a gym rat from Queens, NY, and, when we weren’t debating such weighty topics such as ugliest player or douchiest head coach, we, as media provocateurs (which is French for jabronis), wondered aloud whether the NBA was ready for her, rather than the other way around.

We weren’t just questioning whether Holdsclaw could hold her own, but whether the NBA (and society at large, for that matter) could accept a female player in the League. Period. And so the cover line, “Is the NBA Ready for Chamique Holdsclaw?” was both a literal and an existential question. And, for the most part, it was also rhetorical: we already knew the answer and it was “Not yet.” (It would be another 20 years before a second female player, Maya Moore, would own SLAM’s cover, which was still ahead of its time.)

Despite Holdsclaw’s supreme athletic ability and work ethic, we also knew that players like Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter would likely be able (and willing) to drop double nickels on her nightly if given the opportunity. The NBA players who we spoke with as they came through New York confirmed as much, privately. Indeed, any opportunity to try out for an NBA team would come with a bull’s-eye.

But, someone had to be first, what if it were her? Holdsclaw was entering her senior year of college, and had, among many positive qualities, one transcendent characteristic: a preternatural calm demeanor that hid a burning competitiveness. She could shoot and rebound and was unaccustomed to failure. A relentless two-way player, she won four consecutive state high school titles and three consecutive national championships with the Lady Vols. Her college coach, the legendary Pat Summitt, called her a “Jordan-type player and person,” which was all we needed to hear.

She was drafted first by Washington in the 1999 WNBA Draft and would play a decade in the W, averaging 17-8-3 over the course of her pro career. Later, Holdsclaw would describe the Knicks cover as “a statement piece: Women’s basketball had arrived.” The thing is, SLAM wasn’t joining the chorus, we were actually leading it. And it wasn’t actually a chorus, back then, it was really just a handful of us sitting in a windowless room at the decrepit-ish SLAM offices.  

We were fortunate that social media was non-existent back then, otherwise Holdsclaw would’ve been drawn into an ugly back-and-forth between the sexes about her worthiness, which was something she didn’t ask for or deserve. And what we considered to be a legitimate attempt to frame a larger point about the progress (or lack thereof) of gender equality in sports would have been ridiculed or seen as a cynical move. In those days, anger was communicated to us through handwritten, honest-to-goodness hate mail from readers. Surrounding Holdsclaw, negative response was largely muted, which as far as I was concerned, was a slam dunk. Until it wasn’t.

A week after the issue dropped, my phone rang and a dispassionate female voice on the other end said simply, “Hold for Coach Summitt.”

Gulp.

Ten seconds later, Coach’s familiar drawl was stinging my ears. “Are YOU the FUCKING BLOCKHEAD that almost ruined my player’s ELIGIBILITY!?” She was in zero mood for me. Apparently, as Coach then scream-splained to me, had Holdsclaw accepted the uniform after the shoot—which she did not—she would be in violation of NCAA rules and would lose her eligibility. I could so see us doing that by accident.

I then acknowledged that yes, in fact, I was the decision-maker on the Chamique Holdsclaw story and tried to explain my thought process. I even employed the phrase “chip away at the male patriarchy” in an effort to butter her up/get her to stop shouting at me. She listened for a few seconds and then abruptly hung up on me.

Part of me thinks she was satisfied with my answer and actually saw progress. SLAM had gone 28-for-28 with men on the cover until we decided to change the game with someone that she herself had coached up.

But more than likely, Coach Summitt just didn’t feel like spending any more time than absolutely necessary talking to a fucking blockhead. 

Photo via Getty Images.

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

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

Michael Redd was a 2004 NBA All-Star, a member of the 2008 USA Olympic basketball team…and, during the summer of ’08, a teammate—and de facto tile teacher—of Kobe Bryant. 

“Our relationship doesn’t get publicized,” shares Redd, once the subject of a memorable SLAM story by Scoop Jackson, “but it doesn’t have to. We know what we had behind the scenes.”

It’s 2008, and thousands of the best athletes from all over the world are staying in the Olympic village in Beijing. Fifteen of the most famous athletes, though, are staying at the Intercontinental, on their own. It’s there that Redd remembers schooling Bryant in dominoes—forging a friendship that would still feel fresh in his mind 15 years later. 

“It wasn’t about the dominoes,” says Redd. He remembers sitting and playing on a Team USA plane with Kobe, Tayshaun Prince and Chris Bosh—and a photo exists to prove it. “He was trying to ingratiate himself with us, with his teammates. He was masterful at using his mind like that.” 

***

Intentionality.

If there are two words the public associates with Bryant, it’s MAMBA MENTALITY. If there’s one—one word from those who know him—it’s INTENTIONALITY. 

Bryant was, famously, intentional in his approach to the big picture. His prep for practice and games was detailed down to the minute, down to the movement. He was the same way with his sneakers, pushing Nike to develop new silhouettes, to incorporate lighter materials, to deliver a better performance product. 

It shouldn’t surprise people to hear, then, that Bryant was detail-oriented about less visible minutiae, too. Yeah, he pretended to care about playing dominoes to win over teammates. And, yeah, he was exactingly meticulous in his 20-plus year relationship with SLAM.

It began a few covers in, with Bryant admitting in the early aughts that he read Trash Talk. He didn’t just peep them, though; Bryant used any and all negativity as fuel. 

