TABLE OF CONTENTS
X. Introduction
- Summary
- Mission Statements
- What is Basketball-the-Remix?
- Acknowledging the Cognitive Dissonance of the Basketball Brain.
- What is the No Backboard Basketball League?
- The Basics of a No Backboard Basketball League Facility.
- New Sport+Facilities+Blockchain = A New Basketball Platform
- Tokens can unlock value and are building blocks for a new economy.
- Putting It All Together.
- Where to start? Building a team, a community, and a movement.
- Incentivized Community to Build No Backboard Basketball League
- Three Phases to Building a NBBL Community Economy
- The UHoopers NFT Collection
INTRODUCTION
It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it." - Soren Kierkegaard
Thoughts are things, and ideas have weight. That’s why some people respond to hearing a compelling idea with, “that’s heavy.” Having a sense of purpose is to carry a heavy idea and be a vehicle for that idea to have expression in the world.
Ideas can also be magnetic, attracting other ideas. I first conceived the idea of what today is the No Backboard Basketball League in 1998. It wasn't until 2016, that the technology to empower the idea I wrote down in 1998 was adopted in the marketplace.
The path from 1998 to today led me to study basketball history. Then to study black basketball history, which led to me following streetball. Following streetball led to me to study the recreational basketball market within the overall basketball market.
What started out as an idea for a cool new sport and a vertical sports-entertainment business had transformed into a passion to recapture the spirit of the Negro Baseball League and basketball’s Black Five Era. Now the goal is to create a niche basketball industry reflective of the black pioneers of basketball who laid the foundation for the sport during the first half of the 1900’s. Too create an economic ecosystem that creates opportunities for athletes, entrepreneurs, and artists and adds value to communities across the United States.
The idea of the No Backboard Basketball League has been too heavy for most. The idea also lacked the right incentives to compel others to come along and build considering the global influence of basketball. Millions of people benefit from the current structure of the basketball market.
Blockchain now provides the tools to reimagine business models and create micro-economies of significant sizes. Now participation in the economic activities of the No Backboard Basketball League can be engineered to provide individuals the incentives and tools to contribute to the project, and benefit from the increase in the value of the project. Lowering the barriers to creating communities of athletes, entrepreneurs, and artists who contribute to the production of a new basketball experience for millions of fans enjoy.
This is the task at hand. This is also your invitation to join this fantastic voyage.
MARK TEE - Inventor of Basketball-the-Remix & Founder of the No Backboard Basketball League.
SUMMARY
This document is a clarion call to anyone and everyone who is open to the existence of a new basketball sport and would work to help establish a new basketball sport if properly incentivized.
The No Backboard Basketball League is an extremely ambitious project. I want to start the first real-world sport launched, developed, and sustained with blockchain technologies. In the process building a niche, multi-billion dollar tokenized economy that aligns the interest of fans with the interest of the League.
It’s only the emergence of blockchain technologies and the many business applications in the marketplace today that make the concepts and ideas expressed within possible. Blockchain is empowering the transformation of markets into economic communities. New business models are emerging that will allow brands to unlock a tremendous amount of value from customers and fans.
This is a project that over the next 10 years will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. For that investment the goal is to build a vibrant and dynamic tokenized economy that includes tens of thousands of employees, athletes, and businesses serving a global audience of 100 million fans or approximately 5% of the current global basketball fanbase.
We launch people into the earth's outer orbit and tossing bean bags into little holes is a multi-million-dollar sport that is broadcasted on national networks. It’s not the idea but the “will to do.”
It's my desire that after reading this declaration of mission, you are inspired to join this fantastic voyage at a level that’s comfortable for you.
MISSION STATEMENT OF THE NO BACKBOARD BASKETBALL LEAGUE
“Is to establish a network of No Backboard Basketball League facilities that leverage blockchain technologies to enable the creation, development, and sustaining of a global tokenized No Backboard Basketball League economy that unlocks the athletic, the entrepreneurial, and the artistic value trapped in black and brown communities across the United States through empowering teenagers and young adults with the means to create new businesses and create new forms of wealth.”
