My beloved Portland Trail Blazers take on the Sacramento Kings tonight in their first preseason game of the year, and to celebrate the occasion I am going to do something I haven't done in 15 years: open a pack of basketball cards. I picked up one pack of plain old Topps basketball at Target on Sunday and managed to go almost two days without peeking inside. Let's see how this shakes out...
133 - Ben Wallace (since my brain is still in full-on baseball mode, I completely forgot that the offensively-challenged Wallace moved on from the Bulls and wondered if Topps applied the Photoshopping skills they use on baseball cards to this one. did the Cavs take on his ridiculous contract? yikes.)
93 - Ron Artest (he's now reunited with Rick Adelman and the Rockets, though his card doesn't reflect this)
165 - Greg Oden (yes! oh! wait... I already have this card. I bought it at a card show for a quarter. this is supposed to be the long-awaited Year of the Oden, but all I'm really hoping for is that Oden doesn't foul out of every game in less than 15 minutes. oh, yeah, and his... er... health.)
118 - Steve Blake (nice... another Blazer. the unsung starting point guard of the Blazers. he's a bit dinged-up right now, but still figures to be the starter this season. really wacky action shot going on here.)
130 - Bruce Bowen (another all-defense, no-offense guy. this pack should be able to go toe-to-toe with any other pack's offense when the shot clock is winding down.)
213 - George Hill RC (a first round draft pick that I've never heard of. according to the back of the pack, rookies are seeded at a 1:3 ratio for some reason. the photo on the front looks like a summer league photo. according to the bio on the back, he went to the same high school as David Letterman and Wayne Gretzky.)
79 - Fabricio Oberto Gold 1585/2008 (I think this looks better than the baseball gold parallels for some reason. Oberto has the unglamourous job of being a backup center, but he scores points for playing in all 82 games last season. these have 1:4 odds, which makes them much more common than their baseball counterparts)
180 - Jerry West (well, if I was going to get a Laker, at least it was someone who was a Laker before I was alive. I suppose that including retired/legends is a way of filling out a set in a sport that has relatively few roster spots per team.)
136 - Jarrett Jack (3 Blazers cards? crazy. Jack is now a Pacer, however. I have mixed feelings about his departure.)
123 - Jason Richardson (is stuck in Bobcats purgatory)
191 - Wilt Chamberlain (Wilt the Stilt! great photo. why do these cards have trivia on the back instead of lots of stats? and how often should one expect to get a retired player, anyway? is there a Clyde Drexler card in this set? that might actually convince me to buy more packs.)
75 - Tayshaun Prince
- Topps Town insert
- Greg Oden Topps of the Class insert (oh no! Greg Oden is the NBA's version of David Wright? ugh.)
No comments:
Post a Comment