“It mattered to him,” recalls Ryan Jones, a former SLAM Ed., “that SLAM heads didn’t have an accurate idea of what made him tick. On some level, that motivated him.” 

Fast forward to 2006. A lot has happened in the Bryantverse in the decade since he’s been drafted, even in the few years since his Trash Talk admission. Now, he appears on the cover of SLAM clutching a snake—symbolizing his Black Mamba moniker—to his face. 

“Who else would have done that?” laughs Jones.

Another few years, another cover. Bryant is no longer looking for love. Now, he’s mindful about all the details. The shoot is set to take place in Hawaii, but Bryant and his team want SLAM to fly in his personal barber from L.A. After some back-and-forth, the sides compromise: a local Hawaiian barber of renown is booked to be on set for Bryant. Only thing is, when Bryant shows up, he’s already rocking a fresh cut. The resulting cover—American flag draped over his freshy—is iconic. 

Twenty10. At this point, Bryant doesn’t show up for cover shoots. He wants to pitch ideas, to own the creative process. A hint at his post-basketball life. 

“He demanded Martin Schoeller,” says Ben Osborne, the then-Ed. at SLAM. Schoeller, famous for his up-close celebrity portraits, would shoot Bryant for SLAM 136. “There’s never been anyone like Bryant about that. Not even close.”

Fast forward again. 2019. Bryant’s last cover before…you know. SLAM is amenable to having their first retired player not named MJ on the cover. They want him in a suit, to represent the business, man, he’s become, but he wants to be captured as a coach, to have his girls’ team with him. Emails are exchanged, and when the day arrives, Bryant walks in wearing a Mamba sweatsuit and carrying a big ol’ bag of basketballs.

***

Mamba Mentality. 

A hoops writer at a different magazine once defined the depths of Michael Jordan’s transcendence by pointing out that the best people in any given industry were labeled “the Michael Jordan” of that sector. 

There’s no denying that the author made a great point. Just like there’s no denying that Mamba Mentality, Bryant’s self-titled ethos, is the Michael Jordan of motivational phrases.  

Bryant, in the only autobiographical book he ever published, defined Mamba Mentality as, more or less, an acute and laser-like focus on excellence. Since his death it has taken on new meaning.

“I had…an epiphany the other night,” someone messaged me recently. “Mamba Mentality has evolved into more than just a mindset or approach. It has become an ideology.” 

***

In the years after his death, Bryant has been enshrined as one of the most important ambassadors of the women’s game. In the weeks leading up to his death, he led a small camp for elite women at his gym. In his final SLAM cover, he insisted on having his youth team—his girls’ youth team—on the cover with him. In his afterlife, he made the orange WNBA logo hoodie a bestseller. 

First, he changed the men’s game. Then, he changed the Mentality. Finally, with his final moments on hardwood, he helped give women a small boost. 

Yeah, Kobe Bryant is the Michael Jordan of SLAM’s era. Yeah, SLAM is the Mamba Mentality of magazines. Yeah, we were lucky to have Bryant, and we’re lucky to still have SLAM. 

Feature photo via Getty Images.

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

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

The idea for SLAM came to me sometime in early 1994. A friend of mine suggested I make a hip-hop basketball magazine. This light bulb moment became much brighter that night, and I published the first issue of SLAM three months later. The rest is history—30 years later, it is surreal to me that it has survived this long. 

Keep in mind, there was no internet back then—SLAM was the basketball internet. The world is much different now, but what continues to blow my mind to this day is how many times people come up to me to say how much SLAM influenced their lives. It feels good every time I hear that.

Let’s go back to 1994 in New York City, where it all began. Cory Johnson, the founding editor of SLAM, and I began to plan out that legendary first issue. Larry Johnson would be on the cover, and we had features on Jason Kidd, Rodrick Rhodes and playground legend Joe Hammond, a column on Felipe Lopez, SLAMadamonth and our first PUNKS story on Steve Wojciechowski. No one had seen a sports magazine like this. If you were lucky enough to buy that premiere issue on a newsstand, then you are officially an original member of the SLAM Fam. 

Then we were on to Issue 2. Enter Stephon Marbury—the first of a few players who would help define SLAM through the years. I’ve been following HS basketball since I saw Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) play in high school. And if you followed high school hoops in the ’90s and lived in NYC, you know everyone was talking about Stephon Marbury from Lincoln HS in Brooklyn. The Marburys were New York City’s first hoops family. There were three Marbury brothers who came before Stephon, and now it was his turn to be the first Marbury to get to the NBA. The pressure was real, but you would never know it from watching Stephon play. He was the best point guard since four-time All-City player Kenny Anderson. He had to be in SLAM. 

Stephon appeared in two articles in Issue 2 (the one with Shawn Kemp on the cover). The first was for our inaugural SLAM High School All-American team. Stephon made it as a junior, alongside another junior, Kevin Garnett, and seniors Felipe Lopez, Raef LaFrentz and Jerod Ward. Plus, for our first-ever fashion shoot, we wanted to feature Stephon and his teammates at Lincoln. SLAM dug up some hoop apparel for the Lincoln players to wear like they do in GQ. Thankfully, Coach Bobby Hartstein was open to the idea, as insane as it was.

