Good morning. Today, Coca-Cola puts Sprite back on the court.

Coca-Cola’s Sprite is once again the official soft drink of the NBA, taking over from PepsiCo’s rival lemon-lime brand Starry, Katie Deighton reports for the WSJ Leadership Institute.

Sprite was the league’s soda sponsor from 1994 through 2015, going back to “Grant Hill Drinks Sprite” and the original “Obey Your Thirst” campaign.

Coke once called an NBA renewal an unofficial 100-year pact as the NBA’s then-CMO said, “We don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be in business forever.” 

The actual deal terms were considerably shorter, though, and PepsiCo took over in 2015.

A lot has changed since Sprite’s first run.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver may not have meant exactly what it sounded like last September when he called pro basketball “very much a highlights-based sport,” but he wasn’t wrong for a lot of fans.

They get highlights, takes and memes all day from accounts like @houseofhighlights, @nbamemes and @hoopsforhotties throughout the day. They listen to hours of analysis and interviews on podcasts like “The Lowe Post,” “All The Smoke” and “The Draymond Green Show.”

They just might not watch that many games on TV before the Playoffs start. I personally am guilty here, even as a Knicks fan who’s cautiously excited about the Brunson era.

(Here’s one way to stump even a decently knowledgeable, casual NBA fan: Ask which network or streaming service has the national games that night.)

Katie tells me that Sprite’s new deal includes a presence for Sprite in NBA social channels, of course, in addition to broadcasts, courtside signs and other elements.

Coke also aims to capitalize on the NBA’s vastly expanded international popularity.

More than 75% of the NBA’s social media followers are from outside of the U.S., according to the league.

More NBA (literally): The league’s board of governors will vote next week on whether to officially begin exploring adding teams in Las Vegas and Seattle that would start playing  as soon as 2028. [ESPN]

You would think Tesla’s biggest challenges building and selling driverless Cybercabs, the new model with no steering wheel or pedals, would be technological or cultural. And maybe they will be.

But first there’s also a trademark fight with a beverage wholesaler based in the French Island of Corsica, Becky Peterson reports for the Journal.

Unibev applied to trademark “Cybercab” in France in April 2024, six days after Tesla CEO Elon Musk first uttered the term in public and nearly six months before the automaker filed its own trademark application in the U.S.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has told Tesla that Unibev’s French application gave it priority under international trademark law.

Now the companies are preparing to go to trial before the Patent Office, which could make a decision as late as 2027.

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