Slam (magazine)

The first issue of SLAM, featuring cover athlete Larry Johnson.

SLAM Magazine is an American basketball magazine that has been in circulation since 1994, and is published by PRIMEDIA. SLAM publishes nine issues a year to its circulation of over 500,000 readers worldwide.

History

SLAM was launched in 1994 as a basketball magazine that combined the sport with hip hop culture at a time when the genre was becoming increasingly popular. Created by editor-in-chief Cory Johnson, its first issue featured a cover story on power forward Larry Johnson of the Charlotte Hornets. Many of the magazines lasting features, such as In Your Face, Slam-a-da-month, Last Shot all began with that first issue. The magazine sports advertising for basketball related products, street wear clothing and hip hop music, and has been credited with helping to market hip hop culture and basketball as one.

Founding editor Cory Johnson left the magazine in 1995 to join Time Warner's nacent hip-hop culture magazine Vibe.

SLAM has published over 90 issues in its history, and has featured the biggest names in American basketball on its cover, in articles, and on its famous SLAMups posters. To date, only one female athlete has ever appeared on the SLAM cover - Chamique Holdsclaw in October 1998. Shaquille O'Neal has appeared on the cover eight times (the most of any player), and Michael Jordan has appeared seven times.

Writers and editors

Editors for SLAM Magazine have included:

• Cory Johnson (founding editor-in-chief)
• Russ Bengtson
• Anna Gebbie
• Tony Gervino
• Scoop Jackson
• Ben Osborne
• "Old" Dave Lewis
• Dennis Page (publisher)
• Susan Price
• Khalid Saalam
• Lang Whitaker
• Ryan Jones

Other notable SLAM writers have been:

• Bonz Malone
• Cory Johnson
• Andy Serwer
• Kevin Powell
• Dan "Young Dave" Amrich
• Vinny Mallozzi
• Russell Shoemaker
• Jon Azpiri
• Michael Bradley
• Jeff Cruz
• Paul Feinberg
• Joe Lombardi
• Arash Markazi
• Anthony McCarron
• Alan Paul
• Tonya Pendleton
• Bonsu Thompson
• Micheal Weinbrab
• Nima Zirrabi

Magazine features

• SLAMADAMONTH — a short article describing a slam dunk accompanied by a photograph of the play. This feature usually features a dunk performed by an NBA player, but has featured college players in the past. The first SLAMADAMONTH (Spring 1994 issue) featured Chris Webber dunking on Charles Barkley.

• NOYZ — a series of one-line jokes commenting on recent basketball events, written anonomously. The first NOYZ column appeared in the March 1995 issue.

• In Your Face — short one-page profiles on NBA, college, female and international players.

• Last Shot— a former back-page column documenting a game-winning shot during a game. This feature was discontinued after the January 2000 issue.

• The SLAM high school diary — In 1994, SLAM began a tradition of choosing a highly talented high school basketball player to keep a monthly diary recording their accomplishments as they moved toward playing college or professional basketball. Since the diary began, 6 of its 11 keepers have played in the NBA. Only LeBron James and Sebastian Telfair were not in their final ("senior") year of high school when they wrote the diary. The following players have been keepers of the SLAM diary:

1. 1995 - Stephon Marbury: NBA All-Star
2. 1996 - Ronnie Fields: CBA player
3. 1997 - Edmund Saunders: won an NCAA Championship with UConn in 1999
4. 1998 - Ray Young: CBA player
5. 1999 - Mike Dunleavy, Jr.: NBA player
6. 2000 - Andre Barrett: NBA player [1]
7. 2001 - Eddy Curry: NBA player
8. 2002 - LeBron James: NBA All-Star
9. 2003 - Sebastian Telfair: NBA player
10. 2004 - Marvin Williams: NBA player; won an NCAA Championship with UNC in 2005
11. 2005 - Eric Devendorf: Syracuse University player
12. 2006 - Thaddeus Young: Mitchell High School, Memphis, TN senior

Front cover listing

See List of SLAM Magazine cover athletes.

Links

• SLAM Online