iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

NEW VIDEO: Sports broadcasts are moving beyond a better picture. Giant domes. Immersive headsets. Feeds that follow your favorite player. I explored (with @mikegolicjr.bsky.social!) the technology changing how we watch sports — and what this next leap could mean for fans. youtu.be/VI-v7SfUV2g

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

NEW VIDEO: 20 years ago, using analytics in sports got people laughed out of the room. Today, it's everywhere. The analytics revolution was built on finding what everyone else undervalued. But what happens when everyone values the same thing? Feat. @billbarnwell.com youtu.be/8UhhaNjHbmA

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

NEW VIDEO: College sports in 2026: — Boosters getting standing ovations during a coach introduction — Former NFL players try to return to college — Nick Saban goes on College GameDay to call for an act of Congress The war over college sports is coming to a head youtu.be/ym2sWsCWShc

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

NEW VIDEO: Tennis just posted its best business numbers ever -- record attendance, prize money and TV rights deals -- and yet still can't tell you who its biggest star is. Talked to former pro Chris Eubanks about the state of tennis youtu.be/jEpGuCTosM0

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

NEW VIDEO: Going to a sports stadium used to cost about the same as going to the movies. Now you can pay party at a private night club during the game, enter through a private door and never touch your actual seat. How that happened: t.co/pXaI3oeUmQ

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

NEW VIDEO: Steve Ballmer is accused of avoiding the salary cap by paying Kawhi Leonard outside his contract, according to Pablo Torre. But this story is really about what happens when owners become more powerful than the league meant to police them youtu.be/fXa9fwduk6U

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Reposted by Joon Lee

Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

NEW VIDEO: I talked to former senior FanDuel employees about what actually happens behind the sportsbook app. VIP gamblers. “Reactivation” campaigns. Behavior tracking. Responsible gaming teams. Athlete access. And how normal it felt from the inside youtu.be/9Lwhy29umzU?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

NEW VIDEO: A single sports card sold for $13 million. A billionaire wears one around his neck like a gold chain. Livestreams of guys opening packs generate millions a night. How collecting sports cards stopped being just a hobby. youtu.be/-jVO_OS8Oj8

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Sports only works if fans trust the game. The more teams directly partner with prediction markets, the more they risk blurring the line between competition and the money being made off predicting it.

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

NEW VIDEO; The WNBA is growing faster than ever—and facing a seemingly never-ending series of crises. To understand why, I talked to @seeratsohi.bsky.social and traced how the league got here. The story starts long before Caitlin Clark turned pro. youtu.be/HLigdWCKK_s?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

NEW VIDEO: A German tourist discovering Waffle House. A President personally calling FIFA to overturn a red card. Same six weeks, same tournament. The story of the World Cup is fans building the event of a lifetime, despite how much DC & FIFA tried to get in the way www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7my...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

No matter how many times I mention that I do not work with sports gambling sponsors on my YouTube channel, I always hear from a prediction market at least once a month.

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

NEW VIDEO: I was prepared for Backyard Sports to become another nostalgia cash grab. So I flew to Pittsburgh to find out who bought it, why they brought it back and whether it’s actually possible to revive a childhood classic without ruining it. youtu.be/DTcxmaThMFs

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

NEW VIDEO: For 30 years, American soccer waited for a savior. Freddy Adu. Christian Pulisic. The next one. The USMNT finally got good the moment it stopped needing one. New video on how that happened — and why we spent two decades looking at the wrong thing. youtu.be/B1dViSxlzAU?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

NEW VIDEO: I went down a rabbit hole trying to answer one question: How did Chinese basketball brands go from being dismissed as knockoffs to signing Steph Curry? youtu.be/L37JdjeU39I?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I made this video last year, but it feels even more relevant now. In 2018, Kylian Mbappé told me about his dream of playing for Real Madrid. Now he’s there. But somewhere between becoming the future of football and living the dream, the conversation around him changed youtu.be/SKxpArcyJMY?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Thank you to @awfulannouncing.bsky.social for covering my journey on YouTube. We talked about getting laid off from ESPN, not taking gambling sponsors and building a YouTube business from scratch. awfulannouncing.com/youtube/joon...

awfulannouncing.com

Joon Lee: going independent has ‘been the most fun I've ever had’

Three years after being laid off from ESPN, Joon Lee has found success with his YouTube channel and making it on his own.

