Welcome to the NBA Top Shot Community Spotlight for July 2022!
In this edition, you’ll find special and meaningful collecting achievements shared by members of our community, a look at the work being done by the Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks Team Captains, Builder Spotlights on fun, innovative projects being created by members of our community, interviews with collectors and more!
This August, we're also excited to open the doors of the NBA Top Shot blog to our Team Captains and community leaders, giving them a place to share stories from their own experiences building community and utility with fans and collectors. To submit a story or pitch an idea, start by DM'ing the @NBATSCommunity Twitter account or by emailing captains@dapperlabs.com today. Here's a look at some of July's community achievements.
COMMUNITY COLLECTOR SPOTLIGHT: ACHIEVEMENTS UNLOCKED
ChubertTS finished their 2021-22 NBA Season “IRL” collection by adding a Moment minted from all six NBA games they attended live.
Yoms finished a showcase that "represents both my Celtics fandom and my Top Shot Collector approach, with 9 special serials and the one legendary S1 bubble moment. It’s also a testament to the transparency that the platform provides, as the collection was mostly put together by the new offer system and the ability to trade with friends."
Just_Glyding became the first person to collect 2,000 Orlando Magic Moments.
AhmadScientist finished their “Nowruz Mobarak” Showcase, representing the Persian New Year and the first day of Spring, with 10 Moments that took place on March 20 and 21, the Spring Equinox and first full day of the season.
Alxo continued their never ending pursuit of perfection by owning one of every single Moment on Top Shot, collecting the final new Holo Icon and Metallic Gold LE Moments to be released in Series 3.
Korkis completed the Cool Cats set to unlock access to the Nine Lives Lounge.
Myles6565 pulled a Jimmy Butler Holo Icon Legendary Moment in a Locker Pack.
PureBull completed their goal of collecting 200 Moments that feature a serial number that matches the date the corresponding game took place.
Memrabillya collected the final piece of their Top Shot Debut Grail Vault.
OKJose put the finishing touches on their Complete Series 2 Base Set, owning all 533 Common Moments that defined the 2020-21 NBA season, a feat only achieved by 350 other members of our global community.
Rodman_TS finished the complete Chicago Bulls Series 1, 2 and 3 collection.
Brigz finished their Series 1 Los Angeles Lakers set.
Shazaaaaaam picked up their first and only #1 + Jersey Match Moment.
STLTopShot picked up their most wanted Moment on all of Top Shot.
Rhodzx got their grail Moment.
Upside_TopShot collected four Steph Curry 2022 NBA Playoffs Game 6 Finals Moments, one for every year Steph won an NBA Title, with the matching serial numbers to tie it all together.
NC24 completed their Grail Set of Steph Curry Series 1 Top Shot Debut Moments across every tier of scarcity.
MBL267 collected the LeBron James Series One Legendary From The Top dunk Moment from February 6, 2020, with a perfect 59/59 serial number. It was the final missing piece in his collection of Legendary LeBron James Series One Perfect Serial Moments.
Jewish_Laettner connected with the host of his favorite Dallas Sports Radio Station since 1994 — the station where he first learned about Top Shot — to talk about their love for Top Shot.
T88West locked over 1,000 of his Kyle Lowry’s Series 2 Base Set Common /40000 Moments, all with a 4 digit or lower serial number, representing Lowry’s final Moment on the Toronto Raptors.
Happy_816 secured a grail Moment from Run It Back Series 1 that they’d been eying for their collection since February 2021.
BirdPerson completed their Heat Series 3 Team Set, acquiring the Top Shot Debut of Omer Yurtseven as the final missing piece.
GreatWestForum collected their first Legendary Moment, a beautiful and historic assist from “The Anthology: Magic Johnson.”
08MC finished and locked their S3 complete Pelicans collection.
KDog completed the entire Series 3 Base Set with every Moment as a three digit serial number!
