The late Pernell Whitaker — former undisputed lightweight champion and Olympic gold medalist — would have turned 62 yesterday. This is his second Sports Illustrated cover, capturing “Sweet Pea” snapping a jab in his rematch with James “Buddy” McGirt in his Whitaker's hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. Both men would become successful trainers in retirement.

A defensive wizard, Whitaker mastered a tricky shell guard and elusive, proactive head movement that made him one of boxing’s most captivating non-heavyweights of the '90s. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has often cited Sweet Pea as one of his favorite fighters and a major stylistic influence.

Whitaker tragically passed in July 2019 after being struck by a vehicle in Virginia Beach. He was 55 years old.

Tiger Woods turns 50 today, which means this young phenom is now eligible for what was once called the Senior PGA Tour.

This copy of Tiger’s first SI cover is graded 8.5 by PSA.

LeBron turns 41 years old today. Hard to believe this iconic SI cover hit newsstands nearly a quarter century ago!

This copy is graded 9.4 by PSA.

Blocked by James!

A 16-year-old “LaBron” soars on the cover of the Spring 2001 edition of Ohio Roundball Prep. The sophomore led St. Vincent-St. Mary to a second consecutive Ohio state Division III title, and secured the first of his three Ohio Mr. Basketball and USA Today First Team All-America honors. They would soon learn how to spell his name.

LeBron also appeared in a cover inset the year prior, with a scouting report all but declaring him the best freshman in Ohio boys basketball history. His future business partner Maverick Carter was ranked 19th among seniors that year.

High school ranking and recruiting publications are always fun to flip through. The names of dozens of future college and pro players are buried in these pages, sometimes near the bottom of different lists.

Initial thoughts on the PSA mag slabs:

They are very well-protected during shipping, separated by packing paper and secured by purpose-made styrofoam at the ends. I don’t want to jinx future orders, but it seems unlikely any PSA slabs could be damaged during shipment.

As others have mentioned, the slabs are heavier and sturdier than CGC’s. The plastic is also clearer, with no blue tint. For card collectors, I would compare the PSA magazine slab to a OneTouch holder and a CGC slab to a top loader. These are premium holders in both rigidity and clarity.

The slabs are about a half-inch taller than CGC’s from top to bottom, which means the Superior Fit sleeves made for CGC slabs won’t fit and Casematix velcro storage boxes won’t close. 😩

The label is what it is. A white box with a red border isn’t going to win any design awards, but it is recognizable and conveys authority to sports collectors who are unfamiliar with magazine grading. So that’s good.

This is a personal quibble, but I would prefer if the label extended the full width of the case. Comic books are obviously the priority as PSA enters this market, but by using the same size label for magazine slabs, they’re indicating that it wasn’t worth the money to create a separate, wider label for the relatively small market of S.I. collectors. That’s a bummer, but maybe it will change once they have a foothold.

Things I noticed in my submission that might not affect all PSA magazine slabs:

It’s not visible in these photos, but a few of my cases have spots of rainbow-like iridescence on the surface. I forgot the name of this phenomenon, but it either wasn’t as common on my CGC slabs, or I didn’t notice it as much.

All five magazines in my batch appear to have some waviness at the top and bottom of each issue. None of the grader notes mention this, so I don’t believe the waves were there before grading. I suspect it might be related to the encapsulation process, or the snug fit of some issues. I’ll be very curious to see if this is also the case with my batch of five SLAMs arriving later this week.

For now, I’m planning to continue grading with PSA. The app is better, the slabs are better, and the pop report will be better once it’s finally up and running. There’s still some room for fine-tuning, but this is clearly a good start.