The SLAM Archives: SLAM 50 That includes Michael Jordan

This story first appeared in SLAM 250.

I ponder if my love for gathering comes from the satisfaction gained from realizing that all the things is so as and accounted for. That the numbers line up and all the things slots into place. The truth that each SLAM situation ever launched has a quantity, and this quantity represents a date on the basketball timeline appeals to me. I’m a weirdo. Don’t choose me.

When it comes to situation numbers, our final milestone was once we hit you with the Iverson/Jordan double whammy on Difficulty 200, August 2016. Within the eight years which have handed since, issues have modified—not essentially in drastic methods, however there are adjustments nonetheless. Against this, once we hit our first main landmark, Difficulty 50, again in 2001, the adjustments that had occurred since our conception in 1994 have been wild.

The web had immensely modified the way in which we consumed basketball info. Salaries had developed from weighty to astronomical. Streetball had infested our DVD collections and the saggy vogue period was about to get actual. Very actual. One factor remained, although. Michael Jordan was our basketball god.

It was becoming, then, that probably the most iconic MJ moments ought to inhabit the entrance web page of our fiftieth drop. It was the notorious free-throw line jam, the Windy Metropolis model—the White Cements…Solely we did it completely different. I’m not solely speaking concerning the three alternate covers, I’m speaking concerning the never-seen-before digital camera angles. Our brief however important stint within the sport meant editors Russ Bengtson and Tony G had constructed a strong relationship with legendary NBA photographer Nat Butler. Nat has taken (and continues to take) a few of the most iconic photos in basketball historical past. To place it plainly, you possible rock his pics on tees, put up them in your feed and select them as your background. The (presumably) unlikely friendship that our forefathers made with Nat meant that he granted entry to—and permission to make use of—beforehand unseen pictures of probably the most important moments in Mike’s profession. The outcome was a becoming cowl collection for our fiftieth situation.

The “acquainted however completely different” ingredient of the SLAM 50 covers epitomizes these early SLAM years. Supplying you with one thing you thought you knew, however making you look twice. Reminding us that all the things adjustments, whereas by some means staying the identical. All executed chaotically however completely. All the things slotting into place. Numbered within the basketball timeline.