How SLAM magazine went from NBA 'outcast' to a Hall of Fame publication in 30 years

At a latest celebration, members of SLAM journal’s employees, previous and current over the past 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 unattainable again in Might 1994, when the primary problem — that includes Larry Johnson on the duvet — was launched.

Thirty years in the past, SLAM was in contrast to something in fashionable journalism. It didn’t play by conventional guidelines. Profanity in publication was not off-limits. The writers and editors didn’t faux to be neutral.

“‘Outcast’ is an efficient phrase for us,” stated 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 fashion of many gamers. The shorts have been longer and baggier. Pregame music playlists have been extra prone to embrace Wu-Tang Clan or Snoop Dogg as an alternative of R&B crooners like Jeffrey Osborne or Luther Vandross. Tattoos grew to become as frequent 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 pictures and elegance of storytelling linked with a youthful viewers that cared in regards to the footwear gamers wore simply as a lot as the ultimate rating of video games.

The outcome? Greater than 300 million magazines have been offered since 1994. There have been 132 covers to function a Corridor of Famer.

SLAM didn’t act like conventional media — nor did it wish to be. It resonated a lot that others finally 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 celebration trying in, and we simply instructed folks the celebration sucked,” Gervino stated. “That’s why we have been on the skin. We received into it, then we kind of roughed it up a bit.”

Web page, along with being a giant sports activities fan, has an enormous appreciation for music. He was the writer of Guitar World journal when he grew to become 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 targeted on rap, as there have been lots available on the market. What he hadn’t seen was a publication that merged tradition and sports activities.

“There have been folks everywhere in the world, younger youngsters that have been into hip-hop, into basketball,” Web page stated. “However Sports activities Illustrated, Avenue & Smith didn’t communicate to them. After we got here out, we spoke to them.”

Followers accepted SLAM — after which the gamers grew to become followers. The journal covers grew to become well-liked. 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 relatively than his common braids, SLAM struck a nerve.

“We have been simply residing it, and we wrote about basketball and referred to hip-hop music and lyrics. This was who we have been,” Web page stated. “We weren’t a company publishing home, so we have been simply writing the journal for ourselves.

“Actually, I had no concept there have been that many individuals on the earth that will perceive this and settle for it and actually admire it.”

Thirty years after its introduction, SLAM was honored with one among basketball’s most prestigious media awards. Success, nonetheless, won’t have labored with out the liberty the employees was given. That meant nontraditional journalism ways resembling giving area 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,” stated 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 feel that’s why it resonated.

“For higher or worse, there wasn’t plenty 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 fashion in its early days greater than Robert “Scoop” Jackson.

“An important individual in SLAM historical past is Scoop,” Gervino stated. “He actually launched a era of writers and youngsters who stated, ‘I can do this now.’”

Robert “Scoop” Jackson was probably the most revered journalists throughout SLAM’s early days. (David Zalubowski / Related Press)

Jackson’s distinctive fashion of reporting allowed him to attach with NBA gamers in a method that was totally 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 time league whereas nonetheless at Georgetown.

Jackson, who’s now a columnist for the Chicago Solar-Occasions, needed to inform in-depth tales. He needed to write down about Chicago’s Ben Wilson, the Simeon Excessive Faculty prospect thought to be the highest highschool participant in America who was shot and died in November 1984.

Editors at SLAM weren’t aware of Wilson’s story. That gave Jackson extra urgency to inform it — even when it occurred practically 10 years after Wilson’s demise.

“We did a human curiosity story that was rooted within the tradition of basketball and what the way forward for basketball might have been,” Jackson stated. “However that way forward for basketball by no means received an opportunity to reside. To me, when you go there, that’s the muse of the way you’re going to cope with telling the story in regards to the tradition of basketball.”

Jackson was a staple at SLAM for 11 years. Although an NBA presence usually 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 stated. “He understood the sport of basketball wasn’t simply in regards to 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 in regards to 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 Finest 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 could be the coach of the reigning ladies’s school basketball champion South Carolina Gamecocks. Jackson merely frolicked together 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 came about June 21, 1997). As an alternative, the story was in regards to the males she performed in opposition to rising up and what the town of Philadelphia meant to her.

“It had nothing to do together with her skilled profession, nothing to do actually with what she did at Virginia,” Jackson stated. “We instructed the ’hood story of Daybreak Staley.”

The significance of Iverson can’t be understated. Jackson stated 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 gained Large East Defensive Participant of the Yr as a freshman whereas averaging 20.4 factors.

A number of basketball followers weren’t aware of Iverson as a participant. Some had heard about him as a prep star who was arrested throughout a struggle at a bowling alley. Jackson believed it was necessary to write 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 accountability was telling the cultural aspect of basketball first, after which can it connect with the NBA second,” Jackson stated. “But it surely wasn’t simply Iverson. Although his identify gave it prominence, it was us doing the story.”

