Last night LaMelo Ball joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club

Last night the Bored Ape Twitterverse was buzzing with some pretty exciting news - basketball star LaMelo Ball had joined the club and even jumped into the BAYC Discord to chat.

As apes began celebrating across Twitter, others asked the question - who the heck is LaMelo Ball? For those who don't know, LaMelo Ball was picked up in the 2020 NBA draft and currently plays for the Charlotte Hornets. While I'm not a fanatical basketball fan I know who LaMelo is and like many other apes, I see this as a potential tipping point for BAYC.

Pranksy was one of the first to comment on the move and to share LaMelo's ape choice. As news spread one general comment kept coming up, everyone should be raising the prices on their apes - it's time for the floor to go up.
Bored Ape Yacht Club has already become the highest volume NFT project over the last week and with news like this, things could really accelerate. Of course you might be reading this and thinking, "common Morgan, why is this a big deal, who cares?!?"
I can only share my opinion of course, and nobody really knows what will happen, but here's my two cents. Having an up and coming basketball star join BAYC could inspire other basketball players to join, which could inspire other athletes and celebrities to follow a similar path. I'm already seeing people on Twitter share specific celebrities that they're going to try to get to ape in and that's why I think this could be a tipping point.
Up until yesterday BAYC was a popular NFT project within the relatively niche NFT community, today BAYC has more broad exposure than ever before. It's no secret that athletes have a ton of reach, their fans pay attention to what they do which is why apparel brands, car brands, etc. love sponsoring athletes, it gets them very meaningful exposure to a broad audience.
The difference here is, big apparel brands pay millions of dollars to get endorsement from an athlete, Bored Ape Yacht Club just had an athlete pay them to become a champion of the brand. Think about it - that is bananas.

So do I think the floor is going up? Yes. In fact, I finally pulled the trigger on buying an ape with a sub-1,000 rarity because I do really think this is the tipping point for BAYC. Like I said above though, nobody knows, and yes, I've been drinking the Bored Ape Kool-Aid for some time now so like many other early apes, it has been one heck of a ride to watch this project grow.
Congrats to LaMelo - welcome to the fam! 🙌
Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.