Cassy Athena is now a household name for most basketball fans. Be it for the NBA or the WNBA, Athena’s photographic prowess is always on display — whether she’s shooting Steph Curry’s birthday or Team USA.
In a new partnership with Under Armour, Athena showed the masses Stephen Curry’s SC30 Select Camp through her eyes.
“‘Cassy, do you want to be the best-ever female basketball photographer?’ My response has and always will be, ‘I want to be the best basketball photographer. Period.'”
The photo essay also features personal anecdotes, written by Athena, regarding her path to basketball photography (she started shooting basketball in 2011).
“When I heard the news about Stephen Curry inviting two young women to his fifth annual, invite-only SC30 Select Camp in the Bay Area featuring the top high school players in the nation, I knew I needed to be there,” wrote Athena in a statement. “I can’t think of another time an NBA athlete has invited female ballers to his elite summer camp; this would be history in the making, and I could be there to capture — and be a part of — another crack in that glass ceiling, helping build to the day when we get to shatter it, together.”
Women in sports empowered Athena to dedicate her life to the basketball community. Names like Pat Summitt, Bertha Teague, Muffet McGraw, Becky Hammon, and Doris Burke are just some of the strong-willed women Athena looked up to.
Through her lens, Athena captured stunning moments from the fifth annual SC30 Select Camp that included two young female players: Azzi Fudd and Cameron Brink. They’re two of the top-ranked basketball players in the country and got invited to the camp by Curry himself.
Athena captured the two players’ love for the game to show that “basketball is basketball.” No matter the label, Fudd and Brink showed up to put in the work and get better at the game they’re already ridiculously talented at, despite their young age. Failure doesn’t phase them and being “women in a man’s game” doesn’t define them.
To view Cassy Athena’s full photo essay click here.
Source: Under Armour
Images via Under Armour / Cassy Athena