VISION STATEMENT
The No Backboard Basketball League is the first basketball sport in the real-world launched, developed, and sustained using Blockchain technologies to create a fully integrated tokenized economy that aligns the interest of the Business, Owners, Athletes, and Fans to create a self-sustaining recreational basketball economic ecosystem.
So What is Basketball-the-Remix?
Basketball-the-Remix is an alternative basketball sport referred to as,” the modern interpretation of the original game.” Based upon the concepts in a United States Patent for a Basketball Sport, Apparatus, and Method of Play, this new sport is inspired by Dr. James Naismith’s original intent on how basketball should be played.
Basketball-the-Remix is a 3x3 full court basketball sport that uses UHoops instead of baskets with backboards and is played on a smaller 70’ x 50’ court. UHoops are set at 10’ in height, are two inches smaller than basketball baskets at 16” in diameter with no backboard. A UHoop is placed at each end of the court and extends four feet from the baseline over an area called the 3 Point Key. This arrangement of the UHoop and the court provides 360 degrees of access, opening an additional 200 sq. ft. of direct access to the hoop. The 3-point line is set at 22’, and the Free Shot Line is set at 15’ just like basketball.
The game incorporates elements of multiple sports including soccer and hockey to create a faster, more challenging game of basketball. Some of the most notable rules of basketball-the-remix are:
● No Time Outs.
● Position of the ball determines out of play and dead ball, not the player (Soccer).
● Substitutions are made during live play only (Hockey).
● Ball is live immediately after shots are made. No taking the ball out.
● 3 Point Key and Goal Tending. The 3 Point Key underneath the UHoops is shorter and wider than a traditional basketball key. Hoops made within the Key are worth 3 points. Shots attempts within the 3-point key can be goaltended.
Basketball-the-Remix and Social Proof at the Micro-Level
In full transparency, to date, all no backboard basketball events have been self-produced and have been grassroots in nature. I have produced no backboard events intermittently between 2005 and 2021.
Over one hundred athletes have participated in some version of no backboard basketball through events I have produced. Regardless of the equipment or facility, regardless of skill set and experience, regardless of if they hooped or watched, everyone has always had a great experience. Most athletes express a desire to have regular access to play no backboard basketball. It's common to have an athlete follow-up with a testimony of how well they played “basketball,” especially shooting the ball after playing no backboard basketball.
I have hours of video that validate these statements. More importantly, I have hours of videos showing athletes of various ages, skill levels, and experience engaged, competing, and enjoying playing basketball with no backboards.
In February of 2021, I was contracted with the basketball apparel lifestyle brand Hoop Culture. In my role I was able to survey a group of 340 affiliates of the brand. When asked “would you subscribe to a social media channel promoting people playing basketball without a backboard?” An overwhelming 95% of respondents replied yes or maybe.
With 52% of respondents having already heard of playing basketball without a backboard prior to the survey, when asked, “if given the opportunity, would you try to play basketball without backboards?,” the majority or 82.6% said yes.
Interviews of athletes who have participated in the recent proof-of-concept events for the No Backboard Basketball League are available on www.nobackboard.com .
Acknowledging the Cognitive Dissonance of the Basketball Brain:
The unconscious mental bias towards the backboard in basketball.
Fair- and open-minded people who know the game of basketball immediately see the inherent value of playing no backboard basketball. These people self-identify themselves immediately upon seeing or hearing of the concept of Basketball-the-Remix. They identify themselves with statements like, “your jumper must be wet to shoot on that hoop!” or “shooting on that hoop will get your jumper tight!”
On one side of people’s basketball brain, people recognize innate benefits of both training on the UHoops and playing basketball-the-remix. These statements are documented and validated by video testimony of individuals who have participated in basketball-the-remix proof-of-concept events over the years. Participants realize that basketball-the-remix is a better sport, because they experienced a higher level of performance playing traditional basketball after playing basketball-the-remix. Most open-minded observers of basketball-the-remix events deduct the same conclusion without having to play the game. Most comments on social media also recognize the benefits of playing without a backboard. With many commenting they had experienced playing on milk crates or Netball baskets.
On the other side of the basketball brain, the NBA’s entertainment engine, influence, and reach owns so much mental real-estate in the minds of the public that most people think the NBA and basketball are one in the same. With the NBA as the titan and standard bearer for the global basketball industry, by default so is playing basketball with a backboard.
