What Are Badges?
In looking at Moments on NBA Top Shot, you may be noticing some weird icons on some. “What the hell are these,” you ask? Well, these icons are explained within Top Shot, but essentially, they mark particular moments as “special” ones.
And like with regular trading cards, special typically means they are more valuable.
So far, the badges are based mostly around rookie moments, but that is not to say that more will not be added along the way. For now, there are 5 special designations:
Rookie Year Badge
This badge signifies that the moment itself was from the subject player’s rookie season. In other words, the play shown in the moment happened when that player was a rookie.
Rookie Premiere Badge
This badge is pretty rare too as it’s specific. It signifies that the moment is from a player’s first regular-season matchup. It’s kind of confusing, but luckily you won’t see it without the Rookie Badge too.
Rookie Mint Badge
This badge is different from the Rookie Year badge in that it signifies that the specific play featured was minted at some point during the subject player’s rookie season. For more on what minting is, check out my guide on it here.
Three-Star Rookie Badge
This badge is a combination of the 3 rookie badges above. The Three-Star, therefore, is a super rare badge that only currently exists for a couple of dozen players. They are as follows:
| RJ Barrett |
| Anthony Edwards |
| James Wiseman |
| LaMelo Ball |
| Patrick Williams |
| Isaac Okoro |
| Onyeka Okongwu |
| Killian Hayes |
| Obi Toppin |
| Deni Avdija |
| Jalen Smith |
| Devin Vassell |
| Tyrese Haliburton |
| Kira Lewis Jr. |
| Cole Anthony |
| Chuma Okeke |
| Isaiah Stewart |
| Precious Achiuwa |
| Tyrese Maxey |
| Immanuel Quickley |
| Payton Pritchard |
| Jaden McDaniels |
| Xavier Tillman |
| Jordan Nwora |
| Jae’Sean Tate |
| Sean McDermott |
Debut Badge
This is the the only official badge for non-rookies currently. It represents that this is the first moment from that particular player.
Think of this one as the “first edition”. When framed like that, you can understand that down the line, these special moments will certainly be more valuable than any others from that given player.
To be clear, this badge is affixed only to moments first minted, not necessarily the first to make an appearance on Top Shot’s marketplace or in packs even.
For example, Theo Maledon’s Rising Stars Moment (shout-out to my Thunder guy) didn’t get the Top Shot Debut badge because another common moment was actually minted first. His Rising Stars moment, however, was the first seen by Top Shot users like us.
Red Star Promo
A red star isn’t officially a “badge” but it does indicate that the moment was a reward for completing a challenge so I decided to throw it in here so everyone knew what it was.
It’s also why Red Star moments have such irregular minted numbers.
What Does It All Mean?
Badges are a way of building community and scarcity in Top Shot. Ideally, years down the road, these special moments (which have been officially signified by Top Shot) will hold their value better and be more of a collector’s item because of them.
We have already seen a saturation of a few players on the marketplace. What will differentiate some moments from others? That’s right…badges!
For that reason, they are likely undervalued at the moment right now. We see them so much that we forget as Top Shot gets bigger and there and more and more moments, the ones with badges will be the best ones to have!
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