SLAM Magazine is an American basketball magazine in circulation since 1994, published by Source Interlink.
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. It was founded by publisher Dennis Page at Harris Publications, and he hired Cory Johnson to be the first Editor in Chief. Its first issue had a cover story on Larry Johnson of the Charlotte Hornets (written by future Fortune editor Andrew Serwer) and a feature on University of California freshman Jason Kidd. Many of the magazine's lasting features, such as In Your Face, Slam-a-da-month, and Last Shot all began with that first issue.
SLAM's ownership has changed several times. Peterson Publishing bought SLAM in 1998. The next year, Peterson was acquired by British publisher EMAP. In 2001, EMAP sold its US division to Primedia. When Primedia left the magazine business in 2007, current owner Source Interlink acquired a majority of the company, including SLAM.
The magazine carries 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.
SLAM has featured the biggest names in 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. "A Basketball On Fire" was the 1st cover without a player in February 2012.
The magazine is now available to international (non-US) NBA fans, with special editions printed in some territories, and the addition of SLAM to digital stores, such as iTunes.
Writers and editors
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Editors for SLAM Magazine have included:
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Other notable SLAM writers have been:
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Magazine features
- "Trash Talk" – readers give their love to SLAM or share some beef they had with the last magazine, and selected letters are put in this section.
- "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 anonymously. The first NOYZ column appeared in the March 1995 issue.
- "Last Shot" — a former back-page column documenting a game-winning shot during a game. This feature was discontinued after the January 2000 issue.
- "SLAM Magazine's top 75 NBA players of all time" — released in 2003.
- "SLAM Magazine Old School" – Released in 2005.
- "What's My Name? - SLAM fans make nicknames for NBA players and if they win they get a prize from the slam vault.
- "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 not 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: (current career status in brackets):
- 1995 - Stephon Marbury (CBA Player; NBA All-Star)
- 1996 - Ronnie Fields (Retired)
- 1997 - Edmund Saunders (Retired; won an NCAA Championship with the University of Connecticut in 1999)
- 1998 - Ray Young (Retired)
- 1999 - Mike Dunleavy, Jr. (NBA Player)
- 2000 - Andre Barrett (D-League Player)
- 2001 - Eddy Curry (CBA Player)
- 2002 - LeBron James (NBA All-Star and NBA Champion)
- 2003 - Sebastian Telfair (CBA Player)
- 2004 - Marvin Williams (NBA Player; won an NCAA Championship with the University of North Carolina in 2005)
- 2005 - Eric Devendorf (NBL Player)
- 2006 - Thaddeus Young (NBA Player)
- 2007 - Kevin Love (NBA All-Star)
- 2008 - Tyreke Evans (NBA Player)
- 2009 - Xavier Henry (NBA Player)
- 2010 - Harrison Barnes (NBA Player)
- 2011 - Quincy Miller (NBA Player)
- 2012 - Shabazz Muhammad (NBA Player)
- 2013 – Andrew and Aaron Harrison (NBA players)
- 2014 – Tyus Jones (NBA Player)
- 2015 – Malik Newman (Mississippi State player)
- 2016 – Jayson Tatum (Duke commit)
- "Trash Talk" — Readers' letters to the editor are posted here, with occasional comments by the editor.
