Basketball card collectors know that 1948 Bowman was the first all-basketball set, but the name disappears from basketball cards until 1996-97 when Topps revived it with Bowman’s Best. These higher-end cards, (six-card packs for $3.99), like most successful premium sets, was compact with only 125 cards and a higher percentage of stars. There are 80 base cards, Michael Jordan being the highlight. Next are 25 rookie cards. This is the second card in that subset, the #R2 Stephon Marbury. These are part of the main set, but are numbered separately with an “R” prefix. Kobe Bryant is the highlight of the rookie subset, but Stephon Marbury is definitely a landmark rookie in the set. He was the fourth pick in the draft, so note that these rookies do not appear in draft order.
These cards felt like earlier Topps Finest because they used the exact same production process. The same patents and trademarks are on the back of both Finest and Bowman’s Best. How is the Chromium technology, and it’s metallic finish, used in these cards? First, the border… On the front is a wavy border on the left with the last name’s initial, and two rectangles on the bottom finishing the name. The colors of these borders are inverted for the base cards and rookies. On the base cards, the border on the left and the rectangle with the first name are gold while the bottom rectangle is silver. The silver and gold are switched for the rookie subset. The Chromium effect is also used on select items. This is great on this Stephon Marbury card! His entire uniform has the metallic look to the blue. Really nice, and a great touch that the defender has some Chromium detail on the color on his uniform too, but that Timberwolves jersey is hard to beat.
The reverse of these cards is busy. Color and information everywhere. But the stats in 1996-97 Bowman’s Best are unique and interesting choices. There’s “Points + Assists per Minute” (PTS + AST / MIN), showing how a player contributes to the scoreboard, whether through an assist or scoring, during every minute they play. You see “Steals + Assists to Turnovers” and three-pointers made per field goals made, showing where a player is most effective, behind the three-point line, or deeper inside. Marbury’s .37 is pretty solid here, so best not to leave him unguarded shooting from outside. “Points per Field Goal Attempt,” a nice stat that incorporates more information than simple field goal %, is another strong one for Marbury at 1.32. But his “Super Stat” is very interesting, the youngest player to ever score 30 points!
Extra (What is Chromium Technology): Starting with Finest, Topps was innovating the actual card construction. They called it “Chromium” technology and it provided a unique, metallic shine. What was this technology? I want to draw your attention to a very informative blog post about how these cards were made. The author saw that Chrome printing plates were reversed from regular Topps. So he took apart a Chrome card, looked up the patents, and discovered that the ink is actually printed behind a clear plastic section that makes the front. This section is joined to foil, so think of the card as a sandwich…top plastic part, ink underneath that, then a foil part. To show that the ink isn’t on the front, he sanded the front. It scuffs the card, but no ink comes off. He also believes that the clear, protective coating on early Finest cards was probably used to make later Chrome cards, but the company removes it after printing before packaging. It’s a great blog post and really worth a read! And when you see the patents, you’ll realize just how much effort Topps was putting into this design.
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