Enjoyed a fantastic NBA Finals series but now getting back to stocking the eBay store with my love of hoops and our local Sacramento Kings! Want to be sure key cards are available like Kenny Smith’s rookie as a local star and a star on the TNT panel. This is Kenny’s rookie from 1988-89 Fleer Card 100.
After 30 years I’m still amazed at the artwork in the Fleer/Skybox cards. This one is from the 1995-96 Skybox. Card 253 is Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s Honor Roll. Mahmoud was drafts as the 3rd pick in the 1990 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets and would later play for the Sacramento Kings 1996-98.
This is one of Oscars coolest cards – tall size from the 1969-70 Topps Cincinnati Royals. The tall cards are 4 and 3/4 inches high by 2 and 1/2 inches wide.
When Fleer returned to the basketball card market in 1986, it produced one of the most famous sets in hobby history. While collectors often focus on Michael Jordan’s rookie card, the set also captured the Sacramento Kings during their first NBA season in Sacramento after relocating from Kansas City in 1985.
Featured here are Larry Drew, Eddie Johnson, Reggie Theus, LaSalle Thompson, and Mike Woodson—five players who helped introduce NBA basketball to Sacramento fans.
As a longtime Kings fan, I owned dozens of each of these cards, most of which were pulled from packs purchased at a local drug store that I’d ride my bike to as a kid. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep any of the Michael Jordan rookies that passed through my hands over the years.
Today, those Jordans might be worth enough to buy a new car, but these Kings cards tell a different story—the beginning of Sacramento’s NBA journey. Every card has a story, and these cards remind me where my Kings fandom began.