At a latest celebration, members of SLAM journal’s employees, previous and current during the last 30-plus years, couldn’t consider it.
The Corridor of Fame. Actually? SLAM within the Corridor of Fame?
Founder Dennis Web page and the publication have been honored by the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame with the Curt Gowdy Transformative Media Award throughout a ceremony in August. To some, this appeared unimaginable again in Could 1994, when the primary difficulty — that includes Larry Johnson on the duvet — was launched.
Thirty years in the past, SLAM was in contrast to something in trendy journalism. It didn’t play by conventional guidelines. Profanity in publication was not off-limits. The writers and editors didn’t fake to be neutral.
“‘Outcast’ is an efficient phrase for us,” mentioned Tony Gervino, the journal’s first editor-in-chief who now works at Tidal as govt vice chairman and editor-in-chief.
SLAM was a part of a tradition shift that personified a time when the NBA was altering, a time when hip-hop started crafting the model of many gamers. The shorts have been longer and baggier. Pregame music playlists have been extra more likely to embody Wu-Tang Clan or Snoop Dogg as an alternative of R&B crooners like Jeffrey Osborne or Luther Vandross. Tattoos turned as widespread as high-top footwear.
And there was SLAM, one thing of a disruptor itself by championing the voice of the fan. Impressed by hip-hop journal The Supply, SLAM’s vibrant images and elegance of storytelling related with a youthful viewers that cared concerning the footwear gamers wore simply as a lot as the ultimate rating of video games.
The consequence? Greater than 300 million magazines have been bought since 1994. There have been 132 covers to characteristic a Corridor of Famer.
SLAM journal’s manufacturing stats are showcased on the thirtieth anniversary exhibit on the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame. (Bob Blanchard / SLAM)
SLAM didn’t act like conventional media — nor did it wish to be. It resonated a lot that others ultimately tried to emulate it. It was fairly the shift, contemplating early on the New York Metropolis publication had bother getting media credentials for NBA protection.
“We have been actually on the skin of the social gathering wanting in, and we simply advised individuals the social gathering sucked,” Gervino mentioned. “That’s why we have been on the skin. We obtained into it, then we type of roughed it up a bit.”
Web page, along with being an enormous sports activities fan, has an enormous appreciation for music. He was the writer of Guitar World journal when he turned impressed at how The Supply had captured the eye of the hip-hop era.
Web page believed the world didn’t want one other journal centered on rap, as there have been loads in the marketplace. What he hadn’t seen was a publication that merged tradition and sports activities.
“There have been individuals everywhere in the world, younger children that have been into hip-hop, into basketball,” Web page mentioned. “However Sports activities Illustrated, Avenue & Smith didn’t converse to them. Once we got here out, we spoke to them.”
Followers accepted SLAM — after which the gamers turned followers. The journal covers turned widespread. Whether or not it was Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury showcasing their lavish jewellery or Allen Iverson getting featured in his Sixers jersey along with his hair in an Afro reasonably than his regular braids, SLAM struck a nerve.
“We have been simply dwelling it, and we wrote about basketball and referred to hip-hop music and lyrics. This was who we have been,” Web page mentioned. “We weren’t a company publishing home, so we have been simply writing the journal for ourselves.
“Actually, I had no thought there have been that many individuals on this planet that might perceive this and settle for it and actually recognize it.”
Thirty years after its introduction, SLAM was honored with considered one of basketball’s most prestigious media awards. Success, nevertheless, may not have labored with out the liberty the employees was given. That meant nontraditional journalism techniques equivalent to giving house to the sneaker world, that includes participant diaries and serving as a method to attach basketball followers globally earlier than the web.
It led to partaking content material.
“To start with, we didn’t know any higher,” mentioned former SLAM author and editor Lang Whitaker, who has labored for the NBA and GQ journal and presently works for the Memphis Grizzlies. “We have been simply making stuff that we thought was cool, and I believe that’s why it resonated.
“For higher or worse, there wasn’t a number of oversight. No person was telling us what to be like. Dennis simply allow us to do our factor and allow us to type of rock.”
No author personified the SLAM model in its early days greater than Robert “Scoop” Jackson.
“Crucial individual in SLAM historical past is Scoop,” Gervino mentioned. “He actually launched a era of writers and youngsters who mentioned, ‘I can do this now.’”
Robert “Scoop” Jackson was one of the vital revered journalists throughout SLAM’s early days. (David Zalubowski / Related Press)
Jackson’s distinctive model of reporting allowed him to attach with NBA gamers in a means that was completely different but welcomed. The Chicago native was nearer to the gamers’ ages, and he had a watch for expertise and traits. He wrote about Iverson being the way forward for basketball earlier than he was within the NBA after watching Iverson play in a summer season league whereas nonetheless at Georgetown.
Jackson, who’s now a columnist for the Chicago Solar-Instances, needed to inform in-depth tales. He needed to jot down about Chicago’s Ben Wilson, the Simeon Excessive College prospect thought to be the highest highschool participant in America who was shot and died in November 1984.
Editors at SLAM weren’t conversant in Wilson’s story. That gave Jackson extra urgency to inform it — even when it occurred practically 10 years after Wilson’s dying.
