Was cleaning out the garage the other weekend. Found this old box, full of basketball magazines from the 90s. You know, Slam, Hoop, stuff like that. Flipping through them, seeing all those pictures of Michael Jordan… man, it just hit me. The energy back then, the excitement. It feels like a different world sometimes.
Got me thinking. What would it even look like if MJ, the real MJ, decided to lace ’em up again today? Not like a celeb game, but actually playing. Stupid thought, I know. He’s chilling, probably playing golf. Good for him. But still, that image got stuck in my head. That ‘what if’.
Trying Something New (for Me)
I remembered seeing all this stuff online about AI making pictures. Usually scroll past it. But this time, I thought, hey, maybe I can use that? Make my own picture of MJ playing now. Sounded like a weird way to spend an afternoon, but why not? Felt like trying to build something, even if it was just a digital image.
So, I found one of those websites. You type words, it spits out a picture. Seemed simple enough. Didn’t need the fanciest one, just something to play with.
The Actual Work: Making the Picture
Let me tell you, simple it was not. At least not at first. My first few tries were just… bad.
- My prompt: “Michael Jordan playing basketball 2024”. What I got: Pictures that barely looked human, let alone like MJ. One guy had the proportions of a cartoon character. Another looked like a melted candle wearing a jersey. Total waste of… well, generation credits or whatever they call them.
- Okay, need more details. Tried: “Older Michael Jordan dunking hard”. Got closer. Some looked kinda like him, but stiff. Like a photo of a statue trying to dunk. No life in it. The AI just didn’t get the feel of MJ playing.
- Okay, more detail needed. Thought about what made MJ, MJ. The intensity. The gear. So I tried: “Photo, Michael Jordan age 60, intense focus, driving past defender on modern NBA court, wearing #23 Bulls jersey but modern style”. This started getting results that looked more like photos. Still weird stuff though. Sometimes the ball looked like a pumpkin, or the defender had three arms. AI is weird.
Sat there for probably over an hour, just typing variations. “photorealistic”, “dynamic action”, “game situation”, “sweat dripping”. Felt like I was arguing with a stubborn mule that only understood broken English. You type, wait, look at the weird picture, sigh, type again.
Getting Somewhere
Finally, one prompt combination started working better. It was long, something like: “Action photograph, Michael Jordan, appears late 50s, hyperrealistic, determined expression, mid-dribble on an indoor court, wearing Jordan brand practice gear, shallow depth of field, motion blur”. I had to run it maybe a dozen times.
What I Ended Up With
Got one picture that I saved. It’s not perfect. Look closely and you can see flaws, the hands are a bit off, something weird with the lighting in the background. But the main part… it captured something. An older MJ, yeah, but still with that competitive look, the focus. Ball in hand, body coiled. For a split second, looking at it, you could almost believe it. Almost see him playing again.
Was it a productive afternoon? Eh, depends how you measure it. Didn’t fix the garage. But messing with that AI, trying to create that specific image, it was… interesting. A strange way to connect with that old feeling from the magazines. Made me think about how we try to recapture things. Sometimes it works, kinda. Sometimes you just get a weird picture with messed-up hands. That’s life, I guess.
