Sports
How SLAM magazine went from NBA 'outcast' to a Hall of Fame publication in 30 years
At a recent celebration, members of SLAM magazine’s staff, past and present over the last 30-plus years, couldn’t believe it.
The Hall of Fame. Really? SLAM in the Hall of Fame?
Founder Dennis Page and the publication were honored by the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with the Curt Gowdy Transformative Media Award during a ceremony in August. To some, this seemed impossible back in May 1994, when the first issue — featuring Larry Johnson on the cover — was released.
Thirty years ago, SLAM was unlike anything in modern journalism. It didn’t play by traditional rules. Profanity in publication was not off-limits. The writers and editors didn’t pretend to be impartial.
“‘Outcast’ is a good word for us,” said Tony Gervino, the magazine’s first editor-in-chief who now works at Tidal as executive vice president and editor-in-chief.
SLAM was part of a culture shift that personified a time when the NBA was changing, a time when hip-hop began crafting the style of many players. The shorts were longer and baggier. Pregame music playlists were more likely to include Wu-Tang Clan or Snoop Dogg instead of R&B crooners like Jeffrey Osborne or Luther Vandross. Tattoos became as common as high-top shoes.
And there was SLAM, something of a disruptor itself by championing the voice of the fan. Inspired by hip-hop magazine The Source, SLAM’s vibrant photography and style of storytelling connected with a younger audience that cared about the shoes players wore just as much as the final score of games.
The result? More than 300 million magazines have been sold since 1994. There have been 132 covers to feature a Hall of Famer.
SLAM magazine’s production stats are showcased at the 30th anniversary exhibit at the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. (Bob Blanchard / SLAM)
SLAM didn’t act like traditional media — nor did it want to be. It resonated so much that others eventually tried to emulate it. It was quite the shift, considering early on the New York City publication had trouble getting media credentials for NBA coverage.
“We were really on the outside of the party looking in, and we just told people the party sucked,” Gervino said. “That’s why we were on the outside. We got into it, then we sort of roughed it up a bit.”
Page, in addition to being a big sports fan, has a huge appreciation for music. He was the publisher of Guitar World magazine when he became impressed at how The Source had captured the attention of the hip-hop generation.
Page believed the world didn’t need another magazine focused on rap, as there were plenty on the market. What he hadn’t seen was a publication that merged culture and sports.
“There were people all over the world, young kids that were into hip-hop, into basketball,” Page said. “But Sports Illustrated, Street & Smith didn’t speak to them. When we came out, we spoke to them.”
Fans accepted SLAM — and then the players became fans. The magazine covers became popular. Whether it was Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury showcasing their lavish jewelry or Allen Iverson getting featured in his Sixers jersey with his hair in an Afro rather than his usual braids, SLAM struck a nerve.
“We were just living it, and we wrote about basketball and referred to hip-hop music and lyrics. This was who we were,” Page said. “We weren’t a corporate publishing house, so we were just writing the magazine for ourselves.
“Honestly, I had no idea there were that many people in the world that would understand this and accept it and really appreciate it.”
Thirty years after its introduction, SLAM was honored with one of basketball’s most prestigious media awards. Success, however, might not have worked without the freedom the staff was given. That meant nontraditional journalism tactics such as giving space to the sneaker world, featuring player diaries and serving as a means to connect basketball fans globally before the internet.
It led to engaging content.
“First of all, we didn’t know any better,” said former SLAM writer and editor Lang Whitaker, who has worked for the NBA and GQ magazine and currently works for the Memphis Grizzlies. “We were just making stuff that we thought was cool, and I think that’s why it resonated.
“For better or worse, there wasn’t a lot of oversight. Nobody was telling us what to be like. Dennis just let us do our thing and let us kind of rock.”
No writer personified the SLAM style in its early days more than Robert “Scoop” Jackson.
“The most important person in SLAM history is Scoop,” Gervino said. “He literally launched a generation of writers and kids who said, ‘I can do that now.’”
Robert “Scoop” Jackson was one of the most respected journalists during SLAM’s early days. (David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
Jackson’s distinctive style of reporting allowed him to connect with NBA players in a way that was different yet welcomed. The Chicago native was closer to the players’ ages, and he had an eye for talent and trends. He wrote about Iverson being the future of basketball before he was in the NBA after watching Iverson play in a summer league while still at Georgetown.
