11-12 Panini Past & Present Box Break & Review

I'll start off by saying I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I do, every so often, decide that I need to at least maintain my b-ball collection. With all of the fuss surrounding Panini's Past & Presents product, I figured I'd give a box a shot and see that I came up with.

First of all, the hits.

Hassan Whiteside Jersey
Never heard of him, but I like the large jersey swatch. Most products to for a square, but there's something striking about a longer solid piece of fabric that really grabs your attention. Maybe that's just me.

Autos: Avery Johnson & Lawrence Funderburke
Another Sacramento Kings hit. Whatever. The Avery Johnson one is cool, though. He's really making a name for himself as a coach and had a respectable career as a player.  I like the idea of this auto set, though, which basically puts together autographs of players who haven't really had any auto cards in recent (or any) sets. It reminds me of Topps Archives baseball. Actually, a lot of this set reminds me of Topps Archives baseball.

Redemption: 2011 Draft Pick Auto Redemption
My fourth hit is a redemption for an autographed card of a player from the 2011 draft. Due to licensing restrictions from the lockout, there aren't any rookie cards issued for this year, so they are skirting around that by producing those cards at the beginning of the next NBA season. Could be Kyrie Irving. Could be Jonas Valanciunas. 

For the base set, there are four different designs, paying tribute to current and former players. I'm not sure if these are old designs or not, but I do like the fact that two of the designs are for current players, exclusively, and two of the designs are for retired players, exclusively.

There were also some interesting inserts including the "Bread" die cuts. I'm not sure of the story behind these, but here's a look at the Bread for Energy, Bread for Health, and Bread for Life cards that I pulled.

And here's a look at the remaining inserts:

Breakou: Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Favors, Serge Ibaka

Changing Time: Lenny Wilkens, Monta Ellis, Connie Hawkins, George Gervin

Firework: Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo

Raining 3s: Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson

Like I said earlier, I'm not the biggest basketball fan, but this was simply a fun product to open. There were great players, some REALLY cool looking inserts, and some really nice hits. If you're in the market for some basketball cards, I would DEFINITELY give Past & Presents a shot.

I'm holding on to the rookie auto redemption for now, as well as the Griffin and Durant, but everything else is up for trade. If anyone is interested in any of these cards, let me know.