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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

Let’s get right into your weekly blueprint for basketball culture…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

This NIL platform recently got a 10,000% sales spike in 48 hours.

All thanks to an unplanned assist from the greatest point guard of all time.

Because sometimes in marketing, the best wins are unplanned.

That's exactly what happened when Steph Curry wore this upside-down Bay Area hat on the sidelines during their playoff series against the Timberwolves.

However it’s ironic, because Laces actually sent a care package with a ton of their hats to his teammate Brandin Podziemski.

But then once Steph wore the hat, this one Warriors post brought them $75,000 in social value according to Zoomph.

The viral effects of the internet did its thing, which led to Laces getting 100x their normal weekend sales volume.

This is the exact pray and ship seeding strategy that every merch brand should run (PR agencies have built entire six-figure retainer business models on the "pray and spray" media approach).

If you remember, the Fire Escape Chef ran the exact same playbook and struck gold on his Team USA t-shirt package.

So if you send enough product for the entire roster, you give yourself more shots to win.

And when athlete moments like this hit, that one organic product placement could change your entire business trajectory overnight.

FREE THROWS

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

🎨 Halfpast*noon - A creative space for hoops, inspired by 90s nostalgia magazine graphics and editorial, but designed for modern-day social media consumption.

🌓 Design Inspiration - A Pinterest-like board for design inspiration to help you save and explore creative ideas such as colors, links, notes, and more.

🧠 Brainrot - Reclaim your focus and mental clarity with this app that helps you stop scrolling. It was created by an engineer who has been sharing his journey publicly on social media over the past year, growing his audience to more than 180,000 followers across platforms.

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FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🏀 Angel Reese secured the bag again, as her team filed a trademark for "Mebounds" to be used on goods and services like t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats.

👑 LeBron James released a teaser for a retirement press conference #ad, before sharing his new partnership with Amazon to promote Prime Day from July 8th to 11th.

🇺🇸 New Balance Basketball has declared the date of the 2025 NBA Draft, June 25th, as "Flagg Day" since Cooper Flagg is expected to be drafted #1 overall.

📲The WNBA season is in full swing, and players like Cameron Brink, Kelsey Plum, and Sue Bird are embracing the media attention, fandom, and viral network effects from basketball parody accounts.

⚽️ Paris Saint-Germain hosted Kevin Durant at their PSG House activation in LA and premiered their exclusive collaboration merchandise, which can be purchased at the pop-up. KD previously invested in PSG earlier this year as a minority shareholder through his company, Boardroom Sports Holdings, LLC.

🤖 Betting platform Kalshi hired AI filmmaker PJ Ace to create the "most unhinged" ad ever, which was made in two days using only AI tools and then aired during Game 3 of the NBA Finals on ABC.

🏝️ GameChanger, the new grassroots sports streaming app by Dick’s Sporting Goods, partnered with Balling on the Beach to host the first-ever creator tournament featuring the likes of Cam Wilder, RWE, DriftyJay, Gremlin University, and other top YouTuber teams.

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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 | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