Welcome back to the dribble and downs podcast before we serve up another Hoops journey. I wanted to put you up on game. If you haven't heard anchors the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain is free 99. No subscription. No random fees all free. They've got ill creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast straight from your phone or computer anchor also distributes your podcast for you. So anyone on Spotify Apple podcastGoogle Play and a whole bunch of other audio platforms can hear what you're working with. You can also make that guap from your podcast and get this no minimum listenership required. So whether you've got three people or three million people listening the dollars continue to flow real talk, it's everything you need to make a podcast all in one place Go download the free anchor app today or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started. You gotta I'll handle the rock with flavoring Rhythm. If you want to be judged on would rain and concrete courts in New York the say no minimum God. It's dribbling times. We're scoring never looked this good. I guarantee it. What was your reputation built from the playground up? What did you call next? And they took that ish all cause you want as fast as police and ambulance sirens or as loud as mr. Softee ice cream. No you see this. There's New York City hoops and Primetime as beautiful as the skyline. It's dribbling down. At an early age our guests recalls immersing himself into basketball through the pages of Slant Magazine in parallel. He became more dedicated to honing his skills in the park. He peaked early and by the end of his middle school years. So to came the Slowdown of his serious on-court exploits. He never let up on his Hoops fanaticism. He revered MBA Like Allen Iverson Kobe Bryant and so on never missing a beat on all things basketball culture as luck would have it. He found his way into Harris Publications and became a part of the Slam Magazine family as a salesperson. He made a name for himself and earned a solid reputation throughout the company after a series of interesting corporate shuffles. He partnered with slam founder Dennis page and another associate to outright five slam and set it on a new and exciting course on this. Episode of dribble and dimes we hear the basketball story of Slam media Inc. Partner and CEO. Oh David Schnur, it's your boy Manny digital. Welcome to another episode of dribble and dimes. I happen to be sitting and slam Magazine's offices. Very very happy to be with our guest today. He is the CEO of slammed and seems to be such a cool. Cool cat West The native. Yes, sir. Career slam guy. Yes 11 years and counting loving you. That's a mr. David Schneider is voiced by the way, if you're not familiar David, thank you very much for joining us here forever whole podcast first podcast. Where is happy to be here? Hey, I appreciate that. You picked us as you're jumping off point. Yes, it fits dribbling down. I'm slam. You know, I love it makes sense. I love it. So, um, this is our first call it me. Media interview right with a media entity. Yep. And as I Was preparing for this interview, you know, I caught a lot of flashbacks slam being you know, the basketball Bible by many people standards and my personal viewpoint on it as well. I just recalled all the different moments, right? I mean from like Felipe that era when you're rough it right around with magazine kind of jumped off the a 94 Will you know when you had like the Kobe's and Vince Carter's and those guys on the cover? I tell you like I've related a lot to slam. Sorry slam to the source mag, right but hip-hop like the mini slam is the basketball version of it. What made you how did you fall into slam? So slant I've just been a lifelong slam reader and fan like I mentioned you before I started reading Slammers when I was probably 9 or 10 years old. Old and really just fell in love with it from the beginning everything that I represent it from, you know, the swag of the players on the covers and the inside posters and the hip-hop language and the sneakers and at the time I was really getting into playing basketball so that kind of just took my love for the game to another level but you you jumped in from a career standpoint. I mean, yeah, right, you know, the magazine was out you were young you were getting immersed into basketball most? Okay. They know how did I get into the job here? So, you know ice I went to Emory University. I studied economics. I was actually thinking of becoming a teacher after after school and then I was like, you know, let me let me take a step back and see if there's a job out there that I'd be interested in and my sister at the time had just started dating a guy that worked at Harris Publications, which is where slam was founded. He worked on a car magazine called rides and he met my mom and she said what other magazines are at your publishing company and he said well, we have a basketball magazine called slam and moms. Like oh my God, my son David who's about to graduate from Emory love slam and he goes. Oh, that's funny. You should say that. We have a sales position opening up. So your mom's glove exact my mom and my sisters boyfriend at the time of the plug. So my mom hates me. She's like this is new boyfriend is worked at the same company a slam, you know, you should you should talk to him and I was like Mom she just started dating this guy like two weeks ago. I'm about to start working with you know, my sister's boyfriend. I don't know if that's the best idea. Fast forward a couple weeks. I met him. His name is also David we hit it off and I came in for an interview with Dennis page is my business partner and he said, you know where Toby go to high school where Jordan go to high school. We just talk basketball for 45 minutes. I was like you want the job and that was the qualification like literally he knew he could tell that I was ahead a slam kid, right and that's really probably the most important part when you're in this business is having a passion for the game. Game and the culture, you know coming in and just doing sales or just working for brand and not really having a passion for it. And that's not fun. Right but, you know, I've loved doing this since since the day I started because basketball and slam and Hip-Hop have always been my biggest passions. So million-dollar question. Yeah the other David and your sister, where are they? They're married. No, they're married. They have two kids can't defy was his best man. He was my best man, and I had my wedding and we've been best friends. Friends, I don't upload that since I started we sat in a cube with each other at Harris for seven years shit. Shout out to them. That's big. Shout out to Dez especially because you know relationships relationships don't tend to work out you were early too. It reminds me says, you know, if I if if it wasn't for me your life would be very different true. It's absolutely true. So he gets a piece you get this right he gets that he gets that Kickback. No, but it's funny. I think about that all the time like if my sister and him had not met, you know, where would I be? But even more importantly the princess of Mind of your mom to connect those dots you can because your system wasn't even thinking about only that from his Vantage Point. Like if I had a sibling that had a new boyfriend