To celebrate LeBron James eclipsing a significant statistical threshold - 20,000 points, 5,000 rebounds and 5,000 assists - Nike Basketball released this digital poster. I had the pleasure of writing the on-image copy.  

The Swoosh surged on social media during March Madness 2014 as UConn shocked the 68-team field en route to its fourth national championship. Nike Basketball highlighted key pre- and post-game moments with defining digital posters. 

Meanwhile on Nike.com, we told the product story behind each Nike Hyper Elite Dominance Uniform, which fused premium innovation with program heritage.

Fightball is the world's most intense one-on-one basketball competition. Eight player tournament. Eight-minute game. Eight-second shot clock. All in a nightclub atmosphere. 

In addition to helping devise and refine the game rules, I created the brand's Q1 story arc, editorial calendar, advised on social strategy and wrote outbound social copy and TV/digital video scripts (shown on this page).

In a span of 42 days, we drove 12 million video views and generated over 270,000 new social followers.   

Visit Fightball.co for more details. 

When Michael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity basketball team as a sophomore, the last player to make the squad was Leroy Smith.

Wieden + Kennedy and Jordan Brand used this insight to turn Smith into a wildly successful motivational guru (played by the late Charlie Murphy) in a campaign leading up to Michael Jordan's enshrinement in the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

After interviewing Leroy Smith for my personal blog, He surprised me with this gem. 

To celebrate Five-Star's 50th anniversary in 2016, we partnered with up-and-coming designer Geoff Simms to recreate iconic camp's t-shirt designs from the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s, along with a special milestone look.

We also digitized and indexed over 14,000 camp photos dating back to 1966, all released year by year on SmugMug, and collaborated with Rock 'Em Apparel on a pair of custom anniversary socks. 

Sports Passport, presented by New York Life, is the easy way to track and chronicle every game you attend. I co-founded Sports Passport in 2013 with Kyle Whelliston. 

Sports Passport has been featured in several national publications - Forbes, SportTechie, Sports Illustrated, Sports on Earth (USA Today), New York Magazine, Sporting News and SLAM. 

For March Madness 2013, we partnered with R/GA and set up a social response lab, creating a series of roughly 40 March Madness metaphors that celebrated each Nike team victory. The metaphors were based on program insights and game performance and were released in real-time via Nike Basketball social channels. 

After Five-Star celebrated its 50th birthday and pivoted towards a franchising model, we rolled out a new visual identity, trademarked tagline, digital commercial, and manifesto, which I wrote:  

Greatness Starts Here

Greatness may start small. 
Unknown,
Or undiscovered.

But we find it. 
Focus it. 
Sharpen it. 

Through every drill.
Every station. 
Every session. 

For over 50 years.
Over 500 NBA players,
250,000 alumni and counting.

From Moses to Michael,
Laettner to LeBron,
KD, CP3, Steph and Melo too.

The intensity… it’s iconic.
The teaching… it’s constant.
The competition… it’s calling. 

Will you answer it?  
Greatness starts now.
GREATNESS STARTS HERE.

There’s only one way to 'Become Immortal' as an NBA player: Win a championship. With visual direction from Village Green and Robb Harskamp, we told the story of each key Nike Basketball athlete's quest for immortality--before, between and after each round of the 2014 Playoffs. The top image celebrated the Spurs' 5th NBA banner.

The 2013 NBA Playoffs were punctuated by LeBron James winning back-to-back titles in Miami, but not before Nike Basketball had fun with heroic performances from the Spurs' Manu Ginobili and Danny Green. 

NBA 2K13 featured groundbreaking Nike Basketball integrations: The ability to sign an in-game contract with the Swoosh, unlocking designs in the Nike Innovation Kitchen and making real-life purchases for NIKEiD shoes designed in the game. 

Along with a colleague, I had the fortune of writing the Nike shoe and technology descriptions featured in the game, the in-game billboard and shoe commercial copy, shoe contract and Nike Innovation Kitchen welcome letters.

In celebration of basketball's 125th anniversary on December 21, 2016, I collaborated with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and Position Sports to create a list of the "Top 125 Basketball Venues to Watch a Game."

In addition to creating and refining the list, I helped plan the rollout strategy and wrote the Instagram caption copy for many of the venues. 

In November 2013, I embarked on a 30,000-mile journey to see "30 games in 30 days" at every NBA arena. 

