SLAM 132: On Sale Now!

by Lang Whitaker The last time Carmelo Anthony was on a solo SLAM cover was SLAM issue 105, back in the Winter of 2007. He was playing great, the Nuggets were looking up, and it seemed like it was time to highlight how he was finally growing up a little bit. The day we got copies of that issue into the SLAM office, the Nuggets were in NYC, so I went down to the Garden to give Melo a few copies. I had dinner plans that evening and couldn’t stay for the game, so I swung by for the pregame. Gave Melo some issues, caught up with him for a minute, told him to keep playing well so we’d look smart, and then I headed out for dinner. A few hours later, Carmelo punched Mardy Collins and got a 15 game suspension, just in time for SLAM 105 to hit newsstands. Figuring out a SLAM cover isn’t an exact science. We try to mix it up between the LeBrons and Kobes and Wades and the guys who’ve never been on a cover before, like we did with college kids like Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose. And in between...