Twitter & Top Shot 🗣
Twitter & Top Shot 🗣
Featuring Lakers Woes, A Legendary NBA Partnership, Top Shot Twitter Talk, Challenging Challenges, LG's Sorare Thoughts & More
Good Morning, B&B Squad! Hope you had an excellent week, and cheers to the weekend!
A few things I’ve been seeing across the hardwood:
The Lakers are in a whole lotta’ trouble. Sitting at 0-5, Anthony Davis’ injury woes look to be back, Russell Westbrook is who he is at this point — everything is just a mess. If I’m the Lakers, I’m hoping LeBron James pushes his way out. Blow this thing up and go into a full rebuild.
Ben Simmons also looks… really bad! I have to admit, I was dead wrong so far — I really thought Simmons could get back to his previous form and be a real factor. Maybe he still can, but the early tape has NOT been promising.
This rookie class has some real talent. Paolo Banchero already looks like a star, Benedict Mathurin has that dawg in him, and we’ve seen flashes from several other solid looking youngsters (Keegan Murray, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, Jabari Smith Jr.).
Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:
A Legendary 50 🧊
We got a cool new announcement from NBA Top Shot this week, partnering with the NBA Players Association to celebrate 50 players that define the 2022-23 season.
Chosen by the players (more specifically, ‘dozens’ of players representing the NBPA), the new Top Shot 50 will replace the Holo Icon set, and be minted sometime after the season concludes. As for the specific highlights? That’s up to collectors, who will get to vote on which play makes it into the set.
I’m into the partnership, and hopefully we see some fun engagement from players getting competitive for spots — similar to what we saw for the NBA 100 in previous seasons. Also, shout out to Harrison Barnes, a longtime Top Shot fan still grinding out there!
I’m not really into the name change, as I think Holo Icon felt exclusive and cool. I’ll also be interested to see how the legendary market looks for Series 4, considering it sounds like the flagship set won’t be minted until the summer.
Top Shot Talk 🗣
It’s been a polarizing start to the season as always for Top Shot, with a mixture of sentiments across the community. And the rollercoaster has been apparent in the Twitter streets, with a few different conversations catching my eye.
Here was the platform catching strays from Darren Rovell (expected), and ESPN2 show Jalen & Jacoby(???):
Rovell sucks — and has been posting trollish posts about Top Shot before it was cool. Boo that man. But I guess we won’t be seeing a Jalen Rose leaderboard anytime soon?
Elsewhere in the Twitterverse was… Twitter — with Dapper Labs being one of the first companies to get the NFT Tweet Tile treatment:
And finally, a voice that I feature here often — one that I trust to call it like he sees it when it comes to the platform:
I personally haven’t been super engaged with the challenges so far — and the lack of clarity is a big reason why. I want to know WHY I should be burning and completing these expensive and complex challenges, other than for the opportunity to get a random new moment. Give us exciting ways to burn! The League Pass initiative was a great example — how about jerseys, merch, tickets, anything that isn’t another moment?
Speaking of burning, at least the team will be getting in on the action:
Around The First Mint 🗣
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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.”
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