2009 National Treasures Platinum Stephen Curry ROOKIE PATCH AUTO 5/5 BGS 9 MINT

In the early days of commercial map making, smaller companies protected their hard work by inventing “phantom settlements” and watching to see if those fake “paper towns” magically appeared on maps produced by bigger companies. Agloe, New York, a village invented by the General Drafting Co. in 1930, became a famous example after appearing on a Rand McNally-issued map several years later. General Drafting filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, but an investigation uncovered that some local entrepreneurs had opened the Agloe General Store after seeing the town listed on an edition of General Drafting’s map. The phantom settlement had come alive because maps make places real—even those places not supposed to exist. Like phantom settlements, a secret path that whisks a person to NBA stardom does not exist—every player follows a different map on their journey. Some have revolutionary talents that make them global icons, while others only come alive after someone uncovers the settlement of talent hiding inside them. And for the special few—like Stephen Curry—the star not supposed to exist becomes a global icon anyway. Curry took the first steps in his expedition to the NBA as an amazing sharpshooter that brought little Davidson College national attention in the NCAA Tournament. NBA scouts had their list of doubts about Curry—questioning his average size and athleticism, and reliance on outside shooting, while also considering him not much more than a product of Davidson’s offensive system. But when teams like the Golden State Warriors unfolded Curry’s internal map, they discovered his phantom settlement. “What people who didn’t like him didn’t see is he is a tremendous worker and cares about the game,” said Warriors GM Bob Myers, who served as an agent when Golden State made Curry the seventh overall pick in 2009. “If you liked him, you saw that he was a high character guy who had a tremendous skill to shoot the ball.” Curry did not set the NBA ablaze as some rookies do, but day after day, he plotted past another mile marker in his search for the coordinates to superstardom. By his fourth season, he became the best 3-point shooter in the NBA. Two years later, he won the first of his four NBA championships. Now in his 14th season, Curry still escapes the chaotic harmony of a defense, time after time slipping beyond the perimeter arc and listening for the harsh slap of a basketball against twine that brings a sold-out arena to its feet—an unmistakable sound that, for him, never should have existed. Collectors ripping open boxes of the inaugural release of National Treasures in 2009 probably felt like Panini put phantom cards into the set—cards like the Century Platinum parallel of Curry’s RPA. With a production run of five, only a select few collectors had the pleasure of finding a Century Platinum RPA featuring any of the 38 rookies on the checklist. Those mapping out ways to improve their Curry collection toward the start of a new year have come to the right spot, as this offering of a BGS 9 example of Curry’s Century Platinum RPA can help a collection move closer to the mountaintop. Featuring a hard-signed Auto 10 signature, the bookend 5/5 serial number, and a three-color patch, this card holds no secrets—it ranks among Curry’s best RPAs. Even any people still hidden in Agloe, New York, would agree.