菲尼克斯全明星新秀赛球衣流出Tim Ahmed，来自纽约Baruch College的大一学生，获得了EA Sports球衣创作大赛的金奖。本届菲尼克斯全明星新秀赛就将使用他设计的这两套球衣。他也因此获得了1.2万美元的奖金以及免费去现场看全明星赛的机会。
Baruch College Student Designs an N.B.A. Jersey and Wins Basketball StardomJanuary 25, 2009
He wasn’t one of those high school students who might be regarded as hopeless. But he also wasn’t one of those whose success was a virtual given.
At least that was the impression Tim Ahmed left after he graduated from East Meadow High School on Long Island, said a teacher, Greg Schreier, who had Mr. Ahmed in his class on design and drawing.
“Tim was a quiet, laid-back kid who always had good ideas,” Mr. Schreier recalled. “But sometimes you had to give him a kick in the pants to get him going.”
So Mr. Schreier was delighted when Mr. Ahmed, now an 18-year-old freshman at Baruch College, called with good news. He had won a contest in which 12,000 participants across the country were asked to produce a computer-generated design of a jersey to be worn by first- and second-year N.B.A. players when they are in Phoenix next month for All-Star weekend.
“I was a little surprised, but thrilled for Tim,” Mr. Schreier said. “I always knew he had a great sense of design, but this is truly amazing.”
Mr. Ahmed said he first learned about the contest from his 10-year-old brother, Joy.
“I was on the Internet, looking for video games to play, when I came across the Web site which had the contest,” Joy said. “Tim and I are always on the computer drawing things, so I told him that maybe he should enter.”
Mr. Ahmed, who has yet to decide his major at Baruch and refers to designing and drawing as “just a hobby,” sat behind a keyboard for the better part of three days in late October before putting the finishing touches on a purple jersey covered in a sun-splashed pattern.
On the front of the jersey he placed a cactus baking in a golden sun, and the word “Rookies” splashed across the chest area in huge block letters. Just below, nestled inside yet another sun, are the numbers “09.” He then produced a similar “home” team jersey in white.
“We were having dinner one night and Tim comes down the stairs and, very calmly, throws both of his arms up in celebration,” said Mr. Ahmed’s mother, Nasrin, of East Meadow, N.Y. “He took us up to his room and showed us a message on his computer that said he was the winner, and I just started screaming.”
By winning the EA Sports Jersey Creator Contest, named for EA Sports, the video game maker, which is a marketing partner of the National Basketball Association, Mr. Ahmed received a free trip to Phoenix, where All-Star festivities run from Feb. 13-15. He will get to see some of the world’s greatest players wear his jersey during a game on Feb. 13 in which league rookies compete against sophomore players. The day before just happens to mark the beginning of Fashion Week in New York.
“I think it’s too early to put Armani and Ahmed in the same sentence,” Mr. Ahmed said. “But it’s a good feeling just knowing that I was able to contribute something that people all over the world are going to see.”
At some point during the rookies-sophomores game, Mr. Ahmed, a Knicks fan who played basketball at East Meadow High School, will be asked to take a bow for designing the game jerseys, one of which will be signed by every member of both teams and given to him.
“I cannot tell you how proud I am of my son,” said Mr. Ahmed’s father, Tipu, a concierge at Lincoln Towers Apartments in Manhattan, who will accompany his son to Phoenix. “I do hope he leans toward studying design because he has a true gift. This has been an unbelievable and overwhelming experience.”
On Friday, Mr. Ahmed and his family visited the N.B.A. office on Fifth Avenue so that Mr. Ahmed could take a final look at large digital pinups of the jerseys he created before the league sent them out for production.
“Looks pretty good, pretty good” said Mr. Ahmed, nodding in approval. “I think Mr. Schreier is really going to like them.”
Though Mr. Schreier has yet to see the jerseys, he has already graded them in his mind. “There’s no doubt,” he said, “that Tim deserves an A-plus on this one.”
Tim Ahmed and his jersey designs for the rookies-versus-sophomores game next month during All-Star weekend in Phoenix.
二零零九年一月二十九日 下午四时二分