This year’s NBA All-Star portraits look like Christian rock album covers

Joel Embiid even did a Jesus pose.

Dan Gartland | Feb 17, 2017

This year’s NBA All-Star portraits look like Christian rock album covers /

The All-Star portrait is an under-rated part of NBA All-Star Weekend. Where else will you see Shaq dressed like a Prohibition-era bootlegger or Tim Duncan in an inexplicably large sweatsuit?

Because they’re shot in a studio and we’re used to seeing these players glide balletically about the court, these photos always look somewhat unnatural. This year, the portaits were shot in a softly lit room with light pouring in through a window. Yahoo Sports likened the composition to an R&B album cover, but if you consider the brightly lit window as some very ham-handed symbolism, it looks more like Christian rock to me. Joel Embiid even did a Jesus pose.

Joel Embiid

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

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Karl-Anthony Towns

Jahlil Okafor

Devin Booker

Kristaps Porzingis

DeAndre Jordan

Catch them performing at halftime of the game.

Published Feb 17, 2017

DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).