The SLAM team packed up our cameras and subwayed (no Ubers back then) out to Coney Island. This is the first time I met Stephon, and I will never forget it. When we arrived at Lincoln, the principal directed us to his class. Steph was sitting in the front row rocking a POLO hoodie with a fresh haircut in his signature style. We shook hands and just clicked. We bonded right away around basketball and what it meant to both of us. Looking back, I’m sure we both had no idea how it would shape our lives in so many ways. Steph represented a new generation of hoopers influenced by hip-hop that only SLAM could understand. The photo shoot went down without a hitch. If you want to see the spread, check out the SLAM Digital Archive and look for “School Daze” in Issue 2. Not exactly GQ, but way ahead of its time for any sports magazine. 

Stephon continued to play a prominent role in our early days. He was the first SLAM High School Diarist, which began in SLAM 4 (the John Starks cover—our first real cover shoot). I went on to watch most of his games his senior year at Lincoln and saw him finally win his first NYC PSAL championship at the Garden. He was Mr. Basketball in New York. I saw him announce his commitment to Georgia Tech and then watched him go head-to-head against Allen Iverson at MSG. I was at the 1996 NBA Draft when he was picked fourth by the Bucks and then traded to the Timberwolves to team up with KG. The Marbury family had finally made it to the NBA (for the record, 1996 is unquestionably the greatest NBA Draft class ever). SLAM continued to grow with every issue, and Stephon was on a few more covers along the way. He had a great but underappreciated NBA career. He ended up playing in China, where he won three rings. Go watch the documentary A Kid from Coney Island if you want the full story.

Stephon and I speak or text maybe once a year. I was just texting with him while he was in China. He posted a photo on Instagram of him running a clinic. He had his head down, dribbling with his left hand, going hard to the hoop. The same patented move from Lincoln that only Stephon can do. I recognized it immediately and DMed him: “I know that move.” He replied: “Big bro, you know because you saw it live.” If you know, you know. 

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

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

“Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.” Purple “a” in chaos. To this day, still, probably the most brilliant story title and opening spread for a feature in the history of this magazine. The slightly out-of-focus stark-black and shaded- white Bob Berg portrait. Looking like DaBaby’s daddy. Russ spent hours looking at the picture and reading the story in search of the perfect words to call it. Looking at the picture and reading the story again. And again. The story of the drama orbiting Shaq’s basketball world. Penny. Kobe. Lakers. Contracts. Free throws. No rings…yet. Injuries. Shaunie. Hollywood. Career. Then Russ yelled, “I got it!” Damned if he didn’t.

And while the brilliance of the title and spread took center stage, it was the story that became the story. The story of getting Shaq to sit for the interview and photo shoot (Issue 34 + Shaq’s uni number 34 = Levels), of giving us time that very few athletes had given us (two days, if I’m correct?), of the insanity and ignorance of us waiting five years and 31 issues (as Tony explained in his hilarious and equally brilliant “Sixth Man” Ed. letter to open the issue) between covers with him on them. It was a story of society’s unique and unusual love/hate relationship with Shaq. Of the love he gave the world and the hate it gave him in return. The story was a chaotic, all-over-the-place journey of the conflict inside one of the greatest ballplayers we’d ever witnessed as he struggled between the power and indifference between (and the importance of that indifference) greatness and dominance. And how he chose dominance.

There’s also that difference between being loved and being beloved. What we learned from and about Shaq over the 30-year relationship this magazine has built with him is that sometimes it’s better to be one than the other. It all depends on what you are looking to get out of life and how you want the world to receive you and your contributions. See, Shaq changed the course of this magazine (and those of us who worked on the decades of stories that have been done on him), what it would become, and our collective approach in how to make it what it eventually became. He taught us how to balance patience and persistence in approach and storytelling. He taught us to expect nothing while being prepared for anything when it came to plotting and planning stories. He (along with MJ and AI) taught us that icon athletes will always be more important to the reader than the writer telling the story or photographer lensing it. Presence is a present. He is Him. There’s only one Shaquille O’Neal. Rather be loved than beloved.

Aesthetically adjacent to his basketball prodigy was his ability to multi-hyphen on a Donald Glover-level that no one understood while he was collecting Larry O’Briens. Stacking chips, hoisting trophies, spitting bars, dropping gems, moving product, marketing dreams, building brands, getting degrees, becoming police, rescuing cats, investing ingeniously, extending zeros into a cultural and wealth-building account that already had more commas than only a handful of athletes who’d ever lived. The giant wasn’t gentle, he was brilliant. One of none. The one MC Wu should have asked to GA on “C.R.E.A.M.” No one else woulda made sense.

There was a moment toward the end of those two days with Shaq in 1999 when he made it all make sense. The Lakers had won 61 games the previous season and could have easily won 70
had Shaq not missed 22 games and played through an injury instead of saving himself for May and June. He said, “Had I played, we woulda won 75.” But winning 75 games wasn’t the point, having the greatest record in NBA history wasn’t the point, just winning a ring wasn’t the point. It was the way he was going to lead the Lakers to eventually win those rings that was. 

“Domination,” I remember him saying. That he’d rather go through the playoffs unbeaten—something that no team in NBA history had ever done—than to go down in history with the most wins ever in the regular season. Because, if nothing else is learned about how Shaq flows in mind and process, when it’s all said and done, being unbeatable—and unbeaten—is greater than being the greatest. The very next season the Lakers began their three-peat. That TWIsM life: different. 

