All right, I know everyone here hates basketball cards like they were a disease, but my Hawks just clinched their first playoff spot since the Clinton Administration and I'm celebrating with a Fleer Fat Pack. I like this set and it might be the last Fleer set ever (sob) so indulge me, ok? I'll give you a cool pack later tonight to make up for it. Joe Johnson is showing on the back, so I've got at least one Playoff-Bound Atlanta Hawk in the pack!
Top Pack:16 Chris Bosh
6 Rasheed Wallace
95 Rajon Rondo
80 Quentin Richardson
65 Willie Green
35 Vince Carter
73 Ryan Hollins
43 Caron Butler
28 Luol Deng
12 LeBron James
93 Desmond Mason
63 Kyle Korver
116 Martell Webster
102 Darko Milicic
144 Cuttino Mobley
119 Shareef Abur-Rahim
149 Stephen Jackson
117 Sergio Rodriguez
109 Luke Ridnour
166 Shane Battier
103 Damon Stoudamire
194 Maurice Ager
164 JR Smith
134 Tyson Chandler
218 Aaron Brooks Rookie
61R-26 Joe Johnson '61 Retro card
This set makes me nostalgic. Loud colors, flimsy card stock, a badly designed back with only 5 years of stats... if half the cards were off center and badly cut, I'd think I was in the late 80's again. King James is by far the bast in this pack. I like to put together starting lineups out of basketball packs so we'll have LeBron at small forward, Chris Bosh at power forward, Rasheed Wallace at center (I almost went with Tyson Chandler, but Rasheed growled at me and I regained my senses) Vince Carter will be in the back court along with Rajon Rando at point who is used to dishing the ball off to superstar teammates on the Celtics. That lineup should win a couple of games. I thought I had gotten a bad quarterback for my rookie card, but it turns out he's a bench player for the Rockets. At least he's in the league. The 1961 Fleer retro card of Joe Johnson looks great, the original set is a classic. Since you'd get way more inserts and rookies by buying individual packs, the Fat Pack bonuses need to be this good.
Bottom Pack:71 Jason Richardson
55 Ike Diogu
47 Etan Thomas
91 Michael Redd
61 Rodney Carney
31 Ben Wallace
5 Tayshaun Prince
66 Samuel Dalembert
36 Jason Collins
21 James Posey
29 Ben Gordon
88 Andrew Bogut
178 Deron Williams
148 Al Harrington
133 Hilton Armstrong
118 James Jones
131 Rashad McCants
145 Chris Kaman
192 Boris Diaw
199 Jerry Stackhouse
184 Brent Barry
154 Andrew Bynum
139 Morris Peterson
86R-150 Acie Law IV '86 Retro Rookie
209 Jermareo Davidson Rookie
61R-34 Shaquille O'Neal '61 Retro card
I tried putting together a starting five, but this pack is a little too guard heavy to create a functional team. I don't think anybody wants Jason Richardson to play power forward. I also just noticed that there is no personal info on the back of the cards like birthday, height, college, etc. How do you forget to put height on the back of a basketball card? It's like a pitcher's card without any throws left or right stat on the back. The Rookie is another bench player, this time for the Bobcats, but it's not a D-League scrub. I got a Hawk for the '86 Retro Rookie card, Acie Law IV. Acie is the Hawks' version of Scott Thorman. Just like Scott prompted the Braves to go get Mark Teixeira, Acie hastened the coming of the Mike Bibby era in Atlanta. I'm not sure why the card is numbered 150, unless Upper Deck is continuing the '86 retro set from last year's Fleer set. It wouldn't be the dumbest thing a card company has done I suppose. The Shaquille O'Neal card is easily the coolest out of the entire pack. The Miami Heat team colors look great on the '61 retro card even though Shaq is now a Sun.
This is some good stuff to celebrate the Hawks' exit from the lottery. Just in time to fork over our first rounder to the Suns for the Joe Johnson trade! Now I get to root on my Hawks as they try to maybe sneak one win at home before getting absolutely murdered by the Celtics. I'm a fan, but I'm not delusional.
I usually don't go for basketball cards, but I love the 2007-08 Fleer and have opened a bunch of packs already. They're only a buck and I usually end up with one or two every time I go to the store. I think they're great and will probably try to complete the set. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI like seeing a pack or two of hoop cards every once in a while. I am flirting w/ the idea of completing the 07-08 Topps set. never occured to me to complete a hoop set before but it is like only 150 cards or so. And I like the various retro-inserts that both UD and Topps have.
ReplyDeleteI've collected most of a set of this year's Topps set, if you need doubles let me know. I've got a ton.
ReplyDelete