I’ll start right here: “BBall.”, “Hoops.”, “The Pill.”, “The Rock.”, “Square Up.”, “Box – Out.”, “Swish.”, “Pop – Out.”, “Shake ‘N Bake.”, “Pick and Roll.”, “Gotcha.”, “Face.”, “And One.”, “Down Low.”, “Trap.”, “Press.”, “Coast to Coast.”, “In the Paint.”, and back “On the Block…”
NFA guard Will Williams gathers his thoughts during varsity basketball practice at the high school in Newburgh, NY on Thursday, December 2, 2010. Defending Section 9 Class AA Champion NFA opens their 2010 – 2011 season at Minisink Valley on December 9th. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls flips the ball over his head toward the basket in the closing seconds of the 1998 NBA All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, February 8, 1998. Jordan was named the MVP of the game. © Chet Gordon/The Journal News
basketball is probably my favorite sport to shoot. I mean besides football, baseball, boxing, track & field, swimming, lacrosse, hockey, tennis, soccer, field hockey, horse racing, car racing, bungee jumping, hang gliding, wind surfing, marathon running, weightlifting, etc… Well, you get the idea.
MOMBASA, KENYA. A Kenyan boy watches a basketball fall through a netless hoop in the Miritini Estates neighborhood of Mombasa, Kenya on Sunday, April 9, 2006. © www.chetgordon.com/blog
At one time I was a pretty decent player through high school and like other sports, I have a deep appreciation 
of the game with all it’s nuances and intricacies. Basketball offers a working photographer a means to get close to the players and coaches, where one can usually freely approach the team benches (or locker rooms) for good feature or “B – roll” images from games and even practices.
Anfernee Hardaway (#1, center) of the NY Knicks drives to the basket between Kenyon Martin (left) and Rodney Rodgers (right) of the NJ Nets in the first half of their Game #1 playoff game at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ on Saturday, April 17, 2004. Hardaway led the Knicks’ scorers in a losing effort as the Nets defeated the Knicks, 107-83. (Photograph by Chet Gordon for The New York Daily News)
Chet Gordon resides in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York. A photojournalist for more than 25 years, he recently worked as Westchester Magazine's first photo editor, and previously was a staff photographer at four NYC metro area newspapers. He was also a photo editor at the NY Daily News for 5 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, MailOnline (UK), Army Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Popular Photography magazines, among others. He is a career member of the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA), and a former board member of the NY Press Photographer’s Association (NYPPA). He served honorably as a U.S. Marine in the mid-1980's, including 2+ years stationed on Okinawa, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia. A longtime volunteer and travel enthusiast, he accompanies several humanitarian aid clients on their international disaster relief and medical missions. Since 1997, he's worked in several African countries, the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, the Russian Federation, and Thailand. He routinely mentors young photographers looking to break into the industry and vacations in Bermuda and Kenya.
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