*By Michael Teich*
The legendary Michael Jordan and his six NBA championship rings turned the Chicago Bulls into an iconic brand in the 1990s, but dynamic content paired with exciting new talent will power the brand in a post-Jordan era, said the team's VP of business strategy and analytics Matt Kobe.
"Jordan and the 90s Bulls did a lot for our brand globally," Kobe said Friday in an interview on Cheddar. But "two years ago we won social media team of the year with the SportsBusiness Journal Awards. We won that not because of our content from the court, it was the content with our sponsors."
Warby Parker rival Zenni Optical is betting that an affiliation with the Chicago Bulls brand will help the eyewear company achieve international growth.
While Chicago is a vital demographic for Zenni, the opportunity transcends state lines, Kobe said.
"Chicago is obviously the #3 media market in the country, we have over 1 million customers in that market already," Kobe said. "But the Bulls brand is iconic and global. And it's an opportunity to introduce the Zenni offering not only domestically, but internationally."
The Chicago Bulls are the 26th NBA team to ink a deal with a sponsor for jersey patch space. The league is in its second season of a three-year jersey patch pilot program. The only remaining teams without a deal are the Indiana Pacers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Washington Wizards.
Kobe declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal.
With a $2.6 billion valuation, according to Forbes, the Chicago Bulls are the fourth most valuable franchise in the NBA. The team trails only the New York Knicks, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Golden State Warriors.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/chicago-bulls-ink-jersey-patch-deal-with-zenni-optical).
Kayla McDonald, 19, a budding collegiate gymnast, is paving her own path and doing it with some history tacked along.
Cheddar News checks in on what to look out for on The Day Ahead. March Madness continues with the remaining Sweet 16 teams in the tournament while 'John Wick 4' makes its debut in theaters nationwide.
Willis Reed, who dramatically emerged from the locker room minutes before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals to spark the New York Knicks to their first championship and create one of sports’ most enduring examples of playing through pain, has died. He was 80.
Shohei Ohtani emerged from the bullpen and fanned Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout for the final out in a matchup the whole baseball world wanted to see, leading Japan over the defending champion United States 3-2 for its first World Baseball Classic title since 2009.
No. 1 seed Indiana Hoosiers have been eliminated from the March Madness women's tournament.
Fanatics is now the official jersey supplier of the National Hockey League, replacing Adidas, and the deal will kick off in the 2024-2025 season.
The NCAA men's tournament is down to the Sweet 16, which kicks off on Thursday.
Trea Turner, Paul Goldschmidt and an unrelenting U.S. lineup kept putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard, a dynamic display of the huge gap between an American team of major leaguers and Cubans struggling on the world stage as top players have left the island nation.
The top four seeds in the tournament were given to South Carolina, Indiana, Virginia Tech and Stanford — and the Cardinal was the first to bow out.
March Madness is heading to the Sweet 16 without a handful of top teams. Two No. 1 seeds, Kansas and Purdue, No. 2 seed Arizona and No. 4 seed Virginia are all gone — and gone with them are millions of busted brackets.