or girlfriend, I wouldn't invite that person into my place to work and say you should interview how soon I would never get, you know, there's just way too much that could go wrong so all credit to him. He had the vision he knew he knew the work here now, he works at a he actually works on double XL at Town Square. Esto esto. Wow, so you mentioned dentist page and business partner. Yeah Shameless plug little snot there. Yeah explain because you're a relatively young dude. Yeah, right. Dennis page is an older gentleman. Yeah and you're 32 and Dennis page started slamming 94, but then now you're his business partner insulin. Can you walk us through that? Yeah. Sure. So when I started in 2008, he brought me on to sell like print advertising and Dennis had all The juicy accounts he was running Nike and Adidas and Under Armour and the Marine Corps and all these big big blue chip clients and I was kind of brought in to scrape and find everybody else that he wasn't talking to so the hostel the hustle exactly so I came in and I did that for about two years on the print side and then the digital media stuff started popping and we had a digital seller and she left and then they were going to bring somebody else on to take to take over that digital role and I said hold up don't hire. Someone I'll figure this out and I'll handle the digital sales. So that was my opportunity to kind of show them that I could you know, take advantage of the situation and rise to the occasion. So I kind of taught myself the digital part of the business and that was my way to start working with the Nikes and Adidas because Dennis was working on Nike and Adidas and under all those guys on the inside, but he didn't know the digital side of the business, right? So then we really started working more in tandem because he would do something. With this clan on the print side and work together and say how do we bring a digital component into this? Right? So I started the, you know kind of elevating the digital side of the business and then I started a network with you know ball is life and who mixtape and HotNewHipHop and speaker files and just kind of created this basketball hip-hop and sneaker Network That Then I then sold in the marketplace as one kind of basketball hip-hop Network. So it was kind of like an early what complex ended up starting to do. Yeah. So at one point, I think complex, you know, I would say they A competitor. I don't know if they would have considered a signal Predator because they were bigger than us but like much bigger than us and just had broader reach but we had maybe five sites and they had 11 sure and then we had six and they had 25 then we had seven and they had 80 and I was like yo this is because that's all you though, right you managing that plus other things totally they have like T massive team. Absolutely. Absolutely and I was really staying in this kind of vertical basketball culture space or as complex as really going. They had everything from food to girls to Bros to sports to cars just men's lifestyle across the board and I was really focused in on you know, kind of what slam was. Yeah and finding these, you know other websites that fit that mold of basketball culture space. So if we go back a little bit you mentioned you jumped into basketball and before off are we were talking about kind of where was your height? You plan my Peak my buddies always telling us my buddy been specifically he's like, I remember you want a way to Camp One Summer and you Back and you were just so much better than everybody else. And that summer. I was maybe nine or ten probably right actually right. I started reading slam and then I was really good until you know, I was probably 12 or 13 and then everybody else grew a lot more than I did and got really good and got a lot stronger and I just kind of you know got a faded to Black. Yeah kind of faded to black. I mean I play ball every day. I mean, that's what I did. I'd finish school I play ball for a couple hours. My sister will come get me from the park and say Davis time for dinner. I was like one of those kind of movie stories with you know, I can see in like a little graphic novel. She come she gets me to go eat my food. I do my homework. So yeah, I mean it was always I played every day of my life through college and then when I started working it became more difficult to play every day and so the private investigator that I hired mentioned that you're a deep threat kind of guy like very consistent deep range shooter game is pretty pretty good to everybody in this office would would disagree with that because they've only seen me They've seen Dave Schnur, you know like 27 to 32 play. Okay, and that is a very different Dave sooner than the prior to the 11 12 13 year-old if you are so I'd say I'm consistently inconsistent. Ah, my favorite ad is that is my game my entire life, you know, and I never used to have these thoughts before I play but now before I play I'm like shit. Is it worth the gym finger, you know, is it really worth the pulled hamstring? And then once I get going and I get warmer, you're not gonna fuck you that I had a couple Jays. I'm ready to go. I feel like the man but I would say the last couple times. I've played I've like jammed a pinky that last three weeks, you know, I pull it I pull a hammy something like that. So, you know, at least I still got to work on Slam and so what my thinks that way one thing somebody makes it look like if you know, I asked them if you had to compare his game to a pro player, right? Who would it be a few names came up, right? Steve Nash was one lie like that, but the one that caught me off guard and made me laugh my ass off waste. Said a homeless man's JJ Redick. Wow, that is way off your crack. If that was you that was you that is not met any nice small parts and no I mean Jake is like a wet shooter. He's kind of like a 3D kind of guy or is he even defensively not really fun in but anyway, yeah, he's just like a Ultra scream, you know height was if you asked anyone that play with me when I was when I was younger was I had probably Be the best handle on the court who were the Shifty and quick and I could gonna get my shot up when I was small so I would fade away and I could I could generally get my shot off. But JJ Redick definitely I thought he's gonna say like a poor man is Jay like white chocolate Jason Williams. I mean, I would take and with Beth and Steve Nash I could pass the rock a little bit, but but not really. No I could okay I could but you all know I wasn't like said work that shit. Yeah, wasn't it? Like the craziest runs, you know, I wasn't playing with you know. Play against teams. I was on some travel teams when I was younger and we play against like Dom Bosco prep and these guys just like beat the shit out of us. Uh, you know, I was I was humbled I was humbled at an early age, you know, I had NBA dreams, but you know those those dreams those dreams died, very very young. So again, you are a lifelong. I would say basketball enthusiasts have since you fell into it by yourself. You decided to go to school in Atlanta. Yeah Emory University go. That was the three there D3 school, right? So you didn't go in a certainly be a fan of the of this town for say academics. I assume is what brought you there. But what was the basketball? I mean, how do you get your basketball fix playing just playing