Ahhh..NBA Hoops....once upon a time the flagship product of NBA Basketball Cards. I'm so glad Panini revived the brand because it's a close of a throwback you're going to get with 24 packs and a whopping 12 cards per pack (that's pretty rare nowadays). Again, this is a low end offering, so really I'm just hoping for a couple a nice inserts, hopefully base rookies of Towns and Porzingis and if the autograph hits are bad...ah well..it's not a that big of a deal. Here's the results
Road To The Finals
Klay Thompson (#1368/2015)
Beno Udrih (#497/2015)
Josh Smith (#159/999)
Courtside
Derrick Rose
High Flyers
Dwight Howard
Team Leaders
Kawhi Leonard
Nerlens Noel
Picture Perfect
Anthony Davis
Bird's Eye View
Kyrie Irving
Triple Double
Chris Paul
Dreams
Willie Cauley-Stein
Green Parallel
Kawhi Leonard
Silver Parallel
Mike Conley (#155/299)
Dion Waiters (#044/299)
Gold Parallel
Andrew Wiggins
Enes Kanter
Meyers Leonard
Red Back Base
Avery Bradley
J.R. Smith
Shaun Livingston
Artist Proofs
Cameron Payne RC (#42/99)
Harrison Barnes (#91/99)
Hot Signatures Autograph
Jordan Clarkson
Overall Thoughts: Unfortunately right off the bat, I got my two hits and one of them kind of clouded the whole break. The Clarkson was a good pull, he's one of the better players on the Lakers and their young squad...but two packs later I got something that I was hoping to avoid when busting Panini products...PANINI REWARDS POINTS. I honestly...don't understand why Panini did this. I initially thought it was supposed to be a program that curbed redemptions, but nope, redemptions still exist. Pulling a reward point card replaces a hit, which sucks to me, because I'd rather have the satisfaction of pulling a hit then pulling a points card and picking something out of their website. Not only that, but for something as low end as Hoops, the point card is for 250 points....it's basically a jersey card, which what on Ebay sells for $.99-$3 at best..which ya know would be fine, because honestly that's probably the caliber of hit I was going to get (but you never know! That's why I'd rather have the hit...what the hit was a Kobe auto..or a Devin Booker?) I assumed you picked a card and Panini would ship it to you on their dime because ya know....it's basically a redemption program! NOPE...I'd have to pay $5 shipping to ship the card!! So on top of the price I paid for a box with 2 hits, I have to pay an additional 5 bucks to get a card that's sell value is at most 3 bucks. SAY WHAT?!? I guess for case breakers, you can accumulate points, but I don't break boxes THAT MUCH, and I'm sure it'll take months before I accumulate enough points to make it worth my while. Had I known (which I should've done research) about the shipping, I would've just sold the damn thing to someone on Blowout. Very disappointing, and really made for an unfun break. The cards themselves are sharp. The photography is top notch, I like the clean simple design, and unlike the Donruss products, a couple of the Hoops Inserts actually look like inserts. You get an insert a pack, whether it be a parallel, or various inserts. I'm always a sucker for colorful parallels, so I do like the Gold, Green, and Silver parallels. The Artist Proof cards look exactly like the Silver Parallel but just have Artist Proof stamps on them. Honestly, I think the red backs are dumb, it's just a parallel with the back in red font instead of the traditional black. Rookies come 1 a pack, so on top of the Panini Rewards fiasco, I was bummed I didn't pull either a Towns or Porzingis out of my box. I know they don't book much but it still would've been nice! Overall, Hoops is still a fun, cheap affordable break, with a chance of some really good stuff. I can't not recommend opening it, because it's not the product itself that made me mad. If you love ripping open packs with a shot at a couple autographs, than definitely go with Hoops! (Just don't get stuck with Panini Rewards hahaha!) Here are some pics of the break
I like the base cards. Simple crisp design
A couple of the insert hits
Artist Proofs # to 99
The Gold Parallel which really stand out
Silver Parallel # to 299
I like the Picture Perfect Insert
Team Leaders Insert
Green Parallel and High Flyers Inserts
Courtside Insert
Road To The Finals Inserts
Best Hit of the box: Jordan Clarkson Auto
Top 5 Pulls of 2016
#1- 2016 Topps Tribute Superfractor Autograph Alex Gordon (#1/1)
#2- 2016 Topps Tribute Milestone Relic Game Used Ball Kris Bryant (#5/10)
#3-15-16 Limited Gold Spotlight Dual Signatures Kristaps Porzingis/Jerian Grant (#8/10)
#4-15-16 Gold Standard Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson Golden Pairs Dual Patch (#12/25)
#5-15-16 Excalibur Karl Anthony Towns Rookie Rampage Autograph Jersey
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