Kch3n finished their epic tribute to the Golden State Warriors trio of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
ShortShotBRob collected the Series 2 Tyrese Maxey Top Shot Debut to complete their Philadelphia 76ers Team Set and join the “Trust The Moment” Community, the official 76ers collector community and Team Captain program for Top Shot.
JiveGuru crafted a Sue Bird Shining Stars Challenge Reward.
Uri252 added the Paul George Series 1 Run It Back: 2013-14 Moment, featuring an incredible dunk from his days as an Indiana Pacer, and is one of only 191 people to own it.
Steve Walker finished their collection of all 347 Series 3 Base Set Moments.
TopShotTK completed the Rising Stars Series 2 by collecting the Anthony Edwards Rare Dunk Moment, one of the most memorable dunks of the season.
TSDocBrown completed their grail set, Series 2 Metallic Gold LE, collecting all 150 of these rare, limited edition Moments, using the newly introduced offer system to obtain the missing pieces.
NickGiles finished Hometown Showdown: Cali vs. NY set, their first ever complete Series 1 set, featuring 10 Moments from players born and raised in California and New York.
LostDrengr finished their collection of all 50 Run It Back 05-06 Moments.
GoldenStateCard completed the Cool Cats set and unlocked access to the Nine Lives Lounge, their collecting goal ever since they joined Top Shot.
Dan_Slawinski finished their "DC Above All" showcase by collecting the final missing Moment — Rui Hachimura's Series 1 Cosmic Top Shot Debut, one of the most coveted and Legendary Wizards Moments on all of Top Shot.
VamosErik crossed the 1,000 Moments owned Milestone, an epic collecting achievement and exclusive club to be in!
DaLuckey finished their first Squad Goals Challenge, earning a Rare Chicago Bulls Moment featuring Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine.
JWolfe locked up a Full Team Set with the Michael Carter-Williams Series 1 Run It Back, the only Philadelphia 76ers Moment he didn’t already own.
ArM007 finished their Contemporary Wizards set!
Noam Torenberg finished their 12-month pursuit of all 30 Cool Cats Moments, completing the set and joining the Nine Lives Lounge!
ABOUT TEAM CAPTAINS
Team Captains are community-elected representatives for each team’s fandom, acting on behalf of Team Set holders as volunteers.
All 30 NBA fanbases have Team Captains that leverage their passion for the game and a monthly budget provided by NBA Top Shot to organize and host fun, engaging digital and IRL events for their community.
Follow all of the Team Captains on Twitter for a glimpse into how they're representing their community and team.
To access these events and connect with the community of fans passionate about your favorite team, all you need to do is collect one Moment from each player on that team from a given series of NBA Top Shot — Series 1 (2019-20), Series 2 (2020-21) or Series 3 (2021-22). This will unlock access to the gated Discord channel where each community currently lives.
This July, we’ve seen many of our Team Captains partner with their communities to organize special events. In this edition of our Community Spotlight, we’re highlighting the work done by our Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks fanbases.
COMMUNITY TEAM CAPTAIN SPOTLIGHT: TOP SHOT KINGDOM
30 members of the Top Shot Kingdom, led by their Captains, took a road trip to the California Classic Summer League games on July 2nd.
Round trip transportation was provided using the team’s budget, along with tickets, drinks, snacks, post-game photo opportunities with Sacramento Kings players, team memorabilia and ticket raffles, and the chance to rip open a Top Shot pack with Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé. The Kings delivered an 86-68 victory over the Warriors, and fans from The Kingdom got to witness the new crop of rookies put on a show.
COMMUNITY TEAM CAPTAIN SPOTLIGHT: ATLANTA HAWKS
The MoHawks Atlanta recently spent the day working with the local Atlanta Community, attending the Atlanta Dream game with members of their collector community and the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program.
The next day, collectors participated in a 5K for Charity and then participated in the Million Meal Pack with the Atlanta Hawks. Following a day of giving back, collectors spent the evening together at Topgolf to rip packs, connect as a family and community, and give away tickets to future Atlanta Hawks games for everyone who participated.