playing playing, you know playing fantasy basketball with my my roommates or whatever it was but no just playing I was always I'd say I probably played in my life 85% of the basketball. I played was by myself just like, you know, I'm not saying that to like be sad or whatever. It just picking up a ball going to park like Above the Rim when two dudes playing with your Shadow. Yeah, exactly. No, no wake up. It's 7:30 in the morning when I wake up when I was a kid. I was never really late sleeper. I go to the park and play ball for two three hours and I was lucky enough to have, you know, maybe five guys come and play some three-on-three pick up, that'd be great, you know, and then in college you'd be playing some rules and you get your five on five runs, but one thing I hated about runs was waiting. So if you lose you come off and you got two teams and I played at the Y in New York down on 14th Street. And I will go early in the morning and playing some runs and then I'd be waiting for 20 minutes and I hated that so I just like to pick up a ball go to the park and she and that's probably why my left was never that good because I didn't have I was just going and kind of yeah just re doing something I didn't I never really had proper basketball training. Like I said, my dad was never like a huge influence on my the basketball part of my life and he wasn't like, oh get a trainer go do this go do that. He Psych for him that was just you know, it's just like radiation do what you want to do. That's dope. I mean, it's better than him saying you can't go outside actually. No my dad because growing up in the Bronx. That's my title. That's still growing up in the Bronx to me. It was like you can only be outside from the hours of like, you know, 11:30 in the morning to 12:30 in the afternoon, right? And then you better get your ass home, right? The Sun is going to give you cancer and all sorts of fucking Scare Tactics. No none of that. But so you got to Harris on the back of Of your now brother-in-law, right? Right and you work sales here. How did you end up, you know essentially becoming the CEO? Oh, but ultimately like a invested partner in what is now slam online so much time. I'll try India slam media. So I'll try and make this quick. There's a there's a lot that goes into it. So I was at Harris Publications for until about 2014 and as I mentioned hair Started slam they sold in 2000 and then it subsequently had four or five owners. But Dennis my business partner retain the contract to keep running the magazine. Yeah in 2014 Harris. They also own double XL. They sold double XL to Town Square Media and just decided that they don't really want to run that part of their Publishing Company anymore. So Dennis and I left together and started a company called fly Q Media took the contract to run slam with us. Okay. So now we had a contractor run slam. Then I had this digital Network that we were running so fly You media was Slam Magazine running that magazine running that digital side of the business. But then also running the network that I built around it. Got it and the company that owned it the Enthusiast Network also known as 10 they own automobile Motor Trend a bunch of action sports titles Surfer skate and slam didn't really fit their portfolio. So our competitors were doing a lot in the video space and doing a lot in the event space and digit and the were all very digitally mine. And our company our parent company at the time wasn't really necessarily investing and slam the way they should have been right or you know, maybe they didn't have the resources to be able to do that because they had a lot of other projects. They're working on Motor Trend which is a massive massive Brantley on the space. So we we approached the guy that we knew that was really into basketball that had a had a great investment background and said, you know, would you be interested in going in on this with us and buying slam and and investing in it and bring it back to what it was and in the late 90s and early 2000s and bringing it into the digital age and creating great content and you know exploiting the name as best we can on all channels and lucky for us. He was he was into the idea and we tried to buy it in 2000 maybe 2015 and couldn't come to terms and then in August of 2017 we were able to close and by it. Wow, so the way I became CEO oh is Just kind of coming together with with Dennis who's the founder and our investor. Let's call him Joe and the silent partner and you know the three of us and you know, Dennis is CEO and I'm CEO and we kind of handled everything ladders up to us on the business side. And for those that are listening and may not know who were talking about. So we're talking about the founder of Slam Dennis page. And obviously we are guest date Dave Schnur here. I find it fascinating kind of this this rebound from a pro. Oppo nice. I'm slammed right not not that I ever noticed it necessarily fade away. But I see the Resurgence now, right? I brought the New York New York Magazine you guys collaborated with a Nike on which I read cover to cover and which is dope but I look at this and obviously this is you know something I can tangible something I could hold in the digital age. You can still find slam Magazine's that you had to physically touch how has that transition been for you guys, especially now? Space to call it. Yeah with the digital divide. Yeah, I mean, it's been great when we started when we bought it. We had I think we eight or nine people and now we have 35. So we got a whole in-house video team whole in how social team before this. We had a bunch of editors that were the editors were doing social and we'd form out some video projects videographers here and there but we weren't doing consistent video and we're doing High School video, right? So one of the first orders of business when we bought it back because we need to get deep in high school and go back to our roots and start building relationships with these Stars when they're younger? Yeah, that's that's what slam always did we had the high school diary. Where was Stephon Marbury when he was a sophomore at Lincoln and we built with these guys that long-term value a long-term value when they were when they were young and high school. So, you know, we started with getting deep in high school. We had this guy named Brian larussa who's phenomenal who heads up our high school team and he he oversees probably 30 shooters that we have across the country just filming the best high school content. And we have an Instagram channel that just the clips. I think we're almost at six hundred thousand fans and under a year and a half or two years whatever it is. So what the hell did you guys do to grow that fast? Just put out great content be everywhere that we needed to be there is really no tricks. Yeah. It's a the trading system. It's just hard work and quality content and having a respectable name in the space. Yeah, and people respect slam but it helps what you brought up before about like the tangibility of a magazine. Ironically the magazine in this day and age is like our competitive Advantage people look at it and say oh it's a primary. Is magazines anymore? Right? Every other magazine is dying. How was slamming able to stay afloat in this digital age? And it's really special. You know, anybody can be on the front page of bleacherreport.com