Originally published in SLAM 122
The 6th Man: While most of the adults I idolized as a kid were athletes, I looked up to sports writers as well. One of these writers was Rick Telander, a former DI college football player who was a regular presence in the ā80s in Sports Illustrated, the veritable bible of my childhood. Iād later read Rickās stuff in the Chicago Sun-Times (where he was, and still is, that cityās greatest sports columnist) and in his less-frequent appearances in SI and ESPN the Magazine. Rick got cool with SLAMās Chi-based former Editor-at-Large, Scoop Jackson, and that led to his becoming a very public supporter of SLAM at a time when many in the āestablishmentā could barely contain their sneers at our young staff.
I hooked up with Rick when we spoke in the late-ā90s about the NBAās heinous airbrushing of an Allen Iverson photo, and we stayed in touch since. Sometime in there I read Rickās book, Heaven is a Playground, and said to myself, This should be in SLAM. That innocent thought crystallized last winter when Rick and I talked about the passing of Rodney Parker, a Godfather of New York Cityās basketball scene and the main character in Heaven. Rick realized with amazement that it was coming up on 35 years since heād first come to Brooklyn to report on its basketball stars. The book, which holds up beautifully, was adapted to a movie in ā91 and has been re-released several times, but itās never been excerpted like this. Rickās and my hope is that his brand-new intro and lengthy excerpt (which begin on pg. 70) give life to the book and knowledge to SLAMās younger readers, who should love a glimpse into the past of the gameāand cultureāthey cherish. Iāll have a lot more about Rick and Heaven on my Slamonline blog, Continuing Ed., while Ricktelander.com should be your source for ordering the book. Enjoy.
Peace,
Ben Osborne
P.S. The above notwithstanding, weāve got love for the future, too. Peep the cover story on this yearās tremendous rookie class (pg. 54) for proof.