Just Some Old Basketball Players

I have been on this big kick lately with finding older baseball cards of players who appeared on the Durham Bulls several decades ago.  Since I dabble in basketball cards, I decided to do a similar thing with that part of my collection.  A little bit smaller scale, maybe slightly more recent cards, but these weree all enjoyable finds.  There are a few NC State cards, but also a few of the players that I watched while I was living in St. Louis.  

Let's start with the NC State players first.  I have added two good State cards, both are household names in there parts that many are likely to recognize.  First up, is the greatest of the greats in Raleigh. 

 

 

This is actually my second copy of this card.  I picked this up while I was working on baseball cards.  Found a guy who was unloading some Rays/Durham Bulls in a Facebook group.  My Facebook profile is an NC State logo, so he asked if I would be interested in this David Thompson card.  I cannot say no to a good deal, plus I love getting combined shipping on cards.  

 

Next.  From the promotions table at NC State, to someone's house, and eventually into my collection.  

 

 

I am usually pretty good about checking out the promotional tables when I go to NC State games, but for some reason I missed out on this T.J. Warren card.  Serious, it's T.J. Warren.  He slimmed down a bit in college.  There is not much evidence of this version of T.J. Warren ever existed outside of this basketball card and 90 second clip of him getting a lay-in and a dunk against UNC. 

On to other schools.  The rest of the cards are players from Mizzou or SLU.  I will go in order working from newest to oldest.  

First up is Keyon Dooling.  He had a fairly long career in the NBA as a back-up guard.   Pretty versatile, could play both the point and shooting guard positions. 

 

Keyon has worked in the front office for the Utah Jazz since retiring a few years back, but recently got added to the coaching staff as an assistant last month. While Keyon may not have it listed on his resume or LinkedIn page, I have been employing him as a gif in PowerPoint and Google Slides in my classroom for five or six years now.  

This incredible gem is from a charge call against Kansas.  He didn't quite jump over the KU player while dunking the ball over him, but came really close.  

If you are a teacher, this gif is great for 

"The schedule changed because of an assembly"

"Someone thawed our freezer pops by moving them to the refrigerator" 

or the classic:

"It's picture day and the cafeteria is serving spaghetti. Don't do anything that results in your mom emailing me after school because you are doing picture retake day next month"  

Let's move on.  

 

 

Larry Hughes is from St. Louis.  He's a little younger than me.  I saw him play in a high school Christmas tournament his senior year while I was a freshman in college.  He actually played with Jayson Tatum's father, Justin Tatum, at a small parochial school.  Hughes and Tatum both committed to stay home and play at Saint Louis University.  Hughes played one year and left college for financial reasons connected to his younger brother's health.  Tatum sat out at least one year, might have been more, because he had a diagnosed learning disability that allowed him to take the ACT without a time limit.  The NCAA was even ridiculous in the 1990s.  

Rest of the players are from when I was in high school and middle school.  A little nostalgic for the old Big 8 Conference here.  

 

Another long-time NBA player, Peeler had a good career as a offensive spark plug coming off the bench for the Lakers and Timberwolves.  A few other teams mixed in there too.  He was a great college player.  I believe he was an All-American and the Big 8 Player of the Year his senior season.  I liked this card because it shows Peeler in his college uniform.  There are not too many Anthony Peeler cards in a Missouri uniform floating around out there.  

It's a little odd that they have Peeler in his college uniform, logos and all, but they airbrushed out the defender.  You can still make out the T from the Texas A&M logo on the shorts.  I know the Big 12 was not around in the early 1990s, but Mizzou played them Peeler's senior season.  The Tigers won by 30.  I would try to find Peeler's stats for the game, but I am guessing he sat on the bench in his warmups for a large portion of the second half. 

Next up is a Mizzou player that is new to my basketball card collection.  I was surprised that I did not have a card of this guy.  Great college player, not so great in the NBA.  Let me say it again, great college player.  

Two Doug Smith cards.  

Smith was this huge guy, with a huge frame, but he was really quick.  He played before Greg Ostertag and Bryant Reeves were in the Big 8, but there were a lot of other lumbering centers and power forwards that Smith would just blow past on his way to the basket.  He also had a nice mid-range jumper, so when defenses started sagging off of him, he could knock down some shots.  Only player in the school's history to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds. 

