Kadir Nelson’s “Hang Time”
The artist discusses basketball, painting, and teamwork.
By Françoise Mouly, Art by Kadir NelsonMay 2, 2022
For the second year in a row, basketball fans in New York have felt the sting of disappointed dreams. The Brooklyn Nets are, in the words of the staff writer Vinson Cunningham, “a theoretical super-team, not a fully realized force,” and they crashed out of the playoffs in the first round, after losing to the Boston Celtics in “a sweep that even the worst Nets pessimist wouldn’t have predicted.” And yet, on the city’s many courts, the game goes on. We spoke to Kadir Nelson about celebrating a beloved urban pastime.
