Editor’s note: this is a guest post by the one and only Mrs. Space Cowboy.
Thank you all for engaging in Mr. Space Cowboy’s substack. Watching his passion for basketball and crypto blend within an environment so keen on building community has been magical.
Love at First Bit
It began with our first few dates: a shared love of competitive sports over a few beers led to a few innocent inquiries into my knowledge of Bitcoin. At the time, my understanding was limited to a few cautionary tales from early news reports. From there on out we spent countless late nights discussing the endless possibilities of a decentralized system.
If your brain just heard the record skip and wondered, “Is she saying this guy won her over with midnight Bitcoin chats?” The answer is yes. What else could be more romantic than discovering someone who so deeply believed in removing big institutions and putting power back into the hands of the people?!
Little did I know this was my Alice moment into the metaverse rabbit hole.
Top Shot Or Die
The first time I heard the little Top Shot “jingle,” Mr. Space Cowboy rushed into the kitchen while I was cooking dinner, grinning ear to ear, and showed me a quick video of a LeBron dunk.
This marked Mr. Space Cowboy’s evolution from coin holder to Top Shot fanatic and NFT collector. I would have never guessed I would spend countless moments dancing to that bass drop with each pack drop or that I would be the number one cheerleader of his CryptoPunk purchase, because after all he was building a brand that bridged two worlds together.
I had remarked how Twitter interaction reminded me of trivia night at the local pub. There’s the old guard of indie kids and the new wave jocks. It appeared to be high school all over again with the old guard feigning intellectual superiority, while the jocks dismissed or bullied the nerds. Each group remained in their echo chamber, without considering they were drinking at the same goddamn pub. Then in walks a cowboy donning a VR headset that can spit sports facts faster than you can order a sarsaparilla.
I have heard numerous pejorative remarks questioning the value of paying exorbitant amounts of moolah on clips one can find gratis on YouTube.
To this I respond: “You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation.” -Beyoncé.
Clearly these aren’t mere clips. Top Shot provides an outlet for people devoted to sports and seek an avenue to share their collector stories. It shatters the old days of privately collecting cards in a box under the bed and never talking about it again.
Mr. Space Cowboy’s involvement in the Top Shot community has tremendous perks: thousands of his TS friends celebrated as we rocked our gold hats court side celebrating his birthday at a playoff game, with the huge added bonus of being highlighted in the fucking KD moment!!!
How many people can say that relative strangers were equally pumped for our once in a lifetime moment? It is so humbling to be involved with such a tight knit crew.
This community grinds hard for what they have, but understand that at the end of the day, it’s about relationships. If basketball moments can bring hundreds of thousands of people together on Twitter every day, then fuck yes sign us up!
Winner Winner, DeStefano’s Steak Dinner
Speaking of moments, the winner of the KD MGLE is:
Paul Hussmann:
I've only been to New York one time in my life. It was the summer of 2013 and I had just finished my first semester of a master's in school counseling program at the University of Missouri St. Louis. Six months earlier I made the decision to leave my fairly lucrative job at a major financial firm to pursue my passion of serving the mental health needs of marginalized youth in our country. I signed up for a cultural immersion program in New York that summer that changed my life. The program was 10 days and spanned all 5 boroughs of New York. We met with students, community leaders, and school administrators all with the purpose of immersing ourselves in the opportunity to learn how to serve a wide range of students. We learned about the unique needs of students of different races, religions, sexualities, gender identities, and socioeconomic classes. We also spent time going to various museums, restaurants, and I even made it over to Rucker Park to watch a couple pickup games.
A group of us went to Brooklyn one night grabbed some pizza and just walked around and took everything in. I took a bunch of pictures of murals that stood out to me and looking back at them now it really connects me to this NFT world I've dipped my toes in the last few months. The unique beauty of them was awe inspiring and just one of the many things I took home with me from that trip.
I just now finished my 6th year as a school counselor and girls' basketball coach at a public school here in St. Louis. It was an incredibly tough year as I watched many of my students who needed the most help were even harder to reach and serve due to the pandemic. I certainly used all of the training and experience I gained from my trip to New York to serve them the best I could and will continue to do so going forward. I'm grateful that I discovered Top Shot a few months ago and it has provided me with a really cool hobby and has introduced me to some awesome people I would never have interacted with before. Glad to be a part of this community!
I'll reply to your tweet with some of the murals I saw that night in Brooklyn because I can't figure out how to add them to this post.
Thanks for reading. As always, hope you enjoyed. If you did, please consider subscribing or sharing this post.
