Shortly after Jackson Family Wines announced an official partnership between its Kendall-Jackson and La Crema brands and the NBA, WNBA and USA Basketball, it revealed that Naismith Memorial Basketball hall of famer and ESPN Andscape senior writer Marc Spears would serve as its NBA partnership ambassador.
Spears, a Bay Area native, has covered the NBA for 25 years, including time with The Denver Post, The Boston Globe and Yahoo Sports, before joining ESPN in 2015. He has won numerous awards for his work, known for its in-depth exploration of the intersection between race, sports and culture.
Spears also served as co-host and executive producer of The Conversations Project, an unscripted dinner party series produced for Hulu that highlights Black-owned wineries. Most recently, he covered basketball during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A longtime wine lover who regularly visits wineries in Sonoma, Napa and Paso Robles as well as Oregon, Spears has observed the NBA community's growing enthusiasm for wine in recent years. Recently, Spears sat down with senior editor Aaron Romano to discuss his Olympic experience, Kendall-Jackson's partnership, how the NBA has formed such an intimate connection with wine and how it has evolved over the years, and how NBA stars' interest in wine trickles down to their fans.
You were in Paris for the Olympics. How was that experience? Were you able to enjoy some nice wines while you were there?
First of all, I'll say to all Americans: The Olympics are here in 2028. Go! I met people from all over the world. The Olympic vibe, being around that, is just a unique opportunity that everybody should experience.
I was writing primarily about basketball, but it was wide-ranging, not just USA men's and women's basketball. I did a story about the Nigerian women's team. I went to Rudy Gobert's hometown, Saint-Quentin. I talked to Dennis Schröder about being a black German holding the flag during opening ceremonies. But I did sneak away to see Noah Lyles run the 100-[yard dash]. I've been to the NBA Finals, Super Bowl, Final Four, World Series; that's right up there. Seeing the 100 at the Olympics ... incredible!
I stayed an extra 10 days and went to Champagne and Bordeaux for a day. I'm more of a Bordeaux fan now than I was. I'm mad that I didn't stay there a couple of days, but I just love France.
What is the significance of the NBA and Kendall-Jackson partnership?
To see CJ McCollum start his own brand, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony—you know, Carmelo will laugh at this, but I feel like I influenced him to get into wine! NBA players love wine. You'll see LeBron James come to a game holding a glass of wine.
I think it was brilliant for Kendall-Jackson to see that connection and get that marriage. I've been told there will be some team partnerships in the future, and Kendall-Jackson might have some interesting branded stuff in the future to attract NBA fans to buy more wine. Adding more through individual teams will bring it down to the average consumer who's attending games. There were [already] some product placements during the NBA finals and some parties at the games, with suites and concessions.
How did you become an ambassador?
I've known Darrin May, a former Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings media relations director, for 20-plus years, and he was very aware of my background in wine. He recommended me to Bill O'Connor (executive vice president and chief sales officer at Jackson Family Wines). I met with Bill and other executives at Kendall-Jackson, and they ended up bringing me on. I think they saw that I could help bridge the gap between them and the elite stars of the league, current and former.
I'm extremely honored to be part of it. I've gotten to know the Jackson family. They've treated me like family from the moment I walked in.
What does your ambassador role entail?
I've been hosting these amazing wine dinners. The first one was in Boston, with [the Celtics’] Kendrick Perkins celebrating the [team's] 2008 championship during this year's NBA finals. We brought out some incredible wines from 2008. And then, during the Dallas portion, [the Mavericks’] Dirk Nowitzki came, and we celebrated their 2011 championship with an amazing wine dinner with 2011 wines.
We did one with WNBA all-star Candace Parker. We also did a luncheon during the USA Basketball training camp in Las Vegas with Carlos Boozer, hall of famer Tim Hardaway and hall of famer Spencer Haywood [with corresponding vintages for their Olympic medal years]. If you could have seen Spencer Haywood's face when they brought out a 1968 bottle of Freemark Abbey. He was just so honored, pleased and surprised to hold a bottle from such a meaningful year.
The thing now is education. Anybody who's a novice to wine could be intimidated. Where do I go? What do I spend? How do I dress? Friends ask me all those kinds of questions. That's one thing I'm hoping to show people through these dinners: It's a vibe, an experience; every winery has a story.
When and how did you develop an interest in wine?
I grew up in San Jose, and anytime my parents had get-togethers, they would go to Mirassou. I remember wanting to go anytime they went so I could smell it—like the smell of wine in a barrel room. I just fell in love with it as a kid, even though I didn't even get to drink it. The first wine I tasted was probably [when I was] around 10 years old. I got to put it on my tongue and taste it.
I graduated from San Jose State in 1995, and for the first 14 years of my career, I was all over the country. Until I got back in 2009, wine felt like home. I remember going to some hole-in-the-wall bar in Denver, where all they had was boxed wine. I went ahead and had a glass of box wine!
Once I got back, I started meeting wine people, like my guy John Hamilton, a former NBA agent. He's big in the Napa wine culture. And I just kept making friend after friend in the wine industry, and anytime somebody said [to] go visit something, I would go.
How have wine and basketball intertwined and evolved over the years?
[For] the American NBA player, probably around 2015, that's when it started catching steam. European guys, or a guy like PJ Tucker—longtime journeyman—he knew wine because he played overseas. He kind of laughed at this [new] American swoon over wine!
It's evolving fast right now. I feel like every couple of months, another NBA star has their own wine. Not that they don't have tequila and whiskeys, but wine is the No. 1 thing I see NBA players associating themselves with right now. The fact that the USA [men’s] basketball team wanted American wines and the Kendall-Jackson wines they had at their hotels and on the planes before they came to France spoke volumes. I didn't hear them saying they needed more vodka or more beer. They wanted high-caliber wine.
Quietly, though, people are starting to know NBA players have these wine parties where they're trying to outdo each other to see who could bring the most delicious, exotic, rare wine. Everything they do is competitive—you had wine at a party that beat LeBron, Draymond [Green] or Dwyane Wade? It's funny that they use wine to compete against each other, but they find people who can find them the rarest of bottles.
Do you expect to see more NBA players have their own brands, and do you think they will have staying power?
Dwyane Wade certainly has a passion, and CJ [McCollum] has a passion. I mean, these are the best athletes in the world. The same mentality they put into playing in a game, preparing for a game and working on their game is the same mentality they're putting into this, because if their wine is bad, their name is on it. I don't think they want to have Two-Buck Chuck; they want something that's, in their mind, a hall of fame–type of wine.
NBA star players undoubtedly influence culture. How does their interest in wine trickle down to their fans?
When you see that an NBA star wears a certain shoe, or certain clothes, or hawks a certain brand, you'll start paying attention. There seems to be an urgency for the wine industry to try to get the younger generation to fall in love with wine. And when you see LeBron, Steph, CJ,—you know, all these different people—drinking wine, and you're a young NBA fan of age, you're probably going to give it a chance because your hero is drinking it, right?
We're in the first quarter of the younger generation starting to get educated on it and what this growth will be like. I'm excited to see younger players starting to get into it. I think it's inevitable that they end up at these competitive dinners. The young guys are really curious, especially when they see what the legends are doing.
