Despite his extremely humble demeanor, center Nikola Jokić was recently immortalized in the history of basketball lore by hoisting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy for his Denver Nuggets. To commemorate the occasion, artist Tyler Upchurch has worked with basketball platform Local Hoops on a new limited print of the Serbian superstar.
Entitled Struck Gold, the artwork features Jokić in a semi geometric pastiche as he walks off into the sunset. Much of Upchurch’s work operates at the intersection of basketball and hip hop, as he reinterprets cultural icons and events in a grainy, saturated and collage-like aesthetic.
Local Hoops was founded with the goal to tell authentic stories at the center of basketball and culture, while raising the bar for equality on and off the court. The limited Giclee ink print sizes at 16 x 20 inches and is available to purchase unframed for $100 USD via Local Hoops.
For more on art, we spoke to Bijan Berahimi about reconnecting to his Iranian cultural heritage for Hypebeast Magazine Issue 31.
