Undergraduate - Communications, Marketing and PR Intern

Location: New York, USA

WORK OPTION: The NBA currently provides eligible employees the option of working remotely one day per week.

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Position Summary

The 2027 NBA Summer Internship is a 10-week program that runs from June 7 – August 13, 2027. The program gives participants the opportunity to learn about the business of basketball, develop critical career skills, and contribute to meaningful projects across a range of departments in the NBA and its affiliate leagues (WNBA & G League). In addition to on-the-job experience, interns are invited to participate in a broad array of professional development programming as well as community and social experiences.

The program prioritizes rising seniors, with limited exceptions for graduate students, based on business need.

Interns should reflect excellent academic standing and have strong written and verbal communication skills. Additionally, we look for candidates who possess leadership skills as demonstrated through relevant extracurricular or community activities.

More information on the Summer Internship program experience can be found here.

Role Overview

Selected interns will support internal and external communications, PR, and marketing initiatives across the NBA, WNBA, and NBA G League.

Past interns have worked across a range of departments including:

Communications, which is comprised of five subgroups. Basketball Communications manages basketball media relations and institutes and enforces media policy and procedures for the leagues and the teams while overseeing media operations for all major events. Basketball Communications’ Editorial group creates content highlighting the game for dissemination to the media. Business and International Communications leads communications strategy and media relations for the NBA's business and global operations, covering partnerships, marketing, media, direct-to-consumer, social impact, government affairs, entertainment/celebrity initiatives, and international growth. Response Management monitors and analyzes media coverage and commentary, identifies issues impacting the NBA and its affiliated leagues, and develops communications responses on priority matters. Strategic Communications oversees league messaging and fan correspondence, leads internal communications and outreach to key league constituents, and manages the league’s fan relations function.  WNBA Communications, also part of the NBA Communications department, oversees business and basketball communications for the NBA’s thirty-year-old women’s league.

Content, which develops, produces, and distributes digital and sports content across the NBA, WNBA, and NBA G League. The team also manages the league's premier global events, including All-Star, the Draft, the Playoffs and the Finals.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC), which is centered around creating best-in-class digital and broadcast experiences for NBA fans. This includes our direct-to-consumer product offerings (such as the NBA App), various digital subscriber acquisition strategies including NBA ID (a membership program to reward fans), and the technology that powers digital operations and live game broadcast distribution (such as the Replay Center technology).

Fan Engagement, which is responsible for understanding and deepening fan relationships and driving business growth by personalizing experiences across the NBA ecosystem. The group integrates data strategy and analytics, consumer and fan insights, and marketing strategy to increase engagement across NBA platforms and products. Fan Engagement supports fan-facing functions across the NBA ecosystem including content, digital product, partnerships, ticketing, and merchandise, and works across the entire family of leagues and in support of the NBA and WNBA teams.

These roles require interns to demonstrate a foundational mastery of AI technologies in driving project execution and achieving business objectives.

Major Responsibilities

May include, but not limited to

Supporting marketing and strategic communications for NBA Draft, NBA Finals, NBA Summer League, and other company-facing media initiatives

Supporting the league’s Fan Engagement function by drafting and editing correspondence to fans who contact the NBA and all its affiliate leagues

Pitching innovative ideas aligned with current marketing objectives to group leadership

Creating fan engagement tracking reports to identify key issues, sentiment, and trends among fans

Conducting field research across key emerging industries, categories, international companies, and executives for relevancy and points of entry to identify new content strategies, technologies, and business opportunities

Contributing to the creation of daily internal news briefs for distribution to league and team executives

Assisting with internal communications initiatives, including the creation of employee spotlights and important company stories

Developing media plans and strategy for several different events across the WNBA season

Assisting with WNBA All-Star coordination and media pitching with lifestyles and local morning shows

Publishing press releases for multiple different functions of NBA and WNBA Communications including Events, Player Engagement, Social Responsibility, etc.

Required Education & Professional Experience

Enrolled in an undergraduate program and entering Senior year in the academic year following the internship

These roles are open to all but typically best suited for individuals in the following majors: Communications, English, Journalism, Marketing, Public Relations, Sports Management, or Sports Marketing

Preferred Skills & Knowledge Attributes

Strong writing and editing skills

Strong interpersonal skills

Solid editorial judgement

Experience with content publishing and factchecking

Brand investment in the NBA and affiliate leagues

Some experience with managing budgets

Facility and familiarity with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel