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Welcome (or welcome back) to The Baseline, the weekly brand and creative blueprint for marketers, creators, builders and entrepreneurs who work in basketball…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

As the back-to-school season approaches, every company signing NIL athletes should implement this trending "NIL Classes" strategy.

The smartest brands are no longer just betting on a single athlete, as a one-off NIL athlete deal carries high risk with limited return on investment.

That's why more brands are embracing the new trend of creating NIL classes: signing 5, 10, or even 15 high school or college athletes at once.

Just look how Nike Basketball, adidas hoops and even WWE introduced their NIL classes as an entire collective.

This sports marketing strategy provides brands with greater reach, more content, and increased athlete impact with reduced risk.

It creates a diverse athlete portfolio with a broader network effect on a national scale, while still connecting at a grassroots level to local schools and communities.

This approach makes your entire NIL strategy more flexible while protecting the brand if an athlete gets injured, faces controversy, or underperforms during the season.

FREE THROWS

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

🔃 Reposts - Instagram just announced a new feature, "Reposts," that allows you to reshare public content and have it show up in a new tab on your profile or in your friends' recommendations. This is a gamechanger on IG, just look at how this one repost helped take this video from 12K to 70K views in 42 minutes.

5️⃣ GPT-5 - OpenAI introduced their smartest, fastest, most useful model yet, with built-in thinking that puts expert-level intelligence in everyone’s hands.

🎞️ Adobe Background Remover - One of my trusted (and free) go-to everyday creative tools: helping me with thumbnails, social assets, deck designs, and more.

Finally, a powerful CRM—made simple.

Attio is the AI-native CRM built to scale your company from seed stage to category leader. Powerful, flexible, and intuitive to use, Attio is the CRM for the next-generation of teams.

Sync your email and calendar, and Attio instantly builds your CRM—enriching every company, contact, and interaction with actionable insights in seconds.

With Attio, AI isn’t just a feature—it’s the foundation.

• Instantly find and route leads with research agents

• Get real-time AI insights during customer conversations

• Build AI automations for your most complex workflows

• Join fast growing teams like Flatfile, Replicate, Modal, and more.

Start for free today.

FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🏆 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander brought the Larry O’Brien Trophy back to his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, for SGA Rally Day.

🇨🇳 adidas Basketball surprised James Harden with a custom court in China during his recent Uno Tour. The brand is staying active in the Far East as Anthony Edwards begins his first China tour with adidas this week.

🎄 Shams leaked the NBA’s Opening Night and Christmas Day schedule, but the full schedule will be announced tomorrow. Stay tuned to my socials, as I’m working with the league on some exclusive schedule explainer content!

🎙️ Sophie Cunningham announced a new podcast, "Show Me Something," in production with The Volume. She and her co-host, West Wilson, will talk about sports, pop culture, and everything in between.

🎬 Sony Pictures released a new trailer for "GOAT," which hits theaters on February 13, 2026. The film features Stephen Curry as a giraffe, along with a star-studded voice cast including Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Nick Kroll, and others.

💰 Luka signed his extension with the Los Angeles Lakers, but also announced a commitment of $5 million to help 77 young athletes around the world chase their dreams.

🏀 A new original series documenting the career and journey of WNBA legend Diana Taurasi premiered on Amazon Prime Video.

🗽 Nike Basketball concluded their seventh season of NY vs. NY, Nike NYC’s high school summer basketball tournament with a custom "Victory Park" basketball court activation at Central Park.

Real News for Real People — Not Partisans

Feeling like you want to get off the rollercoaster of polarizing politics? Read Tangle — an independent and nonpartisan political newsletter recently profiled on This American Life for helping to bridge the gap between politically divided families. Each day, the newsletter unpacks one important news story, examining it from all sides of the political spectrum.

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POST-GAME

Thanks for reading—I’ll see you back here next week!

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