COMMUNITY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: DRIBBLE BY TAYLOR STEIN
Taylor Stein is a collector, writer and creator in the Top Shot community who recently built a fun, free-to-play spin on a popular game. We spoke to Taylor via Twitter DMs this July to learn more about his new project, Dribble, which you can play daily at https://dribblegame.com.
What inspired you to build Dribble?
I'd say Dribble is what happens when I combined a few of my passions (NBA, data) with new skills that I wanted to work on (web development).
I quickly fell for Wordle, Heardle, and many of the niche variations that popped up this year. I've always wanted to learn more about web development and strengthen those skills, so I set out to make a fun, daily NBA game. It took a while to land on the right game format, but as soon as this idea popped in my head, I knew it was the way to go.
I'd always have fun talking with my NBA friends about players' careers (ex: "remember when OKC traded Ibaka for both Oladipo and Sabonis?"), and realized Dribble would be a fun way to tap into this trivia while also being a game that could be approachable for those that don't scour Basketball Reference in their free time.
How has the response been so far?
The response has been nothing short of awesome. After working on this late at night for a few months, it's been really great being able to finally share it with the world. I hear that the games are "too easy" so I may have to dial up the difficulty a little bit.
I may have selfishly wanted a daily game that I'd be good at, and I think all the other NBA fans in the world feel the same way when they play Dribble, "Finally a game for me!"
Do you have any plans to expand the game or reward players who rack up consistent points?
That's a really good question. In the short-term, I'm working on a few features to make the game more visually appealing, as well as giving more context into why a guess was correct or not.
In the long-term, I'm looking into ways that the game can be played outside of just the daily challenge. I've found that Dribble is a really fun game to play collaboratively as a group, as everyone has their own nugget of NBA knowledge to contribute, and I want to explore that more. For example, it would be great for folks to be able to play previous Dribble games that they may have missed — and who knows, maybe I'll make some special T-shirts for the first folks to hit a 100-game streak!
FLOW ECOSYSTEM SPOTLIGHT: MOMENTUM LABS
Founded by JonBoyBeats and Moment Nerd, Momentum Labs is a new tool to help Top Shot collectors — built by the community, for the community, with help and financial support from the Flow Ecosystem Fund.
You can create a free Momentum Labs account today by visiting https://momentumlabs.app/.
To learn more about this project, listen to the co-founders on the NBA Top Shot Podcast here:
COMMUNITY COLLECTOR SPOTLIGHT: RUBIXCUBE1981
Since starting their Top Shot collection in January 2022, RubixCube1981 has amassed an impressive collection of over 1,400 Moments, including membership in the Nine Lives Lounge with a complete Cool Cats set, among 21 other Completed Sets.
“It’s always been a goal of mine to complete a set, specifically a Legendary set, with the same serial number.”
Via a series of Discord messages, I spoke with Rubixcube to learn more about the story behind this tremendous achievement — one of every Legendary 2022 NBA Finals Moment, all with the #5 serial number.
“Numbers are meaningful to me” was at the heart of this pursuit, and the number five specifically holds a special place in their heart. A series of significant family events, birthdays, anniversaries and milestones are all connected by the number five, which makes the “2022 Finals #5 Project” extra special.
Congrats, Rubixcube, on this amazing tribute to the NBA Finals!
COMMUNITY COLLECTOR SPOTLIGHT: JEFFREY ROWE AKA JAYAAARRGH
Earlier this summer, Canadian actor and Toronto Raptors fan Jeffrey Rowe, known as “jayaaarrrgh” on NBA Top Shot, accomplished a collecting feat so impressive we had to dive deeper into the story behind it.
Dubbed by Jeffrey as the “NBA @ 75 Showcase Collection,” this tribute to NBA history and Top Shot numerology was a project that spanned months of collecting and curation.
