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Welcome back to part 2 of the first ever "The Momie Awards," celebrating the best moments of the second half of the NBA Top Shot season for the 2023-2024 sets. The goal here is to take a look back at the second half of the year, showcase the best moments across 10 categories, culminating in a best of the best for collecting from the second half of this year. Incase you missed part 1 from the first half of the year, make sure you catch up on the previous post! One change from part 1 is I swapped the Archive set for the Playoff set given relevancy of the drops. For clarity, up until the final category, we are looking at the moments themselves. Watch your moments people! Now, put on your favorite jersey with a bow tie for the red carpet event here and enjoy the best moments of the year so far!
Best Common - The Nominees:
The base set this year from start to finish was incredibly well done. The level of polish, the selection of moments and decision to only go with the explosion parallels, really made it feel like a special collectible set. Overall, I'd give the first half of the year a slight edge over the second half with the star power coming out early and some of the big moments we saw early on, but the second half was still loaded with bangers. Mikal Bridges with a 3/4 court shot and Jalen Suggs with a steal sequence finishing with a behind the back pass to Suggs for a corner three highlight the shooting moments. Malaki Branham with the Throwdowns esq poster dunk complete with bench eruption highlights the best dunk from the base set. Rounding out the base nominees are freshly traded Dejounte Murray putting a defender on absolute skates into a jumper and Kelly Oubre with a massive rejection, reminiscent of his Top Shot Debut.
And The Momie goes to.....Jalen Suggs 3 Pointer! Jalen Suggs had some absolute stand out moments this year, from this base common to his Hustle & Show to his Throwdown, wrapped up with his Playoff common dunk. All are pure viewing pleasure and this moment gets the best of the second half of the base set. What else do you want in a base moment? You have the pick pocket steal, a behind the back pass and a spot up three from the corner. Suggs finishes up as one of my favorite players to watch on Top Shot this year.
Best Rare - The Nominees:
This was by far the hardest category to pick. The quality of rares in the second half of the season was silly good. We had several drops near the end of the year from For the Win, Video Game Numbers and Throwdowns; while MGLE always brings the heat in the rare tier. One thing I did opt to do here was omit the Best of Playoffs rare tiers, because quite honestly you could have done 5 of just those and been totally fine. Since Playoffs is getting its own Momie, this category was all the other rare sets. Anthony Edwards leads the way with two iconic Top Shot moments with his monster Throwdown and career highlight worthy game saving block. That Edwards block narrowly edged out Damian Lillard's FTW master challenge reward as the FTW set had so many bangers. One of those was the incredible Kyrie Irving hook shot game winner that set the Twitter machine on fire, similar to the Ja Morant FTW reward from the first half, with demands of must mint it immediately! We close out the nominees with Steph going for 60 in a reel that is everything great about his game and Zion taking absolute flight on an alley oop, showing the world he's still coming.
And The Momie goes to.....Kyrie Irving Hook Shot! This is just everything beautiful about watching basketball and Top Shot all rolled into a singular moment. The play itself was a ridiculous left handed hook shot with the game on the line, but what you get after with the bench and crowd eruption, paired with the wild celebration on the floor; that's everything I want in a moment. Moments like this, and all of these rares honestly, are why we love the minting machine from Top Shot.
Best Legendary - The Nominees:
I thought the legendaries in the first half of the year were good, but what a master class we saw in the second half of the season. The quality of moments here, along with the new art and animation make the legendary tier have that premium feel. The LBJ iconic 40,000 career point moment and Jayson Tatum with an NBA Finals moment that are both as great because of the cinema of the moment, maybe even outshining the moments themselves. You also get a classic clutch Steph Curry game sealing circus style 3, AD having a Video Game Numbers esq stat line reel and Aaron Gordon showing why he is one of the best dunkers of the generation with a one handed put back slam.
And The Momie goes to.....LeBron James Layup! As the saying goes in the pro wrestling world right now - this is cinema. The play itself with the spin move driving layup in traffic is special on its own, but you also get the full pre-game intro and the 40,000 point celebration highlights all rolled into 1 legendary, unforgettable moment; minted to only 13! This is collectible history at its best and Top Shot doing digital collectibles as good as they can be done.
