Bullet to Rocket Early 80s Style

This is the other lonely card from my Basketball Bonanza on Saturday 11 February 2012.

1981-82 TOPPS BASKETBALL

1981-82 Topps Basketball - 42 Elvin Hayes Rockets

Here is a card of Elvin Hayes grabbing a rebound, and looking like he's going to slam-dunk the ball down on his team-mate's head. Topps obviously didn't have any time from when he was traded from the Bullets to the Rockets to take a new photo of him. They at least were able to announce he was traded.

1977-78 Bullets and a Rocket Boost

From the Ebay Bullets package I got on 11 Feb 2012. Here is a group of three cards from:

1977-78 TOPPS BASKETBALL

 

 1977-78 Topps Basketball - 40 Elvin Hayes - Bullets

OK so this card looks a little weird because Mr. Hayes appears to be slam dunking but his team-mate Mitch Kupchak appears to be walking on air? 

Bullets #25 Mitch Kupchak

Photo from Bullets/Wizards Alumni webpage

They must have lowered the basket or used a small kiddies basket that is only about 6 feet off the ground (Edit That can't be right either the players are 6 feet plus) instead of the standard 10 foot regulation height baskets in the arenas. I didn't notice that until I started commenting on this card in this post.

1977-78 Topps Basketball - 75 Wes Unseld - Bullets

The way Wes is leaning here it looks like he might end up on the floorboards. Anyway if I recall some of my childhood basketball memories correctly, despite starting to hate basketball sometime during the early 1980s, Mr Unseld was my favorite or one of my favorite Bullets players. I'm not sure where I have it but somewhere I have a mini poster circa 1976 from McDonalds of Wes and Coach 'K.C.' Jones from a series of mini posters they sold. The posters were one of the premiums that if you bought a certain sandwich (probably a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder) or "meal" you got the poster free, or you could buy the poster for $1.00 I think was the price. Each poster had 2 players pictured on them, there were 4 posters in the set. The "pictures" were caricatures of the players. I noticed someone on Ebay is selling the full set for $275.00 with $6 shipping.

1977-78 Topps Basketball - 124 Moses Malone - Rockets

OK so Mr. Malone is not a Bullet on this card, so why did I get a Non-Bullet card? It won't be until 1986 that he gets traded to DC. My collecting criteria for Basketball cards includes players that at one time in their careers played for the Bullets (Wizards not so much). If that wasn't the reason then the short easy excuse could be there are some Bullets pictured with him by sheer coincidence it happens to be the Two Bullets I have featured here and have their cards of Mr. Unseld and Mr. Hayes. How frackin' cool is that? It was totally unintended and again it wasn't until I was preparing this post that I even noticed the fact.

Elvin Hayes: Some cards

I have often said I'm not really into basketball especially now-a-days. I hardly follow it anymore. I used to follow it some as a kid when the Washington team was called the Bullets not Wizards and the uniforms were better fitting. The jerseys didn't hang down too low, and the shorts weren't super baggy like gaucho skirt-pants. The days before Michael Jordan and before star athletes had the attitudes they all seem to have now.

Anyway one of the Washington Bullets from when I was really a fan (as apposed to the collector "fan" that I am now) is Elvin Hayes. Here is a card of his I have already mentioned when I talked about having the completed 1975-76 Topps Bullets Team Set (link to the post Elvin is mentioned in at bottom)

1975-75 Topps Basketball - 60 Elvin Hayes

These next two cards are "Tall Boys". I used to get confused as to which one was in better (or worse) condition.  There is already a guy who blogs about Poor Old Baseball Cards and Football Cards he mainly collects just baseball but has a handful of football cards. Poor Old Basketball cards and Poor Old Hockey Cards need collector's love too.

I used to think this first of the two was in worse shape because it was older and had a rough life in my family's house over 30some years. It spent many years abandoned in dresser drawers, shoe boxes and the basement utility/storage room. Ironically it's the newer of the two cards that is in the poorer shape.

For the first Tall Boy (from when Elvin was on the San Diego Rockets) the corners are dinged and slightly rounded, there is light creasing especially near the bottom, the centering if off left/right by about 20/80? The centering on the back is a little better but still a tiny bit off. At first glance the card is not that bad looking.

1970-71 Topps Basketball - 70 Elvin Hayes - Rockets

The centering on the back as I said is a bit better. The only reason I wanted to show the back is because of the cartoon. Oh I love the days when the backs of cards had some useful stats AND a cartoon about the player on the back.

