To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the NBA, Bleacher Report has teamed with a diverse crop of artists to create original works of art inspired by the league. Each artist created original artworks that range from paintings and illustrations to quilts, embroideries and jewelry.
Included on the team are:
- Frank Miller, one of the most influential and awarded creators in the entertainment field today. Miller is known for his intense, hard-boiled storytelling and gritty noir aesthetic across comics, novels and films, including Daredevil, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300.
- Hank Willis Thomas, is a widely exhibited conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. He is known for creating overlaps of sports, history, and contemporary art through his tapestries made of athletic jerseys
- Sue Tsai, a visual artist whose vivid work is a crossover of art, fashion, and popular culture. Known to bring a bold yet feminine aesthetic into the world of basketball, Sue creates multi- media collectible art through her pop-surrealistic style
- Greg Yuna, a prominent luxury jeweler and New York city fixture, who is based in Manhattan’s Diamond District and counts top celebrities in sports, music and film among his clientele. Yuna’s creativity and unique aesthetic drives the design direction of the Greg Yüna brand’s contemporary collections of precious jewelry, apparel, accessories and artwork.
- Bandulu, a label founded by artist Pat Peltier, known for transforming vintage clothing and sports-wear into unique, one of a kind garments through custom embroidery, including hand-sewn paint splatters – a trademark of his style.
Miller created three pencil and ink illustrations reimagining the Celtics, Lakers, and Raptors logos. Thomas created a large-scale quilted NBA logo from a collection of team jerseys.
“I have been a basketball fan since I was a teenager,” Miller said. “Watching the Lakers playing the Celtics was like watching super heroes in action. Those guys are too good to be true. But they are true.”
Tsai added four paintings celebrating the Nets, Bulls, Lakers, and Knicks. three hand-embroidered tapestries honoring the 76ers, Celtics, and Heat, and Yuna made three pendants encrusted with precious gems of the Knicks, Lakers, and 75th anniversary NBA logos, the latter of which is a nod to the “Diamond Anniversary” of the NBA.
“Basketball has always been a gateway for artistic expression and mental fitness for me, from an early age,” said Pat Peltier, the founder of Bandulu. “From being inspired by the culture of the sport my whole life to going on to play collegiate basketball at Mass Art in Boston, I have continuously drawn reference points and parallels to how art and basketball intertwine through Bandulu. Being from New England and growing up an avid Boston Celtics fan, a milestone moment was having the opportunity to work with Nike and Kyrie Irving to create an on court performance silhouette to offer his artistic style for the next generation of hoopers embracing their love for the game. Hand crafted art styles require the level of competitive performance and exploratory style that the game of basketball embodies.”
The apparel is a capsule collection of casual wear, including long and short sleeve t-shirts, hooded and crewneck sweatshirts, embroidered bomber jackets and a pair of sweatpants.
You can get a glimpse of the work below.