- Rookie Diary – The Rookie Diary is held by a new NBA rookie yearly, as they speak about their first experiences in the league (rookie season team in brackets):
- 2002–03 – Drew Gooden (Memphis Grizzlies/Orlando Magic)
- 2003–04 – Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets)
- 2004–05 – Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers)
- 2005–06 – Ike Diogu (Golden State Warriors)
- 2006–07 – Kyle Lowry (Memphis Grizzlies)
- 2007–08 – Joakim Noah (Chicago Bulls)
- 2008–09 – Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers)
- 2009–10 – Jonny Flynn (Minnesota Timberwolves)
- 2010–11 – DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings)
- 2011–12 – Derrick Williams (Minnesota Timberwolves)
- 2012–13 – Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards)
- 2013–14 – Victor Oladipo (Orlando Magic)
- 2014-15 – Aaron Gordon (Orlando Magic)
Cover athletes
- SLAM 1: Cover—Larry Johnson (May 1994)
- SLAM 2: Cover—Shawn Kemp (October 1994)
- SLAM 3: Cover—Shaquille O'Neal (January 1995)
- SLAM 4: Cover—John Starks (March 1995)
- SLAM 5: Cover—Tim Hardaway & Latrell Sprewell (May 1995)
- SLAM 6: Cover—Michael Jordan (July 1995)
- SLAM 7: Cover—Grant Hill or Hakeem Olajuwon (September 1995)
- SLAM 8: Cover—Penny Hardaway (November 1995)
- SLAM 9: Cover—Allen Iverson or Charles O’Bannon (January 1996)
- SLAM 10: Cover—Scottie Pippen (March 1996)
- SLAM 11: Cover—Jerry Stackhouse or Damon Stoudamire or Magic Johnson (May 1996)
- SLAM 12: Cover—Michael Jordan (July 1996)
- SLAM 13: Cover—Alonzo Mourning (October 1996)
- SLAM 14: Cover—Shawn Kemp (December 1996)
- SLAM 15: Cover—Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, & Shareef Abdur-Rahim (February 1997)
- SLAM 16: Cover—Dennis Rodman (March 1997)
- SLAM 17: Cover—Grant Hill (April 1997)
- SLAM 18: Cover—Allen Iverson (June 1997)
- SLAM 19: Cover—Michael Jordan (August 1997)
- SLAM 20: Cover—Scottie Pippen (September 1997)
- SLAM 21: Cover—Kevin Garnett & Stephon Marbury (October 1997)
- SLAM 22: Cover—Rafer Alston (December 1997)
- SLAM 23: Cover—Chris Webber (January 1998)
- SLAM 24: Cover—Kobe Bryant (March 1998)
- SLAM 25: Cover—Sam Cassell, Kendall Gill, Kerry Kittles, Keith Van Horn, & Jayson Williams (April 1998)
- SLAM 26: Cover—Gary Payton (June 1998)
- SLAM 27: Cover—Michael Jordan (August 1998)
- SLAM 28: Cover—Michael Jordan (September 1998)
- SLAM 29: Cover—Chamique Holdsclaw (October 1998)
- SLAM 30: Cover—Penny Hardaway (December 1998)
- SLAM 31: Cover—Stephon Marbury (January 1999)
- SLAM 32: Cover—Allen Iverson (March 1999)
- SLAM 33: Cover—Michael Jordan or Reggie Miller (April 1999)
- SLAM 34: Cover—Shaquille O’Neal (June 1999)
- SLAM 35: Cover—Vince Carter or Paul Pierce or Jason Williams (August 1999)
- SLAM 36: Cover—Latrell Sprewell (September 1999)
- SLAM 37: Cover—Lamar Odom (October 1999)
- SLAM 38: Cover—Kevin Garnett (December 1999)
- SLAM 39: Cover—Kobe Bryant or Shareef Abdur-Rahim (January 2000)
- SLAM 40: Cover—Chris Webber & Jason Williams (March 2000)
- SLAM 41: Cover—Vince Carter (April 2000)