He also said another prophetic thing that was hidden in that PE entitled story but used as a pull quote: “When the game is over, they’re going to remember my name.” Preach, n****. 

The post THE 30 PLAYERS WHO DEFINED SLAM’S 30 YEARS: Shaquille O’Neal appeared first on SLAM.

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

“Skip to My Lou” was not Rafer Alston’s first nickname. The pseudonym that would stick with the point guard throughout blacktop supremacy and an NBA career was born the summer after his Rucker Park debut. That prior summer, the frail 14-year-old from South Jamaica, Queens, was all the way uptown balling comfortably with collegiate starters. Despite a considerable difference in age and size between him and the other players, not one could remain in front of him. He handled the rock as if it were a yo-yo and treated defenders like turnstiles in subway exits. “Here comes The Energizer!” shouted Rucker Park MC Duke Tango.

“He just keeps going and going,” said Duke’s co-host, Al Cash. Rafer’s new notoriety climbed to a point where Harlemites would anticipate a lopsided score just to witness The Energizer bounce to his own drum.

The following summer, Rafer received the keys to that same Rucker team. During a particular game in which he felt the players and crowd lacked synergy, he premeditated a move in hopes of producing stimuli. The opposing guard found himself alone with a 3-on-1 fast break quickly approaching. Rafer bounced the ball in front of him and shuffled his feet with hope that his defender would take the bait. As expected, the opp reached for the ball. Raf then snatched it back, wrapped it around his own waist and dimed his slashing teammate. Spectators erupted onto the court and Al Cash immediately renamed The Energizer “Skip To My Lou.” 

For Rafer Alston, life has only been easy as Skip To My Lou. When he wasn’t performing on a playground, he was consistently weathering obstacles and downhill winds. As an 11-year-old prodigy, he was too young to understand the neighborhood fuss around his ability. All he knew was that he was better than the other kids, but their parents were present at games and his weren’t. Mama Alston worked two jobs and dad was so consumed by drugs he stole Raf’s Michael Jordan rookie card. Perhaps a healthy home life would’ve prevented one of the greatest high school guards ever from only playing a combined 10 games his junior and senior years.

He averaged over 30 points both seasons at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School, despite playing under 20 minutes per game. He kept his name ringing on the AAU circuit with Riverside Church by besting future legends like Chauncey Billups and Allen Iverson, but his dream was never to be a playground legend before age 18. It happened anyway––before he played a single minute for Jerry Tarkanian at Fresno State, this very publication put him on the front of its December ’97 issue with the cover line: “The Best Point Guard In the World (you’ve never heard of).” The pressure meant little to Rafer. His only goal was to become an NBA point guard like his idols Mark Jackson and Kenny Anderson. 

Even when Alston’s name was called in the 1998 NBA Draft, it was the beginning of yet another scenic road ripe with rocky terrain and opposing nature. Being confined to George Karl’s Milwaukee Bucks bench quickly taught the rookie that the League had little regard for those amazing AND1 mixtapes. After two seasons, he nearly quit his dream job. Then close friend Troy “Escalade” Jackson (Mark’s little brother—RIP) convinced him to join the D-League. One 10-day contract begat another and in a couple years, Rafer was lobbing alleys to new Dunk Contest GOAT Vince Carter in Toronto, zipping by defenses with a rookie phenom named Dwyane Wade in Miami, then running an offense through Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming in Houston. His game was also worth nearly $30 million. 

Today, only one NYC playground legend has played in an NBA Finals. After being traded in the middle of his 10th season to the Orlando Magic, Rafer led prime Dwight Howard and Co. to the mountaintop of the 2009 NBA season for a championship bout with Kobe Bryant’s Lakers. Games 1 and 2 saw rough performances from Alston. Coach Stan Van Gundy pulled his floor general aside and instructed him to abandon the previous contests and return to whichever style of play was most fun. In Game 3, Alston dropped a dazzling 20 points on 8-12 shooting, ushering the Magic to their only win of the series. The highlight of the game was when he spun off of Derek Fisher and hit Lamar Odom with a stutter-step before jelly rolling Pau Gasol. As he ran back on defense, the Magic’s energizer smiled and pointed toward his idol, who just happened to be commentating the game for ABC. 

“I wanted Mark Jackson to know that even though I’m getting old,” said Alston after the game, “I still have a little Skip left in my game.” 

Hell of a journey. 

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

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

Well, this is awkward. I was asked to write about Reggie Miller’s evolving relationship with SLAM, I’m assuming, because it started very poorly—and specifically because of me. And I just now realized that the 2024 NBA All-Star Game will be in Indianapolis. Given that fact, and the intervening years, I had a thought: let Reggie (the greatest-ever Pacers player) bask in his Hall of Fame-ness and enjoy the festivities without any childishness or negativity.

All these years later, it no longer hurts to give Reggie his flowers for his exemplary career, and we can now accept the fact that he is universally considered one of the greatest long-range shooters in NBA history. Over 25,000 points (including 2,560 three-pointers) in 18 seasons, two Gold medals. One of the greats.

It’s called growing up, people.

SLAM, during what I like to call “The Profanity Era” (issues 3-38), is linked to Miller more than any other player not named Iverson. But the way we treated them couldn’t be in starker contrast. Iverson could do no wrong in our eyes, while the magazine relentlessly targeted Miller. Why? Because we needed a foil. If we were looking to mix things up in the sports media world (lol), antagonizing a perennial All-Star was the most efficient way to do so. 

