I reached out to the guys behind everyone’s favorite basketball publication to get their thoughts on ESPN’s new mini series The Last Dance and find out what’s planned for Franchise magazine.⠀

Start off by telling me who you are, where you're from / currently live and what you do for work.⠀
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Hello, my name is Justin Montag. I’m the Editor in Chief and Co-Creator of Franchise. I was born in Iowa, grew up in New Mexico and now live in Los Angeles. As of last year Franchise is my full-time thing but I also consult in music curation. ⠀
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Hello, my name is Chris Dea I was born and raised in Los Angeles and currently live here as well. Franchise is my full time gig.⠀

ESPN recently aired the first two episodes of their 10 part documentary series 'The Last Dance'. Being that Franchise is a basketball publication and assuming you both tuned in, I have to ask what your thoughts were on the episode 1 and 2?⠀
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We grew up in the era of the Bulls, every year I’d ask for Air Jordans for my birthday and every Christmas I was more excited to watch the Bulls than to receive presents. The Last Dance means everything to me and there most likely wouldn’t be Franchise without this team. We’re doing a zine to celebrate this documentary entitled DYNASTY, we’ve haven’t officially announced it, but I guess we just did.

How did the two of you meet and what led to launching Franchise magazine?⠀

We both worked at Apple during the start of iTunes, we watched NBA games after work at the nearby bar (Paul & Eddies) after a few too many beers one night Franchise was born. ⠀

When starting on a new issue of Franchise is their a theme or concept you two have in mind when approaching it?⠀
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We don’t really have a theme or concept and thats on purpose, we just want to showcase what we feel is the best in basketball culture, we’ve had 6 issues to date and have always had a lot of fun doing it. We love the group of friends who help us bring Franchise to life (June, Kasia, Saadya, Priscilla, Priest, Andreas, Rocky, Brock and so many others) they’re like family.

If you could pick any two NBA players for a game of one on one, which two players would it be and why?

This is a tough one, there are so many fun possibilities. Kobe vs MJ, Barkley vs. Zion, Lebron vs Shaq, Boban vs Muresan but if we’re talking modern day and not dream scenario I’d like to see Ja Morant in a game of one on one, maybe vs Giannis, but Giannis would have such a height advantage so maybe someone more Ja’s size. How about Dame. Dame vs Ja would be fun, Old vs New, Three Stripes vs Swoosh...I don’t know I miss basketball. ⠀

With so much uncertainty during these weird and tough times, can we expect to see the release of issue #7 ?⠀
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We’re not sure when issue #7 will release but it’s coming together. We’ve got some amazing historic artists lined up as well as incredible up-and-coming talent. We can’t wait to get it out but we’re in no rush. In the meantime we’ll release some zines, new shirts and see what else we can put together.