Posted By:
Dave WilliamsQuite a few of the early Topps basketball issues are like that.
My guess is that they couldn't or wouldn't negotiate a deal to use
the teams logo or name, so they either turned the jersey around, or
only showed head shots, or had the basketball strategically placed or had warm ups with no logo on.
A quick perusal of some in the 69-70's shows Elvin Hayes and you
can read San Diego, and Guy Rogers you can see part of Milwaukee.
The rest you can't see the team name or logo.
In 71-72 you can see New York for the Knicks, Phoenix, Detroit, and others
but Celtics, Lakers, Bucks and others are turned around.
72-73 also had some jerseys turned around.