Heading into a professional sports draft, the top overall pick is not always a given. However, the 1992 NBA Draft was one where the top selection was not in question before the event. Shaquille O’Neal was the early consensus to be the top pick that season. The Orlando Magic made it official that spring. And despite the enormous hype surrounding O’Neal before he even played in a single contest, he managed to live up to all of it. Like many players–even Michael Jordan– it took the big man a while to win his first championship. But his Hall of Fame career ended with four rings, including a three-peat with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Ask most basketball collectors about O’Neal’s first basketball cards and many will undoubtedly point to his 1992 Classic cards. Classic famously inked a deal with O’Neal to issue his first cards as an NBA Draft pick. That landmark signing beat all other card manufacturers to the punch. But thanks to a Kentucky Wildcats fan magazine, collectors have an even earlier Shaq card to chase.
The Background
Big Blue Basketball Magazine is the publication in question. Issued in the 1980s and 1990s, the magazine focused on Kentucky Wildcats basketball. Some issues of the magazine included uncut sheets of basketball cards, which is where this Shaq pre-rookie comes into play.
Before O’Neal starred in the NBA, he dominated in college with the LSU Tigers. In his three years with the school, he averaged 21.6 points and 13.5 rebounds per contest for his career. O’Neal’s best year was actually his sophomore season. In that breakout year, Shaq scored 27.6 points and grabbed 14.7 boards per game. O’Neal shot a collegiate career best 63% from the field while also blocking five shots and grabbing 1.5 steals per game. It was after that season when O’Neal was given a card in the Big Blue Basketball Magazine’s Dream Team set.
The card is often called a 1990 issue because it was issued for the 1990-91 season. However, a 1990-91 moniker is more correct. It actually wasn’t printed until the Spring 1991 issue of the magazine. Backs of the cards even point to a faux newspaper headline date of March 25, 1991, the apparent date of selection for the team that was picked after the regular season.
So, what’s a player from the rival LSU Tigers doing in a Kentucky Wildcats magazine? That issue of the magazine featured players that were deemed the stiffest competition for the Wildcats during that season. The cool thing is that it wasn’t a group of random pundits that assembled the team. Instead, active Wildcats players did the ‘voting.’ In particular, the team of toughest opponents was decided upon by four Kentucky players — Richie Farmer, Deron Feldhaus, John Pelphrey, and Sean Woods. Despite the quartet’s excellent career at Kentucky, none of the players ever appeared in an NBA regular season game.
O’Neal wasn’t only named to the team. As was mentioned on the back of his card, he was unanimously picked by the Kentucky players as the top player on it. As cited on Shaq’s card, he had two dominant performances against the Wildcats. What did he do to garner the respect of Kentucky’s players? He first scored 28 points and collected 17 rebounds in a loss to Kentucky, and then had 33 points, 16 rebounds, and seven blocks in a 19-point win.
Other key cards were included in the magazine, too. In all, the issue included a total of 18 cards, headlined by the likes of collegiate stars and coaches. Seven cards featured players and coaches, including Allan Houston, Rick Fox, Dean Smith, Bobby Knight, and more, making up the Dream Team of opponents.
One featured Louisville’s Freedom Hall Arena as Kentucky’s ‘Home away from home.’ And a final card on that sheet served as the checklist. Nine additional cards featured Wildcats players in an ‘Award Winners’ subset. Jamal Mashburn is the key Kentucky player included while a card of head coach Rick Pitino is another key one as it is one of his earliest trading cards.
The Details
A full color image of O’Neal wearing his LSU jersey in a game is seen on the front along with a blue box, indicating that it is part of the “Big Blue Basketball Dream Team Set.”
The back includes an inset headshot of Shaq with a writeup about the voting and O’Neal’s successful season, including his performances against Kentucky. While his card is checklisted first in the publication, it is only No. 19 in the overall set. That’s because 18 earlier cards were printed before that spring publication. The magazine included 18 cards during its 1989-90 season, thus the reason the 1990-91 cards pick up at No. 19.
It is notable that two separate variations of the 1990-91 cards exist. One type is a perforated variant, as shown on the card here. A second type is a straight-edge, unperforated card. Both types were printed in full sheet form and inserted into the magazines.
Rarity and Pricing
The cards are certainly rare compared to O’Neal’s later base rookie cards produced by Classic and manufacturers with NBA licenses at the time, including Topps, Fleer, Hoops, and more. To date, PSA has graded fewer than 100 of both types — the perforated and unperforated variants.
High-grade examples are particularly rare. Of that number to date, only two PSA 10s and eight PSA 9s exist. One of the PSA 10s is on eBay now. The majority of graded examples run from PSA 5 through PSA 8, as well as PSA 9s with qualifiers (presumably most of those are off center, as the cards are notoriously off center).
The rarity certainly lies in the fact that they were issued by a smaller publication. Cards offered by magazines with an expected larger reach (i.e. Sports Illustrated for Kids) are generally not as rare, as collectors learned to purchase them for the cards inside. The print run would have been smaller and a good number of cards would have likely been discarded along with the magazines over time.
Prices for O’Neal’s pre-rookie card fluctuate wildly. Some raw examples have, on occasion, sold for almost as much as some PSA 8 cards. Generally, most can be had for $100-$200. Some complete, unseparated sheets exist, too. Typically, those start around $200.
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