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A Powerful Punch 🥊

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A Powerful Punch 🥊

Featuring Wembanyama Wonder, Draymond Drama, Dynamic Duos Drops, Leaderboard Rewards & More

Ghost
Oct 8, 2022
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A Powerful Punch 🥊

thefirstmint.substack.com

Good Morning, B&B Squad! Cheers to the weekend!

We had two major storylines dominating the NBA headlines this week — one positive and one negative.

The good — the two game scrimmage between projected No. 1 and No. 2 picks Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson did not disappoint.

Scoot was super impressive in his own right — and looks like a potential star in the making. But this week was for Wembanyama.

I have been banging the drum on Wemby for a while, but seeing him shine in the national spotlight was a breathtaking experience. Seeing a 7’5 human taking the ball up, nailing step-back corner threes, and dominating the entire floor looked like a created player in NBA 2K. The league has been put on notice — Victor is coming.

Twitter avatar for @nbagleague
NBA G League @nbagleague
Victor Wembanyama was an absolute force 😤 He posted 37PTS, 5 BLK & 7 3PM for @Metropolitans92‼️ Check out his insane highlights
5:16 AM ∙ Oct 5, 2022
284Likes64Retweets

And now to the bad — the punch heard ‘round the internet:

Twitter avatar for @TheFirstMint
TheFirstMint @TheFirstMint
Footage has been released of the Draymond Green vs Jordan Poole fight in practice😬 that was no playful punch... #NBA #DraymondGreen
2:11 PM ∙ Oct 7, 2022
119Likes28Retweets

News broke on Wednesday that there had been an altercation at the Golden State Warriors practice between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole — with Green facing potential discipline for his role in the fight.

On Friday, TMZ obtained the footage (someone in the video dept. is CASHING out) — and it’s ugly. Draymond’s play has been declining on the court over the last few years, but his leadership, basketball IQ and intangibles have helped him maintain his valuable status on the league’s top franchise.

With a looming contract extensions for both Poole and Green, it’s going to be fascinating to see how the Warriors brass handles this prickly issue — and how the locker room responds. This isn’t an easy one to handle.

Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:


Dynamic Duos Drama✌️

Top Shot announced the Team Leaderboard rewards on Wednesday, with a ‘dynamic duos’ format featuring teammates from each franchise:

Twitter avatar for @TheFirstMint
TheFirstMint @TheFirstMint
'Dynamic Duos' team leaderboard rewards are being airdropped to @nbatopshot collectors starting on October 7th🪂 Some fan-favourite duos: 👥James & Irving 👥Durant & Westbrook 👥Bosh & James 👥Lowry & DeRozan 👥Thompson & Curry Who you getting?🏀 https://t.co/1RNWRSsafc
Image
10:01 PM ∙ Oct 5, 2022
54Likes5Retweets

The first group of team rewards (Cavaliers, Celtics, Bucks, Wizards and Hawks) were airdropped to the top 750 users on each respective leaderboard, with early pricing varying pretty significantly based on the duo/team:

We had some drama in the community regarding the reward structure — in which the top three users on each board were rewarded with the corresponding serial, with everything else randomized:

Moments will be delivered in descending order for spots 1-3 on the Team Leaderboards (ex. No. 1 on the Leaderboard will receive Serial No. 1)

Moments will randomly be delivered for spots 4-750 on the Team Leaderboards (ex. if you're No. 233 on the Leaderboard, you could receive any Serial No. between 4-750)

As with any decision Top Shot makes, a subset of users were angry. This time, it happened to be some of the larger and more visible users in the ecosystem:

Twitter avatar for @mbl267_NFT
Michael Levy | flowty.io @mbl267_NFT
Setting aside how badly I was boned by this...some questions: - Who benefits from this being a surprise rather than a competition? - Why make it a cliff rather than a weighted draw (per @intangible_eth suggestion)? "Reward top spenders" but treat #4 the same as #750 is odd?
2:08 AM ∙ Oct 6, 2022
48Likes3Retweets
Twitter avatar for @Libruary_NFT
Libruary @Libruary_NFT
Who made this decision? I want to ask them why they made this choice without letting anyone know. This isn’t fun. “Moments will be delivered in descending order for spots 1-3 on the Team Leaderboards (ex. No. 1 on the Leaderboard will receive Serial No. 1)” @Jayne @Eisenberg43
11:13 PM ∙ Oct 5, 2022
107Likes16Retweets

Do I think this was the best way to distribute rewards? No. Is it something that I feel is worth breaking the pitchforks out over? Also no.

The majority of us will never be in contention for the top three spots on any leaderboard, so it’s hard to put myself in those shoes — but other than the #1 or jersey #, I tend to land in the camp of serials not really mattering. So color me apathetic on this one — bigger fish to fry.


The Magic Mansion 🪄

In a continuation of rewarding Leaderboarders, Top Shot released the next IRL experience — ‘Tapped In’, featuring a trip to the ‘Magic Mansion’ in Los Angeles for a catered dinner and meet and greet with Magic Johnson:

The top 3 collectors on the Magic Johnson and Los Angeles Lakers Leaderboard – by October 11, 2022 at 1pm ET – will earn a rewards experience with the Laker legend.

Additionally, 2 randomly-selected collectors – 1 from Magic’s Leaderboard and 1 from the top 1000 of the Lakers Leaderboard – will be invited to attend as well.

All 8 winners (and their plus ones) will live it up at the “Magic Mansion” in Los Angeles, CA on Friday, October 21, 2022 with a catered dinner and a guest appearance from Magic Johnson himself.

As I always say — Top Shot excels at the IRL experiences, and rewards like the Cade Cooking session and this one are great ways to surprise and delight. My one gripe — feels like a missed opportunity to have someone like David Blaine in attendance for a ‘Magic with Magic’ night!

Some other Leaderboard Experience ideas I’m workshopping (feel free to hit me up, Top Shot):

  • Boogie Nights — A disco experience with DeMarcus Cousins

  • Green Thumb! — A gardening experience with Derrick Rose

  • Fired Up — A pottery experience with Klay Thompson and Bol Bol

  • Be Mine — A Valentine’s Day experience with Josh Hart and Denzel Valentine

  • The Lord’s Work — A spiritual woodworking session with Christian Wood


Around The First Mint 🗣

The First Mint
🔒The First Mint Timeout
What’s up everybody, it’s LG Doucet here. I’m taking a break from the podcast. But just for a few weeks! We are taking time to retool things at The First Mint, and quite frankly the podcast is the first thing I want to change. It needs a refresh. A lot has happened at TFM in the last 20 months since our inception, and I’ve broken it all down below. But the…
Read more
4 months ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · LG Doucet

🎧 The Future of Ownership (Feat. Jess Sloss)

🎧 How Premint is Making NFTs Less Painful (Feat. Brenden Mulligan)

🎧 Is NFL All Day the Answer to Sports NFTs? (Feat. Dave Feldman)

Thanks for reading! — Zach @ The First Mint

Follow Zach on Twitter at @GhostOfGregOden.


**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”


About The First Mint

The First Mint is a web3 media company. We make. We write. We talk. We listen.

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