When you add the extremely long list of defunct basketball leagues over the decades, the idea of a "new basketball league” is usually dead on arrival in most people’s minds. Mental strike number two.
A more insightful consideration is that the NBA directly or indirectly influences a vast network of people, organizations, and resources that extends globally, all the way down to grassroots basketball. This influence impacts people's ability to objectively process the idea of building a new, niche basketball industry around no backboard basketball. This builds a David and Goliath scenario in the minds of most people.
Observing the Mental Tension
Years ago, an executive for a major shoe company provided me with some constructive feedback. The message was, “great concept, but you are disrupting the apple cart. Too many people are eating off basketball with a backboard.”
In my initial conversations with capital, I would witness the mental tension of acknowledging a great idea while simultaneously acknowledging their bias for basketball and the size of the task at hand. Ultimately, this results in suggestions to “support basketball” through the selling of training hoops without ever grasping the multi-billion-dollar opportunity presented.
WHAT IS THE NO BACKBOARD BASKETBALL LEAGUE?
At this moment of writing the No Backboard Basketball League is a new recreational basketball platform in development. Like how FIBA 3x3 and Hoop-it-Hoop are recreational basketball platforms that makes competitive 3x3 basketball available to the public, the No Backboard Basketball League is a recreational basketball platform that makes the sport basketball-the-remix available to the public.
The No Backboard Basketball League will provide the world’s best recreational basketball experience to as many families as possible. The No Backboard Basketball League will provide world’s best basketball training, the world’s best club basketball programs, the world’s best recreational basketball competitions, and the world’s best basketball entertainment.
The plan to manifest this vision is to establish a network of one hundred No Backboard Basketball League Smart Facilities in ten regions across the United States.
THE BASICS OF A NO BACKBOARD BASKETBALL LEAGUE FACILITY
Each facility will be 25,000 sq. ft., with four No Backboard Basketball Courts, including one Stadium Court. Leveraging a partial two-story facility model, 12,000 sq. ft. will be used for UHoop shooting bays, media production, fitness training, recovery center, classrooms, locker rooms, and store. Basic services offered will include:
● Shooting Training on UHoops, including Shooting Bay rentals
● Skills Training on UHoops.
● Club Basketball Teams including Facility DAO Sponsored Teams.
● Recreational No Backboard Basketball Leagues.
● Media Production and Distribution. Facility specific programming with daily creation and distribution.
● Integration with a blockchain-empowered media platform and blockchain wallet that manages the various tokens that powers participation within the No Backboard Basketball League ecosystem.
Ownership of each facility will be a combination of:
● The No Backboard Basketball League.
● A Master DAO. The umbrella DAO that works with No Backboard Basketball to build and manage the NBBL Facilities Network.
● A Facility and Team DAOs. Facility specific DAOs that roll-up to the Master DAO. Maintain decision making for specific facility and the facility sponsored teams. League and Master DAO hold veto power.
● Holders of fractionalized Facility NFTs purchased in the Marketplace.
● Residential properties in each of the facilities neighborhoods that have been assigned ownership through a Neighborhood Token.
New Sport + Network of Facilities + Blockchain
A New Basketball Platform Designed for Real World, Digital, and Economic Disruption
Basketball was invented in the YMCA. The YMCA’s network of facilities was the platform that enabled the rapid expansion and popularity of basketball. The Health and Fitness industry in the United States expects boutique fitness services to add 2,000 facilities within the next 5 years. Specialized boutique fitness franchises had been driving the force behind the growth of the Health & Fitness industry prior to the pandemic.
After 10 years in business, the basketball facility franchisor Pick-Up USA has seen an increase in the franchising of their basketball facilities. Today, the trend in grassroots and youth basketball is that those who can build their own basketball facility, will build their own basketball facility. The pandemic proved that businesses that rely on public or semi-public facilities to operate their businesses are vulnerable.
The synergy of a new, faster, more challenging basketball sport offered to communities across the country through a network of facilities supported by a blockchain-powered marketplace can unlock value in these communities that currently lies dormant and untapped.
The emergences of blockchain technologies has created a new set of tools that the Backboard Basketball League can leverage to:
○ Unlock the value of each facility to members of the community the facility serves.
