My NBA Top Shot strategy can best be summarized as luck mixed in with the good kind of chaos.
My inner monologue before making a purchase decision goes something like this:
Me: Wow, that Moment is sick!!!
Also Me: Yea, but only 50% of that Moment is currently in circulation and you know that price going to drop when the rest hit the Marketplace. Just wait.
Me: Okay, sure. But what about this new Hustle and Show Challenge? We’ve never completed a Challenge before and my 2nd grader desperately wants to do it.
Also Me: Challenges are for children and gamblers who get their dopamine hits playing the serial lottery. If you want to collect the set, just wait for the inevitable post-Challenge drop-off and thrive! Give me one good reason to do this???
Me: Whatevs “Also Me,” you’re just a voice in my head. A voice of reason? Sure, maybe. But if you insist…
Here’s why I aped into collecting the Hustle and Show set on NBA Top Shot.
#ForReasons I. My 2nd Grader Liked It
So just as with the All-Star Game set, my son tells me what to collect and I listen. Both sets are the entire reason our account isn’t an absolute dumpster fire given that I joined at the all-time high in late February.
This same child o’ mine once tried explaining to me why this algorithm he learned in his advanced math class was “cool.”
When he told me this, in my head, I had two thoughts: 1. WTF? and 2. I may have to start cutting him in for a percentage if he keeps up with this solid financial advice.
Flash forward to May 10th.
Despite “Also Me’s” protestations, we completed the first Hustle and Show challenge and received our wicked Giannis double block Reward Moment.
In the interim, on May 7th, Top Shot introduced Collector Score. My son and I poured through the blog post trying to make sense of it, and as always, he had the foresight to make the best play.
His main takeaway from the Collector Score blog was that we needed to collect sets if we wanted to increase our odds of landing packs which are almost always +EV endeavors, and more generally speaking, ripping packs is good, clean fun!
If you want to hear me talk about how my son truly makes the best moves on Top Shot, check out my episode with Dr. Jeremy on his NFTeach podcast.
Given we were halfway through the Hustle and Show set we decided to complete the second Challenge and go for set completion.
We whiffed on low serials for both of our Reward Moments and we sat -EV on our set for months, but we never planned on selling. Per LiveToken, today we are up over 30% on our Hustle and Show set but this set means so much more to us than a strong ROI.
First set collected on Top Shot > First love!
#ForReasons II. The Name
The movie Hustle & Flow debuted in 2005 and enjoyed widespread praise for its acting performances and soundtrack.
The Academy Awards nominated lead actor Terrence Howard for Best Actor and Memphis’ own Three 6 Mafia won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for their track “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp.”
As a young working drummer, I owned an MPC drum pad much like the one featured in the film. I’d make beats for hours on end in my basement studio apartment.
The music production angle and the performances of Howard and actress Taraji P. Henson had me hooked on the flick, a movie I must have re-watched 10+ times back then.
In fact, when Top Shot first announced the Hustle and Show pack on May 2nd, it inspired me to watch the movie again. 16 years after the movie debuted, it still struck a chord.
Kudos to #TeamTopShot, the play on words and marketing for this set most definitely factored into my decision to complete it.
#ForReasons III. The Plays
In my opinion, Hustle and Show features the most remarkable common-tier Moments on the platform, including two radical Challenge Rewards in a Giannis double-block and Ja windmill dunk.
In fact, the Moments themselves feature much better plays than several Legendary and Rare-tier Moments (looking at you Kyle Anderson Holo Icon).
Here are my personal rankings based on the “Wow Factor” of the plays alone:
- Ja Morant — Ja dunks are always electric but this two-handed alley-oop windmill dunk would make Thomas Edison blush. The display of athleticism is simply unreal
- Marcus Smart — There’s not a single moment on the platform that captures the essence of a player’s game better than this one. Smart dives for a loose ball on one end of the court, runs 90 feet back the other way to steal and save it from out-of-bounds with a behind-the-back pass
- R.J. Hampton — Love this two badge rookie Moment for Hampton. He steals the ball from Jamal Murray, touch passes to Top Shot fan fave T. Ross who gives it right back to Hampton for a buttery smooth corner three
- Saddiq Bey — Another two badge rookie Moment. Bey Bey goes to the ground to dig out the loose ball, finds an open teammate, gets it back, drains the trey! Crazy chaotic give-and-go action
- Chris Chiozza (Top Shot Debut) — Chiozza steals it with his left hand then taps it over to his right with an immediate no-look one-handed outlet pass, hitting KD in stride for a fast break dunk
- Alex Caruso — Like a kid slipping down a water park ride, “Carushow” steals the ball and slides a solid five feet on the ground, finding a cutting Laker teammate in the process for an easy layup
- Giannis Antetokounmpo — The Greek Freak rejects Andre Drummond, Collin Sexton gathers the loose ball and tests Giannis again only to get volleyball spiked out-of-bounds
- Rudy Gobert — Love my double blocks. The Stifle Tower erases two attempts at the rim in a blink, barely touching the ground before springing up like Tigger excited at the sight of his best friend little Roo
- Matisse Thybulle — ‘Tisse stealing the rock is nothing new but the two-handed windmill dunk impressed the hell out of me. I didn’t know he had it like that