Jackson, who is now a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, wanted to tell in-depth stories. He wanted to write about Chicago’s Ben Wilson, the Simeon High School prospect regarded as the top high school player in America who was shot and died in November 1984.
Editors at SLAM weren’t familiar with Wilson’s story. That gave Jackson more urgency to tell it — even if it happened nearly 10 years after Wilson’s death.
“We did a human interest story that was rooted in the culture of basketball and what the future of basketball could have been,” Jackson said. “But that future of basketball never got a chance to live. To me, once you go there, that’s the foundation of how you’re going to deal with telling the story about the culture of basketball.”
Jackson was a staple at SLAM for 11 years. Though an NBA presence often made the cover of most issues, stories like Wilson’s were the soul of the publication.
“Tony and I looked at Dennis as that White guy who really understood Black culture,” Jackson said. “He understood the game of basketball wasn’t just about the NBA.”
That mindset led SLAM to take a chance on writing about Iverson before he made it to the NBA. It also allowed them to lean more into writing about the culture and lifestyle of those in basketball, such as the story of streetball legend Rafer Alston, who, while at Fresno State, was featured in the magazine as “The Best Point Guard in the World.” It also meant finding high school standouts and profiling women who were stars in the game.
One story Jackson fondly recalls is a 1997 profile of Dawn Staley, the former star point guard at Virginia, six-time WNBA All-Star and three-time Olympic gold medalist who now is the coach of the reigning women’s college basketball champion South Carolina Gamecocks. Jackson simply hung out with her in her native Philadelphia, visiting her old neighborhood and the courts she played on while learning more about her as a person.
This piece wasn’t about Staley’s time with Team USA, and the WNBA hadn’t officially started (the first WNBA game took place June 21, 1997). Instead, the story was about the men she played against growing up and what the city of Philadelphia meant to her.
“It had nothing to do with her professional career, nothing to do really with what she did at Virginia,” Jackson said. “We told the ’hood story of Dawn Staley.”
The importance of Iverson cannot be understated. Jackson said he and Page disagreed on what to do with Iverson. At the time, a non-NBA player had not graced the cover. Iverson still was at Georgetown but had won Big East Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman while averaging 20.4 points.
A lot of basketball fans weren’t familiar with Iverson as a player. Some had heard about him as a prep star who was arrested during a fight at a bowling alley. Jackson believed it was important to write about who Iverson was and his basketball journey, not just what had made headlines off the court.
“Part of the foundation of our responsibility was telling the cultural side of basketball first, and then can it connect to the NBA second,” Jackson said. “But it wasn’t just Iverson. Even though his name gave it prominence, it was us doing the story.”
Jackson said Michael Jordan was also important to SLAM. Page wanted Jordan to be on the cover of the first edition, but he retired after the 1993 season. Instead, the cover went to Johnson.
Jackson said SLAM covered Jordan’s return to the league based on what he meant to the culture of basketball. It also helped that Jordan wasn’t fond of Sports Illustrated, which had famously used its cover to tell him to give up playing baseball.
Jordan opened up to Ahmad Rashad from NBC, but the network was still part of the NBA’s media machine.
“We were told Jordan stories differently than anybody else. None of our Jordan stories were like anything anybody else was writing,” Jackson said. “We were able to build a relationship with him, and he felt comfortable with us in a way that he didn’t feel with anybody else.
“We talked to him about things dealing with just his approach to the game of basketball and his contribution to the game of basketball from a cultural perspective. So, I think that carried as much weight as our journalistic relationship with Allen Iverson.”
Jordan’s first SLAM cover was in July 1995. He ended up doing 13 covers in the magazine’s 30 years — including three of the first 19 issues.
Hip-hop was a little more than 20 years old at the time, and by the 1990s, it was playing by its own rules. From fashion to subject matter, the music pushed a new culture forward.
The writers at SLAM did the same. Page credits Jackson for being a big part of SLAM’s emergence. Jackson was a young Black writer in locker rooms, and for some players, that wasn’t the norm. Like many of the players he covered, Jackson was a part of a generation that grew up on hip-hop, and he was interested in telling players’ stories in a different way.
