Morant the Moment Machine 🎞

GM, NFT Friends! Happy Thursday — hope you’ve had a great week!

My Bulls were mercifully bounced from the playoffs yesterday, after looking like a JV team scrimmaging against the defending champs for the majority of the series. A massive bummer overall!

Bulls flaws aside (and there are many), Giannis is incredible (even though it should be a charge 90% of the time he drives to the lane) — and I am not looking forward to having him dominate the East for the next decade.

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

Top Shot launched a new contest on Tuesday, with some big prizes to incentivize new user sign ups — and a tie in with rookie Jalen Suggs:

The low ask for the cheapest Suggs moments currently sits at $10. Top Shot’s Brandon Sowle also did a nice interview with Suggs here.

I don’t really have anything Top Shot-related for this one, but Ja Morant needed his own section for this highlight:

You can bet that will be a hot moment from the first round, though Morant seems to bring us a new mind-blowing highlight every few minutes. I said earlier this season that Ja is the closest thing the league has to prime/pre-injury Derrick Rose, but even that doesn’t do his athleticism justice anymore. Insanity.

Speaking of the first round, a few challenges have begun with several series wrapping up this week. These two are currently active:

Hawks vs. Heat Playoff Set

Bucks vs. Bulls Playoffs Set 😭

Warriors vs. Nuggets Playoffs Set

Additionally, we’ve got a few other challenges expiring soon:

Also of note is the S1 Reserve Pack Drop, happening TODAY at 11 AM PST. You’ll need 350 Trade Tickets, and 500 packs are available to those who get that tasty spot in the queue. Available in these packs — Ja’s Top Shot debut!

The NBAxNFT launch finally revealed on Wednesday, with the floor price dropping down to .03 ETH ($100 USD) as collectors revealed… some less desirable players:

However, the combination of scarcity and being on ETH has certainly made a difference — with the top-tier players left in the playoffs (Jayson Tatum, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant in particular) seeing some huge sales of 2-3 ETH. That’s far more than some of their legendary or rare moments on Top Shot!

The small mint count of every card is an interesting strategy contrasted with Top Shot… With the cream rising to the top without being diluted by a zillion other moments from the same player. I’m still in the camp that not everyone needs to be able to collect a LeBron or Steph — much like video games, the top players should cost a lot and be hard to get!

That being said, I have no idea where this Association project goes from here, and have little faith these hold long term value. But it’s definitely a good case study of the power of scarcity and being on ETH blockchain for Top Shot to dissect.

🎧 From WoW Raids to Rumble Kongs (Feat. Marcus Blasche)

🎧 Will Sports NFTs Survive?

🎧 Where NFTs Go From Here

🐦 This Week in NFTs | NFL | NBA | Flunks | Alpha

Thanks for reading! — Zach @ The First Mint

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