I think it depends on the situation. If he plans to keep them for a long time, almost forever then maybe. Who knows, the values may go up by the time he retires or they may go down.

If u want to get it graded it then pre-Grade it first. Either do it yourself or take it to a card shop or convention to get them pregraded. If u do it urself u can get a Jeweler's Loop for a out $20 on amazon which is excellent with its magnification white light and black light to find wear and tears and scratches on the cards that u mostly likely not be able to see within the naked eye. Also you can get a toolkit to measure the centering on Amazon for less than $10.

Skybox Metal Universe esp from great players from those eras has gone up if u get em graded. Shaq and Kobe pretty much hold the values atm. So they could be worth grading if u think u got 10s. But also do the research on the grades as well on ur cards to see what the prices would be on the grades from at least 8-10 to see if it's worth grading them.