SEAN TINER

The Cavelier's Playoff Proposal converts with parodying Heinken's Walk in Fridge Commercial .

The NBA season is only a few bounces away and this year fans will cheer for a newly branded team, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yes, Seattle's storied franchise, the Seattle Super Sonics, relocated and also changed their name. Normally, when a team relocates the name, logo, and colors transfer with the franchise. Following a legal settlement to relocate to Oklahoma City, Clay Bennett, the new team owner, agreed to release the Sonics' naming rights and affiliated marketing material to any future NBA team in the Seattle area. Did Bennett also release the brand's equity in the process? Although the Sonics have struggled in recent years, the franchise's 40 year history has developed the team into a household name. It will take years to restore the same brand familiarity with the Thunder. When the Lakers moved from Minneapolis in 1960, the team's name transferred to Los Angeles, which preserved the brand's equity. When a conglomerate acquires a company, the underlying v...

(Tiner w/Kobe Bryant Portrait, Stylized Portrait by Tiner). Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers for advancing to the second-round of the NBA playoffs. I look forward to watching them compete in the next round. The picture above is the portrait that I created for Kobe Bryant, which will be presented to him in the near future. From watching him compete in his rookie season to jumping over Austin Martins, I'm always amazed at his athletic talent. Best of luck in this year's MVP race.

After Dwight Howard's incredible performance in the NBA 2008 Slam Dunk Contest, I was inspired to test my dunking skills. My hometown has two NBA regulation half courts adjacent to the beach, which is the aesthetic backdrop for these photographs. My friend Chris Stansbury took the images.