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🎅🎄 Merry Christmas!

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

This is your weekly blueprint for basketball culture: brand insights, marketing strategy, creator tools, and business resources.

If you’re reading this on Christmas, share today’s newsletter with ONE family member that also loves basketball!

TOP 10 LIST

Sorry Roger Goodell, Christmas is and has always been the NBA’s holiday.

From iconic sneaker ads to unforgettable player moments, basketball has owned Santa’s delivery day.

These are my Top 10 Basketball Christmas commercials of all time:

🔟 Prize Picks remixed Jingle Hoops with your favorite creators Sketch, Druski, and Funny Marco.

9️⃣ The NBA declared “No Gifts” nine years ago, and somehow Chris Paul hasn’t aged at all.

8️⃣ The HoopBus pulled up to NBA Lane’s holiday dinner table and delivered a full platter of Christmas Day games.

7️⃣ Nike’s Puppet Kobe went 1 v 1 against Puppet LeBron over a rap with Lupe Fiasco and KRS-One.

6️⃣ NBA gives us the Gift of the Game with Toy Story vibes and Santa rocking the reverse Grinch Kobes.

5️⃣ This year’s edition of Jingle Hoops brought back all the nostalgia for Christmas Day games.

4️⃣ Michael Jordan vs Santa Claus, Bred 1s vs Chicago 1s—this is the 1s we didn’t know we needed.

3️⃣ The NBA gave us a Big Color Christmas remix of the iconic Nike freestyle commercial.

2️⃣ Sprite Cranberry and LeBron had TikTokers in a cult with an entire trend that goes viral every holiday season.

1️⃣ Young Steph, KD, Harden, LeBron, D Rose, and Steve Nash hit every Jingle Hoops note—literally and figuratively.

Here’s what these holiday classics teach us for your next Christmas campaign: leverage Christmas music, embrace the holiday spirit and themes, and don’t forget to get creative and have fun!

FREE THROWS

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

🐝 Beehiiv - To effectively grow a personal or business brand, it's essential to take control of your audience rather than depending solely on unpredictable social media algorithms. Owning your audience through email is absolutely necessary, and Beehiiv provides a seamless way to start, scale, expand, and monetize your brand.

😁 You Are In Control - once you believe this, once you live this, everything changes for you. Thank you, Gary Vee for the holiday inspiration.

📧 The Hobby Letter - One of the best newsletters on how to organically grow your business on social media, created by Buster (founder of Hoopsnation and The Buster Agency).

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FAST BREAK

Here’s everything you missed last week across the business of basketball culture:

🏆 Togethxr and Nike Basketball partnered for a brand moment at the UConn WBB and USC WBB game, featuring warm-up tees with the media brand’s signature "Everyone Watches Women’s Sports" tagline.

💵 The Milwaukee Bucks won the second-ever NBA Cup, with each player receiving a $514,970 bonus, an increase from the inaugural tournament’s prize of $500,000 per player.

🌭 Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia announced a $2 value menu for home game concessions, making the Footprint Center's menu the most affordable and fan-friendly in the NBA.

💰 Sabrina Ionescu is joining Unrivaled as its final roster addition, and received an “unprecedented and historic” contract with the 3-on-3 basketball league.

👟 Damian Lillard has agreed to a lifetime contract extension with adidas, joining LeBron James and Kevin Durant (Nike) and Stephen Curry (Under Armour/Curry Brand) as the only active NBA players with lifetime shoe endorsements.

🍫 Travis Scott’s new campaign for his Air Jordan 1 Low “Velvet Brown” features Dennis Rodman as Willy Wonka in the Cactus Jack factory.

🏀 Iowa Women's Basketball announced they will retire Caitlin Clark's #22 jersey on February 2, 2025, during their home game against JuJu Watkins and USC.

❄️ Nike Basketball hosted its annual winter high school basketball showcase events with the Swoosh Classic (NYC) and Chosen-1’s Invitational (Vegas) last week, featuring the best high school hoopers in the region.

POST-GAME

That’s all for this week.

Hope you enjoyed reading The Baseline today.

If you have any questions, ideas, or opportunities to work together—just shoot me a quick email and let’s chat!

- Jeff Chen | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻

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