Slam

I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, but I found the end of the 2020-21 NBA season thoroughly enjoyable. Wasn’t it nice to see four fresh teams in the Conference Finals instead of the usual suspects? I’d had enough of the steady stream of Warriors, Spurs and Heat

BASKETBALL IS often used as a form of self expression. There are no shields or helmets like other sports, therefore each team is elevated for the world to see. Jules Gutierrez has been cutting Jayson Tatum’s hair since he was a little boy. When asked

AS THE ISLAMIC holy month of Ramadan came to a close in early May, a number of NBA players were participating in its daily fasting, which entails refraining from any food or drink (yes, water included) from the time of dawn until sunset for 30 days.

IN FEBRUARY OF ’91, A a cultural revolution of baggy shorts, bald heads and black socks stormed onto the collegiate basketball scene. Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King made up one of the greatest recruiting classes in

THE FUTURE IS always a question mark. Especially in the last year, as everyone around the world faced an unprecedented pandemic, we all wondered what was in store for ourselves, our families, our friends. The tricky thing about our future, and our de

If you reduce Kawhi Leonard to his large-handed essence, what he is more than anything is a destroyer—of offenses, of defenses, of dreams. He is, for those of a literary (or Coen brothers) bent, the basketball equivalent of Cormac McCarthy’s Anton Ch

MAKING SPACE Jam: A New Legacy was never going to be an easy task. The first Space Jam wasn’t just an entertaining flick back in ’96; it was, and still is, an iconic movie that is rooted in the cultural fabric of the basketball world. Like it or not,

DESTINY HAS A funny way of finding you. When you least expect it, you look around and realize that everything you’ve gone through has led you to this point. That this moment in time is what was meant for you. Destiny is how one could describe Candace

JA MORANT ADMITS that, at first, he was a bit nervous to have an entire documentary about his life. Although he had watched plenty of docs before and knew what they entailed, he still didn’t know what to expect. It’s a feeling that’s understandable.

THERE’S A SERENE ambience flowing throughout the third floor of the Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis, home to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx’s state-of-the-art practice facility. The Wolves’ HQ is quiet and empty on this Monday afterno

IT’S BEEN A NOMADIC existence for Jonathan Kuminga since he came to the United States from his native Congo five years ago. Three high schools in three states in three years, then, after reclassifying from the 2021 high school class to 2020, a pandem

A WEEK OR SO AFTER his SLAM interview, Baylor Bears star Davion Mitchell was planning a visit to his South Georgia hometown to surprise his mother for her birthday. We didn’t follow up to see how shocked his mom was, but knowing what we do about Mitc

JEREMY LIN You were a McDonald’s All American and played at Duke, and then coached me for four years at Harvard. Now you’re the head coach at Howard, doing big things. KENNY BLAKENEY It’s such a pleasure to have this conversation. You’re one of the s

FOR A SECOND, LET me talk about Brooklyn. The Brooklyn drill scene is contradictory, just like Brooklyn is. Equal parts insular and loud. Earnest and darkly comedic. Full of laughter, life and deep pain from losing your neighborhood and being alone i

IT’S SHOWTIME FOR Michael Porter Jr, as the Denver Nuggets’ youngest star emerged as a go-to player during the franchise’s most promising postseason journey since 2009. After teammate Jamal Murray suffered an unfortunate season-ending injury back in

AT THE AGE OF 3, Josh Giddey sat in the bleachers of John Cain Arena watching his father, Warrick, coach as an assistant for the Melbourne Tigers. Warrick’s retired Tigers jersey hangs in the rafters, bearing witness to the journey Josh has taken, fr

HE WAS ONLY 7 years old when it hit him; the moment he realized that there was more to it than his head could even wrap around at such a young age. Cam Thomas had seen enough to arrive at the conclusion that he had what it took—the talent, the skills

6-9, PF O’DEA HIGH (SEATTLE, WA) DUKE HIGH LEVEL ATHLETES run in Paolo Banchero’s bloodlines. His mother, Rhonda, played college basketball at Washington—by the time she finished her career with the Huskies, she was the program’s all-time leading sco

LONG BEFORE the Thunder touched down in Oklahoma City, before KD, Brodie, and the Beard ever donned the blue and orange, it was Chris Paul who was the face of OKC sports. Just two months after the New Orleans Hornets made the 6-1, All-American point

IT’S A HOT AND STICKY summer morning in Bethesda, MD, where No. 1 point guard in the class of 2022 Kiki Rice is getting ready for her first workout of the day. It’s only 10 am and already the cicadas are loudly overtaking the calmness of the morning,

6-1, G NOBLE & GREENOUGH SCHOOL (MILTON, MA) UCONN CAROLINE DUCHARME WAS ONE of the best success stories of the class of 2021. The 6-1 guard has one of the best three-point shots out there and is extremely smart, seeing the court better than most. Sh

FIRST TEAM JORDAN CLARKSON FIRST TEAM FRANK JACKSON FIRST TEAM JAYSON TATUM FIRST TEAM RUSSELL WESTBROOK FIRST TEAM KYLE KUZMA SECOND TEAM ERGE IBAKA SECOND TEAM SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER SECOND TEAM PJ TUCKER SECOND TEAM CHRIS PAUL SECOND TEAM DEV IN

ALL THAT GLITTERS in South Beach jumps from the gleam of the sun-soaked water during the day to the glare of the spotlight at night. Neons and pastels burst their way through drinks, bar signs and clothing. It’s a place and it’s a state of mind, an o

HE’S TRYING TO hide his feelings, but it’s not working. “I’m just excited, I’m excited,” Trae Young said through a smile that he very unsuccessfully tried to mask. “I’m thinking about the reaction of everybody and how people are gonna love this shoe.

SLAM 25 April 1998 WE CAN’T COUNT on much these days, but in SLAM’s early years you could count on baggy shorts, Shawn Bradley cameos and some beautifully wild cover lines. Issue 25 featured (almost) all of these elements, and while the “Champs by 20

OCTOBER 23, 1996 ■