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Bomani Jones, the Emmy-winning sportscaster and host of HBOโs Game Theory, stopped by to chat with Seth Meyers on Wednesday night, where they had a wide-ranging conversation that eventually landed on the curious โ and, for many, unfortunate โ relationship between cryptocurrency and sports.
Itโs a topic Jones has talked about before, including on a March 2022 episode of Game Theory โ months before FTX came crashing down โ and it was a segment that stuck with Meyers. โObviously, you were very early here in saying, โHey, this doesnโt quite smell right.โ The whole world of crypto, and how quickly sports is wanting to have a partnership with it,โ said the late-night host.
Jones admitted that his suspicions were first aroused almost 10 years ago โ by Silk Road, the infamous online marketplace where anyone with an internet connection and access to bitcoin could buy anything from a fake ID to vast amounts of cocaine, heroin, opioids, or whatever other illegal drugs you might fancy. It caught Jonesโ attention for a few different reasons, including that โreal drug dealers donโt sell drugs on the web. So you knew it wasnโt real drug dealers.โ
But the fact that Bitcoin was the websiteโs sole currency was what really confounded Jones, because: โWhy would I trade my money for money thatโs not money?โ
Yet the brash crypto kings behind many of these volatile digital currencies have looked at professional athletes โ and the fans who watch them religiously โ as their target market. In 2021, Tom Brady and then-wife Gisele Bรผndchen became the king and queen of FTX as brand ambassadors (alongside Larry David, of all people) โ all three of whom were later sued by FTX customers. But in Jonesโ mind, all you needed to do was look at the difference between how traditional investment firms presented themselves and how the crypto gurus did it:
You see a commercial for Merrill Lynch or for Charles Schwab or for any of them other dorks that get up there and do the trading, and theyโre always telling you, โTake care of your future.โ Itโs always very serene and peaceful.
These crypto ads were like, โFortune favors the brave!โ Why do I need to be brave about my money? My entire life is about not being brave about my money. The whole reason that you take your money to somebody to invest it is because youโre NOT brave. Itโs because youโre terrified of a zillion different factors. And the only people who were trying to be brave with their money are broke.
You can watch the full conversation above, beginning at the 4:30 mark.
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