The 2024-25 NBA regular season is in the books, and the playoffs start Saturday.
That means the ballots are due for the league's awards, which will be revealed throughout the postseason.
At cllct, we're not going to make you wait. We're here to name the MVP, Rookie of the Year, All-NBA first team and Most Improved Player awards — with the caveat that all of these honors are determined by the players' collectibility.
So, we reviewed all the memorabilia markets from the last six months and can now present our winners ...
MVP: Victor Wembanyama
Wembanyama’s sophomore season was cut short due to a blood clot, but that doesn’t change the fact he has been the most collectible NBA player since joining the league.
At the high end of the trading card market, Wembanyama has delivered a number of six-figure sales, including the $860,100 paid for his 2023-24 Panini Prizm Nebula Choice 1/1 PSA 9 at Goldin Auctions in February.
Since the start of the 2024-25 regular season Oct. 22, Card Ladder has logged nine $100,000-plus sales for Wembanyama and more than 180 sales of $10,000 or more.
He has been the runaway favorite among collectors in terms of sales volume, too, with Market Movers tracking sales for more than 133,000 Wembanyama cards over the last 180 days — the second-most logged over that time period among active NBA players is LeBron James’ nearly 36,000.
Wembanyama’s popularity has spilled into the game-used memorabilia space, too. The jersey from his All-Star Game debut sold for $228,600 at Sotheby’s a little more than a month after the jersey Wembanyama wore during his first game on Christmas fetched $192,000.
Then there’s the “best swap ever” jersey that sold for $73,200 in February — that piece become part of a controversial sale when it was taken to auction after Wembanyama traded it with a young fan.
It seems inevitable Wembanyama will eventually win a real MVP, but he’s already delivered to that level among hobbyists, and collector sentiment doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle
The star power of the 2024 NBA Draft class has been widely considered to be among the weakest in recent years, and the regular season didn’t exactly disprove that sentiment.
Interest in many of the top players such as Castle, top pick Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr was fine, but not particularly notable.
Someone has to win this award, though, and Castle has had the most encouraging market.
According to Card Ladder, the top trading card sale for Castle is the $4,500 paid for a Prizm Gold Shimmer FOTL /10 in March — Risacher’s top solo sale so far is just $3,800.
Castle has also outpaced Risacher and Sarr in terms of sales volume, with Market Movers tracking more than 5,600 sales for Castle over the last 180 days. Risacher has had just 2,400 sales tracked, while Sarr has had fewer than 2,000 over that same period.
Castle’s game-worn market has also performed better, with his NBA debut jersey selling for $24,000 at Sotheby’s, while Risacher’s and Sarr’s jerseys sold for just $8,400 and $5,760 each, respectively.
No player from this class has emerged as a clear collectibles superstar, but Castle’s early results have been the best so far.
Most Improved Player: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
It’s hard to argue that an MVP candidate from past years is the most improved, but that’s the case for Gilgeous-Alexander in the collectibles market.
Part of the 2018 NBA Draft class, Gilgeous-Alexander has always had a strong card market, but his high-end cards made a significant jump during the regular season.
The record for any Gilgeous-Alexander card is the $228,000 paid for his 2018 National Treasures Logoman 1/1 in March 2023, but the rest of his top sales are all from 2024 and 2025. Beyond that record-holder, Gilgeous-Alexander’s next 16 sales have all come in the last two years and 13 of those arrived in 2025.
Gilgeous-Alexander appears to have made the jump to perennial MVP candidate, and collectors have adjusted accordingly.
Over the last 180 days, Market Movers has tracked more than 11,000 sales for Gilgeous-Alexander, and those cards are up a collective 42% in price.
Of the active NBA players tracked by Market Movers with 10,000 sales or more over that span, just five have experienced positive price growth — Amen Thompson is the only other player with double-digit growth (39%), but it’s important to note Thompson’s average card price is just $58 while Gilgeous-Alexander’s is closer to $190.
There has been plenty of interest for Gilgeous-Alexander in the game-worn market in recent months as well. His jersey from the 2025 All-Star Game fetched $30,480 earlier this year. Another jersey, matched to three games, sold for $38,400, and the jersey he wore to become the fastest Oklahoma City Thunder player to score 10,000 points sold for $33,020.
A pair of sneakers, matched to three games in 2019-20, sold for $8,540 at Goldin in December.
Gilgeous-Alexander had a strong trading card and memorabilia market prior to 2025, but he now appears to be among the most coveted basketball players in the hobby, and an extended postseason run by the Thunder might improve his trajectory even more.
