The 2016-17 NBA season, it's 70th, begins one week from tonight. but the first card set of the season, Hoops, has been out since sometime last week. My mom got me a box to celebrate my birthday, which is today, so I thought I would share the very first pack out of my box!
New Warriors superstar Kevin Durant appears on the box and pack. It's going to take some time to get used to that combo!
P.J. Tucker becomes my first card of the season. Even better, it's an alternate uniform in the photo! For the guy who writes
Uniform History, that is always a good thing- several new uniforms appear in this set for what I believe is the first time on cardboard.
As you see with the next card out, each team's cards feature team color-keyed borders in a wooden floor design. I really like the design. NBA Hoops logo is foil, nothing else is. Card fronts are high gloss. White borders are kind of lost on this blog design, but they are there.
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LOT of players changed teams during this offseason- about 1/4th of all 450 NBA players changed teams by my estimation. there are a lot of photos that don't match the current team. I've been trying to convince Panini to make a series 2 for Hoops to show the 150 players they didn't include in series 1 and the guys with new teams...feel free to drop Panini a line on their blog and tell them you want it too, as they DO listen to fans on some things!
The first Rookie Card of the season! This one shows a photo from Summer League, most feature photos from the Rookie Photo Shoot. I always like the first set of the year to see all the new people added to the world of card collecting. There are 40 rookie cards in the set, and they aren't as short printed as they were in the last few years. For the last several years they were less than one per pack, now they average 2 in most packs, but some packs have none or 1. Either way, they are not as hard to get.
Not a lot of guys who wear #39.
two rookies in pack #1! Jaylen Brown was the #3 pick and is expected to see regular action with the Celtics as they try to dethrone the Cleveland Cavaliers. Brown is an unusual case in that he did not hire an agent, he's acting as his own agent. He's known to be one of the smartest people in sports.
This might be Argentine Legend Manu Ginobili's final NBA season.
Second year in a row I've pulled an insert from this set in my first pack! I love this insert. It's got several tiers of numbering, progressively getting smaller as each round of the playoffs occur. It's an 86 card set, and is actually the most common insert in the set. The borders are team color coded. I pulled 6 of them, including one each from the semi-finals and conference finals.
Sam Dekker is supposedly healthy for the first time in his short NBA career, as of right now he's most well known for a photo his mom posted on Twitter of him mowing the lawn shirtless with a push mower. Really!
Steven Adams appears in another alternate jersey.
Jabari Parker has never had a season where he did not miss a large part due to injury. Hopefully the 3rd time's the charm for him. His father Sonny was also an NBA player.
Some players who changed teams did get studio photos with their new jerseys, and Turner is one of them.
Here's the back...not much to it. A lot of white empty space, incomplete stats and a small blurb about the player. For Tucker these are actually complete stats but for other players it's not. 5 years is the max they give, I believe, but I have not looked at the backs too closely yet. I'd rather have complete stats and less team logo. The white isn't as bright as it was last year.
Overall I love the set, and I'll have a full Box Break Review up on Cardboard History very soon.
