Panini creates Cleveland Cavaliers trading card set for arena promotion
By Stephen Laroche | Beckett Basketball Editor
If you were one of the 20,562 fans in attendance at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland last Thursday as the hometown Cavaliers faced the Los Angeles Clipper, you may have been the lucky recipient of a seven-card pack containing a 2015-16 Panini Cleveland Cavaliers set.
Since Panini America has Kyrie Irving as one of its NBA spokesmen, this promotion was a natural fit for Cavs fans and the pack also contained an extra card advertising both the Panini Dunk app and Panini Authentic.
What players made the cut for the set and how did they perform that night? Find out after the jump.
Along with Irving, the 2015-16 Panini Cleveland Cavaliers set was made up of LeBron James, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Mo Williams, J.R. Smith, and Timofey Mozgov.
Cleveland rolled to a 115-102 victory over the Clippers that evening and improved their record to 30-11. James led the way with a 22-point, 12-assist performance while Love chipped in 16 rebounds and 18 points. Fellow starters Smith (22 points), Mozgov (11 points), and Irving (21 points) also made strong contributions. Thompson came off the bench for 23:45 and added 12 rebounds along the way. Williams was not dressed that evening.
Stephen Laroche is the editor of Beckett Hockey, Beckett Basketball, and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at slaroche@beckett.com or follow him on Twitter @Stephen_Laroche.
Where is the David Blatt card? Maybe LeBron knows?
It’s sad when a team specific set only includes well known guys. I understand that major issues have to rely on big names, but give some love to the quality bench guys like Richard Jefferson or Matthew Dellavedova or even lesser known guys like Sasha Kaun in a set like this. This is designed specifically for the team fan, so that little extra effort goes a long way.
I wish Topps would do something similar in their baseball team packaged sets, like including 6 or 7 middle relievers / bench guys for each team that are not included in the main set. It would give a real reason to purchase them other than just for the sake of completion.
To expand on that comment, I would LOVE if one of the companies would revive a 40-Man/Total type product across all sports. The new “Complete” product is somewhat like this in basketball right now, so other than the annoyingly think card stock, it is a great product for team collectors.
As a Detroit Lions fan, for example, every football product has Stafford, Calvin, Tate, etc., but it would be great if a product featured at least the 11 starters on both sides of the ball, maybe a couple of key special teamers, so like a 25-card checklist for each team, an 800ish-card set.
I’m willing to bet they would sell really well, especially at a Score-type price point for boxes or in factory set form.
I received one of these sets at the April 13th, last home and regular season game against the Detroit Pistons. I have 2 of them in my possession and cannot find any other info about them on the web!…If anyone else knows any value please let me know!
These are considered Platinum cards because of there little to no info on them online
There was also a hoops brand give away on back of of card 2015 and where it normally shows panini hoops it says panini Cleveland cavs even numbered c:1 through 12 but the C is there part of the card number. Please leave any information you might have