 

 

Smith and Peeler's time in college had some overlap, but Smith was older.  He was also an All-American player, won the Big 8 Conference Player of the Year award twice.  He got selected as the sixth overall pick in the NBA Draft, but never panned out.  I read this interesting take on a Celtics website about Smith in the NBA.  He ended his career in Boston after they tried to turn him back into the Doug Smith at Mizzou.  

To summarize, Smith was a big man (6'10), but his quickness and athleticism were what made him a great scorer in college.  The Mavericks drafted him, thought they were going to put muscle on his large frame, but that just made him slow and he couldn't score anymore.  How many good college players did the Dallas Mavericks wreck in the early 1990s?  Apparently it was a long list.  The Mavs were thinking Karl Malone when they should have been thinking about Julius Erving. 

This Mavericks card is alright, but I really like this Kellogg's card below. 

College Basketball Greats.  This seems like the perfect Doug Smith card.  Look at that positioning under the basket.  This is the Doug Smith that I remember.  He's got the big guy sealed behind him and some little guard trying to come down on a double team.  At least that what I think is happening.  Is this against Nebraska?  Doug probably scored a ton of points in this game.  Save for Eric Piatkowski, the Huskers were terrible at basketball when I was younger.

Last card.  

Anthony Bonner was in the NBA for awhile with the Knicks and Kings. Really good rebounder and defender in the NBA.  The talent level at Saint Louis University was not very good until the mid 1990s when Charlie Spoonhour got hired.  Bonner was sort of the lone bright spot during the 1980s  I have no idea about this brand "Star Pics".  I feel like I might have bought one of those novelty sports cards that you can buy at Walgreens photo. 

Vintage Pack

I do not know a lot about basketball cards.  I do know that I like to pick a few up from time to time, and that the vintage cards from the 1960s and 1970s are pretty sweet looking.  My smaller collection of basketball cards mostly includes former NC State players and a few old St. Louis Hawks.  The NC State players are mostly players I have watched since moving to North Carolina in 2005.  The Hawks are just more of a curiosity.

I recently had the chance to pick up two really inexpensive 1970s cards of two former NC State players.  Both were members of the 1974 National Championship team, which was notable because they ended UCLA's run. 

As a side note, the NC State player wearing 42 in the video is long time Orioles pitcher Tim Stoddard.  He is the only player to have won an NCAA Championship in basketball and a World Series ring (1983 Orioles).  

Both cards are 1976 Topps.  I love the appearance of these old 1970s basketball cards.  The better of the two cards is Hall of Famer David Thompson.  There have been plenty of good players at NC State over the years, but he's the gold standard.  

These are larger than the standard card.  As a baseball card collector, they are similar in size to the old Exhibits postcards.  I like the designs on the front of the card, but the backs are nice too.  

There are a lot of standard elements here for a card of this era that I often miss on modern cards.  The cartoon at the bottom of the card, and the dark background with the bright colored bright are two of the better features.  I also really like that Topps put the college stats at the top of the card.  It's a nice touch.  

My other card is from Tom Burleson who was the center on the 1974 team.  Great college player.  He was not a standout NBA player, but he supposedly had some injuries along the way.  This is the front of the card.  Love the uniforms.  

This is from early in his career, so the back of the card numbers from the NBA look good.  You can also see his college numbers, which were excellent.  

Burleson's numbers declined for the next few years until he retired after the 1980-1981 season.  As legend online goes, he was involved in a fight and was injured.  There is no actual account of the fight anywhere online.  It repeated enough places that I am certain that it is true to some degree.  

Damn I Am Old

One of my favorite 1990s sets of all-time is the 1998 Skybox EX-2001 set.  I have done a few little write ups on the card set over the past two or three years of blogging, but I am always looking for new cards and new ways to enjoy some of my old favorites from yesteryear.  The old boxes of the cards are often outrageously priced, otherwise I would buy one and do a cool box break.  Mainly I just dabble with single cards from the set.  

