🧡 Here's what you missed in Basketball Culture - 7/17/26

A viral Team USA Basketball challenge, new sneaker campaigns and more

Author

Jeff Chen
July 17, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

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Welcome to the end of the week edition of The Baseline!

Every Friday morning, I break down what you missed in basketball culture. 

This 3-minute read shares the latest marketing and creator insights across the industry.

Let’s jump right into it…

FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🔎 12-year NBA veteran and 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Redd (and one of the best athletes to follow on Twitter) went viral as people are failing the iconic Team USA Statue of Liberty photo challenge because basketball fans don’t recognize him.

🏆 Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson won two awards at this week’s 2026 ESPY Awards: Best Athlete in Women's Sports and Best WNBA Player.

👑 Tyrese Haliburton hosted a special live edition of the Mind The Game Podcast at Fanatics Fest (filling in for Steve Nash) and tried to get LeBron to unveil his Decision 3.0.

🗽 Nike Basketball launched the new Sabrina 4 campaign, "Anytime, Anywhere" as Sabrina Ionescu's fourth signature shoe debuts in the Limelight Glow colorway today, July 17th.

🥊 Sophie Cunningham is on a side quest mission, as she has her first Adidas Crazy Energy PE dropping on July 24th and was recently spotted as a ring girl at UFC 329 in Vegas.

📲 TikTok announced a multi-year partnership with the NBA and WNBA that’ll help drive the platform’s audience to to the biggest NBA and WNBA moments through TikTok GamePlan.

👽 Nike Atelier taps Victor Wembanyama for a bespoke capsule rooted in French craftsmanship and athletic heritage, which will be available for preorder on July 20th.

🎬 A new WNBA docuseries, "Life in the W," is coming to ESPN, premiering on July 24th. It will share the behind-the-scenes stories of A'ja Wilson, DeWanna Bonner, and Napheesa Collier.

🕺 Puma Hoops supported LaMelo Ball’s introductory press conference with the Minnesota Timberwolves with a new "1 of M1nnesota" billboard in downtown Minneapolis.

👟 Napheesa Collier unveils the Jordan Heir Series 2 “Queen Phee” PE as Jordan Brand continues to invest in women’s performance basketball products.

📇 Topps shared a first look at Dylan Harper’s NBA Debut Patch Autograph card that’ll be included in 2025-26 Topps Chrome Update Basketball packs.

Your creative brief is due Friday. Viktor wrote it Tuesday.

Tell him the campaign. Viktor pulls last quarter's performance from Meta and TikTok, scrapes competitor ads, drafts the brief, posts it for review. You edit, he ships the creative requests to your designer. Inside Slack.

THE POINT FORWARD

This is the section of our newsletter where I point out one thing worth sharing with someone in your network—whether it’s a job, a resource, or just an idea or inspiration.

Forward this to your creator friends that wants to use one platform for their entire content business:

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POST-GAME

Thanks for reading! Here are a few ways we can stay connected:

🤝 Partner With Me: I work with brands, athletes and creators across their brand strategy, digital media, creator programs, partnerships, and marketing growth. Interested in working together? Get in touch here.

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👋 Stay Connected: Enjoyed this newsletter? Share it with a friend or colleague. Also follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for more sports marketing and creator insights.

Thanks and see you next week!

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻

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