Playoffs on Top Shot: Minted Immortality

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (in the official Christmas singing tune).  Ah yes, the NBA Playoffs.  NBA fans' equivalent of March Madness, where we have the play-in bracket and multiple games nightly in the early rounds.  Every minute matters, every game matters, there is no resting of players unless they are really hurt, the arenas are raucous and the endings are historical.  There is nothing like a back-and-forth playoff series with memorable moments.  Whether it’s your favorite team or favorite player or just a special moment you’ll never forget, the NBA Playoffs are built for moments.

My Washington Wizards don’t have too many options on the NBA Top Shot playoff moment category to choose from, but on the personal side, I’ve shared on the blog before some of my favorite memories through the Playoffs, whether it be the Valley Oop from Deandre Ayton, the Shhh Trae Young moment, the Herro legendary snarl and playoff Jimmy moments from last season.  If you’re lucky enough to hit up playoff games in person that wind up being minted moments, they are ones you lock up and keep a lifetime.  For most of us, it’s sharing the moments with friends, family, the Twitter machine, maybe even the Collectin’ & Connectin’ community 😉 Every year we see the emergence of new star players from Tyer Herro (shoutout S1) to Devin Booker to Tyrese Maxey to what feels like Anthony Edwards this year and there is no better way to capture those ascents than in the playoff moments. I love being able to watch a video lineage of a player emerging through the games we watched and felt it happening real time.

This season we already have unforgettable moments (both from the same night) from the Donte DiVincenzo controversial three pointer and the circus fall away shot from Jamal Murray, both absolutely wind up minted in the rare tier.  As a collector on Top Shot, you would be hard pressed to find a series that tells a better collective story than the playoff moments.  That is one of the best parts of Top Shot, having the moments that tell a story. The only challenge is locating them all through the playoff common sets, And Then There Were Four, Finals sets, S1 has random base moments and some mixed in legendary moments like the unforgettable Kyrie dagger in Cleveland.  I wish Top Shot had a way to tag the playoff moments across all the various sets and not just by the set name.  I think these are true collectible pieces that new users would gravitate towards, regardless of season, and existing collectors keep adding over time to their collections.

As we watch history unfold over time, the vast majority of what we see is from the truly special moments when it matters in the playoffs.  Top Shot is built to tell the history of the NBA Playoffs throughout their chronology, and I think focusing on those sets and moments is a huge opportunity to drive growth and expand collections.  Unlike the base set commons or the subset commons or even some of the rares, these playoff moments are timeless.  Even the most basic of playoff moments are timeless moments in history of those players on the biggest stage.  Top Shot may be the future of fandom, but it also will capture and store the history of the NBA’s best plays and most important plays.  The playoff series each year is a fun time capsule to go back to year over year.  As a big proponent of WATCH YOUR MOMENTS, playoff moments are some of the most fun to relive and rewatch. Don't sleep on that S2 Playoff common set either!

I’ll touch on redemptions quick.  Personally, I love this concept and think it’s the perfect way to control supply, have an engaging way for people to follow along in the playoffs and connect to the moments being minted.  I don’t personally love a rare tier and a fandom tier on the surface, but I will refrain until after we experience it for a season until the end to really form my opinion.  I just don’t love initially that the fandom set doesn’t feel important since they keep pumping that the rare tier is going to have the best moments.  At the end of the day though, Top Shot is designed to be fun, whatever that means to you.  The redemption path keeps some game theory, some investing theory, some collecting theory and an engaging way to watch the playoffs nightly.  There’s something for everyone here and it’s a fun way to culminate the season.  I like the control your own destiny and collect the teams/players you love.  Even if your team loses, there is still a strong shot you will have a memorable playoff moment minted from a player you love or a play you’ll remember. 

As a Wizards fan, I hope our time will come again where we get to mint a Bilal playoff moment, but until then I just enjoy rooting for my secondary teams and hoping for memorable moments from players I enjoy watching in the playoffs.  This is a peak of what Top Shot history should be about for collectors.  The best plays from the biggest games with a unique minting experience.  Personally, I always enjoy watching the crowd reactions in the big moments.  They’re always the best in the playoffs.  Go dig into your playoff moments or on the marketplace; you’re bound to find some gems while you get ready for this year's history making moments to be minted.

If  you made it this far, thanks for reading or at least clicking the link if you just scrolled to the bottom.  To help celebrate the playoffs, we’re going to giveaway 5 playoff moments from over the years.  To enter to win, all you need to do is comment either a link to or a screen shot of your favorite playoff moment minted on Top Shot, along with your TS name and also retweet the official Collectin & Connectin tweet of this blog post!  Contest ends 1 week at 11:59pm after the tweet goes live with the blog post.

Until next time, tell more stories, watch more moments and we ride at dawn…