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I think about history a lot. You know, the context for everything we do, the stuff that happened that blazed the path that all of us walk along, all of that. Within the SLAM universe, that refers to 27+ years of issues and editors, stories and writer

These kids are good for basketball. uber-talented, uber-personalities. The future. Chad Swecker via Twitter Lord. Please, let me receive this Paige & Azzi issue of SLAM magazine unmarked. No rips. No water marks. This issue and my Kobe issue collecti

SAM JONES, THE great Boston Celtics guard, died recently at age 88. It always seemed cool to me that the Celtics championship dynasty of the late 1950s and 1960s had two unrelated guards named Jones—Sam and KC—for much of its run. KC Jones died in 20

As told to Alex Squadron WITH OVER A hundred players sidelined due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols in December, a historic number of G Leaguers were called up to the NBA this season. Zylan Cheatham, a 6-8 forward from the Birmingham Squadron,

THE BAR HAS BEEN high—always—for DiJonai Carrington. You could even say she’s been destined to play in the big leagues since day one. Her entire family—both parents and both siblings—played Division I sports. Her dad, Darren, went on to play eight se

CHRIS DUARTE remembers everything about draft night. The matching maroon suits he and his son Christopher Jr wore, the photo shoots, the interviews—these memories still play so vividly in his mind. No matter the moment, Duarte is always paying attent

BY DESIGN, NBA All-Star Weekend showcases the best of the game’s present. But in 1997, the city of Cleveland hosted an ASG weekend that was uniquely focused on the League’s past and future. The weekend headline in ’97 was a celebration of the then-re

If you were to break down every single SLAMADAMONTH in SLAM history, you could divide them into three basic elements: the setup, the dunk and the reaction. Sure, you can break them down even further, in terms of who is dunking on whom, the situation,

BY NOW YOU’VE likely heard of NFTs, and maybe even seen that a few hoopers have dabbled in various projects. But no project has taken the NBA by storm quite like Rumble Kong. The Rumble Kong League features a collection of 10,000 programmatically des

There are two sides to Kahleah Copper. That becomes clear the minute you get on the phone with her. The Chicago Sky forward’s voice is more soft-spoken as she reflects on how she grinded her way to becoming an All-Star for the first time, a WNBA Cham

“THIS WAS JUST the beginning of me just having to prove myself. Prove my intelligence.” Chicago Sky head coach James Wade has said these words before—he powerfully delivered them after the Sky won its first-ever WNBA championship title. When he’s ask

DREW TIMME JOINS THE Zoom call from his apartment in Spokane, WA. We’re talking about his favorite players—the guys who have inspired him, the ones he’s modeled his game after and whose careers he’d love to emulate. The Gonzaga big man grew up in sub

THE CHICAGO BULLS have a legitimate shot at winning the NBA championship this season. For the first time in a decade, you can read that sentence with a straight face. And yet, coming into the 2021-22 season, talking heads pegged the Bulls as play-in

Most of us knew each other from Instagram and playing against each other,” says Jalen Hooks. The four-star forward is sitting beside a few of his newfound teammates—Jahki Howard, Chuck Bailey and Braeden Moore—explaining how exactly they all ended up

THERE’S NO MYTH OR magic to Evan Mobley’s game. He just does what he does. After sweeping nearly every postseason conference award during his lone-season at USC, including Pac-12 Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Ye

SLAM: How did you get into art? SICKPENCIL: Art was just something I always did. My grandmother started me, and its funny when I look back, it seems like I just could not let it go. SLAM: Do you have a favorite project? SP: I think my Nipsey [Hussle]

KNOW THIS: IF THE status quo had held at Baylor and NaLyssa Smith completed her college career playing for Kim Mulkey instead of Nicki Collen, Smith was still destined to hear her name called early on in April at the WNBA Draft. Smith is a 6-2 forwar

ON THE FIRST DAY OF basketball tryouts, half of the school showed up. Kenneth Miller, the boys coach, assessed the assembled crowd of 50 freshmen. Some of the 13-to-15-year-olds in front of him looked old enough to vote. Others didn’t look tall enoug

BE YOURSELF, EVEN IF that means being misunderstood. Perhaps no two NBA players have embodied those eight words more than Dennis Rodman and Allen Iverson. Throughout their respective careers, Rodman and AI were always unapologetically themselves—both

GO TO DYCKMAN OR West 4th or Gersh on a Saturday afternoon and watch some pickup basketball. The energy, passion and drive that you see isn’t common in parks across the globe—it’s a New York thing. Queens native and celebrity jeweler Greg Yuna knows

WE HOPE WHEN you’re discussing the class of 2022 women’s college basketball recruiting landscape, the word stacked is the first thing out of your mouth. Top to bottom, the list is loaded with talents like Lauren Betts (Stanford), Janiah Barker (Georg

BASKETBALL RUNS IN Dereck Lively’s blood. It just took him a while to feel the game coursing through his veins. “At first, he didn’t even want to play sports,” his mother, Kathy Drysdale, says. A 1,000-point scorer in her college days at Penn State w

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BRADLEY BEAL can say a whole lot without saying anything. Communication comes on his time, be it his jumper or his art. BRADLEY BEAL IS A basketball player. Simple enough. The three All-Star games, the two seasons of averaging 30-plus points and all