Mr. 3000

I hit a pretty significant milestone on March 23rd. I finally decided to go through what was left of the COMC box- the one that I got in the mail in December 2017, and pulled heavily from for my Card of the Day Project all through 2018.

A good portion of what was left in the box were NBA players who I didn't yet have represented in my collection, part of my Names Project, which has really become the centerpoint of my collection. Specifically, 33 of the 101 cards left in the box were my 1st card of the player featured.

The 7th new person out of the box just happened to be the 3000th different NBA person in my collection! That is quite a milestone- and, for the time being at least, the last major milestone I can hope to get...because I'm only missing 282 more documented people! Each season brings, on average, 55 new players to get cards, so I will have a long way to wait before I hit 4000 different people...realistically, it might not ever happen, because Panini's coverage of the NBA is getting worse and worse. The NBA is a 525 man league and yet Panini won't produce a set larger than 300 people- and this year, they only included 280 active players in the largest set, which is terrible. It hasn't been this bad since 1988-89.

Mike King, 2005-06 Topps Chrome #254, was Mr. 3000. 2005-06 Chrome is the only set ever to include cards of the NBA D-League, now called G-League, which has existed since 2001. It is the NBA's minor league and it really should have card representation, but it doesn't. Except this set, which included more than a few D-Leaguers at the end of the set- all but 3 of them getting their only cards ever in the set, although none are One Hit Wonders because there are multiple parallels of the set. (Refractor, Black Refractor, Gold Refractor, X-Fractor, Blue X-Fractor, Superfractor) Mike King never made it to the NBA itself, but the D-League players very much count towards the project. Anyone who ever got an NBA card, or any of the leagues that were folded into or wholly a part of the NBA, count. (NBA, ABA, BAA, NBL, NBA D/G-League) The National Basketball League, which was in operation from 1937-1948, has no cards ever issued for it. But if they ever do exist, they will count.

When I first compiled the list of people missing from my collection, the D-Leaguers made up about 1/3rd of the players missing from my collection. They were the largest group of people missing. With the box from COMC (there were more than 10 in the box when I started), the trade I made recently, and just picking them off whenever I can, I'm down to just needing 5 D-League players missing from my collection. That's a huge accomplishment if I don't say so myself. The One-Hit Wonders from 1948-49 Bowman and 1957-58 Topps are now the largest portion of missing people from my collection. And, considering they are also among the most expensive cards in the hobby, picking them off will be challenging, if not impossible.

I never really considered this project until probably 2015. If it was not for the Trading Card Database, it would not have been possible. (I literally went through every listing looking to see if the names not in my collection had NBA cards, or only college or others, which do not count). But since I transitioned to this project in 2015, it's become the driving force for my collection, and the most rewarding aspect of it as well. I've learned about a lot of people I may not have otherwise, and it allows me to be a true historian of the sport, not just a collector.

You can see who I'm missing HERE. I have not entered the people who got their first cards in 2018-19 yet, for the most part. I'm also probably missing some people who only got cards in regional promos. I tried to list as many of them as I could find, but I'm sure some escaped my grasp, because I've already found and added a few people who were not on the list, from regional promos I didn't know existed when I compiled the list.

There is one area where the list could expand greatly, but seems unlikely to ever get cards. The NBA, and the leagues that merged to form it, have been around since 1946 (well, 1937 really, but the NBA only recognizes 1946). Cards for the sport were not regularly produced until 1968-69, and even then the sets were small...there are a lot of early players who never got a single card. A set documenting the history of the sport, specifically the early history, could lead to literally hundreds of players getting a card for the first time. (There are 9 entire TEAMS that have never gotten a single card! Two of those teams are earlier versions of what would become the Atlanta Hawks). Even the 1970, 80s, 90s and today have lots of players who never got a card. With Panini's general lack of interest in doing a good job with the sport, that number is actually growing, not shrinking. If they, or, hopefully, someone else, did a history of the sport set, these people could finally be recognized. I'm not going to hold my breath, even with the NBA's 75th Anniversary coming up in 3 years.