With Blogs with Balls 2.0 coming up next week, I wanted to talk with some of the other panelists leading up to, and following. the show. For this show, I was happy to talk with Lang Whitaker, executive editor of SLAM Magazine.

We first start with a conversation about basketball and new media and how the sports -- and the NBA specifically -- has been on the forefront of these new ways to communicate. That leads to a discussion about how a place like SLAM, in its 15th year of publication, can keep up with the growing number of media outlets and websites and Twitter feeds that keep popping up by the day. It’s quite an accomplishment for any magazine to be around for 15 years, but SLAM especially if you think about the fact that it’s a culture magazine. See, when something is cool, everyone wants it. But usually, cool things trend out in a few years and another cool thing replaces it. We talk about how SLAM has been able to handle the change in style and trends and, well, culture in general. How does a publication predicated on relevancy stay relevant?

In the 15 years, I wonder who has been on the cover the most times, which leads to a debate about who had more significance, culturally -- Michael Jordan or Allen Iverson. Was Jordan ever a real person or was he just a logo and a brand? Why did people reject Jordan’s HOF speech when he finally showed who he was? Jordan never gave us anything, and the minute he shows a hint of personality, people get upset. For me, and I’d assume most fans, I want my athlete to be a real person, not a corporation. And has anyone ever been more real and unafraid to be himself than Iverson?

And with that access comes consequences. Players going to rehab. Players getting arrested with guitar cases holding guns. A few years ago, we’d all be making Desperado jokes. But when I made one the other week about Delonte West, or when people made drug jokes about Michael Beasley, we’re told the players have mental issues -- depression, specifically -- and it’s not right to make light of the situation.

I wonder if ‘depression’ is the new microfracture knee surgery. Is depression the new trend, or are doctors just doing a better job diagnosing it in the last few years? And I totally put my foot in my mouth by wondering if pro athletes are coddled too much going through the ranks of high school, AAU and college and the moment they are on their own in the NBA and aren’t the king of the world anymore, they can’t handle it. Whitaker points out that many of these players -- sweeping generalizations aside -- grew up in fatherless homes and often had trouble finding enough food for the family table. Perhaps they were put on a pedestal athletically, but doesn’t mean they didn’t have tough lives.

I jump out of that hole long enough to talk about Blogs with Balls. Whitaker is moderating a panel with Jalen Rose, Rob King -- head of all things ESPN.com, and Jim Bankoff of SB Nation. What is the plan for his panel and is he excited for the Vegas schmoozefest?