🏟 NBA championship business: 2024 Boston Celtics

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Welcome to Sports Industry Weekly as we share insights from the most significant business headlines in the sports industry, including:

☘️ A complete championship business breakdown of the Boston Celtics

🏀 Caitlin Clark breaking WNBA viewership records

❎ Elon Musk and X rapidly acquiring exclusive sports content

🐐 A preview of Tom Brady, the newest Fox Sports NFL Analyst

NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BUSINESS: THE 2024 BOSTON CELTICS

Congratulations to the Boston Celtics, the 2024 NBA Champions! Here are the business highlights and career insights that have emerged since the Boston Celtics won their league-leading 18th championship as an NBA franchise.

🏆 Finals MVP Jaylen Brown secured over $3.3 million in contract bonuses this season after achieving contractual performance incentives, including winning the NBA Championship.

🤑 Both Jayson Tatum and Derrick White are rumored to be "nearly certain" to receive their contract extensions (Tatum: five-year, $315 million extension and White: four-year, $125 million extension).

👟 The sneaker brands were ready to promote the championship moment as Jordan Brand took a shot at adidas and Anthony Edwards in a Jayson Tatum ad, Kristaps Porzingis was celebrated by adidas Basketball, and New Balance honored their official team sponsorship with the Boston Celtics.

📲 Jayson Tatum’s brand partners — Gatorade and NBA2K, also took to social media to celebrate their signature athlete winning his first NBA championship.

☘️ The Boston Celtics were prepared to win it all, as they released a special edition print magazine immediately after the victory in partnership with SLAM.

📹 Gage Duchon, one of the video producers on the Celtics’ social media team, has gone viral week after week and received industry recognition throughout the playoffs with his unique team highlight videos.

💰 Every player on the Celtics roster will earn a $804,000 bonus for winning the title as part of the league's playoff pool allocation.

🦆 Boston’s economy saw an estimated increase of $6 million to the local market for each of its team’s home games throughout the playoffs. As the city prepares for its signature championship duck boat parade, there will be an even larger increase in Massachusetts’ overall economy.

🔥 Last but not least, shout out to Coach Joe Mazzulla. In 2016 while he was an Assistant Coach with the Maine Red Claws (NBA G League team affiliated with the Boston Celtics), he listed on the About section of his LinkedIn:

Hey Coach - it’s time to add to your LinkedIn:

💍 NBA Champion Head Coach

🥇 Six broadcasting networks have broken their WNBA viewership records with games starring Caitlin Clark including CBS at 2.25 million views (Indiana Fever/Caitlin Clark vs Chicago Sky/Angel Reese) and ESPN at 2.1 million views (CC's debut against the Connecticut Sun). A few weeks ago we broke-down how the WNBA is bigger than ever and we don’t anticipate the league slowing down anytime soon.

🥊 Boxer Ryan Garcia (career 25-1 record) went to X to announce his retirement. Garcia shared personal issues on his social media, while also being the topic of recent performance-enhancing drug accusations. The announcement sparked a variety of reactions from fans and commentators, with some skeptical of the retirement's permanence and others discussing potential future fights, including a highly anticipated rematch with Gervonta Davis.

🏀 NCAA officials presented multiple models of potential expansion to Division I conference commissioners regarding the men's March Madness tournament. One model featured four additional teams, expanding the current 68-team field to 72. The other model featured eight additional teams, which would increase the field to 76 teams. There will not be any expansion until the 2025-26 season at the earliest, and the women’s tournament would eventually follow suit. These larger tournaments will increase revenue across college basketball, including student-athlete NIL opportunities. For example, former Illinois forward Coleman Hawkins is transferring to Kansas State University with a $2 million NIL deal, the largest in college basketball history.

❎ Elon Musk’s X platform (I still call it Twitter 🤷‍♂️) has secured exclusive streaming rights to "The Offseason FC," a new sports docuseries about the NWSL. This is just another sports content investment by X as they continue to leverage sports to drive growth and advertising revenues. They recently premiered “All In: The Boston Celtics,” a behind-the-scenes look at the team’s championship-winning season, have exclusive streaming rights to Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league, and WWE already produces a short-form pro wrestling show called “WWE Speed” on X.

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🏀 Rich Paul, CEO and Founder of Klutch Sports Group, has stated regarding next week’s 2024 NBA Draft “that there is no package deal option for LeBron and Bronny.” While this year’s draft class is not loaded with big names, there is a lot of talent on the board, and it will mark the beginning of notable off-season moves by NBA franchises. This is also the first year the draft will be held over two days (June 26-27) instead of the traditional one-evening event.

🏈 Tom Brady recently appeared on 'The Herd with Colin Cowherd,' giving fans a preview of what they can expect from the Hall of Fame quarterback as he starts his new role as a Fox Sports Analyst during the upcoming NFL season. The general excitement among fans and analysts suggests that Brady's insights and experience will make him an exceptional commentator. Fox’s first regular season NFL game will be aired on September 8th.

💰 Speaking of quarterbacks, NFL owners are discussing the possibility of implementing a separate salary cap for quarterbacks due to the rapid increase in QB contract values. This proposal aims to prevent QB salaries from exceeding a certain percentage of the team's overall salary cap. This would have a major impact across the league, and we’ll stay alert for any updates to share.

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