Hacka's epic journey of the last 30 years of NBA cards

I must admit that I didn't know until tonight that Pervis was Pick 1 in the draft. I suppose at least he wasn't as disappointing as Anthony Bennett.
I've already seen a razz on #1 NBA Australia Challenge for a Bennett 1 of 1 patch with the question being "How long til I'm playing in China?'

And yea, AB was more disappointing that Out of Service Pervis. Didn't Pervis win MIP or something in like his fourth season?
 
WELCOME TO 1993-94!!!

The year I hold dearest being the year I started collecting, it came with the introduction of the first real super high premium release and some iconic cards that still are really popular today such as the Ultra Scoring Kings set. So let's get started with the super high premium release I'm talking about!

1993-94 Finest

I still remember walking into a particular video (no, not DVD) store that had a box of these sitting on the shelf, along with your usual suspects like Fleer, Hoops, and Upper Deck. I'd look at the packs in the open box and just wish I could have a crack, but with the $20-odd price tag it had on them I was no chance and I had to stick to the basics. To be completely honest, I don't know if anyone else could either because the stock level never seemed to go down.

Base card #113 Dennis Rodman

Absolutely stunning set, these were nothing like anything that had come out before. Although probably not my favourite all-round release of 1993-94, they were hands-down the nicest looking base cards and parallel's of the year like Curry is this year's MVP. The base cards had 2 designs, and here's The Worm as a Spur with red hair and white hair all on the same card!

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Parallel Sets

1993-94 Finest Refractors


More stunning in hand than in the picture, this is Cassell's rookie refractor which also shows the second design of the base cards. All of the base set was made in the refractor version arriving 1 in every 12 packs.

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Insert Sets

1993-94 Finest Main Attraction

The only real 'insert set' of the release, these cards showcased the 'main attraction' of each of the 27 franchises. Being one of the later releases of the year, the back included stats from the current season up to the All-Star game, showing a very strong start to the eventual ROY winner.

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Next on the roster:

1993-94 Fleer

First pack of cards I ever bought, I believe it was Series 2. These packs were laden with inserts coming in at 1 per pack, some harder to get than others.

Base card #292 Chris Webber

Here's Webber's rookie card, all of the rookies and non-rookies base cards were the same design. Nice simple design, although lacking in information or commentary.

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Subsets

1993-94 Fleer League Leader

It's really hard to avoid excessive Jordan's in the 90's considering he led pretty much everything!

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1993-94 Fleer Award Winner

The original KA-Boom! - Shaq. Four top ten stat category finishes in his rookie year, amazing.

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Insert Sets

1993-94 Fleer All-Stars


Chuck listened to the Village People and that's where he went!

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1993-94 Fleer Clyde Drexler

This year's Fleer tributary release goes to The Glide! Again, these releases came in an autographed version. Clyde has his brother James to thank for his success, advising him to try out for Houston's High School basketball team and supporting Clyde by working at the local restaurant. Now James owns the restaurant, what a great story!

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1993-94 Fleer First Year Phenoms

Penny Hardaway, my original favourite player, I pretty much lived in my Penny shoes and Orlando Magic jacket in my early teenage years. This first Penny of the thread is for @penny collector and a pretty cool design which I can imagine a court in Vegas would look like!

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1993-94 Fleer Internationals

Eh mon... I wonder if Ewing is a relaxed Jamaican or whether he is as intense in real life as he was on the court.

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1993-94 Fleer Living Legends

I can't tell you how much I have been hanging to get to this particular card. So, here's this young bloke who loves to play basketball and seen bits and pieces of the NBA on television (most notably on Saturday mornings). His little brother started to collect cards a few months earlier and convinced his older brother to spend his entire week's pocket money on a pack of cards. So 1993-94 Fleer Series 2 it is, crack it open and... Larry Bird Living Legends! First insert card I pulled and (at the time) a monster at that! Apart from being the box hit, I still love these cards even if they are of little value in today's super duper premium high end expensive card market! To add to this memorable story, I went to a small local card 'get together' at a collector's house and bought another 2 packs of Fleer that day from different boxes. First insert: Barkley Living Legends, second insert: Bird Living Legends again!!! Talk about beginner's luck.

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1993-94 Fleer Lottery Exchange

This set was Fleer's first redemption set from packs (I believe), where a redemption card that was extremely tough to pull was redeemable for the 11 card set to US residents only. They weren't very creative with this one with the cards looking pretty much the same as the base cards.

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1993-94 Fleer NBA Superstars

Well, I was undecided which one of these to represent this set and came up with the man formerly known as Chris Jackson. Mainly, because this is the first and probably last Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf card we'll see in this thread. Above average player but being in an 'NBA Superstars' insert set would be debatable.

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1993-94 Fleer Rookie Sensations

Really like these Rookie Sensations, simple but effective design. Also helps having my second favourite player when I was I young bloke on the front!

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1993-94 Fleer Sharpshooters

Another fantastic insert set with a great design, John Starks is flying this flag with his rags to riches story. Probably more remembered for being dominated by MJ, Starks was an exciting player and the description on the back is screaming Jamal Crawford!

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1993-94 Fleer Towers of Power

Three in a row, another really cool insert! I'm pretty sure that if I stood next to Hakeem that he would seem like a multi-storey building.

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Man I love this thread and was pretty stoked to see my man show up, I remember pulling that Penny card and was over the moon... I miss the good old days of collecting and this thread just makes me realize how much!
Yeah I don't think anything that comes out these days will replace those days! Thanks for reading and adding to the thread, much appreciated!!!
 
