Happy New Year 2011
to all and what a better way to start it with a copy of the so-called monthly hoops bible, SLAM Issue No. 144
(February 2011). I got mine today courtesy of my wife’s cousin, Jomar De Guzman
of Virginia Beach , Virginia
“Whenever a new
issue of SLAM is dropping, we do a post here on SLAMonline that we call the “On Sale Now…” post, meaning
the issue is on sale now. Duh. Today is my turn to write one of these posts,
because I wrote the cover story for SLAM 144. This issue is actually going to
be available a few days from now, but we wanted to drop it before the holidays.
We’re actually
going to debut the cover live this afternoon on NBA.com on The Jump, the show that airs
live on NBA.com at 1 PM and then re-airs a few hours later on NBA TV. (I’m in Atlanta
“Anyway, about
this cover. You may have noticed that one of the best rookies thus far this
season has beenJohn Wall down in DC. He’s leading the entire
League in steals, he’s fourth in assists (well, he was earlier today), and he’s
generally playing about as awesomely as we at SLAM suspected that he would.
“We shot John
down in DC earlier in the month, and I went down for the shoot and to interview
John. He talks fast, and it wasn’t until a couple of days later when I was
listening to the interview that I was struck by how much John’s voice reminded
me of another NBA player: lower than you’d expect, a little bit of a Southern
accent. A few days later I asked my main man Michael Lee at the Washington Post, and he
agreed. It wasn’t just me—Wall sounds a little bit like Allen Iverson.
“It’s not just the voice, or the fearlessness or the
creativity, or John becoming the new face of Reebok. More than anything, Wall
reminds me of AI because of his speed. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone as
fast with the ball as John Wall. Earlier this season, at the end of the first
half in the Wizards loss to Cleveland
“For all of Wall’s physical gifts, he still has room to
improve, and he knows it. Teams early this season have regularly been going
under picks against him, daring him to take midrange jumpers. John has mostly
been passing up the shots, instead sharing the ball and perhaps even
overpassing. But the Wiz and Wall have been working diligently to remedy this,
mostly by having Wall do drills led by Wiz assistant coach Sam Cassell. And if
there was ever a guy who dominated in the midrange game, it was Sam Cassell — I
once wrote that when Cassell was done playing, instead of retiring his number,
teams should retire a spot on the court about 16 feet from the basket on the
free throw line extended.
“Wall seems to
be embracing the coaching and working hard to improve. “I got goals,” Wall
said. “Hopefully win Rookie of the Year, that’s everybody’s goal. I want to
keep developing, improve my jump shot and prove I can make it so people will
stop going under screens. Keep learning as much as I can, prepare every day,
get better every day. Watch film. Listen to Coach Saunders, Sam Cassell, listen
to all the coaches I can. See how teams are going to guard me so I’ll know how other
teams will try and guard me. But the main focus is really the team goal. I
really want to see what we can do as a team.”
“He’s going to
improve. But for now, he’s all speed. And that’s pretty dope to watch.
“There’s a lot of great stuff in this issue, from a
great old school piece on Manute Bol to…oh, right, I’m here to talk about the
cover.
“So here’s John Wall’s first NBA SLAM cover. I have a
feeling you’ll be seeing plenty more as the years roll on…”
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