In celebration of the league’s 75th anniversary, we ranked our most memorable cover photos throughout the years.
Sports Illustrated and the NBA have grown up together—the pro basketball league is celebrating its 75th anniversary, while SI has been around for 67 years. That’s not to say there weren’t growing pains: The first NBA cover didn’t come until 1956, and there were only a handful in the early days. But as time went on, we evolved and so did the league. Since the 1970s, pro hoops has become a bigger and bigger part of America’s sporting fabric, not to mention a mainstay on SI’s most coveted piece of real estate.