“He was a young, great writer, and he understood (the players) as a person,” Page said. “We were inside out as opposed to trying to be objective, passing judgment, which journalism can do. We were kind of one of them. It’s really not that complicated or that deep, looking back.”
SLAM’s culture was heightened with the assistance of visuals.
The magazine has produced some of the most unforgettable cover photos in basketball. One reason the magazine is still printed is the covers that become T-shirts. Page said SLAM had a deal with clothing brand Mitchell & Ness that allowed it to make T-shirts out of certain magazine covers.
The covers, many with hip-hop references, were memorable for players. NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal said he doesn’t remember all the SLAM covers he was featured in, but when shown a few, one caught his attention.
“I remember that one,” he said, identifying the September 2000 issue that had “Victorious BIG” in the background. It celebrated O’Neal’s first championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The basketball connection is clear, but the title also is a play off the name of one of O’Neal’s favorite rappers: The Notorious B.I.G.
“This one is my favorite,” he said.
SLAM didn’t turn to traditional basketball photographers for its covers. It went to professionals like Atiba Jefferson, who has a background in skateboarding. It also went to Jonathan Mannion, who made his name as a photographer in the music industry.
Mannion has shot album covers for several hip-hop and R&B stars, including Jay-Z, DMX, DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, E-40 and Aaliyah. Working with SLAM was a new test, but a welcomed one.
“As far as execution, they really set me free,” Mannion said. “I loved working with this level of athletes. … I always kind of enjoyed (SLAM shoots), but I was there to tell an authentic story, too.”
One of those opportunities was shooting Chamique Holdsclaw when she was a star at the University of Tennessee. Holdsclaw was the first woman to grace the cover of SLAM.
Holdsclaw became a fan of the magazine as a preps star at Christ the King High School in New York. After she dominated the college circuit, SLAM asked her whether she would be the first woman to play in the NBA.
The Tennessee standout then was told to return to New York, where Mannion — whom she dubbed “the Hip-Hop Photographer” — would be behind the camera.
Holdsclaw’s groundbreaking cover — her wearing a New York Knicks uniform for SLAM’s September 1998 issue — is one she’s still asked to autograph.
“(When) I got there, it was, like, the dopest photo shoot that I’ve ever done,” Holdsclaw said. “Jonathan was just coming up with ideas. He was like, ‘They want you to wear this.’”
Holdsclaw’s cover and photo shoot captured so much that defined SLAM. It was edgy and forward-thinking. Even her stance and gear were hip-hop in style.
“I looked at that Knicks jersey, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is good,’” she said.
One of SLAM’s most popular covers is the Class of 1996 double cover that featured rookies from the ’96 NBA Draft class. Future Hall of Famers Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen and Steve Nash are part of that crew, along with future All-Stars like Marbury and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
Former Syracuse star John Wallace was a rookie with the Knicks during the 1996-97 NBA season. He said that class, highlighted by Iverson and Bryant, brought a hip-hop mindset to the NBA.
“You always hear this narrative: Rappers want to be basketball players; basketball players want to be rappers,” Wallace said. “But that was because of us and our era, what we ushered in. They weren’t saying that about the Michael Jordan (era) guys. They weren’t listening to rap and hip-hop like we were.”
Ben Osborne worked at SLAM for more than 18 years, the last 10 as editor-in-chief. He said the importance of sneakers in SLAM’s staying power cannot be overstated. It’s now common for shoes to receive media attention. That wasn’t always the case.
Shoe companies recognized that, too. Their support via ads helped keep things afloat. Reebok and Foot Locker were among the early companies that supported with advertising.
SLAM eventually would dedicate entire issues to shoes, KICKS. Now, some journalists exclusively cover shoes.
“We knew the biggest sneaker companies in the world were going to support an issue every single month,” Osborne said. “That just took a little bit of weight off. They weren’t starting from scratch every month to get people to support it. I think that, that made us cover sneakers more. Fans liked that even more because we were doing it differently than other places.”
