The Miami Heat has made the NBA playoffs in 20 of the last 23 years by building a winning culture. The team's chief marketing officer Michael McCullough said the Heat plans to bring that same championship mentality to eSports.
The NBA is making a bet on eSports, a multiplayer video-game tournament in which players are sponsored by actual teams, in the hope the league can recruit new fans.
Earlier this month, the NBA 2K league held its first-ever draft at Madison Square Garden. Seventeen NBA teams, including the Miami Heat, selected the top video-game ballers to compete in a basketball video-game championship.
McCullough said the Heat acquired a stake in the eSports organization Misfits to "bridge the gap between the 2K fan and the traditional Heat fan."
The NBA 2K league tips off May 1, in the middle of the actual NBA playoffs.
The Heat is tied 1-1 in an Eastern Conference first-round series with the Philadelphia 76ers. McCullough said the key to winning championships is believing in the idea that 15 players win championships, not 1 or 2.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/when-esports-and-real-sports-collide).
Germany's hopes of a second straight World Cup came to an end Wednesday with a shocking loss to South Korea. While Germany is considered a perennial powerhouse, defending champions often get knocked out of the first rounds of the event, says Jeffrey Marcus, publisher of The Banter.
The component derived from cannabis plants offers an effective alternative for pain relief without causing a "high," said former New York Jets player Marvin Washington, who urges the NFL to change its policy on the substance. "If we don't get our hands around this opioid addiction, we are going to lose a generation."
For the first time since 1980, Iranian women this week were allowed to watch their national team take on Spain at the World Cup. For Iran, soccer is "the one secular institution that really unites the country," says Jeffrey Marcus, publisher of World Cup newsletter "The Banter."
The 28-year-old pitcher for the LA Dodgers pitches something else in the off-season: stocks. As a licensed stockbroker, Stripling invests in FANG shares and dabbles in some commodities, he tells Cheddar.
Paul Boyer, a.k.a. sOAZ, the former starting top laner for Team FNATIC, was sidelined with a hand injury during the Spring Split season of the esport League of Legends. But now he's back in action and ready for the Summer Split.
IBM and Fox Sports have teamed up to bring fans an easy way to create their own highlight reels, drawing footage from archives and current matches. "It is a huge opportunity to tap into that fan passion," says Robert Schwartz, Global Leader of Strategy and Design at IBM iX, the company's digital ad agency.
The athletic brand has signed deals with projected number one overall pick in the NBA, Deandre Ayton, and has integrated music and fashion into its marketing. Former ESPN host Bram Weinstein says that could give Puma an edge over competitors.
Video games and esports, which are front and center at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week, have caught the attention of the entrepreneur and CEO of VaynerMedia. "I have been lurking in the grass, as they say," he told Cheddar's Jon Steinberg.
Canada was one of the only developed countries in the world that did not have a premier league for soccer. Until now. The Canada Premier League will kick off its inaugural season next year in the hopes of creating a soccer revolution ahead of the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted in the country, says CPL commissioner David Clanachan.
Any professional athlete faces pressure to win, but the stakes are higher at the World Cup, where soccer players carry the added burden of an entire nation's expectations. To rise to the occasion, athletes "have to have a shared vision and a greater purpose," says Jon Gordon, the author of 'The Power of Positive and Leadership.'
