Spencer Dinwiddie’s digital-token staredown with NBA not affecting play

What Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie sees as innovative the NBA perceives to be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

Spencer Dinwiddie of the Brooklyn Nets is not your typical NBA player. He had to overcome some setbacks before landing a regular spot in an NBA rotation, but his confidence in himself and his development since coming to the Nets in December 2016 paid off in the form of a three-year, $34.4 million extension he signed last winter.

Since September, the 26-year-old Los Angeles native has been in negotiations with the NBA over his plans to use his contract as an investment vehicle in the form of a digital token named “$SD8,” which would be predicated on Dinwiddie receiving the entire value of the contract as an upfront lump sum, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (subscription required).

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For a second time, the NBA has told Dinwiddie it cannot approve the digital token, Charania reported earlier this week (subscription required).

The league says it wants to work with Dinwiddie and find a solution that is amenable to everyone. Dinwiddie, however, plans to move forward and launch the digital investment platform. Charania, citing sources, reported that Dinwiddie believes the NBA’s decision is baseless.

The league, in turn, could penalize Dinwiddie with fines, suspensions or the nuclear option — terminating his contract. The NBA’s initial reluctance to approve the token plan was its belief Dinwiddie was assigning his salary to a third party, which is a clear violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

But it is Dinwiddie’s own company that would manage the investment plan, with the NBA reportedly satisfied the third-party issue was moot. However, it’s the third year of the contract that is now the sticking point.

Dinwiddie holds a $12.3 million player option for 2021-22 and has reportedly converted the appreciation of his option to a yes/no one-time trigger. The premium for investors would rise if Dinwiddie declined the option and would remain unchanged if he exercises it.

According to Charania’s report, the NBA’s position is that the option year is being used as a gambling token — that Dinwiddie and his investors would be betting millions on the player’s free agency status and his availability to play.

Dinwiddie’s stance is the option year is a performance-based incentive rather than a gambling venture and that the token’s value increases if Dinwiddie plays more and performs well.

Dinwiddie voiced his opinion earlier this week on social media:

https://twitter.com/SDinwiddie_25/status/1196964683191914502

Regardless, the standoff doesn’t appear to be affecting Dinwiddie’s performance on the hardwood, where he is on pace to set another career-high in scoring. Through 14 games, Dinwiddie is putting up 18.6 points per game — up from 16.8 last season — to go with 5.1 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 27.6 minutes per game.

His shooting has been a bit wayward, however, as he is hitting only 41.1 percent overall and 30.0 percent on 5.7 3-point attempts per game. He is shooting a career-best 83.7 percent at the foul line on a career-high 6.1 attempts per game.

Dinwiddie has started Brooklyn’s last three games while Kyrie Irving is nursing a right shoulder impingement and has topped the 20-point mark in each game while the Nets have gone 2-1.

As a starter, Dinwiddie is averaging 24.0 points, 6.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks in 33.5 minutes per game on 42.0 percent shooting overall while hitting 6-of-19 (31.6 percent) from deep and dropping 92.3 percent from the line, including a 14-for-15 performance in Brooklyn’s victory at Chicago on Saturday.

The Nets have gotten off to a 6-8 start this season, which is good enough for a seventh-place tie in the moribund Eastern Conference.

What Dinwiddie is trying to accomplish is innovative and certainly creative. Brooklyn fans just have to hope the disagreement can be resolved without damaging Dinwiddie’s career, but the sixth-year player seems ready to dig in his heels.