Summer 1996, Orlando. A few weeks after being drafted, the young hopefuls of the league are already meeting to follow the famous “Rookie Transition Program”. Kobe BryantAllen Iverson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Stephon Marbury, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Marcus Camby, Antoine Walker… These wonderful people are about to mark the history of the league.
Slam Magazine feels that this 1996 class has something special. Launched only two years earlier, the young publication then set up a ” covert operation “: send a team there out of sight of the NBA using assumed names at the hotel so as not to be spotted!
The opportunity is too good to immortalize the moment, also assuming that players like Iverson and Marbury, who have a direct link to hip-hop culture, identify with the magazine. Already highly respected in the world of NBA photography, Nathaniel S. Butler is in demand.
” We took pictures for each team, for the collection cards (note: “Fleer Trading Cards” was one of their biggest advertisers at the time), things of the sort “, still remembers very well the American photographer, joined by USA Basketball.
The rookies doused… with water
With so many up-and-coming stars, a group photo is in order. But you have to act quickly because the players are only available for a few minutes, at midday. “ Their respective arrivals were planned. The morning group was about to leave, the afternoon group was arriving. It was literally the only time you could take such a group photo “says the author of the picture.
The ten rookies present, sprayed… with water by the Slam teams so that they look sweaty (!), impose real gymnastics in terms of placement and posture of each one. Example now well known with Kobe Bryant who, that day, wears a cast on his left arm. Between his Draft and this week of mandatory seminars in Florida, the Lakers player managed to break his wrist playing at Venice Beach! We must also take into account a technical dimension: the photo is horizontal but the cover of the magazine will be vertical.
READ (RE) READ: Draft 1996, twenty-five years later, the secrets of an exceptional generation
Managing everyone’s egos doesn’t seem to be so much of a problem. Especially as Nathaniel S. Butler admits: “ To be honest, I didn’t know all the players. I didn’t know who Steve Nash was, an unknown little guy from Santa Clara. I knew the guys from the ‘Big East’, Ray Allen, Marcus Camby… »
Everyone has an appointment in front of this brick wall, located outside. This does not facilitate the task of a photographer accustomed to the artificial light of NBA lairs, even to those of studios. ” We didn’t want them to be dazzled by the sun, it wasn’t easy to execute. »
A posed group photo also has little to do with spontaneous, real-speed play in a match. ” You ‘shoot’ and hope no player blinks. Sometimes in a group, guys will talk to each other. It’s hard to get their attention “, continues the photographer who had to take only six to eight photos of the scene (the photo of one was the only one where Jermaine O’Neal looked at the camera).
Allen Iverson is gone
Observing the final result, we are very far from the “chatting” atmosphere between friends in the field. We rather have the feeling of being faced with a bunch of “bad guys” with hard looks, ready to smash everything in the big league. Exactly what Slam wanted.
This shot has become all the more iconic because the most “bad guy” of all is not there: Allen Iverson. This is the great regret of our photographer based in New Jersey. The phenomenon of Georgetown, drafted in first position, he knew him well. ” I had seen him play a lot, at Madison Square Garden in particular. I was a big fan from the start so I was disappointed that he wasn’t there, even though we had put him aside. We didn’t know where he was, we tried to locate him. There was a communication problem, he was gone. »
That day, Nathaniel S. Butler said to himself that it was really ” bad luck “, but looking back…” Photography has become more and more important over the years. The fact that he’s not there even adds an element to the story. And it’s not like he refused to do so. »
The photographer adds that he had the opportunity to take other group photos of this kind – he would have liked to do it during the 2003 draft (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony…) – but “ it hasn’t been as good that this snapshot, along with four future Hall of Famers and scores of All-Stars, went down in history.
The complete “making-of” of this photo told by Slam
Photo credit: Nathaniel S. Butler
To (re)read:
LeBron James poster of Jason Terry
Derrick Rose, the youngest MVP
Kawhi Leonard’s anthology shoot
Stephen Curry alone in his own league
Wilt Chamberlain’s “100” poster
In the clouds above “Air Jordan”
LeBron James’ ‘unintentional’ tribute dunk to Kobe Bryant
Bill Russell, his ten fingers and eleven rings
