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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Baseline!

If you’re newly subscribed, I’m a brand marketer, creator, and entrepreneur with extensive experience in the sports industry, having worked with iconic brands like Jordan Brand, SLAM and the NBA.

Every Wednesday, I share business, marketing, and creator insights related to basketball culture.

Let’s get right into it…

MARKETING BLUEPRINT

A few weeks ago, this self proclaimed “role player” just hit college basketball's biggest game winner, but he did it while not even wearing his correct jersey number.

An equipment manager forgetting his jersey should have ruined his national TV moment, but that mistake turned into Xaivian Lee's breakout moment at Florida.

Instead of his usual #1, his best game of the season came wearing #99.

With March Madness around the corner, that detail changes everything because he's about to be one of the go-to NIL athletes in the tournament.

Moments like this are exactly the defiant stories brands look for when partnering with athletes because winning amidst chaos tells a story bigger than just stats.

Even though the Princeton transfer humbly calls himself a "role player" in his TikTok bio, this moment just elevated him even more as a rare NIL outlier.

As a dual citizen Canadian-American athlete with Asian heritage, he's already become the first college athlete to sign an international sneaker deal with Serious Player Only.

His NIL portfolio also already includes deals with brands like AT&T, DripDrop, and Publix (a local favorite grocery store in Florida).

With over 200,000 followers, jersey number 99 won't be overlooked anymore; it will be the inspiration and mood board that brands build their entire March Madness campaigns around.

What do these names have in common?

• Arnold Schwarzenegger

• Codie Sanchez

• Scott Galloway

• Colin & Samir

• Shaan Puri

• Jay Shetty

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FREE THROWS

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

🤳 Creator Economy Report - The Influencer Marketing Factory created a 62-page report that shares the current state of the creator economy in 2026, including trends across monetization, brand spending, AI platforms, tools, and more.

🎨 Gamma - Generate creative content in seconds with this AI tool that can help you design presentations, websites, social media assets and much more.

9️⃣9️⃣ The 99 Network - The NIL platform, founded by Trace Young (one of the highest-earning NIL athletes), provides every athlete with the education and strategy needed to build their personal brand.

How Jennifer Anniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Anniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

Learn more

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 | 🏀💡👨🏻‍💻