Baton Rouge model David Dunn Jr. (FiftyTwo45 Agency) wears some Sacramento Kings gear in New Orleans for my NBA All Stars weekend Instagram takeover.

In a  New Orleans NBA All-Star game that wheeled and dealed players, local Instagrammers dealed the Kings some gems

Over this last 2017 NBA All Star weekend, which was held in New Orleans, I had the honor of taking over the Sacramento Kings Instagram account to showcase some NOLA spots for their followers. I had never been asked to do something like this, and I was honored. I met up with their digital team at the Westin Hotel upon their arrival on Friday, grabbed some Demarcus Cousins jerseys, and then proceeded to walk the French Quarter. I had with me one of my favorite models to work with ( and all around great guy) David Dunn Jr, as well as his buddy Nick. 

I thought it very smart that the Kings’ Digital Team did some research and reached out to collaborate with some local photographers – it’s no wonder why their digital team is one of the top creatives in the NBA. The Kings were also the first NBA team to use Facebook LIVE. Smart dudes….

Nick and David model some Kings gear in front of the Sheraton’s huge NBA wrap on Canal St.

We walked around to Canal St. to photograph in front of the Sheraton’s NBA All Star wrap, then ventured into the front gates of Bourbon St. The mood immediately changed, the smells became thick, the language fierce…yeah we were in for a ride.

My job this weekend was to get people wearing Demarcus Cousin’s All Star gear around some New Orleans spots in trade for posting and links on their account. The Kings have 568K followers, so I thought this could be a great experience and might get me some New Orleans followers that live in CA…reminiscent of their home. 

We had a blast. I even brought the shirts to the Krewe of Chewbacchus Parade where I was teaching a Mardi Gras photography workshop. I ran into a few people who were from Sacramento and got to throw the jersey on them for a few photographs.

But the craziest most random thing that happened wasn’t the Jedi Knights and Yoda’s that surrounded the Kings gear. It was that in the late Sunday hours of the All-Star game, Demarcus Cousins was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans! In a deal that seemed to be a “make or break” situation for Del Demps and the organization, they waged all their bets including a direct trade for Buddy Hield (damn), Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway and two draft picks. So you’re saying I photographed the last Cousin’s All Star jersey as a King in the city of his new team? I am sure there’s a better way to say that…so here’s some more photographs!

All Images ©Zack Smith Photography and it is against the law to extract these these images for personal or commercial use. It ain’t cool either.