There is a lot at stake – more so than usual – in this year’s NBA Finals.
And what’s at stake will have a huge impact on the basketball card market.
Some call it a changing of the guard. But it’s more than that. It’s a battle to see who will, once and for all, be the new face of the NBA.
If you have been following basketball card podcasts, online posts, and auctions of rookie cards and their variations where the grade is much higher than the serial-numbering, you are already aware that Luka Doncic has almost a cult following among collectors.
On Sunday night, he became just the fourth player to record a 30-point triple-double in a NBA Finals loss. It doesn’t look good at the moment but if the Mavericks can come back to beat the Celtics and win the series, Luka would become the face of the NBA and the undisputed king of the hobby. Right now, he is in a select group of a few players whose high-end cards command high-end dollars. A series win – and you know that if the Mavs win it will be riding Luka’s back and he will likely be MVP – will anoint him as the new king.
If that should happen, Doncic rookie cards will spike in value, some dramatically.
Past Faces Of The NBA
Basketball, probably more than any other sport, has had “a guy” that drives the card market. Hockey had that for a long time with Wayne Gretzky, even though Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy were insanely collectible.
Football sort of had it with Tom Brady, but at times, Peyton Manning and Patrick Mahomes have been just as popular.
Basketball has always had a number of stars, but there has almost always been one player that stood out with a couple of exceptions. Both of these rivalries were at their peak when there were no Topps or Fleer NBA cards.
The first exception was in the 1960s, when Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain had the greatest rivalry in sports.
Russell led the Celtics to 11 NBA titles, including eight in a row, and was a five-time MVP. He is still considered the greatest defensive big man in NBA history, and many call him the best center to ever play the game.
The NBA has retired his number 6, meaning no player can ever wear that number again. The only other athletes to have their jerseys retired league-wide are Jackie Robinson (42) and Wayne Gretzky (99).
Russell had a rookie card in the 1957-58 Topps set, and then appeared with two cards – an action shot and a base card – in the 1961-62 Fleer set. Aside from the odd team postcard set or promotional card, that was it during his career. Topps came back to the basketball card market for the 1969-70, but Russell retired after the previous season.
Chamberlain, meanwhile, set offensive records that may never be equaled. In his first NBA game, he scored 43 points and had 28 rebounds against the Knicks. In his third game, he scored 41 points and had 40 rebounds. Forget the double-double. Could Doncic ever put up a 40-40, let alone in his third ever NBA game?
Chamberlain was the 1959-60 Rookie of the Year and MVP, averaging 37.2 points per game and 27 rebounds per game.
Two years later, Chamberlain’s offensive prowess entered the realm of setting records that will never be broken. He scored 100 points in a game against the Knicks and finished the season with an untouchable 50.7 points and 25.7 rebounds per game.
Chamberlain has a rookie card (#8) and an action subset card (#66) in the 1961-62 Fleer set. Unlike Russell, he stayed in the league long enough to have cards when Topps started producing basketball cards again.
As Chamberlain’s star faded, his bitter rival, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar emerged as the new face of the NBA. Chamberlain’s Los Angeles Lakers had defeated the Abdul-Jabbar’s Milwaukee Bucks in the semi-final in 1971-72. He had not yet changed his name and was still Lew Alcindor. Chamberlain and the Lakers went on to beat the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. He was the MVP of the series and it was only the second championship of his career. Chamberlain only played one season after that.
Abdul-Jabbar, meanwhile, was traded to the Lakers after Chamberlain’s departure. The irony here is that the only rivalry in sports that came close to theirs was the one between boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
In the mid-1960s, Chamberlain befriended a young Lew Alcindor at Rucker Park and was somewhat of a mentor to him. Their relationship soured over the years, and when they were rivals in the NBA, Chamberlain saw it as personal.
When he retired and Abdul-Jabbar became the face of the NBA, it must of irked Chamberlain to the extreme. He became a six-time champion and six-time MVP – once with the Bucks and five times with the Lakers.
For collectors and for Topps, Abdul-Jabbar’s arrival into the NBA came at a perfect time. The first overall pick was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1969-70, the year Topps re-entered the basketball card market. Topps came out with a tallboy set, similar to their 1965 NFL set.
The set was done through player agreements, meaning that team names and team logos are not on the cards. Only the city names are on the cards.
