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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

The world’s biggest athlete just made an unexpected and disruptive announcement by signing with the Philadelphia 76ers.

But the team’s social media staff had one major challenge to celebrate this moment.

They won’t have access to LeBron to create original content until Media Day and training camp.

So instead of waiting for The King to arrive, they’ve turned the entire internet into their content studio.

Here’s the 76ers’ social media playbook on how they reacted to LeBron’s signing:

🎬 Immediate Reaction — They called their best video editor and briefed in a hype edit to post with LeBron himself and the NBA.

🎨 Social Graphics — Next, brief your design team to have the graphic designers immediately begin working on assets that can be shared and amplified across platforms.

👂 Social Listening — Scrub the internet for the best UGC, then comment, engage, and repost to amplify the internet’s reactions.

😂 Meme Marketing — Tap in with your Gen Z interns and turn the internet’s jokes into native social content.

🤝 Partnerships — Activate trusted brand and partner relationships for organic collaborations that extend distribution and storytelling.

📸 Photo Dumps — Dig through the archives and turn existing photography into new stories around the moment.

With a headline like LeBron, the results will naturally speak for themselves.

In just a few weeks, the 76ers have added 300K Instagram followers and generated 193M impressions on the platform (via Social Pruf).

But the bigger lesson is how quickly they’ve turned one announcement into weeks of storytelling.

They’re doing what the best marketing teams do.

Move fast, listen to the internet, remix what’s available, and keep feeding the moment.

The next opportunity is building a creator engine around that momentum, and I’d bet we’ll see Philly-based and 76ers creators become breakout viral voices throughout the season.

Because LeBron’s arrival won’t just create new fans but new storytellers around the franchise.

And his move is projected to generate $250–$430 million in regional economic value, but the ripple effect will extend far beyond Philadelphia’s economy.

It’ll impact the creator economy, media, sports marketing, local businesses, brand partnerships, and the entire basketball ecosystem surrounding the city.

The LeBron Effect is bigger than basketball.

And with Year 23 and 24 ahead, the 76ers’ internal teams are likely already heads down planning for what could become one of the most exciting eras in franchise history; both on the court and inside the marketing war room.

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FREE THROWS

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

🤡 Memelord - Just like the 76ers, stay on top of internet trends with meme alerts and the Canva-like tool that helps you easily create viral meme content for your brand.

📧 After All - A weekly deep dive newsletter on AI and culture, breaking down how technology is quietly affecting every part of our lives.

☑️ 22 Founder Lessons - Unfiltered business lessons from AJ Eckstein, founder of Creator Match, an agency and platform building full-stack creator programs for B2B tech brands.

Half your market is one app away.

Your business is already on Instagram, SMS, and web chat. But 52 million immigrants in the US rely on WhatsApp to connect with businesses they trust — not email, not phone calls.

Wati helps you show up on WhatsApp and every channel they use. Are you still not there?

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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 | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