Pokémon/NBA crossover box art

I got a wild hair up my ass last night and made a few Pokémon/NBA crossovers after having several successful TikToks about what NBA players would evolve into one another, Pokémon style. Here are the ones I've made so far:

Pokémon King Version

ft. LeBron James as the box legendary

I used the Game Boy Color banner on the side even though by the time LeBron James was in the NBA, the Game Boy Advance was in vogue and Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were already out. The Game Boy Advance banner has a curve to it and as a novice graphic designer, it was too hard to work with. In most ways, though, this one is modeled after Pokémon Ruby's box art.

Pokémon Hoya [Destroya] Version

ft. Patrick Ewing as the box legendary

This one is my favorite one, I really love Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks teams of the 1990s. This was modeled off of the Pokémon Blue art, which features Blastoise. Blastoise is my favorite Pokémon, so I had to go all-out on this one. I couldn't make "Hoya Destroya" fit in a way that looked good, so I shortened the version nickname to just "Hoya."

Pokémon Mamba Version

ft. Kobe Bryant as the box legendary

Originally I was just going to make this one and the MJ one, but I was able to get the process down fairly quickly. This one is modeled off of Pokémon Yellow, but I was able to find a background that had a purplish tint to it that I felt fit the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant. I might make another one of these with Frobe/#8 on it instead to fully fit the 90s theme.

Pokémon GOAT Version

ft. Michael Jordan as the box legendary

This one is modeled off of Pokémon Red. I wanted to keep it pretty simple and just have a flame-and-black background to go with the red-and-black jersey that Michael Jordan is wearing. The base set Charizard card (below) and Jordan are icons of the 1990s.