Break Out Player - The Nominees:
This Momie category is very heavily influenced by everyone's new favorite game, Fast Break. Quite honestly you could have put the whole Knicks roster on here in the second half of the year as they had multiple guys every night with multi-category impact. OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Donte Divincenzo lead the way as guys who got us through a lot of injury riddled nights and tough stat categories in the second half and into the playoffs. Two guys from non-playoff teams who emerged night in and night out were Jalen Green and Kyle Kuzma, especially on those high bar field goal and scoring nights. If you had rares of these guys, you found yourself in decent shape filling in the gaps with the big name stars and stealing value. For the record, I have Jalen Brunson as my Fast Break MVP.
And The Momie goes to.....Josh Hart! Seriously, I still don't know that I understand the Josh Hart rebounding phenomenon, but I rode that horse just about every time I could. You could also count on Hart on nights for steals and even sneak him into some of those assist nights. Hart was pretty dependable every night on hitting or exceeding his projections and I have him narrowly edging out Kuzma on this one. Hart was a guy who could hit so high on rebounds or steals, you could swap out your stars in the late games. We were all Knicks fans during Fast Break at some point in the second half :)
Best Set - The Nominees:
The rare tier sets really brought it in the second half of the year and every single one of these five sets do something that this product does better than anyone when they do it right - tell a story. All of these sets tell a unique story from this season, with moments all with something in common, but all special in their own way. Rookie Revelations including the draft day footage has been a game changer for me as far as a rookie collectible; digital or not. You can't go wrong with a pickup from that set (NFA of course). For the Win and Video Game Numbers both had incredible moments added to the set and some of the best challenge rewards we saw all year, not to mention the master set challenges. Best of the Playoffs was exactly that, with the most unforgettable plays from the postseason and Honors is an often overlooked set that pulls together the best of the best, with new moments on each moment this year. One of the best parts of collecting is collecting sets and if you could swing doing any of these, you're pretty pleased with the final turnout.
And The Momie goes to.....Best of Playoffs! This was a real tough call here, but I went with Best of Playoffs, slightly edging out Rookie Revelation for the story I think the set tells just a bit better. Everyone is watching the playoffs and with less games, you have more eyes on each unforgettable moment. I'll dive deeper into those in a later category, but this set is a true capsule in time of the most unforgettable moments we had in the playoffs. Story telling at its finest here.
Best Rookie Moment - The Nominees:
Top Shot dropped the bulk of the rookie sets and moments in the first half of the season and we did not see a real big name emerge in the second half for a new debut, so this is nearly the best Rookie Revelations moment. You of course have the heavy hitters with Wemby and Chet, but also some incredible moments of Dereck Lively and Amen Thompson as well. The Wemby Rookie Revlation is one of the biggest moments of the year and to top all 4 of these moments off with the draft day footage really gives them all some nice polish. Toss in the best common debut, at least to watch and the most badges of the bunch, which is the Jordan Walsh dunk complete with bench eruption. There are a few nice Honors rookie moments as well, but the Rookie Revelations moments are too good to not give their shine here.
And The Momie goes to.....Chet Holmgren 3 Pointer! A year delayed, but Chet got all his glory this year in his rookie season. With some incredible moments from the first half, this game tying three pointer, chucked up at the buzzer on the road in Golden State shows why he is so special. Also glad we got the draft day footage from last year to bookend the raw emotion at the end after nailing the clutch triple to complete an incredible legendary moment. Sorry to the Jordan Walsh fans out there hoping for the miracle upset.
Best Moment You've Never Seen - The Nominees:
In the category that truly screams "WATCH YOUR MOMENTS;" this is it. Hey, who had Squad Goals sneaking into The Momies on their bingo board? That set had some nice moments hidden in there this year and if you've read the blog before, you know I am a sucker for a good dunk, both of which these are. Speaking of sucker for good dunks, we have the James Wiseman driving dribble, bunny hop into the slam from the base set and Jalen Suggs with another highlight reel 360 dunk coming out of Hustle and Show's second half. The last nominee is a sweet off the backboard to himself assist from Tyrese Haliburton from that NBA Honors set I mentioned above that does not get enough love!
And The Momie goes to.....Minnesota Timberwolves Squad Goals! The amount of flack I am going to get from this blog being so Anthony Edwards bias could be wild, but this is a true team win here, from the steal to the Naz Reid behind the back move, bullet pass to the off the glass alley-oop to Ant Man, this is the definition of what a Squad Goals moment should look like.