SLAM has evolved in the social media era by continuing to lean into culture. Fashion is a big part of that. SLAM has an Instagram account, LeagueFits, which has more than 1 million followers.
SLAM has seen significant growth in its 30 years of existence. The Hall of Fame exhibit serves as proof. (Bob Blanchard / SLAM)
Adam Figman started at SLAM as an intern in 2010. He’s now a former editor-in-chief and chief content officer who took over as the company’s CEO in April. He said the social media accounts and the cover T-shirts have been key in keeping the magazine’s place in the basketball culture.
Even as players post their own photos on social media, something still resonates with them about a cover shoot for a magazine. For players like Holdsclaw, Cooper Flagg and Zion Williamson, appearing in SLAM as prep phenoms is different.
“Everyone wants to be on a cover, because anyone can post a photo of themselves,” Figman said. “Any basketball player can say, ‘Here’s what I look like. Here’s a cool photo of me.’ But a cover is a special moment. It’s a stamp, and a SLAM stamp, to me, is validation. We only do so many covers, so it means something special.”
SLAM’s recognition by the Hall of Fame is an accomplishment for all who worked on the magazine. It’s an honor that shows how impactful SLAM has been. All say the moment remains surreal.
In the end, the outcasts were invited to the party. And they will be recognized by partygoers at the Hall of Fame forever.
(Top photo: Bob Blanchard / SLAM)
Football coverage is a divisive subject.
Some think the standard of punditry is great, others will tell you it needs some work and some will deride it as awful. The analysis of the analysis never ends.
This week, The Athletic is looking more closely at the state of the industry, starting with yesterday’s piece assessing what is demanded of pundits in the United Kingdom in 2024 and how people consume their work.
Today, we broaden the discussion to see how UK coverage stacks up against the rest of the world, including the proudest of all football nations Germany, Brazil and Spain, together with those pesky upstarts in the U.S..
In Europe, the landscape of punditry can be wildly different. Travel to Italy, Spain or Turkey, switch on a television and scan through the channels and you’ll almost certainly be able to find some football coverage, be it via a football talk show, replays of matches, or on the news.
This is the case in the UK, too, via Sky Sports’ network of channels, but we’re talking free-to-air here in countries where people are arguably far more obsessed with football than your average UK football diehard.
It borders on fanaticism in a place like Turkey and the at-times frantic coverage reflects that. One grim incident recently showcased how seriously football is taken, when pundit Serhat Akin was shot in the foot when leaving a TV studio.
The former Fenerbahce player had been covering the club’s match against Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise from an Istanbul studio, after which he was approached and shot by a masked man.
Akin posted a picture of his bloodied foot on Instagram with the caption: “They shot my foot, our last word is Fenerbahce.”
Over in Germany things are a bit calmer.
In many ways the coverage is very similar to in the UK, only probably a bit better. Standard Bundesliga behaviour.
Why? Well, depending on your disposition, they don’t quite have as much forced melodrama that you tend to find with the Premier League.
The punditry industry is not quite as accessible for ex-players, so the notion of former pros that you’d get on, say, a certain national radio station in the UK where certain people will make certain comments to attract attention doesn’t really exist.
Presenters, again, unlike in the UK with Gary Lineker, Alex Scott, or, until recently, Jermaine Jenas, are media professionals rather than players. Pundits include Per Mertesacker and Christoph Kramer, the 2014 World Cup winner who has been an analyst for many years already despite being only 33 years old and still not officially retired (he left Borussia Mönchengladbach in the summer).
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann speaks with Christoph Kramer (second right) and (right) Per Mertesacker (Tom Weller/picture alliance via Getty Images)
They have a tactics corner on Sky via Dutchman Erik Meijer, the one-time Liverpool striker who spent much of his career in Germany. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Meijer described his reaction to being asked to appear on German television: “The first question I had was, ‘There are 80 million Germans in this country so why do they need to employ a Dutchman? But they wanted a different voice — someone who would say that Bayern Munich were c**p when they were.”
Julia Simic, who used to play for the women’s national team, is also a regular, while pundits who cover the Premier League include former goalkeeper Rene Adler and ex-Croatia international and Fulham and West Ham striker Mladen Petric.