for five minutes it comes and it goes and that's it. But being on this cover, it's a rite of passage for guys being on that slam cover and being able to get a blow up and put it up in your and your big house. So I am I playing ball being on the poster inside. It means something to these guys. And it's really a great access point for us because it enables us to to get access to these great players and build relationships with them and create great content around them and it's a great content moment for us. So when we do a cover now, we usually do two or three covers per issue and that gives us three content moments on our channels and we build a video around every cover and we have stories around every player that we have and now we're doing t-shirts and all sorts of merchandise that are that are cover Centric so I so much as like that To be to the Olaf shorts you guys got over there. Yeah for now. But yeah, I mean we can talk about that. I mean the mercy I can deduce. Where is this where do the work of people find merge? Because I got to go buy some shop that slime online.com hit it hit it. So yeah that the magazines really a great part of what we do and our circulation when I started was a hundred and fifty thousand in 2008 and now it's about a hundred thousand. So it's really not nearly a drop no coming considering to drop is as a lot of other Publications. You got guys that are completely out of business that are gone that are or just said, you know, we're wrapping up the magazine, you know? Yeah. No, it's anyway, I mean like is it is a 50,000, you know, haircut call it right and people but you're talking about, you know, a 1012 year to attend 11-year run here are the digital age has I mean smack the shit out of him, right everybody. Yep. So for you that's that's pretty much keeping it flat. Yeah, you totally over that. Totally. We still have great partners that support them support the magazine like, you know, the Keys and indeed us and the Under Armour is and Spaulding and tons of big brands in this space that you know respect slams voice. I interview a lot of New York area basketball players, right people that have gone through the high school ranks and dominated College done. Well professionally overseas and in the NBA and one consistent threads particularly those that came up as say in the 90s and early 2000s the consistency of The significance of showing up in periodicals like yours, right or you know SI like Felipe on the cover of SI and and even more like a column like more local not local. They were National but like the rankings that would come here. Those are significant milestones for these people total right one thing and I'm so glad you guys are kind of going back to basics far as the high school aspect of what you guys started but one significant missing piece is Local papers, right? So here in the New York metro area the local papers were the lifeblood of these athletes right? Once they made it onto the New York Post or whatever they'll use. It was a humongous benefit, right? It kind of it was they're coming coming of age opportunity. That's pretty much gone. Like there are no significant people covering everything else. So everything's on Instagram first or right, you know, and these kids are all just glued to their phones, right? You know, this is dangerous. Dangerous to me. That's no one's you know, the Felipe Lopez document or I'm sure you wash sure those kids aren't going to buy newspapers anymore. No, you know, they're just going on Instagram and Twitter or small digital gonna buy the copyist let you know right but but I think there's still a maybe you would know better just because you're kind of in this world I think is still beneficial for you to have somebody in the local newspaper for its comfort, you know on the beat still right? I don't see that and again now we're talking about showcasing it on the digital front right necessarily. Tangible newspaper, but that's not even happening. It's very fickle. Yeah, you know you guys I see way more out of you guys from - from you know nationally, but even locally high school was that I do with the local papers, which I think is kind of bullshit. Yeah. So are you seeing anything changed in that regard with respect to local newspapers and media Outlets, you know, unfortunately, I would say that one of the reason you're not seeing a lot of the local papers is because New York basketball hasn't been as great here in this era true as it. It was you know in the mid to late 90s, you know, we have had Philippe and staff and even guys like Odom and Elton brand up in Peekskill. Like we had some most number one pick monsters and you know, we got some great players in New York no doubt, but you know, just nothing like the top five top 10 guys. So it's maybe you know, the headlines aren't necessarily worth it to these local papers at the moment if you had Zion Williamson playing last year at Lincoln, right? You better believe. Yeah. Our study on the cover of the post. So, you know, I think a lot of it has to do with you know, where a lot of great players are now how do you compare the the kids that you see coming up now? Let's call the high school and college. Yeah to kind of when you started at slam. Like what would you say is the biggest difference in the athletes? I think they're getting better and better. I mean, these kids are phenomenal. I mean the jumping ability is some of these guys their ability to shoot the ball. I mean since like the Steph Curry's He's started doing what they were doing in the league. I mean, there's really been kind of an emphasis change. You know, when I was growing up. It was like I want to be like Allen Iverson. I just wanted to break you down with a crossover and get to the basket and whether I finished or not, I mean that was The Flash before that was all that has exactly so I think kids are also seeing these incredible contracts that these guys are gay and I just saw today Reggie Bullock 20 million dollars shouts to Reggie. I mean, you know, it's a it's a great hall for Reggie Bullock and Julius Randle. I A great player, you know, you just got 60 million. So there's a lot to like about, you know wanting to be in the NBA and you know provide for your family and I think these kids are really see it as like if I put my mind to this and I can shoot like Steph or I can finish legs eye on you know, I could make a hundred million dollar dollar you don't think so. I think the kids are just getting better and better. I mean, they're phenomena at our slam Summer Classic last year. I mean these guys are this kids Ian Harmon is a high school player. I think it's a sophomore year I think is a junior now. He just played a Dyckman this past weekend. He's phenomenal like they just the balls like on a string. He's got handles like Kyrie. He can shoot the ball. Just really big you sooner pretty much pretty much. I think that's what people saying like, yeah. I'm sure sir Circa 1999 right there. So no, I think the kids are just or they're getting better better. So let's talk about let's talk about the slam classic summer. So this is your second year. Yeah, I deichman like a park. And you said August the 18th, August 18 Sunday August, by the way for those listening. This is probably going to roll out some time and I'd say Late July or August but it's July 1st. Yep, and the M3 agency Bedlam is fucking