Mario Elie

Run It Back: Playoff Classics

LEGENDARYGalactic · /5Series 2025-26LEMint 5Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets had already done the impossible once in the 1995 playoffs, coming back from three games to one down against the Phoenix Suns, the first team to do so in 13 years. On May 20, 1995, they were now closing out San Antonio and completing a run no one had scripted. With the Spurs' season on the line, Mario Elie caught the ball on the wing and buried a three-pointer so deep and so clean that he had time to turn toward the San Antonio bench and blow a kiss before the celebration started. The moment immediately became one of the most memorable acts of playoff punctuation in NBA history, and it has been known as the "Kiss of Death" ever since. Elie was the consummate role player on that Houston squad, a sharpshooter with the constitution of someone twice his draft pedigree, capable of cashing the biggest shot of a game and then defending the best perimeter player on the other team. The Rockets went on to defeat Orlando in the Finals and capture their second consecutive championship, and Elie's Kiss of Death was the shot that put them on the runway.

Mario Elie — Run It Back: Playoff Classics is worth ~$125 (FMV) on NBA Top Shot, with the lowest ask at $139. How FMV is calculated →

Parallel Printings

Same play, different printings — each is its own edition with its own circulation, serials, and market. The Standard is the base; named parallels are scarcer printings that trade at their own price.

Standard

$48.00capped at sales

/44 mint

Galacticviewing

$125from asks

/5 mint

Omega

$360from asks

/1 mint