Remembering 1989-90 NBA HOOPS
Basketball cards received a much-needed upgrade during the 1989-90 season when upstart card company Hoops stormed onto the scene. For the previous three years, only Fleer had made basketball cards, and at just 132 cards per set, they literally were not much to get excited about. That changed when Hoops launched its inaugural set of basketball trading cards.
NBA Hoops cards were hard to miss. They came packaged in an eye-catching red, white and blue wrapper that boasted itself as “The Official NBA Basketball Card.” And unlike Fleer’s basketball cards, Hoops cards that season were much easier to find.
“In my little town, we might have had one place that sold Fleer Basketball, but it was a unicorn for us,” says collector Josh Green of Ardmore, Texas. “Basketball cards weren’t readily available until 1989 Hoops came out. And when it came out, it landed like a bomb.”
Hoops cards could be found practically everywhere: grocery stores, convenience stores, drug stores, and card shops, naturally. Because of its great distribution, Hoops cards could
