New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns sold a rare baseball card of Los Angeles Dodgers World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto for $72,000 at an auction this month.
How’s that for an ad-lib?
The one-of-one 2024 Topps Inception card, featuring Yamamoto’s signature and an MLB logo patch from a game-worn uniform, was sold online at Fanatics Collect. It was graded by Professional Sports Authenticator as a Gem Mint 10, which is “a virtually perfect card,” with “sharp corners, sharp focus and full original gloss,” according to PSA’s website.
The $72,000 auction price is the highest amount paid for a Yamamoto card to date, per MLB.com.
Towns, who regularly posts videos of himself opening sports cards packs on his YouTube channel, pulled the rare Yamamoto card during a reveal in September. It was listed for auction at Fanatics on Nov. 7, less than one week after Yamamoto was named World Series MVP after helping lead the Dodgers to a 4-3 World Series win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
“This luck is the greatest,” Towns said with excitement during a live reaction video. “A one-of-one? Are you serious?”
Yamamoto, 27, just completed his second MLB season after leaving Japan’s Nippon Professional League to sign a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers in December 2023.
The righty ace earned his first All-Star selection this past season and finished third in National League Cy Young Award voting with a 12-8 record, 2.49 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 201 strikeouts in 173.2 innings pitched.
Towns, meanwhile, is a former No. 1 overall draft pick and five-time NBA All-Star for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Knicks. The 11-year veteran center is averaging 21.7 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 11 games for the Knicks this season.