Six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan joins the NFT craze

Michael Jordan is the latest celebrity to join the craze with a collection of 5,005 NFTs called HEIR.

Each NFT is built on the Solana blockchain and priced at 2.3 SOL (around $240 at the time of writing), a tribute to the six-time NBA champion’s jersey number.

The collection launched with 6 RINGS which is the number of championships that Jordan won.

The collection will give buyers access to a new platform called ‘Huddles’, which connects athletes and their fans with Q&A sessions, merchandise and access to a discord chat among other things.

Jordan and his son Jeffrey teamed up with Thrive Capital, Solana Ventures and Lonzo Ball – shooting guard for the Chicago Bulls – for the endeavour.

The team said it specifically chose the Solana blockchain instead of the Ethereum blockchain to keep costs down.

“Ultimately, lower gas fees and transaction costs were supercritical to us,” Jeron Smith said.

“We had a chance to work with their executive team and understand their vision for Solana, and we had alignment on ethos and shared sensibilities.”

The NBA legend Michael Jordan and @HeirJordan13 are launching HEIR, a platform for empowering athletes built on #Solana https://t.co/qJnhyRqAIe

— Solana (@solana) December 15, 2021

Following an insane vertical climb in 2021, Ethereum gas fees (crypo term for ‘transaction costs’) have come down significantly in recent weeks but as things stand, transacting and building NFTs on Ethereum is still more expensive than it is on other blockchains, including Solana.

HEIR initially wanted to mint 10,010 NFTs but the number was halved because the NFTs weren’t selling as fast as they anticipated.

Mind you, the collection is now sold out so you can definitely expect more Michael Jordan’s NFTs in the near future.