Sheryl Swoopes won an NCAA championship, three Olympic gold medals and four WNBA championships, but the star isn’t planning to rest on any laurels. Off-court business and marketing opportunities in women’s basketball are growing. Swoopes is helping to drive that even more, hosting the ACES Elite Classic All-American high school women’s game this week.
As the ACES Elite Classic hosts its men’s and women’s events on May 22 at Gaucho’s Gym in the Bronx, it enters its fifth year of both showcasing top high school basketball players and allowing them to interact with representatives from Google Pixel, Jordan Brand and Swoopes’ longtime supporters at Nike—the event’s official uniform and footwear partner. Founded by international basketball player, NBA D-League draftee, New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets tryout, and, eventually, Rucker Park Entertainers League scoring champion Brian Kortovich (aka Smokin’ Aces), ACES teamed with Swoopes to build on the event, apparel, media and social channels its sports-and-culture platform offers young players.
“It’s special to be able to give back and have these kids be seen on the media side, on the streaming side and also the business side,” Kortovich said. “That’s why these kids are coming, because of NIL opportunities as well: If we can put them in the same room and have them get additional opportunities off the court, that’s where this game is heading.”
Related video
Deloitte predicts that revenue generated by women’s elite sports will hit $1.28 billion this year—surpassing $1 billion for the first time. A joint 2023 study by RBC and Wasserman’s women-focused practice, The Collective, found that 54% of women’s sports fans are more aware of sponsors than fans of men’s sports, while 45% are more willing to consider purchasing from sponsor brands.
And Swoopes knows how to navigate the brand space.
Now an announcer for the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, Swoopes’ on-court experience landed her in the Basketball Hall of Fame, leading to her coaching at Loyola-Chicago and her alma mater Texas Tech. But her Nike Air Swoopes—the first signature shoe in women’s basketball history that yielded seven editions from 1995 through 2001—foreshadowed the current women’s basketball economy.
“When I was in college, it wasn’t what it is today—I was just so thrilled and excited that a brand like Nike saw something in me that they were willing to put dollars behind me and give me my own shoe,” Swoopes said. “That, in itself, was pressure: Not the money part, but a brand taking a chance on little old me from a very small town … that’s pressure for me to perform, to continue to do the things that made them interested in me in the beginning.”