PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS
PORTRAITS OF CELEBRITIES, ATHLETES AND EXECUTIVES BY MIAMI CELEBRITY PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER BRIAN SMITH
The Miami Heat retired the jersey of one of my favorite Heat players All-Star point guard Tim Hardaway at their NBA home opener against the New York Knicks. I always enjoyed watching Hardaway on the court and had lots of fun photographing Hardaway for an ESPN the Magazine article on his killer ankle-breaking-UTEP-two-step-crossover-dribble…
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Seven-time All Star Dominic DiMaggio, who always lived in the shadows of Hall of Fame brother Joe and teammate Ted Williams, died early today at age 92.
DiMaggio still holds the record for the longest consecutive game hitting streak in Red Sox history, yet his 34-game hitting streak games in 1949 was only the second longest hit streak in the DiMaggio family, forever over-shadowed by his brother Joe’s major league record 56-game hitting streak with the Yankees in 1941. If that wasn’t bad enough, it was Joe who caught a sinking liner off Dom’s bat to end his younger brother’s hit streak.
Dom DiMaggio, 2002
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Dwyane Wade, aka D-Wade, aka god, ended his playoff run far to early for a basketball god who single-handedly turned around his franchise’s fortunes on his thanks to one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. All that’s left is to praise the greatness he showed averaging 30.2 ppg for a team that offered little supporting cast. So please enjoy my favorite D-Wade photo.
I shot this image of D-Wade right before the start of the 2006 NBA finals where he single-handedly ripped the Dallas Mavericks to shreds. (Sorry about that M-Cube, but you know it’s true…)
I love this photo, but the story behind it’s even better. D-Wade and I had just wrapped a shoot right before game one of the NBA finals and even though he was sweating out a 104º fever, I pleaded for one more shot – just for us. So we did a series against a black background in the bathroom of Dwyane’s Pinecrest mansion. Dwyane’s little sister was with us on the shoot and forget whatever you think about NBA stars – little sisters are little sisters – no matter how famous you may be. As I shot his photo, she laughed in the face of my NBA god with a little-sister taunt of “You know he does that thing with his eyebrow and calls it Sexy D-Wade.”
If I didn’t already idolize everything about the dude before, getting called out by his little sister pretty much wrapped it up.
Thanks for a great season D-Wade!
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