Hoops Hobby

I’ve been looking forward to seeing cards from the Excalibur brand in person. The Crusade insert set seems to be popular for both baseball and basketball collectors and has a certain nostalgia factor due to the 1998 baseball Donruss Crusade set.

I picked up a 15 card pack of 2016-17 Excalibur and I came away impressed.

Highlights from the base cards for me. The Pacers released Monta Ellis and I can’t say I’m upset to see him go. Eager to see Oladipo and Lance Stephenson take his role. As far as the design, I’m a fan. I much prefer shots of the players in action than just the player alone on a designed background. The Excalibur logo, font, and color schemes all look great.

Picked up four rookies from this pack, and these two stand out. Saric will be a solid contributor on a rising Sixers squad. I’m also never upset to pull a Spur. Is there anyone who doubts this guy is going to have a nice career? And there’s my first card of Oladipo since he’s been a Pacer. This one is a retail-only parallel.

Each of the Target packs have two Camo Crusade cards, on average. Enjoyed seeing a new card of the Admiral, and it’s hard to complain about pulling one of the top players in the league in Love, even if he is on the hated Cavs.

The other cards I pulled, for the set builders out there who may have interest:

10 – Gerald Green
40 – Wesley Matthews (George Hill sighting!)

83 – Lou Williams
117 – Willy Hernangomez RC
131 – Evan Fournier
178 – Tomas Satoransky RC