For the very few not aware of SLAM, how can you describe the magazine and its many features that capture your readers’ lifestyle?

Ben Osborne – SLAM magazine: First and foremost we appeal to basketball fans, regardless of their lifestyle. By covering high school’s rising stars, the biggest names in college, loads of NBA players and then all the greats of all-time in our Old-School features, our first priority is making sure there is something for every person, regardless of age, who loves basketball. That said, you’re right that there is a lifestyle element; for as long as I’ve been following basketball it has been connected to the larger culture in terms of music, fashion and footwear. We connect to that primarily with our footwear coverage, which you can find in every issue in our KICKS and Status sections (where we featured T.WayCustoms, I might add), as well as on Slamonline.com where we run a fresh new shoe every day in our Kick of the Day section. Our fashion coverage has come and gone depending on space but we still get some fashion ads and we often shoot players off-court in their clothes, so there is a fashion connection. And finally, popular music, particularly hip-hop, has a place in the magazine as far as serving as inspiration for headlines and language in the stories. We listen to the music, as do the players we write about and most of our readers, so why not make reference to it?

How could you describe your duties as editor-in-chief on a daily and weekly basis?

They are pretty thorough because we have a smallish staff. Magazine-wise, I call and lead meetings before we start working on every issue. I decide every single story that is going to run in the magazine and usually discuss said story with the writer at some point while they’re working on it. Then when stories come in I edit every one in Word, help come up with headlines and then make corrections in InDesign before we ship the stories out to the printer. Along with our Executive Editor (Lang Whitaker), Senior Editor (Khalid Salaam) and Publisher (Dennis Page), I come up with cover lines to accompany our cover photos. The above are monthly duties. On a daily basis I deal with our publisher on different projects with our advertisers and, lately, spend a LOT of time on our website (Slamonline.com). We do have a full-time Online Editor (Ryne Nelson), but it’s a lot of work so I help him decide what stories to feature and I try and clean up stories as they go up. We also want to be very accessible to our readers, so I make a point to go on the site, read every story, and comment whenever possible, as does most everyone on the staff. I don’t know how I could prove something like this, but I have to believe the readers like the fact that the editors of this magazine and website they love actually come and comment/chat with them, and many readers actually email with me on a pretty regular basis, which is helpful to me and I hope cool for them.

Describe the path you had to take for the opportunity you’re in today with SLAM, including your education background.

Attended Mamaroneck HS about 20 miles north of Manhattan…played baseball/basketball/football but knew I had no future as a player and was actually pretty good at English and loved to read. I went to George Washington University in D.C. and hooked up with the school paper and literally worked there from my first to last day of college, the last two years as a co-sports editor. As a senior I also worked 1-2 nights/week as a NewsAide in the Washington Post sports department, which was an incredible experience. I probably could’ve stayed at the Post but I was moving back to NY after graduation so I applied at pretty much any media outlet you could think of that was based here and covered sports. Baseball and basketball were—and still are—definitely my two favorite sports, but I just wanted to be in sports Journalism so I reached out to like every paper here, every magazine that was at all interesting to me and just was like “I’m moving back home…This is my resume, this is who I’ve worked for, I’ll do anything.” SLAM (which I’d love ever since I’d bought the first issue in the fall of ’94 and felt like it was the first magazine to speak to young bball fans) called me soon after and they’d had a summer intern who had totally flaked, and had disappeared. The EIC at the time, Tony Gervino had transcribing that needed done on some project he was doing with Reebok, so they were like “If you can get in, it’s five dollars an hour, work like the next three days and if we like you, you’re our new intern.” That was in the summer of ’97, and in one form or another I’ve been here ever since. I took a little hiatus for a little while, lived in Puerto Rico with my fiancé; worked on XXL and then helped start up KING, both of which are done by this company. I wrote a book about the minor-league baseball team the Brooklyn Cyclones, but this whole time I was at least freelancing for SLAM, if not on the full-time editorial staff. Eventually I was offered the Editor-in-Chief position in December of ’06 and “my” first issue came out in January of ‘07.

What are some of the greatest perks of your job?

Getting paid to watch, read about and write about basketball is awesome. I can go to pretty much any game I’d like in person, and that’s included some amazing NBA Playoff and Finals games as well as six All-Star Games. I come into work and we argue about LeBron vs. Kobe, or Team USA’s chances to win gold, or whatever. Basically the same stuff I’d talk about with friends. I’ve also gotten to work with some unique and talented writers (Rus Bradburd, Scoop Jackson, Alan Paul, Dave Zirin, just to name a few that come to mind right away), which is a thrill for someone like me who loves good sportswriting. Lastly, the free kicks are a pretty nice perk; wearing size 9.5 in this industry is a good look.

List your Top-5 all-time NBA players AND your Top-5 music albums of all time. Ready. Go!

