Welcome To The Revolution

by Lang Whitaker

OK, so it’s not a revolution so much, more like an uprising. But that’s hyperbole, that’s SLAM. And when it’s late at night and I’m watching The Devil Wears Prada and I’ve got jury duty first thing in the morning, this is what you get.

At some point Monday morning, a very wise and talented man named Johnathan who sits around the corner and down the hall from the SLAM Dome will enter a few simple keystrokes on his huge screen Mac and, just like that, you guys will see the latest changes here at SLAMonline.com.

Wait a second, you’re probably not thinking, they just changed the website a year ago! Yes, we did, and back then we made a pretty drastic change, completely scrapping the old site and going to a WordPress-based system that basically set all of writers up as bloggers. After a few initial tweaks we had it going pretty well by the end of the summer, and hopefully you guys will agree with me that SLAMonline became a much more fun experience this season. Not only was there a lot more content, but it was way more interactive thanks to the commenting sections (but mostly thanks to Chukaz and Ryan Jones).

Well, we ain’t finished. Beside changing up some colors and banners and little visual things, we wanted more stuff. Meaning, we want more articles and rumors and content for you guys to gnaw over.

To meet that goal, the first call we made was to Marcel Mutoni. When the NBA blogosphere started bustling a few years ago, Mutoni sort of led the way, first with his blog Mutoni’s Musings and then on Bench Renaldo. We liked his work on those blogs so much that we offered him his own slot here on SLAMonline, where he chimed in throughout the year. Because he wasn’t busy enough, he also started blogging for the behemoth that is AOL’s Fanhouse.

Well, we liked Marcel. Enough to hire him. After some protracted, Kobe-esque negotiations (and some international phone tag while I was in San Antonio and Marcel was in Canada), we signed him to the SLAM Team. So, beginning today, Marcel’s going to be scouring the news wires every day, posting the latest news and rumors several times each day. Every day. Here on SLAMonline.com.

To bring in his new column — The SLAM Wire — we’ve redesigned the homepage of SLAMonline, so Mutoni’s latest posts will always be front and center. The rest of us will still be doing our respective things as much as ever, and you can always find the latest posts on the homepage.

Have fun with it. We’re still growing, trying to get better, hoping to improve. And we’ll keep trying, too. Later.