The Weekend Recap - Sports, Media, Entertainment, & Culture: 06/08/2025

Some weekend stories to get ready for the week - broken down by: Weekend Spotlights / Sports Business / Media & Streaming / Film & Hollywood Crossovers / Style, Sneakers, & Collabs / AI & Tech

Huge shoutout to Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz for “pushing each other to the edge of exhaustion and excellence” as the TNT cast so perfectly put.

If you missed that Alcaraz X Rolex commercial today, here it is.

Weekend Spotlights

Starbucks’ Bet On Content

This LinkedIn post was super interesting. Apparently, we are witnessing The ‘Creatorfication’ Of Corporate America.

Starbucks is hiring two full-time content creators (one barista, one external hire) to go on a year-long global coffee tour, from Costa Rica to Milan, to document the craft, culture, and stories behind each cup.

• Roles are fully paid and in-house - signaling a shift from creators as contractors to creators as culture-carriers
• Starbucks is betting big on content that feels lived-in, not manufactured - and positioning their storytelling as core to reinvigorating that brand connection

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Savannah Bananas’ Rise

In 2025, we’re watching athletes hit superhuman levels of talent and execution. We’ve already mentioned Alcaraz, and Coco Gauff is well-represented below. Then there’s Connor McDavid split-dodging like he’s playing Lacrosse, Tyrese Haliburton clutching up like Kobe, Caitlin Clark redefining women’s baskeball, and Saquon being Saquon.

But one of the most compelling sports stories of the year isn’t about elite stats or highlight reels - it’s about athleticism packaged into pure entertainment.

When the Savannah Bananas play, the game itself is a show - part baseball, part Broadway, part social experiment. This is a team turning sports into a spectacle, redefining what it means to be a fan and an athlete in 2025.

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🏟️ Sports Business

• Steph Curry's ‘Thirty Ink’ Raked In $174 Million in 2024 Alone

• Every College Wants a Flashy Basketball GM Hire Right Now

• Judge OK's $2.8B Settlement, Paving Way For Colleges To Pay Athletes

• Wrexham AFC Weighs Raising Funds at £350 Million Valuation

• Chris Davis (Brand President & CMO, New Balance) Congratulates Coco Gauff On Her Roland-Garros Win

• PWHL Celebrates A Historic Second Season Of Growth

  

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📺 Media & Streaming

• Netflix Shareholders Vote to Oust Jay Hoag, Its Lead Independent Director, but the Board May Decide To Keep Him

• United Partners With Spotify To Add Streaming Audio To Seatback Screens

  • Good to see more streaming x airline partnerships - in my eyes, we should be able to sign into HBO Max on flights, not sure why that concept isn’t a thing, but maybe someone reading this can enlighten me

• Manfred: MLB Wants New Media-Rights Deal Before All-Star Game

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🎬 Film & Hollywood Crossovers

• Michael Imperioli Reflects on Jack Kerouac, Buddhism, and a Changing New York: I Still Love The City To Death

• Snoop Dogg Biopic Movie Lands Craig Brewer to Direct for Universal

• Miley Cyrus Says She ‘Wasn’t Allowed’ to Perform ‘Hannah Montana’ Songs After She ‘Left Disney’: ‘Not Like I Wanted To’

• Sydney Sweeney’s Bathwater-Infused Soap Sells Out, Resells for Hundreds Online

  • Weird yeah, but as Complex writes, this “has become an internet sensation and a collector’s item”

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🎽 Style, Sneakers, & Collabs

• Little Tokyo Table Tennis x ASICS Collection

• Sotheby’s And FRAME Celebrate Their New Collab Uptown

FRAME Store @ 73rd Street and Madison Ave

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🖥️ AI & Tech

• WHOOP Building Epicenter Of AI On The East Coast