Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid is the great hope in the middle, and although he’s out for the rest of the season with an injury that isn’t stopping him from embedding himself in Philly culture.
Embiid recently graced the cover of basketball magazine SLAM wearing a blue Sixers jersey with “Phila” on the front. Thanks to a similar pose, basketball, and even hairstyle, Embiid’s cover looked an awful lot like the one Allen Iverson did for the magazine back in 1999.
Via Twitter:
This is pretty cool. SLAM remade the classic Allen Iverson cover with Joel Embiid. pic.twitter.com/Z6BkXmytBP
— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) March 7, 2017
SLAM has done this before, most recently with Ben Simmons recreating a cover featuring LeBron James, and Karl-Anthony Towns doing one made famous by Kevin Garnett.
Ben Simmons is on the cover of SLAM. There's a good reason why it might look familiar. https://t.co/o5a3l4iRvh pic.twitter.com/ahiZEaj7cD
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 10, 2016
SB Nation interviewed SLAM EIC Adam Figman about the process of the shoot. One thing missing in particular was Iverson’s classic chains, something Embiid skipped.
“A few people had mentioned that on Twitter, that it’s not the same without the chains,” said Figman. “But, also, people dress differently now. And not everyone is Allen Iverson.”
Nostalgia always looks good.
