This week Andy welcomes another longtime friend to the Legends Of Sport podcast, Chicago native and legendary sports journalist, author and cultural critic, Robert “Scoop” Jackson! Scoop has covered issues of race, culture, politics, and sports for various publications for more than 25 years. He is widely respected by athletes and his peers, and in 2007, received honorable mention for Best American Sports Writer.
Andy and Scoop first met back in the ‘90s on the NBA beat. In this first episode of a two-part series, hear them talk about Scoop joining SLAM Magazine in the mid-90’s (shortly after Michael Jordan’s first retirement), the cultural connectivity between basketball & hip-hop, Dennis Page’s vision for SLAM Magazine to “tell the story of playground basketball”, the genesis of his role at SLAM, fellow Legends Of Sport podcast guest photographer Atiba Jefferson (who has shot the most SLAM covers in history), Scoop remembers a photo shoot with Shaq & Andy, Shaq posing for Andy’s family Hanukkah card, and how his special relationship with Allen Iverson began. Check back next week for part 2 of this great conversation!
Other Topics Discussed in this Episode:
3:10 Scoop’s start as a basketball writer and the launch of SLAM Magazine
5:33 Intersection of hip hop, fashion and NBA culture
8:27 SLAM Founder and Publisher Dennis Page’s vision for the magazine
11:03 How Scoop landed his role SLAM
18:12 Photographer Atiba Jefferson
20:49 Scoop recalls the time he crashed Andy’s photo shoot with Shaquille O’Neal
24:10 Scoop’s relationship with Allen Iverson and his SLAM cover story
29:55 Scoop’s first meeting with AI and unexpected encounter with Coach John Thompson