And Reggie was the best player on the Pacers and the Pacers routinely clobbered the Knicks, while Miller preened, pouted and flopped. He was like the annoying progeny of Mick Jagger and a professional wrestler, enjoying himself so thoroughly while riling the crowd. It was infuriating to us. 

And so we (OK, me) pounced on him and began a campaign of poking Miller with a stick. We (OK, I) said all kinds of things about him to try and get a rise from him. He never responded to me directly but, looking back, his annual teabagging of the Knicks in the playoffs was probably enough of an answer.

During his career, Reggie Miller made an enemy of every NBA fan in every city other than his own. He wore that hatred like Superman’s cape. It intrigued him, amused him, and then it fueled him. The hostility, however, was far, far worse in Madison Square Garden than in any other arena. When Miller played the Knicks, he was extra arrogant and spiteful and scornful and miserably clutch. The 25-point fourth quarter. The 8 points in nine seconds. The choke sign.

Those hijinks went on for years—way longer than our “Glen Rice’s wife” campaign or whatever other idiocy we cooked up—and culminated with SLAM publishing Miller’s high school prom photo—which he attended with his sister Cheryl, who was an unreal basketball player in her own right. That I considered it to be a “gotcha” moment shows that we were completely losing the plot.

Many issues after we’d begun our crusade, we were exhausted, frankly, and pumped the brakes. Not long after, Miller appeared on the cover of SLAM 33, sneering in victory. On the magazine’s spine we put the about-face into context, printing, “Hell Freezes Over.”

Once we crossed that rubicon, it was much easier to accept/swallow the fact that Miller was a clutch big-game player and, thanks in large part to his relationship with SLAM, the greatest and most willing villain in basketball history. It also became significantly less complicated to include his name in a conversation without relentlessly denigrating him and must have been freeing to the subsequent editorial staffs. Thankfully, grudges do not transfer well.

A few years ago, long after Reggie retired and began earning big bucks as a very capable color commentator, SLAM asked me to interview him—a first, as it turned out—in an attempt to settle our differences. We were both up for it.

Over the course of an hour, Reggie and I talked about his storied career, his relationship to SLAM and to opposing fans, and how players today would have a much harder time coping with our level of vitriol. I apologized for publishing the prom photo—a stunt that he accurately described as “crazy”—and then we talked extensively about how SLAM’s unrelenting public hatred of his persona had actually helped him. 

As it turned out, Reggie was likable, and we both blamed my dubious behavior on my misspent youth and a complete lack of journalistic training or, really, morals. As Russ Bengtson would say, “cool, cool.” 

He also credited me for burying my own hatchet and offering him the cover, which is great except for one thing: six months after the Reggie Miller cover was published, I ran away from SLAM, never to return. 

Photo by Clay Patrick Mcbride. Featured image via Getty Images.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

“Iverson left.” 

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

“Iverson left.” This wasn’t good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo via Getty Images. Portrait by Clay Patrick McBride.

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Aside from the NBA frame he was blessed with, nothing has been handed to Tyler on a silver platter. He’s earned everything the game of basketball has given him so far. His game is so smooth, you’d think it came naturally. But Tyler is quick to dismiss that notion. “From seventh grade down, I was trash,” he tells me bluntly. It’s hard to imagine, but I’ll take the man at his word. 

Basketball became his sole focus in eighth grade after giving up football, and by his 10th grade summer, Tyler had developed into one of the top prospects in his class. “I was consistently getting better–playing against the top players and playing good against them, and going to top camps and being one of the best players,” he recalls. “That’s when I realized I’m pretty good at basketball.” Many of the elite college programs in the nation realized it, too. He received offers from schools like Kansas, Baylor, Houston, Texas, Florida State and others. But Tyler had his eyes set on something even bigger. And with more pathways to the League than ever before, he decided to forgo his last two years of high school and college eligibility and turn pro, at 16 years old. His mind was made up; his goals were set, and he wanted to position himself to streamline the process of achieving them. “I realized school isn’t for everybody,” he says of his decision. “I just wanted to play basketball and go to the NBA.”

Today, Tyler is one of the most consistent players on the NBA G League Ignite squad. Naturally, the G League doesn’t yet garner as much media attention as the NCAA, so there isn’t as much “hype” surrounding Tyler’s name relative to some of his draft classmates. But Tyler (and any good NBA general manager, for that matter) knows that hype isn’t what wins championships. While most players preparing for the draft have to balance school and other obligations, Tyler’s only responsibility is hoop. In this regard, he’s already a step ahead of many of his peers, in addition to playing in an NBA system, with and against NBA vets, and training with NBA-level coaches. 

Night in and night out, with G League Ignite, he displays his do-it-all skill set that has him projected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft. He’s a walking mismatch, big enough to punish small guards and quick enough to exploit traditional bigs. He’s bouncy and lengthy enough to finish at the rim on one end and protect the rim on the other. And he’s still getting stronger and adding muscle mass, which adds to his upside as a potential plus-defender in the League. But what Tyler does best is put points on the board. He’s a lefty sniper with beautiful shooting mechanics and extended range beyond the arc that can often leave opposing defenses in a frenzy.

