What Were They Thinking?!?

A lot of fashion trends have been set in the NBA. I've seen shorts get longer, shirts get baggier, retro throwbacks, alternative jerseys, and all sorts of fashion disasters. Sadly, some high paid executives thought these looks would look good on their teams. Lets take a look at some of these teams.

Who can forget the Rockets of the 90's and early 00's. Were they trying to make pinstripes out of rocket exhaust? I can see my 5 year old wearing clothes like this but grown men? Yikes.
Aaahh, the early Grizz. The Grizzlies team name on the front is garrish enough but what's with that thick trim? This uniform has early 90's written all over it.
I mean really. WTF? Ugliest. Uniform. Ever. You'll notice that for all the throwbacks the Cavs wear now, they haven't even been brave enough to revisit this look.

Speaking of my 5 year old, he could have colored this uniform.

And lastly, the entire state of Michigan must have been high on exhaust fumes to sign off on this look. First of all, their colors are blue and red. Why on earth scrap that classic look in favor of teal? And where did the horse come from? A piston is a car part. What does that horse have to do with anything?

Lest you think I dislike all uniforms, here are some I am partial to. Knicks throwbacks. Throwback or not, gotta love the stripes on the side. And there is something refreshing about just 2 colors, no trim.

See, red, white, and blue. Its hard to go wrong with that look, even if your team name bears an unfortunate simblance to happenings in their city. Love the stripes, love the lettering.

Another great look by the Wiz/Bullets. More stripes but classic. 3 colors but one great uniform.

Many would disagree with me but I've always been partial to this Sixers look. I should have included a shot of the nice red away uni's I like the colors and the straight-up look, at least moreso than the ball-hog wearing the jersey.

This card alone has all kinds of great things going for it. The classic "the City" jerseys worn by Golden State back in the day and Rick Barry's underhanded free throw. I may keep this card just for the look.

What was that?

Sometimes when looking at cards, there's some that just stand out as "huh"? Collector's dislike of Upper Deck has been well documented across the hobby. However, Upper Deck also tends to provide us with some of some of the best card pictures, especially in the 90's editions.

Now, how does something like this happen?
And what was this guy doing? He looks more like a tourist than baseball player.
In other circumstances, this may be considered illegal.

Remember this guy from the 80's movie Mannequin? No?

Well, apparently he inspired Mr. Rijo.

I'm waiting for him to life his leg like the Karate Kid and take out a Cobra Kai.

For you youngsters, that would be a prehistoric laptop. Yes, things came that big back in the day.

Good 'ole Kirk Gibson. Again though, how does this happen?!?

The Injury List

I'm diverging from my big sorting project and Rollie Fingers' mustache this week to share some recent additions to my personal collection. I collect Blazers. Any and all Blazers. However, these days its like a collection of the walking wounded...or in some cases the not so walking wounded.

Travis Outlaw - Currently out with a broken foot. Likely out until March.
Joel Przybilla - Knee dislocation and ruptured tendon. Nasty looking injury in Dallas. Out for rest of season.
Maurice Lucas - Assistant coach for the team. Currently in a battle with cancer.

Steve Blake - Currently in the hospital with pneumonia. Out indefinitly.

Nicolas Batum - Shoulder surgery prior to start of season. Should be back in a month or so.

LaMarcus Aldridge - Sprainged ankle. Out until next week.

Greg Oden - Broken patella. Out for a long, long time.

Rudy Fernandez - (don't adjust your screen, that's a printing plate) - Back surgery. Out for about another month.

At least Jeff Pendergraph has been playing well after coming off the injured list a couple weeks ago!

The injury situation has been crazy. Has included Coach McMillian and Owner Paul Allen. Somehow though, they've been winning. Go Blazers!

Look at me, gotta be, Centerfield!

On to baseball, and what's not to like. I have years and years and brands upon brands. I still think the 70's and early 80's has to be the greatest era though. Only a few brands and some great looking cards.

I told you it was coming and here it is...the GREATEST moustache in the history of sports. Go Rollie!!!

This has to be the best team card ever. Why don't they make team cards like this anymore?!? Though come to think of it, they don't really make team cards anymore, do they. Whatever, this thing is awesome!

Glasses of the early 80's. Not only do players wear contacts now, but they're missing out on these Wall Street beauties!

Yes kids, emulate your favorite players.

His name really is listed as "Wonderful Terrific Monds". Really. Note that this is a minor league card. I never heard of him prior to this card. Perhaps Wonderful Terrific was a bit presumptuous.

Finish that beard and you've got Abe Lincoln in that top hat.

If the hat can't fit on your head, your fro's too big.

What's not to love about these Braves uni's? Why don't they bust these out on throwback night?!?

Is this one of those beer helmets with the dual straws?

Blurry picture aside (profound apologies), love the blue uni collars. Only the White Sox...

Lots going on here...the tinted glasses, the thick stache...this guy was really a pro athlete?

Lots to love about this uni too. The hat, the stripes...maybe the Pirates would start winning if they brought back this look. Don't forget the hair!

Jim Bob Duggar played baseball?!?

Princess Lea...you played OF for the Royals!

Gotta see the collar twice to truely appreciate it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all!

New Camera...no idea how to use it

Thanks to a 4 year old budding photojournalist, our previous camera was broken a couple weeks ago and a new one recently purchased to replace it. The end result is not many pictures of the grand card project being taken in the last couple of weeks. That doesn't mean progress isn't being made though.

