For someone that doesn’t care too much about the Jazz, I’ve sure been writing about them a lot this year. From a sales perspective, my guess is that the star of this issue will be Chris Paul, as on a national level he is the more popular of these two great point guards. But from a SLAM history perspective, the big deal is that a player from the Utah Jazz is finally on a SLAM cover. Hey, who said we don’t listen to our readers?
At the moment, this dope issue, featuring two awesome—and inextricably linked—players who didn’t make it onto our six-cover extravaganza last month, is only on sale in the rarest of Manhattan spots now, but you know we still like you to see your SLAM covers here first. The cover stories are mainly q+a’s, which were written by veteran Lang (CP) and newcomer Ryne (DW). Because Chris and Deron are a little sick of the comparisons, and because we deemed them each worthy of their own cover (even if it’s the same month), Lang and Ryne spent their respective stories sticking mainly to big-upping their subject, which I was in favor of. However, these guys are also regular sports fans who like to debate, and in the weeks since they turned their stories in, they’ve been going back and forth about which player is better. Come back here Friday, by which point this issue should have started to show up nationally, as Lang and Ryne will unveil their e-debate on the topic.
P.S. I see you, Matt the Jazz Fan.
P.P.S. Pre-empting the business questions: both covers will be sold at newsstands everywhere, including overseas. I’m not sure if we have the ability to see who out-sells who, but if we do I’ll try and fill everyone in down the road when we get the numbers. Subscribers will be divided evenly: 50 percent getting Chris and 50 percent Deron, totally by luck. If you don’t like the one you get, trade it to another SLAM fan via our site. Or just go to simbackissues.com, click on SLAM and buy the one you want.
