In September 2025, UNINTERRUPTED (LeBron James and Maverick Carter's storytelling company), the LeBron James Family Foundation (LJFF), and global hiring platform Indeed launched a national campaign championing skills-first hiring.
LeBron himself took an unconventional path — skipping college entirely to enter the NBA Draft straight out of high school. His career became proof that skills, work ethic, and talent are just as valuable as traditional credentials. But millions of job seekers face the opposite reality: their skills go unrecognized because they don't have the "right" degree or resume. This campaign was designed to change that by encouraging employers to re-tool the way they evaluate candidates — prioritizing life experience, character, and potential over traditional credentials like college degrees.
The model:
Athlete foundation influence and local programming + brand platform visibility workforce development infrastructure + powerful storytelling = systems-level change in hiring practices
How it worked:
As the brand partner in this collab, Indeed funded and produced a national commercial intended to position the platform as more progressive, insightful, and inclusive than its competitors. Narrated by Ernie Johnson Jr., the spot used LeBron's career as the lens to get hiring managers and employers thinking differently about their own recruitment practices:
What if James’ talent had gone unrecognized despite his skills? What if he was never noticed because he didn’t take a “traditional” path?
While the TV spot sparked curiosity and conversation via national broadcast and OTT platforms, UNINTERRUPTED also produced a four-part digital series — featuring LeBron, Tony Hawk, Teyana Taylor, Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), and Melody Ehsani — to reach Gen Z and Alpha audiences who consume most of their content on YouTube.
On the ground in Akron, where the LJFF’s I PROMISE program serves more than 1,600 students and their families, Indeed integrated its “Job Seeker Academy” platform and job-matching technology directly into the Foundation's workforce development programs. They also hosted in-person job events at House Three Thirty (the Foundation's community hub) with skills training and career development workshops, translating a major public narrative push (the commercials and digital video series) into real-life action.
Why it matters:
While we’re not sure which game first — the campaign idea or the strategic partnership — Indeed was the perfect collaborator for this because skills-first hiring is central to their platform's mission. By funding the campaign and integrating their technology into LJFF’s Akron programs, Indeed aligned their brand positioning with infrastructure that could deliver actual employment outcomes for 1,600+ families, and we’d bet they also gained a whole lot of new sports fans as users in general.
"We believe people should be hired for what they can do, not just their credentials," said James Whitemore, Indeed's CMO. "By teaming up with UNINTERRUPTED and the LeBron James Family Foundation, we're using the power of storytelling to highlight how lived experience and practical skills can lead to real career opportunities."
Everyone in this partnership achieved a clear win. LJFF community members received access to top-notch job-matching technology and employer networks. Indeed boosted credibility and fan reach through LeBron's authentic story and the Foundation's decade-plus track record. UNINTERRUPTED strengthened its reputation as a powerful storytelling force in the content world.
And as a whole, the partnership served as a powerful example of how athlete platforms can advocate for policy-level change while creating immediate, measurable impact at the local level.
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There’s more inspiration where this came from. Check out four of our other favorite sports and social impact collabs from 2025:
Previous:
Cash App, The Atlanta Dream, and nonprofit ForgiveCo partner to provide $10M in debt relief to local families
LA Dodgers Foundation, Up2Us Sports, and Americorps collab to train thousands of trauma-informed youth baseball coaches
Up next:
Comcast and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Foundation empower Ezra Frech’s nonprofit, Angel City Sports, to expand adaptive sports access in Southern California
Coming soon:
Dexcom builds an NIL network and mentorship platform for young athletes with Type 1 Diabetes