Author: Zen, PANews
In today's (July 23) NBA Summer League finals between the Grizzlies and the Heat, the Heat finally won the Grizzlies with a buzzer beater in overtime. In this game, the Grizzlies player Scotty Pippen Jr. played well, scoring 29 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks.
Pippen's all-around performance reminds people of his father, Scottie Pippen, an all-around small forward who helped Michael Jordan build the Bulls dynasty. The NBA star, who has retired for 20 years, now seems to be considering investing in cryptocurrencies.
"Ethereum or Solana?" On July 21, Pippen posted a question on the X platform, which attracted a lot of attention and comments from people in the crypto industry. For example, Billy Marcus, co-founder of Dogecoin, clearly replied that he supports Dogecoin as the first choice. Others laughed and said, "It's a lie, you don't tip at all" (Pippen was widely ridiculed for not tipping in restaurants and earned the nickname "Pippen who doesn't tip").
This refreshing tweet is in stark contrast to the large number of pictures and texts Pippen has posted on social media in the past on themes such as "nostalgia", "retro", and "family". In the next two tweets, Pippen first asked "MEME tokens or utility coins?" and then said this morning that "something big is going to happen on the blockchain! It's still a secret."
Two years ago, a virtual sneaker-themed NFT series was released
Three consecutive tweets related to blockchain and cryptocurrency indicate that the nearly 60-year-old veteran is getting involved in the crypto industry. In fact, this is not the first time Pippen has mentioned cryptocurrency on Twitter. His first foray into the digital asset field dates back to two years ago.
In December 2022, Pippen partnered with NFT startup Orange Comet to launch his own NFT sneaker series "Scottie PippenSP33". At that time, the NFT craze had not yet dissipated, and the series was a great success with Pippen's star halo, and one thousand NFTs were sold out in less than two minutes. Pippen immediately tweeted to express his gratitude, saying that he was "humbled" by the quick sell-out. According to Coingecko data, the floor price of the series soared to 0.347 ETH on December 23, 2022, but has since fallen by nearly 96.5%.
After retiring, his investment failed and his income of hundreds of millions of dollars was squandered
As early as 2012, Pippen was revealed to be facing a bankruptcy crisis. His success on the court did not help him make any achievements in financial management, and he had gradually squandered his career total income of $120 million.
Pippen once handed over a large amount of money to a financial institution, but the institution said "investment failed" and Pippen lost 25 million US dollars. In addition, Pippen spent 4 million US dollars to buy a jet, but the plane crashed just a few months later. All these things made Pippen's financial situation miserable. In 2007, he even considered returning to play, but it ended up in nothing. Today, Pippen's main business is to be a farmer in his hometown of Arkansas, running a farm with his brother, and occasionally appearing as a media guest on various programs.
Two years ago, just as the "Scottie PippenSP33" series was officially released, Pippen talked about his entry into the cryptocurrency field but why he did not buy any tokens on CoinDesk TV. He said, "I'm a little scared. If I don't go all out, I won't touch it at all." Perhaps it was the failed investment experience in his early years that made Pippen more cautious about venture capital. Compared with investing in digital assets with fluctuating prices, he prefers a way to make a steady profit without losing money. Therefore, Pippen's recent tweet may not be a question about investment, but a question: (If I issue a coin) should I choose Ethereum or Solana? "Big things are going to happen on the blockchain" is also more like a preview of the upcoming launch of celebrity tokens.
Recently, various celebrity tokens have been very popular, and several celebrity tokens related to "the world's top star" Trump are particularly popular. In the entertainment industry, rap star Iggy Azazalea launched her own token MOTHER, which continued to soar in the first week after its release, reaching a market value of up to 200 million US dollars. In this wave of enthusiasm, will Pippen, who is eager to take action, release his own token, and how will it trend? PANews will continue to pay attention.
