Sprite Is Back in the Game! Here's What We Know About Their New NBA Cans

This one is spicier than McDonald’s Sprite, y’all. Let’s start at the beginning: The Sprite NBA connection goes back a long time, all the way back to the late ’90s “Grant Hill Drinks Sprite” campaign. (Fun fact: Grant Hill is now a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks! This will become relevant.) In most of those ads, Sprite is cited as the “Official Soft Drink of the NBA“—a title the lemon-lime soda brand has held off-and-on ever since… until a few years ago.

Back in 2023, PepsiCo’s Sprite-alike Starry hit shelves and basketball courts in a major way. Starry snatched up that “Official Soft Drink of the NBA” status and the same title for the WNBA and NBA G League to boot. Starry ads can be found all over the league, including as the naming rights sponsor of All-Star Weekend’s Three-Point Contest. Until today, it seemed like Sprite was willingly ceding that territory.

So there’s a lot of Sprite NBA history. What’s the new promotion?

Sprite has just announced a very specific promotion: not with the NBA itself, but with 17 individual teams (plus eight star players from the “Unrivaled” 3v3 women’s league). Yes, Sprite found a way to continue their close association with basketball by working with over half the teams in the league without invoking the NBA itself. Rest assured, Starry will fire back… a few pithy responses on social media. Genuinely, I’m not sure how Starry will respond to this news; being “the Official Soft Drink of the NBA” is all well and good, but Sprite is actually working with the parts of the NBA that people like: teams and players.

Which teams and players will be on these new Sprite NBA packs and cans?

From now through the end of March, fans in the regions surrounding the following teams will be able to find team-branded 12-packs of full-sugar Sprite: Grant Hill’s Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trailblazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, and Washington Wizards. (As an old soda commercial enjoyer, I just think it’s fun that Grant Hill is working with Sprite again on something besides a sneaker.)

Beyond those regions, cans featuring the following Unrivaled players will be available across the Northeast, Las Vegas, and Florida: Lexie Hull, Brittney Sykes, Skyler Diggins, Kate Martin, Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard, and Unrivaled founders Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.