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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

Every Wednesday at 9:36 AM EST, I break down the blueprint for basketball culture, covering industry insights, marketing strategies, and creator tools and resources.

Let’s get started…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

This is a true story about corporate hoop dreams.

We've all dreamed of making the NBA one day, but only 450 of the world’s greatest athletes actually achieve those goals.

However, this sports media company just made the league by doing things their way.

Their journey started 9 years ago, filming blurry highlights of high school phenoms.

This approach was the catalyst for nearly a decade of building the world’s most engaged Gen Z and Gen Alpha sports community, which is why the NBA and WNBA just officially partnered with Overtime.

Fans are no longer just consuming sports on broadcast TV; instead, sports culture is moving across social feeds, comments, clips, and creators.

No media company understands this shift better than Overtime.

They’ve become the trusted voice and platform for young sports fans by dedicating all their time, energy, and resources to consistently exceeding their audience's expectations.

Now, official NBA and WNBA highlights will be shared across Overtime’s platforms, while OTE games will be distributed across the NBA’s digital ecosystem.

They’ll also be partnering on weekly shows and exclusive content at big moments like NBA All-Star Weekend.

This will open the door for brands to engage with their valuable and hard-to-reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience.

This isn’t just any typical sports content distribution deal but a cultural alignment, because no one understands sports and youth internet culture better than Overtime.

From their viral high school dunks to developing multiple top 10 draft picks, Overtime can finally say they made it to the NBA with this new partnership too.

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FREE THROWS

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

🧪 Pomelli - Google Labs’ newest AI marketing tool that helps you easily generate scalable, on-brand content to connect with your audience faster.

🤯 Figment - Weekly newsletter breaking down and explaining the art and science behind viral ads.

☠️ Destroy My Startup - Roast your own company by letting this AI tool verbally destroy your landing page.

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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 later this week!

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