Beyond the Trophy: Building the Naismith Family

The Opportunity: Giving a Prestigious Award a Personality

The Naismith Awards had decades of basketball history. The opportunity was to make that history feel alive every day, not just when another trophy was presented.

When I joined the Naismith Awards in 2017, I was one of the organization's first two social media interns. At the time, the digital presence was largely built around press releases and accompanying graphics, with limited original storytelling or year-round audience engagement.

The brand already had something invaluable: a legacy of recognizing basketball's most accomplished players and coaches. My challenge was to help translate that prestige into a modern social presence that fans, athletes and alumni would want to engage with throughout the year.

Rather than trying to reinvent the Naismith identity, I focused on bringing its greatest asset to the forefront: the people who made the award meaningful in the first place.

The Strategy: Make the Alumni the Heart of the Brand

A trophy recognizes an achievement. A community makes that achievement part of a lasting story.

That distinction became the foundation of my organic social strategy. I helped shift the Naismith Awards away from primarily announcement-driven content toward a storytelling approach centered on its winners, alumni, basketball history and the moments that connect generations of athletes.

Former winners weren't simply names in an archive. They were storytellers, ambassadors and an essential part of the brand's identity.

I developed content opportunities that gave alumni a platform to revisit their winning moments, reflect on their careers and share what the Naismith honor meant to them. From original video vignettes and interviews to historical storytelling and live event coverage, the objective was to make the Naismith Awards feel like an ongoing basketball family rather than an annual announcement.

The strategy wasn't to compete with sports media for breaking news. It was to tell stories that only the Naismith Awards could tell.

Bringing the Strategy to Life: Beyond the Screen

The alumni-first approach extended beyond social content into real-world relationships and experiences. I helped bring former winners into the brand's ongoing storytelling through interviews, event coverage and activations that connected them with fans and fellow alumni.

That included capturing moments with former winner T.J. Ford at fan-facing activations, highlighting the annual Naismith golf tournament in Georgia that brings together winners from different generations, and creating content around award brunches and ceremonies.

Every interaction was an opportunity to reinforce the relationship between the individual and the award. The goal wasn't simply to secure an interview or produce another social post. It was to give winners a reason to remain proud of their Naismith connection and share that pride with the next generation.

Those relationships became a recurring source of authentic storytelling and helped give the brand a personality that extended far beyond the trophy itself.

Building the Operation: Scaling People Alongside Performance

As the social presence evolved, so did the team behind it. What began with two pioneering social interns developed into a social operation that I now lead with approximately 20 interns.

To support that growth, I created detailed social media playbooks spanning roughly 50 pages, establishing processes and expectations around content creation, platform strategy, brand voice, publishing and team operations. I also introduced multiple weekly meetings focused on collaboration, campaign planning, performance discussions and individual development.

My philosophy has always been that growing the people behind the brand is just as important as growing the brand itself.

I wanted interns to leave with more than completed assignments. I wanted them to develop creative confidence, sharpen their judgment, understand social strategy and discover where their individual strengths could take them.

Seeing former interns return as paid contractors has been one of the clearest signs that we've built an environment people want to remain part of.

The Impact: Building a Brand That Grows Organically

Over time, the combination of alumni-driven storytelling, a more developed content strategy and a scalable team helped establish a significantly larger organic social presence.

The growth reflects years of building a recognizable brand voice, expanding original content, strengthening alumni relationships and developing the people and systems needed to execute consistently.

The Takeaway: The Brand Is Bigger Than the Trophy

The most meaningful part of building the Naismith social presence isn't a metric. It's the sense of belonging we've helped create.

I want every former winner to feel the same pride when reflecting on their Naismith moment that they felt when receiving the award. And I want every intern who joins the team to feel valued, supported and proud to have been part of the organization, whether their career continues with Naismith or takes them somewhere entirely different.

That shared philosophy has shaped how I approach both brand strategy and leadership.

Build something people are proud to be part of, and give them a reason to keep coming back.