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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

Let’s get right into your weekly blueprint for basketball culture…

CREATOR BLUEPRINT

The Atlanta Hawks didn’t make the playoffs—but they still made league history this year.

They became the first NBA team to launch a Creator Collective, setting a blueprint that every brand and sports team will eventually follow.

As fans increasingly place more trust in creators over traditional commercial content, the Atlanta Hawks Creator Collective brings together 25 local creators from various platforms and genres to develop year-round storytelling through authentic fan voices.

It’s a win-win for both the Hawks Marketing and Partnerships team but also for the creators who gain access, visibility and new revenue streams.

The Hawks get more media inventory to sell to brand sponsors, while creators get paid gigs, exclusive access and the chance to grow with an NBA team.

Unlike one-off influencer campaigns, this collective creates consistent touch-points that build fan loyalty, engagement, and long-term brand value for everyone.

In a time when ad budgets are tightening, creator-led content offers teams new ways to grow business opportunities.

With the creator economy currently estimated at 250 billion dollars and projected to double by 2027, this is a revenue-generating creator blueprint that every professional sports team and brand will be implementing in the years ahead.

FREE THROWS

Sharing the tools and resources that I’m using this week:

🎞️ Death To Stock Photo - Stop using bland stock assets and explore a curated gallery of over 10,000 stock photos and videos with modern aesthetics designed for social media and marketing assets.

📋 State of Creator Commerce Report - Kajabi released their latest report on the creator economy, highlighting the data and insights behind entrepreneurial creators, their revenue streams, and business platforms.

😎 The Vibe Marketer - Startup Twitter is all-in on hyping up Vibe Marketing, and this newsletter explains how to have your AI agents handle the heavy lifting to maximize speed and marketing output.

Brands are closing deals with Trucks, Pickleball, and Drones

After launching, AntiMetal sent real pizzas to CFOs across NYC - with QR codes to their landing page.

It was weird. It was brilliant. It worked.

They landed Brex, Mercury, and Ramp.

This is how the best brands win the top of the funnel:

Anvara is the marketplace where you can discover, activate, and measure high-impact IRL placements. Think:

• Branded Pizza Boxes

• Music festivals

• Truck Wraps

• Pickleball Sponsorships

We make it easy to be everywhere that matters, without lifting a finger.

Most brands wait for access.

We’re giving you a way in - Now.

Claim your invite.

FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

3️⃣ Before Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Ja Morant unveiled his Nike Basketball Ja 3 sneaker in a "Max Volume" colorway.

😅 Kendrick Lamar appeared and provided the voiceover in Gatorade’s newest campaign, “Lose More. Win More.” The campaign stars Gatorade’s roster of athletes, including basketball stars Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Jayson Tatum, and Luka Dončić.

📣 Cooper Flagg officially announced that he is declaring for the NBA Draft as the projected #1 draft pick. He went from approximately 800,000 total followers on Instagram and TikTok before the college basketball season to over 1.1 million as of today.

📍 Hopkins, Minnesota, is officially renamed Paige Bueckers, Minnesota, to honor the local hero, as her hometown will celebrate the newest WNBA star on May 16th.

📚 Devin Booker pulled up (literally) at UNDEFEATED Phoenix for a pre-release event of the Nike x Devin Booker x Chevrolet collection.

🛜 Google recreated its iconic homepage with a custom NBA Playoff Google logo to celebrate the start of the playoffs.

🏆 Kiyan Anthony took home the Jordan Brand Classic MVP in a special moment, playing in front of his dad, Carmelo Anthony, who has been one of Jordan Brand’s signature athletes for nearly his entire career.

👟 Hypebeast Kicks created an A-Z gallery of active NBA and WNBA players with signature shoes, providing fans with a comprehensive look at the basketball sneaker landscape.

🏀 SoFi gave Los Angeles influencers and creators an exclusive viewing experience at COSM Los Angeles to watch the NBA Play-In Tournament games.

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POST-GAME

Thanks for reading—I’ll see you back here next week!

And if you enjoyed reading today’s newsletter, please share it with one friend.

If you have any questions, ideas, or opportunities to work together—just shoot me a quick email and let’s chat!

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