And-Ones: SLAM, 40 Under 40, Howard, Foster

SLAM founder Dennis Page and his now 30-year-old magazine earned the Curt Gowdy Transformative Media Award as part of the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year, reports Jason Jones of The Athletic.

The magazine was a major cultural force in the 1990s, and supplied a fresh, unique voice in the basketball media space. SLAM has sold over 300 million copies across its three decades of life thus far.

“We were really on the outside of the party looking in, and we just told people the party sucked,” Tony Gervino, the publication’s first editor-in-chief, said. “That’s why we were on the outside. We got into it, then we sort of roughed it up a bit.”

There’s more from around the basketball world:

• An exciting youth movement is afoot in the NBA. Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic lists 40 contemporary coaches, front office executives, managers, and influencers who are under 40 years old and are among the most important or influential figures in the game.
• A sexual assault lawsuit filed in Georgia against former eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard was dismissed by accuser Stephen Harper, reports Baxter Holmes of ESPN. Harper received no money to relinquish the suit, Howard’s lawyer Justin Bailey told Holmes. The suit stemmed from a 2021 encounter, which Howard maintained was consensual.
• Former Sixers and G League power forward Michael Foster Jr., now playing for Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico, will suit up for the G League United in a pair of exhibition matches against Serbian club Mega Basket next month, the G League has announced (via Twitter).