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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline, where we share a comprehensive roundup of everything related to basketball culture from NBA All-Star Weekend.

Let’s jump right into it…

FREE THROWS

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

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🤳 YouTube’s Big Bets - Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube, shared his predictions for 2025 regarding content, culture, and community.

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FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

👨‍🍳 Stephen Curry served as an unofficial host, welcoming basketball fans to the Bay Area with his Legacy Museum and community events in collaboration with his partners Under Armour, Chase, and SLAM. He also announced a collab with Stone Island and a new movie, "GOAT," set to arrive in February 2026.

👟 Adidas Basketball brought out their entire NBA and WNBA roster to celebrate NBA ASW. They also unveiled the Dame X, Damian Lillard's 10th signature sneaker; introduced the infamous AE1 Lie Detector Test at their Foot Locker activation; and had James Harden join a live stream with Cam Wilder.

🚫 Jordan Brand lit up the Bay Area and hosted their Fam Fest including surprise retail drops, artist performances and athlete appearances. Jayson Tatum also had an awkward moment on stream with Duke Dennis and Agent00.

✅ Nike Basketball hosted their Nike’s Future Game that featured a competitive showcase for today’s high school basketball stars, appearances from All-Star Nike athletes and exclusive product debuts.

2️⃣ Converse and Shai-Gilgeous Alexander introduced the Shai 001 signature sneaker with a retail experience that included a surprise performance from Lil Yachty.

🎮 The NBA 2K Lounge brought athletes, creators, and fans together to play 2K, along with brand partners like the NBPA, PlayStation and HoopBus.

🥃 Hennessy tapped A'ja Wilson to host a WNBA 2v2 Tournament (DiJonai Carrington and Arike Ogunbowale vs. Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray) at their Hennessy Arena brand space.

🪙 Coinbase continues its investment in basketball culture by hosting a reimagined event focused on the future of currency and basketball with their futuristic shooting challenge.

🍔 DoorDash created their DashPass park, inspired by their NBA commercial, featuring fan experiences, live podcasts, and content from Druski and Lethal Shooter to help promote their NBA All-Star special promo code.

📱 Google Pixel hosted its Google Pixel House event featuring athlete appearances, an Aces influencer tournament, and even sponsored the first-ever LeagueFits magazine.

🤳 The NBA continued its creator programming with all of its Creator Correspondent Program partners in town creating content, highlighted by Jesser’s appearance as an NBA Dunk Contest judge and Mr. Beast’s $100,000 giveaway during the All-Star Game.

🏷️ Foot Locker created the ultimate marketplace for sneakerheads by hosting all of their retail brand partners (Nike, Adidas, Puma, Anta, Under Armour, Converse) for key product drops, surprise and delight moments, micro-activations, in-store programming, and athlete appearances throughout the weekend.

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 | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻

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