Nike — Reigniting Basketball Culture
Nike Basketball was entering a new era.
New athletes.
New competitors.
A new generation of fans.
My job was to help bring the energy back.
One of the first moves was House of Hoops, a new retail concept created with Foot Locker and built entirely around basketball culture—premium sneakers, exclusive releases, and community events under one roof.
The first store opened in Harlem, quickly becoming a destination for the sport’s most passionate fans and helping redefine how basketball product was launched and experienced at retail.
At the same time, I leaned into storytelling.
Campaigns like Most Valuable Puppets turned LeBron James and Kobe Bryant into puppet roommates competing through the NBA playoffs. The series ran across television and the internet and became one of the most recognizable basketball campaigns of the era.
But the real breakthrough came when we pushed the idea further.
Working with Media Rights Capital, I helped structure a content partnership between LeBron James and Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy. The result was Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy—a series of animated shorts starring LeBron alongside MacFarlane’s characters.
It was branded entertainment before the term was widely used.
Two of the biggest cultural forces in sports and comedy.
Original content built for the internet.
Released at a moment when online video was just beginning to scale.
The series reached millions of viewers and proved something early.
When brands behave like studios, the work travels farther.
And when the right athlete meets the right idea, the culture pays attention.