‘SLAM’ editor explains ‘the process’ behind remaking iconic Allen Iverson cover with Joel Embiid

Every so often, SLAM Magazine recreates an old cover with a new player. When the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Ben Simmons No. 1 overall over the summer, SLAM pegged him as the second coming of four-time MVP LeBron James.

It wasn’t the first time, and it surely won’t be be the last.

The hoops-centric publication took it a step further this week, though, when it unveiled cover No. 207 — the Joel Embiid edition. But this particular rendition was a recreation of the iconic 1999 “Soul on Ice” Allen Iverson SLAM cover, which hangs as a poster in many rooms across the nation.

The 76ers rookie center took the NBA by storm this season, averaging over 20 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game. Embiid, though, had battled nagging injuries for much of the year, and a partially torn meniscus ended his season after just 31 games.

Fittingly, SLAM’s editor-in-chief, Adam Figman, called getting the Sixers’ star big man onto the cover “a process,” one that he detailed in an interview with SB Nation on Tuesday.

“We remake covers every once in awhile. There have been countless. Early in the summer, we did Ben Simmons as the early LeBron cover. Where LeBron is wearing the SLAM headband. ... It was a very similar shoot. That was the classic Simmons as LeBron. Then we did the classic Karl-Anthony Towns as Kevin Garnett. And that was my first as [editor in chief], and that was in September.

“I don’t think we’ve redone another cover since then. We like to do it every few months where we just nod back to a previous cover to show some respect. But also the young guy has to kind of either earn it with hype or earn it with their play, or some combo of the two. So Simmons made sense, Karl Towns made sense.

“And then there was some chatter late in the summer, because that Iverson cover is our most iconic cover. I would say that that is pretty much the case without a question. We thought about it. And then he started playing well. And it was kind of on the table. One of the former editors-in-chief of SLAM kind of mentioned it to me at a party, almost offhand. Almost as a joke, really. This was before Embiid was really showing out.

“And then the winter hit and there was that streak where he had double-doubles seemingly every other night. The Sixers were on some crazy win streak — at least for them, crazy. They were all of a sudden talking about making a playoff push. And it was like whoa, we should discuss this Embiid cover. And as soon as it was Embiid cover on the table, it was like ‘we have to redo that [Allen Iverson] cover.’ There’s no more recognizable SLAM cover, and I think while we could remake any old cover with any young star, the connection for this one was too perfect.

“I mean, Iverson and Embiid do have a real relationship. Iverson loves Embiid, he’s tweeted about him a couple times when there was All-Star voting. And really, the main point is Embiid is putting this energy back into Philly nobody’s done since Iverson. It’s too perfect in that sense.

“I could see why some people would call it a stretch, or blasphemous or a reach, but I really don’t think it is. You go to these games, and there’s a real energy about the Sixers, at least while Embiid was playing that I don’t think you got while they were a middling team in the late-2000s and while they were a terrible team for the past couple years. Now all of the sudden, there’s this hope. And it’s like real hope, it’s not like ‘Oh, maybe we could go on a little run.’ It’s real, long-term hope.

So yeah, if we’re gonna crown Embiid anything, if we’re gonna put him on a cover, it was almost like an elephant in the room to redo that Iverson cover.”

“I did reach out to Allen Iverson’s people. I would have loved for him to have been there. But schedules just didn’t align and we just couldn’t make that happen. That would have been really amazing.

“At first, we were actually gonna shoot this on the road. And then I knew it was really impossible. And then that shoot got moved, it was just a scheduling matter. Then we did it in Philly then I reached back out to Iverson’s people. They actually enjoyed the idea. From what I’ve heard, Iverson has seen our Embiid cover and enjoys it. And so they were totally cool with it. There were no issues as far as that goes.

“But we couldn’t get them in the same room sadly. I wasn’t reaching out for clearance, as much as for courtesy. Allen is a friend of the SLAM family, so I did wanna kind of get him on board in any way possible.”

“One of his people told me that he thought about it, but it’s just not him. SLAM’s entire existence is, we just want the players to be themselves. We don’t force them to smile. We don’t force them to scowl. We don’t really force them to do anything. We kind of put them in front of a camera and say, ‘Hey, just be yourself.’ So if he didn’t wanna wear a huge chain, I didn’t wanna show up with a chain and hand it to him and say, ‘Hey, can you wear this?’ It was on the table, if he wanted to do that, we certainly would have allowed it.

“A few people had mentioned that on Twitter, that it’s not the same without the chains. But, also, people dress differently now. And not everyone is Allen Iverson.”

“I think he trusted us to do the right thing with the cover and produce a nice cover package, so he was super easy to work with. I mean, he was great with the photographer. We arranged him, like physically, the same way that Allen stood in front of the camera for SLAM 32 with the ball kind of on his right side in that pose. And yeah, I guess if you weren’t willing to work with us, it could make for this awkward situation of not wanting to stand like that.

“But he was totally cool with it, he knew what we were doing, he was totally into it. He was great. He was playful, he jokes around in a good way. He cracks jokes and dances and all that.”

“He was starting to miss games when we shot it, but we figured he’d be back. Then we shot it and the magazine was off to the printer and then it was announced that he was done for the year. We could’ve pulled it earlier and decided we weren’t going to risk it, but really it wasn’t even a basketball decision -- we’ve already seen enough to know that Embiid is going to carry the torch in Philly. So we rolled the dice and it didn’t work out, but we’re still happy with it. I think the cover looks great and am not really embarrassed that it’s hitting newsstands with him having been declared out for the season since he’s already had such a notable 30-something games. Plus his entire story is so amazing. But the short answer is yeah, we were too far along by then.”

“I don’t know what it was like when he first found out. I know he certainly said yes pretty quickly. And, he’s very stoic. He doesn’t, despite his social media output and how entertaining he can be on the court — and we’ve all seen him dance and all that — he actually keeps a straight face most of the time, and he doesn’t get super emotional. So it’s hard to tell. We took the pictures, and he kind of looks at the computers and sees some of the pictures, and he gave like a half smile, and the Sixers PR guy was like, ‘OK, he loves this.’ A half smile is more than most can get out of him.

“And then it’s funny, I was back in Philly two days later to go to a game, and I saw the trainer Drew Hanlen. And he said that as soon as the shoot ended, he got a FaceTime call from Joel, and Joel was like, ‘Yo, it was so great. It was amazing.’ Which was funny because when I was standing next to Joel during the shoot, you would never really know that was his reaction because he keeps his emotions in check and he’s so stoic. But he definitely enjoyed himself.”