DETROIT, MICHIGAN – MARCH 20: Aaron Nesmith #23 of the Indiana Pacers looks on against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena on March 20, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
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INDIANAPOLIS – When it came to the current landscape of social media, three NBA players had enough. Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, and Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard realized that while athletes are dominant forces anywhere they post content, platforms owned by others got the benefits.
That’s how the idea for Off Court came to be. Nesmith’s college roommate at Vanderbilt, Mac Hunt – who also played on the basketball team with Nesmith and Garland – and Kevin Fee came up with the concept when thinking about how established social media outlets get all the upside from athletes posting on their platforms. The engagement, the money, and the analytics weren’t going to players despite them driving traffic.
What are the players doing about it?
Insert Off Court, a basketball-centric community that players themselves own and operate. Nesmith and Garland quickly jumped in after connecting with Hunt about the idea. Pritchard, a former teammate of Nesmith, joined soon after.
“In basketball, players have always been the culture,” Nesmith said. “Now we finally own the platform too.”
Players often share behind the scenes moments on social media. Between working out in the offseason, photos from in-game moments, highlights, and even personal-life snapshots, pro athletes are prominent voices on social media platforms – especially ones with video components like TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram.
Off Court wants to help players get the value their content generates and benefit from it. Basketball players are the starting point. Their impact across several industries – fashion, sneakers, music, gaming, and many more – can all come together in a hoops-centric space and media platform.
Hunt’s vision is that in today’s creator-driven economy, fans go where players are. If the athletes are on Off Court, their fans will follow. “Players fuel the game, but they’ve never owned the tools to build with it, That’s the contradiction we’re fixing,” Hunt explained. “These athletes are global brands, driving billions in engagement for Big Tech without sharing in the upside.”
On other platforms, players have no control over ads. Off Court hopes to solve that issue, among other problems athletes face with traditional social media platforms. Hunt hopes that it will combine the best parts of Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Patreon without feeling so much like it’s managed or standardized by a major corporation.
Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith (23) jogs down the court after making a shot during the first half of an NBA basketball preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
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The platform for athletes, which will start with just basketball players, is what they hope social media can be for them – connection with fans, but more on their terms. They offer many benefits to players, including but not limited to;
- Equity participation in the platform,
- Control over data, audience, and distribution,
- Revenue opportunities from ads and subscriptions,
- Tools to share exclusive content, vlogs, podcasts, and lifestyle stories and,
- Integrated merch drops and direct-to-fan commerce.
Fans, the audience, will benefit from more exclusive access to their favorite athletes. It will feel more authentic and direct. There will be ways to support their favorite players, too, along with what Hunt hopes is a signal-over-noise experience that centers on basketball. It’s not going to be just another social media feed, but more a homeplace for basketball.
Off Court will launch with early access later this week, and they’ll begin bringing in WNBA athletes soon after to pair with the NBA talents. The rest of 2025 will be about expansion and helping players turn their digital presence into sustainable income and deeper community. More features will be added throughout the year.
“For years, our posts built someone else’s business,” Garland explained. “On Off Court, every post builds equity for us. We own what we create.”
Basketball is the primary focus at launch. But Nesmith, one of the NBA’s emerging young talents who averaged 12 points per game last season on an Indiana team that reached the NBA Finals, sees plenty of opportunities for expansion into other major sports in the future. “The dream is definitely for Off Court to grow beyond basketball. [To] become Off Ice, Off Field, Off Pitch, etcetera,” he shared. “Basketball is just such a huge driver of culture that it made the most sense to start in, and stay in, that niche for now. Kids want to dress like us, move like us, and look up to us the most on social media platforms more so than other sports. Even Adam Silver said the NBA is a media clip league. And it’s [the sport] we know best.”
The 26-year old Pacers wing believes in the vision. That’s why he became a founder in the first place, he trusts that Off Court can be a special product for both players and fans. “This is not my only financial investment, but certainly my biggest,” he said. “I’m a big believer in the potential of this company and where this app can go. It has the opportunity to open so many doors for athletes across the world.” That vision will kick off soon when the app launches on Friday. To learn more about the platform then, visit offcourt.io.