I'm currently sorting the basketball cards into team lots for (hopefully) sales on ebay. As a team collector myself (go Blazers), I'm trying to put together lots that I would like - no duplicates. So for basketball at least, I have a fair number of lots of each team without duplicates. These are mainly base and extras so I'm okay letting them go at pennies a piece. Cards I've pulled out with a book value over a buck I've sent in to Checkoutmycards.com.

Cards are slowly selling on COMC. I've sold 49 cards so far for a total of about $40. This is no where near my initial investment in this project but I feel pretty good about it so far. I sold another $100+ on ebay a couple of weeks ago on ebay in the form of factory sealed complete sets. One was 1997 Topps which went for like $57! I couldn't find anything interesting about that set but yet it sold like hotcakes! I'm not complaining...but it certainly was a surprise.

In the meantime, I'll muddle over how to sell off the 6 complete sets of 1990 Skybox basketball I'm stuck with and try to figure out how this new camera works. After all, I've come across a card of Horace Grant in horrible shorts circa 1992 that must be shared...

That's Just Wrong!

You know what I'm talking about...you watch certain players on specific teams for a number of years. You associate them with that team. There is only one team they belong on. To see them in another jersey isn't just weird. Its wrong. Here are a few such examples.

Mark Aguirre is a Piston. Not a Clipper. How did this happen?!?

Same with James Edwards!! Another Piston turned Clipper! Is the Clippers where Pistons go out to pasture? Not to mention the notation on the card that he signed with the Lakers. Even more wrong. You don't join a team 2 years after defeating them in the finals.

Thurl Bailey is a member of the Jazz. Period.

Xavier McDaniels...Sonic and Sun. If it isn't one of those 2 teams, its a mistake. Pure and simple.

There will be many more of these to come. Unfortunately, the holiday impeded my sorting progress somewhat this weekend. I did get some nice ebay and checkoutmycard.com sales though. Thank you black Friday!

Short shorts and Who Dat?!?

I'm am swimming in a sea of 1990 Skybox. The good news for you, and more importantly, for me, is that I finally got through sorting it this afternoon. I have about 6,000 of these things. And, thanks to a shortage of Gary Paytons, only 6 complete sets. Oh well. At least next week you can look forward to seeing scenes from a different set.

That doesn't mean that there aren't a few more gems from this set. Its easy to forget that sometime about 18 years ago, short shorts went away. Nowadays, shorts go down to players ankles. That's a good thing. Here's why:

There's a lot of 7'7" Manute Bol to see even without hip huggers. In these things though, its just an endless sea of skinniness...
Sal...dude...you're going to scare that little boy down there.
Alex English is a legend of a player. And thanks to the magic of photographic technology, he can be remembered for his lovely thighs as well.

There's so much wrong with this picture, I don't even know where to start. It was painful enough watching Will Purdue play basketball but I never needed to see that much of his legs. Now lets talk about that girls shirt. I may have had a shirt like that at her age. With the matching scrunchie her friend is wearing. This will give me nightmares for sure.

There are so many ways this could break bad...

And Mr. Short Shorts himself:

Yes, may the short shorts live on in infamy.

Now, WTF? Will the real Otis Thorpe please stand up?

Isn't it somebody's job...

...to make sure things like this don't happen?

Now we move on from what TF to who TF? Here's a series of guys that are hereby getting a shout out because I think they were shortchanged on their 15 minutes of fame by about 14 minutes. Don't worry if you've never heard of any of these guys. No one has.

Mike McGee

- 6'5 shooting guard/small forward from Michigan. Played 9 season in the NBA (serious?!?) and won 2 Championships with the Lakers (really...seriously?!?). Lanard Copeland - Played college ball at Georgia State. Played 33 games in the NBA before jumping continents to play for the Melbourne Tigers of Australia where he averaged 22 ppg for 13 seasons. Copeland played until 2007 in Australia before retirement.

Stuart Gray - Born 1963 in Panama. Gray attended UCLA. He played for about 7 years and averaged 2.3 ppg and 2.6 rebounds per game.

Frank Kornet - Played 2 seasons with the Bucks after being drafted 30th overall. Averaged 1.9 ppg. Played college ball at Vandy.

Ben Coleman - Ooohh, this guy played for both Minnesota and Maryland. Drafted #37 by the Bulls but didn't play professionally until 1986 for the Nets. He last appeared for the Pistons in 1994 after a 3 year absense from the league.

Scott Haffner - A fighting Illini collegetly, Haffner only managed 2 seasons in the NBA. One with Miami, one with Charlotte. Haffner actually saw action in 36 games during his rookie season, starting in 6.

Dyron Nix - Dyron played only one season in the NBA, apparently this season with the Pacers. Nix played college hoops at Tennessee. He averaged 2.0 in the 20 games played.

Tim Kempton - Selected by the Clipps in 1986 (being selected by the Clippers can never be a good sign) out of Notre Dame. Kempton did play for 8 seasons in the NBA however. Being 6'10" can't hurt. Kempton is now a radio analyst for the Phoenix Suns.

Anthony Jones - Guard out of Georgetown and UNLV. Jones played from 1986 to 1990 (ooohhh, this is his retirement year card). Jones also played in Italy after his stint in the NBA.

Jeff Sanders - Sanders played 4 seasons in the NBA, appearing in 55 games after playing college hoops at Georgia Southern. He also played internationally in Turkey.

Brian Rowsom - His college resume is nice, playing for UNC. He played 3 seasons in the NBA, for the Pacers and Hornets. He also played in Israel (they have pro basketball in Israel?)

Michael Smith - I can't look up this guy. There's too many Michael Smith's in the world.

Zarko Paspalj - Serbian hoopster. He played a lot of hoops worldwide, but only a brief stint with the Spurs. Represented Yugoslavia in 2 Olympics.