Basketball Player Landry Shamet Working as US Open Tennis Photographer

In yet another example of a sports star turning to photography, basketball player Landry Shamet attended the US Open final last night with a camera in hand.

But unlike Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, and most recently Marshawn Lynch, Shamet remains an active NBA player having spent the previous season as a guard for the New York Knicks.

The Associated Press (AP) reports that Shamet was there representing the U.S. Tennis Association to photograph the men’s and women’s finals that took place over the weekend.

It’s his second year working for the USTA, and although it is unpaid, he did well enough in his first year for the USTA to invite him back for the finals this year.

Shamet has shared some of the shots on an Instagram page set up specifically for his photography. Photos of the final between Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova are all in black and white; taken on a Sony Alpha 7R V.

Shamet has played in the NBA since 2018 but took up photography as a hobby roughly four years ago. Since then, his passion has grown and he began networking with professional photographers.

Fellow USTA photographer Jen Pottheiser tells APthat his sports photos are “really tremendous.”

“He really is a student of photography here,” says Pottheiser. “He’s asking amazing questions. He’s frankly a great teammate. I’m sure any New Yorker knows that.”

Shamet is currently unsure where he will play next season, but is hoping to join up with the Knicks again. But if it doesn’t work out, then photography could be an option for him.

“I think since I picked the camera up, I don’t really foresee a day where I put it down,” Shamet tells AP.

“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.”

While Shamet enjoyed smooth sailing as a photographer at this year’s US Open, the same can’t be said for all accredited photographers. Earlier in the tournament, Selcuk Acar dramatically walked onto the court during match point, sparking a meltdown from Russian star Dmitry Medvedev. Acar was later ejected from the court and stripped of his accreditation, despite pleading his innocence.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.