NBA champion Tristan Thompson collaborates with unlikely CEO Herman Narula and co-founder Hadi Tehrany to roll a new web3 experience designed to reinvent basketball fandom for the digital era.
The project, called Basketball.fun, will debut in October prior to the NBA season and will try to Gamify how fans interact with players and games, announced Thompson.
It has been developed on Somnia, a layer 1 blockchain that went live at the start of this month, already chopping billions of dollars value of trading volume in the first two weeks.
“That’s how we experience moments together, it’s not just about basketball,” Tristan Thompson said in a press release. “We create something for the fans that live beyond the game where your presence, passion and play actually matter.”
Tokenized NBA players
Unlike traditional fantasy sports or fan -tokens, the platform will tokenize NBA players with values ​​that swing in real time based on mood and performance. Fans will be able to gather guards, speculate on rising talent and earn rewards tied to their predictions and commitment.
“The way fans value and perceive players must be different from owners and news networks,” Tehrany said in an interview with Coindesk. “We are trying to give power back to the tab – not only to predict who they think is great, but actually earning incentives from it. Imagine being able to prove that fan -consensus about a rookie’s potential is more accurate than a team’s front office.”
Tehrany emphasized that the app is not launched with a native token and distanced itself from projects such as Socios that are related to the Token Prize. Instead, players will have a value in the app reflecting fan mood and game results.
Why Somnia, not Solana?
When asked why the team chose to build on Somnia instead of more established chains such as Solana or Avalanche, Tehrany pointed to both relationships and philosophy.
“Everything in this industry comes from authentic conditions,” he said. “When we met Herman Narula, it was an adaptation of the sight. He does not chase short -term tokenhype, but is obliged to build sports and entertainment in the hunt for the long term. It gave us confidence that this would not just be appreciated on market speculation.”
The decision also came after the experience of a previous project, Tracyai, as Tehrany said became too dependent on token performance. This time, the focus is on infrastructure, gamification and sustainability.
Somnia’s technical edge
Somnia went live on September 2nd after a six-month test network, which treated over 10 billion transactions and onboarded 118 million wallets. Supported by the British-based Metaverse Company, the network is unlikely to place itself as the fastest EVM compatible chain and claim to handle more than a million transactions per year. Second with finality during second.
At the launch, Somnia’s 60 validators, including Google Cloud, have integrated with protocols such as Layerzero, Sequence and Thirdweb. Its native token, somi, has almost doubled in value since launch and already deals with billions in the daily volume.
For Tehehrany, Somnia’s traction adds credibility: “They have made billions in daily volume, larger than some of the major exchanges. It is a testimony to what they are building – and what we are building on top of it.”
Road to tip-off
The first major disclosure of the project is scheduled for Korea Blockchain Week, where Thompson will share his vision with Narula and Tehrany. Participants in Somnia House, the network’s flagship side event in Seoul on September 23, get an early look at the app and timetable.
“We want to do this as accessible as possible,” Tehrany said. “The blockchain layer should feel invisible. Whether you’re a crypto -native or just a basketball fan, you’ll be able to participate in, play and help define the story of the sport.”
