Idea for this collection came to me when I was getting to know Kelly McCarty. I would come to his games and he would graciously arrange for court side seats when he was playing with a basketball club “Khimki.” We would get to talk after his games. We arranged for him to visit me and my family at my country estate to see some of my new paintings before the new season began. Kelly was the captain of BC Khimki. But in the offseason Khimki traded its captain to another team.

Kelly was traded to Unics. A team that played in Kazan. There he would go on to win a Eurocup and would eventually wrap up his career. But here is what intrigued me. His number stayed the same. Throughout his career he played wearing 21. His number was only different when he played for the Russian national team and maybe when he was drafted by the Denver Nuggets but I cannot be sure about that. 21 is his number and it is not at all uncommon in the world of professional sports.