Not that Lebron James needed an ego boost...
At times NBA players seem like they are one cape short of being superheroes. They’re fast, they jump crazy heights and with the exception of Brian Scalabrine, most of them are built like monster trucks. In a world full of humans, NBA stars aesthetically look like modern-day titans.
Alberto Berroa Jr., or as the internet knows him, Artoflaff, took this idea of NBA stars having near mythical physical attributes and ran with it. His art series, titled Dunkslaps, is an NBA/Graffiti mashup that pairs NBA stars with classic pop culture iconography. The series was first posted online back in August and has been making waves in the Reddit art community since.
![[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/unnamed1.png" caption="" credit="Alberto "Laff" Berroa Jr. " alt="Dwayne Wade Mashup with The Flash"]](http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/unnamed1.png){kind=link}
Berroa, who is a 26-year-old New York native currently living in New Jersey, told Mashable that he decided to focus on drawing two years ago after a failed attempt at breaking into the music industry. Dunkslaps started after Berroa posted some drawings on Reddit that he did for his friends. The Reddit community’s response was incredibly positive-- probably the first time those words have ever been uttered-- and encouraged him to turn the drawings into an entire series.
![[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-18-at-5.19.27-PM.png" caption="" credit="Alberto "Laff" Berroa Jr. " alt="Black Mamba"]](http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Screen-Shot-2014-11-18-at-5.19.27-PM.png){kind=link}
When it comes to picking individuals to use for his posts, Berroa doesn’t choose the players based on skill but rather based on the persona surrounding them.
“I took my personal favorite players in the league, players I either loved or players I thought were on the rise and I took whatever nicknames they had or I thought they should have and ran with it," Berroa said, adding that "It was never supposed to be a set thing, 'best players' or 'best nicknames,' it was just a kind of a freestyle thing that snowballed into something really dope.”
![[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/unnamed-2.png" caption="" credit="Alberto "Laff" Berroa Jr. " alt="Splash Brothers"]](http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/unnamed-2.png){kind=link}
So what’s next for the New York artist?
“I'd love to draw comics and do video game art... I'm a huge fan of MARVEL and DC and grew up on cartoons so I've always loved to do art thats a little outside the box.”
You can check out Berroa's art at his website, Artoflaff.com and on Instagram.