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Read through the answers here:
Can I sell my own artwork depicting a celebrity - Q&A - Avvo
From what I've read, it seems that celebrities have what's called a "Right of Publicity," which is the celebrity's exclusive legal right to use their own image for commercial gain.
If you're wanting to sell a t-shirt with a player on it, you'll probably need to license both their celebrity image and the logo's on their jersey's. I don't know if the NBA already licenses or controls the rights to their player's images while playing the sport, but here's the NBA license application:
NBA.com: NBA License Application
As someone who is pursuing a license deal (not with athletes), I can tell you that as someone with no prior experience, they won't even give you the time of day. A company as large as the NBA will have ridiculous (7 figure?) minimum guarantees on their licenses.
NOW, since you mentioned Stock Photos, you'll need to be specific. On Shutterstock, for example, you can purchase a stock photo with commercial rights to profit from the image and use it for commercial purposes. I don't think I've ever seen celebrity's on there, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I suppose that could be a legal work-around. If the stock photo company truly has the right to sell that image and provide the commercial use of it, then I would think that you'd be covered. Ask a lawyer.
Can I sell my own artwork depicting a celebrity - Q&A - Avvo
From what I've read, it seems that celebrities have what's called a "Right of Publicity," which is the celebrity's exclusive legal right to use their own image for commercial gain.
If you're wanting to sell a t-shirt with a player on it, you'll probably need to license both their celebrity image and the logo's on their jersey's. I don't know if the NBA already licenses or controls the rights to their player's images while playing the sport, but here's the NBA license application:
NBA.com: NBA License Application
As someone who is pursuing a license deal (not with athletes), I can tell you that as someone with no prior experience, they won't even give you the time of day. A company as large as the NBA will have ridiculous (7 figure?) minimum guarantees on their licenses.
NOW, since you mentioned Stock Photos, you'll need to be specific. On Shutterstock, for example, you can purchase a stock photo with commercial rights to profit from the image and use it for commercial purposes. I don't think I've ever seen celebrity's on there, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I suppose that could be a legal work-around. If the stock photo company truly has the right to sell that image and provide the commercial use of it, then I would think that you'd be covered. Ask a lawyer.