Targeting a younger audience, creator-led network’s Access Granted series highlights daily lives of the team’s rookie class
In a saturated sports-media industry, many companies dedicate time and resources to telling behind-the-scenes stories of high-profile athletes. It’s always easy to tell the stories of well-known stars, but chronicling the daily lives of up-and-coming players in any league isn’t so easy. Creator-led Enjoy Basketball is traveling that uncharted path in a partnership with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets intended to spotlight the team’s rookie class in an honest and relaxed way.
“This is a first-of-its-kind look into what it’s like to be an NBA rookie in this new media space,” says Devin Dismang, VP, content, Enjoy Basketball. “Our goal is to collaborate with some of these younger players that you may not know a lot about and showcase their lives on and off the court.”
Elevating New Stars: Untold Stories of League’s Next Wave of Athletes
Enjoy Basketball went into this collaboration with three main objectives in mind. The first was to break the mold on how the stories are told. Many documentary series, such as Quarterback or WWE Unreal on Netflix, have large financial budgets and conduct interviews in a traditional style with standard questions. Enjoy Basketball uses its brand identity and style to advantage by serving up more off-the-cuff interviews. Geared toward a younger audience, the interviews leverage current trends and topics that these viewers will understand.
“No one outside of major production companies has been given unbridled access to game days,” says Dismang. “We’re not only talking basketball but also showcasing things that the new generation of hoops fans care about.”
He and his team aim to push the game of basketball forward. Many of the league’s current stars — Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry — are considered the old guard, no longer the young guns.
Other players from around the globe — Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Slovenia’s Luka Dončić, Serbia’s Nikola Jokić — are stepping into the limelight, but, domestically, there’s a void that needs to be filled for when the U.S.-born superstars hang up their sneakers. Working with the Hornets — specifically with the club’s dynamic rookie class of Kon Knueppel, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Sion James, and Liam McNeeley — Enjoy Basketball aims to introduce these young guns to a larger audience.
“These homegrown players, and more so the stories that have become localized to their team’s city, haven’t been told,” Dismang explains. “Someone’s going to care about what a certain player’s eating before the game, why they might listen to Oliva Dean over NBA YoungBoy during shootaround, what they do during treatment to get ready for a game, and other aspects of their everyday life.”
The company is determined to show everyone that it’s more than just a skits or podcast company. Enjoy Basketball dives into fun conversations on its numerous shows, such as Numbers on the Board with Kenny Beecham, Mike Heard, Pierre Andresen, and Darrick Miller; Small Ball With Kenny Beecham; T’d Up with Andresen; WAGTalk with iso.maddy; and the official Enjoy Basketball YouTube page. But the content series titled Access Granted exemplifies the talent’s ability to tell engaging stories and provide in-depth conversations.
“We’re much bigger than just a YouTube company,” adds Dismang. “We want to show that we can go outside that realm and build series with leagues, teams, companies, and brands that can move the needle.”
The Personable Approach: Laid-Back Format Showcases Personality
Settling in for multiple days in Charlotte, the crew, which included Andresen and Content Producer Christian Odjakjian, wanted the players to feel comfortable during their time together. Throughout the season, the players are subjected to standard press conferences with local and national media, which don’t allow fans to see much of their personality and charm: most questions are about what just happened during a game or their thought process during a certain play.
Although Enjoy Basketball wants to share this thought process, it’s not the primary focus. Eschewing the typical car-wash style of interviewing, Enjoy Basketball style places the human being in the forefront.
“Traditional media outlets are now trying to lean into this while our team has been authentically building this for years,” says Dismang. “There’s a kinship right off the bat, and that opens the door to discuss everything else.”
In addition, many players are familiar with Enjoy Basketball and the way it goes about its business. In a digital-centric world, these young stars are also used to interacting with social-media personalities and soaking up all this content. For example, during the company’s time in Charlotte, players LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges were excited to work with Enjoy Basketball.
“These are players in their 20s doing film study like players before them but also watching videos on social media,” adds Dismang. “This is very much the generation who grew up on [social media].”
Starting in Charlotte: Series Looks Toward All NBA Teams
The Charlotte Hornets were more than willing to work with Enjoy Basketball to garner maximum exposure for the young core of the roster. Supported by CCO Mike Cristaldi; VP, Basketball Communications, Brian Travis; Senior Manager, Basketball Communications and Player Engagement, McKayla Hernandez; President, Business Operations, Shelly Cayette-Weston; Director, Social Media, Diana Smith; and Video Support Ryan Cruz, the concept was refined and a date established for a time in the schedule when the players were available. The conversation yielded two days’ worth of shooting: a day focused on training, team practice, and a season-ticket–holder event where Sion James spoke with loyal fans of the organization and another day that focused solely on what the players do on game day.
“Not many people get to see these kinds of activities since they’re very niche to Charlotte,” says Dismang. “The Hornets were very committed since the first day that we brainstormed with them.”
Although the Hornets are the first NBA team to work with Enjoy Basketball, Dismang and his colleagues have their sights set on working with the other 29 teams in the league. The Hornets series is a way for its work to do most of the talking, but the company’s intimate and personal approach will allow for even more opportunities.
“Partnering with Enjoy Basketball was a natural fit for us,” says Cristaldi. “We continue finding new ways to meet our Gen Z and digitally native fans where they already are. Their audience represents a fresh and highly engaged community, and this collaboration allowed us to introduce the Hornets brand to fans who may not interact with our traditional platforms.
“It also gave us the chance,” he continues, “to experiment a bit with content styles and storytelling approaches that may differ from what we typically produce. Being one of the first teams to take part in a collaboration like this — especially through a day‑in‑the‑life feature highlighting our exciting rookie class — made the partnership even more meaningful for us.”
Along with personal time with these rookies and the season-ticket event, the team at Enjoy Basketball worked out with the Hornets’ development staff and attended the team’s matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Jan. 21. Now that the content has been collected, the plan comprises a long-form video, an episode of interviews on T’d Up with Andresen, and several short-form clips for Instagram Reels. To get the most out of this content and target an optimal release date, the crew is putting the finishing touches on the project.
“We were originally looking to drop everything before NBA All-Star Weekend, but we didn’t want to it to get lost in the madness of the All-Star break,” says Dismang. “The Hornets have been very gracious in working with us, so whatever we push out they’re going to amplify [on their platforms].”
Eyes on Expansion: Advantageous Partnerships, Thoughtful Creation
Launched by three co-founders — brothers Cody and Cole Hock along with Beecham — the company, at first, worked with broadcast partners to extend its reach. The mission was, after creating a following, to take their shows and content in-house for full creative control and build a team from within. Since then, the platform brought in executives, such as Dismang, to create an even stronger content strategy and launched a partnership with NBC Sports to capitalize on the broadcaster’s return to the NBA.
On the business side, Enjoy Basketball wants to branch out and draw even more eyeballs to the material produced. More important, the company wants to continue being a part of tentpole events on the NBA calendar, including NBA All-Star Weekend, and to be further engrained in the daily life of an NBA player. Through future partnerships like one with the National Basketball Players Association and a growing team of production experts and contractors, Enjoy Basketball is poised to proceed with fun at the center of its efforts.
“We all love working for this company,” says Dismang, “because we enjoy the game of basketball and everything we create.”