JERAMI GRANT IS QUICK TO ADMIT that he has chameleon-like characteristics on and off the court. Long before the NBA, Grant knew how to fit in and gel with other players, especially the highly-touted prep stars he called teammates. At perennial powerh

EVERY KID WANTS to rock the freshest kicks, especially at school. But when 12-year-old Arzelle Lewis was bullied for having holes in his sneakers, he found himself stealing drugs from his aunt just to buy the perfect pair. When trying to sell crack c

BILL RUSSELL WAS A TEAM player. I think that’s probably the most important thing to remember about the tall man who won 11 NBA championships, was a 12-time All-Star, five-time MVP and averaged 22.5 rebounds per game for his career. The defensive expe

OVER THE WEEKEND OF SEPTEMBER 3RD, thousands of fans streamed into the house that Michael Jordan built, the United Center in Chicago. DeMar DeRozan wasn’t laced up. There was no game going on. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters were not there to

ON JUNE 30, the night NBA free agency began, a black SUV with tinted windows rolled up to Udonis Haslem’s vacation home in Orlando, FL. “That s**t almost got shot up,” Haslem said on teammate Duncan Robinson’s podcast, The Long Shot. “It’s creeping a

HOOP DREAMS. WE’VE ALL HAD THEM, and I hope yours are still very much alive. The magnetism of the game is undeniable—from the orchestra of sounds on the court to the acrobatics taking place within it. Once you’re introduced to and exposed to the grea

IT WAS ABOUT MIDWAY through the first half of the girls game at the SLAM Summer Classic Vol. 4 when Rucker Park absolutely EXPLODED. We’re talking to the point where you heard it blocks away. What caused the commotion? Hannah Hidalgo hitting an Eastb

“AW, MAN, MY ARMS are really bigger than my body!” Paris. Early September. Sunday morning. The speedlights are flashing nonstop inside a photo studio in the 11th district. Victor Wembanyama acts surprised. He is looking at a picture of himself with h

The reality of being an elite high school senior is pretty different from what it used to be. Much as the advent of social media was a game-changer in terms of exposure and brand-building, the dawn of the NIL era has opened up a new world of opportun

September 15, 2022 Aces 105—Sun 76 Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT Win or go home. If one thing was for certain in Game 3, it was that Connecticut really, really wanted to push the series to a Game 5, and they used playing on their homecourt at Moh

Estonia didn’t stand a chance. Not that they didn’t try—in just their third EuroBasket since 2000, they were coming off a 32-point win over Great Britain. But Great Britain had zero Antetokounmpos and Greece had three and, well, despite power forward

September 11, 2022 Aces 67—Sun 64 Michelob ULTRA Arena, Las Vegas, NV From the moment you set foot inside the Michelob ULTRA Arena, the atmosphere is electric enough to raise the hair on your arms. A sea of fans in black are headed in the same direct

THE FIRST OF HIS NAME. Lord of the skies. Gifted with divine vision, with supernatural recollection. Physically unparalleled. Mentally unprecedented. The lion’s pride, with bark and bite of equal might. The doubted, the hated. But ultimately, the res

WHEREVER THERE’S A HOOP, YOU’LL find Gradey Dick. My dad instilled that in me at a young age. If I haven’t found a place, he’s probably already found five,” he tells SLAM with a laugh. As one of the newest faces on the Kansas Jayhawks roster, Dick ha

September 18, 2022 Aces 78—Sun 71 Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT Going into Game 4, it felt like it really could’ve gone either way, thanks to the momentum Connecticut had gained in Game 3. But then the whistle blew. After getting off to a 16-6 st

LOS ANGELES IS already showing its weatherly excellence only a few minutes after 6:30 a.m. on a Monday in late September. With night finally revealing light, the temperature is hovering in the low 70s. The doors to the L.A. Clippers practice facility

FOR THE LAST 20 years, Kevin Couliau has been searching for the perfect basketball court. The mission has taken the hoops fanatic to some of the most heralded and historic environments in the basketball ecosystem. Capturing the beauty that resides wi

nOT TOO LONG BEFORE New Orleans Pelicans fans started calling him “Grand Theft Alvarado,” Jose Alvarado found himself up against some immeasurable odds. The Brooklyn native was on a two-way deal with the New Orleans Pelicans and wasn’t seeing much ac

THE PLAN WAS TO become an attorney. For Rutgers’ new women’s head coach Coquese Washington, her objective was to play hoops for Notre Dame, and then attend their law school. But, court ambitions of a different sort led her to a distinguished WNBA pla

AS A FIREFIGHTER, it’s Myles Copeland’s job to respond when duty calls. When he drove four and a half hours from Toledo, OH, to Jamestown, NY, for a minor league playoff game over the summer, he expected to enjoy his time off. But then one of the ref

NOT EVERYONE KNOWS what it takes to get to the next level, let alone to the highest level of a sport. But Dorell Wright does. Before he became head coach at Donda Academy, the former NBA small forward was a first-round pick in the ’04 Draft straight

September 13, 2022 Aces 85—Sun 71 Michelob ULTRA Arena, Las Vegas, NV Game 1 gave the impression that this was going to be a back-and-forth series, but Game 2 proved the opposite. The Aces came out hungry in the first quarter and really never looked

USA BASKETBALL held its impactful Women in the Game Conference in September, with the goal of inspiring high school girls, female college students and young professional women who want to pursue a career in sports. It was a huge success, in no small

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HE FIRST GOT A glimpse of what being a professional was like during the draft process. Tari Eason, a 6-8 forward from Seattle, WA, worked out with about 10 teams before being selected 17th overall by the Houston Rockets. The traveling from city to ci