Summary
For those with too little time…
I discuss four quotes, ending with Abraham Lincoln: If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.
Video Breakdown: The Greatness of LeBron James in Four Plays
Separate deep-dive video breakdown of LeBron’s famous “The Block”.
NFTs/Top Shots are like digital baseball cards whose perceived value comes from verifiable scarcity. WSJ article here.
Latest podcast episode is up: an interview with Dan Healy of the Miami Heat UK website. Podcast archive here.
“The Ballad of Kelly Olynyk” drops Monday.
Four Quotes
I'm probably pretty boring to watch a game with because I'm all about expected values. I don't even care if it goes in or not, I’m all about, '‘Should it go in?’' I can live with randomness. - Sam Hinkie
Hinkie, of course, oversaw the famed, and infamous, “Process” in trying to rebuild the 76ers.
He largely succeeded, drafting Joel Emiid and putting the Sixers in position to draft Ben Simmons. It was a pyrrhic victory though, as he was forced out three months before draft day.
Upon resigning Hinkie submitted a letter that is a masterclass in patience and calm.
One of my favorite quotes from Hinkie’s letter is when he discusses separating process from outcome in the drafting of Joel Embiid (five years before Embiid became a leading MVP candidate):
You can be right for the wrong reasons. In our business, you’re often lionized for it. You can be wrong for the right reasons. This may well prove to be Joel Embiid. There is signal everywhere that Joel is unique… We remain hopeful (and optimistic) about his long-term playing career, but we don’t yet know exactly how it will turn out. The decision to draft Joel third, though, still looks to me to be the correct one in hindsight given the underlying reasoning…
The next quote comes from programmer and writer Paul Graham, who’s blog has some fascinating articles about thinking and learning.
In one post, titled How We Know, Graham cites Constance Reid’s biography of Hilbert. I don’t know who Hilbert is (or Constance Reid, for that matter) but the quote stuck with me:
Hilbert had no patience with mathematical lectures which filled the students with facts but did not teach them how to frame a problem and solve it. He often used to tell them that "a perfect formulation of a problem is already half its solution."
Or, to quote Lincoln:
If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.
The Greatness of LeBron James
In my latest video breakdown I take one play from each quarter of Game 7 of the 2016 Cleveland/Golden State NBA Finals to demonstrate the greatness of LeBron James.
None of these plays are earth-shattering but, together, they demonstrate the ability of LeBron James to positively impact the game all over the court…
You can see my other video breakdowns here.
The Block
And, if you just want a breakdown of “The Block,” well, here you go…
NFTs
You’ve heard about NFTs, right? The latest hot thing…
They are basically digital trading cards that create value through scarcity.
So scarce that someone paid $208,000 for a video of LeBron James dunking, even though you can find that same clip for free on YouTube.
So how does an NFT have value?
Well, you could take a mint Honus Wagner baseball card and photocopy it. The photocopy would be worthless. The actual card is worth more than three million dollars.
Same concept with NFTs.
Due to blockchain technology, the NFT of LeBron dunking is a one of one, like the Wagner baseball card.
It has verified scarcity and, thus, perceived value.
Are NFTs the next big thing or the next big fad (and, eventually, bust)?
The Wall Street Journal has a nice article on NFTs and the NBA (who have partnered with a company to create NBA specific NFTs called Top Shot).
Key grafs:
(Levy) was so convinced that he decided to spend $175,000 over the next six months on digital trading cards. They are now worth $20 million.
The investment was a sizable one for Levy, a 31-year-old financial analyst who says his interests are sports, poker, markets and “trying to identify advantages and edges,” but it appears that he found the latter in Top Shot. It’s why he’s not selling.
“I continue to think it’s an asymmetric bet with fantastic upside,” he said.
Levy is one of the biggest winners of a manic new market that true believers say is the future of collecting and skeptics call a slightly absurd form of speculation. At the center of the frenzy are assets known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which use the blockchain technology powering cryptocurrencies to authenticate digital art, memorable tweets and a remarkable variety of ephemera suddenly worth a mind-blowing amount of money.
The most popular and perhaps most confounding NFT market is NBA Top Shot. It has minted unlikely millionaires and left many scratching their heads as it processed more than $250 million in sales from 100,000 buyers over the last month alone.
Adhering to one of my favorite maxims, “Know what you don’t know,” I will not be participating in Top Shot/NFT purchases as I know nothing about that world.
But… I’m intrigued.
Something to keep an eye on…
Podcast
Latest podcast episode with Dan Healy, of the Miami Heat UK site and podcast, is up.
Dan is great, talking all things Miami Heat and offering tips on successful podcasting, including this gem:
If you’re not enjoying it, your listeners won’t enjoy it.
I’m still working out the kinks in my podcast set-up. Please note that the audio on my end is terrible (and, as a result, I upgraded my mic which should help immensely for future pods) but, fortunately, Dan does most of the talking.
Archive of past episodes here.
Coming Monday
I mentioned in previous posts that I have an article titled “The Ballad of Kelly Olynyk.” It’s ready but I’m trying to keep my posts/emails shorter (too late) so I’ll save that for Monday.
Have a great day out there in the sim…
Benbo