“We did a human curiosity story that was rooted within the tradition of basketball and what the way forward for basketball may have been,” Jackson mentioned. “However that way forward for basketball by no means obtained an opportunity to stay. To me, when you go there, that’s the muse of the way you’re going to cope with telling the story concerning the tradition of basketball.”
Jackson was a staple at SLAM for 11 years. Although an NBA presence typically made the duvet of most points, tales like Wilson’s have been the soul of the publication.
“Tony and I checked out Dennis as that White man who actually understood Black tradition,” Jackson mentioned. “He understood the sport of basketball wasn’t simply concerning the NBA.”
That mindset led SLAM to take an opportunity on writing about Iverson earlier than he made it to the NBA. It additionally allowed them to lean extra into writing concerning the tradition and way of life of these in basketball, such because the story of streetball legend Rafer Alston, who, whereas at Fresno State, was featured within the journal as “The Greatest Level Guard within the World.” It additionally meant discovering highschool standouts and profiling ladies who have been stars within the sport.
One story Jackson fondly recollects is a 1997 profile of Daybreak Staley, the previous star level guard at Virginia, six-time WNBA All-Star and three-time Olympic gold medalist who now’s the coach of the reigning ladies’s school basketball champion South Carolina Gamecocks. Jackson merely frolicked along with her in her native Philadelphia, visiting her outdated neighborhood and the courts she performed on whereas studying extra about her as an individual.
This piece wasn’t about Staley’s time with Group USA, and the WNBA hadn’t formally began (the primary WNBA sport occurred June 21, 1997). As a substitute, the story was concerning the males she performed in opposition to rising up and what the town of Philadelphia meant to her.
“It had nothing to do along with her skilled profession, nothing to do actually with what she did at Virginia,” Jackson mentioned. “We advised the ’hood story of Daybreak Staley.”
The significance of Iverson can’t be understated. Jackson mentioned he and Web page disagreed on what to do with Iverson. On the time, a non-NBA participant had not graced the duvet. Iverson nonetheless was at Georgetown however had received Massive East Defensive Participant of the 12 months as a freshman whereas averaging 20.4 factors.
A variety of basketball followers weren’t conversant in Iverson as a participant. Some had heard about him as a prep star who was arrested throughout a battle at a bowling alley. Jackson believed it was essential to jot down about who Iverson was and his basketball journey, not simply what had made headlines off the court docket.
“A part of the muse of our duty was telling the cultural aspect of basketball first, after which can it hook up with the NBA second,” Jackson mentioned. “However it wasn’t simply Iverson. Although his title gave it prominence, it was us doing the story.”
Jackson mentioned Michael Jordan was additionally essential to SLAM. Web page needed Jordan to be on the duvet of the primary version, however he retired after the 1993 season. As a substitute, the duvet went to Johnson.
Jackson mentioned SLAM lined Jordan’s return to the league based mostly on what he meant to the tradition of basketball. It additionally helped that Jordan wasn’t keen on Sports activities Illustrated, which had famously used its cowl to inform him to surrender enjoying baseball.
Jordan opened as much as Ahmad Rashad from NBC, however the community was nonetheless a part of the NBA’s media machine.
“We have been advised Jordan tales in a different way than anyone else. None of our Jordan tales have been like something anyone else was writing,” Jackson mentioned. “We have been in a position to construct a relationship with him, and he felt comfy with us in a means that he didn’t really feel with anyone else.
“We talked to him about issues coping with simply his method to the sport of basketball and his contribution to the sport of basketball from a cultural perspective. So, I believe that carried as a lot weight as our journalistic relationship with Allen Iverson.”
Jordan’s first SLAM cowl was in July 1995. He ended up doing 13 covers within the journal’s 30 years — together with three of the primary 19 points.
Hip-hop was a little bit greater than 20 years outdated on the time, and by the Nineteen Nineties, it was enjoying by its personal guidelines. From vogue to material, the music pushed a brand new tradition ahead.
The writers at SLAM did the identical. Web page credit Jackson for being an enormous a part of SLAM’s emergence. Jackson was a younger Black author in locker rooms, and for some gamers, that wasn’t the norm. Like most of the gamers he lined, Jackson was part of a era that grew up on hip-hop, and he was considering telling gamers’ tales differently.
“He was a younger, nice author, and he understood (the gamers) as an individual,” Web page mentioned. “We have been inside out versus attempting to be goal, passing judgment, which journalism can do. We have been type of considered one of them. It’s actually not that sophisticated or that deep, wanting again.”
SLAM’s tradition was heightened with the help of visuals.
The journal has produced among the most unforgettable cowl pictures in basketball. One motive the journal continues to be printed is the covers that turn into T-shirts. Web page mentioned SLAM had a cope with clothes model Mitchell & Ness that allowed it to make T-shirts out of sure journal covers.
The covers, many with hip-hop references, have been memorable for gamers. NBA Corridor of Famer Shaquille O’Neal mentioned he doesn’t keep in mind all of the SLAM covers he was featured in, however when proven just a few, one caught his consideration.
