Chamique Holdsclaw Made Headlines, Made Mistakes, And Made History

On the cover of Slam magazine's October 1998 issue, Chamique Holdsclaw wore a New York Knicks jersey, NBA basketball in hand. Right next to the forward from Queens was a sneaky inversion of the more common question: "Is The NBA Ready For Chamique Holdsclaw?" She was the first female athlete to appear on the magazine's cover, and as former Slam editor-in-chief Tony Gervino would recall in a 2024 essay, the editors were intentionally being a little provocative. Reader reception was not as negative as expected, although Pat Summitt, Holdsclaw's college coach at the University of Tennessee, called Gervino to chew him out about how her player could have lost her NCAA eligibility if she had accepted the Knicks jersey she was wearing for the shoot. Growing up in Astoria Houses, Holdsclaw said she had to have her friends advocate for her to be able to play basketball at the local Boys and Girls Club. She went on to have a terrific high school career at Christ the King in Queens, followed by more of the same at the collegiate level. Holdsclaw was entering her fourth season with the Lady Volunteers at the time of the Slam cover, and had dominated the college game as the program won three consecutive championships. She remains the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in NCAA women's tournament history, recording totals of 470 points and 197 rebounds. For Holdsclaw, who was part of the 2026 class inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this past weekend, the Slam cover wasn’t actually asking if she would go play against the men. It didn’t really matter what the boys were doing. The WNBA was two years old and was looking for more star power. Slam, among others, predicted she would be the one to fill those shoes, calling her "the future of women's basketball."

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