Upon Us. Yeah, but real quick before we get into that. The classic is especially this year given that it's diagnose 30th Anniversary. Yeah. There's a big like, you know, To do right. What what is it about? What made you guys decide? You know what let's do this and let's do it. I'd Eichmann right? So going back to when we bought it a couple of things we want to do. We gotta get big in high school. Yep, we want to do a game. We want to do merch want to sell hoodies t-shirts all that stuff. So when we were thinking of how would we do a game? We're what would be the way to bring a slam game to life? There's a lot of All American Games. You got the Jordan brand classic got McDonald's they're all in big arenas. So we thought what better way to put our spin on it than to do it at Dyckman in an iconic outdoor court with as much heritage's as any Court in the game after recording the game. So that was a pretty easy decision for us. I mean, the only difficult part is playing that whether game so we were supposed to the game at night last year the forecast was pretty bad. So we ended up getting the game off at about one o'clock. It was great. It was a beautiful Sun was shining. So it was just it fits slam. Yeah, I mean slam is straight. It's the essence of you know, kind of what we do and a lot of these kids haven't played in this atmosphere before so you bring these kids to Dyckman and you got everybody hanging on on the bleachers and the side rails and you know, if you show out there you're like a king but if you if you play any other no get dog, then you are just that you don't you know, it's a rap. I mean you can feel pretty embarrassed out there. So you know it just it It fits the brand really well and we have the best sophomores Juniors and seniors come normal. All Americans games is just the seniors that are graduating that are going on to college play D1. So and this is from all around the country from all around the country. So we'll flying guys from you know, California, even you know, we could find a guy from Canada if we if we wanted to so do you guys have the teams already established we have most of the guys are locked and we're going to have 20 of the 30 best players in the country regardless of class coming so it'll be a show can't wait. It'll be show for sure. Let's Jubilant, as will be there. Yes in our little corner. Let's do it. So you I think that's phenomenal but let's get into free agency talk. Yes. Okay. Okay, I told you before I admitted that. I'm an expense. Yeah. I'm an expand as well the fuck it let's just say it we struck out right big man. I wish I was on a group text with bunch of my colleagues and I said is James Dolan the biggest deterrent and professional sport. This is what I want to hear from a Kyrie or his care. Camp yeah, listen, I don't know James Dolan personally music just you know kind of seen his Antics from like the Charles Oakley things whatever so it's just it's sad honestly and to be fair. I'm actually I'm kind of hat not happy but the guys that we've gotten I really like Julius Randle if I think of our starting five you got you got Dennis Smith junior at the one it kind of he's it's TBD whether he's truly a point guard or not. Yep, but from a net from an athleticism standpoint at the next move is Freaks. Yeah, Dennis Smith at the one he got RJ at the two or three got Kevin Knox Mitchell Robinson now Julius Randle, who's a big boy? Yeah, like a big three for kind of like a three four five. I mean if you believe Cantor right he is the the Hops less or less hops, then Zion is how he he said as I was branded with hop Cantor. Yeah. Most Anderson trans. Oh, yeah, it was cancer said yeah, so like, I mean, that's not a bad comparison. Listen, I The team is Young and talented. I don't think an eight seed is out of the realm of possibility. I really don't if these guys can put it together. I like the youth. Like I said, I like the athleticism they all have like Dennis Smith can jump out of the gym a lot. True. Alonzo history are also really good player. So what I say, I'm really excited about the Knicks. No. No, but but not I'm not disappointed devastated, right and I'm not gonna like talk trash about any of the guys, but you know, even like the Kyrie The Cadiz they haven't been without you no turbulence over the chest couple of years, especially with the injuries with KD people are saying how can you not offer him the max? I mean, I think he's worth a Max but I also can understand why someone wouldn't want to lock in on your 40 million to some of the blue out there killing. I said as long as about the day I said, it's a buddy of mine now granny. I'm of the of the school of thought where you you offer the guy the money right? I let me let me say I would have done yes total, but I can't sit here and say How could you not do that? Right especially when you're thinking about it from a business standpoint like the risk and granted MSG prints money. Yeah, but that aside just straight-up business logic like you have certain amount of money to play with you're going to risk it all somebody who may not even be a shell of what he wants. I doubt that's gonna be the case, but I can understand it to a degree now. They judge it the next I've done a terrible job of appeasing their fanbase. Absolutely like the best thing they've done in the last 10 years. Well the director Chris Apps which I was way against a new to and workouts workout. Yeah Jackal RJ. Yeah, I get back this year - draft pick I've seen in years hands down. They made the right call. I was ready for them. Let's look at all like Gary's Garland. He's coming off an injury. I don't know. What's up with his knee. Whatever if you pass on RJ there we're back to I might just until I can spare. I'm a Pelicans fan for him. That's the reason I love Pelicans this year. I think they're gonna be amazing to watch his might this is my call. Pelicans over Lakers the first round of playoffs. Wow. You heard it here first, uh nurse. Oh, you're dribbling dimes pelley's over Lakers LaRon or ad first puppy at full strength first. I want a podcast. Here we go. Drop it drop and buckets over here is over Lake shell that I would love to see that. I would love to see that's that's a hell like fucking story looks like crazy. It's not crazy thought, you know, what might be crazy and people my battery for this. I don't know if the leg is make the playoffs. Whoo that if he gets to the question, I listened it all comes down to help if you if you get 60 games from AED and 60 games from LeBron. Yeah, you're in the play It's hard hundred percent. The reason I say Pelicans over Lakers is because I'm not so sure that you're going to have both those guys healthy going into the playoffs right like you need to be very careful with them. Right and it would also help if they got some if they got some help not that I mean LeBron a Navy alone you probably me and Manny on the squad get Dennis. Yeah, that's true. You can get some doves. That's true. That's bad and I have to Global so I'll be I guess good be right out but the what I mean, but the West is you got it's wide open and but look you got Portland hmm still ferocious group. You don't you don't believe him. I'm an eye Denver. I'll tell Denver. I love Denver. I don't still got somebody about Michael Porter Jr. Exactly how we got to this bastard maxed out your mom hurry and I still got Yo catch so I think Denver if you had to say to me right now who comes out of the West I would say Denver. