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Kevin Durant has made another winning play. A few months after winning an Olympic gold medal with Team USA at Tokyo 2021, Durant’s media and philanthropy company Thirty Five Ventures and blockchain technology company Dapper Labs announced a multi-year partnership along with Boardroom media network on Wednesday.
Durant and his media company will have a creative development role as part of the landmark deal between Dapper Labs and Boardroom media, with KD curating and creating NBA Top Shot moments and multimedia projects.
Speaking on the announcement of the new deal, Durant said:
“Top Shot is the future for basketball fans, bringing them closer to players and building community across the sport in new and innovative ways. At Boardroom, we’ve also been at the forefront of the NFT space, and I’m excited to partner in advancing NFTs further into the mainstream, creating and curating exclusive Moments and content with Top Shot.”
Thirty Five Ventures and Boardroom co-founder and CEO Rich Kleiman added:
“Thirty Five Ventures has been supporters of and investors in Dapper Labs for some time and we’re thrilled for the opportunity to further partner with them and expand our coverage of NBA Top Shot across all of Boardroom’s properties.”
Dapper Labs is the company behind NBA Top Shot. In layman’s terms, NBA Top Shot is the digital ownership of a particular NBA moment. Each moment – a short video from multiple angles – on Top Shot constitutes a Non-fungible token (NFT). No two NFTs are the same and can be bought, sold and traded in the digital marketplace.
Earlier this year, Dapper Labs had announced a $305 million funding round that featured several high-profile investors such as Michael Jordan and Durant.
Durant expected to win 2021-22 MVP
Along with the announcement of the new business venture, Durant is also widely expected to win the 2021-22 NBA league MVP as per the league’s annual GM survey results. According to the survey results, which were revealed last week, 37.0% of the GMs polled believed Durant will win his second league MVP in the league’s 75th anniversary season.
The annual GM survey also overwhelmingly picked Durant’s team, the Brooklyn Nets, to win the 2021-22 NBA title. A whopping 72.0% of the respondents picked Brooklyn to win their first NBA championship.
The only significant dampener in what has otherwise been a good year for Durant is teammate Kyrie Irving’s non-availability to the Nets, owing to the latter’s unvaccinated status. A statement released by Nets GM Sean Marks on Tuesday confirmed that Irving would be fully ruled out until he fulfills New York City vaccination rules.
Even with Irving out, Durant is expected to lead the Nets to a strong 2021-22 campaign. Not only is Durant currently regarded as the best player in the world, he is surrounded by a lot of talent, with players like James Harden, Blake Griffin, Patty Mills and LaMarcus Aldridge featuring on the Nets.
