NBA Top Shot NFT: Are They Worth The Craze? Let’s Find Out

The NBA Top Shot NFT collection has become an integral part of the NBA fanbase.

With a valuation of around $7.5 billion (as of September 2021), these NFTs are clearly a new addition for sports fans and organizers alike. However, with the prices ranging way too high, there rises a question- are they really worth it?

In order to find that out, let’s find out a few things about its background, history, and what does the future hold for the NBA Top Shots. Moreover, the question lies on the fact, can the Top Shot NFTs be one of the top NFTs out there? Let’s find out.

What Are NBA Top Shot NFT?

The Top Shots are a joint venture between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Dapper Labs. The Top Shot is a blockchain-based platform allowing fans to buy, sell, and trade unique versions of officially licensed video highlights.

The two organizations started working on the NFT collectibles back in 2019, with most of 2020 staying under development.

Finally, after its launch in 2021, it rose to popularity with more than a million registered users.

It’s the platform’s intuitiveness and accessibility that might have helped it rise to popularity. With an easy-to-use interface and a pre-existing fan base, the platform was touted for success by basketball and crypto experts alike.

What Does it Contain?

It might seem like yet another NFT collectible. And to some extent, it might as well be.

NBA Top Shot gives the fans a chance to collect “Moments”. Moments are the video highlights of specific games and other stuff, including statistics, the player featured, and more. Every Moment collectible has a limited supply and a unique serial code, inevitably adding to its value.

The Top Shot Moments has five tiers that are ordered hierarchically on the basis of the number of copies there are.

• Genesis Ultimate: This one has a single copy, and is only available through special events.
• Platinum Ultimate: This category of Top Shot Moments contains around 3 copies and is available only through special events.
• Legendary: This series of Moments contain somewhere between 25-99 copies and can be found in Legendary packs containing, six common, three rare, and one rare Moment in them.
• Rare: The rare set of NFTs includes around 150-999 copies, starting at $22. Each rare pack contains at least one rare Moment inside.
• Common: The common Moments can be found in Common packs, starting at $9 for nine Moments.

How To Obtain Top Shots?

At present, there are three ways to buy NFT Top Shots for fans.

• Purchasing The Packs: Just like a pack of collectible cards, a pack of Top Shot Moments cards contains a series of cards, which are unknown to the buyer before they open them. NBA releases a pack of cards, which are theme-based, for instance, Christmas-themed “Decked The Hoops” pack of cards.
  Users get to know about a release by signing up for email notifications. The packs are unique in nature, and once they’re sold out, they are sold out forever.
• Challenges: Challenges allow Top Shot Moments to be collected and earned. A Challenge has a specific time period, within which the participants have to collect a specific set of Moments. The one who does so also earns a bonus Moment. Moments traded in Challenges aren’t found elsewhere as well.
• P2P Trading: Once a Moment has been acquired, the owner can resell it or trade it, similar to a physical trading card. What makes the trade and the entire process more streamlined is that each transaction can be recorded, along with its history via the Flow blockchain. This makes trading and reselling much more transparent.

To give context, over 95% of Top Shots were sold through the peer-to-peer (P2P) method, in the first quarter of 2021.

Are They Worth The Craze?

As of September 2021, Top Shots has 1.1 million registered users on its platform.

While during the mid-summers many felt that the demand around the Top Shot Moments peaked, it certainly wasn’t the case when NBA dropped the Run it Back 05-06 collection featuring Shaquille O’Neal. The demand was up again and the collectibles were going at seven purchases a minute.

Keeping all of this aside, what makes many people skeptical about these NFTs is the fact, that they are free pre-recorded videos easily available on the internet. How is there a point in collecting them?

However, the answer to this question lies in how humans have interacted with collectibles in the past. Whether they are Pokemon cards or a 1952 Mickey Mantle card, sold for $5.2 million, collectible items have always been a thing of intrigue and interest.

Hence, while it’s only been a year to Top Shot and a few to NFTs, there exists a very broad scope for both aspects of the ecosystem to expand and grow. As that happens, the fans surely will have something to look up to.

The Future of NBA Top Shot NFT Moments

There are many speculations around the entire NFT thing being “just a bubble”. 

However, the future for the Top Shots seems rather optimistic. Dapper Labs along with NBA is working on ways to figure how fans can interact with their favorite teams and players.

The both of them together are coming up with a game called NBA Hardcourt, an immersive and interactive game that allows players to create their own NBA Moments basketball teams, and use their collected Moments to upgrade their abilities.

While all of that happens, NBA players are equally optimistic about what Top Shit has to offer and they are contributing in their own way. For instance, Josh Hart from New Orleans Pelicans often live streams on Twitch, opening new packs of Top Shot NFTs.

All of this might not directly answer the questions that people might have around the Top Shot NFTs, but it does advocate for Top Shot NFTs in a very vital manner.