Landry Shamet works US Open as photographer

NEW YORK (AP) — Like most basketball gamers, Landry Shamet has been busy taking pictures.

This weekend, they have been with a digital camera. He labored as a photographer at the U.S. Open.

The guard who spent final season with the New York Knicks had a job with the U.S. Tennis Association and was in Arthur Ashe Stadium snapping footage throughout the ladies’s and males’s last matches.

An NBA participant since 2018, Shamet stated images began out as a passion about 4 years in the past. Eventually he beginning assembly professionals, gaining extra expertise and his ardour grew from there.

“And somehow I’m here at the U.S. Open,” he stated Sunday earlier than taking his place within the photograph pit earlier than Carlos Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner.

It was Shamet’s second 12 months with an unpaid place with the USTA. In 2024, he was on the grounds throughout the first week of the event. This time, he carried out nicely sufficient that he was requested to come back on the ultimate weekend.

USTA photographer Jen Pottheiser watched Shamet place himself for pictures of Aryna Sabalenka throughout the trophy presentation after the ladies’s last and figured his 6-foot-4 top would assist get him one thing others may not.

“But that aside, his action photos are really tremendous,” Pottheiser stated. “He really is a student of photography here. He’s asking amazing questions. He’s frankly a great teammate. I’m sure any New Yorker knows that.”

Shamet makes use of his personal digital camera tools, which he at first by no means imagined proudly owning. Even although he loved taking images, he simply used his telephone.

“My friend was like, ‘You should get a camera,’” Shamet stated. “I’m like, ‘I’m not going to use a camera. Who has cameras anymore? You just use your phone. Who needs a camera?’”

But as soon as he obtained one, he loved taking it on street journeys or simply utilizing it across the streets at residence. Eventually, like fellow athletes akin to baseball of Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson, and soccer’s Marshawn Lynch, he obtained ok to get near the motion at sporting occasions.

He’s now extra of a tennis fan after being across the gamers and studying their tales. When he first got here to the U.S. Open a couple of years in the past as a fan, Shamet solely knew the most important names, akin to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

It was additionally simpler to stroll round again then. Shamet stated he’s been acknowledged and stopped by fairly a couple of followers this 12 months after taking part in on the primary Knicks staff to succeed in the Eastern Conference finals since 2000.

He’s been in New York and understanding, hoping for a return to the Knicks. But wherever he finally ends up and each time he finishes taking part in, he is aware of images will probably be there.

“I think since I picked the camera up I don’t really foresee a day where I put it down,” Shamet stated. “Even when we go on the road I always have a camera with me, just to have. So whether it’s just like as a hobby, walking around, shooting stuff that I like to maybe print out and put on the wall in my house or doing things like this, it’ll always be there.”