Together with

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

This is your weekly blueprint for basketball culture:

💡 Brand Insights

💻 Marketing Strategy

🧰 Creator Tools

📓 Business Resources

Let’s dive right into it…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably already know that LiAngelo Ball has absolutely taken over the internet.

While LaMelo Ball leads Eastern Conference All-Star voting and Lonzo Ball is finally hooping again after years of knee injuries, it’s Gelo—aka G3—who’s having the biggest Ball brothers moment with his new hit song, Tweaker.

When he previewed his new song live on N3on’s stream, it instantly went viral on TikTok, Twitter, and soon after his song was being played everywhere: in NFL stadiums, NBA locker rooms, and even on local news.

As of yesterday, he has the #1 trending song on YouTube Music (ahead of new releases from Lil Baby and Drake) and a coveted performance spot at Rolling Loud in LA.

This moment is bigger than LiAngelo—it signals a shift in how fans engage with athletes and creators.

Here’s why this matters:

Streamers like Kai Cenat, Adin Ross, and N3on are becoming the modern-day late-night talk show hosts.

For younger audiences, live-streaming offers something traditional social media often lacks—authenticity.

There’s no heavy editing, no filters—just real-time moments that resonate, allowing millions of engaged viewers to feel like part of the conversation.

Athletes and brands that tap into the streaming trend will win big in 2025.

Whether it’s collaborating with streamers or launching their own live streams, the opportunity to create authentic content is a winning blueprint.

This moment positions Gelo at the center of 2025's first major trend, highlighting the intersection of basketball with music, culture, and content.

FREE THROWS

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

📚 Short-Form Playbook: This might be the best resource I’ve ever shared. Shout out to Oren, Alex and Colin for putting this gem together.

📝 Kome AI: Generate transcripts from YouTube videos for free, in seconds.

📱 TikTok Academy: In my opinion, TikTok will not be banned this month so it will be increasingly important for creators and marketers to continue refining their skill sets on this rapidly growing platform.

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FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🌹 1/4/25 was officially declared Derrick Rose Day in Chicago as the city spent the entire weekend celebrating their hometown hero with a Rose’s Flower Shop pop-up experience, an Adidas x Mr. Flower Fantastic court mural, a special edition SLAM Magazine, and an entire arena activation for the Chicago Bulls home game.

🐍 Nike Basketball officially declared 2025 as the Year of The Mamba, intertwining Kobe Bryant’s legendary Mamba Mentality with the rich cultural symbolism of Lunar Year 2025 and the Year of the Snake.

🎙️ Caitlin Clark made a rare podcast appearance as she joined Travis and Jason Kelce on their New Heights Show and revealed she’s a big fan of the NBA adding a 4-point line to help boost ratings.

🫂 Zachery Dereniowski, also known as @MDMotivator, is a creator who aims to make the world a better place by spreading kindness. He collaborated with Anthony Edwards to surprise a young boy named Luca, who has cancer. Anthony provided Luca with an all-access experience for a feel-good sports moment.

📺 Amazon Prime Video is set to launch its first NBA studio show featuring Taylor Rooks, Blake Griffin, and Dirk Nowitzki. Their NBA deal starts in the 2025-2026 season, but their NBA coverage will begin later this year.

🤳 Ja Morant is beginning to leak his own shoes, revealing an upcoming Kool-Aid collaboration colorway for his Ja 2.

🏀 Unrivaled announced their TNT Sports broadcast team, including Lisa Leslie, Ros Gold-Onwude, Taylor Rooks, Allie LaForce, Candace Parker, Renee Montgomery, and others.

🚫 Professional sports leagues, media companies, internet regulators, and law enforcement have taken two of the biggest sports streaming piracy sites offline—Methstreams and Crackstreams.

💰 Pelicans star Zion Williamson donated $100,000 to the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Tragedy Fund after the tragic event on New Year’s Day.

🧦 Jordan Poole is going viral for hooping in Polo socks.

Learn What Fortune 500 Marketers Know

• Marketing strategies from industry leaders like the NBA, Liquid Death & Oatly.

• Behind-the-scenes stories of campaigns that crushed it.

• Actionable tips to boost your results today.

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POST-GAME

That’s all for this week!

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Oh yeah, give me a follow! ⬇️

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