1933 Sport Kings Cards
From Hoopedia
In 1933 the Goudey Gum Company (Boston) issued a 48-card set of "Sport Kings." Included among these star athletes were four basketball players: Eddie Burke, Nat Holman, Joe Lapchick (whose name is misspelled, "Lopchick") and Ed Wachter. (Also among these 48 were basketball players Jim Thorpe and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, however, they were not chosen for their basketball achievements.) All but Wachter played for the Original Celtics. Wachter's career lasted through the first decades of the 20th Century. The choice of Burke is an interesting one, since he is better remembered for his good looks and New York roots than for his basketball prowess; he is the only one of the four who is not a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
These cards constitute the earliest known basketball cards.