Jackson stated Michael Jordan was additionally necessary to SLAM. Web page needed Jordan to be on the duvet of the primary version, however he retired after the 1993 season. As an alternative, the duvet went to Johnson.

Jackson stated SLAM coated Jordan’s return to the league primarily based 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 taking part in 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 instructed Jordan tales in another way than anyone else. None of our Jordan tales have been like something anyone else was writing,” Jackson stated. “We have been in a position to construct a relationship with him, and he felt comfy with us in a method that he didn’t really feel with anyone else.

“We talked to him about issues coping with simply his strategy to the sport of basketball and his contribution to the sport of basketball from a cultural perspective. So, I feel 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 bit of greater than 20 years outdated on the time, and by the Nineteen Nineties, it was taking part in by its personal guidelines. From trend to subject material, the music pushed a brand new tradition ahead.

The writers at SLAM did the identical. Web page credit Jackson for being a giant 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 coated, Jackson was part of a era that grew up on hip-hop, and he was considering telling gamers’ tales another way.

“He was a younger, nice author, and he understood (the gamers) as an individual,” Web page stated. “We have been inside out versus making an attempt to be goal, passing judgment, which journalism can do. We have been type of one among them. It’s actually not that difficult or that deep, trying again.”

SLAM’s tradition was heightened with the help of visuals.

The journal has produced a few of the most unforgettable cowl images in basketball. One cause the journal continues to be printed is the covers that turn out to be T-shirts. Web page stated 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 stated he doesn’t bear in mind all of the SLAM covers he was featured in, however when proven a number of, one caught his consideration.

“I do not forget that one,” he stated, figuring out the September 2000 problem 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 identify of one among O’Neal’s favourite rappers: The Infamous B.I.G.

“This one is my favourite,” he stated.

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 identify 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 take a look at, however a welcomed one.

“So far as execution, they actually set me free,” Mannion stated. “I liked working with this degree of athletes. … I all the time type of loved (SLAM shoots), however I used to be there to inform an genuine story, too.”

A type of alternatives was capturing Chamique Holdsclaw when she was a star on the College of Tennessee. Holdsclaw was the primary lady to grace the duvet of SLAM.

Holdsclaw grew to become a fan of the journal as a preps star at Christ the King Excessive Faculty in New York. After she dominated the school circuit, SLAM requested her whether or not she can be the primary lady to play within the NBA.

The Tennessee standout then was instructed 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 sporting a New York Knicks uniform for SLAM’s September 1998 problem — is one she’s nonetheless requested to autograph.

“(When) I received there, it was, like, the dopest photograph shoot that I’ve ever carried out,” Holdsclaw stated. “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 fashion.

“I checked out that Knicks jersey, and I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is good,’” she stated.

One among 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 stated that class, highlighted by Iverson and Bryant, introduced a hip-hop mindset to the NBA.

“You all the time hear this narrative: Rappers wish to be basketball gamers; basketball gamers wish to be rappers,” Wallace stated. “However that was due to us and our period, what we ushered in. They weren’t saying that in regards to 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 stated the significance of sneakers in SLAM’s endurance can’t be overstated. It’s now frequent for footwear to obtain media consideration. That wasn’t all the time the case.

Shoe firms acknowledged that, too. Their assist through adverts helped hold issues afloat. Reebok and Foot Locker have been among the many early firms that supported with promoting.

SLAM finally would dedicate complete points to footwear, KICKS. Now, some journalists completely cowl footwear.

“We knew the largest sneaker firms on the earth have been going to assist a difficulty each single month,” Osborne stated. “That simply took a bit of little bit of weight off. They weren’t ranging from scratch each month to get folks to assist it. I feel that, that made us cowl sneakers extra. Followers preferred that much more as a result of we have been doing it in another way than different locations.”

SLAM has advanced within the social media period by persevering with to lean into tradition. Style is a giant 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 stated the social media accounts and the duvet T-shirts have been key in retaining the journal’s place within the basketball tradition.

Whilst gamers submit their very own images on social media, one thing nonetheless resonates with them a couple of cowl shoot for {a magazine}. For gamers like Holdsclaw, Cooper Flagg and Zion Williamson, showing in SLAM as prep phenoms is totally different.

“Everybody desires to be on a canopy, as a result of anybody can submit a photograph of themselves,” Figman stated. “Any basketball participant can say, ‘Right here’s what I seem 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.

In the long run, the outcasts have been invited to the celebration. And they are going to be acknowledged by partygoers on the Corridor of Fame without end.

(High photograph: Bob Blanchard / SLAM)