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. November and who would I say comes out of the East that's a tough one. I mean if Kawaii stays in Toronto, I don't buy I don't think he will. Yeah, I don't know. I don't talk in the Sixers are I was talking about them. They are long and you got more Horford Simmons. These are some Tobias Harris. Yeah, they got Jay Rich to I mean, here's some big boys, but the Peloton for the Pelicans by far to me them and the Pacers the Pacers came up on some players. Yeah, they got. Oh, don't forget. Top I think you talk you talk got some time with to now they got Conley and Donna Mitchell. That's probably the best defensive back hard in the NBA up. Oh shit favors is now the Pelicans today. That's a pretty girl that's on the onstage re kind of deal with him. This is released. He'll be a pelican. Yeah, so there's a lot of fun shit going on. There's a lot of Bloodshed but going back to the Pelicans. I remember last year when they made the original offer for a d and I was even say man, that's a hall. Yeah, and you take that but then people were like you realize then you're just the Lakers. As in New Orleans, right? And I was like, you're not wrong. No sure Lakers right now. We're not very good. Right but now you take those guys and you at Zion that's a different. That's not the link. That is not the like this not look like no that is a different Beast so somebody what's your thought? I know it's fucking ass is going to be but like the fucking Lottery right this year above all year. This is the year. The Knicks were supposed to actually get the first pick not really though. They had the worst record, but this was the year that I'm saying if that All didn't change this would have been the year where the probabilities should have worked in. Our famous still wouldn't have gotten it. Yeah, there's no way I thought they're hanging the five pick. They still wouldn't have gotten this true. I mean no, but listen, I think it's tough because you want to prevent you want to decentralize people from tanking kind of cute, you know, it's that sucks. I mean going being a fan and going to a game and like even when you have these guys rest, I understand the goal is to win an NBA championship, but the NBA is also an entertainment organizations, right? So, If you buy a ticket to a Raptors game, you're probably going cause you want to Seco I play if you're buying a ticket to a Lakers game. You're probably going to want to see LeBron and AD play. You know, you took Little Johnny for his birthday you so excited to see if it's his favorite player, you know, he's shit out of luck because I gotta rest up here our studio. So It's Tricky. I totally get it. I don't disagree with either party whether it's the fans or the team they both have their reasons, but Yeah, I think the lottery is it's fair the way it is now, I agree with you. It's fair. I just hate that helping to come free fair when the fucking Knicks were o'clock. That's very nice Ian. It is a very Nixie and you know what, we do my buddy. Tell me what you think about this now. Think about this right you get the Mets terrible organization orange and blue orange and blue, right? Yeah, the next terrible organizational engine look to your jets fan and a yeah, but just for kicks, but I got the Yankee so I'm good. So sorry orange and blue. Yeah, and then you've got so right and then you flip that and you look at the Rangers right in red white and blue. Yeah fucking perennial Champions all the time. They got something there competing. All right, you got the Giants maybe this year. I don't know because we picked up a fucking done for a quarterback. But in fact, he meant fan. You've been good for laughing you Bill writing good. You better write can't complain. So what about just changing the team colors? Aha. Why don't we do that? That can't be that hard. It wouldn't be that too much hair. Aged, man, fuck the heritage in like too much. You're just punch. We don't have that much Heritage. We got 10 Chambers ships as Tri hex, but it because it's the mecca man. I used to be you change it, but I'll tell you what the worst part about the KD Kyrie whole Saga is that like they went right across the bridge right there like right there. Yeah. It's like the biggest fuck you. Yeah. I was holding. Like, how do you come to New York? And not play at the Garden. Yeah, there's no disrespect the Barclays. Oh, no, it's a dope place. But and you know, what's crazy Madison Square Garden something to sell out every game doesn't matter doesn't matter. They're still the tickets are still going to be expect which is why the Knicks won't change. I was I thought I was hoping bezels was gonna buy the team you heard that rumor. I did it ago. I would have loved this. Yeah. I'm not perpetuating everything anything. I think this was this was out there. That would have been crazy. I have this sick twisted scenario. You got Carmelo's practically blackballed from the league Alana bring back to the no. No, he's practically blackballed. Yeah, right and he's part of the banana boat crew. Right? So Brandy wait out of retirement. Well, no on the ownership side. Oh, no, so so basically what you guys did with slam you guys they go and they get partner up with some fucking amazing investor and then they come in and buy the team but that would require some dirt coming out on Dolan. And if some random wild shit is on he's not gonna sell it seen I wouldn't sell the team nothing. This is nothing new man. I can't be mad at him for not selling the TST kidding me what I wanted to happen. I'm with you I'm with you. You just gotta grin and bear it fucking persevere. Yep. Exactly. What what's on the horizon for slam? Like what? What's the next six months looking? Like, I know you got the classic coming. Yeah. We got the classical. No, that's all hands on deck for that right now. Just continuing to build great content put out great merchandise. And come up with new cool things to do in the world of basketball. I mean we're going to do more events. We may do more we may do more games films any films films. Yes. We actually slam is our producer of this stuff Marbury documentary. That was just a Sundance. Okay. So that's going to be I don't even know when the release date is but slam is is involved in that and I threw it in a big way. Yeah. It's our sister company JDS Sports. Okay, they own a company called 1091 media 1091 media bought the rights to a kid from Coney Island, which is a Stephon Marbury documentary and slam will be very involved in how that goes to Market. I love it. Yeah, what would you say is the biggest highlight of your slam career thus far I'm buying it back. Hmm easy. I mean that's that's that's a great. I mean to go from a kid reading this thing. Have you had told me that one day I would you know be a part owner and my name would be at the top of the Mast Mast head with the guy who founded it. You know, I pinched myself out. So I wanted to play in the league but I told you all those dreams die fast at a young age. So, you know, what better way to continue to be in the world of basketball than work for the publication that shaped kind of who you were as a fan as you know, I spoke at a camp a couple days ago. It was put on by this organization called we will through