- SLAM 42: Cover—Allen Iverson or Jason Kidd (May 2000)
- SLAM 43: Cover—Shaquille O’Neal & Kobe Bryant (June 2000)
- SLAM 44: Cover—Steve Francis (August 2000)
- SLAM 45: Cover—Shaquille O’Neal (September 2000)
- SLAM 46: Cover—Tracy McGrady (November 2000)
- SLAM 47: Cover—Tim Duncan (December 2000)
- SLAM 48: Cover—Stephon Marbury (February 2001)
- SLAM 49: Cover—Rasheed Wallace or Jerry Stackhouse (March 2001)
- SLAM 50: Cover—Michael Jordan (April 2001)
- SLAM 51: Cover—Vince Carter (May 2001)
- SLAM 52: Cover—Alonzo Mourning (June 2001)
- SLAM 53: Cover—Chris Webber (August 2001)
- SLAM 54: Cover—Shaquille O’Neal (September 2001)
- SLAM 55: Cover—Allen Iverson (November 2001)
- SLAM 56: Cover—Michael Jordan (December 2001)
- SLAM 57: Cover—Elton Brand, Lamar Odom, Darius Miles (February 2002)
- SLAM 58: Cover—Kevin Garnett (March 2002)
- SLAM 59: Cover—Baron Davis or Paul Pierce (April 2002)
- SLAM 60: Cover—Kenyon Martin, Todd MacCulloch, Jason Kidd, Keith Van Horn, & Kerry Kittles (May 2002)
- SLAM 61: Cover—Dirk Nowitzki (June 2002)
- SLAM 62: Cover—Sebastian Telfair & LeBron James (August 2002)
- SLAM 63: Cover—Shaquille O'Neal (September 2002)
- SLAM 64: Cover—Tracy McGrady (November 2002)
- SLAM 65: Cover—Jay Williams, Drew Gooden, Amare Stoudemire, Caron Butler, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Dajuan Wagner, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., Jared Jeffries, Kareem Rush, Nene, Qyntel Woods, & Tayshaun Prince (December 2002)
- SLAM 66: Cover—Kobe Bryant (February 2003)
- SLAM 67: Cover—Gary Payton (March 2003)
- SLAM 68: Cover—Allen Iverson (April 2003)
- SLAM 69: Cover—Yao Ming & Steve Francis (May 2003)
- SLAM 70: Cover—Jason Kidd or Chris Webber (June 2003)
- SLAM 71: Cover—LeBron James (August 2003)
- SLAM 72: Cover—Tim Duncan (September 2003)
- SLAM 73: Cover—Carmelo Anthony (November 2003)
- SLAM 74: Cover—Kobe Bryant (December 2003)
- SLAM 75: Cover—Shawn Marion, Stephon Marbury, & Amare Stoudemire or Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Darko Milicic, & Rip Hamilton (February 2004)
- SLAM 76: Cover—Jermaine O'Neal or Karl Malone (March 2004)
- SLAM 77: Cover—Kevin Garnett or Allen Iverson or Shaquille O’Neal (April 2004)
- SLAM 78: Cover—LeBron James (May 2004)
- SLAM 79: Cover—Kenyon Martin (June 2004)
- SLAM 80: Cover—Shaun Livingston, Sebastian Telfair, Dwight Howard, Al Jefferson, Marvin Williams, & Josh Smith (August 2004)
- SLAM 81: Cover—Chauncey Billups (September 2004)
- SLAM 82: Cover—Shaquille O’Neal (November 2004)
- SLAM 83: Cover—Tracy McGrady or Steve Francis (December 2004)
- SLAM 84: Cover—Allen Iverson (February 2005)
- SLAM 85: Cover—Amare Stoudamire (March 2005)
- SLAM 86: Cover—LeBron James (April 2005)
- SLAM 87: Cover—Dwyane Wade or Ray Allen (May 2005)
- SLAM 88: Cover—Vince Carter (June 2005)
- SLAM 89: Cover—Manu Ginobli, Tony Parker & Tim Duncan or Ben Wallace (July 2005)
- SLAM 90: Cover—Ron Artest (August 2005)
- SLAM 91: Cover—Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli & Robert Horry (September 2005)
- SLAM 92: Cover—Steve Nash (November 2005)
