Big Sean and the Pistons: From Sport Globalization to Internationalization

The Detroit Pistons are inviting artists and designers from around the world to collaborate on original work inspired by Detroit basketball and culture.

It's called Creatives Across Continents.

Participants receive creative direction from Big Sean and develop designs for a collaborative retail collection scheduled to launch in 2026. Rather than positioning global audiences as passive consumers, the initiative brings international creatives into the Pistons' ecosystem as producers, storytellers, and collaborators.

Creatives Across Continents is relationship-building and diplomacy through athletics & the arts.

Leading this work is Big Sean, recently appointed as the Pistons' Creative Director of Global Experience. His role extends into community engagement and global fan development, positioning culture as a primary vehicle for how Pistons Basketball expands to new audiences worldwide. It will be a cornerstone within the Pistons' broader global fan growth strategy, which has already made moves through international initiatives like recent engagement in Mexico as participants of the NBA's Mexico City Game.

This is not a branding play.

It is an institutional decision – a decision that reflects a deeper shift in how sport is beginning to understand culture, power, and global engagement.

It is natural to think of the Pistons simply as a basketball team or sports organization. But long-standing franchises like the Pistons function as institutions. Institutions outlast individual players, coaches, and executives. They shape how cities are understood. They carry cultural meaning far beyond competition.

When institutions make decisions about culture, those choices matter.

Big Sean's expanded role reflects a deliberate use of culture as infrastructure.

Let's walk.

Image Credit: NBA

Whether you have ever visited Detroit or not, you know of Detroit.

Motor City. Buffs. Motown. Wayne Gretzky. Detroit style pizza. Barry Sanders. What up doe?

Global familiarity creates pull.

In November 2025, a Pistons fan from South Korea who had followed the team for 15 years traveled more than 6,000 miles to Detroit to watch them play at Little Caesars Arena. For over a decade, he consumed Detroit culture from afar through broadcasts and social media. But when he arrived in Wayne County and began learning about the city's history, its people, and its culture firsthand, something shifted.

He wasn't just receiving Detroit anymore. He was engaging with it.

The City of Detroit invited him to their office. The Detroit Lions made him a custom jersey. Detroiters even had him try on buffs.

Because of his passion and curiosity for the city, folks started calling him an ambassador for Detroit – a form of sport diplomacy.

For decades, sport organizations have benefited from this kind of organic global access.

Culture travels. Fans choose their teams. Mobility ensues. Institutions reap the benefits.

Global presence arrives first through connection. Strategy, if it comes at all, arrives later.

This same dynamic has played out through artists who are deeply tied to their hometown teams.

Saweetie and the 49ers.

Quavo with the Hawks and Falcons.

LaRussell and the Giants.

Black and Yellow! Black and Yellow!

Drake was named the Toronto Raptors' global ambassador back in 2013. But he was not in the front office like Big Sean.

Former Raptors GM Masai Ujiri and Drake. (Image Credit: Darren Calabrese/CP)

Each artist has undeniably expanded the cultural visibility of their teams. Their music (even theme songs!), identity, and public loyalty connected global audiences to specific cities.

Tickets sold. Merch was bought. Fandom surged.

But global engagement was not governed, resourced, nor treated as institutional work.

Big Sean's role marks a new era.

The Pistons are not relying on cultural proximity or celebrity adjacency alone. They are making an explicit institutional choice to align global engagement, creative production, and brand identity under a defined leadership role with real responsibilities. This alignment calls out a development in how sport organizations are beginning to think about internationalization as a practice and core to who they are becoming.

Pistons EVP and Chief Marketing Officer Alicia Jeffreys explains:

"Big Sean's influence reaches far beyond music – he's a global creative visionary who already brings Detroit wherever he goes. As Creative Director of Global Experience he brings authenticity, reach and imagination to the Pistons brand. 'Creatives Across Continents' is the next step in introducing Detroit Basketball to the world, and we couldn't imagine a better partner to lead that vision."

Big Sean himself frames the work as stewardship and responsibility:

"It's been an honor to serve the Pistons community, and stepping into this expanded role as Creative Director of Global Experience allows me to do it on an even bigger scale. Detroit has always been rich with talent and culture, and my mission is to keep opening doors and hiring our city's creatives to shine alongside one of the most iconic franchises in sports. I'm grateful to the Pistons for trusting me to help define what the culture of Detroit Basketball really means."

Image Credit: Boardroom

Globalization is what happens when influence, culture, and capital move across borders on their own.

Internationalization, by contrast, is intentional.

Detroit has long been a cultural exporter. Its influence in music, fashion, design, and Black global culture has traveled internationally for decades, often without institutional stewardship.

Positioning Big Sean in this role acknowledges that Detroit's story is already global and sharing Detroit's story requires intention, structure, and care.

The NBA has been global for a very long time.

Players come from every region of the globe.

Competitions are hosted in non-U.S. countries.

What is new here is not reach or activations.

It is structure.

Big Sean is proof that a sport is choosing to internationalize on purpose.

"I put the city on my back / so that way if I fall, I'm crowd surfing the map."

If you want to go global, make it personal.

It's happening. We walking!

TFB

Walk With TFB. Walk With TFB specializes in international athlete development and sport internationalization. We support international athletes throughout their journey, from recruitment through career readiness, and help institutions develop comprehensive strategies for global engagement. If your athletic department or institution is navigating the complexities of international recruitment, compliance, athlete support, or building global partnerships, we can help. For more information, email Walk With TFB@gmail.com