This is one of the better-looking inserts of the late-’90s foil era, and it is designed to be enjoyed from both sides. The front is a holofoil refractor: Jordan elevating for a one-handed gather in the red Bulls road jersey, set against a shimmering rainbow-foil burst with ‘HARDCOURT HEROICS’ arcing across the top in chrome lettering. Tilt it and the whole background fractures into light. Hardcourt Heroics was a short-printed insert in 1997–98 Topps Stadium Club, and the H1 slot — the lead card — went to Jordan.

What sets it apart is the playful, content-rich back, themed ‘Hometown Heroism’: it carries a caricature-style illustration of Jordan in profile alongside a circular color headshot and a second full-body action photo, so between the front image and the two on the reverse the card shows Jordan three times. The back notes he was born February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, ranks him first all-time in Bulls history for points (26,920), assists (4,729) and steals (2,165), and closes on the moment that defined the 1997 Finals — overcoming a debilitating illness to score 38 points, fifteen of them in the fourth quarter, to lead the Bulls past the Jazz in Game 5, the night now remembered as the ‘flu game.’ Like most holofoil fronts of the period, the surface scratches and shows print lines under PSA’s loupe, which is why gem copies are scarce: of 1,317 graded across all grades, only 40 have reached PSA 10 — a 3.03 percent gem rate.