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Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Baseline!

This 3-minute read shares everything you missed across basketball culture.

Let’s get right into it…

FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🏆 TIME named A'ja Wilson the 2025 Athlete of the Year after a record-breaking fourth WNBA MVP, launching her first signature Nike shoe, and winning another WNBA championship for the Las Vegas Aces.

🐜 Anthony Edwards and his team at Three-Fifths Media produced a new Amazon Prime show called Serious Business, as AE challenges pro athletes and celebrities in different competitions like ping pong.

🔮 Wale is dropping his own exclusive colorway of the Nike GT Future and Foot Locker in Hillcrest Heights (DMV) is getting early access with Wale in attendance, followed by a special The Next Chapter vs DC event.

🍫 Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese teamed up to help launch the Reese's and Oreo collab as the two WNBA stars took over the official Instagram Paige of Reese.

🍿 Paige Bueckers also became the first WNBA player to take equity in an NBA player’s brand as she introduced Ragerz, a bold new snack flavor under Chris Paul’s Good Eat’n brand.

🎙️ Rich Paul and Max Kellerman dropped their first episode of the Game Over podcast, a Ringer and Spotify exclusive.

👟 Rich Paul also introduced his next New Balance sneaker, the “Unbothered” collection, a NB Absorb 2010 collaboration designed after his laid-back and unbothered personality.

🏀 The NBA’s Creator Cup will be led by Team Agent and Team Lethal Shooter with your favorite content creators hooping head-to-head in Las Vegas to kickoff the NBA Cup knockout rounds.

🌹 adidas Basketball and Fear of God introduced The Fear of God Athletics II Basketball D Rose PE, designed in collaboration with Derrick Rose and the release honors his legacy and impact on the city of Chicago.

📺 YouTube TV shared early plans for an upcoming YouTube TV Sports Plan that’ll offer users subscription access to key sports broadcasters in 2026.

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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.

With 35 million viral TikTok views, forward this with someone who needs a last-minute holiday gift for the favorite basketball player in their life:

@itisdexton

New basketball net

Are you hooping on this new basketball net?!

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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.

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