Jordan Clarkson wasn’t worried about being traded at this year’s deadline. While many trade candidates were likely spending the morning anxiously watching their phones, Clarkson was taking a nap on his couch, according to David Aldridge of NBA.com. He missed the initial phone call from Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson and didn’t find out he had been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers until he woke up and called Pelinka and Johnson back.
Clarkson wasn’t the only one caught off guard by news of the deal. In trendy Brooklyn neighborhood Dumbo, in a conspicuous building with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge, the editorial team for on-the-rise media company Cycle sat, considering their options.
They had recently finished wrapping up footage for the fifth and final episode of season one of In the Zone, a video series comprised of mini-documentaries that gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the game-day routines of professional athletes.
In the season finale, titled Jordan Clarkson’s Pre-Game Roasts, the team at Cycle had followed Clarkson around. He had been open with them about how much he enjoyed being a Laker. He had gone into detail about which teammates he was closest with (Tyler Ennis, Brandon Ingram, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Corey Brewer) and the sort of jokes and camaraderie that existed amongst himself and his Laker teammates (like telling Lonzo Ball that former Lakers, now Nets, guard D’Angelo Russell had called them the night before they played Brooklyn to say he was going to give Ball 40 points).
Cycle had found Clarkson a terrific subject to film, and they looked forward to releasing the video. Cycle Chief Marketing Officer Mike Mikho told Def Pen Hoops in a phone interview that Clarkson was “great to work with” and “really natural on camera and very open about the entire process.”
Suddenly, midway through the video-editing process, Clarkson had been traded. Mikho told Def Pen Hoops that Clarkson and his team were “very supportive” and showed no hesitation at all about the video being released after the trade.
That decision wasn’t solely up to Clarkson’s team, of course. Cycle strives to be a cutting-edge, innovative media company at the forefront of the field and claims to abide by one goal: “inspire through culture.” Thus, Cycle is only interested in releasing content to its more-than-substantial viewership if that content is irrefutably relevant.
“We’re always very thoughtful that the content we’re creating is relevant for our audience at any particular time,” Mikho said. “And we thought that Jordan was as relevant as ever, and playing great and playing on a contending team, and we thought that his fans, old and new, would appreciate the content.”
Mikho further believed in the relevance of this episode because the change of scenery does not change who Clarkson is as a person, and In the Zone is about capturing the personality of the athlete. Mikho added: “The series was never about how a player thinks about his team or a certain game. It was about how a player mentally prepares to perform at the highest level, and that doesn’t change based on the jersey you’re putting on.”
Cycle was soon proven correct. The episode performed exceedingly well; the view tally for the episode has surpassed 818,000 on the Facebook Watch platform where it is exclusively found, and Facebook users have shared the video over 1,500 times. The popularity of the episode is perhaps indicative that Clarkson being traded during the editing of the episode drew in more viewers.
The episode has well outperformed the three before it. Only the show’s pilot episode, Alvin Kamara’s Pre-Game Process, which focused on the New Orleans Saints’ Pro-Bowl rookie running back, has been viewed more times than the Clarkson episode. And the Clarkson episode is rapidly closing that gap.
Mikho wishes that Cycle had been able to speak to Clarkson again, later on, not just because he’s donning a different jersey, but because, as Mikho noted, “he’s on fire right now.”
Clarkson has indeed impressed since his move to Cleveland. LeBron James has been the only Cavalier to outscore him through Clarkson’s nine games wearing the wine and gold, despite Clarkson having played fewer minutes per game than four other Cavs players. Since the trade, Clarkson has averaged 13.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in just 21.9 minutes per game.
The most impressive part of Clarkson’s performance has been his efficiency; since the trade, he’s shot 50.5 percent from the floor and 37.8 percent from 3-point range, well exceeding his respective career averages of 44.4 percent and 33.4 percent.
It’s a small sample size, but Clarkson is shooting better from every spot on the floor (he’s shooting career-best marks at the rim, from the midrange and from beyond the arc, per Cleaning the Glass) and drawing fouls more frequently; he’s playing better basketball in just about every sense.
It has only been nine games, but it looks like Cleveland was a perfect landing spot for Clarkson, at least from a basketball standpoint.
As for Cycle, the company is proud of Clarkson’s success and is pleased with how well the episode, and season one of In the Zone as a whole, has done.
It’s not just In the Zone. Cycle has a variety of shows, including How I Blew Up, which featured musical artist Khalid in its debut episode; Season One, which follows soon-to-be NBA players through the pre-draft process; and Buckets, starring Rob Perez and ESPN’s Cassidy Hubbarth.
Mikho said that what Cycle learned from creating season one of In the Zone is helping the company in its other endeavors: “We’re using some of the learnings from In the Zone to inform not just season two of In the Zone, but the rest of the original programming that we have… All of this just allows us to think more thoughtfully about what we’re doing and how we reach people.”
Season two of In the Zone is already being planned, Mikho said: “We’re currently talking to some really exciting brand partners about sponsoring a second season.” Facebook bought the exclusivity rights for season one, but season two will be featured on multiple platforms (it will still appear on Facebook Watch). “Given the success of [season one], we’re now talking to a couple different brands across categories about how they can align with the talent and the storytelling.”
Cycle has “quite a few” new In the Zone episodes in the works, Mikho said. He couldn’t reveal who would be featured in season two but said there would be “some really big-name talent across multiple sports.”
Jordan Clarkson and Cycle have at least one thing in common: Both are young, talented and hungry to prove themselves to both their peers and competitors.
