In partnership with

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.

Shoppers are adding to cart for the holidays

Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.

Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.

Learn more.

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?!

Make Newsletter Magic in Just Minutes

Your readers want great content. You want growth and revenue. beehiiv gives you both. With stunning posts, a website that actually converts, and every monetization tool already baked in, beehiiv is the all-in-one platform for builders. Get started for free, no credit card required.

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 | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