An NBA Hockey card

One of my favorite inserts of the Panini era is the Courtside set that was in Hoops for several years.

The photography in these is just...spectacular. They are all like this...this one is from the 2013-14 set. This photo was taken at the Staples Center, and take a look at the banners clearly shown in the rafters- they are for the LA Kings hockey team, showing retired numbers on the left and post season awards on the right. The banners on the right are probably a little different now- the Kings would win the Stanley Cup that season also.

The funny thing is, now this matters to me. When the card was issued, it wouldn't have, really. I would not have known who any of the names other than Gretzky were- even before I got into hockey, I knew that name- but now I do. I have cards of all of them as well. Something that- when this card was issued- I had only Gretzky in my Multi-Sport collection.

Luckily, I didn't get this card when it was new. I got it in trade with Trading Card Database member Bevans in June 2018. Now, I was able to appreciate it fully. There's another in the same set that also shows the banners that I got in the same trade:

I really need to be on the lookout for more cards that show cross-sport banners for the two indoor sports I collect. I know I have a Rangers card where Walt Frazier's retired number banner is visible, but I didn't think to make note of which one it was.

I'll make sure to show it when I come across it again. I've created a new tag- Cross-Sport- where I will track these as I come across them in the future.