As part of BSE Global's plan for "generational fandom," school hoops clinics distributed 32,000 t-shirts this past year, while STEM curriculum engaged 1,000+ students

The recent BSE Global June Community Update announced:

We are committed to positively impacting surrounding communities through various initiatives and programs. See the below recap of June events and activations hosted by the Brooklyn Nets, the New York Liberty, the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn Basketball, and BSE Global.

Positive impact, marketing juice, sponsor involvement--it's all connected. Keep in mind that the BSE Global/Nets/Liberty spending is dwarfed by the huge benefit, for example, of a tax-exempt venue and tax-free construction debt.

But if the Nets are aiming to build "generational fandom," as corporate leaders say, they're on the way. 

School clinics

For example, consider the item headed Brooklyn Basketball: Department of Education Clinics:

On June 25, Brooklyn Basketball completed its second year of free in-school basketball clinics for elementary and middle schoolers in public schools across Brooklyn. This year, the program reached over 32,000 students across 200 schools - with every participant receiving a Brooklyn Basketball t-shirt and certificate of completion! As a result of this partnership, basketball is integrated into P.E. programming, and students learn basketball and leadership skills from Brooklyn Basketball coaches, fostering a love for the game.

If they reach 32,000 students a year, after ten years, that's a generation, with 320,000 t-shirts, and a reasonable amount of individual, and familial, fandom. 

That doesn't mean the kids can afford tickets to Nets games--those paying for Brooklyn Basketball clinics offsite, such as at the former Modell's location, are a better bet--but periodic giveaways could keep them interested. And the increase in swag has a cumulative effect.

STEM program

Then there's NETSTEM:

The close of the 24-25 school year marks another successful year of NETSTEM! As one of the Nets’ tentpole educational community programs, NETSTEM is a free supplemental STEM curriculum for Brooklyn public and charter school students in grades 3–8. The goal of NETSTEM is to inspire Brooklyn’s youth through engaging, equitable STEM education that connects classroom learning with basketball and the Nets, leading to improved learning and retention.

This year involved 45 teachers, more than 1,000 students, and 22 schools. Two NETSTEM days at Barclays Center reached 320 students.

About NETSSTEM:

This standards-aligned curriculum is provided by the Brooklyn Nets in partnership with STEM Sports®, a STEM education company that uses sports as a real-life application to teach students in schools across the United States. With NETSTEM, you can drive home STEM learning in a new way that engages your students, provides physical activity, and helps students improve their STEM literacy and retention.

What's in the curriculum? Well, here are examples:

• Understanding the contents of a basketball on the molecular level and how temperature affects play
• Evaluating the changes that basketball shoes have made over time and why
• Engineering their own shooting apparatus to explain some of Sir Issac Newton’s Laws. By the way, he was only five feet, six inches!
• Teaching students how to calculate their own field goal percentage, just like the greatest players in the NBA

Does the STEM curriculum include math regarding public assistance for privately operated venues? Let's not hold our breath.

Other programs

Other programs cited in the Community Update include support for the Brooklyn Public Library's summer reading program, with a special edition New York Liberty library card and the Liberty and Brooklyn Basketball-themed bookmarks

Also, the most recent iteration of the Read Across Brooklyn program involved the Bedford-Stuyvesant Early Childhood Development Center (BSECDC) and was presented by Qatar Airways. Volunteers from BSE Global visited four BSECDC locations in Brooklyn and read books to students, ages 2-5. The Nets donated 800 books, cozy bean bags, and pillows to two of BSECDC's locations.

There's another math lesson there, involving sponsors that want halos.