Sacramento Kings star Tyrese Haliburton just flexed his Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT into his sneaker on the court against the New Orleans Pelicans. For the casual, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the largest NFT projects out there and the cheapest one right now is worth 31.9Ξ ( Ethereum) , which converts to roughly $145,000 at the time of writing.
And, the Kings guard is the proud owner of BAYC #8409, which he decided to slap on his sneaker on Wednesday night. Check out Haliburton making both sneaker and NFT history with his BAYC-inspired kicks (via Sacramento Kings):
For what it’s worth, Haliburton’s BAYC NFT probably costs upwards of $145,000, making your on-court shoe that much more valuable. See you Tyrese.
Haliburton’s choice of kicks was actually a great rebuttal to a Twitter taunt by BAYC co-owner Josh Hart. Before their matchup on Wednesday, Hart tweeted and taunted the young Kings star that his BAYC is way better than his. But Haliburton’s response (plus his actual flex) was too epic:
In addition to winning this Twitter friendly duel, Haliburton and the Kings ended up winning the Bored Ape battle on the court with a huge 112-99 home win over the Hart’s Pelicans. I guess the shoes helped.
The Haliburton kings have also been big believers in cryptocurrencies. In addition to launching their own NFT, the Kings earlier this year also announced that they are giving their players the option to get paid via crypto. No wonder Tyrese Haliburton has all this ETH lying around.
For any NFT skeptics out there, BAYC is arguably the biggest metaverse project to hit the blockchain this year. It has amassed a total of $623 million since its inception last April (via CryptoSlam) and other NBA stars besides Haliburton and Hart like the Charlotte Hornets’ LaMelo Ball and even the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry have also ‘imitated’. ‘ and they’ve invested a ton of money in the project.
This is not surprising really with the NFT boom increasing exponentially this year. With Etheruem cementing its place as the second largest cryptocurrency in the metaverse with a market capitalization of over $500 billion, the use cases for these digital currencies like these NFTs have been on the rise. Projects like BAYC and CryptoPunks have led the way, but the NBA has also made a dent in the metaverse by officially licensing its own NFT project called NBA Top Shot, which players like Haliburton and even Miami Heat icon Dwyane Wade, they have been actively promoting.
It’s been a big week for the NFT space as the entire metaverse celebrates #NFTNYC with collectors from around the world gathering in New York City for this annual IRL conference. In addition to Haliburton showing off its ape, other big retail brands like Nike and McDonald’s have also dipped into the metaverse as we continue to see mass adoption unfold before our eyes.
NFTs are here to stay and it’s really up to you if you want to join the spaceship before it launches to the moon.
