{"product_id":"graded-2019-20-panini-prizm-ja-morant-249-rookie-rc-basketball-card-psa-9-gem-mint","title":"Graded PSA 9 Mint Ja Morant 2019-20 Panini Prizm #249 Rookie RC Basketball Card","description":"\u003cp\u003e🏀 \u003cstrong\u003eJa Morant 2019-20 Panini Prizm #249 Rookie RC Basketball Card — Graded PSA 9 Mint — Dalzell, South Carolina — Murray State Racers — Memphis Grizzlies #2 Overall 2019 — 2020 NBA Rookie of the Year — The Prizm RC That Defines His Entry Into the Hobby\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏀 The 2019-20 Panini Prizm basketball set is one of the most important rookie card sets in the modern basketball collecting era — the product that issued the simultaneous rookie cards of Zion Williamson and Ja Morant in the same release, producing the two most sought-after basketball rookie cards of the 2019 draft class and the specific collecting dynamic that made the 2019-20 Prizm one of the most discussed and most valued basketball card releases of the hobby's modern period. Ja Morant's #249 in the 2019-20 Panini Prizm set is the card that collectors associate with his entry into professional basketball — the Prizm RC that documents his arrival in Memphis and his transition from the most electrifying guard in the mid-major college basketball landscape to one of the most explosive young players in the NBA. Graded PSA 9 Mint, this is a strong grade on one of the most significant RC in the modern basketball hobby. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🌟 \u003cstrong\u003eDalzell, South Carolina — Underrecruited, Overqualified\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🌟 Ja Morant was born on August 10, 1999, in Dalzell, South Carolina — the community in Sumter County that is not typically associated with the kind of basketball recruitment pipeline that produces top-five NBA Draft picks, and that produced in Morant a player who was so significantly underrecruited by major college programs that his path to the NBA went through Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky — a mid-major program in the Ohio Valley Conference — rather than the ACC, the SEC, or the Big Ten programs where the most visible college basketball talent is typically concentrated. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe attended Crestwood High School in Sumter, South Carolina, where his combination of athleticism, scoring ability, and passing vision was visible to anyone who watched him — but where the recruiting visibility that high school programs in major metropolitan areas receive was not available in the same volume. The oversight of major programs turned out to be one of the most significant recruiting misses in recent memory, as the player who arrived at Murray State developed into an NBA top-three pick in the span of two college seasons. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏆 \u003cstrong\u003eMurray State — The Stage That Revealed the Star\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏆 Ja Morant's two seasons at Murray State produced the statistical revelations that introduced him to the national college basketball audience and that gave NBA scouts the evidence they needed to project him as one of the most athletic and most creative point guards in the country regardless of the level of competition he faced. His 2018-19 season — 24.5 points, 10.0 assists per game, all-around production that no college player had matched in modern history at the combination of scoring and distributing — forced the entire college basketball evaluation community to reconsider what a mid-major prospect could be when the talent was genuinely elite. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis performance in the 2019 NCAA Tournament — specifically the first-round performance against Marquette that included a triple-double — placed him on a national television stage where the audience saw exactly what the scouts had been reporting: a player of exceptional athleticism, creativity, and passing ability who had been playing at the wrong level for his talent. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e⭐ \u003cstrong\u003eMemphis Grizzlies — #2 Overall 2019, Behind Zion\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e⭐ The Memphis Grizzlies selected Ja Morant with the second overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft — behind Zion Williamson, who went first to the New Orleans Pelicans, but ahead of the rest of a draft class that the NBA evaluating community had consistently rated as top-heavy. Morant in Memphis created the specific dynamic that basketball fans and analysts discussed all through the 2019-20 season: the question of whether the player who went second could produce at the level that would make the debate between first and second competitive. His 2020 NBA Rookie of the Year award — earned with 17.8 points, 7.3 assists, and 3.5 rebounds per game — answered that question definitively. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏅 \u003cstrong\u003eThe 2019-20 Prizm RC — The Hobby's Reference Point\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏅 The 2019-20 Panini Prizm basketball set is the hobby's reference card for Ja Morant — the specific release that collectors treat as his primary RC, that the secondary market prices as the benchmark for his card values across parallel tiers, and that PSA grading population reports track as the most submitted version of his rookie card. PSA 9 Mint is a strong grade for a high-velocity card that entered the market during the peak of the hobby boom — a grade that reflects above-average condition preservation in the context of a card that millions of copies were pulled, submitted, and evaluated during its period of peak collecting activity. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e🏀⭐ Ja Morant. Dalzell, South Carolina. Underrecruited out of Crestwood. Murray State 24.5 PPG, 10 APG. Memphis Grizzlies #2 overall 2019. 2020 NBA Rookie of the Year. The athlete who changed how the hobby evaluates mid-major talent. 2019-20 Panini Prizm #249 Rookie RC. PSA 9 Mint. The defining RC of one of the NBA's most explosive guards. Condition: NOS.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hall of Fame Sports Memorabilia","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48039462568168,"sku":"2019-PP-JM-249-PSA-9","price":79.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/graded-2019-20-panini-prizm-ja-morant-249-rookie-rc-basketball-card-psa-9-gem-mint-764.webp?v=1770188749","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/graded-2019-20-panini-prizm-ja-morant-249-rookie-rc-basketball-card-psa-9-gem-mint","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}