Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie will become the first NBA player to turn his player contract into a digital investment vehicle, giving up some future income on his three-year, $34 million-plus deal in order to secure a lump sum payment up front. Dinwiddie is confident that the NBA and the players’ association will approve the measure.
“What are they going to do, try and stop me? I mean, they could try,” Dinwiddie said (via Brian Lewis of The New York Post. “Then they’d have to have legal standing to do so. Do you really want to do that? Because wouldn’t that be bad PR for them to do that? I would think.”
Dinwiddie went on to explain that he isn’t creating a new currency. “I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel and create a new bitcoin; this is different,” he said. “… I will say this, though: It solves some of the league’s fan-engagement issue. It does do that.”
The 26-year-old touched on tampering in the NBA, something that will have new consequences for as a result of last Friday’s Board of Governors’ meeting.
“You mean when non-traditional powers like the Nets and the Clippers win?” Dinwiddie added. “What you’re saying is, if it’d been the Lakers and the Knicks that won it wouldn’t be a problem, but because it’s the Clippers and the Nets that won it’s an issue?”
The Nets landed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in free agency this summer, and Dinwiddie played a role in the recruitment. Brooklyn will have many new faces next season, including Taurean Prince, who came to the team via a trade with the Hawks.
“He’s going to be a pleasant surprise, somebody a lot of people are discounting,” Dinwiddie said of Prince. “[He] can really, really, really shoot it.”