While Germans do like other sports, such as basketball, handball and tennis, football is the main draw and the coverage can be dense and fanatical, although it tends to be quite considered and mindful of weighty issues. The rise of vloggers and influencers we have seen in the UK hasn’t yet caught on.
Probably the most high profile figure is Wolff Fuss, inflection king extraordinaire. Search for him on TikTok and you’ll find 20 million matches. Fuss has the stage to himself because, in another difference to the UK, co-commentators are quite uncommon in Germany.
If Fuss is the main man, then Lothar Matthaus is the loudest. Not necessarily in volume, but in the decibel level of his opinions (and his outfits… Matthaus caught the eye at this summer’s European Championship with some striking gilets).
Lothar Matthaus (right), complete with gilet (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Matthaus could probably be compared to Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher in that he gives forthright views on “his” club, which in this case would be Bayern Munich. Neville and Carragher constantly attract the attention of Manchester United and Liverpool managers with their views but Matthaus — and his partner-in-crime, Dietmar Hamann — tend to take it a bit further.
In the past year alone, Matthaus has called for Thomas Tuchel to be sacked, questioned the signing of Eric Dier, claimed Jadon Sancho’s influence at Borussia Dortmund had been exaggerated by the media and said he “felt sorry” for Cristiano Ronaldo whose “ego trips” had “damaged the team and himself”.
Last November, Tuchel referenced Matthaus and Hamann in a press conference after a 4-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, saying: “Can I quote Lothar and Didi? For a team with no further development and a bad relationship between coach and players, that was alright today, I’d say. I’m sure the experts will tell you the rest themselves.” Nice.
Matthaus is probably still tame compared to Rafael van der Vaart, who, since retiring, has very much earned a reputation for making unfiltered and inflammatory comments in his role as a pundit in the Netherlands.
You may recall Van der Vaart had a pop at England’s Declan Rice after the Euro 2024 final on the coverage of Dutch broadcaster NOS, saying: “£100million for Declan Rice, what does he do? He comes to collect a ball only to pass it back to John Stones. He is useless. If you are truly worth £100m then you should be able to play a ball forward.”
This was very much in character for Van der Vaart, whose appreciation for the England team seems to be somewhat lacking given he also decried the whole side as “s***”, also on NOS, after they defeated the Netherlands 2-1 in the semi-finals.
Over in Spain, you may be most familiar with Spanish football TV punditry from clips of El Chiringuito de Jugones, a late-night debate show in which a cast of big personalities voice their opinions — usually quite loudly and with little sense of impartiality.
🔥 “RAMOS, TE QUIERO. ERES MI CAPITÁN” 🔥
⚪️‼️”¡¡FIRMA y QUÉDATE en el REAL MADRID!!”‼️⚪️
🤍💜 El discurso de @As_TomasRoncero que convencerá a @SergioRamos. #ElChiringuitoDeMega pic.twitter.com/SVdRd0HPcS
— El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) May 9, 2021
In recent years the programme has gained notoriety for interviewing Real Madrid president Florentino Perez after the attempted launch of the European Super League, using the phrase “tic tac” to announce incoming transfer news (imitating the ticking of a clock) and showing three minutes of former Madrid midfielder Guti looking sad after his old side’s 4-0 Champions League defeat by Manchester City last year.
You will find a more sophisticated level of discussion on TV channel Movistar Plus and streaming platform DAZN. The former features former Madrid and Argentina player turned pundit Jorge Valdano while presenter Miguel Quintana and former Equatorial Guinea international Alberto Edjogo-Owono, who spent his career in the Spanish lower leagues, are two respected voices on DAZN.
But the way fandom works in Spain — in particular with the big two clubs, Barcelona and Madrid — means those pundits are often labelled the enemy of one or other team, despite trying to be impartial.
In Spain, there is also a deeper layer of scrutiny towards refereeing and why decisions do or do not happen (possibly linked to the above). There is no equivalent of Match of the Day, perhaps because there is not much interest in analysing games like Osasuna versus Getafe from a tactical perspective. And the tactical insight mainly comes from social media rather than mass media.
As for other prominent pundits, Guti has made a name for himself on DAZN, while Gaizka Mendieta and Juanfran Torres are also regulars on television.
