Spencer Dinwidde Up to Bitcoin Shenanigans Again

Spencer Dinwiddie is a pretty unique dude, even more so than being one of the few people on the planet who can play basketball at its highest level. He got into a battle with the NBA Players Association this past season because he wanted to have his contract paid out in bitcoin rather than your standard dollar. The Nets point guard may draw the NBPA's ire once more with his latest trick.

Dinwiddie announced last night that he would let fans decide where he would sign in free agency once he gets there. Fans only get to make that decision, however, if they can crowdfund his GoFundMe page and reach the target goal of just over $24 million.

While this is both fun and extremely unlikely to happen (the dream combination), I can't imagine the league or the Players Association was pleased to see this news hit the timeline last night. Crowdsourcing free agency is a neat idea but there's plenty of opportunity for impropriety from a team and I'm sure would raise a whole host of issues within the collective bargaining agreement.

Still, smart move by Dinwiddie here, if only because the target goal is easily twice his salary. Dinwiddie is a good but not quite great player who makes $11 million a year, and it seems unlikely he'll earn much more than that when he hits free agency in three years at 28-years-old. I'm sure he'd be happy to let random people decide where he'll spend a year of his life if he's compensated this handsomely for his efforts.

One thing I don't understand about this whole thing, though: Dinwiddie seems like he's pretty Online, given his partiality to Bitcoin. That also means he probably witnessed firsthand the absolute disaster that was Twitch Plays Pokemon, the finest example in the Internet's short lifespan of how easily crowdsourcing can go wrong. Knowing that, and assuming he knows that, it's quite a call to put your livelihood in similar hands. But, then again, that's a lot of money.