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As Pokémon cards surge in popularity, with rare first-editions poised to crack $500,000 shortly and unopened first-edition sets selling for hundreds of thousands, one long-lost card may well be on its way back. Twenty years ago, Nintendo pulled its Kadabra card out of production, due to a lawsuit from magician and illusionist Uri Geller, who said Nintendo “stole my identity by using my name and my signature image."
It sounds a little far-fetched, sure -- but both the magician and the (psychic-type) Pokémon are known for their spoon-bending, and Kadabra’s name in Japanese is Yungerer. (Abra and Alkazam, despite being in an evolution chain with Kadabra, have been given workarounds in the cards to bypass the controversial monster). The card has not been printed since 2003.
This week, Geller dropped his lawsuit and apologized, saying “It’s now all up to Nintendo to bring my #kadabra #pokemon card back. It will probably be one of the rarest cards now!” Nintendo has not yet stated whether they plan to re-release the card, but should they do so, Geller may well prove right.
Even for a sensation like Michael Jordan, a shattered backboard at an exhibition game in Italy wasn’t a major story at the time. But now it’s firmly entrenched in the pantheon of incredible moments of MJ’s career.
As Howard White, now of Jordan Brand, put it, “I don’t know of any moment where one can detect something otherworldly has happened, but that one has become something grand. For MJ, though, it was just a moment in the game.”
In honor of our upcoming “Shattered Backboard” AJ1 drop, Dan McQuade digs into how the moment became a legend.
Read: The Making of a Moment: How Michael Jordan's Shattered Backboard Became Iconic
• A Batman comic just sold for a record-breaking $1.5 million.
• What does a good female monument look like?
• American museums are going through an identity crisis.
• The most valuable Yeezys ever released.
• What the modern superhero film owes to ‘90s animation.
• Is the cancellation of Art Basel a blessing in disguise?
• The fight for female superheroes in Hollywood.
• The New York State Police is auctioning off some pretty rare sneakers they seized earlier this year.
• Artists want Philip Johnson’s name taken off the MoMA.
News From the Otis Collection
• Everything’s coming up Fordjour, with dual profiles on the artist this week in T Magazine and ARTnews.
• An excerpt about Kehinde Wiley from new book ‘Black Futures’ just ran in the New York Times.
• KAWS is releasing augmented reality art in Beijing (and did a long Q&A with Hypebeast about his year).
• An early look at Off-White and Futura’s Nike Dunk collab.
• Inside Tracey Emin’s new Munch exhibition; plus, how illness made her reassess her legacy.
• Michael Jordan’s slit toe Jordan VIs from the 1991 NBA Finals are going up for auction.
• How Travis Scott is building an empire.
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