On Tuesday, while Orange County and Los Angeles celebrate "Kobe Bryant Day," a collection of photo-NFTs (non-fungible tokens) showing the NBA legend early in his career will begin auctioning on the Cryptograph platform.
Shot by photographer Davis Factor, the collection of eight black-and-white photos shows a young Bryant posing, jumping, and blowing kisses as he kicked off his historic career.
This is the first time the public has laid eyes on the photos.
Factor, who has photographed dozens of celebrities and is behind several iconic magazine covers and spreads, hoped to capture the "everydayness of him," because he sensed that Bryant, like many famous athletes, would become less candid as his career evolved.
Cryptograph, meanwhile, has touted its model of connecting NFTs with charitable causes. Proceeds from the sale of its NFTs are handed over to select nonprofit organizations.
Founded a year ago on the Ethereum blockchain, the platform has already featured NFTs from the likes of celebrity and entrepreneur Paris Hilton, actor Jason Momoa, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and has reported that it raised upwards of six figures for organizations such as Meals on Wheels and Save the Children.
Courtesy of Davis Factor
“We are very excited to bring our next generation of Cryptographs into the world over the coming year; it's going to be a truly iconic and historic series that we think collectors are going to love,” said Cryptograph co-founder Tommy Alastra in a press release last week.
For this collection, 100 percent of proceeds will benefit the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation. The nonprofit was founded to honor Kobe and his daughter Gianna Bryant, who both died in a helicopter crash in 2020, and continue their legacy in supporting underserved athletes and young women in sports.
Notably, similar to how other NFTs will contractually pay the artist a percentage of all future sales, the foundation will receive a donation whenever one of the photos is transacted.
In other words, the photo collection and the foundation are connected forever, or at least as long as the photos are being bought and sold.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
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