1993-94 Hoops

Base card (parallel) #210 Gary Payton

Being the 5th Anniversary of the inaugural Hoops release, this was celebrated with the release of a gold foil embossed 5th Anniversay parallel which you can see below. What I really like about the early Hoops cards is they included the player's middle name on the back, just some extra information that you wouldn't be able to find out any other way back in 1993. The reason I chose The Glove will have to wait until the rookie is revealed...


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Subsets

1993-94 Hoops All-Star Weekend

Pip rocking the rim against the non-existent defense of the All-Star game. Scottie had 5 steals in the 1993 game, surely that's an all-time record!

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1993-94 Hoops All-Star Team


Here we go with another awful school photo. This one's particularly bad with only half the team smiling and the terrible blue curtains in the background. And Detlef looks really pale, even compared to Mark Price! Speaking of Mark, looks like he shot the lights out in the game for the East nailing 6 three pointers, twice as many as the rest of the team combined.

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1993-94 Hoops League Leaders

MJ at it again, terrorising offences with his stingy defense. Although, I didn't know he played for the Suns and looked awfully like Kevin Johnson?

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1993-94 Hoops Tribune

Another example of the 5th Anniversary parallel. What else can Barkley do to win a championship? Going by the commentary on the back, probably not much.

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1993-94 Hoops Rookie

Exactly the same as the base card except for the 'rookie' above the team name. The reason I chose Allan Houston (other than liking his game) was when I saw his middle name and it got me thinking. Firstly, if Gary Payton (above) and Allan Houston had a kid, what would it be called? Secondly, I am amazed at the amount of superstars that actually have 2 first names as their complete name. Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant (Bryant Reeves), Chris Paul; and that's just spending a few seconds on it. So the key to success is 2 first names.

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1993-94 Hoops DR1

Technically, the next 2 cards aren't included in the chase as they are one-off's, not really a part of any set but inserted into packs as a special edition. But I can't not include them, and the first one gives us the first auto of the thread! This card is awesome in many ways, obviously because it has The Admiral's auto on it, but also because it is a reprint of his Hoops rookie card and it celebrates the all the different Hoops cards of the preceding 4 years on the back. This DR1 card came in the non-auto version and the gold foil embossed 5th Anniversary version.

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1993-94 Hoops MB1

Same as above, this one-off celebrates the great rivalry (and friendship) of Magic and Bird. It's just a fantastic card that doesn't need any commentary on it, a picture can definitely say a thousand words. MB1 also came in the 3 different versions as above.

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1993-94 Hoops Admiral's Choice

D-Rob chose 5 players to be a part of this very basic unexciting insert set, with the Reignman being one of them. All I can say about this is that I think Hakeem played multiple times daily as he is seemingly always in the background!

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1993-94 Hoops David's Best

A little more exciting (but not much) than the previous set, this David's Best set featured 5 of The Admiral's best performances of the previous season. The 'David's Best' detail had a gold holofoil look about it, and the back explains how David schooled Zo in his rookie season with 52 points against him using his full arsenal of moves.

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1993-94 Hoops Draft Redemption

This year's release of the Hoops Draft Redemption is a simple yet very stylish full black background with golf foil name and pick number. As a part of the successful and hated Blue Devils, Bobby was rewarded with the 7th pick of the 1993 Draft. Truthfully if you asked Bobby, he would probably say the highlight of his career was draft night.

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1993-94 Hoops Face to Face

Probably the best looking insert set from this year's Hoops release, it features players who regularly face off with each other from different teams that play similar positions. This one goes out to @Awoj21 with 'Spoon facing off against Barkley, and Barkley playing in oppostion to his former team.

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1993-94 Hoops Magic's All-Rookies

Magic says Chris is probably fortunate he didn't end up in Orlando. We can only wonder what would have happened if he did. I suppose it would have been a similar situation as what is now relevant at the Wolves, with 2 back-to-back ROY's on the same team.

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1993-94 Hoops Scoops

This is the 5th Anniversary version of standard insert card. These would have been great prior to the internet with the multiple choice questions on the back. Without referring to the internet, I have no idea on the answers to 3 and 5.

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1993-94 Hoops Supreme Court

Shaq, first-time member of the Hoops Supreme Court. Obviously the 'experts' were wrong, a little bit like Kristaps.

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And just for memory's sake before I go to bed:

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See what I mean about those darn redemptions! Impossible to pull but useless to most of us Aussies at the time. What I'd give to have the odds of each insert to be printed on each pack again!
 
The show continues, can't wait to have a look at 94/95 when I first started collecting.

BTW, Jordan is actually behind KJ in that pic ;)
Yeah 1994-95 has some nice stuff, and we get a bit of a break from Jordan as well. Speaking of MJ, yes I did notice him but my form of humour is appalling :ermm:
 
And just for memory's sake before I go to bed:

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See what I mean about those darn redemptions! Impossible to pull but useless to most of us Aussies at the time. What I'd give to have the odds of each insert to be printed on each pack again!
This was the first box of cards I ever bought. I remember the excitement of busting it open and actually hit the gold redemption
 
I'm a bit late to this thread but am enjoying it. Especially the 91-92 Hoops which were the first cards I ever saw.

Just wanted to point out regarding your Run TMC reference -
Where's Tim?

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That IS Tim...

Card says it's Mitch, but the photo is Tim (with Mully in background). I collected both Tim and Mitch at various points and that card always bothered me...
 
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