Card of the Year: 2023-24 Victor Wembanyama Prizm Baze No. 136
A few cards were debated as the most important from this past season, but it’s hard to argue against the card collectors flocked to the most.
Of the graded basketball cards tracked by Market Movers over the last 180 days, none was a better seller than Wembanyama’s 2023-24 Prizm Base PSA 10 with more than 2,800 sales. Second-place was a PSA 9 example of the card with more than 1,600 sales.
The card’s popularity transcended the basketball card market, too, and is the top seller of any graded card across any category logged by Market Movers over the last six months. (The viral Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat from the Pokémon Van Gogh Collaboration was the second-most sold over that period with just over 2,000 sales for PSA 10 examples.)
To date, third-party grading tracker GemRate reports PSA has graded more than 43,000 examples of the card, making it one of the most popular submissions ever — not just within the ultra-modern era.
Record-breaking sales are often associated with a card’s importance, but one could argue the simple flagship Prizm for Wembanyama will be the most recognizable card to the overwhelming majority of collectors.
Sure, the Prizm Nebula 1/1, 2023 National Treasures Logoman 1/1 or the Black Shimmer FOTL 1/1 might have been the record-breaking sellers over the last year, but do those cards matter to the average collector as much as an achievable flagship rookie?
We think the resonance with the everyday collector is important, and Wembanyama’s Prizm Base No. 136 stands above all others from this past season in that regard.
Honorable Mention: LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant Topps NOW Olympic triple autograph
Picking the most important basketball card from the 2024-25 season was difficult — so much so we made the decision to add the only Honorable Mention in these awards to this category.
Of all the basketball cards released in 2024, none was talked about more by hobbyists than the Topps NOW triple autograph card featuring James, Curry, Durant.
The chase for the 1/1 triple auto saw collectors swarm the Topps NOW website to buy a then-NOW record 653,737 copies of the base card hoping to win the grail. Collectors eventually turned to the secondary market to buy sealed packs when their base card orders came up empty for the parallel.
Today, the card has yet to surface publicly, and chances seem high it might be trapped inside a sealed pack on eBay or in a dresser drawer.
It would be hard to argue against the triple autograph being the best card of the 2024-25 season had it been found, but for the time being it’s just another iconic card that has yet to surface.
Retail MVP: Ja Morant
The last few years have been rocky for Morant. From a breakout 2021-22 season in which he averaged 27.4 points per game and placed seventh in MVP voting, off-the-court drama and injuries sidelined the young star, playing just nine games in 2022-23.
Morant’s 23.2 points and 7.3 assists per game this season were not back to his peak performance, but still showed his game hasn’t gone anywhere. Still, his uneven output the past few years has done little to dampen his extraordinary popularity.
His jerseys were the eighth0most popular out of all players in the league this year, ahead of both leading MVP candidates Gilgeous Alexander and Nikola Jokic, and was the only player in the top 10 other than Luka Doncic who did not make the All-Star team.
His signature sneaker, the Nike Ja 2 (released in September 2024), was a fan favorite, and Complex ranked it third on its list of the best signature sneakers in basketball ahead of the season.
All-Collectible 1st Team:
Victor Wembanyama
Wembanyama’s hype on the court is only surpassed by his hype in the hobby. Since its release, his 2023-24 Prizm Base No. 136 has been graded more than 100 times every day by PSA.
LeBron James
An argument can be made that, much like for the real NBA MVP award, LeBron could be the collectibles MVP every year. With two million-dollar card sales already in 2025, not to mention his splashy sales in the game-worn category and third-place finish in jersey sales, James continues to be a stalwart of the collectible world..
Luka Doncic
The best-selling jersey of the year and the next Lakers superstar is one of the most beloved and most collectible players in the NBA on a yearly basis. But this season, after being the subject of the most stunning trade in NBA history and enjoying the Lakers’ massive audience, Luka has leveled up.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
It’s rarely an apples-to-apples comparison when you are comparing on-court performance to the card market, but here is an example that might be close. Just as SGA took another leap, turning in a dominant season on the court, his card sales followed.
Steph Curry
As one part of the trio featured on the honorable mention Card of the Year, as well as the second-most sold jersey of the season, Curry is well-deserving of first-team status. The Warriors star also has had eight six-figure card sales since September 2024 and plenty of notable pieces of memorabilia hit the auction block, including the sneakers he wore during the 2022 Western Conference first round, in which he first unveiled his now-legendary “Night, Night” gesture, which fetched nearly $60,000 last month.
Speaking of “Night, Night,” Curry’s trademarked phrase could be the inspiration for the T-shirt of the year.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.
Will Stern is a reporter editor for cllct.