1985-86 Star All-Rookies

October 20, 2026

#4 Sam Bowie

The 1985-86 Star All-Rookie Team set has 11 cards: the five players the NBA named to its 1984-85 All-Rookie Team, Akeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Sam Bowie and Sam Perkins, plus six more rookies Star labeled a "Second Team," among them John Stockton. It is dated 1985-86 on the slab labels, but the cards say "STAR '85" and Basketball Gold reports that Star's original dealers received it in 1985 alongside the Last 11 ROYs, which makes it a first-year subset card for Jordan, Olajuwon, Barkley and Stockton.

The set at a glance

Cards	11
Numbering	1-11
Michael Jordan cards	1 (#2)
Released	1985 ("STAR '85" on #1-10, "STAR '86" on #11)
Packaging	One sealed bag of 11 cards
Sets printed (est.)	5,000 (Basketball Gold and starbasketballcards.com)
Rookie cards	None; first-year subset cards of Jordan, Olajuwon, Barkley and Stockton
Design	Red borders, NBA logo, "All-Rookie First/Second Team" line

Card by card

Names and captions are as printed on the fronts; teams are added for reference. The NBA named only one five-man All-Rookie Team in 1984-85; the "Second Team" on #6-11 is Star's own selection.

#	Player	Caption
1	Akeem Olajuwon, Houston Rockets	All-Rookie First Team
2	Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls	All-Rookie First Team
3	Charles Barkley, Philadelphia 76ers	All-Rookie First Team
4	Sam Bowie, Portland Trail Blazers	All-Rookie First Team
5	Sam Perkins, Dallas Mavericks	All-Rookie First Team
6	Vern Fleming, Indiana Pacers	All-Rookie Second Team
7	Otis Thorpe, Kansas City Kings	All-Rookie Second Team; TCDB flags the photo as Eddie Johnson
8	John Stockton, Utah Jazz	All-Rookie Second Team
9	Kevin Willis, Atlanta Hawks	All-Rookie Second Team
10	Tim McCormick, Seattle SuperSonics	All-Rookie Second Team
11	Alvin Robertson, San Antonio Spurs	All-Rookie Second Team; the one card that says "STAR '86"

How the set was made

Star, Robert Levin's small Pennsylvania company, held the NBA license from 1983 to 1986 and sold most of its cards in sealed polybags, one team or subset per bag. This set is Star's second All-Rookie set, after the 10-card 1983-84 All-Rookies. The fronts have red borders, "STAR '85" in a tab at top right, the NBA logo in a white circle at lower left and the player's name over an "All-Rookie First Team" or "Second Team" line. The backs give a bio and the player's college record; the copyright line reads 1984.

The date is the thing to understand. Catalogs and slabs call it 1985-86, but Basketball Gold says the dealers who bought from Star remember it arriving with the Last 11 ROYs, and that both were printed on one sheet, together with Star's Dale Murphy and Rod Carew baseball sets. Steve Taft recalls ordering it as a dealer in the same batch as the 1985 Lite All-Stars and Gatorade sets. On that basis Basketball Gold counts #2 Jordan, #1 Olajuwon, #3 Barkley and #8 Stockton as first-year subset cards "despite the 1985-86 designation." Why #11 Robertson alone says "STAR '86" is not explained by any source. Basketball Gold and starbasketballcards.com both estimate 5,000 sets; a sealed bag shows #1 Olajuwon on top.

What collectors should know

Condition: Basketball Gold notes that #2 Jordan and #3 Barkley were printed with a "logo line indentation" across the bottom of the card, which graders penalize, and that both often show green "fish eye" dots, on the Jordan typically one on the jersey and one on the shorts; it calls the Barkley a difficult card in high grade.
Sealed bags: an original sealed bag proves the cards are original, not that they are mint; you can't see the centering or surfaces of the cards underneath. Resealed Star bags exist, and a GAI bag grade rates the plastic and seals, not the cards.
Fakes: it is not one of the Type II sets (those are limited to 1985-86 #95-172, the 1986 Jordan set and 1986 Best of the New). Shop at Home sold a 1997 "All-Rookies" set that copies this one: the same captions and, except for the Olajuwon, the same photos, with blue borders instead of red, nine cards (no Thorpe, no Willis), and "STAR '85" on the Robertson. Basketball Gold calls the Shop at Home cards backdated fantasy issues, not reprints.
Grading: BGS has graded Star since December 2008 and labels the set "1985-86 Star All-Rookie Team." PSA added it in March 2023 as "1985-86 Star All Rookies." CGC began grading 1980s Star in May 2025; its announcement publishes no set list.

The key cards

#2 Michael Jordan: one of his five first-year subset cards in Basketball Gold's count, with the Crunch 'N Munch #4, Lite #4, Gatorade #7 and Last 11 ROYs #1. The back carries his North Carolina record only. Basketball Gold's rule is that a subset card can't be a rookie card when the player has a base-set card: his rookie card is 1984-85 Star #101.
#1 Akeem Olajuwon and #3 Charles Barkley: first-year subset cards of the other two Hall of Famers from the 1984 draft's top five; their rookie cards are 1984-85 Star #237 and #202.
#8 John Stockton: his only first-year subset card and one of his four Star cards; his rookie is 1984-85 Star #235, and his Fleer rookie did not come until 1988-89.
#4 Sam Bowie and #5 Sam Perkins: the rest of the NBA's official All-Rookie five.