- SLAM 93: Cover—LeBron James (December 2005)
- SLAM 94: Cover—Shaquille O’Neal & Dwyane Wade (February 2006)
- SLAM 95: Cover—Sebastian Telfair or Dwight Howard (March 2006)
- SLAM 96: Cover—Allen Iverson (April 2006)
- SLAM 97: Cover—Kobe Bryant (May 2006)
- SLAM 98: Cover—Chauncey Billups or Dirk Nowitzki (June 2006)
- SLAM 99: Cover—Greg Oden (July 2006)
- SLAM 100: Cover—Michael Jordan (August 2006)
- SLAM 101: Cover—Dwyane Wade (September 2006)
- SLAM 102: Cover—Gilbert Arenas or Chris Paul (November 2006)
- SLAM 103: Cover—Ben Wallace or Amare Stoudamire (December 2006)
- SLAM 104: Cover—Vince Carter or Chris Bosh (February 2007)
- SLAM 105: Cover—Carmelo Anthony (March 2007)
- SLAM 106: Cover—LeBron James (April 2007)
- SLAM 107: Cover—Allen Iverson (May 2007)
- SLAM 108: Cover—Amare Stoudamire, Steve Nash, & Shawn Marion (June 2007)
- SLAM 109: Cover—Dirk Nowitzki or Shaquille O’Neal (July 2007)
- SLAM 110: Cover—Greg Oden & Kevin Durant (August 2007)
- SLAM 111: Cover—Tony Parker (September 2007)
- SLAM 112: Cover—OJ Mayo (November 2007)
- SLAM 113: Cover—Kevin Garnett (December 2007)
- SLAM 114: Cover—Kobe Bryant (February 2008)
- SLAM 115: Cover—Carmelo Anthony & Allen Iverson (March 2008)
- SLAM 116: Cover—LeBron James (April 2008)
- SLAM 117: Cover—Michael Beasley or Eric Gordon or Derrick Rose (May 2008)
- SLAM 118: Cover—Dwight Howard (June 2008)
- SLAM 119: Cover—Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, & Paul Pierce (July 2008)
- SLAM 120: Cover—Chris Paul (August 2008)
- SLAM 121: Cover—Paul Pierce (September 2008)
- SLAM 122: Cover—Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, & OJ Mayo (November 2008)
- SLAM 123: Cover—Kobe Bryant or Greg Oden or LeBron James or Dwyane Wade or Kevin Garnett (December 2008)
- SLAM 124: Cover—Deron Williams or Chris Paul (February 2009)
- SLAM 125: Cover—Allen Iverson (March 2009)
- SLAM 126: Cover—Kobe Bryant (April 2009)
- SLAM 127: Cover—Dwyane Wade (May 2009)
- SLAM 128: Cover—John Wall & Lance Stephenson or Ricky Rubio & Brandon Jennings (June 2009)
- SLAM 129: Cover—LeBron James & Kobe Bryant (July 2009)
- SLAM 130: Cover—Michael Jordan (August 2009)
- SLAM 131: Cover—Kobe Bryant (September 2009)
- SLAM 132: Cover—Carmelo Anthony (November 2009)
- SLAM 133: Cover—Shaquille 'O Neal & LeBron James (15th Anniversary Issue, December 2009)
- SLAM 134: Cover—Dwight Howard or Kevin Garnett or Kevin Durant or Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol & Andrew Bynum (February 2010)
- SLAM 135: Cover—Brandon Jennings (March 2010)
- SLAM 136: Cover—Kobe Bryant (April 2010)
- SLAM 137: Cover—John Wall, Patrick Patterson, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, & Coach John Calipari (May 2010)
- SLAM 138: Cover—Al Horford, Joe Johnson & Josh Smith or Jeff Green, Kevin Durant & Russell Westbrook (June 2010)
- SLAM 139: Cover—Michael Jordan (July 2010)
- SLAM 140: Cover—LeBron James or Dwyane Wade (August 2010)
- SLAM 141: Cover—Kobe Bryant (September 2010)
- SLAM 142: Cover—LeBron James or Dwight Howard (November 2010)
- SLAM 143: Cover—Derrick Rose (December 2010)