The trip was a planned publicity stunt to drive awareness around the launch of Basketball Passport, a web application lets you chronicle every NBA and Division I college basketball game you've ever attended. 

The story was featured on NBA.com, NBA TV, Fox Sports, ESPN Radio, Vibe Magazine, SLAM, Bleacher Report, Indy Star, Toronto Sun, New York Daily News and dozens of other domestic and international publications. 

As the NBA's midseason classic descended on New York City, Foot Locker and Nike Basketball teamed up to launch its largest House of Hoops pop-up shop ever, all within a free-throw's distance of Madison Square Garden.

The 51,000-square foot retail space was stocked with fresh heat from Nike Basketball, Nike Sportswear and Jordan Brand and featured appearances from several NBA All-Stars, all while serving as an ode to NYC basketball.

I wrote all Nike-related copy for Foot Locker's social channels, including product drops, customization calls-to-action and announcements for athlete appearances. 

Created post-game NBA Playoff posters, memorialized consumer tweets into EPIC-themed digital assets (surprise and delight), bearded up James Harden super fans, distributed player-specific social packs and managed one-to-one communication with Nike Basketball consumers. 

During Team USA's march to a pair of Olympic gold medals, Nike Basketball responded to peak moments in real-time with custom social assets. 

In 2011, the New York Knicks launched an innovative content community called Knicks Now.

The launch was written about by Sports Business Journal and Adweek, and I served as the team's embedded reporter and first-ever social media specialist covering all things Knicks. Every game, every practice and every Knicks community event. 

During the 2011 NBA lockout, I helped Five-Star Basketball coordinate, promote and capture content for a once-in-a-lifetime skills clinic that featured LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. 

In college basketball, it’s all about environment. The hallowed halls of Hinkle. The haunting hums that reverberate inside Allen Fieldhouse.

Cameron Crazies.
Hilton Magic.
Big Blue Nation.

The Pit.
The Kennel.
The Roundhouse.

Each is distinct. All are iconic. Together, they form the holy grounds of Our Game. To commemorate these most sacred venues, I created an 18" x 24" Cathedrals of College Basketball poster to sell via Basketball Passport.

The poster shot up to No. 1 on the College Basketball Subreddit, sparking a debate over which venues warrant cathedral-like status. 

Illustrations by Robb Harskamp. 

In 2009, I became the first media-credentialed microblogger in college basketball history when receiving a press pass to cover St. John's mens basketball on my personal Twitter feed.

The story was featured on ESPN, Mashable, New York Magazine, PR 2.0 and the New York Times Sunday paper, and opened up the door for me to become the second person to ever take over the NBA's Twitter handle for a game. 

In the fall of 2008, I wrote a handful of pieces for ESPN The Magazine’s website to tip-off the NBA and NCAA seasons. 

- Small Fry: The Cal State Northridge Matadors
- Are the Atlanta Hawks for real? 
- NBA Fun Facts: New Orleans Hornets
- NBA Fun Facts: Utah Jazz
- NBA Fun Facts: Cleveland Cavaliers

I speak about breaking into the business of sports, personal branding, social marketing, and community management. Here's a sample of places I've presented:

- Harvard Business School
- Princeton University
- Columbia University
- Fordham University
- Rutgers University
- St. John Fisher College
- Mount St. Mary's College
- Manhattanville College
- Manhattan Sports Business Academy
- Future of Journalism Conference
- New York Knicks Tweetup
- Business Development Institute

3FiftySomething was a one-off personal project that I tag-teamed with SB Nation's Russell Steinberg, where we visualized the vast variety of Division I basketball venues - all 351 of 'em - on a single web page and in a 50-second Flipagram style video with the manifesto below. 

——

Division-I college basketball venues come in all shapes, sizes, and settings.

From octagons to Pentagons, bandboxes to behemoths, New York City to Nacogdoches, on-campus and off. We have Arenas and O’renas, Centers and Halls, Complexes and Coliseums, Fieldhouses and Forums. Domes, Pavilions, and Stadiums too.

If this is Our Game, these are Our Gyms. All 3FiftySomething of them.

In Q1 of 2017, we released v1.0 of the Sports Passport iOS app, the easy way to track, chronicle, and relive every game you attend.

In addition to preserving fan memories, Sports Passport dishes out personalized stats:

- Number of games you've attended
- Number of venues you've seen a game
- Top-10 performances you've witnessed
- Personalized W-L records (and streaks) for your favorite teams
- Composite personalized player stats