These five portraits look like paintings. But they aren’t. Each is a photographic montage: actual photographs of the players, layered, masked, and reworked with textured brushstrokes until the photographic background takes on the appearance of a painting. The technique is the concept itself: the documentary nature of photography conveyed through the brushstroke, bringing together sports and art on a single surface. The silhouettes are left raw at the edges; the teams’ saturated colors blend into the background.

Dikembe Mutombo passed away on September 30, 2024, two months before the gala. He had been scheduled to attend, and a low-key tribute was planned ahead of the event to recognize his contributions to the development of basketball in Africa.