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NBA Stars Get ‘Personalized Potatoes’ In Mail, The Truth Behind It Revealed

By Van Bermudez
Published on: 00:06 PST, Mar 17, 2017

The NBA community is now going gaga over a bunch of personalized potatoes. Earlier this week, several basketball stars received an amusing present in the mail that got everyone talking.

Apparently, it all started when Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki took to Twitter and shared his “tatered likeness” plastered on a potato. The 38-year-old former MVP posted a photo of the viral potato and captioned it with, “Whoever sent me this POTATO!!!! Much appreciated….” The said parcel arrived at Dirk’s mail just in time after he recorded his 30,000th career point last week.

NBA fans were quick to express their amusement about Nowitzki’s personalized potato. One user quipped, “@swish41 it’s an MVP(otato)!” Another fan wrote, “I’m trying to decipher the riddle of putting Dirk on a potato but so far nothing!”

And it looks like the personalized potato trend in the NBA is just starting. Shortly after Nowitzki, other basketball stars also shared their own potato madness including Indiana Pacers’ C.J. Miles, Miami Heat’s Hassan Whiteside, and Charlotte Hornets’ Frank Kaminsky III. The said hoop stars also received the parcel in the mail.

Considering how these potatoes look, it is easy to assume that all of them came from one source. According to USA Today’s For The Win, a company called Potato Parcel might be the one responsible for this NBA potato trend. Apparently, Potato Parcel, owned by two entrepreneurs – Alex Craig and Riad Bekhit – introduced the company to ABC’s Shark Tank about two years ago. During the said episode, Craig and Bekhit asked for $50,000 for 10 percent of Potato Parcel.

The duo also enlightened the audience as to how the business goes. Apparently, people would pay them $9.99 to $12.99, depending on the type of message that they want. The company will then put the personalized message on a potato and send it to the person of their choosing. The features of the viral potato are quite simple – plain text written using a marker and a printed image posted on the potato’s skin.

In the same episode, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban seemed not impressed with Craig and Bekhit’s business proposal and even called it a “stupid on a stick.” To which Craig wittily responded with, “It’s actually stupid on a potato.”

The business partners then revealed that they were able to book $251,000 in sales within the first year of operation. Bekhit added that he spent $42,000 to buy 100 percent of the business from Craig.

However, Cuban remained unimpressed, “So seriously, you do two hundred and fifteen thousand real dollars and rather than just thinking, ‘we made out like bandits,’ you keep going at it, thinking you’re going to keep the business growing?”

Fortunately, since the product was selling well, Craig and Bekhit were able to convince two of the show’s sharks – Kevin O’Leary and Robert Herjavec. The two businessmen showed interest in the said proposal. In the end, Kevin O’Leary landed the deal, shelling out $50,000 for 10 percent of Potato Parcel and a $1 royalty on every potato sold. The said deal ends as soon as they pay him a total of $150,000.

With its current success, many believe that the personalized potato trend will continue to invade the NBA scene. Check out how it all started in the video below.

[Featured Image by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]

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