- SLAM 144: Cover—John Wall (February 2011)
- SLAM 145: Cover—Chris Paul or Rajon Rondo (March 2011)
- SLAM 146: Cover—Kobe Bryant (April 2011)
- SLAM 147: Cover—Blake Griffin or Amare Stoudemire (May 2011)
- SLAM 148: Cover—LeBron James & Dwyane Wade or Carmelo Anthony or Derrick Rose or Kobe Bryant & Lamar Odom (June 2011)
- SLAM 149: Cover—Anthony Davis, Michael Gilchrist, & Austin Rivers (July 2011)
- SLAM 150: Cover—Allen Iverson (August 2011)
- SLAM 151: Cover—Dirk Nowitzki (September 2011)
- SLAM 152: Cover—Derrick Rose (November 2011)
- SLAM 153: Cover—Harrison Barnes, Kendall Marshall, John Henson, Tyler Zeller, & Dexter Strickland (December 2011)
- SLAM 154: Cover—A basketball on fire (February 2012)
- SLAM 155: Cover—Kevin Durant (March 2012)
- SLAM 156: Cover—Blake Griffin & Chris Paul (April 2012)
- SLAM 157: Cover—Ricky Rubio & Kevin Love or Jeremy Lin (May 2012)
- SLAM 158: Cover—LeBron James & Dwyane Wade or Derrick Rose or Kevin Durant or Kobe Bryant (June 2012)
- SLAM 159: Cover—LeBron James (July 2012)
- SLAM 160: Cover—Anthony Davis (August 2012)
- SLAM 161: Cover—LeBron James (September 2012)
- SLAM 162: Cover—Carmelo Anthony (November 2012)
- SLAM 163: Cover—Dwight Howard (December 2012)
- SLAM 164: Cover—Dwyane Wade (February 2013)
- SLAM 165: Cover—Marc Gasol, Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph, Tony Allen, & Mike Conley, Jr. (March 2013)
- SLAM 166: Cover—Blake Griffin or Russell Westbrook (April 2013)
- SLAM 167: Cover—Jabari Parker & Andrew Wiggins (May 2013)
- SLAM 168: Cover—LeBron James (June 2013)
- SLAM 169: Cover—Kyrie Irving (July 2013)
- SLAM 170: Cover—Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant or LeBron James (August 2013)
- SLAM 171: Cover—LeBron James (September 2013)
- SLAM 172: Cover—Derrick Rose (November 2013)
- SLAM 173: Cover—Stephen Curry (December 2013)
- SLAM 174: Cover—Paul George (February 2014)
- SLAM 175: Cover—Kobe Bryant (March 2014)
- SLAM 176: Cover—Damian Lillard (April 2014)
- SLAM 177: Cover—Jabari Parker or Joel Embiid (May 2014)
- SLAM 178: Cover—Kevin Durant (June 2014)
- SLAM 179: Cover—LeBron James (July 2014)
- SLAM 180: Cover—Vince Carter (August 2014)
- SLAM 181: Cover—Kawhi Leonard & Tim Duncan (September 2014)
- SLAM 182: Cover—Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, Marcus Smart, Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, Aaron Gordon, Noah Vonleh, Nik Stauskas, Elfrid Payton, Zach Lavine, Doug McDermott & TJ Warren (November 2014)
- SLAM 183: Cover—LeBron James (December 2014)
- SLAM 184: Cover—John Wall (February 2015)
- SLAM 185: Cover—Kyrie Irving (March 2015)
- SLAM 186: Cover—Stephen Curry or Damian Lillard (April 2015)
- SLAM 187: Cover—Willie Cauley-Stein, Aaron Harrison, Marcus Lee, Dakari Johnson, Tyler Ulis, Trey Lyles, Devin Booker, Andrew Harrison, & Karl-Anthony Towns (May 2015)
- SLAM 188: Cover—James Harden or Stephen Curry or Jeff Teague (June 2015)
- SLAM 189: Cover—Andrew Wiggins (July 2015)
- SLAM 190: Cover—Kobe Bryant (August 2015)
- SLAM 191: Cover—Stephen Curry (September 2015)