Often more in-depth analysis can be found on late-night radio shows such as El Larguero on Cadena SER or Cadena COPE’s El Partidazo — both of which go on until the early hours and continue to attract huge audiences, as The Athletic’s Laia Cervello Herrero explored earlier this year. Even then, debates can get heated given the nature of football in Spain.
You might think the tone would be fairly outrageous in a football-mad country like Brazil, but while passions undoubtedly run extremely high and some coverage can be melodramatic, there is also room for reasoned debate.
The biggest difference in Brazil is the volume of the commentators, who are the stars of the show.
“The commentator really goes for it,” Natalie Gedra, a football reporter for Sky Sports in the UK who previously worked for ESPN and Globo in Brazil, tells The Athletic. “Brazilians cannot understand countries who don’t scream ‘GOOOOOOAAAAAAL!’ There’s also a tune that comes with it, either the club’s anthem or a song that’s related to the national team.
“Visually it’s different too — for example, you will have a gigantic ball going back and forth on the screen between transitions of replays. I remember watching World Cups growing up and they had a little mascot who would show up on the screen and dance around.”
Having ex-referees as pundits, for example, has been a well-established practice in Brazil for at least a decade, formerly in the commentary box but now more as studio analysts. Oh, and the studios are always at TV HQ, not on site at stadiums.
Talking of the commentary box, it’s typically filled with three people – a commentator, i.e. the star, a journalist and a former player.
“They have more ex-players now, but a lot of journalists are co-commentators or pundits on both pre and post-match shows,” Gedra adds. “Everyone knows the commentator; they’re massive stars.”
Reflecting how their best players tend to head to Europe, Brazil’s most famous ex-players aren’t really part of the TV coverage over there, other than for World Cups. Ronaldo worked on the 2014 World Cup and, most famously, Pele was a commentator for the 1994 World Cup.
“There are some ex-players, like, for example (Walter) Casagrande, who played for Corinthians. He was the most prominent for many years,” Gedra says. “He was a bit of a pioneer, he had a big profile and didn’t back down from making big statements, but he was also very articulate.
“The main Brazilian football names don’t become pundits in Brazil, but Pele in 1994 is by far the most famous example. There is a picture of him celebrating in the commentary booth with commentator Galvao Bueno which is one of the most iconic images in the history of Brazilian television.
Meu amigo Édson se foi!!
Que tristeza! Mas Pelé, não!!
Pelé é eterno!! Rei Pelé!!
Primeiro e único!! pic.twitter.com/AA56oWRdlZ— Galvão Bueno (@galvaobueno) December 29, 2022
“Galvao Bueno is probably the biggest name in the history of Brazilian TV, he’s absolutely huge and the voice of many of the biggest sporting moments, like all the World Cups. Yes, people love or hate him but everybody knows who he is.”
Commentators in the UK don’t have anywhere near as big a profile. No wonder Guy Mowbray has started doing Gladiators.
Another difference is in the make-up of the post-match chat. Gedra has observed that Brazil’s coverage is less data-orientated than in the UK, although the tone depends on the channel. Globo, the free-to-air channel, have largely monopolised coverage but they are now under threat from newer players such as Sport TV, ESPN and TNT Sports. YouTube channels are also growing.
“I worked for ESPN and I think they got the tone just right, very analytical and not too spectacular or passionate,” Gedra says.
Unspectacular is definitely not a word you would use to describe the stylings of Alexi Lalas, one of the most prominent broadcasters in the U.S., whose brash persona brings a love-it-or-hate-it quality.
He works as an analyst for Fox Sports, has a podcast called Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union and doesn’t care if people like him or not. But his bold, direct and outspoken opinions have made him an influential figure in the U.S. and beyond.
Lalas is another who doesn’t seem to especially like English players, saying during the Euros that Gareth Southgate’s team were “insufferable as they are talented”.
“But I’m in the entertainment business,” Lalas told The Athletic earlier this year. “I am a performer. When you say that, sometimes people cringe. By no means am I saying that I can’t be authentic and genuine. But I recognise the way I say something is as important as what I say.
“When I go on TV, I put on a costume and when that red light goes on, I don’t want people changing the channel.”
