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“Crypto Currency is taking over the NBA!”: From stadium names to NFT sneakers, crypto and its various forms are making their way into the league

Arun Sharma
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"Crypto Currency is taking over the NBA!": From stadium names to NFT sneakers, crypto and its various forms are making their way into the league

Crypto Currency is all the rage in the world – the NBA is not one to fall behind.

Tyrese Haliburton bought a $140,000 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, which he proudly now wears on his sneakers. The Sacramento guard got a pair of sneakers customized to have his purchase on him at all times on court. League rules may apply to not showing off brands not associated, but nothing is said about art.

With the world now accepting Crypto currency a lot more than it did a few years ago, it only makes sense for the people to cash in on the hype. Athletes and the league are no different. The Los Angeles Lakers have sold their stadium naming rights, the NBA has a huge deal with coinbase, and players are buying NFTs.

Notable athletes in the NBA who’ve publicly endorsed this culture are GSW superstar Steph Curry, and Clippers forward Paul George. Both of them endorse Rumble Kongs League, an NFT collection site. While the vets also have other business deals, sneaker endorsements and such, league young’un Tyrese Haliburton directly jumped into the NFT market.

Also Read: “LeBitcoin got the Lakers $700 million for Crypto.com Arena; Staples Center was Kobe Bryant’s house”: NBA Twitter’s best reactions after the Lakers’ long-time home gets renamed

 

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Crypto in many forms shall be seen in the league in the near future – the NBA already have their own line of NFTs

The NBA has created their own NFts, called the top shot moments, which can be traded like cards, but digitally. You can also own a part of it, like a stock in cases of expensive ones. A pretty neat way of getting people to buy more memorabilia, and getting them accustomed to the crypto space.

With league legends like Curry and Paul George endorsing them publicly, it is only a matter of time that this picks up pace. Not the way Tyrese did it though. NFT are basically blockchain components that cannot be duplicated, with usually an artwork as an identifier. Tyrese just took the picture and slapped it onto his shoes, which duplicated them.

Time will tell how much of an acceptance it will have world wide. But in the meantime, we have a lot of game time to look forward to.

Also Read: “AI, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Shaq in one team? Hakeem Olajuwon will slap everyone”: Sacramento Kings legend says Olajuwon would slap everyone from this all-time top-5 players list for not passing the ball

About the author

Arun Sharma

Arun Sharma

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Arun Sharma is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. A double degree holder and a digital marketer by trade, Arun has always been a sports buff. He fell in love with the sport of basketball at a young age and has been a Lakers fan since 2006. What started as a Kobe Bryant obsession slowly turned into a lifelong connection with the purple and gold. Arun has been an ardent subscriber to the Mamba mentality and has shed tears for a celebrity death only once in his life. He believes January 26, 2020, was the turning point in the passage of time because Kobe was the glue holding things together. From just a Lakers bandwagoner to a basketball fanatic, Arun has spent 16 long years growing up along with the league. He thinks Stephen Curry has ruined basketball forever, and the mid-range game is a sight to behold. Sharma also has many opinions about football (not the American kind), F1, MotoGP, tennis, and cricket.

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