○ Unlock the value of content creators and content consumers.
○ Unlock the value of elite performers in the no backboard basketball league sponsored activities.
○ Unlock the value of a community economic ecosystem, the new network effect.
○ Onboard 1 million people into the Web3 economy.
TOKENS CAN UNLOCK LATENT VALUE AND PROVIDE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR A NEW ECONOMY.
Use a token to unlock the value of facilities to allow residents in the neighborhood of each facility to participate in the facility’s increase in value.
The No Backboard Basketball League will buy properties and build each of the first one hundred No Backboard Basketball League facilities. Upon completion of construction and the beginning of business operations, the League will fractionalize a % of the facility into tokens. Facility Tokens. A portion of the Facility Tokens will be sold on the open market. Another portion of facility tokens will be assigned to selected residential properties within the neighborhood each facility serves.
These neighborhood tokens will be staked in a trust. The management of the proceeds are dedicated to the economic empowerment of our neighbors. This assignment of value from the No Backboard Basketball League facility will run with the property, adding value to that property and provide an incentive for a positive relationship between the League and owners of properties within the facilities neighborhood.
Use a token to unlock the value of content creators.
In June of 2000, during the pandemic, I wrote a paper entitled The No Backboard Basketball League Blockchain Project. In that paper I introduce the idea of “content minting.” The idea behind content minting is pushing raw, proprietary content from the League onto a blockchain-empowered media platform and enabling holders of a certain token to edit and monetize content on the blockchain-empowered media platform, with an automatic royalty paid back to the League and other interest holders in the content.
To accomplish this objective, the long term goal is to build a blockchain-empowered media platform that automates the entire content lifecycle from ingesting League content, to editing content on the platform, to minting video NFTs, to the syndication of video NFTs, to the attribution advertising, and the payments of royalties.
Use a token to unlock the value of competitive recreational hoopers who participate in No Backboard Basketball League sponsored activities.
Blockchain technologies allow for the fractionalization of assets and use tokens for the automation of the distribution of value generated from assets to the asset’s owners, and other holders of interest. A proprietary video is an asset. The value of the video depends on the quality of content or IP within the video.
Here the goal is the development of a token that works within the proposed blockchain-empowered media platform. This token enables the attribution of the hooper's participation in League created content. This token also receives payment from the monetization of League content that features a token’s hashmark. This is a revolutionary concept that unlocks unlimited possibilities to extend NIL concepts to recreational sports at all levels.
Unlock the value of a community economic ecosystem.
Ball is life. This is a true statement.
Basketball has been a vehicle for personal development, advancement of social causes, a stage for legendary performances, and an economic industry for over a hundred years.
Today basketball has 2 billion fans, generates tens of billions of dollars in annual economic activity, and is an intimate part of millions of families around the globe.
Recreational basketball has been generating hundreds of millions of annual economic production for decades. The founders of AND1 sold in 2005 for an undisclosed amount after revenues had peaked at $250 million dollars a year earlier. Here’s the most important fact to the AND1 success story. It was the production of events and content that featured elite streetball players through the AND1 Mixtape Tour and the ESPN Streetball television program that catapulted AND1 from a $50 million a year apparel brand, to a $250 million basketball merchandising giant that was second only to NIKE.
Recreational basketball provides an unlimited well of content.
In 2021, the top three recreational basketball social media platforms combined generated 30 billion video views. If you applied a simple economic value of $0.0025 per to each video view, that’s $75,000,000.00 economic value. A quick and crude calculation but it helps you understand why one of these leading platforms launched its own professional basketball league. In 2020, a leading generation z sports media platform launched its own professional basketball league, paying athletes between 16 and 19 years old $100,000.00 a year to play in their league.
Doubling down on the content first business strategy and creating branded basketball content featuring teenagers and young adults. Essentially carving out its own niche basketball market for elite teenage basketball players.
The NBBL Facility Network can unlock value currently latent in black and brown communities across the country through empowering teenagers and young adults with the ability to monetize their participation in the No Backboard Basketball League. Some examples:
● A hooper plays in a NBBL tournament. The videos from that tournament generate $100,000.00 over the next 6 months. Every time the ad network makes a distribution, the hooper receives a payment to a token automatically into perpetuity.