Lalas’ audacious approach is a bit of a leap from the English-style NBC coverage that rose to prominence a few years ago. A number of ex-Premier League players headed Stateside and made names for themselves, such as Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe — while having decent careers in England, neither was a household name when playing for Wimbledon and Middlesbrough respectively.
GO DEEPER
Access all areas at NBC: Three Premier League games, a Winnebago and tactical sushi
The pair, who have their own podcast called The 2 Robbies, gave NBC’s coverage a familiar feel alongside commentator Arlo White and pundit Lee Dixon, while former Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham is another face of the channel having moved Stateside. “What we’ve tried to do from the start is talk in a normal way about football,” Earle told The Guardian in 2017. An underrated concept.
Fox Sports also employ recognisable names from UK TV coverage including commentator (sorry, ‘play-by-play announcer’) Ian Darke, former Newcastle defender Warren Barton and ex-Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves. Fox also use Mark Clattenburg as a refereeing analyst.
Undoubtedly the most renowned U.S. soccer coverage, though, is on CBS Sports via its hugely popular Golazo Champions League show, complete with the instantly recognisable line-up of Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher, whose on-screen chemistry make them a social media staple on every matchday.
Left to right: Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards have been a hit on CBS (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Pete Radovich, the coordinating producer of the UEFA Champions League coverage on CBS Sports, told The Athletic in September on how he came to realise that the network’s Champions League Today studio now owns the global conversation on major nights of European football.
“Thierry Henry, in no uncertain terms, says he gets asked more about CBS now than Arsenal,” he said. “That to me is wild.”
The show’s razor-sharp use of social media and its mix of humour, analysis and engaging post-match interviews with managers and players is a winning formula, while most importantly the quartet’s camaraderie feels natural, warm and unforced.
Americans showing the world how to make excellent football soccer coverage? It’s a brave new world.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)
Sports
Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines calls out ‘deranged’ co-hosts of ‘The View’ over Capitol Hill bathroom ban
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines blasted the co-hosts of “The View” on Wednesday, calling them “deranged” and “out of touch” after they spoke out in defense of Delaware Rep.-elect Sarah McBride over a resolution that would ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol.
Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer who has publicly spoken out against trans inclusion in women’s and girls sports and advocated for protecting women’s spaces, posted a message on X calling out the group for speaking out on an issue that does not directly impact them.
Former competitve swimmer Riley Gaines speaks during a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump at Desert Diamond Arena on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona. The rally, held in partnership with Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action, came two weeks after Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Vice President Harris held a rally at the same location. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
“I wonder if the deranged, out-of-touch women on The View would be comfortable letting Mr. McBride change in a locker room inches away from their own daughters,” she wrote in a post on X which accompanied a clip of the show.
“It never matters until it affects you personally.”
Gaines competed against former UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete, at the NCAA championships in 2022, where she said the NCAA had opted to give Thomas the fifth-place trophy for the “photo op” despite them tying in the women’s 200 freestyle.
Thomas would go on to win a national title in the women’s 500 freestyle.
Gaines was responding to a segment of Tuesday’s episode of “The View” where the co-hosts reacted to a resolution by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol in response to McBride, the first openly transgender federal lawmaker set to join Congress in January.
RILEY GAINES REPEATEDLY TEARS INTO AOC FOR TAKING PRONOUNS OUT OF X BIO AFTER ADVOCATING FOR TRANS ATHLETES
“I don’t understand how this is [Mace’s] welcome to someone who is coming to make a difference in the country,” Whoopi Goldberg said.
Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., poses for a photograph after joining other congressional freshmen of the 119th Congress for a group photograph on the steps of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol Building on Nov. 15, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“It’s not a welcome, it’s flipping her the middle finger. Because she is the one person in the House that this will affect,” Sara Haines responded, adding, “And this woman that came and sat at our table is one of the most decent, amazing politicians I’ve ever seen. Her messaging resounded across the boards.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in, calling the attempt to ban McBride “gross.”
