The artwork — as a print

Basketball has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I played for years and still get on the court now and then. The NBA generation between the early 2000s and around 2020 shaped me like almost nothing else — these are the players I followed, whose games I watched at night, whom I argued about with friends.

At some point I wanted to dedicate a drawing to them. The composition references Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper": a long table, the figures in groups, each with their own posture.

At the centre I placed Michael Jordan. He isn't from my generation, but he is the one who revolutionised basketball — he stands for this sport like no one else.

Next to him sits LeBron James, in the role of Judas. That is not a judgement — quite the opposite: LeBron is my favourite player. But he is the one reaching for the throne, the one who wants to match or surpass Jordan's status, and he has come closest. Putting him in that seat was hard, and still the only right decision.

To the left, Kobe Bryant. For me personally the third-best player of that era — and a seat that has carried a different weight since his death.

The other players at the table are no random selection. Each of them shaped my years as a fan. And across the table and in the background there are hidden details belonging to the individual players — small references, quotes, objects. The longer you look, the more you find.

I drew everything by hand in charcoal, on 100 × 60 centimetres. It took almost exactly a year — not in one stretch, but in the gaps: before tattooing, after tattooing, and on days off sometimes from morning to night. For me it was a kind of meditation and at the same time the biggest drawing challenge I had set myself so far.