Thursday wasn’t just the day that the NBA released its full schedule for next season. It’s also the day that NBA social media teams showed their stuff with what’s become a tradition: Schedule-release videos. Here are some of our favorites.
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls went for animation, hyping the upcoming season by means of a “flip book” cartoon showing its players sinking jumpers, dunking and throwing behind-the-back passes. The execution was unique and not too busy, as players are clearly identifiable, simple backgrounds indicate other cities. Plus, who doesn’t love a flip book?
One interesting element is the order the Bulls show their players. Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu appear first, then first-round pick Matas Buzelis, before ostensible superstar Zach LaVine is followed by offseason addition Josh Giddey. Center Nikola Vucevic didn’t make the video, but mascot Benny the Bull did. Does that say anything about the team’s hierarchy?
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavaliers schedule video is aimed at anyone who loves the New York Times Games app. It begins with a Wordle parody called “Wordly,” which spells out “Bucks.” Then their version of Connections lists foursomes like “Cheese Steak, Rocky, Embiid, Dr. J” to indicate Philly and roasts the Warriors by grouping “Curry, Golden Gate and Rice-A-Roni” with “3-1.” They’ll never forget the 2016 Finals comeback!
Cleveland’s Spelling Bee parody lists parts of the Minnesota Timberwolves roster, oddly including little-used T.J. Warren and their mascot, Crunch. It closes with a crossword, because games are games.
Indiana Pacers
The Pacers didn’t have much to justify the theme of their video, except their declaration that “Things are heating up.” That doesn’t matter, because it’s oddly fascinating to watch an allegedly 1,000-degree metal ball jack things up. The super-heated metal destroys a block of green soap for the Celtics, melts a block of cheese for the Milwaukee Bucks and does indescribably strange things to a jar of aloe vera, which is of course treatment for a Phoenix Sun-burn.
We’re not totally sure why popcorn represents the Los Angeles Lakers (Hollywood movies?) or why salt water is the symbol for the Golden State Warriors (their arena is next to San Francisco Bay?). But it’s extremely compelling to watch, even though the New York Knicks’ apple holds up incredibly well against the metal ball — unlike the injuries that beset them during their playoff loss to the Pacers.
The Suns used a similar concept melting various objects using the sun. Thematically, it is more appropriate to their team name, but isn’t as watchable. Plus, it also looks like a nightmarish demonstration of global warming.
In this high-concept effort, Cole Anthony and Jonathan Isaac of the Magic enter the “Magicverse,” where they warp between different animated programs to announce the new schedule. First, they seemingly visit Spider-Man in New York, but it turns out to be Cleveland, home of Donovan “Spida” Mitchell. They go on to visit the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in New York, the member of “X-Men ’97” in Miami (because of their fashion choices) and see where scientist Rick from “Rick and Morty” was working on freakish athletes like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama.
Orlando’s social media team is consistently one of the best among NBA teams. They weren’t shy about it, including praise from the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart in the Knicks segment. But just as the animated Anthony tried to collect Raptors, Bulls and Hawks with his Pokemon ball, the social media team knows that with accolades, you gotta catch ’em all.
Utah Jazz
The Jazz scored with a beautifully shot video with a board game theme. The colors look great, the editing is on point and the audio choices to accompany each board game are quite funny.
First, the game of Life mocks the Lakers’ hiring of J.J. Redick with a player drawing a card announcing “Your podcast is a success!” Surprisingly for a Utah team, the Guess Who? segment with the Timberwolves contains Anthony Edwards telling Charles Barkley to “Bring ya ass” to Minneapolis.
The Warriors represent the “Luxury Tax” square in Monopoly, the nautically-named Clippers are depicted with Battleship (and some boisterous audio of owner Steve Ballmer) and the Celtics take over the world in RISK. Clean, quick jokes, bright colors and best of all, they get it all done in a tidy 48 seconds. The Jazz social media team sunk the proverbial battleship with this one.