“It is a new member of Congress, who ran as a centrist democrat, talked about issues – pocketbook issues. She said at our table ‘I am not a spokesperson for my community. I’m running to deliver for Delaware.’ And Nancy Mace is trying to goad her into a fight she did not sign up to be part of. She’s trying to pigeonhole her into ‘You have to be this culture warrior, who makes this your whole identity’ purely because Nancy Mace doesn’t like how she chooses to exist.”
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) arrives for a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on November 19, 2024, in Washington, DC. Mace introduced legislation that would require House members and staffers from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Gaines said in a separate post on X Wednesday that she would be “happy” to join “The View” for a conversation after disagreeing with Goldberg’s numbers regarding trans athletes competing in public schools.
Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
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Sports
Freddie Freeman grand slam ball to be auctioned. Could bring 'life-changing money' for Venice family
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for Zachary Ruderman.
He’s the 10-year-old Dodgers fan who ended up with one of the most significant baseballs in team history — the one his favorite player, first baseman Freddie Freeman, hit for a walk-off grand slam during the 10th inning in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series against the New York Yankees.
Since then, Zachary has seemingly become one of the most famous people living in Venice.
“It’s a lot more attention than my son has ever had,” his father, Nico Ruderman, said. “He’s spoken to so many media outlets, so many interviews. People recognize him. I mean, literally everywhere we go people stop him and want to take pictures with him. He’s really actually been loving it. It’s been a fun experience for him.”
That experience is entering a new phase. On Wednesday, SCP Auctions announced the ball will be up for bid from Dec. 4-14. Coming just weeks after the Dodgers won their eighth World Series championship — with Freeman hitting four home runs and winning MVP honors, all on a badly sprained ankle — SCP founder and president David Kohler said his company thinks “the sky’s the limit” for what the auction could bring.
“We think this is gonna bring seven figures,” Kohler said. “We think it’s one of the most historic baseballs ever, with the moment of this World Series, the first walk-off grand slam, the whole story of Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers, Game 1, extra innings. Just everything about it. I mean, it’s one of the most historic moments in sports and we feel that people are going to appreciate that.”
Last month, Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball was sold by Goldin Auctions for a record $4.4 million. Could the Freeman ball be worth even more than that?
Zachary Ruderman holds up Freddie Freeman’s grand slam ball with his parents, Nico and Anne, at his side.
(Courtesy of Nico Ruderman)
“It could be. You never know,” Kohler said. “We’re gonna find out. Certainly the Ohtani ball was very, very significant and Ohtani is beloved, but this is more of the history of the game of baseball and just the moment — seeing that happen was just incredible.”
Zachary, along with his father and mother Anne, were part of that moment. After Freeman blasted his game-winning shot into the right-field pavilion, the ball rolled next to Zachary’s feet. The fifth-grader batted it over to his father, who pounced on it, stood up and handed it back to his son.
“They’re just amazing memories,” Zachary said Thursday, looking back on that night. “Like after we got it, no one was mad. No one was trying to take it from us. Everyone was just super happy.”
His father added: “We just feel so lucky and honored to be a small part of such a huge moment in Dodger history.”
The experience was so special that at first the family had no intention of parting with the ball.
“That night when we caught it we were like, ‘We’re gonna keep this forever,’” Ruderman said. “The problem is, if we keep it, we’re not gonna keep it in our house. I don’t want to pay for the insurance for it, so it would just be locked up in some safety deposit box. Nobody would ever see it.
Zachary Ruderman holds his Freddie Freeman grand slam ball while posing with L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park at City Hall.
(Nico Ruderman)
“Maybe [the auction] brings life-changing money and pays for education for our son, and also allows somebody with the resources to actually display it and show it to the world. We’re really hoping that whoever buys it agrees to display it at Dodger Stadium for some time so everybody can see it. That’s really our wish.”
Even with all the incredible experiences he’s had because of the ball — including his favorite, speaking in front of Los Angeles City Council at City Hall and receiving a certificate of congratulations from Councilmember Traci Park earlier this month — Zachary said he’s “really excited” about the auction.
“It’s probably going to be a pretty fun experience,” Zachary said.
“We’ve had our fun with the ball,” his father added. “At this point he cares more about the memories, the pictures. He loves reading all the articles and watching all the news stories about it. That’s what’s fun for him, not the item itself.”
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