His talent alone could support a 10-year stint in the League where the average career span is less than half that. But when you attach Tyler’s talent to his intangibles and work ethic, you’re looking at someone who could be a multi-time all-star and then some. How great he becomes is completely up to him, and he seems ready to attack any challenges that are on the way. He’s a coach’s dream, a sponge, willing to play any role to have a positive impact on the game.

“I feel like I can make an [instant] impact with my shooting and length on defense,“ he says, looking ahead to his rookie season.”But I just want to do whatever it takes to stay on the floor–be more vocal, set picks, do the little things just to prepare for next year.”

Photos by Max Scheide.

The post Meet Tyler Smith: The G League Ignite Projected First-Round Pick is Ready to Take His Game to the Next Level appeared first on SLAM.

Every June, my former AAU team, Hoop Booth, would travel to Old Dominion University for their team camp to play a handful of games against some of the best high school and AAU programs in the area. And every year, there was one team I’d look forward to playing as a marker for where my game was: I.C. Norcom High School out of Portsmouth, Virginia. They were talented across the board, well-coached and flat-out tough. But Dorian (or Doe Doe as they called him) was the piece that really made this team go. Dorian was ahead of his time. This was back in 2010, so Kevin Durant had only been in the League for three years. It wasn’t yet the norm for hoopers taller than 6-7 to have the skill and fluidity of guards who played below the rim combined with the athleticism and length of true bigs. 

Today, Dorian Finney-Smith is one of the most coveted role players in the L. During a time where the average career length is about 4 and a half years, it’s not an accident that Dorian is in his eighth NBA season with what seems like many more ahead of him. Sure, he was blessed with physical gifts but it’s his unwavering refusal to take these gifts for granted that got him here.

Dorian pulled up to the SLAM HQ in Queens and we sat down to discuss his upbringing, going undrafted, his outlook on fatherhood, which includes helping his own father get released from prison recently. He also opened up about the legacy he hopes to leave behind and his community service efforts.

This interview has been slightly edited for conciseness and clarity.  

Curtis: Growing up in Portsmouth, it would have been so easy to adopt a small-town mentality; can you speak to the commitment you made at an early age to do something special?

Dorian Finney-Smith: Well, my older brother [Ben Finney] played as well, so I was able to watch his process. And his best friend, who’s like family to me, Vernon Macklin, was like the first person from my city to make it to the NBA and that was motivation for me. To be able to touch somebody who got drafted–to be able to have conversations with and see somebody who I know got drafted made me know it was possible. With him being highly ranked and being from my small city, that was all the motivation I really needed.    

Curtis: I know you had a target on your back as a major athlete in a small trouble-ridden area. How did you keep on a narrow path and not fall victim to the peer pressures that plagued a lot of the Portsmouth youth?

DFS: My momma being on our ass [laughing]. But also, one of my older brothers was killed and my pops was in prison, so I had all the motivation I needed to know that I didn’t want to live that type of lifestyle. Everybody my brother grew up with who I would use to call the big bros was getting locked up. I realized by eighth or ninth grade that the life that rappers and everybody glorified was only gonna lead you to two places, either death or jail. They’d just fall into the system. I also had a best friend, Jeremy Canty, and his pops was a real stand up man who was good for me. His pops took me to all my workouts and stuff like that when my momma couldn’t. She had to work and she got five other kids, so she couldn’t get us to practice and stuff like that. I had a great community around me, man. I had a good support system. A lot of people wanted to see us win, wanted to see me win.

Curtis: Most highly coveted prospects like you choose to go the private school or prep school route. What went into your decision to stay home and play for Norcom High School, your local public school?

DFS: I wanted my friends to get looks, too. I wanted the college coaches to come see them when they came to our practices. I wanted them to get some notoriety. I just wanted everybody to eat, that’s just the type of person I am. I always said, ‘if you’re good enough, they’re gonna find you.’ And back then it was different; we wanted to play public school. And we still got the opportunities to play against the James McAdoos and the Findlay Preps once we won our first state championship. I ain’t easily influenced, so it wasn’t like my mom and them were trying to get me out the city.

Curtis: After a steady and consistently improving college career that began at Virginia Tech and ultimately Florida, filled with honors like ACC All-Freshman Team, SEC Sixth Man of the Year and 2x Second-team All-SEC, you went undrafted in 2016. How would you say your upbringing and experiences prepared you for adversity and helped you stay the course to earn an opening day roster spot for the Dallas Mavericks after going undrafted?

DFS: My mom used to have this saying, ‘it don’t matter, we gonna always end up on top.’ That was the mentality I always had. I never really got the immediate results I wanted; I always had to work for it. Even in high school, I didn’t play my freshman year. My friends were playing, and I sat on the bench the whole year. I never pointed my fingers at nobody; I always looked in the mirror and worked on my game. That’s exactly what I did. I ain’t feel sorry for myself or nothing, I just started working. And I wanted them to feel my presence whenever I got on the court. I knew whatever [NBA] team I was going to, they weren’t gonna have me there to shoot all the balls. I knew playing defense was probably what was gonna get me on the court. I just wanted my energy to be felt as soon as I stepped on the court. So, when I got to training camp, I felt like I did that.

