We’ve never looked at a 1997-98 Hoops card yet, so let’s start with the #220 Michael Jordan card. Probably the highlight of the set, although an argument can be made for the Tim Duncan rookie. None of these Hoops cards are particularly valuable, but that’s alright because Hoops was always meant to be an affordable, fun-to-collect set, and this season was no exception, ten-card packs sold for 99 cents. And when it was released, inside those affordable packs, there were fun inserts and the first chance for collectors to begin finding Autographics cards that season. Hoops continued to become more compact as well, now two series of 165 cards, 330 total, twenty less than the previous season. But what happened to the design?
To me, there was always a divide between Hoops and Skybox, both affordable sets for young collectors. Hoops was the one with the classic action photos and Skybox was the one that would experiment with digitization. For some reason, Hoops decided to flip the script this season. The plain white border returned (just like ’91-92 and ’92-93 Hoops, but instead of a classic photo, the background is now a team logo and tie-dye looking design in the team’s color. To me, this seems so much more appropriate for Skybox, or maybe an insert set. It just doesn’t feel like NBA Hoops. Maybe Hoops thought they were making it up by enlarging the traditional photo on the back.
But the back is not without problems. First, they tried to introduce something called a “Hooperstat,” which sounds like a unique statistic. But it was simply the 48-minute averages for each player. This “Hooperstat” didn’t change between players, and 48-minute averages aren’t really that unique or surprising. It’s nice to have, but the branding is misleading. Furthermore, for some reason, Hoops had to label these as “projected” averages. They are correct…but maybe the statistics weren’t finalized? The regular stats were condensed to a college summary, the previous season of NBA and a summarized NBA.
It’s always exciting to add another Michael Jordan card to the collection, and don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled about having this one. But it doesn’t mean we can’t be critical about the design, especially since this is our first ’97-98 Hoops card we’ve come across.
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