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Reposted by Joon Lee

Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Three years ago I got laid off from ESPN. Now I'm running a YouTube channel: profitable, 175K views a video, closing in on 60K subs. Goal: 100K by end of summer. If you believe sports journalism can be more — with no gambling ads — I'd love to take this journey together. ⬇️

youtube.com

Joon Lee

Independent Sports Journalist • Formerly: ESPN, B/R, The Washington Post • Born in Seoul 🇰🇷 Bred in Boston • workwith@joon.me New York City via Boston & Seoul My bio: I'm an award-winning sports j...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

youtube.com

Joon Lee

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Members of the Knicks front office partially credit James Dolan "getting distracted" by the Sphere for the team's success in recent years, according to team sources Inside the transformation of the Knicks from dysfunctional to champions: youtu.be/wElpzYbWtgs

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

NEW VIDEO: The Knicks won a championship, but they also made New York feel like New York again. I talked to fans who almost gave up, dug into one of the most dysfunctional franchises in sports, and tried to understand why this team means so much to this city. youtu.be/wElpzYbWtgs

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

NEW VIDEO with @rogbennett.bsky.social: The World Cup is the biggest event in human history. It’s also a political weapon, a billion-dollar business and one of the most corrupt institutions in sports. So how did billions of people end up caring so deeply about it? www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB_8...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

The World Cup broadcasters keep trying to normalize the extra commercials by talking on and on about how necessary the hydration breaks are. RESIST

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

NEW VIDEO: For decades, America treated soccer like a joke. Then something changed. For Americans under 35, soccer is as popular as the NBA, and more popular than MLB. So how did a country that spent decades mocking soccer suddenly embrace it? youtu.be/uyY9J_KY-u8?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Will pay a lot of money to watch a live camera at MSG / Penn Station to watch World Cup tourists crash into hoards of rabid Knicks fans trying to get on Sidetalk

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Why did Taylor Swift become one of the biggest figures in sports? Why did fans start acting like detectives over Mike Vrabel & Dianna Russini? And why does sports suddenly feel more like Hollywood than Hollywood? Feat. @thewilderthings.bsky.social + @madelinehill.bsky.social youtu.be/og_v3EyxPe4

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

NEW VIDEO: Sports video games used to feel like the future. Every year they looked better. Felt bigger. More ambitious. Then somewhere along the way, they stopped trying to become better games. To find out why, I talked to @kofie.bsky.social youtu.be/G7gDTy9o7t0?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

NEW VIDEO: 15 years ago, a pitcher throwing 100 MPH felt almost superhuman. Now the best pitcher in baseball throws 100. The closer throws 100. The random reliever in a blowout throws 100. So how did baseball learn to manufacture velocity? www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxA7...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Youth sports is getting more expensive, more intense and less accessible. So what can a city actually do about it? I’ll be talking with Boston mayor Michelle Wu at the Aspen Institute’s Project Play Summit next Wednesday. Livestream registration: projectplay.org/summit/2026/...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

NEW VIDEO: A decade ago, people were rioting for Jordans. Now the coolest shoes in the world look like something your dad wore to Costco. How did that happen? www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJwx...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Sportsbooks and prediction markets continue to reach out about sponsoring my YouTube channel and Substack. I don’t take gambling or prediction market sponsorships. The channel is already profitable without sports betting, and I plan to keep it that way.

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

The Red Sox didn’t lose their way overnight. Their incentives shifted. When private equity enters sports, the questions change — and so do the answers. Inside the organization, some describe the culture as “toxic positivity.” The story behind it: open.substack.com/pub/joonlee/...

open.substack.com

Inside The Red Sox's Credibility Crisis

The franchise is defined by mixed signals, shifting priorities — and what some inside call “toxic positivity.”