● A fan of this same hooper maintains his fan page. The fan ingests the videos from the tournament into their account on the blockchain-empowered media platform. The fan rebrands the video for their fan page and mints the remixed video into a NFT. The fan then uploads NFT into their pages embedded media player to share with their audience. As the video is monetized, payments are automatically sent to the hoopers, the fan, and the League.
● Another fan of the hooper coordinates watch parties for games posted to the hooper’s fan page. League incentives their fans to watch games through a watch-to-earn model. Here, two tokens are in play. The first is a token that provides access to the content. The second token is the native currency used on the platform.
Use a token to incentivize the onboarding of 1 million people into the Web3 economy.
To make the impact in the communities we build facilities requires a commitment to educating our neighbors and fans.
Educating the communities we serve on Web3 technologies; tokenomics, non-fungible tokens, and decentralized finance, is the knowledge transfer required to supercharge the impact of architecting a robust tokenized economy around the No Backboard Basketball League.
To achieve the goal of onboarding 1 million people into Web3, the League and partners will develop a program and track the onboarding of 100,000 people per region. So, each facility is charged with building a fanbase with that fanbase rolling up to the regional goal of 100,000. Each fan's education is certified via an NFT in their connected wallet.
Putting It All Together
The synergy of the NBBL Facility Network, blockchain technologies, and grassroots community outreach to on board 1 million people into the Web3 economy can create, build, and sustain a multi-billion-dollar economy that provides economic opportunity to thousands of teenagers and young adults while making an economic impact in communities across the United States.
Over the next 10 years the League will work to achieve the buildout of the NBBL Facility Network and achieve the following goals:
- The NBBL Facility Network employs 2,000+ employees.
- The NBBL Facility Network directly impacts the value of 100,000 residential properties across 100 neighborhoods in the United States.
- The NBBL Facility Network established a private and exclusive marketplace with over 1,000,000 members.
- 5,000 teenagers or young adults have leveraged The NBBL Facility Network to build successful businesses and create hundreds of millions of dollars in new wealth.
- No Backboard Basketball League has a massive global audience of 100 million people who consume content, buy merchandise, and attend events, powering a niche basketball industry.
- Onboarded over 1 million people into the Web3 economy.
Where to start? Building a team, a community, and a movement.
The vision is grand and will ultimately cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and build. Add the cognitive dissonance people experience thinking of building a business around a no backboard basketball sport, I can comprehend most people’s initial resistance. However, with blockchain relationships can be structured so that the success of the No Backboard Basketball League can be aligned with the interest of athletes, creators, fans, and entire neighborhoods.
Building an Incentivized Community to build the No Backboard Basketball League Facility Network
The idea is to leverage blockchain technologies, crowd-funding, equity-crowdfunding, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), and Government Opportunity Zones to build an incentivized and diverse community of contributors that help the No Backboard Basketball League move from stage to stage in the achievement of the mission.
Crowdfunding, Equity-Crowdfunding, NFTs, DAOs, and Qualified Opportunity Zones are proven, new funding tools that are available to entrepreneurs to create more effective funding campaigns. Each tool addresses a specific type of funding and can produce impactful results alone.
The plan is to design a multi-year funding strategy that strategically leverages traditional means of debt and equity to raise capital to empower the use of one or more of the funding tools mentioned here at different stages. Moving the project from one stage to the next while increasing the communities of supporters' ability to share in the League’s economic growth.
The blockchain platform, Ethereum holds the record for the largest amount raised through crowdfunding raising $4.1 Billion. The video game Star Citizen comes in a distant second, raising $457 Million on Kickstarter. With a total available of audience of over 2 billion basketball fans, a well-designed, multi-step, multi-year strategy can build the audience and momentum to crowdsource a significant amount of capital to achieve the final object of building the NBBL Facility Network and corresponding blockchain-powered media platform.
Three Phases to Building a No Backboard Basketball League Community Economy:
Awareness, Anchors, and Annexation
Though the ultimate cost of this project is significant, the plan is simple and practical. If momentum can be created by a small group of individuals. A splash can turn into a tsunami of supporters.
The following outlines the basic go to market and growth plan. Again, simple, practical, and can be started by a small group of supporters.
