Fresh off its first official licensing deal with the NBA since the 2009-2010 season, card company Topps will feature Dallas Mavericks rookie forward Cooper Flagg on packs and boxes this year. That’s right — Flagg has been named Topps’ 2025-26 cover athlete.
Flagg makes sense as the choice for Topps, as rookie cards are the hottest of commodities in the card-collecting world, and Flagg enters the NBA this year after one of the most decorated freshman seasons at Duke last year.
“Cooper Flagg is a generational
talent that deserves to be front and center as the cover athlete for Topps’ coming back into the basketball hobby with our first fully licensed release,” Topps Basketball product manager Brett Whiteley said in a press release. “Cooper is one of our exclusive athletes, and it was only fitting to reintroduce Topps back to basketball hobby collectors with a talent that we expect to do great things over the next two decades.”
Flagg arrives in the league with a résumé that speaks for itself. At Duke, he became only the fourth freshman ever to win the Naismith Player of the Year award, joining Kevin Durant, Zion Williamson and fellow Maverick Anthony Davis.
“We know that Cooper will do great things for the next generation of players coming into the NBA,” Whiteley said in the release. “His game should translate immediately to the league, and not only that, landing in Dallas to team up with the likes of Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, and Kyrie Irving should do great things. If Cooper’s career goes as well as we know it will, then this could be a box that the collecting community looks back on in the same way you might recognize, like a 2003-04 Topps Chrome Basketball box with Carmelo Anthony dunking.”
If you’re buying by the box, Topps guarantees one autograph or relic card in each box featuring Flagg raising up for a jump shot. The Topps base set will be 300 cards, with both past and present stars in play. Among the rare finds will be Golden Mirror photo variations, “ultra-rare” Home Court and Comic Court case hits, Rookie Photoshoot autographs and ink from Victor Wembanyma and LeBron James in their NBA threads.
Here’s what some of the autograph cards will look like.
Topps’ history with the NBA extends back all the way to 1957, with an 80-card set that included Bill Russell’s rookie card. The exclusive license for cards has belonged to Panini since 2010. Topps was also sidelined in the basketball card game from 1982-1992, when the company focused on baseball cards.
The 2025-26 series of Topps NBA basketball cards will hit shelves at hobby shops and bix box retailers on Oct. 23.
