The Chicago Bulls launched an NFT collection during the summer of 2021 called the Chicago Bulls Legacy Collection that highlighted its six-year championship history. Now, it’s back in Web3 for more. Starting later this month, the basketball franchise will launch an NFT set featuring 23 1/1 artworks reimagining its logo. Here are all the details.
- The Bulls logo has been around since 1966 when Dean Wessel created it
- The 23 Web3 artists selected to reimagine the logo include Chicago natives
- Bobby Hundreds, Gxng Yxng of Ghxsts, and the Deadfellaz founders will participate
- None of the NFT logos will replace the actual Bulls logo
The team will auction off the NFT set, titled “The Aurochs,” on September 22nd on the Coinbase marketplace. The starting price for the auctions will be 0.2 ETH (around $320 at this time of writing). 40 percent of the proceeds will go to the Bulls, another 40 to the artists, 10 to the NBA, and 10 to a non-profit charity that helps Chicago youth.
Claire Salvo, who interpreted the Bulls logo with ballpoint pen on paper, said that she grew up in the 1990s watching the Bulls teams play. It was a time when athletes were becoming pop culture icons, and that era is nostalgic for her.
The Bulls previous NFT set, involving images of the six championship rings, had many IRL utilities for holders. As of now, the Bulls have not announced any such utility for “The Aurochs” NFT collection. We’ll keep an ear to the ground for any further developments in this story.
Basketball Bets Big on Web3
In general, the sports industry has bet big on Web3. But few sectors of that industry have dived as deep as basketball. Today, the NBA Web3 empire stretches from NBA Top Shot, multiple Web3 video games, and even NFT collections. Here are three stories Rarity Sniper has covered involving the NBA and Web3.
First, there is the news from just a few days ago. Then, the NBA announced that it was partnering with Sorare for a fantasy basketball NFT game. The partnership is big, as Sorare has a valuation in the billions and has cornered the market for soccer NFT fantasy games. The NBA hopes that the fantasy game will complement Top Shot rather than steal customers away from it.
Second, there is the partnership between the NBA and Niantic. Two months ago, the two announced that they would create an augmented reality game together, the technology being an underpinning for the metaverse. They plan to create the game for mobile devices, with users also able to purchase custom NBA apparel for their avatars.
Third and finally, there is the NBA’s standalone NFT collection. Launched five months ago ahead of the 2021-2022 NBA Playoffs, these 18,000 NFTs were dynamic and changed appearance depending on a player’s performance in the playoffs. They sold out rapidly and traded in the hundreds of dollars during the playoffs.
The Chicago Bulls second NFT collection is a big win for the Web3 space, as the team is highlighting the works of popular NFT artists. It also shows that even as leagues dive into Web3, there’s a place for individual teams to build projects as well.