Richmonder Tim Shields, pictured above, has partnered with Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday on a portable basketball hoop. (Photo courtesy Uball)
Tim Shields, a 22-year-old entrepreneur from Richmond, has partnered with Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday, who is currently battling the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals. Their product is Uball, a portable basketball hoop designed to be set up on the go. The hoop is made of steel, can stand between 5.5 and 8.5 feet high, and may be worn like a backpack when not in use. It can be used on sand or grass and costs $399.99. Shields about talks about Uball’s beginnings, how he met Holiday and his goals for the future, which include introducing Uball as a professional sport.
Richmond magazine: How did you connect with Holiday?
Tim Shields: I had been working on Uball for a year and a half, two years, until it finally was able to hit the market in August of 2020. When it hit the market, that was right when Jrue actually found out about it, I think through Instagram. He and his team just reached out and said, "Hey, we love this, we would love to find ways [of] how we could get involved. We really like what you're building here, we'd like to really play a part in this."
That was when the initial conversations began. What we decided was [that] we were going to bring him on in a brand development role and [have him] help us as another partnership engine, and help us first get a larger network of NBA players and people like that to get involved with the company. Most of the work is going to begin when the season ends.
RM: Where did the idea for the Uball come from?
Shields: It started [when] we were on a family vacation: I'm one of four [siblings], and every time we go, we try to find a nearby blacktop to play two-on-two basketball with the kids. There was one particular vacation where we couldn't find a nearby blacktop, and that was the initial conception of the idea: "Oh, what if we could play a version of it on the beach?" [and] my sister and I put together this prototype of a hoop.
RM: How do you conceive of Uball as a professional sport?
Shields: If you think of, like, volleyball, if someone said the word "volleyball" to you in the 1970s, all that would mean was six-on-six indoor volleyball. Suddenly, in the '80s, they started playing this beach version with modified rules, and then by the '90s beach volleyball was its own Olympic sport. What Uball would be is basically the beach volleyball version of basketball. … The basics for how you play it is there's no dribbling, you get three steps.
RM: What is your rollout plan?
Shields: What we're going to do is basically an introduction — we're partnering with a streetball summer league in Los Angeles called Veniceball. They do a lot of work with professional dunkers [and] some Harlem Globetrotters players.
The Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns play game six of the NBA Finals tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC.
