Basketball collectors only have a few chances to collect tall boy cards. By definition, these are 2 1/2″ x 4 11/16″ cards. But it’s easier to think of them as basically adding another third of a standard card length (actually more like 35%, but a third will do). So that’s a tall boy, a standard card plus a third. The only other tall boy we’ve looked at so far is the 1969 Topps Jerry West. And for basketball collector specifically, for tall boys, we have 1969 and 1970 Topps, and that was it for a while. But in the mid-’90’s collectors had the chance to collect tall boys again.
This #170 Vinny Del Negro is from ’94-’95 Jam Session, a set with minimal design elements on the front. It reminds me of Fleer’s Ultra cards where the photo took priority. Also, like Ultra, at this time, Fleer was advertising the fact that both sides were UV coated. This was a selling point in the mid-’90’s. There’s a full-bleed photo on the front with the player and team names placed in black bars. These bars really blend in with all of the black on this Vinny Del Negro card. The color chosen for the names and Jam Session logo background are consistent for each team and, for some reason, the San Antonio Spurs got this odd pink. The fronts are minimal, but the backs are quite busy. We get another photo of the player, fortunately. But depending on the team, the colors are more unified for some cards, but they really don’t blend on this one. The card number is red, as it is on every card in the set. There’s a basketball background behind the stats, here an odd purple and orange. These colors change depending on team. So if you have a card where the basketball colors match the team colors and match the red and yellow on this reverse, they look great. But if you have one like this Vinny Del Negro, it looks a bit cluttered.
There is some additional info between the bio and stats and it’s short and to the point. To me, it allows us to trace what is happening in his career very nicely. The info mentions that Vinny Del Negro finally averaged double digits in scoring the previous ’93-’94 season. We see he was with Sacramento for two years and nothing stands out too much statistically. Then he was in Italy playing for two years. He returned to the Spurs and they had a clearer role for him as a guard. You see his blocks falling drastically and a large improvement in assists. And here we finally get that double-digit scoring average mentioned in the text.
There were four inserts and a mail-in set in addition to this base set. Hope you enjoyed looking at our first card in ’94-95 Jam Session. Remember to be grateful for all your cards, even commons. Lots of history and fun in all of them!
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