it's and they had me come and just from you know, add on the strength of my podcast. They felt like I would be somebody who could speak to these kids and I spoke to them about the importance and significance of Thinking Beyond just the hope dream, right? You are prime example of kind of what I was talking about because you know admittedly you peaked at 11, right? And so and I told them this myself I was like yo, my game was wife is cooking, you know compared to the people around me like my game is trash so I was like I needed to get involved because I'm such a passionate fan of the game. I was like I wanted to get involved in the game. So my brother and I we decided you know, let's do a podcast and dribbling down and allocate the big level. I'm in The Slammer, but it's very interesting to me because like you especially you guys you have a pretty serious hand and kind of really moving the culture of basketball right? And you guys do it from such a organic Enoch but also genuine place right? It's not like doctored up media bullshit like you guys are really in the in the real essence of it. How hard is it to maintain that it's really not that hard. Okay, because that's just who we are everyone that works here is a super passionate fan of the game pretty much everybody has played at some level and you know, you bring up like New Media companies. There's a lot of you know, sexy Tech startups as we have competitors that are a couple years old that have Crazy amount of fans. Yeah more fans than us. But we have 25 years of legacy and Heritage and people respect that and it's a voice that has been groomed over many years and the people that we hire we see something in them that you know shows us that they can continue that Legacy for slab. So that's not something you can buy. No, you know, you can you could start, you know, JoJo's basketball website tomorrow, you can go get a million fans on Instagram doesn't matter. It's It's similar to how you got a lot of non-basketball people trying to do basketball shit like a you programs or like, you know coaching kids that don't have a fucking clue of what basketball really is, but they watched a few YouTube videos and now they feel like they're you know qualified. Yeah, that's very interesting. Yeah, the, you know the evolution of the game particularly in with New York being the backdrop to you what who in your tenure just being a part of Slam but also just fan of the of Game being local who would you say stands out as like the most significant player that's come out of your time my time and being a fan of the game particularly from the New York area over in the New York area. I mean it probably have to be Steph. I mean the he that was in the mid 90s. I don't working at slam toe 2008 but you are a fan already. Oh, yeah, I was a fan already. I mean Steph was like a god in New York. I mean he was Allen Iverson in New York. Yeah and Allen Iverson is arguably the biggest, you know, athlete biggest basketball player and slams history. He kind of epitomizes what slam is about right that kind of renegade rebellious hip-hop Swagger changed hanging out jersey fro puffed out. You know, he was like an iconic picture to yeah that company could buy it on a t-shirt shop. That's lamblion.com. Boom. You're here for a reason game. So yeah, I mean, he also had Bassy Sebastian Telfair steps cousin who was phenomenal. I hope I'm not forgetting anybody but we had to cover with LeBron on Sebastian when they were at least questions crazy, you know, that's he was a junior LeBron was a senior. It was amazing. Yeah, since though she was amazing. Was it here did that happen here? No, the only benefits office for like two years. That was probably like a studio somewhere somewhere in New York it Hip-Hop Hip-Hop and you talked about the iconic convergence of Hoops and Hip Hop, which is Allen Iverson. How does I mean I know what the answer is but like you guys embraced it, right? There's a lot of magazines or people that cover well now less but back in the day there wasn't a lot of Allowability called it for the Two Worlds to converge even though it was always, you know, a part of Hoops culture. You guys really brought it embraced it but also highlighted right and that continues till today what what are the more significant things you guys are doing to kind of really showcase that that marriage of hip-hop and Hoops well, and then we touched on this before actually before I started recording, but we had Drake on the cover, you know two years ago. Your next Adam are and Kyrie that was huge for us. I mean at that point Drake wasn't doing any media whatsoever. And I'm going to take credit for this idea. And I said, what is that? Why don't we why don't we do Drake with the Raptors? And the sentiment in the office was like dude, you're not getting you're not getting Drake. I guess not going to happen, you know and I was like to he puts on for the Raptors quite a bit. Right? Like I don't know if he was officially named the Raptors Ambassador like he is now but I was like, let's see if we can get in touch with him and see if he'll do it and we reached He was like I'm down let's go. So just like that just like that. So that was that was great getting so that was the first hip-hop athlete. I'm hip hop athlete. He was the first, you know, rapper song singer songwriter, whatever. It is on the cover of Slam. So that was that was that was the Schnur idea. That was - I'm going to take credit for that. I stole it was a snare idea. So talk about reaching for the Stars. Yeah. I mean, he's the biggest, you know entertainer right now, and that was that was new and very cool and kind of Just was a perfect slam thing that came together just made a lot of sense and then did sales pop as a result. Do you remember like sales? Pop up the magazine issue? I can't remember. Okay, I can't remember. I think it probably did fairly. Well. Yeah, but you know, a lot of people aren't people aren't buying slan necessarily because they want to see Drake show ever and I'm sure people shat all over that. They're like, why is he on the cover? You know, but you get hate every time you give a course we had Zion on the cover when he was in high school right now. Looks like a freaking home right look when we put them on people were like that kid is dunking on some 5 to you know, white boys in South Carolina. That can't eat that wouldn't even play on my varsity team right like it with this kid. Let's see if this kid can't even play. How is he making on the cover of Slam? And now look at him that looks like a pretty good. This is that was a pretty good decision. It slams that if she's not no, I'm not taking Credit Now I was I was very excited about it, but I can definitely not take credit for that and then we're doing And we did a couple episodes of a show with TJ Porter which hasn't been released yet. He's a local New York rapper. Yeah, we had Dave East in the magazine a couple years ago and he was super hyped about it. He like one on his Instagram and was going through the magazine talking about how you know, he grew up on Slam and he was a ballplayer to yeah, where do you play towels and he plays in town. So I think yeah. Yeah, you know, there's this everyone always says every basketball player wants to be a rapper and rapper wants to be a basketball player. So we try and marry that when the opportunity presents itself and