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NBA star Dinwiddie says investing in blockchain is a 'no-brainer'

Brooklyn Nets player Spencer Dinwiddie joins Yahoo Finance's Dan Roberts for the Business Blitz to discuss his involvement in Dapper Labs' $12 million blockchain funding round.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: While the NBA restart continues at Disney World, NBA players are also thinking about their investments off the court. A number of them just participated in a blockchain funding round that was announced today. Dan Roberts has more in the

JULIE HYMAN: Business Blitz." Dan?

DAN ROBERTS: Thanks, Julie. Yep, you know I love talking about crypto and blockchain. And that funding round you mentioned includes a lot of names we know and talk about a lot, Coinbase, Samsung, and it also includes investments from a lot of NBA players, including Spencer Dinwiddie of the Brooklyn Nets, and Spencer joins me now. Spencer, thanks for coming on.

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SPENCER DINWIDDIE: Thank you for having me, Dan. I appreciate it.

DAN ROBERTS: Let's talk about this, because a lot of athletes have gotten into crypto and blockchain-- Richard Sherman, notably. Floyd Mayweather tried it. He got in trouble a while back for pumping in ICO. You have been very much kind of on this train for a while, I would say maybe becoming the crypto guy in the NBA.

Talk to us a little bit about why this is where you've invested in terms of your kind of off the court business. And when you talk about it, do you hear about any skepticism from other guys? And what do you say to them, because there's a lot of skepticism around this space.

SPENCER DINWIDDIE: Yeah, I mean, first I like to say that it's flattering. I think there's a lot of athletes that have probably in this space even longer than I have, so I got to give shout-outs to them. I think the first thing you have to do is kind of break down bitcoin versus blockchain, and then kind of the differences there, between things are trying to be their own currency and things that are, you know, just promoting the technology in general.

Well, what Dapper Labs and the things that they're doing, obviously, famously with CryptoKitties and kind of crashing the Eth network to a certain extent. And now, with their flow blockchain, trying to mitigate some of those, you know, just hardships that come with the Eth 1.0 network right now. And then, you know, having the partnerships with, like, the NBA et cetera, showing big-time corporations that believe in them and their capability to build as well, it's kind of a no-brainer.

The synergy is there, right? It's my career, and then my passion, so--

DAN ROBERTS: That's great. Yeah, and thanks for mentioning. I hadn't even said, you know, the round is a $12 million funding round for Dapper Labs. They're known for CryptoKitties. They also did NBA Top Shot. Now a lot of these are kind of digital collectibles games. And when I've covered them in the past, you know, I mentioned the skepticism. We get a lot of readers and viewers who say, "It's kind of too hard. It's too hard for me to access. I can't quite figure it out."

Now part of what Dapper is doing with the flow blockchain, as I understand it, is trying to make it easier to access. But where do you see all this going? I mean, what's the pie in the sky for what you think blockchain tech can do for either sports, or for entertainment, or, you know, what excites you most about the space if you look maybe five years down the road?

SPENCER DINWIDDIE: Five years, oh, man. I mean, I mean, first, with the NBA Top Shot and Dapper, I mean I know they're trying to basically make Web 3 like Web 2. So obviously, nefty's collectibles, things like that are, the scarcity is built into the blockchain aspects of it, but they want the user feel to be very Web 2, so it's familiar to people.

For me, and where I see blockchain going in five years, I think the true premise of the technology is based on liquidity and transparency. And what I think that'll do is put everything and make everything a chip on the table. What that applies to you and to your industry, whether that entertainment, whether that's real estate, whatever it is, it's got to be on those experts to apply the technology in the most effective and useful ways.

I'm not an expert in all those fields, so I can't tell you, but that's just kind of what I see from a generalist perspective.

DAN ROBERTS: Spencer, you notably tried to tokenize you're NBA contract, which, you know, got a lot of play. It was interesting. That token sale happened. I don't think it sold through. Talk to us a lot about what happened with that? What Did you learn from it? And where do things stand with that effort?

SPENCER DINWIDDIE: Oh, the best part about it was, you know, going back and forth with the NBA and kind of settling on a pilot that they would approve and getting that pilot done and accomplished and being able to talk to those investors and lean on them. It almost kind of functions like a pre-seed for the overall company, which will, you know, go officially live with multiple guys in the next two months or so. So it's in a great place. We're actually very excited about it. And, you know, having the NBA co-sign was a lot more than doing something that was maybe a little bit more fun then had 'em mad at me.

It's much more important to have friends than have enemies, so, you know, I wasn't worried about, you know, sell-through amounts or anything like that. It was much more about the strategic partnerships, making sure the NBA is happy with you. Because obviously, I do have a full-blown career that kind of matters to me.

DAN ROBERTS: Yeah, let's talk about that career. Let's finish this way. You are not in the bubble right now in Disney World, but obviously, we're watching the NBA return. And it's working. You know, the bubble format's working. What are you thinking as you watch from home, and as you watch your team play right now? How do you think it's going?

SPENCER DINWIDDIE: Yeah, I mean, first and foremost for my team, I think they're playing hard. We've got a scrappy group out there, and that's why I'm proud of the way that they're competing. Secondarily for myself, honestly, I wish I was out there. And then third, you know, for the NBA, it just shows the great leadership and the great organization that the NBA is in general, to the job that Adam Silver's done in terms of, you know, working with doctors and medical minds to kind of craft a situation, a scenario that, you know, is the most beneficial for everybody in a tough time.

So, you know, I kind of got to just shout-out all the parties. You know, NBA, Adam Silver, you know, everybody involved that has been able to bring this to life. And right now, I'm a fan, and I'm watching it-- really every game, but obviously watching the Nets more so than the other teams, and just sit on my couch kind of rooting for guys, and then hoping everybody stays safe and enjoying the process.

DAN ROBERTS: All right, awesome. And I told my colleague Brian Cheung I would mention to you, he's a Nets season ticket holder, and a big fan. We'll be seeing you play--

SPENCER DINWIDDIE: Perfect, perfect.

DAN ROBERTS: Especially thank you for joining us. Julie, back to you.

SPENCER DINWIDDIE: Thank you, man.

JULIE HYMAN: Dan, thank you so much, and thanks for bringing us that interview. Really appreciate it.