It's cold down here in Texas and what's best way to spend day indoors opening boxes of sport cards. A trip to local antique shop here got me stop at vendor booth selling boxes from junk wax era ranging from $5 to $10 a box. Being a sucker for junk wax fun I bought few boxes from sets I partially have or been lost. One of boxes is 1990-91 Hoops which is height of junk wax era. While opening packs I notice the allocation is different from their inaugural
set. From packs of their first set once you get certain cards you know the pattern
who its going be. It was very much random on this set despite getting repeat cards often. The box yielded me a with 90% complete set. Who did I get?
Start off cards 1-26 which is All-Star subset. Back of the cards have stats from player's All-Star game. A good selection of photos of Admiral shooting over Sir Charles and Rolando about to get blocked by Isiah. Any MJ card of him shooting is easily tops along with The Chief slam dunk and Reggie about to go long distance. Magic card wins easily as he got photobombed while holding All-Star MVP trophy
Let's go with rookies as the cards easily stand out a rookie label tag. I'm not sure which logo is an eyesore. This one or MLB rookie logo. To get the label its the player's first year in the league. It was good year for rookies for 89-90 season. Start of with the rookie of the year.....
The Admiral. Despite saying Rookie of the Year this is his third ever Hoops card. His first ever card came out in Hoops first year set. Like Ken Griffey Jr Upper Deck rookie, his Hoops rookie card became iconic as one of must have card at the time. Despite two years away due to Navy service commitment he never missed a beat he once stepped on NBA court becoming a Hall of Fame player. His play in his rookie season drove his rookie card up. Hoops released a second card for series 2.
As for other rookies:
His teammate Sean Elliot had a good serviceable career spending all but one season of his career with the Spurs. He bounced back from kidney transplant to play again. His jersey is one of ten jerseys Spurs retired.
The Rain Man was toast of the Sonics leading them to the NBA Finals only fall to MJ Bulls in 95-96 season. If Sonics didn't overpay a bench player would he still end up disgruntled and be overweight?
Tim Hardaway was part of Warriors Run TMC along with Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullins. His 14 year career netted him 5 All Star appearances, All NBA Team, and gold medal in the Olympics. Heat retired his jersey while Warriors criminally haven't done it yet.
Glen Rice had 15 year career with 3 All Stars appearance winning MVP in 97.
By the time journeyman Cliff Robinson left the league another Cliff Robinson popped up and is seen shooting a free throw. This one went on 18 year career playing for five teams with one All Star appearance and 6th Man Award.
One of first players from former Yugoslavia to play had 16 year career spending 14 of them on both northern and southern California. The Hall of Famer is currently GM of Sacramento Kings.
Another former Yugoslav player this is a sad one. The late Drazen Petrovic went to Nets becoming team's star player before tragically killed in accident. Prior going to NBA he dominated Yugoslav league. Nets retired his jersey in 1993 and posthumously enshrined in basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
What a shot for Danny Ferry first ever card. Drafted 2nd overall in 1989 decide to play in Italy instead for Clippers. I don't blame him. Clippers traded him to Cavaliers where spent 10 years with the team before going to Spurs for three seasons winning a title in 2002. After his playing career he worked in front office for Spurs, Cavaliers, Hawks, and Pelicans.
The first two Soviet players to play in the league. Both were teammates of USSR team who won gold in 1988 Olympics. Volkov is the first to get drafted. He played two seasons with the Hawks before returning to play in Europe. Recently he's been signing through mail with address from Atlanta. Marciulionis was a shooter coming off the bench before a leg injury shorten his career. He got inducted in basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.
Then to the stars and Hall of Famers I pulled. I'll start with....
The Human Highlight Real with star studded shot of him about to throw down one of his signature dunks.
The Bad Boys of Pistons who won their second straight NBA title. Yes its missing Bill Laimbeer but you got duo of Joe Dumars laying up, Isiah Thomas dribbling down the court showing who's no. 1 and defensive player of the year and pre-identity crisis Dennis Rodman dunking the ball.
The legendary Magic of Showtime Lakers. Here's a card photography that got ruined because of silly yellow box. It made Magic look silly at it with "Who? Me?" look on his face.
The twilight of the Celtic trio. Bird and McHale bodies broke down. Parish was a Celtic til 1994 playing final three seasons with Hornets and Bulls getting his final ring. For Celtics it was rough fall with death of Reggie Lewis adding to the blow. The team never recovered throughout the 90s.
Stockton and Malone formed one of best 1-2 teammate combos in the NBA as both were faces of the Jazz. Despite going to two finals both couldn't get the championship ring as both ended in hands of one Michael Jordan and the Bulls. This is going become a recurring theme.
Speaking of the Knicks their star player and face of the franchise of that era Patrick Ewing. He had Hall of Fame career with 11 All-Star appearances, NBA All-Team, and two trips to the finals. Both trips end up as losses first to Rockets in 1994 and Spurs in 2000. Didn't get to play in 2000 finals due to injury. Spent his final two years of his career with Sonics and Magic which is so wrong. Took up coaching where he is currently coach at Georgetown.