1970-71 Topps Basketball - 70 Elvin Hayes - Rockets (back)

Now this next card. The corners are very rounded and fraying, there are several creases most seem to be mild to severe creases with the biggest one a vertical crease almost through the entire length. It almost looks like Elvin is being struck by lightening.

1976-77 Topps Basketball - 133 Elvin Hayes AS - Bullets

1976-77 Topps Basketball - 133 Elvin Hayes AS - Bullets (back)

For nostalgic reasons (after composing this post) I started getting back into 1970s Bullets cards (and earlier) and maybe some of the key star players from other teams but only Pre-1980. That is partly why I've decided to talk about those Elvin Hayes cards and not get rid of them. The only basketball cards I will get from after 1980 are Bullets and maybe Wizards in their Washington Uniforms.

Previous Bullets Link:
Bullets 1975-76 Topps: Chenier to Kozelco

Bullets 1975-76 Topps: Chenier to Kozelco

1975-76 Topps Basketball Washington Bullets Cards Collage

 Back in the day 1975 to be exact I had gotten a few basketball cards from Topps for the 1975-76 NBA season. Fortunately I had gotten a couple of my Homie Team the Washington Bullets. I first became aware of them a few years before when they were the Baltimore Bullets. I think I started getting into them around '71 when they made their move, anyway I digress. It was around this time 1975 or 1976 when I attended my first Bullets Game of maybe 2 or 3 total in my life. I do recall their opponent was The New Orleans Jazz (years before they would move to Utah - UTAH? JAZZ?) I think the Bullets won. I'm not sure if that was the game that was the free T-Shirt Jersey game, or the School Safety Patrol discount game (maybe it was both). Anyway for the t-shirt game they gave away t-shirts that looked like the players jersey's. I wanted either Wes Unseld, or was it Phil Chenier I wanted? I ended up with Leonard Robinson. I don't think I have that shirt anymore, and never took a photo of me in it.

Of the basketball cards I had collected as a kid the 1975-76 Topps was one of the few I had gotten. My brother might of had some of the 74-75 Topps and definitely some of the tall boy 1970-71 cards.Once again I digress (you will notice I do that on this blog a lot. Shall we get on with the 1975-76 Bullets cards then?

1975-75 Topps Basketball  220 Washington Bullets Team Card

220 Washington Bullets: Team Card and checklist. I think I had this card back when I was a kid, not sure I only had 4 or 5 of the 12 cards in this team set. This card is an uncorrected error card, check out the back.

220 back of Team Card/Checklist Uncorrected Error

The uncorrected error on this card is that both the cards for Leonard Robinson and Wes Unseld are listed as card number 151. The correct number for the Wes Unseld card should be 115. The team card they talk about is the Team Leaders card Which I will get to at the end of my list.

1975-76 Topps Basketball - 190 Phil Chenier AS

190 Phil Chenier: This is one of the 4 or 5 cards I had when I was a kid. I always thought it was cool that of the few Bullets cards I had from this set it has been one of my favorites. I thought it was cool that he was on the All-Star team (2nd team).

1975-76 Topps Basketball - 173 Clem Haskins

173 Clem Haskins: Yep had this card as well. I didn't follow the team well enough to know much about how good a player Haskins was. I just had his card from this season.

1975-76 Topps Basketball - 60 Elvin Hayes

60 Elvin Hayes:  Don't think I had this one as a kid. I do however have a good maybe very good conditioned Elvin Hayes card from 1970-71 Topps #70 from when he was on the San Diego Rockets, it's warping dinged on the corners and some sides and a light crease at the bottom. I used to think it was in worse condition but I was confusing it with the 1976-77 #133card I have of his. That one has creases that look like lighting strikes and major corner bending falling apart. Someday I'll have to scan those. Both of them I've had since the day, the 1970-71 card was my brother's I'm fairly sure about that. This card is pretty well off center to the left and bottom, maybe I can do with an upgrade.

1975-76 Topps Basketball - 23 Jimmy Jones

23 Jimmy Jones: Didn't have this one. Don't have any stories about Jimmy I don't remember him from those days since I didn't wholeheartedly follow the Bullets even when I was following them. Sorry Mr.Jones. It's an OK action shot but for a card the image of him is pretty small.

1975-76 Topps Basketball - 202 Tom Kozelko

202 Tom Kozelko: Gesundheit, but seriously didn't have this card. He might have been the last card I got from sportlots for this set or was it Wes Unseld? My first thought was he looks awful scrawny and white to be a basketball player. He is another player I don't recall from those years. I should upgrade this card since it is soooooooooooo off center to the left and top (thus the back also has centering issues).