Ever since I was growing up, SLAM has been the hottest and biggest magazine ever. Every first of the month, everybody knew that you go to 7-Eleven and you go pick up that new SLAM Magazine.
Obviously, I was always the one to have it. My mom would take me to 7-Eleven and the donut shop, and that was the first two things I’d ask for in the morning, every first of the month.
Seeing that new SLAM as a 7th grader, it made me work harder. As I was setting up all my goals as a hooper — playing in the McDonald’s Game, being a national champion in High School, and eventually making it to the NBA — being in SLAM was right there at the top of my list.
When I was 12, I knew that if I made the SLAM cover one day, our lives would change.
The first time I thought I could be in SLAM was when I saw Sebastian Telfair and LeBron James on the cover as high school basketball players. That right there took it to the next level for me. Just a few years later, before my 10th grade year at Dominguez High School in LA, there I was, doing my first photoshoot to be in SLAM.
I was in the locker room, just mean mugging the whole time. Just letting the world know: There’s a hostile young kid from Compton coming.
I just always loved the grittiness, and seeing some of the best basketball players from around the world in the magazine. You were always hearing the hype about players for the first time. As the competitors that we are, everyone wants to go against the best, and SLAM always kept you updated on who was coming and who was next.
Fast forward to now, and hearing that SLAM is going into the Hall of Fame on its 30th anniversary — it’s well deserved. It’s just a big moment for real basketball. With everything that they put into the streets, the love of basketball has definitely paid off for them. I’m just happy for everyone that I’ve known at the magazine over the years.
To celebrate SLAM’s 30th anniversary, I wanted to connect my own brand Tuff Crowd with SLAM for a fire collection. Working on this collab together is just another full circle moment in my life.
As everyone knows, I never went to college. Me going across the country to Oak Hill early, then making the decision to skip college, go out the country and go overseas — my route in my life has always been different. Even retiring early and starting Tuff Crowd was different.
That’s what this collection represents. That taking a risk is nothing, when you have that belief in you.
The joy of taking a risk and not knowing what’s coming is the beauty of life.
At Tuff Crowd University, we keep it hostile. It’s the school and mindset for everyone that has taken a different path in life to get to where they want to go.
We wanted to use the original SLAM logo for this collection, with that grittiness, to take it all the way back to ’94. We’ve got a coach’s jacket, two hoodies, two tees and some game shorts that are crazy. It’s about having that coaching swag, and celebrating the idea of school spirit and playing by your own rules.
This collab is also just showing how much the game has meant to me. Way back when I was 12, I wasn’t wrong. Being in that SLAM Magazine as a 10th grader, and then on the cover at 18 years-old in Italy and again as a NBA rookie, really did change my life.
All these years later, this collection also shows how we’re always bigger than just basketball players. Being able to put the ball down and get into something outside of it, but still be connected to the game of basketball, is just a great feeling of pride for what I’m building with Tuff Crowd and where I’ve been in my life.
And I’ve got SLAM Magazine to thank for giving me that inspiration from the very beginning.
SLAM Magazine photo credit: Drew Reynolds.
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