Truly appreciate everyone’s participation. It made for a very tough decision. So much so, here are a few runner-ups that will also be receiving a moment:
1 - TheDailyDile:
It was all a dream... I used to read up on NFT’s. Roham & Jacob up in the C-Suite. Hanging moments on my wall. Every Friday, office hours, discord call. I let my collection rock, until my credit card popped. Smoking out of stress, as I missed the pack drop. Way back there were trades on general chat, with the sales to match.
Now I’m in the limelight cause my golden hat is tight. Time to get paid, before I blow up my interest rates. Born Collector, opposite of a flipper...
And if you don’t know, now you know Cowboy :)
2 - ivomilo09:
Memories of Brooklyn-
It was 2014. Made a trip out there with my parents not knowing it would be our last family trip together. The memories of going to Barclay's to watch the Nets play the Blazers I will cherish forever. My Pops was a huge Mo Will and Dame fan and naturally I followed suit. Also, loved me some KG and "The Truth" Paul Pierce. The game wasn't even close, but my dad being my dad, was just cheesing with his smile ear to ear with Mo Will dropping 21 and 7 and Dame ending with 14. I wish I could say we went to a fancy dinner or a "nice" restaurant to celebrate, but we ended up just grabbing a Pizza pie at Ginos in Prospect Heights and enjoyed our slices in Prospect Park. My parents were old school and they taught me to live an enjoyable life and all that glitters isn't gold.
They say "Cherish" the little things in life..... After reading your story and sharing mine, it really is about the little things in life we take for granted on a daily basis. Now living in Portland, I am hoping to get back out to Brooklyn and go to another game at Barclay's.... Preferably, in fine spirit, vs the Blazers.
3 - IliaPeno:
Honestly, cant say much about Brooklyn as I have never visited it...but I can say something about Brooklyn Nets...! As someone coming from Albania (a small country in Europe) basketball is not really a popular sport, i didn't know much about it and never had I watched a game. But, I got to meet in Europe this amazing American girl and I am so happy that recently we just got married. I moved to US and we have now both started our graduate studies here in the US. Coming here I came to realize how deep is the American passion for basketball, I loved the energy around it and how people were so hooked on it. I saw this even more through the eyes of my father in law (a basketball coach) and through my two brother's in law who have always played basketball. I wanted to find a way to connect with them and I knew basketball would be a great bondage method. I decided to watch a basketball game and interestingly enough the first one I saw was this year and it was the Brooklyn Nets playing. I had heard about great names such as Irving, Harden and surely Durant... but to me those were just names... Everything regarding basketball changed after that game... I grew a desire to watch more and more and this has resulted in many interesting conversations with my family in law. The game, the talent, the team work, passion, hustle and so much more that I saw in Brooklyn Nets made me hooked to basketball. Since then I tried to watch every game they played and the Durant MGLE is my top favorite game moment I have ever seen live on TV myself. (while I am certain there are amazing other highlights and historical moments.) In summary, I could say, with Brooklyn Nets...it was love in first sight!!
Even if I may not be chosen I am thankful I got to share my short story with you!
All the best.
4 - J Hende:
I unfortunately don't have a Brooklyn specific story to share having never had the opportunity to visit; however I definitely felt the need to comment. I absolutely loved everything about this article. I think you got the title of it spot on, not necessarily due to the geographic location, but because it is where you were able to make these special memories with your wife! My wife and kids are the center of my universe as well, so I love that you were able to document this with your wife and share it with the TopShot community. My favorite thing about TopShot has been the community I have been introduced to and I love to see that community start carrying over into real life! It is often to easy to become obsessed with the next big thing in the digital world when what really matters is making memories with the our loved when in the physical world. I am proud to see you live that out and grateful for you sharing this experience along with all you do for the TopShot community! Thank you!
5 - GaryShav:
The year was 2013, I was living in Yonkers and working as a door to door salesman for a company that offered renewable energy to consumers. I was working in Brooklyn that day on Flatbush Ave, I knocked on a door of a man named “Jose” who's English was not the greatest and my Spanish is not the greatest. As I was explaining or trying to explain my purpose to Jose, I hear him say “you like the Nets, you know basketball?” My eyes lit up 👀 “of course”. Jose proceeded to take me downstairs of the apartment building (he lived on the 18th floor, no elevator) walked me across the street to The Barclays Center (6-7ish P.M. on a Tuesday) nothing going on at the arena, Jose brings me to a door around the side only used for workers, unlocks the door and says “court, you like, I show you”. We went into Barclays Center and stood up top and looked at the court/arena. Being a kid from Upstate NY, Syracuse I had only been to the Carrier Dome prior to that. I was so into the moment, I never took a picture or anything. I only have Jose and the memory and I think I’ll remember Jose forever!!