Topps reveals Bob Ross: The Joy of Basketball with Cooper Flagg rookie cards

One of the quirkiest and unexpected baseball card drops of the past several years is coming to hoops with Topps x Bob Ross: The Joy of Basketball. The cards feature the NBA’s best from Jalen Brunson to Victor Wembayama against the backdrop of authentic Bob Ross artwork from Bob Ross Inc. Interestingly, even though the 2026-27 NBA season is about to begin in less than 30 days and preorders for 2026-27 Topps Flagship Basketball are set to drop next week, The Joy of Basketball is a 2025-26 release, so the rookie class in the set will be headlined by Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, and Kon Knueppel.

What cards are included in Joy of Basketball?

Images from Joy of Basketball confirm that Flagg, Knueppel, and Stephen Curry will have autograph cards in the set. Other hits from the product include a parallel set numbered to 75 called Easel that places the artwork on an easel as if it is going through the final touches. Colored border parallels once again bring the rainbow chase with Midnight Black (one-of-one), Crimson Red (numbered to 5), Crimson Red (numbered to 10), and Indian Yellow (numbered to 25) already confirmed from the preview images. The one insert set that’s been revealed so far is budding talents that really doesn’t look that much different from the base set, besides having a headshot of the featured player in the background.

What has not been revealed is whether or not Bob Ross himself will be featured in the set through a short printed card that uses the 2026 Topps base design, authentic cut autograph cards, or the Happy Mistakes parallel that puts Ross’ iconic hairstyle on the players. For those who do not know, Ross’s philosophy is that mistakes are not actually mistakes, but rather happy accidents.

When will Joy of Basketball release?

Topps has not provided official release information for Joy of Basketball yet. The last Joy of Baseball set had a Collector’s Box that included a Ross-inspired paint brush, 10 cards per pack with 8 packs per box that included 2 autographs, 8 numbered cards, and multiple inserts, and a more affordable Happy Little Box that includes one pack with 8 cards plus a numbered parallel and an additional card that could be an insert or an autograph.

Juan Martinez

From video game journalism to veteran of the sneaker blog era to podcasting about well, everything, Juan is smiling through it all and can't believe this is his life. His current hot take is that people are really underrating the Psyduck trading card market. Email: juan@soleretriever.com Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky | Threads : @ezyville