Shiny and Inconsistent

Basketball cards with attitude today...

Mason on the SkyBox E-X 2000 set is a fantastic card in hand. The cut our player on a see-through sky background looks amazing in hand. Hadn't seen these cards before and wish there was more than just the one, but a very cool set. If I collected basketball, would need to take a look for this one and, if affordable, look to collect the set.

2019-20 Panini Status tris to draw ALL of the attention with the hyper sparkle design, but I'd take more E-X myself. The scans don't do credit for the level of shine from these sparkly cards, and with the background removed so it's just player focused, it really just becomes background focused.

Then, the backs of those same cards - leave a lot of space wasted. I mean, either do an actual picture or something, but to just let the background used photo be "there" for half the back - I'd rather not.

Speaking of I'd rather not. If I were to make any sports card set, I'd rather not mash together designs that are massively different from one another, slap on numbering so that it runs as a single base set, and make it confusing to try and put together - but that's what Panini does here with Chronicles in 2020-21. I can't even complain about the individual designs - some are good, some not so much, but to just say the cards are all from the same set? I mean, thank goodness we have gotten to the point that the name of the set, or at least enough of the name, is on the back copyright information, so I can figure it out (or use TCDB's search functions with the player name and card number), but it really shouldn't be THAT hard.

Whether I like the Revolution design or not, at least I can look at the cards and say yes - those are all part of the same base set. I know some may argue that Archives sets do the same things and are great. I like the design use, but would still prefer a single year throwback instead of using say three past designs in a single base set.

We end with a Stallion apparently, in Sochan. Sochan spent a few years with San Antonio, but made it out this past year, just in time to join the Knicks and be on the team for their NBA Finals victory. He didn't have any big role in it, but being in his early 20s and on a Championship team - that's going to be a career highlight no matter where the career goes from here.