HOOP Issue Preview

It's been a while, I know.

Blame the lockout. Blame print schedules. Blame print. Blame us. But we hope the Chris Paul/Blake Griffin cover will be worth the wait.

In addition to charting how Chris Paul will be navigating the Clippers into the playoffs, and more importantly, relevance and respectability, we go back to our annual A-Z of the NBA package where we show off our ability to properly recite the ABCs while attempting to expand out vocabulary in hopes of highlighting some players and storylines—some obvious, some not—to pay attention to this season. We also look into the players of the League who aren't just great individual defenders, they manage to raise the level of D of the other four guys on the floor with them. There's a profile on Serge Ibaka, the dude that starts up all those Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook fastbreaks with a block or rebound. On the old-school front, we take a look back at the career of Hondo (John Havlicek), a guy who might not make the all-time NBA starting five of most people, but because of his versatility and motor, would be invaluable on any team.

And of course we still have the same departments and sections, including Andre Iguodala's debut on our two-sided poster. (We couldn't believe it ourselves when we realized we never had Dre on our poster.)

Subscribers should see the issue in the coming weeks while magazine racks should see the new issue on February 21.

Sneak peek of the cover below.