Can I live on my last day?

By Sam Rubenstein

Hello there! Today is my LAST DAY as the online editor for SLAM Magazine. It is a big day indeed. We have lots planned. Let’s see… there’s my bon voyage feast. Um, I’ll be getting some kick of the day posts ready, forwarding some emails to Ryne… not much else going on really. Lang and I are supposed to play Madden this afternoon as my send off, since we barely spoke to each other when I first started until we started playing Madden. Yesterday he joked about how we should do shots at work. Well, since you can’t be there with us, this is for all you readers out there from me to you.

The shot glass is courtesy of Managing Editor Susan Price. It’s got a picture on it of Kobe’s mug shot. She bought it at the airport on her way home from New Orleans a few years ago. What can I say, I’m a class act.

Anyways, here’s your emotional moment of goodbye. At some point I realized Slamonline is not so much about basketball, as it’s about the people who care about basketball, an extended family of sorts. Awwwwwwwww.

4 years and change ago I was psyched as a Knicks fan to have landed a gig where I could potentially experience all of those magical MSG playoff moments in person. Three people came to the Madison Square Garden area in a basketball related capacity in a short period of time together. Isiah Thomas, Stephon Marbury, and myself. I win! But thanks for ruining my NBA team fandom, ya jerks.

And now it is time for the “liner notes” shoutouts. Thank you to the following people for making the past 4 years so much fun. In no particular order, but definitely beginning with Lang the big southern brother I never had, Ben the serious guy in a world of goofballs, Khalid who showed me that a black Muslim and white Jew can be into rap music and Seinfeld equally, Susan the most patient person in the history of the universe, Melissa a tireless worker whom I know every little single possible detail about just from overhearing, Monique who put up with a messy person that murmurs and curses to himself, Steve-o the future president/illustrator for the New Jersey board of commerce, Konate who steals all of my fashion ideas, Mutoni the hardest working man in the “NBA player name has been blank” business, Holly the queen of exclamation points!, Lisa “Banners” Case, Mr. Anderson, the Brightman, Russ who showed me it’s okay to let your beard and personal opinions get out of hand, Ryan who taught me that if you use heavy enough sarcasm you can directly insult people to their face and they won’t know if they should be offended or not, all the contributors: Emry, Vince, Jake, my mom’s favorite writer Omar, Stephen Litel, Jeff Fox, Goody, the enigmatic Ben Collins, Jon Weiner, Aggrey “distant #2” Sam, Alan Paul, Etan Thomas, Matt Caputo, Sammy Newman-Beck, longtime pen pal and one time conversationalist Myles Brown, Nathaniel Friedman sans nickname, Cub Buenning, Clement Chu, Jonny Mann, Bobak!, all of the O.G.s if you will, Spiro, Pitt, Dennis, anyone that brings in $$$, Jenny Drama, everyone in the baseball fantasy league and softball team especially the girls from those scary gun and knife magazines who apparently carry knives with them at all times (Claudia), everyone on the business side of the office, the receptionists, everyone at the deli downstairs and all food servers in the area, all the commenters, and anyone else I forgot.

Well, I guess this is goodbye until I randomly pop up in the future. Bye!