“I keep in mind that one,” he mentioned, figuring out the September 2000 difficulty that had “Victorious BIG” within the background. It celebrated O’Neal’s first championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The basketball connection is obvious, however the title is also a play off the title of considered one of O’Neal’s favourite rappers: The Infamous B.I.G.
“This one is my favourite,” he mentioned.
SLAM didn’t flip to conventional basketball photographers for its covers. It went to professionals like Atiba Jefferson, who has a background in skateboarding. It additionally went to Jonathan Mannion, who made his title as a photographer within the music trade.
Mannion has shot album covers for a number of hip-hop and R&B stars, together with Jay-Z, DMX, DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, E-40 and Aaliyah. Working with SLAM was a brand new check, however a welcomed one.
“So far as execution, they actually set me free,” Mannion mentioned. “I cherished working with this degree of athletes. … I at all times type of loved (SLAM shoots), however I used to be there to inform an genuine story, too.”
A type of alternatives was taking pictures Chamique Holdsclaw when she was a star on the College of Tennessee. Holdsclaw was the primary girl to grace the duvet of SLAM.
Holdsclaw turned a fan of the journal as a preps star at Christ the King Excessive College in New York. After she dominated the school circuit, SLAM requested her whether or not she can be the primary girl to play within the NBA.
The Tennessee standout then was advised to return to New York, the place Mannion — whom she dubbed “the Hip-Hop Photographer” — can be behind the digital camera.
Holdsclaw’s groundbreaking cowl — her carrying a New York Knicks uniform for SLAM’s September 1998 difficulty — is one she’s nonetheless requested to autograph.
“(When) I obtained there, it was, like, the dopest photograph shoot that I’ve ever accomplished,” Holdsclaw mentioned. “Jonathan was simply developing with concepts. He was like, ‘They need you to put on this.’”
Holdsclaw’s cowl and photograph shoot captured a lot that outlined SLAM. It was edgy and forward-thinking. Even her stance and equipment have been hip-hop in model.
“I checked out that Knicks jersey, and I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is good,’” she mentioned.
One in every of SLAM’s hottest covers is the Class of 1996 double cowl that featured rookies from the ’96 NBA Draft class. Future Corridor of Famers Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen and Steve Nash are a part of that crew, together with future All-Stars like Marbury and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
Former Syracuse star John Wallace was a rookie with the Knicks through the 1996-97 NBA season. He mentioned that class, highlighted by Iverson and Bryant, introduced a hip-hop mindset to the NBA.
“You at all times hear this narrative: Rappers wish to be basketball gamers; basketball gamers wish to be rappers,” Wallace mentioned. “However that was due to us and our period, what we ushered in. They weren’t saying that concerning the Michael Jordan (period) guys. They weren’t listening to rap and hip-hop like we have been.”
Ben Osborne labored at SLAM for greater than 18 years, the final 10 as editor-in-chief. He mentioned the significance of sneakers in SLAM’s endurance can’t be overstated. It’s now widespread for footwear to obtain media consideration. That wasn’t at all times the case.
Shoe corporations acknowledged that, too. Their assist through advertisements helped hold issues afloat. Reebok and Foot Locker have been among the many early corporations that supported with promoting.
SLAM ultimately would dedicate whole points to footwear, KICKS. Now, some journalists solely cowl footwear.
“We knew the most important sneaker corporations on this planet have been going to assist a problem each single month,” Osborne mentioned. “That simply took a little bit little bit of weight off. They weren’t ranging from scratch each month to get individuals to assist it. I believe that, that made us cowl sneakers extra. Followers preferred that much more as a result of we have been doing it in a different way than different locations.”
SLAM has developed within the social media period by persevering with to lean into tradition. Style is an enormous a part of that. SLAM has an Instagram account, LeagueFits, which has greater than 1 million followers.
SLAM has seen important development in its 30 years of existence. The Corridor of Fame exhibit serves as proof. (Bob Blanchard / SLAM)
Adam Figman began at SLAM as an intern in 2010. He’s now a former editor-in-chief and chief content material officer who took over as the corporate’s CEO in April. He mentioned the social media accounts and the duvet T-shirts have been key in conserving the journal’s place within the basketball tradition.
Whilst gamers submit their very own pictures on social media, one thing nonetheless resonates with them a few cowl shoot for {a magazine}. For gamers like Holdsclaw, Cooper Flagg and Zion Williamson, showing in SLAM as prep phenoms is completely different.
“Everybody desires to be on a canopy, as a result of anybody can submit a photograph of themselves,” Figman mentioned. “Any basketball participant can say, ‘Right here’s what I appear like. Right here’s a cool photograph of me.’ However a canopy is a particular second. It’s a stamp, and a SLAM stamp, to me, is validation. We solely achieve this many covers, so it means one thing particular.”
SLAM’s recognition by the Corridor of Fame is an accomplishment for all who labored on the journal. It’s an honor that reveals how impactful SLAM has been. All say the second stays surreal.
Ultimately, the outcasts have been invited to the social gathering. And they are going to be acknowledged by partygoers on the Corridor of Fame eternally.
(Prime photograph: Bob Blanchard / SLAM)
