NBA Showdown

NBA Showdown is an out-of-print trading card game produced by Wizards of the Coast and based on the game of basketball, released in February 2002 as one of several sport-themed card games the company produced alongside MLB Showdown and NFL Showdown. Play uses customizable decks built from cards depicting real NBA players, combined with twenty-sided dice to resolve individual plays such as shots, passes and defensive actions, giving each player card statistics drawn from real performance. The single 2002 set included two hundred twenty-eight player cards, of which one hundred seventy-five were common and fifty-three were rare, together with fifty strategy cards that let players call plays and adjust team tactics during a simulated game. The cards were sold in starter sets, which included the dice and rules needed to begin play, and in booster packs for expanding a collection. The line was discontinued after this initial run, but it kept a small online community active afterward through fan sites such as showdowncards.com, which continued to support tournament play and card databases for the format after Wizards of the Coast stopped producing new sets.