Best Playoff Moment - The Nominees:
Five must have moments here. Just the absolute best of the best moments from the biggest time of the year in basketball. Four game winners and one potential career defining moment. Most of these were earlier on in the playoffs, but hey that's what happens when the finals are a route. That Knicks / 76ers series was a complete dogfight and we get the DiVincenzo three from one of the most controversial, but also most unforgettable moments from the series; along with Tyrese Maxey saving the 76ers season from the logo! Haliburton felt like he was special all year and the Kyrie shot may be the most ridiculous one of the season. How can you forget the Anthony Edwards emergence as he torched KD? It was like we were witnessing a changing of the guard live in front of our eyes.
And The Momie goes to.....Anthony Edwards Reel! I think we are going to look back at this moment as the moment Anthony Edwards really arrived. Yes, the Celtics won the championship, but the emergence of Anthony Edwards really was one of the top 2 stories for me through the playoffs. The whole scene went viral with Ant chirping KD and just taking over the game. They seemed destined to emerge out of the West until they ran out of gas in the WCF. When Edwards finally gets a championship, this could likely be the moment we all point back to when he knew how bad he wanted it and when he knew he was THE guy.
Best Subset Common/Fandom - The Nominees:
The Playoff rare set was so good, you can lose track of how solid the common Playoff set was as well. Starting out with a fierce slam from Daniel Gafford, who had a ton of them this season, which was a big high energy turning point for the Mavs. We also have a playoff moment from Jalen Brunson, along with his Crunch Time layup, both of which showing what he did better than anyone else in the second half of the season - put the team on his back night in, night out and hit big shots when it matters most. We also have another Anthony Edwards moment from Hustle & Show showcasing the full game with the corner 3, behind the back steal and tomahawk slam finish. Edwards has to be up there for best overall catalog of moments this year. We finish up the nominees with the challenge reward from one of my favorite sets, even if it is treated like a red-headed step child, the All-Star Weekend Trae Young knick-knack through the legs of Kevin Durant. The ASW weekend moments are always some of the best to watch on repeat and I dig the challenge reward.
And The Momie goes to.....Jalen Brunson Reel! This reel from the Playoff series against the 76ers encapsulated everything Jalen Brunson did in the second half this year. Carrying and willing the Knicks to victories, we get the handles, the shots, the drives in traffic, the passion and the energy that made him a leader that put his name among the best. Similarly to Anthony Edwards rare Playoff moment being his breakout moment, this one is up there in Brunson's catalog we will always look back on. Honorable mention to his Crunch Time moment I had at #2 here. The close ups on Keon Ellis are just silly.
Must Have Moment - The Nominees:
Let me preface this group of nominees with - if you can drop 50k on the LBJ 40,000th career point legendary, that is your must have moment. With there only being 13 of them in existence, I left that one out of this tier, but wanted to acknowledge that moment for how significant it really is. We have the Rookie Revelations of Chet and Wembanyama in here, but they also tip on the higher end of the price scale compared to most moments, but the rookie legendary moments of two of the leagues brightest stars with how well done those moments are; they had to make the list. We talked about the significance of the Anthony Edwards Best of Playoffs rare earlier in the post, but we had to have an Edwards moment down here, because outside of the rookies, I think he is the must have player of this season, especially the quality of moments he pumped out in the second half. The Jaylen Brown Playoffs trophy moment is a Top Shot tradition and is one that fits in any collection. JB was arguably a bigger reason than even Tatum that the Celtics won the title, so it is a great moment all around that you can pickup cheap. Last and certainly not least is the KD Anthology rare from his time with the Thunder. Early career KD with a game winner in the Western Conference Finals? That is a must have moment.
And The Momie goes to.....Victor Wembanyama Reel! Chet won The Momie for the best rookie moment of the 2nd half, with his clutch 3, but the Wemby Rookie Revelation is the must have moment overall of the second half for me. One I don't own, but can not emphasize what this moment could become throughout the digital evolution of collectibles and if he lives up to the potential and hype that has surrounded him. It is sort of fitting that Wemby won both Must Have Moments of the Year - following up his win in Part 1 for his Top Shot Rookie Debut. Wemby carried the product for a large part of the season and the hype he built throughout the platform really helped prop everything up. If this is one in your collection or one you add to it eventually, congratulations!
To close it up here and celebrate the second ever edition of The Momie Awards, we're giving away a showcase with 10 great moments featured in The Momie Award nominations above just like we did with the first half of the season. All you have to do to be entered to win is quote tweet the official Collectin & Connectin tweet of this blog post with your TS name and your must have moment from the second half of the 2023-2024 season!
Until next time, tell more stories, watch more moments and we ride at dawn...
Well done
Great read!