The goal? Build a Showcase featuring 10 Moments with serial numbers of a specific year in history across the NBA’s 75 years, in honor of the NBA’s 75th season, spanning from 1949 to 2022.
We sat down with Jeffrey to get the story behind this incredible achievement and the 750 Moments behind it.
What motivated you to pursue this special collecting goal? It’s a bold plan!
The initial motivation on "year" serials started with me collecting my birth year serials not long after joining Top Shot (Feb 2021), as I imagine happens with plenty of other collectors. That then led to me collecting my brothers' birth years — I wanted to get them into Top Shot, so had planned on gifting them some of their birth year serials once they joined.
This then led to collecting other birth year numbers that meant something to me - ie. 1984, as I'd read Orwell in my teens and it had a big impact on me. As we got closer to the start of the 21-22 season, I started seeing plenty of the 75th NBA season content that was out there.
That inspired me to do something through Top Shot to celebrate the league. Not long after that the focus began on collecting all 75 years worth of serials to make a showcase series.
I had NO idea it would literally take me the entire year to complete it either.
Actually, if it weren't for Livetoken alerts, I likely wouldn’t have been able to complete it this fast either. I literally was buying these moments almost every day for 9 months.
What year showcase was your favorite, easiest and hardest to collect and complete?
I’d say my favourite to collect was the year of The Walkman.
I can neither confirm nor deny that that is my birth year — 1979. I wanted to make it look the coolest of all the showcases, so I included a variety of Rare, Common, Challenge Reward and 4 Badge Rookie Debut Moments from different sets. As a Canadian, I had to include my basketball hero, Steve Nash's '79 (from Vintage Vibes).
I wanted to include a bit of the past and the present, both in common and rare form, so I've got LBJ and Luka (from ASG 21) and then 5 rookie 4 badges, starting off with the man from Rexdale.
The last 2 moments are from one of my favourite sets on Top Shot — MSFE, which matched well with the VV Nash.
As an aside, I just did a quick count and I'm closing in on owning 100 moments from 1979!
If I recall correctly, the hardest year to complete was a toss up between the year 2000 and the year 2021.
No one was putting any of those moments anywhere near the low ask on the MP and I didn't feel like paying 2-10X for most of the moments that were available throughout the year.
I was patient and just waited til the right moments (ie. All stars, future HOFers, FEs or Raps) came along at the right price point. It all worked out in the end.
The easiest to collect and acquire was the 1960s.
I'm assuming this might be because there are likely less collectors on TS in their 50s and 60s than there are in their 40s and under, but who knows, eh?
Amazing. You obviously have a real appreciation for the art of collecting. Serial numbers and years aside, what are your five favorite Moments in your collection, and what Moment don't you have yet that's at the top of your list?
Domo arigato! I've always been a collector of things, from stamps and coins to cardboard and TS Moments.
My 5 favourite Moments in my collection? In no particular order:
- #2 The Answer RIB TSD
- #5 Shaq RIB TSD
- #10 LBJ Cosmic TSD
- #62 KD RIB TSD
- #169 Steph MGLE TSD
Since I joined in February of 2021, I didn't really ever see a decent price on most S1 legendaries. I recently acquired the #10 LBJ Cosmic together with my two brothers, so the Moment(s) I don't have yet that's at the top of my list are all of the other Cosmic and HOLO MMXX TSD Moments.
Only time (and the success of my next films) will tell whether I can acquire them or not! :)
Thanks so much for reaching out to me about my project. I truly hope doing this can inspire others to the collecting aspect of Top Shot. Build it and they will come. Happy collecting to all!
You can browse Jeffrey’s NBA @ 75 Showcase Collection By Decade here.
Thank you for tuning in for the July 2022 NBA Top Shot Community Spotlight! We can't wait to see all of your incredible collecting milestones and achievements this August, and stay tuned for more from our Team Captains and community in the coming days and weeks.
