In summary
- Basketball-based digital collectibles are increasingly popular.
- Bleacher Report is launching NFTs in conjunction with the NBA All Star Weekend.
It is the beginning of the NBA All Star Weekend. And if you can’t feel the excitement in the silent arena without spectators, at least you can snuggle close to a digital representation of a basketball.
Bleacher Report (B / R), one of the most popular sports news sites in the world, is entering the NFT games. In conjunction with the NBA All Star Weekend, B / R is auctioning digital basketballs coined by four prominent hip hop artists: 2 Chainz, Jack Harlow, Lil Baby and Quavo.
Each artist’s basketball features a unique design – Jack Harlow’s has a curly-haired shark, Quavo’s turns a dollar bill into a bloodless bird and the 2 Chainz ball shows angels holding … well … two chains.
Ten Gold editions of each NFT basketball will be auctioned in NFT OpenSea marketplace from Friday night, at 5 pm Eastern, with a new ball auctioned every 30 minutes. Successful bidders receive a matching set of digital collectibles and a physical ball.
If you don’t need real basketball and prefer your collectibles to come only in digital format, what will your friends and family say, “What?” you can buy Silver Edition NFTs. There are 150 digital basketballs from each rapper, which will go on sale at 12 noon Eastern Saturday afternoon for 0.4 ETH ($ 610). Each is available on a first-come, first-served basis, but can be resold. It is not clear how much goes to the artist and to B / R, but OpenSea usually gets 2.5% of each sale.
Non-fungible tokens, which almost roll out of the tongue like a layup Steph Curry rolls from the fingers, are a type of digital collector whose authenticity and property can be traced through a blockchain. Owners can sell them in the same way they sell other sporting goods.
They have exploded in popularity in recent weeks, with music artists like Kings of Leon releasing an album in the format, someone burning a work of art by street artist Banksy and selling what video and even Paris Hilton showing up to chat about them on the social audio network Clubhouse.
But the NFT market for professional basketball collectibles is dominating. NBA Top Shot, which creates digital business cards using ESPN-ready featured videos, was responsible for $ 225 million in turnover in February. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is a big, big fan.
NBA Top Shot will also have more money coming in. Instead of a real game of Rising Stars, featuring the rookie and sophomore year, Top Shot partnered with the league to release NFT collectible cards from the players making the list.
The NBA: sometimes it’s more than just a game.