- Collin Sexton — This play all about the sneaky steal by Sexton. Harry B. works out of the post but Sexton called “cookies” with a deft pickpocket before running out for an uncontested slam
- Kent Bazemore — This Moment more Hustle than Show but what’s not to like about Bazemore’s steal and save from out-of-bounds? Baze goes five-hole between Dougie McBuckets’ legs to his teammate Kelly Oubre Jr. for a breakaway dunk
- Facundo Campazzo — The third and final two badge rookie in the set, Facu jumps the passing lane to initiate a fast break and finishes the play with a flashy behind-the-back pass to MPJ for an easy flush
- Juan Toscano-Anderson — JTA swipes the ball from Swipa the Fox and finishes with an aggressive one-handed windmill dunk
- Karl-Anthony Towns — The big man jacks the rock from fellow big man Deandre Ayton but the most impressive part of this Moment is how quick KAT is with the ball in his hands, taking it all the way for a dunk
- Damian Lillard — Dame more known for hitting clutch threes but in this moment he hits former Slam Dunk Champion Derrick Jones Jr. with a Hail Mary alley-oop from half-court
- Trae Young — An alley-oop off the glass like this would normally be ranked higher but given Trae and John Collins made this same alley-oop play like 1000 times last season, I’ve slid it down the list
- OG Anunoby — Nice D from OG, playing the passing lane for a solid two-hand reverse dunk
- Dejounte Murray — I mean, this a crazy nice dunk from Dejounte but it’s not even truly a “poster” given Buddy Hield ducked out at the last second
#ForReasons IV. The Community
Okay, okay. You got me. So I completed the set on May 28th, the day the Ja Morant Challenge Reward showed up in my account, and at that time, there was no community Discord for set holders. I was there however for the genesis of Mint Juice’s journey to creating the largest Top Shot collector community, the Hustlin’ Showroom.
As of 11/9/2021, Hustle and Show boasts the largest number of completions of any set on Top Shot at 4273.
The Hustlin’ Showroom has one of the dopest Discords and recently began selling merch! My wife joked, “Like you need another black baseball cap.” She’s not lying, I have too many black baseball hats but I truly DID need this one:
And wouldn’t you know it?! The biggest hustler of them all Mint Juice was kind enough to answer some questions for me about his love for the Hustle and Show set.
Mint Juice!! Thank you for answering a few questions for the article, I know you must be busy running the largest kingdom in Top Shot Land! First off, what’s your favorite Moment from the Hustle and Show set, or if it’s too tough to choose one, what’s your Top 3?
Super difficult not to choose the Ja Morant dunk. When he broke onto the scene at Murray State I was reminded of DWade at Marquette bc this dude was just an absolute fluid baller. I am just struck by his story and his backyard training methods so for his hustle and training to turn him into the best show in the NBA just makes him a perfect fit for the Show reward.
I’ve really enjoyed watching you take this community to the next level. Would you like to tell us more about how this all came together?
I’ve been on Twitter for over 10 years but I always played a very passive sort of research role, so when Top Shot started taking off in February I watched and learned from the likes of Girldad, Usman, Topshotfund, and Joe Swam. This group allowed me to see the value and fun in community but I didn’t see a place for me until I kept hearing and seeing the same frustration from the community. I kept hearing that recurring sentiment of “We bought these sets or completed these challenges and we aren’t getting the utility we want.”
Around the end of July when we were in the bottom, I was interacting with Luke Dick pretty frequently so when I saw him tweet about creating a Seeing Stars Twitter List and that the list would not accommodate all the interested collectors … it clicked. I needed to learn how to use discord correctly.
I tweeted to ask if anyone would be interested in an HS group and then Packrip Ewing asked if I was for real… naively, I said yea man of course…well … a few minutes later he tweeted that I was creating a Hustle and Show discord and I have been playing catch up ever since.
On a scale of 1–10, how excited were you to hear Hustle and Show would be making its return in Series 3?
Billy Bob says I give it a 10! Yea when I saw the text about Hustle and Show and its community in the S3 road map blog it hit me in an unexpectedly emotional way — — like damn one of my main tenets for the Showroom is adapted from the great philosopher Marshawn Lynch … “I’m just about that Hustle boss.” The Showroom is not here to complain about not getting utility or to rip down what other collectors are doing, instead, the idea behind the Showroom is to put our heads down and focus on what we can control which involves improving our collections, having fun building a community, and bringing them organic utility — — so with my head down so much over the past 3–4 months it felt really nice to think, oh man someone has noticed.
Finally, have you noticed any candidate Moments in this young NBA season that could qualify for S3 Hustle and Show i.e. #HandSThis?
I mean have you seen any of Ja Morant’s first 10 games? He’s incredible but I do like how the set provides a platform for all players so I have been hunting for plays from guys not included in the s2 set and have had a few fun back and forths with Austin Kent using our #HandSThis to highlight the plays our community likes for the S3 Hustle and Show … We are so busy in the discord right now but we are working on a few things to get the community more involved in this #HandSThis effort.
Thanks for the great questions and the opportunity to chat. Rise and Grind Hustlas!
