You know those behind-the-scenes Unrivaled moments that end up all over your feed? The Sephora tunnel looks, the player reactions, and the on-the-court action that makes you feel like you actually know these athletes (or you’re actually at the game)?
Well, there’s a reason why all of their content is so fire. But hardly anyone is thinking about who’s actually behind the screen when they double-tap.
That’s about to change.
Unrivaled spent its first season doing things differently, and a big part of that was the social media specialists creating content courtside with Samsung Galaxy phones. Unrivaled calls them ‘platform specialists,’ and they’re trusted enough by players that the content never feels forced.
Now heading into season two, Samsung is making it official. The tech giant just signed Unrivaled’s social media team to its roster as the Galaxy Courtside Crew, complete with custom jackets designed by LaQuan Smith.
Yeah, you read that correctly. That LaQuan Smith (the designer who dresses Beyoncé and Kamala Harris) just made bomber jackets for social media specialists.
“There’s six players on each club, but we call our Courtside Crew members the seventh man,” says Chloe Pavlech, Unrivaled’s Chief Growth Officer. “It’s the fact that they too are a part of our basketball clubs, right? How the players treat them, how the coaches treat them.”
These 40 crew members are why Unrivaled’s content feels unfiltered. They’re capturing hundreds of hours of footage, but they’re not just shoving phones in people’s faces.
“We want you to feel comfortable,” Pavlech explains. “And with our Courtside Crew, they were able to ask our athletes, ‘Hey, what content do you want to create through this Samsung Galaxy technology?’ And we’re able to take that feedback and then bring it to life.”
You can see the impact immediately. Unrivaled fans—who the league calls “cousins”—have started recognizing individual Courtside Crew members. “A lot of our Courtside Crew said fans wanted to take pictures with them because of just how much they liked the jackets and realized, oh my God, the reason why I get to know my favorite player on a deeper level is because of the content you’re bringing to life through the Samsung Galaxy technology,” Pavlech says.
When Samsung approached LaQuan Smith about designing the jackets, they gave him complete creative control. He looked through Unrivaled’s social content and told them: “I’m not just going to make y’all any jackets, I want to give you guys something bold, something that also represents your content.”
What came out of that freedom were bomber jackets with rich textures and bold color. They’re unmistakably LaQuan Smith even though this isn’t the sexy silhouette he’s famous for.
“I just wanted to create something that felt really rich with textures and colors and represent LaQuan Smith from a sportswear perspective,” he says. “I’m literally watching it play out in real time. Everyone is so damn excited to have these jackets. And I love how the crew is incorporating it with their own personal style.”
Smith saw it as more than just another collaboration. In fashion, the designer gets all the attention while everyone else stays invisible. “We’re spotlighting everyone,” Smith says. “There’s so many creative people on the team. There’s so many amazing designers and just innovators.”
“The coolest part about this collaboration with LaQuan Smith was the fact that we gave him full autonomy,” Pavlech says. “He’s an expert in that space. We want him to go crazy.”
Samsung’s investment in Unrivaled goes deeper than just the jackets. This season, Galaxy wearables are being used in training to track everything from heart rate to movement. Coaches and training staff are also using Galaxy tablets to access player data in real-time.
The fan experience is getting upgraded too. Innovations like the Instant Slow-mo on the Galaxy S25 Ultra are giving fans access to the day’s top plays through social and broadcast content like the Galaxy Game Winner and the Galaxy Game View.
But it’s the decision to officially recognize the content creators (to sign them to the roster, give them custom jackets) that feels most significant. “They’ve set our league apart from anyone else, and they’ve also just helped us set trends that other people want to follow,” Pavlech says.
When the crew heard LaQuan Smith was designing their jackets, they were excited. “They were like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m wearing that jacket.’ So excited. And they all know who he is too,” Pavlech says.
Fans will be able to buy the jackets too. “The Courtside Crew jackets will be available for them to purchase, which I think is really cool,” Pavlech says. “So they can also be down with the crew.”
The Samsung Galaxy technology itself is doing serious lifting. Pavlech points out that even Unrivaled’s highly produced content often comes from Samsung phones. When people watch games at home, they sometimes can’t tell that certain broadcast footage was shot on a phone. “That’s just how good the technology is and how advanced it is that it feels like not just any other camera, but the best camera.”
Looking ahead, Pavlech says the focus will keep expanding on giving fans real access to player personalities. “If you can imagine growing up and following your favorite musician, your favorite athlete, you got to see the level that they perform at on a nightly basis or on a monthly basis. But what you never really got to see is full access to them, right? Their personalities, what they like, what they don’t like, how they evolve and grow out of time.”
For LaQuan Smith, being part of this moment connected to something bigger. “If we’re living in such crazy times, we’re almost at war, now is the time to really push projects and opportunities and things that really give people a sense of hope and optimism,” he says.
The jackets have already made their courtside debut. Smith’s been watching crew members style them their own way. For a designer who’s built his career on dressing powerful women, this project brought those ideas into a different space.
“There’s a sense of unification that’s happening here,” Smith says. “We’re all unified through one particular way or another, but that one little ingredient is creation, it is creativity.”