Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie’s long-shot crowdfunding campaign off to slow start
Stefan Bondy
By STEFAN BONDY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAY 17, 2020 | 4:04 PM

Spencer Dinwiddie’s attempt at crowdfunding his free agency hasn’t taken off yet.

As of Sunday afternoon, the business-driven Dinwiddie had raised less than $1,000 on his GoFundMe page, well short of the pace necessary to finish with his stated goal of $24,632,630. He opened the page Friday and accumulating $1,000 every two days would require 136 years of fundraising to reach the target.

The second highest donation, as of Sunday afternoon, was $69 from a Nets fan who added the message, “Knicks are Poopiepoopbuttbuttsoup.”

So maybe this is not being taken so seriously. Or a kindergartner has disposable income. Only an $88 donation from Charles Nocera was higher than the “Poopiepoopbuttbuttsoup” donor.

Spencer Dinwiddie continues to have unique ideas about how to handle the business of basketball.(Kathy Willens/AP)
If he somehow hits the goal, Dinwiddie says he will allow the fans to determine his next destination and he’ll sign a one-year deal with that team. He’s expected to hit free agency in 2021.

If his fundraising falls short, Dinwiddie said he’ll donate all the money to charity. He announced the project with the understanding he probably won’t reach the goal.

“Overall a potential FA is influenced by many things. Family, winning, state taxes, shoe companies, agency, market size etc,” he tweeted. “I simply want to choose my influences and democratize this access in the process. …obviously ~24M is VERY steep and that’s on purpose. The reason why 100% of the proceeds go to charity if we are even a dime short of our target on this project is because I understand the likelihood, or lack thereof in this experiment.

“Hopefully we opened some eyes and can do some good in the process amidst a pandemic.”

Beyond the unlikelihood of Dinwiddie raising over $24 million, the NBA will almost certainly kill the idea of a player crowdsourcing his free agency. For starters, it’s a circumvention of the salary cap. If Dinwiddie, a potential All-Star, signs for minimum it provides capped-out teams an advantage.

The Lakers, for instance, could sign Dinwiddie to play alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, even if they have no cap space. It’s one thing for a player to make a decision to take less money to play for a team, and another to raise money to make such a decision. The Lakers also have a huge fan base and Dinwiddie is from L.A. (it probably wasn’t a coincidence that Dinwiddie photoshopped himself into three uniforms on the GoFundMe page — the Nets, Lakers and Clippers).

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It’s a question of competitive balance.

But Dinwiddie is no stranger to fighting the NBA. The 27-year-old’s separate plan to turn his contract into digital tokens — and selling those tokens — was ruled by the league as illegal. He told the Daily News in February that the NBA had retained outside counsel last year while threatening to terminate his contract.

“I was hurt that they hired outside counsel and drew such a hard line,” he said.

That venture has been delayed for months and it’s unclear where it stands. His innovative free agency idea might take off if he plays well next season and a fanbase sees the need for a slashing point guard. In the meantime, he’ll have to rely on the random “poopiepoopbuttbuttsoup” donors.

Stefan Bondy
Stefan Bondy
New York Daily News
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