Brand
Moving at the Speed of Culture: Jordan Howlett Gives His 35M Followers VIP Behind The Scenes Access to Lakers’ Blockbuster Dončić Trade
When the NBA’s biggest trade bombshell of the season dropped – Luka Dončić moving to the Los Angeles Lakers – Greenlight Group co-founders Michael Berkowitz and Doug Landers saw an unprecedented opportunity to reshape how sports narratives reach fans across social media. Within hours, they had secured their client, content creator Jordan Howlett, unprecedented creator access to the Lakers’ press conference, illustrating a significant shift in how professional sports teams engage with creators.
The Perfect Creator for the Moment
As a longtime Lakers fan with a track record of delivering engaging, investigative content, Howlett brought a unique perspective to the coverage. “Jordan is a detective in a way. He’s finding things that people want to know, whether it’s about food secrets, whether it’s recipes, whether it’s what’s going on with the Lakers and Luka Dončić,” explains Berkowitz. “He views the audience as his boss in a way, and he’ll say this a lot. The audience is my boss. He wants to give the audience value-add content.”
His highly engaged audience of 35 million followers across platforms immediately responded to the news, flooding his DMs with questions about the unexpected trade. This immediate audience reaction validated Greenlight Group’s quick decision to pursue the opportunity.
Seizing the Moment
Greenlight Group had been in discussions with the Lakers since December about potential creator partnerships, as the team explored ways to expand their digital content presence. When the unexpected Dončić trade broke, Berkowitz and Landers knew they had to act fast.
“I immediately just got on the phone with the Lakers and pitched a bunch of different ideas,” Berkowitz recalls. “Working with content creators is still an emerging space for many sports organizations, and we’re excited to help pioneer new approaches to fan engagement.”
Jordan, a lifelong Lakers fan explains, “Having grown up in a Lakers family, it’s always an exciting experience doing anything that involves the Lakers organization. Being able to do something in this capacity where I was able to share a creative vision and tell a bit of a story alongside something as monumental as the Luka Dončić trade and his first press conference was definitely a dream come true.
My family was incredibly excited and I was so happy about how the final product came out. The fans’ reaction was amazing, and I’m looking forward to giving them more of this type of content. I’m really looking forward to doing more work with the Lakers organization and its players.”
One of the key challenges in modern sports coverage is balancing the need for immediate content with traditional media processes. “Moving at the speed of culture is what’s really going to make the difference for a brand to be able to take advantage of those small sparks of virality and become super culturally relevant,” explains Landers.
The Greenlight Group team worked closely with the Lakers to find ways to maintain necessary oversight while still capturing the immediacy that social media demands. Their flexible approach included multiple contingency plans, allowing them to adapt quickly while respecting established media protocols.
Measuring Impact and Reach
The response to Howlett’s coverage demonstrated the power of creator-driven sports content. Fan engagement exploded across platforms, with the comment sections “absolutely incredible,” according to Berkowitz. The impact reached far beyond Jordan’s social media feeds when ESPN organically featured the video on their YouTube channel – a significant validation of the creator-driven approach that came as a welcome surprise to the team.
“We didn’t know ESPN was going to pick it up. We’re very excited they picked it up,” shares Landers. “That’s great. Maybe it’ll make it elsewhere in ESPN’s ecosystem, but we’re pumped about it that they’re taking an interest in what Jordan’s up to.”
For Greenlight Group, success extends beyond traditional metrics, focusing instead on the broader impact across media channels. “The clever way to look at these things is to look at earned media value in general across the media landscape,” explains Landers. “You look at the video itself. You look at likes, comments, shares, views. Shares actually being a key one.”
This approach represents a significant value proposition for brands. “These brands are spending, bare minimum a million dollars on a TV advertisement every single time they just think about doing something,” Landers reveals. “So creators don’t cost anywhere near that. But I think brands have trouble understanding what that means.”
The strategy aligns with broader business objectives while maintaining authentic storytelling. “Let’s say the objective is to ultimately drive up sales of Luka’s jersey and to drive up ticket interest,” Landers notes. “The clever brands are letting the narrative live over here and gradually kind of bleed into what their sales are, but they’re not being overly aggressive about tying them together necessarily.”
“Our hope is that over time, the more of these things we do, the brands, the intellectual property holders [wil]l view creators as a core part of their marketing,” adds Landers. “I think that in many, many cases brands still view creators as sort of just an add on, like a cherry on top where they’re like, ‘oh yeah, get a creator in here too.’ And that just blows out of the water all their other marketing efforts.”
Launching Stallion Sports
The Lakers activation marks the first iteration of Stallion Sports, a new initiative that showcases Jordan’s versatility in covering sports beyond his usual content. “It’s a great example of Jordan’s versatility being able to cover sports where it’s not necessarily a staple part of his content,” explains Berkowitz. “Working with general lifestyle, storytelling folks and other niches is very exciting.”
The success of this initial coverage has opened doors for future sports collaborations. Following their successful MLB partnership last year, Greenlight Group is already planning Jordan’s coverage of the Cactus League and exploring opportunities for next season’s Super Bowl.
The Future of Sports Media Coverage
This collaboration also represents a broader trend in sports media, where traditional outlets and creator content are increasingly complementary. Traditional sports media brings deep expertise and established journalistic practices, while creators offer immediacy and authentic fan connection.
“You’ll see that the most talented people in traditional sports entertainment broadcasting do all kinds of stuff on social media,” notes Landers. “Stephen A. Smith, one of the [most well known personalities will ] talk about something on ESPN and then on TikTok, literally 10 minutes after he gets off, he’s [laughing] about the same thing to his fans.”
The success of the Lakers activation reveals a fundamental shift in how sports organizations approach content creation. “What brands are realizing is everything moves so [quickly] with the Internet. Their teams aren’t always equipped to tell the story that fast into the massive audience that lives on the phone,” Landers explains. “So they can tap these influencers as sort of like rolling studios that kind of live out there on the Internet to get something out there very quick.”
Looking ahead, Greenlight Group sees this as just the beginning. The Lakers are building out their creator strategy, and other sports organizations are taking notice. “Bringing content creators to in-person events, providing them with full access, and having them appear not just on mobile screens, but on the TV, billboards, and other of home marketing is a focus for us,” says Berkowitz. “And I think we’re helping to push the boundaries a little bit, which will do well not only be great for our clients and brand partners , but for the creator economy as a whole.”
The audience response and ESPN’s organic pickup of the content suggest that this model of creator-driven sports coverage isn’t just the future – it’s already here. As Berkowitz notes, ” Audiences, consumers, and the public as a whole really want authenticity. If anything, I think they appreciate peek behind the veil. And influencers, content creators, podcasters, they’re able to provide that.”