You know, we just had we've had great writers over the years guys like scoop Jackson who are legends the on the editorial side and he was with slam for many years and wrote some iconic pieces for slams. So I love I love I love with you guys do I'm a big fan. I got to give a big shout-out to Kyle krakauer for connecting us. What's up, crack the crack it was it was a nice vote of confidence from him to even connect us because I know how similar your brother-in-law Right like for somebody to give you the look right? You gotta like yeah, you either gotta be really in that person's good graces. I gotta know something about you, right? I felt the same way when cry put us in touch house I shit. That's that's dope. Thank you for the vote of confidence on this is great. It's my first pot. There you go. It was just a great experience on episode two. They Schnur time with it. So you guys are doing a lot of different things in media, right? We talked about the magazine the site where you guys got some podcast some original content on the video side. Tell us a little bit more about what those are and where people can find it. We're just trying to be everywhere that everyone is in some form or fashion. So podcasting is huge. Now. We just started a podcast link we've done three or four episodes called the chasm Vic show. Yep. It's on Himalaya the Himalaya Network and get on Spotify and iTunes not even our righteous not even around anymore Apple podcast, maybe have a podcast. So we're in the OR and podcasting we're doing stuff like with the staff documentary Kitty from Coney Island. So that's like, you know major a film release we're doing we have all sorts of episodic content that we do for slam whether it's day in the life, you know with an NBA player or a high school play or we have a show called urine or we sit down with the guys on our cover and just give them a bunch of rapid-fire questions. So, you know building content doing a lot on the merch side. We do all these covered t-shirts with Mitchell and nests So Dope that have iconic covers on them that you can buy on our store and those have been phenomenal sellers for us since we started selling them about a year ago. So just doing as much as we can and all these different parts of the game. That's what's our next mission Arc is Ami you young dude, you got a wild lion continue to build. Yeah continue to build with slam and you know stay at the top of the mountain. I love it. Are you still hoping now? I'm not I I probably get a good running maybe two or three times a year and then I'll go in my backyard. I gotta almost four year old and an almost one year old. So, you know, we'll get some shots up on the on the Little Tykes in the morning, you know, the green and blue joint get some of those Those are some of the trays out with my little list and my my two guys, so that's that's the most of the basketball I play now is on the Little Tykes with my boys laughter. I'm actually I've been meaning to go my neighborhood and go to The JCC is he was popping in there because they had a mess facility. So I'm about to go see if I can get back on to him. Yeah, I just gotta make sure to stretch bro. Yo stretch it out. Do your toe touches your my achilles. Let me tell you Michael is I feel like bitch like Yaman. That's when I found out that I got a buddy that blew out his At least I went to school with him but his Achilles came back rehab blew out his other Achilles kit that I mean that horror stories man, and that's not like that. That's a that's a big incentive biggie. That's like ACL tear like talked about, you know, a finger jammed three weeks. I hate gym. I pick up but you know, yeah, but sucks swollen fucking finger prediction on Soldier. I like the keep it going and you put some bass in your voice. I like that. He's your prediction Boogie cousins. What do you think? He's gonna end up Boogeyman? Where is Boogie gonna go? I'll say Lakers MSA Lakers. I like it one year prove prove it out with one year, maybe two years 20 million or something shit. Yeah, something like that. I was hoping the next but now with all the stuff that's gone down. I don't think it's going to happen. That is a complete shot in the dark. I have no clue. No, I'm just thinking of something up. He wanted to go to the worst Irwin and ship now where could he go right you can go to Lakers Lakers need a good player. Maybe maybe that doesn't matter. AJ I could like a workout I like it. Yeah, I like it. What else you got? What else you got for me? I really just I kind of want to see you play ball, bro. No, you know, I need to not a pretty picture. I need to see if these homeless person the homeless man. Hold on. JJ Redick is real super homeless. Hahaha super homeless. JJ JJ is not flowing anymore. I think I try and I've tried to change my form so many times over the years and I'll do it one day and I'm like, oh my God, I finally figured it out. Right and then I get into a game and I start my shit look so. Stop like the person action is very different. I was doing that the other day I was like, you know by myself and I thought I had it figured out and then we're playing a game of horse wasn't even anything crazy, but the pressure of doing it. I know yeah totally totally but I'm a gunner man. I keep going I'll be like, oh four eight and then I'll Splash and I'm like boom it was worth it another 10 coming for you right now. I love it jump-starts. Yes less John Starks 95 Rocket series in the flesh. That's all we got. That's where that's where my game is right now. Yo, Dave, man. Yeah, I got everything I wanted I do brother. I appreciate it. A lot of fun. I'm glad I hope that really and truly you're first podcast experience was a good one. Was he doing it again? Good good. Yeah, man, you should pop into just slam slam joins every now and again, give give a couple words. It will see how a great out on this one. All right, perfect. Perfect. You're my brother. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Thank For listening to this episode of dribble and Dives if you like what you heard, please leave a review or comment wherever you listening to us now check us out on social media as well. 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At an early age our guest recalls immersing himself in basketball thru the pages of SLAM magazine. In parallel he became more dedicated to honing his skills in the park. He peaked early and by the end of his middle school years so too came the slow down of his serious on court exploits. He never let up on his hoops fanaticism. He revered NBA icons like Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and so on, never missing a beat on all things Basketball culture. As luck would have it he found his way into Harris Publications and became a part of the SLAM magazine family. As a sales person he made a name for himself and earned a solid reputation throughout the company. After a series of interesting corporate shuffles he partnered with SLAM founder Dennis Page and another associate to outright buy SLAM and set it on a new and exciting course. On this episode of Dribble N' Dimes we hear the basketball story of SLAM Media, Inc. Partner & COO David Schnur Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and tell a friend! Mix & Mastering courtesy of DJ Trends (https://soundcloud.com/djtrends)  ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 