Summary
On their own, the original 151Pokémonarewickedly cool. Of course, there is the iconic starter trio, plus everyone’s favorite companion in Pikachu. But there are also creatures like Ekans, which is literally Snake spelled backwards, as well as Horsea, the adorable seahorse.
But what if those Pokémon weren’t inspired by real-life creatures and named using a portmanteau? What if, instead, they were inspired by players from the National Basketball Association?
Well, that’s exactly what u/OkAutopilot sought to do when they decided to mish-mash the world of Pokémon with the world of the NBA. The result is Okaymon, a full-scale arts and culture project that types the original 151 Pokémon with 151 real-life basketball players, complete with art and stats. It is as epic as it sounds.
Who’s That Okaymon?
Taking to the NBA’s official subreddit, the creator shared his project, including a full-scale website, where every individual stat and player can be found.
To start, every Pokémon type has been translated to an actual basketball archetype, and individual stats were reimainged into things like defensive and offensive attributes. And in true Pokémon fashion, there are also evolutions that put similar players together.
For example, the path of Squirtle to Blastoise has been mapped to Alperen Sengun, Domantas Sabonis and Nikola Jokić. Sengun, a rising European basketball player, is Squirtle, while Sabonis, an accomplished Lithuanian veteran, is Wartortle. All roads lead to Jokic, arguably the greatest European player in the league, who has been reimagined as Blastoise. It’s perfect!
That’s not all, either. Premier instigator Draymond Green has been cast as Hitmonlee, a fighting-type Pokémon. Elsewhere, Jayson Tatum has been linked to Kangaskhan, the Pokémon that carries their baby with them everywhere, the same way Tatum takes his son everywhere.
The full project,which can be found here, is supremely awesome and well worth a look. Longtime NBA fans will certainly appreciate all the work that was put in to make every pairing make sense. And if you’re not an NBA fan, then you’ll appreciate the amazing artwork that was created to help bring everything to life.
