Good day, Sweet World, and welcome to a little bonus edition of the No Dunk's podcast.

I'm Jay-Skeets here in Atlanta with our super producer, JD mashing the buttons like he's trying to unlock a big head cheat code.

And joining us on the phone, he's our special guest today.

He is the author of NBA Jam from Boss Fight Books, which is a fascinating breakdown of the 90s basketball arcade game.

It's Rayon Ali. Rayon, how's it going, man?

I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Well, I've been meaning to interview you for a long time about NBA Jam, this book that you wrote. Honestly, for months now. Your book was released, I think, what, late last 2018, right? October or something like that. Yeah, it actually time flies uh remember we're in 2020 this horrible 2020 yeah so yeah October 2019 October 22nd

2019 to be exact and you sent me a copy I tore through this thing honestly I loved every chapter

every page of it and I told you know, I reached out to you on

Twitter and thank you for sending it first off. And then I said, I'd love to do a podcast about this. I mean, it's fascinating to me. I grew up with the arcade game. There's so many great little stories within this book that you wrote. And I said, okay, we'll do this. We'll do this. And yeah, here we are.

It's the summer of 2020 because I told you I wanted to reread it, in all honesty, which I did.

Right? do this. We'll do this. And yeah, here we are. It's the summer of 2020 because I told you I wanted

to reread it in all honesty, which I did, Rayon, and I got to say that's like the highest compliment I can give anybody. I actually read something twice. Oh my God. I'm one of those brutal people. I hate watching a movie for a second time. So that's how good this book is. But I want to know, how did it come

about? Like, what was the impetus for you writing this thing? Well, first off, thank you so much for that incredible compliment. Just earlier today, I had a guy who said he only plays video games and doesn't read. He read my book. So that was like, wow, oh my gosh, this is next level, so thank you. Yeah, where did I get the idea to do it from? So going way back,

I'm actually a freelance writer. This is next level. So thank you. Yeah, where did I get the idea to do it from?

So going way back, I'm actually a freelance writer. I've worked for a bunch of different places.

I've been published by Wired, Spin, Rolling Stone, the Atlantic complex, like tons and tons of places, probably literally 40 to 50 different outlets.

But I'd been a freelance writer for many years,

mostly doing music stuff. So funny enough, I did very little video game stuff, if any video game

stuff at all. So it was all music interviews, some pop culture stuff, some wrestling stuff.

Anyways, in 2015, I found this publisher called Bossified Books. I actually come to think about it,

I probably found them a year before as a fan, but in 2015, when I found them, they had an open call for pitches. So they said, pitch us a book. The whole idea with Boss Fight is that they're individual books about individual video games. So you'll have, let's say, a Super Mario Brothers two book by one author, a Super Mario Brothers three book by a separate author, a Mega Man book by a separate author, and so forth. So there's all these different books out there about these different games, and I was like, wow, I've been doing these small articles for years. I would really love to sink my teeth into something substantial. But what is a game I could pitch? Now keep in mind, I'd actually pitch two music books before to a different publisher, of course. And both those were rejected. So it happens. But at the third one, I was like, I really want this to work. So what is a game that I know will take? What's a game that people would really be interested in? So I racked my brain, and I was like, oh, obviously NBA Jam. And I mean, going back

2015, NBA Jam was still, you know, NBA Jam is having like a little moment right now

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