A Vintage Vibe Check 😰
Featuring NBA Japan Games, Wiseman Watch, Challenge Postponements, Airdrop Delays & More
Good Morning, B&B Squad! Hope you all had an excellent week, and cheers to the weekend!
NBA action is back as of yesterday — featuring the defending champion Golden State Warriors and the Washington Wizards kicking off the year with two exhibition matches overseas for the 2022 NBA Japan Games.
While superstar Steph Curry and Wizards forward Rui Hachimura (the first Japanese player selected in the first round) figure to garner most of the attention, Warriors young big James Wiseman opened some eyes in the preseason opener:
The 2020 2nd overall pick is still just 21 years old, and we’ve yet to see him really healthy in his career. If he can stay on the court this season, Golden State might be gaining a massive addition to an already championship-caliber roster. 😳
Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:
A Vintage Vibe Check 😰
Top Shot announced the postponement of the upcoming Vintage Vibes challenges, with an oddly-worded tweet that set a firestorm off within the community:
The set “not getting the love or excitement it deserves” is an odd comment to me — a somewhat passive-aggressive statement that seems to put the onus on the user base.
You’ve got several different perspectives amongst the community, all varying levels of pissed off by the announcement. A few I see:
The Vintage Vibes collectors, who feel rugged by the announcement
The TS comms police, who look at this as another failed promise / deviation from the plan and another breach of trust
Users who think postponing was the right move, but are angry about the tone and structure of the communication
To add more clarity around the decision, we got a tweet from the @NBATSCommunity account — adding to the weird vibes around this entire thing:
The second part is what really gets to me — the options weren’t inspiring? I don’t think there are many people currently clamoring for more supply and sets — so while postponing may be a smart move, why even commit to it in the first place if it wasn’t exciting?
An excerpt from a great thread from @JonBoyBeats, which perfectly summed up a lot of my current sentiment on the platform:
As Jon says in another tweet:
The Top Shot product is amazing. It has the ability to sell itself if given a little opportunity to gain some momentum. On top of that there’s 50k? 20k? 10k? 5k? crazy people just like me willing to ride this thing on whatever ride it takes us. We want to get excited about TS!!!
If you’re reading this newsletter, you can probably relate. While the rest of the NFT community has largely moved on from the platform, there are plenty of diehards still passionate about the platform. People that see how much sense Top Shot makes as a product, and want to believe in it.
But with each miscommunication, failed promise or head-scratching decision, it gets harder and harder to not feel a little crazy. We’re about to hit the 2022-23 NBA season (and are now in Series 4 and still in beta) — when does this ship turn around? What will it take? Can it?
A Turbulent Truckload 🚚
But wait, there’s more!
Dapper provided an update on the $ FLOW airdrop on Thursday, pushing the timeline down the road and reneging on the previously communicated Summer expectation:
Trust and overpromising has ALWAYS been an issue with Top Shot / Dapper, and these back-to-back announcements have things feeling pretty tense.
But one way to break some awkward ice — a birthday:
Just a hunch, but I’m not sure the user base is in a celebrating mood.
Around The First Mint 🗣
🎧 The Future of Ownership (Feat. Jess Sloss)
What do we, as normal people, actually own in web3? Yes, we own the NFTs, but we SHOULD own the network. Today's guest, Jess Sloss, runs The Seed Club: an incubator for web 3 communities and networks. On today’s show, we discuss what we as participants in this network (and our multiple sub networks) should expect from the space, and what it should expect from us.
🎧 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.