New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, eighth on the NBA's player efficiency rating leaderboard for 2025-26, is collecting wins off the court, too. In October, Towns pulled a one-of-one Yoshinobu Yamamoto-signed MLB logo card from the 2024 Topps Inception set, and it just sold for $72,000 with buyer's premium via Fanatics Collect.
Towns recently started an Instagram account dedicated to collecting, where he films himself opening card packs across a variety of sports. More colloquially, in the collectibles space, people who stream their card and memorabilia openings are called "breakers."
Towns advertises how much each box costs on screen and, as cards are pulled, subtracts the most recent price comparisons for each cone to show how much he has gained or lost in the process.
After Yamamoto was named the 2025 World Series MVP, the Towns-pulled MLB Logo card inspired a 54-bid fight on Fanatics' marketplace. According to Card Ladder, $72,000 is the most ever paid for a Yamamoto card, beating out the $40,260 paid for a 2024 Topps Chrome Yamamoto Superfractor last December.
Towns, who recently opened cards with Charlotte Hornets forward Grant Williams -- another athlete-turned-breaker -- said in a video that with the way Yamamoto performed in the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers should give the pitcher "another $300 million."