Makers Of Sport Podcast

"You're in the emotions business, and the emotions business is exciting. It's fun. It's something that you jump out of bed to do every day...what we are creating for people is an emotional, tribal experience with their [team]." Tom O'Grady – hired by David Stern as the NBA's first creative director – joins the podcast this week. After 13 years with the NBA, Tom left to found Gameplan Creative, a strategic creative agency for sports and entertainment brands. On this episode we discuss Tom's tenure with the NBA during its growth in the 90s. Nostalgia is prevalent as we discuss uniform designs, branding and the NBA's impact on culture. We discover that the 4 big American sports leagues had a mastermind group of league creative directors from the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL that all shared ideas, sports branding processes, nomenclature and contacts — further emphasizing the value of relationships in this business. Tom gives us some insight into Gameplan Creative's work, including their flexible business model in sca