An NFT project is nothing without it’s community. The users and in this case “holderz” are key in making sure word gets out across the internet and by word of mouth.
BallerzFM sat down with 5 key members of the BALLERZ community to ask a few questions and shed some light on contributions to the space.
Each member was selected for work done to enhance the community. Joe is the architect of the current JSA ranking system that most community members lean on to guide with rarity, stats and even names (ballerz.info s/o to Misko and RBarniker as well). Box is a top tier animator and graphic designer that has created one-of-a-kind designs in card form, posters and video. Franky and Dave were two of the most active OTC brokers for new members looking to secure BALLERZ before the marketplace opened. Franky also helped structure the MSA BALLERZ tournament, while Dave hosts The Priority Queue Podcast. Last but not least, Twin created several pre-season tournaments including All-Star teams and even has a BALLERZ mansion in SandBox.
BZFM : So to get things started, where is everyone’s hometown?
Dave : Western Massachussetts!
Franky : Montreal, Canada.
Twin : Melbourne, Australia but I recently moved to Brisbane.
Box : Toronto, Canada!!
Joe : Grew up in Maine, but currently live in North-East MA.
BZFM : That’s dope. We have a nice mix of Canada, Australia and the US here. Did you guys grow up as basketball fans? Who are your favorite players and teams?
Box : It’s been my favorite sport since I can remember, even if not following the NBA I was always drawn to playing the game. Fav team is obviously the Toronto Raptors BUT only since the VC era, before that I was really into showtime Lakers with Magic and Kareem. My fav player now is Fred VanVleet.
Joe : Big Celtics fan… Love Tatum and Brown on the current squad, and obviously the big-3 from the championship run a few years ago. I was a huge Rondo fan as well.
Dave : Yes very much so. Celtics all day. Huge Tatum fan. Love Jaylen Brown too. Outside of the Celtics I love Giannis, Ja Morant, and my all time favorites are Shaq and MJ.
Franky : Lakers/Raptors. Obviously, a fan of Curry and Lebron. My current favorite player is Klay Thompson, I love a good shooter.
Twin : Massive basketball fan since high school! Big Miami Heat fan since they drafted Wade in 2003 — also follow March madness but no particular NCAA team.
BZFM : That’s interesting, a lot of Eastern Conference love! What inspired some of your work for the BALLERZ community?
Twin : When I joined the discord after minting, seeing all the work and positivity that people like Plain Jane and Buhrmanator put into the community, I was inspired to find a way to keep the community engaged and have fun with some of the aspects of Ballerz that until that point didn’t have too much utility.
Franky : BALLERZ needed some help to onboard people that were interested as we didn’t have a marketplace for a month after mint.
Dave : The BALLERZ community has a great vibe and is predominantly filled with good people. That combined with how fun I think the project is inspired me to create content around it. I already had a podcast going that focuses primarily on Topshot, but kept finding myself talking about BALLERZ, so for the sake of the non-BALLERZ fans, I separated it into its own episode.
Joe : I work with data in my ‘day job’, specifically building Excel models that make advanced data consumable by the ‘average person’… so building out tools for NFT projects comes pretty naturally.
Box : I love vinyl toys, comics, pop culture type things… BALLERZ fits the bill for all of those and I wanted to try BALLERZ in different “old school” mediums bringing them to life or static in a retro style card. The community is inspiring too.
BZFM : All great answers and I definitely agree with how motivating the community can be to create around it. Do you have any favorite traits, features or teams in BALLERZ ?
Joe : I think all of the top tier skins are pretty cool, I like 3D glasses, Cyborg, headphones, space visor… and just clean looking BALLERZ. I’m looking forward to the gaming aspect and trying to figure out which combination of skills works out the best.
Box : I love the space visor, alien punk looking BALLERZ, the weirder the better for me lol. Would’ve been cool to be on the Toronto Spears but I’m repping The Dallas Pythons for now! Personally don’t really care about the player stats, just how they look lol, I only got 1 Baller and he ain’t going anywhere so I guess I’ll never get another haha… shit is expensive (a good thing!) lol.
Franky : Devil because it’s my pfp!
Twin : Michigan Colliders are my favorite team, just joined in on the secondary with my new Baller and also proud of how they beat the crowd favorites (Toronto Spears and Chicago Squid) in the preseason tourney.
Dave : I love the space visor. By far the best trait outside of 3d glasses in my opinion. I also love headphones and Team Flow and Team Dapper. Regarding features, I’m still waiting for the game to get announced. That will be what truly separates BALLERZ from other projects.
BZFM : Dope! I’m super pumped about possible gameplay too and it looks like the space visor is a standout. Last question guys, if you could pick any music artist to be a part of the BALLERZ community … who do you choose?
Joe : My musical taste is heavily skewed towards like early 2000’s hip-hop and R&B… so maybe a classic (college dropout era) Kanye/Jay-Z collab.
Twin : Drake — lots of Toronto connections w/ Dapper, hip hop is massive in the NBA.
Dave : I’m old school, so my first instinct would be Jay-Z, but I think Drake would be an amazing fit as well.
Franky : Drake because he would be a game changer as he hasn’t claimed any NFT yet!
Box : SHAQ FU for obvious reasons :) … Thanks to Ballerz, Ballerz Community and all contributors! Shout out to my crew TOPSHOTTAZ, The META Militia. LFG!
Thank you again to participating community members! Stay tuned for episode two in the future and be on the lookout for more information regarding the BALLERZ community mixtape! 🏀🏀🏀
Linkz :