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

The Red Sox fired Alex Cora. Inside the team, some describe the culture as “toxic positivity" When I asked Sam Kennedy about that, he said: “If the accusation is that I’m… overly positive, guilty as charged.” Inside the Red Sox’s credibility crisis: open.substack.com/pub/joonlee/...

open.substack.com

Inside The Red Sox's Crisis of Credibility

The franchise is defined by mixed signals, shifting priorities — and what some inside call “toxic positivity.”

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Reposted by Joon Lee

Brian Reed @brihreed.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

That's what we explore this week on Question Everything. I learned a ton from this conversation with Kate Knibbs of @wired.com, @dannyfunt.bsky.social, and @joon.bsky.social about the rise of betting in sports, news, and life. Listen 🎧: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...

podcasts.apple.com

Question Everything

News Commentary Podcast · Updated Biweekly · Propagandist? Truth teller? Influencer? Question Everything unravels the contested work of journalists and the moral complexities surrounding the stories t...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

NEW VIDEO: For a decade, people thought baseball was dying. And then … it wasn’t. How that happened, with @cespedesbbq.bsky.social, and how it's about more than just a few rule changes and Shohei Ohtani www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F6L...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

NEW VIDEO: How did sports debate shows turn into the way we talk about everything? I went inside the rise of hot take culture, talked to the people who built it and traced how hot takes took over media. In collaboration with Vice Sports: youtu.be/ndGUBh3EjJw?...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Trust in sports leagues to protect competitive integrity is all over the place, according to a Sacred Heart poll. The NFL is both the most trusted and one of the least trusted leagues. The NBA is the least trusted league. What happens when gambling becomes central to sports.

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

List of athletes invested in Kalshi, per Front Office Sports. This many active athletes — including a union president — investing in a sportsbook is a massive conflict of interest. frontofficesports.com/kalshi-athle...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

NEW VIDEO: “Sports are rigged” used to sound crazy. Now it’s just … normal discourse. What changed? youtu.be/kzREwFhpCHU

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

If Wemby can’t defend a shot, it can’t be defended

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Started my YouTube channel one year ago today. Today, we’re at 42K subscribers and the channel is a self-sustaining business. Thank you to everyone who has ever watched a video. You’ve proven it’s possible to do independent sports journalism with no gambling sponsors.

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

NEW VIDEO: Every sports fan has heard it. "Sources say..." But what does that actually mean? I talked to Jeff Passan -- one of the most trusted insiders in sports -- to break down how reporting really works -- and why it can be so confusing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_EX...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

New video with @moreperfectunion.bsky.social: It's now more lucrative to have a losing sports team than a championship team. We examined the Boston Red Sox to see how private equity and cost cutting invaded sports. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtn...

youtube.com

Why Baseball Teams Gave Up On Winning

YouTube video by More Perfect Union

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Gambling companies are tweeting lies as if it's legitimate news because it brings more attention to them. Facts matter. Slippery slope when gambling companies that leagues and media outlets are partnered with are lying to fans. It undermines all of sports.

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Three-quarters of Americans now view sports betting as socially acceptable, but two-thirds are concerned corruption in sports is rising alongside the growth of legalized wagering, according to a new poll from Sacred Heart University www.sacredheart.edu/media/shu-me...

sacredheart.edu

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

NEW VIDEO: The rise of private equity, gambling, ticket prices and sports team valuations is no coincidence. It's leagues realizing sports has a ceiling in the US, and they need to everything possible to make the leagues go global: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8aL...

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Prediction Markets claim you’re betting against other users, but you’re really betting against Wall Street investors Prediction markets are sports gambling with a better PR strategy

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Joon Lee @joon.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

NEW VIDEO: What started in sports is spreading everywhere. Over the past year, I've been reporting on how gambling became embedded in sports -- and how it's changing the way we experience the world far beyond the games themselves. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBBn...

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