This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/16/2017
Michael Jordan is widely considered to be the best professional basketball player ever, but Bill Russell was the most successful. A five-time MVP and 12 time All-Star, Russell won an unprecedented 11 NBA championships over his 13 seasons. There is not an NBA player who has achieved more in a career that Russell; not Michael Jordan, not Wilt Chamberlain, not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Not only was Russell a consummate winner in the NBA, he also led his college team, The University of San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA championships. So when Topps decided to dive into the basketball card market in 1957, it was destiny that the Bill Russell rookie card would become the hardcourt equivalent of baseball's 1952 Topps Mantle. In addition to being a scarce short print plagued with centering problems like the Mantle card, the 1957 Topps Russell is a true rookie card. Even though many cards in the set are technically rookie cards since a mainstream set hadn't been distributed since Bowman's collection in 1948, Russell had just one full season under his belt, averaging just short of 15 points and 20 rebounds per game, impressive stats that would only improve with each passing year. The 1957 Topps Bill Russell rookie card offered here is a true marvel, amazingly well centered with a minimal amount of stray print that often dominates the surface of lower graded examples. The endpoints easily reach NM/MT status if not slightly higher while the clean reverse, also impressively well-centered, gives no cause for concern. This is a tremendously solid NM/MT specimen that would be a worthy addition to your collection.