I didn’t even have the best summer league. I remember sitting in my locker just being appreciative like, ‘man, this might be my last day here.’ D-Will was just smirking at me like, ‘I don’t know rook, this might not.’ But I was just appreciative. C’mon, man, I’m from Portsmouth, Virginia and I got Dirk Nowitzki sitting beside me, bro.

Curtis: Piggybacking off your decision to stay at Norcom in high school, you mentioned you wanting everybody to eat. Now, you’re doing that, literally, with your community service efforts. Can you speak to the inspiration to give back to your community and what that means to you, especially as a Black person coming from where you come from?

DFS: It means a lot to me, man. It wasn’t just my mom, it was the whole community who helped raise me. I grew up in an era when you may see somebody at the store and you’re doing something hard-headed, and they might say, ‘man, chill before I tell your momma.’ The community cared, especially when you’re doing something positive and they know you’re working hard to get out of that situation. They all encouraged me. If they saw me hanging with someone they even thought was a bad influence, they’d pull me to the side and tell me, ‘watch yourself when you’re around him.’ So I always felt like this was bigger than me, especially when I started looking back at it. Even my brother’s friends–when they used to do all the little hard-headed stuff, they’d be like, ‘Doe, stay home tonight.’ So, I just wanted to pay my dues, man. Because any one of those times they could’ve just said ‘come on,’ and that could’ve been it for me. 

But again, my upbringing, too. My mom always gave back, even when we stayed in the projects. It’d be another house full of kids that we’d be passing and we’d be giving them hand-me-downs or vice versa. We were a little older and bigger so we would be giving away our clothes to other kids. My mom always had that family-type feel, you know. She’d feed the whole neighborhood–make a big pot of spaghetti and feed everybody, all of our friends. There’s six of us, so if everybody got two friends, it was a lot [laughing]. So, I just took after my mom. My first year doing my camp, I was on the training camp deal but to everybody else, it was like, ‘he’s on the team and he’s from Portsmouth.’

Curtis: This past holiday season, you got an early Christmas gift–your father was blessed to come home after doing almost 28 years in prison. Even though he was away, he was still a part of your life, so can you speak to your relationship with him?

DFS: When my brother passed, and when I had my first daughter, it made me want to build that relationship with him. Shout out to Coach D, Billy Donovan, who used to always push for me to have that relationship with him. During my redshirt year at Florida after I transferred there, Coach D and my mom thought it was best that I talk to someone about my brother and stuff. So working with them and talking about my life, we came up with the plan of trying to reconnect my relationship with my pops and staying consistent with it. That’s pretty much how it happened.

Curtis: Can you touch on the process of helping him get released?

DFS: When I got to the NBA, Jamahl Mosley, who coaches the Orlando Magic–we were talking and I told him about my dad’s situation and he was like, ‘man, you should hit up Cube (Mark Cuban) and see if he knows someone who could help you with that.’ After I got my first deal (with Dallas), I ended up saying something because I knew I was gonna be there for another three years. Cube got me in contact with Jason Lutin–shout out to him. And Lutin just attacked this thing like a full-court press, man. He dove into it. He hit up his contacts–Jerry Kilgore, shout out to him, too. And once they read the case, they said he should’ve been got out, or at least on his way out. I was able to talk to the parole board last year, probably, like, a week before the trade [to Brooklyn]. It was a lot going on, it was a dope experience for it all to happen and come to fruition. He got here, and the first probably 10 minutes was just a staring contest, just me looking at him, checking him out. My kids are all over him. And that’s who he really wanted to see. Not saying he didn’t want to holla at me, it’s just he wanted to be with his grandkids.

Curtis: Has your relationship with your parents shifted your mindset of fatherhood?

DFS: Of course. Like I said, it was six of us and four of us played Division I basketball. She used to be at three games in one day. She’d go from my game, to my sister’s game, to Old Dominion to see Ben. She’d leave at halftime; but you’re going to hear her voice, you’re going to see her and she’s gonna wave to you when she leaves, you know what I’m saying? She used to try her best, man. That’s who the real GOAT is. My mom was very determined. She didn’t let us make any excuses. Anything that happened at home–once we on the court, we on the court. She helped us with that mentality, and I still use it today. You know, I just never wanted my kids to grow up like I did. I want them to be able to say I was there.

Curtis: When all is said and done, how do you want to be remembered–by the basketball community, by your kids, by Portsmouth?

DFS: I always say God-fearing family fam, but I’m going to elaborate on that a little more. I just want my kids to know their dad loves them and I want them to appreciate life. I try to lead by example because any day this shit can be taken away, at any time. I learned that at an early age with my brother, and hopefully it don’t gotta be to that extent with them. I always try to tell them, ‘get what you can get out of each day.’ As far as the community, I just want to do my part, man. I want them to know that I care, I care about my community, I care about the generation after me. And like I said, it’s bigger than me. If I could change the mindset of one kid each year, then I did my job. I just try to be who I would’ve needed when I was young, or who more of my friends could’ve used when they were younger.

Action photos via Getty Images. Portraits by Marcus Stevens

The post Hoops, Rap and Everything Black: Dorian Finney-Smith Talks Fatherhood, Helping Dad Get Released From Prison and Going Undrafted appeared first on SLAM.

“Every time I get on the floor, I know I’m representing a country, even now in high school and [playing] American ball. I’m still known as the Canadian guard…[I’m] representing something bigger than [myself],” she says.