Stage 1: Awareness - Attention is the Currency of Leadership
Goal: Build a global audience 1,000,000 social media followers, and an engaged community of 50,000.
Objective: Establish revenue streams through the monetization of content, build an incentivized NFT Community, and build sales channels for branded merchandise.
Stage 2: Anchors - Availability is the key to Productivity
Goal: Build 1 to 2 NBBL facilities in each of the 10 selected regions of the United States.
Objective: Establish regional destinations for the public to experience a No Backboard Basketball League Facility, establish regional media networks to produce local content that’s distributed globally, and establish a team on the ground community of leaders in each region.
Stage 3: Annexation - Buildout NBBL Facility Network and establish a niched tokenized NBBL economy.
Goal: Buildout the NBBL Facility Network to one hundred units, integrate robust technology including a blockchain-empowered media platform, a NFT / Token exchange, and a marketplace. Complete the onboarding of 1,000,000 people into the Web3 economy.
Objective: Build a vibrant and dynamic tokenized economy around the NBBL Facility Network that includes tens of thousands of employees, athletes, and businesses serving a global audience of 100 million fans or approximately 5% of the current global basketball fanbase.
UHoopers NFT Collection - “Hooping for the Soul of Basketball”
“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” - A Proverb
Here’s the first project, the “first bite” of the elephant called the No Backboard Basketball League effort. The UHoopers NFT Collections.
UHoopers is an evolving collection with each NFT doubling as a VIP membership in the No Backboard Basketball League UHoopers Social Club. The Social Club is a community of individuals and organizations that support the mission of the No Backboard Basketball League.
Revenue generated from the initial sale of the UHoops Collection and royalties from the secondary market will fund:
● The establishment of the first No Backboard Basketball League Facility; Building #0.
● The establishment of a membership treasury staked to the collection.
● The production and distribution of Dawn of a New Sport 2022 Mixtape Docuseries.
● Free NFT AirDrops and Raffles from Dawn of a New Sport 2022 NFT Collections.
● Development of the UHoopers Collections second iteration: The Animations Collection and associated utilities.
At the time of this writing, the plan is to crowdfund the production of the Dawn of a New Sport Docuseries and give supporters a free UHoopers NFT as their claim ticket to receive their collector's edition the docuseries. The UHoopers NFT also qualifies the holder to receive a Highlight NFT from the docuseries.
Two additional NFT collections will be created from the docuseries content; A photography collection, and a highlight clips collection. These NFTs will be randomly airdropped to holders of the UHoopers Collection.
Finally, each UHoopers NFT comes with Executive Producers credit for the Dawn of the New Sport 2022 Docuseries for funding the project, and postproduction marketing. Executive Producers credit will be presented in the video as, “Executive Producer, UHoopers Social Club.” A portion of all proceeds generated from the monetization of the project will be added to the collections treasury and used to enhance the UHoopers’ membership experience.
Here, the goal is to leverage the docuseries project too:
● Build a Social Media audience of 1,000,000.
● Launch and sellout the 10,000 UHoopers NFT collection.
● Fund establishment of NBBL Facility #0, and business operations for 24 months through the UHoopers NFT collection.
● Leverage Docuseries into a sponsored online No Backboard Basketball League show, driving royalties for the UHoopers Social Club.
● Attract the right team of advisors, partners, contributors, and community of builders.
● Develop the second iteration of the Uhoopers NFT Collection
This campaign is in development. Open to conversations and making connections with web3 developers, media, creators, artist, and of hoopers. Open to conversations with investors. At this time, you can connect or follow the #effort of the Uhoopers NFT Collection via Twitter @uhoopersnft
www.nobackboard.com www.uhoopers.io
Owners of this Written NFT have the right to participate in the private mint before the pre-public mint of the UHoopers Sketches Collection .
If owner of this Written NFT participates in the upcoming Dawn of a New Sport 2022 Crowdfunding Campaign and qualifies for a free UHoopers NFT. Owner receives the to mint of their UHoopers Sketches NFT prior to the airdrop to members of the Dawn of a New Sport 2022 Crowdfunding Campaign.
Funds from this Written NFT will be used to fund the Dawn of a New Sport Crowdfunding Campaign on www.mirror.xyz