Basketball Box Break

Since this is the last year for everyone but Panini to make NBA cards, I decided to build all the final sets. I hadn't bought a whole lot of Topps yet, so I picked up a hobby box. I got a total of 300 of the 33o base cards which equals 90% of the set. After I mixed in what I had previously bought I'm left with just 16 cards needed to complete the set. Please check out the Sets We're Building section on the sidebar to see if you can help us out.

Initially the Topps set was my least favorite, but it has grown on me the more I've seen of it and now I like it best. The variety of the photos mixed with both vertical and horizontal cards make it much more unique than the offerings of UD or Panini. We got 1 gold card per pack so I won't show all of those or the base, but I will show a few of my favorites and all the other inserts. Here we go!

Zaza and the Hawks in a pregame dance off. Not sure if his teammates actually like Zaza's dancin' or if they're all making fun of the crazy white boy dance. Either way, it looks like they're all having a good time, whether Zaza is in on the joke or not.

Wow, what a mess of hair! When did Carrot Top join the NBA anyway?

Nothing like a little game of Dog Pile to keep things interesting.

Dwight Howard says "Get that $#!+ outta here!" When he pulls his left hand down, there will be a little smiling sticker of himself on the backboard. Trust me. I've seen him do it before!

Ahhh. That's it, right there. I'm good to go in just a few.

My favorite card in the set. This was a great moment from the Dunk contest the previous year and without characters like this in the competition, it isn't a whole lot of fun. Just look at this year's contest last week. Blah! Poor Nate didn't have anyone to play off of and the whole thing left a lot to be desired.

We got 6 of these Draft Snapshots. A pretty boring insert in my opinion.

Here's our 1 black bordered card numbered out of 50. Nice shot, though I'm not particularly a Noah fan.

3 regular chrome cards showed up in the box. As usual they don't scan real well. Kevin Love looks like he's being defended by a ghost.

We also got 3 chrome refractors, one of which was a gold border. Pretty nice players too, which brings us to the hits. I think the norm is 3 per box, we got 4.

2 Roundball Remnants, both named Al. I dig the look of the cards, especially the way the jersey is made a part of the basketball. Not real excited about the players pulled though.

Ah ha! Now that's a lot better. Brandon Roy game used jersey/auto and a Magic "supposed" game used card. I say "supposed" because of the color of the swatch. Yeah, it's white. Problem is, unless I'm mistaken, the Lakers never wore white jerseys until long after Magic quit playing. I guess it could be an All Star jersey, but I'm skeptical. Oh well, it's still a cool card. All in all it was a fun box to break. I'm definitely sad to see Topps being taken out of the basketball picture. Panini really needs to get their rears in gear and come up with some better product next year. If anyone has any of the cards I need to complete this set, please let me know. I'm so close. Later.