I’m going FAVORITES here, not my opinion of best. Favorite basketball player of all time is Mark Jackson, which I bet is not the answer you expected, but it’s true. Mark is my man. Beyond that I always loved MJ and Pippen on the Bulls, so put them at numbers 2 and 3. 4th was Stephon for a long time, but he has done so many dumb things recently that it’s hard to still have love for him. Let’s leave the 4th slot open. 5th is my favorite current guy: LeBron James. I can’t see Mark ever giving up that number-1 slot on my list, but LeBron could easily reach number 2. Truth is, I think he will end up retiring as the best player ever, and when you combine that with the flair he plays with and the passing skills he possesses I can’t help but root for him.

Much as I like music, and considering all the different genres I like, I never really thought of my 5 favorite albums, but I’ll give it a shot by breaking up my favorites…Reggae: Bob Marley’s Natty Dread; The album that made me fall in love with rap: Run-DMC’s Raising Hell; My favorite relatively current (this millennium) hip-hop album: Jay-Z’s Blueprint; the R&B tape I played so much as a young teen (mainly to impress girls who have never heard of the group) that the tape wore through: Guy’s Guy; Classic old-school album that will be good for eternity: Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book.

Outside of work & the office, what are some of your passions and hobbies?

They’ve shrunk a lot since my wife and I had a daughter last fall. She’s now almost 10 months and watching and playing with her is totally amazing, albeit quite time consuming. I watch tons of basketball, but I guess that sort of counts as work. Since I haven’t done anything professional related to baseball in almost four years, I’ll consider all the baseball I watch a hobby. I also love to read (anything good, regardless of whether it’s a newspaper, magazine, book or online) and listen to music. The two sports I play for fun, both of which I love and wish I had more time for, are basketball and golf.

What are your most memorable experiences, issues, or articles from your SLAM experience?

Two of my most memorable experiences each took place in the United Center, which I guess isn’t that weird since I was certainly a big Michael Jordan and Bulls fan. The first was when I attended my first Finals game, which was Game 3 of the 98 Finals. The Bulls won by like 40. Not a great game, per se, but it was extremely exciting to be there with my co-worker Russ Bengtson and have my little camera, taking pictures of the then-5 trophies painted on the wall and walking on the court. Really, all Finals games are awesome because of the intensity in the building. All-Star weekends are more about the parties and the fun; Finals games are dramatic. So then the other big experience came nine years later, this past fall, when I was one of about 25 media members invited to the unveiling of the Jordan XX3, which was held in the United Center and which Mike himself showed up. Tremendous experience. Most memorable issue has to be my first as Editor-in-Chief; we put LeBron on the cover posed as the logo and I was really proud of how that turned out. That issue also had an Old-School feature on Charles Barkley, which was great, and Russ’ story on an imaginary dunk contest with all the greatest dunkers participating. I just felt like it was a great issue and I was proud to announce my arrival as e-i-c with that one. Article-wise, I feel thankful to say I have done so many it’s hard to remember them all, but it’s true. Of course, some stand out. …Mark Jackson favorite, Lamar Odom first cover story and a joy to interview, Iverson cover story, some older guys like Chris Mullin, Terrell Brandon and Michael Dickerson.

Growing up, what did you dream to be? And have any of those come true in any form?

Original dream was to be a pro athlete, which didn’t come close to being true, but the second dream was to write about pro sports for a living, and that has, so I feel very fortunate.

ddd dddddd

What other goals & objectives might you have for your future in this career?

First priority is maintaining SLAM’s relevance in print as the number-one basketball magazine in the world, and the second priority is making our website the number-one basketball website in the world.

What advice could you give someone preparing to go into college or is just finishing and is preparing to search for their dream career?

I would certainly recommend that they pick that dream career before college. Not that you can’t change your mind and do great things at any point in your life, but I think that going into college with a clear goal allows you to spend your time in college working towards it so that when you graduate you are already well-versed and well-trained in said career.

Does SLAM offer opportunities such as internships or part-time positions that could allow for someone to get their foot in the door? If so, how would someone accomplish doing so?

We do offer internships and that’s how I got my start. Some other SLAM interns have included Bonsu Thompson (former XXL Magazine Music Editor and major freelancer), Vanessa Satten (current XXL Magazine Deputy Editor), Spero Dedes (LA Lakers radio announcer) and a lot of other talented folks. We are booked for the moment with two people for this fall as far as working in the office, but people who have some knowledge of SLAM and journalism and think they’d be a good fit should reach out to me directly (bosborne@harris-pub.com) some time in the fall. We also may have room for “remote internships” where people assist our online editor, Ryne Nelson, with various duties. Ryne’s not looking for help right now, either, but if anyone out there is familiar with Slamonline and eager to help out without necessarily moving to New York, they should email Ryne at ryne@harris-pub.com in the future.

Any last minute plugs or motivational quotes to leave us with?

Subscribe to SLAM! Buy KICKS and our special Olympic issue on newsstands! Read Slamonline!
Besides my shameless plugs, and at the risk of sounding real corny, I’ll say this: follow your dreams and work your ass off and good things will happen. Thanks Tyler!

If you'd like to nominate or bring to our attention an artist or individual that has a passion for what they do & work tirelessly towards it, we’d like to know. Write a description of the who, what, where, how, and why to us at morewords@twaycustoms.net.