The lack of full league licensing as it exists now is how Topps was able to include ABA players in their sets in the 1970s.
Although Abdul-Jabbar was still at the top of his game in 1976 when the NBA and ABA merged, the arrival of Julius Erving into the NBA took the league to the next level. The New York Nets sold Erving’s contract to the Philadelphia 76ers so that they could afford the fee the NBA wanted to join the league.
Erving instantly became the face of the NBA and its most popular player. He switched his number from 32 to 6 because of Bill Russell, who was one of his heroes growing up. Erving’s rookie card was in the 1972-73 Topps set as a member of the ABA’s Virginia Squires and remains one of the most valuable and sought after basketball cards on the market.
The changing of the guard for the face of the NBA brought with it one of the most iconic basketball cards ever made. The 1980-81 Topps three-panel cards featured the rookie cards of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson with Julius Erving as the third player on the card. Among all basketball cards produced in the 1980s, only the 1987 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card is a more popular card.
Bird and Johnson entered the NBA together after a storied collegiate rivalry. In the 1979 NCAA Tournament, Johnson’s undefeated Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird’s undefeated Indiana State Sycamores in the final. They entered the NBA together, and their rivalry grew as Bird and the Celtics ruled the East, and Johnson and the Lakers ruled the West.
In their time, Bird and Johnson were undoubtedly the faces of the NBA, similar to the way that Russell and Chamberlain were the faces of the NBA in the 1960s.
Throughout the peak of that rivalry, Topps was again out of the basketball card market. Fleer came back into the league in 1986, seeing that there was a void in the sports card market that they could fill.
Jordan’s popularity was the sole reason that basketball cards took off during the junk wax era and coincided with Upper Deck’s entry into the market. Jordan remained the face of the NBA at least through to his second retirement. He remains the most collected and most sought after basketball player in the hobby with his 1986-87 Fleer card known even to many who wouldn’t consider themselves collectors.
There was a gap between Jordan and the arrival of LeBron James 20 years ago where Kobe Bryant emerged as the face of the NBA and a highly sought after star in the hobby. Through his relationship with Ken Goldin, Bryant was also one of the first players to have aa big memorabilia deal. Shop At Home TV sold a lot of autographed Bryant basketballs around the turn of the century, which were marketed by Collector’s Edge. The card company also worked with Goldin to create a line of basketball cards dedicated to Bryant called KB8.
When James came into the league in 2003, he instantly became the face of the league, regardless of how popular Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal became. James was the biggest draw, and James cards were the most sought after among current players. While Erving honored Russell by wearing number 6, James followed suit and switched his number from Jordan’s 23 to Erving’s 6 when he went to the Miami Heat.
With James’ 20-year career in its twilight, he is still a star and a great player. His best cards still attract sizeable bids, although prices have generally dropped from whey were a couple years ago.
It’s probably safe to now say that his days as the face of the NBA have faded away.
The NBA has a number of stars who fans and collectors could see as the new face of the NBA.
Giannis Antentokounmpo had a chance to become that face. His rookie cards are in the 2013-14 NBA sets. He led the Bucks to a championship in 2021 and was the league MVP. However, that performance is looking more like a one and done, and the “Greek Freak” has been hampered by injuries as he approaches his 30th birthday later this year.
Steph Curry also was on the fringe of being the face of the NBA, though he was always in the shadows of James. When the Warriors won their two titles in 2017 and 2018, it was Kevin Durant, not Curry, who was the MVP of the Finals. Curry rebounded with an MVP performance in 2022 when the Warriors beat the Celtics in the Finals. Curry is one of those players who on draft day didn’t seem like he’d have the most sought after rookie cards in the class ten years later.
Had the Denver Nuggets repeated, Nikola Jokic may well have been the face of the NBA. He is the most complete big man in the league and a three-time MVP, but big men these days don’t always get quite as much love from fans or the hobby.
A Celtics win in the finals will vault Jayson Tatum’s popularity to the next level. He is only 26 and is evolving into one of the most popular players in the league. However, the Celtics are very team centric with a variety of players who can become a standout on any given night.
So literally and figuratively, the ball is in Luka Doncic’s court. If he leads the Mavericks to the championship, he may well become “the guy.” For now, though, the NBA has a great pool of superstar talent collectively assuming the mantel.
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