A Very Merry Top Shot Christmas

A month feels like an eternity in NFT time, but one month from now, we’ll be on the cusp of our first Legendary Pack Drop of Series 3. It’s also, in my opinion, the most exciting Legendary pack drop in NBA Top Shot history.

Deck the Hoops: Historical Edition, or whatever it will be called, will feature /120 or lower mint Legendary Moments with the best performances in Christmas history that Top Shot can acquire the rights to. The NBA and Christmas have a rich history, with special jerseys, epic performances, and iconic commercials. According to NBA.com, games have been played on Christmas Day games since 1947!

This is what we know:

“Around the holidays we will be releasing our first historical Legendary set with a focus on Christmas Day games of yesteryear. Maintaining the name Deck the Hoops from Series 2, we will venture back to a dedicated time period for memorable performances. We anticipate this to be one of the most exciting drops of the year and the narrow focus on Christmas games allows us to give you all exciting plays from league history without dipping into content that overlaps with future Run It Back sets.”

The S2 Deck the Hoops set contained 12 Moments. For consistency’s sake, I will speculate that the S3 drop of this modified set will also have 12. Which teams and players they’ll feature, and when they’ll be from is anyone’s guess. But let’s take a look at some numbers and clues to see what we might have in store, shall we?

Cracking the Code on Series 3 Historical Deck the Hoops

1. The teams with the fewest Christmas Day games in NBA history are the Mavericks (3), Pacers (4), Timberwolves (2), Raptors (2), and Hornets/Pelicans (3).
2. The teams with the most Christmas Day games in NBA history are the Knicks (53), Lakers (46), Celtics (33), Pistons (32), Nets (33), 76ers (32), Warriors (29), and Kings (29).
3. “Without dipping into content that overlaps with future Run It Back sets” is a line from the blog that stands out. What can we infer from it? For starters, we could get content that overlaps with existing Run It Back sets, so 05–06 and 13–14 Christmas might be on the table. It also means we can get seasons that haven’t taken place yet, might be on the RIB long-term roadmap, but that this player won’t appear in that RIB set because they’re going to be used here. I’m squeezing this line for all it’s worth.
4. Durant. On. Christmas. I feel like this is a lock. Considering his blossoming relationship with Top Shot, his relatively small collection of Moments, and impressive Christmas track record, I can see KD being one of the 12 players in the set. 2021 will be Durant’s 11 Christmas appearance. We could get 2007 Sonics Durant, his Christmas career-high 44 points in 2010 as a member of the Thunder, or a bottleneck-breaking (or making?) 2013–14 Christmas game vs. the Knicks to create an alternative to his RIB Thunder Moment. Then there is the logical pick…
5. 2016 Cavs v. Warriors. Durant’s on the Warriors in 2016, his first year on the team, after making the switch from OKC upon losing in the WCF to them the previous year, and the year after Lebron’s Cavs took the crown against the Warriors. The rematch game. Kyrie hits the game-winner with three seconds left, a repeat of his Finals heroics. Durant has 36. Klay has 24. LeBron has 31. Why would we ever get a 2016 RIB Set? No reason. So this year and game feel on the table. It’s widely considered the “best Christmas game ever” by media people who write articles about that kind of stuff. There’s a lot of potential here.
6. The 2016 Christmas games also featured a great battle between the Celtics and Knicks, including a monster Isaiah Thomas 27-point performance against Carmelo and Kristaps Porzingis. KP Knicks Debut? IT first Celtics Moment? Bottlenecks, I know, but I also don’t care. I want cool stuff on the platform, even if it means your complete team sets are temporarily compromised.
7. Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Kobe Bryant, Bernard King, Penny Hardaway, Shaq, and Scottie Pippen are at the center of some of the league’s most iconic Christmas games. King holds the Christmas record with 60 points. In his rookie season, Wilt Chamberlain put up 59 points and 36 rebounds in a loss to the Knicks. Rick Barry has a Christmas 50 burger. Tracy McGrady’s averages 43 points on Christmas, including a 46-point performance on the Magic. Kobe is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer on Christmas. Could you imagine? Can Top Shot go that deep into the bag? I don’t know what’s possible, but what an amazing opportunity to blow us all away. If you’re going to do a Christmas-specific pack drop featuring historical Moments during the NBA’s 75th anniversary…anything seems possible.
8. There is an article from 2019 on NBA.com titled “Legendary Moments in NBA History: Best Christmas Day Games, Performances, and more.” The only content of the page is an embedded video. Probably nothing?

So what will we get in the first Legendary drop of Series 3? We’ll find out soon enough. I will be channeling all my queue luck for this one, and feel like we’re in store for something special. I’ll leave out milk and cookies for Roham and Co. just to make sure.