NBA star John Wall launches NFT project, accused of plagiarizing art designs from Fortnite and Pokemon.

In recent times, there have been various collaborations between the NBA and the NFT industry. The explosive growth of NBA Top Shot at the beginning of the year has played a significant role in the current flourishing NFT market. However, not every NFT project related to the NBA receives market approval. NBA star John Wall's NFT project, Baby Ballers, launched yesterday, has faced strong criticism from the market.

Launch of Baby Ballers

NBA Houston Rockets player John Wall sparked a discussion last Thursday on Twitter when he expressed interest in joining the current NFT trend and asked for recommendations on NFT projects. Many NFT projects quickly responded to his tweet, hoping to catch the attention of the basketball star.

I’m hopping into the NFT Wave! What are some projects I should look into?

— John Wall (@JohnWall) September 15, 2021

To the surprise of many, John Wall, a newcomer to the NFT world, launched a project called Baby Ballers on the 22nd. The first teaser image featured a baby with a pacifier, spinning a basketball on a 3D court with their finger. The project claimed to airdrop 4,000 mintable and purchasable designs, with $100,000 in proceeds to be donated to charity.

Baby Ballers Plagiarism Controversy

However, the project did not receive a warm welcome upon its release and instead stirred up controversy. A keen-eyed Twitter user themariokarters.eth discovered that the background in the teaser image was a screenshot from the popular game Fortnite, criticizing the project as a "celebrity cash grab."

Furthermore, two other Twitter users compared the NFT characters from Baby Ballers to those of the movie "Boss Baby" and found striking similarities.

John Wall's actions sparked discussions online, with most criticizing him for plagiarism. While it may have been the misconduct of the artist he hired, the incident has certainly caused John Wall to "Hit the Wall."

After the incident went viral online, John Wall posted a new tweet today on Twitter, revealing a new teaser image without the original Fortnite screenshot. The Baby Ballers Discord community also announced that they have contacted Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, and confirmed that the controversial images will not be included in the NFT project.