Actual counting NBA games begin later tonight, including a Blazers/Rockets game that I'll be attending in Portland. Here's my first pack from the new season, which also happens to be from the last licensed NBA Upper Deck base set.
97 - Udonis Haslem (Key cog in the Miami Heat's championship run.)
165 - Greg Oden (Look out! Oden is threatening to have a huge year this year.)
35 - Josh Howard
85 - Sasha Vujavic (Ugh, Lakers.)
62 - Yao Ming (Sorry... not this year.)
48 - Richard Hamilton
128 - Chris Duhon (Duhon had the best season of his career last year with a dreadful team.)
134 - Russell Westbrook (I don't like UCLA and I don't like what they did to the Sonics.)
220 - B.J. Mullens Star Rookies (The third consecutive one-and-done Ohio State center, following Kosta Koufos and Oden.)
263 - Dominique Wilkins Immortals (As you can see here, Dominique played way back in the day before color TVs or cameras. He was known as the Human Reel-to-Reel.)
5 - Marvin Williams
171 - Rashad McCants
139 - Earl Watson (Bleh, another ex-Sonic. I can't blame it on the players, though.)
143 - Jameer Nelson (Nelson also had a career year last year.)
126 - James Posey (Posey was not the difference maker that the Hornets hoped he would be as they fell off a bit last year. I always thought he was pretty overrated when he played for Boston.)
94 - Mario Chalmers
70 - Troy Murphy
124 - Tyson Chandler