The Top 5 Most Creative NBA Schedule Reveals for the 2019-20 Season

What do Legos, magic tricks and graffiti have in common? They are some of the many ways NBA franchises' social media teams have introduced their game schedules for the 2019-20 season. The NBA, despite being awfully close to a year-round phenomenon, is currently in peak offseason. The Summer League is wrapped up, almost all the free agents have signed to their respective rosters, and many of the superstars who would be playing for Team USA right now decided to stay home during the 2020 Olympics. Yet even the simple release of the 82-game NBA schedule can drive #NBATwitter and dominate social. Almost every team in the league had a unique video ready to go for when the schedule dropped, but five teams really came out firing. First, some honorable mentions: The Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets both used puppy videos, which are always happily accepted; the Chicago Bulls' use of graffiti did well to encapsulate Chicago; the Philadelphia 76ers brought out America’s Funniest Home Videos vibes; and the Sacramento Kings took the schedule reveal back to the NBA’s roots. Many of the biggest franchises with the largest social media followings didn’t do much. The New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets didn’t create much of note to help hype their schedules. Most just relied on their superstar fans and then retweeted their reactions (must be nice). So which teams really stepped up the creative game this year? We've ranked our favorites: No. 5: Los Angeles Clippers [kickout id="1"] The newly rejuvenated Clippers have a lot to be excited for this season. The team added not only defending NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard but also nabbed Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Those moves make them the odds-on favorite to win the NBA title this year. As for their schedule, they went with a comic book theme. Using multiple art styles, the team told succinct stories about some of their biggest rivals. George and Leonard stare across the Staples Center at LeBron and Anthony Davis in the first story, the top teams in the Eastern Conference embark on a Mad Max style road race in the second, and a cookout with some Western Conference rivals finishes off the book. It’s a unique idea that is well executed and shows the Clippers have their sights set on the best teams in the NBA. No. 4: Golden State Warriors [kickout id="2"] While many top teams phoned in the schedule release this year, the same can’t be said of the Golden State Warriors. The NBA’s most recent dynasty showcased its connection to the Bay Area by way of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, better known as BART. The team is moving from Oracle Arena in Oakland to the new Chase Center in San Francisco’s Mission Bay district and took some players on a trip from stadium to stadium. The signage around the train showed the new schedule, including the coincidentally named “clipper” cards. This release told a quick story, showed the schedule in a fun way and finished up on a great shot of the team’s new home. No. 3: San Antonio Spurs [kickout id="3"] Connecting to your team’s audience is crucial in good social media work, and the Spurs did a great job tailoring the release around their Latino fans. They created unique Lotería cards for each of the 32 NBA teams. Lotería is a game of chance, similar to Bingo, that originated in Mexico. Instead of ping-pong balls, Lotería numbers are drawn from unique cards adorned with colorful pictures. The short story features the mascot and shows off the full schedule. Some of the artwork is tough to see in the initial video release, but a follow-up tweet shows the detail that went into each card design. They are also one of the few teams to have their schedule release be sponsored, as the Spurs tossed a Budweiser bottle into the top-left corner of the display. No. 2: Indiana Pacers [kickout id="4"] We've seen teams riff on streaming services, but the Pacers really took it to another level. They embodied the entire Netflix process from opening the app and choosing a profile to browsing while watching previews and finally being rudely prompted to keep watching. The depth of the design sets the Pacers schedule apart from other similar works from the past. Every single game is represented by a unique TV show that actually exists. Our Planet shows the games against the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves; then the mindless scrolling of Netflix brushes over Bee Movie for the Charlotte Hornets, Kazaam for the Orlando Magic and Cars for the Detroit Pistons. Full House, Stranger Things, The Ranch, Defenders and The Crown are all used to showcase other Pacer matchups throughout the season. The call to action to buy season tickets at the end is a perfect capstone to turn social media engagement into fans in seats. The Pacers get high marks for execution and bonus points for being one of the few teams whose release covered every game on the schedule. No. 1: Atlanta Hawks [kickout id="5"] Atlanta wins this season’s schedule release, and the competition isn't even close. While every other organization was choosing fun packages to put the games in, Atlanta makes viewers work to decode what they are watching. Using the signature style of Donald Glover’s Atlanta, the Hawks created a mini-mystery inside each game clue. In all, nine games are represented in this video, but if you weren’t looking, you may have missed them all. It took me four viewings before I placed most of them, and I had to cheat on the last one and look at the actual schedule. Before you read further, watch the video and see how many dates and opponents you can place before I spoil it. You good? Cool. Here are the nine teams with where the date appears in order of their appearance in the video: The Boston Celtics play on Feb. 3, the expiration date on the milk the man pours into his Lucky Charms (a reference, of course, to the team's Lucky the Leprechaun mascot). The Brooklyn Nets come to town on 12.04, the price of the meal announced by the cashier in a hairnet. The Los Angeles Clippers will play Jan. 22, the date seen by the man getting his hair line cleaned up with clippers. The New Orleans Pelicans are represented by the 3-31 on the side of the box of chicken wings. A woman’s handbag reads Nov. 23 right before her glass starts shaking—a reference to Jurassic Park and the Toronto Raptors. The Full House Movers leave a box reading 12-2-19, the day the Golden State Warriors come to Atlanta. The clues seem to get easier toward the end, a Philly Cheesesteak and a date on an order slip represent the Philadelphia 76ers while a little girl writes a 12/15/19 date on a hopscotch board before doing LeBron James’ signature chalk celebration to symbolize the Los Angeles Lakers. The video ends with a bottle rocket being shot out of a custom Coke bottle for the Houston Rockets. In all, this schedule release is truly next level. They captured an authentic Atlanta experience, drew from popular cultural references and hid the schedule in enough nuance that it turned a simple calendar into the hardest seek-and-find game we've played since Netflix hid 20 obscure references in one ad.

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The Top 5 Most Creative NBA Schedule Reveals for the 2019-20 Season

Teams stepped it up, but one blew them all away

Mitch Reames

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Mitch Reames