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- 🧡 Here's what you missed in Basketball Culture - 7/2/26
🧡 Here's what you missed in Basketball Culture - 7/2/26
Viral champagne bottles with the New York Liberty and much more!
This might be the craziest week in NBA offseason trades ever but welcome to another edition of The Baseline!
Before you enjoy your July 4th holiday weekend, let’s recap what you missed in basketball culture.
Here we go…
FAST BREAK
Here’s what you missed this week:
✅ Nike Basketball hosted their inaugural Taurasi Edge camp, a two-day program where the top women’s college basketball players received direct training and mentoring from Diana Taurasi.
👌 Stephen Curry unveiled his new signature logo, combining elements of his personal branding with the Li-Ning logo
🍾 The New York Liberty won the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup, and while Coinbase was the tagged sponsor on the celebration videos, the real winner was the Moët & Chandon 15-liter Nebuchadnezzar bottle that went viral with Breanna Stewart struggling to open it.
🤳 The NBA announced its Creator Cup rosters for Team Pierre and Team Darrick, featuring top creators like YPK Ray, Cam Wilder, Kris London, Jenna Bandy, BenDaDonnn, Bree Green, Lynadia Whiting, and others.
🎬 Tracy McGrady announced a new documentary about the legendary ABCD Camp, the grassroots development camp that young stars like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James attended as high school students.
🚏 New York City is honoring the New York Knicks with athlete-named street signs across the city.
🐐 A Michael Jordan PSA 10 Fleer rookie card just sold for $396K, a five-year high in the card hobby industry.
🚮 The New York City Department of Sanitation is giving away five of the highly coveted orange and blue trash cans from the Knicks' championship parade.
🎯 Karl-Anthony Towns and his fiancée Jordyn Woods are partnering with Target for a New York-inspired collaboration featuring a lineup of their personal favorite products.
🏆 Basketball Hall of Famer Candace Parker styled the latest apparel collaboration between adidas Basketball and Ryoko Rain.
🇨🇳 Kyrie Irving missed the Cavs' 2016 Championship 10-year anniversary trip, as he’s been busy touring China with Anta.
🏀 Nneka Ogwumike and Napheesa Collier have been elected as WNBA President and First Vice President, respectively, to lead the players' union.
🔺 Jordan Brand's newest performance sneaker, the Jordan Triangle, just dropped ahead of the holiday weekend.
What’s next is almost here.
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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.
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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.
📊 Be First: I’m building Future Blueprint Sports — the definitive discovery and intelligence platform for sports marketing and creator culture. Get early access today.
👋 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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