I have already assembled the set, so I am mainly just picking up inserts and parallels.  A few days back while I was in school one of my trade partners, who dabbles in basketball started to blow up my Twitter messages.  I could feel my IPhone buzzing and when I got to lunch I had pictures and trade offers to look at and review.  I couple of words stuck out in the messages....

"look at this old guy"

"I am not sure what this guy did in college"

"this card is from one of those retro sets"

"when is last time NC State won something"

"TJ Warren and this other guy"

This is a really cool trade partner, but that last one stung.  As I sat in my classroom playing checkers with a group of my students, eating a PB&J sandwich and apple slices (I swear I am a 30 something) I suddenly felt really old that all of these words could be used to describe a card set that I loved collecting while I was in college.  He was not even sure how to respond other than to make a quick trade and question my age quietly to myself.  Note: Later in the day I fell in a mud puddle playing kickball at recess adding to my wonderment.  

Here are my two awesome new basketball cards starting off with a great looking David Thompson card which was pulled from a box of 2011-2012 Fleer Retro. 

I could see where you might think David Thompson is old, but if you are not sure what he did you need to spend a little bit of time on Google.  He has the only retired jersey at NC State and was the inspiration for Michael Jordan.  Even gave his introduction speech at his induction into the basketball Hall of Fame.  I hear David Thompson made it into the Hall first though.  Thompson also helped NC State win the 1974 National Championship.  I got a cool bonus card thrown in with the David Thompson of 2013-2014 ACC Player of the Year T.J. Warren.  

One Man Wolfpack

I saw a really cool basketball autograph while working out a baseball trade late last week.  Normally people ask me about football, basketball, and hockey cards and I look the other way.  There are tons of baseball cards in my life and really no reason to expand my collection beyond my favorite sport.  I dabble in football and hockey, but I do actually follow college basketball pretty closely.  I have spent a little time on here discussing college baseball, so it's probably no secret that my favorite college hoops teams is NC State.

I went to State a few years back and picked up a Master's Degree in School Administration and studied ACC basketball in my spare time.  Seriously, I went to as many basketball games as possible.  I got to see a lot of good players up close and personal and had a great time watching the games.  Best game I saw as a student... (I am in the video wearing a red hoodie)

State is the third best program around these parts behind Duke and the dreaded Tar Heels.  Still, for a team that has not been to the Final Four since 1983 the school has accomplished plenty on the hardwood.  Two National Titles, Three Final Four Fours, 10 Sweet Sixteens, and 18 ACC Titles.  There are plenty of names basketball fans might know from the program, but one player stands out above all the other NC State players.  In fact, the school honors basketball jerseys, but only one player has a retired jersey.  David Thompson.

If you do not know the name I can probably not do him justice in one single post on a blog that specializes in baseball cards.  He was the best ever at NC State, maybe the best ever in the ACC, and always gets some serious debate when talking about the greatest college basketball players of all-time.  Take it from Michael Jordan who idolized Thompson growing up in North Carolina and had him introduce him at his Hall of Fame induction speech.  Jordan said of Thompson at his Hall of Fame speech:

"I've had a lot of questions over the last four weeks, and everybody's saying well 'why'd you pick David Thompson?' I know why, and David knows why, and maybe you guys don't know why, but as I grew up in North Carolina, I was 11 years old in 1974 I think when you guys won the championship. And uh, I was an anti-Carolina guy - I hated UNC, and here I ended up at UNC. But I was in love with David Thompson. Not just for the game of basketball, but in terms of what he represented. I was inspired by him. And when I called him and asked him to uh, stand up for me, I know that I shocked the shit outta him."

So, back to the trade.  Like always I was going to turn down the trading for a David Thompson autograph.  However, I was basically trading a $15 card away and landed a really cool autograph of a really cool basketball player.  After checking a few places selling autographs of the former Wolfpack star, I decided it was a good price to pay and here it is:

More than happy to add this great looking card to my collection and I do not plan on making basketball autographs a regular part of my collection.  If you want to see more of David Thompson I strongly suggest checking out a few old ABA clips of Thompson on the Nuggets, or check out my favorite of the 6'3 David Thompson rejecting the 7'0 Bill Walton.  Send it back big man, send it back.