As the Total Health partner of the NBA, Kaiser Permanente has long held a commitment to showing the league, players, and fans the connection between maintaining their mental and physical health. When Klay Thompson tore his ACL at the height of the 2019 Finals, we saw an opportunity to turn Klay’s comeback into a relatable and inspiring story of resilience.

As the official team physician of the Warriors, Kaiser Permanente would be side by side with Klay throughout his recovery. We saw the unmissable, exclusive opportunity to tell a powerful comeback story that more than ever proved our brand mantra to be true: Train the mind. The body will follow.

This is not the first all-star athlete recovery story. But while most have chronicled the physical challenges one must push through to overcome, Kaiser Permanente wanted to show that your mental game must be at its peak to recover physically. With Above The Waves, we put that connection on display, showing Klay doing whatever it takes to “Thrive” again.

The complete dedication Klay would need to come back stronger from a setback of this magnitude couldn’t be captured in a :30 commercial. To show his resolve to press forward, we took fans on a documentary journey through Klay's road to the NBA, showing how his resilience to overcome injury began with a commitment to never stop pushing. Klay’s brutal honesty about trials and triumphs of overcoming psychological hurdles mirrored the sentiment fans across the league were feeling as they moved through one of the toughest years of their lives in 2020. Leaning into off-the-court themes in Klay’s life – water, family, chess – made Klay’s story personal and massively relatable for anyone watching.

After months of silence from Klay, no live sports, and no fresh sports content, fans were eager to gain insight into his journey. At launch, 4.3MM people tuned in online. And fans didn’t just watch – the film’s release against the backdrop of a global health crisis inspired them to share their own stories of recovery and resilience. Press coverage drove even more buzz, citing its emotional impact as the dose of positivity sports fans needed, resulting in 137MM+ total impressions. Through Above The Waves, Kaiser Permanente showed that staying at the height of your game means tapping the power of human resolve within all of us: with the right frame of mind a setback can always be a setup for a comeback.