Duke freshman basketball player to have his own trading card
Posted June 9, 2022 12:17 p.m. EDT
Incoming Duke men's basketball player Dereck Lively II, one of the nation's top-rated prospects, will have his own trading card this fall.
Topps, the iconic sports trading card company, signed name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with nearly 200 college football and men's and women's college basketball players, the company's parent announced Thursday. Lively II, incoming Arkansas player Nick Smith Jr. and South Carolina women's basketball star Aliyah Boston were the three basketball players mentioned by name in the company's statement.
The trading cards will be released this fall under Topps' BowmanU brand.
"This collection is the first offering of officially licensed collegiate cards featuring current athlete NIL rights," said Topps general manager Dave Leiner in a statement.
ESPN reported some of the player deals could be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Topps said it has signed exclusive agreements with more than 35 institutions, including a majority of Power 5 conference schools. That will allow the brand to create trading card products with official university trademarks and NIL rights from current and former players. The schools include perennial football power Alabama, current football national champion Georgia, current men's basketball champion Kansas and perennial basketball power Kentucky.
Duke and North Carolina are listed among more than 100 schools that Topps has non-exclusive rights to produce trading cards for current football and basketball athletes. Duke recently hired Rachel Baker, a former Nike and NBA marketing executive, as general manager of its men's basketball program and tasked her with helping players navigate NIL opportunities and the changing landscape of college athletics.
Topps was acquired by Fanatics, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based sports merchandise and collectibles company, in January.
Fanatics and Topps didn't immediately respond to questions about whether other North Carolina-based athletes or teams are included in the current agreements.
"We felt this was the perfect time to launch multiple, strategic college trading card programs that will allow current student-athletes to create new levels of direct engagement with fans across hundreds of the top programs nationwide," Derek Eiler, executive vice president of Fanatics College, said in a news release. “There are tremendous opportunities for this untapped area of the hobby and to expand further across the collegiate sports landscape.”
