The crypto whiz kid who bailed on a $4.6 million lunch with Warren Buffett is now endorsing basketball sneakers

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The crypto whiz kid who bailed on a $4.6 million lunch with Warren Buffett is now endorsing basketball sneakers

Spencer Dinwiddie

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The crypto whiz kid who paid $4.6 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett, only to postpone at the last minute, will endorse Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie's shoes this season.

Tron and BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun will pay 8.2 bitcoins - worth about $66,000 at the time of writing - that the basketball player has pledged to donate to his charity. Dinwiddie wears a fresh set of custom sneakers each game - past pairs have honored Stan Lee, Colin Kaepernick, and Barack Obama - then auctions them and gives a portion of the proceeds to the Dinwiddie Family Foundation, according to the LA Times.

"This year Id like to announce an endorsement with @Tronfoundation and @justinsuntron. 8.2btc (.1btc/game) for my 2019/2020 game worn shoes. And in the essence of transparency I pledge that same 8.2btc to charity! This will allow us to continue to expand our mission to help youth!" Dinwiddie tweeted.

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Dinwiddie has previously invested in Tron's cryptocurrency, according to Bleacher Report. He was planning to launch a digital token giving investors a piece of his $34.4 million contract, but the National Basketball Association has smacked the idea down, according to the New York Times.

After the NBA rejected his idea, Dinwiddie confirmed his deal with Sun was still on. "Also, in case you were worried I'm still going to give the 8.2btc to charity from my shoes lol," he tweeted.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang expressed disappointment at the NBA's decision. "I think @SDinwiddie_25 selling interests in his professional earnings is genius and am disappointed the NBA is disallowing it," he tweeted.

The pair have exchanged friendly tweets in the past, with Dinwiddie saying "you may have gained a vote" after Yang tweeted about the Brooklyn Nets, leading them to make plans to meet at a game this fall.

Sun has also expressed support for Yang's policies. After the candidate pledged to give $1,000 a month to 10 American families over the next year, Sun tweeted he would give the same amount to 100 families - a total of $1.2 million -next year. On a livestream last week, Sun said he would message Yang about a potential partnership.

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Dinwiddie isn't Sun's first basketball connection. Kobe Bryant, the former Los Angeles Lakers star, was the guest speaker at Tron's Nitron Summit in January.

Sun, a protégé of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, invited high-profile crypto personalities including Litecoin creator Charlie Lee and Huobi CEO Livio Weng - as well as President Donald Trump - to his charity lunch with Buffett. However, he postponed the meal three days before it was scheduled, blaming a bout of kidney stones.

Sun apologized on Chinese social media for overhyping himself, and Tron employees were briefly detained by officials in China, according to Bloomberg, fueling conspiracies he was in trouble with the Chinese government. He expects to reschedule the Buffett lunch "very soon," he said on the livestream.

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