Darren Rovell, Miami Herald, NBA teams, NBDL

Nets Carbon Neutral Night Very Enlightening…And Other Hoops Hits…

PR Move of the Day:  The New Jersey Nets may have had a blow to their playoff hopes Tuesday night with the loss to the Sixers, but they keep beating the brand awareness race by pulling off the first-ever (I guess) Carbon Neutral Night against the Sixers.  The Newark Star Ledger did a nice piece explaining the environmentally conscious efforts of the team, with a nice entree into the project by future arena sponsor Barclay’s Bank.  The very creative effort reminded the world about the unique partnership, gave some great added value, and of course had some solid environmental messages for fans and business partners alike .  Nice trend setter.  And speaking of trendsetters, Nets CEO Brett Yormark and Florida Panthers COO Michael Yormark had a nice piece on CNBC this week, which can also be seen here.  Also on the “green” kick, check out First Call, which has a celebrity mix on the going green movement away from sports.
Other hoops notes included long-time friend Donald Hunt’s efforts to get Wilt Chamberlain on a postage stamp , while Coke made some interesting news switching star LeBron James from their Powerade brand to Vitamin Water.  VW’s use of “organic” integration (see Dwight Howard’s dunk practice video) and unique athlete promotion (the Knicks’ David Lee’s “Next hairdo” competition)  will certainly be tested with the highly visible James on the Glaceau team now, but the opportunity to take integration to a new level now has a solid NBA platform. On the hoops abroad list, be sure and check out the UK start-up Basketball 24/7, a real strong attempt to raise the profile of the game in England both in an Olympic year and with the NBA coming back in October.   Lastly, this time of year also has its share of positive call-up stories, and yesterday’s piece in the Miami Herald shows how the Heat/D-League relationship has worked for both the NBA and the D-League.