The Dream would added H next to the A of his name. He lead the Rockets to two straight NBA titles in 94 and 95 during the time MJ retired from the league for season and half. In a "this so wrong" move he ended his career with Raptors instead the Rockets.
Clyde the Glide would lead Blazers to the finals in that season only to lose against MJ and the Bulls. The story of 90s NBA finals. He would be traded to Rockets in 95 and finally got that ring along with Hakeem. He would also be part of the 1992 Dream Team.
The C in Warriors Run TMC trio. The five time All-Star and Hall of Famer is a two time Olympic gold medalist with 1984 USA basketball team and 1992 famed Dream Team. Was coaching for St. John til he stepped down this year.
Good picture selection of Charles Barkley of reaching out and snagging the ball likely from out of bounds. One of best players to never win NBA title. He came close in 93 with the Suns only lose to, guess what, MJ and the Bulls. After his playing career ended he transitioned to NBA analyst.
I'm done with stars, wait a minute, I almost forgot about....
It's your Airness and the Greatest of All Time about throw down and posterizing a Heat player in this awesome cardboard shot. When it comes to NBA in the 90s just mention Michael Jordan and the Bulls dynasty with six titles. He IS the face of the 90s NBA trendsetting the league to mainstream being on box of Wheaties, Nike commercials, a video game, and a movie with Bugs Bunny. Older generation of NBA fans consider 90s NBA as last great era. His cards still hold high regards in the hobby to this day even the junk wax era.
Few noteworthy cards from this box:
A miscut card of Adrian Dantley. Look at that crop.
What is about this Greg Grant card? There's a letter from one of early Beckett claiming singer Paula Abdul is in the background.
The card made headlines last year and drove up prices temporary. In the background are Melendez brothers sitting at courtside. Both murdered their parents and went on spending spree. Both are now serving life sentences for the murders.
There was another card in this set that had short buzz but forgotten in the hobby
This Sam Vincent card. It showed him laying up a ball, but look who's on lower right of the card. It's Michael Jordan and that number. It's not 23, its number 12! The game took place Valentine's Day of 1990. The story went his jersey got stolen before the game and had no backup. Only jersey available was no. 12 with no name stitched to it. He still put up his usual numbers but Bulls lost to Magic that night. MJ wearing 12 got immortalized on this card. Hoops remade Sam Vincent card and put it in series 2 packs. Meanwhile you can watch highlights of Jordan wearing 12 in this video.
That was fun box to rip pulling cards and reminiscing about the players from that era which is time I started watching the NBA.
Roger Penske buys Indycar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I expect this to be April 1 headline. Turns out the date was November 4, 2019. A press conference later the news sent shockwaves throughout auto racing world. "The Captain" Roger Penske, the man who started CART with the late Dan Gurney, the most successful auto racing owner with multiple CART/Indycar, NASCAR, IMSA Sportscar, and Australian Touring Cars championships with major victories at hollow grounds of Indianapolis and Daytona, the man with successful business ventures, now owns the top open wheel series in America AND the famous 2.5 mile track of Indianapolis. If the track was to be sold he's the perfect guy to own and run it. He been around the twists and turns of the on track and business side of the racing world for over 50 years. Not only racing but the automotive industry as well held The Captain in high regards and respects. Days before the announcement of the sale he called every Indycar owner as well NASCAR to let them know of his plans. They gave them their blessing. In the press conference Roger Penkse will step down from calling racing strategy from the pits to avoid conflict. Now he hopes to open more opportunities for the series and the speedway with potential thought of Indycar/NASCAR double weekend to having endurance sports car race on the road course.
Give Tony George credit. Still dislike and resented over The Split, when the time to come sell the speedway he could have sold it to anyone even to NASCAR or Liberty (who owns Formula 1). Instead he chose to sell it to the only person who been through trenches of open wheel racing from its growth to fall to regrowth: The Captain, himself, Roger Penske.
With The Captain now running the ship in Indianapolis what more opportunities can he open up? On this day forward open wheel racing heading to brave new world.
One product I never kept up is Topps Now. It's too gimmicky for having a card available to purchase for 24 hours and print run depending on amount of sales of the card. I been burned in the past by Topps when they introduced eTopps. I threw money in to it for years and didn't get much value in return. In fact I totally forgot I had eTopps account for over a decade til one of blogs I read mention about it. I dusted the account off and got half of the collection from eTopps portfolio on-card delivered costing me almost $50. With no trade/purchase demand in the hobby I'm stuck with "paperless" eTopps cards unless I get it on-card delivered. Last week I got Topps Now ad while browsing a website. One card they showed on the ad caught my eye I went to their site.
The one of Alex Bregman hitting a grand slam to lift Astros to 8-1 victory over Nationals in game 4. It's the pose and holding of his bat drew me to it along being a member of Astros. I end up making my first ever Topps Now purchase. I got the card from the mail today in a case with a foam inside to keep it protected. I hope Topps Now purchases become normal occurrence for me.
