The card collecting craze got even bigger last week when Topps, a worldwide leader in trading cards, returned to the NBA with a new launch for the first time since the 2009-10 season.
And one of the star players featured on the cards has already pulled a rare find.
New York Knicks star center Karl-Anthony Towns, alongside teammates Josh Hart and OG Anunoby, were on hand at the NBA Store in Manhattan last Thursday for the Topps Basketball launch when he started to open packs up with Fanatics founder Michael Rubin, late-night host Seth Meyers and a select group of young Knicks fans.
During that moment looking through his finds, Towns, an avid card collector who told the New York City crowd that his first-ever job was at a card shop, lit up. He found something good.
Towns looked the deck of cards in his hand and the crowd went wild – he had just pulled a Cooper Flagg autographed rookie card. The moment was captured on video by Topps, with Towns saying there were only 50 copies of the card in the new release.
Hart and Anunoby celebrated alongside Towns, who quickly asked for a “top loader,” or a protective seal to keep the cards from getting spoiled.
Flagg, like Towns, was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft as the Dallas Mavericks brought him in to make an immediate impact. Many have Flagg projected to be a perennial star in the league for years to come, and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is already calling Flagg’s name depending on who you speak to.
Because of that, Flagg’s Topps cards, especially his Debut Patch one-of-one which will be launched later this year, is something collectors seek due to its value. Just think MLB All-Star Paul Skenes’ debut patch card went for $1.1 million at auction.
Towns’ card won’t have that same value, but it could generate a large price tag in the future.
These Knicks players were among many who attended Topps events nationwide for the basketball launch, as Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant ended up pulling a Victor Wembanyama card during his appearance in Houston. Flagg himself was also at Tom Brady’s newest CardVault location in Dallas, and he ended up with a Mavericks legend card as Dirk Nowitzki popped out of a pack. Finally, Chris Paul was with fans in Los Angeles at the NBA Store there, and he ended up with an Allen Iverson card – only fitting considering he’s the reason he wears No. 3 on his own jersey.
Topps Basketball’s launch will also have Gold NBA Logoman Patches, which will be on the jerseys of the 2024-25 KIA NBA Most Valuable Player, Kia Rookie of the Year and Kia Defensive Player of the Year award winners. Those patches will be inserted into trading cards later and the program will continue for seasons to come.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Mike Mahan, Fanatics Collectibles CEO, told FOX Business. “I’ve been at the company almost three-and-a-half years now, so I look at this like the feeling I had when I got my driver’s license. Like a teenager saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is taking forever.’ And now we’re here. When you’re a kid and you get your driver’s license, your life changes and I kind of feel for the company, it’s the same thing. Our lives now change and the way that our responsibility and our mandate for collectors has expanded. We could not be more excited.”