Scoot's Opportunity To Build An Enterprise Through Books

Scoot Henderson may have dropped out of school to pursue his NBA dream but his love for books has the potential to create a plethora of opportunities...

Shoot Your Shot is my personal series where I ideate in public for brand partnerships that I would love to make happen or see come to life...You miss 100 % of the shots you don't take

Now before I get started, I want to point out that Scoot is just coming off his rookie year and it's super important to establish yourself in the league, get use to how things work, and just settle in. You want to keep the main thing the main thing. So I'm actually a little bit happy, he hasn't put too much focus on his off court ventures just yet. However, I do think his management should be working behind the scenes to make moves on his behalf as it relates to his passion and love for reading.

My business partner and friend, Adrian Camargo came across the GQ article highlighting Scoot's passion for reading and sent it to me saying this would be a great Shoot Your Shot piece. After reading the article myself, I could immediately see why.

Scoot is sitting on a goldmine of opportunities simply by having a real authentic passion for reading.

Let's breakdown a some ways Scoot can build an enterprise around his passion for reading:

Foundation -

Most NBA athletes either have a foundation or work as partners to various non profits. This would be a great way to tackle a cause around literacy that many corporations and organizations care about. Reading literacy is an issue that's been on top of mind across many school districts. When you have your star talent taking an authentic and intentional interest in literacy, you can't help but get excited on the impact that might be possible.

An initiative that might work could be:

Baskets & Books: basketball + reading camp combined with a back to school drive.

Brand Partnerships-

One thing that caught my attention was that Scoot said he's an old school reader. He likes physical hard copies. Which throws out a bunch of brands I wanted to include but there's still companies like Amazon, Literati, Barnes & Noble, Penguin publishing, etc that would make sense.

Considering Scoot plays in Portland, a partnership with Powell's Book Store should have already happened. I remember Powell's Book Store from my time in Portland and there's partnership is a perfect match. Especially considering his intentions on creating a book club. Which leads me too...

Book Club -

The Book club blueprint is Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon. Not saying Scoot will ever get to that level but if he could carve out his own lane using Book Clubs as a way to build community, he will have something that's hard to come by. There was an instagram page in the past called jocks read created by a professional athlete, it was before it's time but still had a pretty good following. I actually reached out to the athlete at one point to try and get the instagram page.

Imagine if Scoot was able to spearhead something like that? Communities are the name of the game and have been for the longest time, but now more than ever, a book club by an up and coming NBA star, the sky is the limit.

Newsletter -

Emails are the name of the game! A simple newsletter highlighting lessons learned from his favorite books , what he's currently reading, and sprinkled in with some basketball content. He would kill it!

He could do social content and/or podcast but from researching it seems like Scoot is more of an introvert.

Library + Products-

In the article, Scoot states his plan on building his own personal library. Why not build a library in your hometown that also has memorabilla from your favorite basketball moments. Great way to increase foot traffic and create a home for your passions. You can include other products outside of books; reading lights, pens, book marks, journals, merch & apparel, etc. You get the picture.

Scoot Henderson will be a great basketball player there is no doubt about that, but I'm interested to see the enterprise he's going to be able to create as well. I think his passion for reading can and will play a big role. Not only the information he will obtain from reading but the application as well.

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