1969-70 Topps Basketball Cards

Product Details

1969-70 Topps Basketball proves that bigger can be better, especially when covering the giants of the hardcourt. It also helps that the vintage NBA set has one of the most popular basketball rookie cards in history.

Topps' first basketball card set in over a decade is a 99-card set that is known to collectors as tallboys due to the fact that they were made much larger than standard cards. Although still 2 ½ inches wide, the cards were 4 11/16 inches tall. This is the same size as 1964-65 Topps Hockey and 1965 Topps Football.

1969-70 Topps Basketball Set Details

The white-border 1969-70 Topps Basketball cards show a player inside an oval-shaped frame, with his head occasionally peeking out over the top of the line. Each corner is given a basketball player silhouette in black ink. The subject's name appears in red along the top, with his position in black ink below that. Finally, the team is listed at the bottom in red ink.

Backs feature a blue circle with the card number inside, along with the player's name and vital statistics at the top. A short write-up and year-by-year career statistics follow on a salmon-colored field. Below that, a circle that appears to be dropping into a hoop contains a cartoon.

As the first nationally-issued basketball set in several years, 1969-70 Topps Basketball contains a lot of first-time players. The biggest name among these rookies is Lew Alcindor (later to be known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Other big-name rookies include Bill Bradley, Dave Bing, John Havlicek, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Don Nelson, Wes Unseld, Nate Thurmond and Walt Frazier. Another first-time card for a Hall of Famer would be Dave DeBusschere, if not for some baseball cards during the 1960s when he pitched for the Chicago White Sox.

The set was issued in one series and all 99 cards were printed together on one sheet. It has been determined that the checklist card was on the lower-right corner and therefore more prone to damage from the process or printing and packaging than others. As a result, it is a tough card to find in decent shape, even considering the normal issues they have with being marked up.

As far as inserts go, the 10-card packs each include an oversized Topps Ruler. These have cartoon images of top players and fold open to reach nearly 10 inches in height.

Key 1969-70 Topps Basketball Cards:

• Lew Alcindor RC #25
• John Havlicek RC #20
• Bill Bradley RC #43
• Jerry West #90
• Wilt Chamberlain #1
• Checklist #99