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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

It’s an exciting week of summer hoops:

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

NEWSLETTER BLUEPRINT

This NBA player just executed one of the simplest yet smartest sports marketing moves.

If you're a brand or entrepreneur still relying solely on PR hits to share your story, you're stuck in 2020.

The old formula was to secure media placements, hoping an editor would tell your story accurately.

There’s also social media, but algorithms change everyday—mostly not in your favor, meaning only a fraction of an athlete’s millions of followers actually see what they post.

But that’s why Russell Westbrook is leading the next wave redefining the modern athlete’s blueprint.

He understands that owning your narrative isn’t optional anymore because if you don’t own your distribution, someone else controls it.

With the Word of Westbrook newsletter, Russ can hit send to directly reach his audience, with no algorithms deciding who sees it.

Which means Russell can break his own news like when he shared his POV on his groundbreaking WNBA Draft collab with Georgia Amoore or his surgery on his right hand.

Russ writes a post, hits send on beehiiv, and it lands straight in every subscriber’s inbox.

This isn’t about replacing PR or social but adding an owned distribution channel to your marketing mix.

Building an athlete’s enterprise or your own business today means owning your future, and Russ is demonstrating exactly how it’s done.

FREE THROWS

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

🔄 Jitter - A fast and simple motion design tool to create animations for your marketing assets.

🔎 GummySearch - Social listening tool to identify, organize, and explore communities on Reddit to gain insights about your customers across niche categories.

🧰 Metricool - Simplify and automate your social media management (planning, posting, community engagement, reports) with this single tool.

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FAST BREAK

Here’s what you missed this week:

🎮 NBA 2K26 revealed their cover athletes: Shai-Gilgeous Alexander (Standard Edition), Angel Reese (WNBA Edition) and Carmelo Anthony (Superstar Edition).

👟 On the same day as the 2K cover reveal, Reebok and Angel Reese introduced the Angel Reese 1, her first-ever signature sneaker.

🤳 The year 2025 has marked The Streaming Era, as in the past week alone, we've seen Kyrie Irving host his own 24-hour stream with special guests, Giannis joined iShowSpeed's stream, and the Ball Brothers joined Kai Cenat for a special live stream.

💧 Gatorade’s WNBA roster of A’ja Wilson, Kahleah Copper, Paige Bueckers, Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne, and Caitlin Clark starred in their newest “Lose Sweat. Make W’s.” ad.

4️⃣0️⃣ Jordan Brand is teasing its new “Too Easy” campaign for the Air Jordan 40 sneaker, with the full release coming on July 19th.

🇫🇷 James Harden surprised Paris Youth Basketball with pairs of his Harden Vol. 9 shoes during his recent trip to France.

🔴 After a resurgence in the Big East led by Coach Rick Pitino, adidas signed a new partnership with St. John’s to be the official outfitter for all 17 varsity programs, including men’s and women’s basketball.

🏟️ The August 1st game between the Indiana Fever and the Dallas Wings is moving to the Dallas Mavericks’ American Airlines Center, which can accommodate 20,000 fans to watch Paige Bueckers host Caitlin Clark in Dallas.

🐍 The Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled the Kobe Bryant bobbleheads wearing his signature Lakers #24 jersey and Kobe 6 Protro “Dodgers” sneakers, which will be given away on August 8th.

🎙️ Front Office Sports announced a new show “Second Acts Live” hosted by Cheney Ogwumike as she spotlights sports legends like Sue Bird, Mike Vick and Adrian Wojnarowski as they take on life after the game.

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POST-GAME

Thanks for reading!

See you again next week.

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