Swords’ parents, Shelley and Shawn, played basketball at Laurentian University in Ontario, with Shawn continuing to play professionally until he was offered a spot as Laurentian University’s head coach.

Swords credits her parents for introducing both her and her younger sister, Savannah, to basketball early on. “Going to my dad’s practices—that was the way he would babysit us,” she says. Though Swords recognizes that her family had a huge impact on her passion for basketball, her love for the game was something she developed on her own. “It’s a passion and it’s not like it’s not a job, which is something [my parents have] been really keen on putting into our minds,” she continues. “When we finally got the chance to join our first team, it was a no-brainer. Our role models were basketball players.”

After verbally committing to Michigan last May, she’s keeping her eyes on the prize, which right now means leading her Long Island Lutheran basketball team to the top of the rankings.

After her father was offered a position as the associate head coach for the Long Island Nets in August, the Swords family packed up and headed to New York, where the sisters started hooping at Long Island Lutheran High School. “We had no idea about anything New York City coming in from a small town in Northern Ontario,” she says.

Though her end goal has always been following in her father’s footsteps by representing Canada in the Olympics, Syla’s immediate goals are slightly more representative of your ordinary high school senior. “I’m planning on majoring in business [at Michigan]…so I’m just finishing up my essays right now to submit next week,” she says. “That’s been number one on my list.”

When she’s not hooping or working on her Common App, you can find Swords crushing the competition (her family) in games of Catan during family game nights. Because at the end of the day, it’s always been about family. As she enters her last season of playing high school basketball with her sister, Swords reflects on the importance of having family on her side on the court.

“It’s been amazing having a built-in best friend, a built-in training partner,” Syla says. “I always say we’re each other’s biggest competitors, but we’re also each other’s biggest supporters.”

Until her debut at Michigan, Swords is working on taking her game to the next level by becoming more shifty, establishing herself quickly on her first step and improving her reads of the defense. When speaking about any concerns for her collegiate career and beyond, Swords knows it won’t be easy. But Ontario’s very own is no stranger to change.

“Of course, I’m going to fail at different things,” she says, “but I’m just excited to get myself into that environment.” One of Swords role models is Seattle Storm point guard and fellow Canadian, Kia Nurse. “She’s where I want to be in the next 10-15 years. Just growing up, watching her do what she’s done for Team Canada, it’s been really fun. Hopefully I can follow her path.”

Photos by Marcus Stevens.

The post Inside Syla Swords’ Incredible Rise from Ontario, Canada to Long Island Lutheran appeared first on SLAM.

When we spoke by phone in early November, Miller was in the process of finalizing a decision on where he’d play his senior year of high school ball. He starred at Crean Lutheran (CA) High as a sophomore, then transferred to AZ Compass Prep, where he showed out as a junior last season. The Southern California native was expected to be back at Crean Lutheran for his final season, but at press time, he was still weighing his options—including a possible return to Compass Prep.

Wherever he finally ends up this winter, Miller will take his place as one of the top prospects in the class of 2024. And that brings us to his other big pending decision. When we spoke in November, the 6-5, 180-pound combo guard had officially narrowed the options for his post-high school destination and as of November of last year, officially committed to Oregon.

“Wherever I go will be some-where I can play as a freshman, and where the coaching staff will embrace me,” he had told SLAM.

Any coaching staff in its right mind will be happy to welcome Miller, who has used his length, vision, versatility and athleticism to confirm a spot as a national top-50 recruit in the ’24 class. Asked to assess his strengths, he says, “I definitely think of myself as a point guard, so I’d say my passing ability, plus I’m a three-level scorer and I can score at will. I’m also just a good person to be around.” As far as areas of improvement, he’s still working on making the jump from solid defender to “lockdown defender, because I know that’s what keeps you on the court.”

Genetics helped get Miller on the court in the first place, as hoop talent runs in the family. His dad, Vyshonn Miller, better known as ’90s No Limit Records standout Silkk the Shocker, was a solid hooper back in the day, while his uncle Percy “Master P” Miller, famously got an NBA tryout not long after he built No Limit into a southern rap dynasty. He’s also seen cousins Romeo, Hercy and Mercy Miller climb the prep hoops ladder and make it to the college ranks, so he understands better than most the challenges and opportunities in front of him.

Whatever advantages he might have enjoyed given his famous family, Miller comes off like a dude who’s focused on earning his spot—and leaving no doubt that he deserves it. “Not gonna lie, I feel like I’ve been more locked in this year than ever,” he says. “I’m starting to have that feeling like a chip on my shoulder again, because I’m one of those guys that’s gotta show people who I am.” Asked to clarify—does he feel like he simply needs to remind people how good he is, or that he’s still trying to prove he even belongs among the best prospects in the country?—Miller is blunt. “It’s definitely the first one,” he says. “People know I’m like that, but not necessarily day in and day out.”

He’ll have his chance to remind them soon enough. Although he didn’t yet have his senior year destination nailed down when we spoke—presumably that’ll be confirmed by the time you read this—Miller did have a short, clear list of goals to check off before he wraps a stellar high school career. “I’m definitely trying to be an All-American, and just dominate, really,” he says. “That, and just try to become a better person on and off the court.”

Photos by: Atiba Jefferson

The post Meet Vyctorius Miller: the Guard is Ready to Make a Name for Himself at Oregon appeared first on SLAM.