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By Robbie Spencer, NBA Top Shot Collector and Nine Lives Lounge Co-Chair
NBA Top Shot is at its best when it’s celebrating and bringing together the Fan Communities who fuel the passion of NBA fandom and enthusiasm for these first-of-their-kind digital collectibles. The Jurassic Pack of the Toronto Raptors is one of the best examples of these groups, who were able to celebrate together when the Top Shot Tour stopped in Toronto.
I had never been to Canada until this weekend. I wasn’t sure what to expect — what I found was a vibrant city full of amazing restaurants, and a whole lot of Raptors fans.
The Tour event took collectors to the heart of downtown Toronto at Second Floor Events. It was a cold day, so there wasn’t anyone outside the venue and I had a moment of panic. Was I going to be one of just a few people here? I walked in the door and was met by a deluge of sounds and excitement from more than 100 voices.
The room was decked out with NBA Top Shot signage, food and drinks were being served throughout the room, and there was a design-your-own-sneaker station in the back corner.
It was great putting faces to some of the many names I’ve connected with over the last year-plus on Top Shot.
Steve, one of the biggest collectors on the platform, is also a huge Raptors fan and was there.
Damochaprince came to cheer on his Golden State Warriors (boo!).
Dagger7, a Cleveland Cavaliers fan community captain, made the drive from Ohio.
I serve on the Nine Lives Lounge community council — and we gave away a complete Cool Cats set at the event (which earns you access to the Lounge, where you’ll find a community of the most passionate Top Shot collectors), and the winner just so happened to be walking right by me when I said his username to Meg Patten, the maestro of Top Shot’s amazing events team.
It was a surreal moment that we shared, seeing this digital world come to life in front of us. We also bought game tickets for any NLL member who didn’t have one. One collector told me he was bringing his 5-year-old son to his first-ever NBA game, thanks to the Lounge.
José Calderón was a gracious and engaging host — he took questions from the Top Shot team and attendees, and then proceeded to take photos and signed autographs for literally anyone in the room who wanted one.
After the event, I went to dinner with some members of the Jurassic Pack Fan Community and other Nine Lives Lounge members.
We set a time to meet Sunday morning and watch the World Cup final, which turned out to be one of the greatest matches ever. We hit an arcade after and I crushed Top Shot Moment curator Austin Kent and a few collectors in a pop-a-shot game (sorry guys, I might have one in my basement at home).
After a laidback afternoon, Top Shot nation converged on Scotiabank Arena, where hundreds of us watched the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors face off.
NBA Top Shot is at its best when it’s bringing us crazy basketball fans together to celebrate a sport that has brought joy to countless millions around the globe for more than a century.
Having opportunities like this to bring me closer to the game, and interact with those at the pinnacle of the sport, is why I keep coming back and continue to enjoy this platform.
Wine Tasting With Klay
As an active member of the Top Shot community, I’ve made a number of friends and met a lot of people I would’ve never met had it not been for this platform. One of those people happens to be one of our best ambassadors and collectors, fellow Nine Lives Lounge council member Eddiedunks.
Before becoming Co-Chair of the Nine Lives Lounge, I wrote about Top Shot for a fan-made media website covering the platform and various NFT projects. Eddie reached out to me one day after he read one of my articles, and we accidentally realized that we lived about 20 minutes from each other. We met up a few times after that for lunch and talked Top Shot, and quickly became friends.
We’ve spent a lot of time talking Top Shot, advocating for its collectors, and just sharing our enthusiasm for the NBA (in his case, mostly it’s about how great Nikola Jokic is…).
Eddie was nominated for a spot at the Klay Thompson meet and greet in San Francisco. After he won, he sent me a message I couldn’t believe I was reading.
“Want to go meet Klay with me?”
Less than an hour later I was booking flights and finding a hotel room in San Francisco, plotting to go meet an NBA superstar with my friend a few short weeks later.
We met up in San Francisco the afternoon of the game and made our way to the Chase Center. We took in the game from one of the box suites along with 7 other Top Shot collectors and their guests. It happened to be the collector Alxo’s birthday that day. The drinks were flowing, the food was great, and there was cake! And Top Shot-branded cookies.
After the game (a Warriors win in which Klay did not play), things got interesting.
As thousands of fans made their way to the exits, we were whisked away to a side staircase and made our way to a hallway in the bowels of the arena. We were sent through a security lane again and then another side door opened. We were packed into a small hallway adorned with vintage-looking red wallpaper, and extremely old photos of past iterations of the Warriors — the Philadelphia Warriors. As I looked at each of the photos (I saw Wilt Chamberlain towering over the team in one shot), Andre Iguodala casually walked by us and said hello. Thank you for your service to my Miami Heat, sir.
We were ushered into Miller & Lux, a fine-dining restaurant hidden away in the Chase Center. We walked by dozens of patrons eating dinner and drinking wine and went into a private room behind a curtain, where wine and hors d’oeuvres were waiting for us, along with holiday gift baskets. They each had a bottle of wine from Klay’s vineyard, along with a Klay Thompson jersey and an original NBA Top Shot This shirt from 2021. I couldn’t help but geek out over getting one of the OG Top Shot tees.
After about 15 minutes, Klay Thompson popped through the curtain. He grabbed a glass of chardonnay and said hello to everyone, and asked if anyone had any questions. Klay spent about 30 minutes with us — he answered questions, sipped and discussed his wine with us, and took pictures with anyone who wanted one. I told him the wine had a smooth finish. He asked me if that was a good thing — sorry Klay, I don’t know bro. I just thought it was tasty.
Klay took some photos with me — in one of our outtakes, he threw the camera the same snarl he made after dunking in his first game back from a 941-day hiatus, a Moment that was minted on Top Shot (and I currently own). It’s a little blurry, but man does that photo make me smile.
A highlight of his interaction with the collectors was when one of them showed him a moment (not Moment) on his phone — of his 12-year-old son making a slick move in one of his recent basketball games.
Klay graciously shared a little advice for the dad to bring back to his boy, took a few more pictures, and then he was gone.
It wasn’t a bad way to end a night of watching some NBA basketball with some of his biggest NBA Top Shot collectors.
