Tonight is opening night for the NBA. Feel free to take just a minute to let that sink in. Sure, baseball is still being played (kind of) and we're still functioning in Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. (unless you're in Arizona or you're another rougue area that doesn't believe in it.) Since I don't really buy basketball cards, here is a pack that I discovered in a box recently, along with some football packs. I bought it a few years ago and completely forgot about it.

72 - Zach Randolph (Zach can fill up the stat sheet, but his deficiencies are especially glaring: he can't defend, he doesn't move especially well and, at least in his Blazers days, was pretty terrible at passing out of a double team. Whoever thought he would be a good fit in New York was obviously on some crazy pills.)

16 - Dirk Nowitzki (The peak of my Mavericks interest was probably around the late 90s or early part of this decade, back when Dirk was still gaining legs in the NBA. Now they're just annoying.)
37 - Caron Butler (I forgot that Butler used to play for the dreaded Lakers.)

35 - Elton Brand (The Sixers threw 80 million dollars at a guy trying to come back from a ruptured Achilles' tendon.)

MAG-LJ1 - LeBron James ESPN The Magazine Covers (Nothing like a set advertising ESPN with insert cards that further promote ESPN ventures in other media.)
22 - Ben Wallace (He's probably one of the most overrated players in the history of the league. An absolutely worthless offensive player who has never even put up Dennis Rodman-like numbers to justify his existence as a multi-million dollar multi-year contract player.)

64 - Allen Iverson (I'm not sure what the jersey is throwing back to, but it's not bad.)

8 - Emeka Okafor (One of the better players from an otherwise dismal draft class.)
45 - Shaquille O'Neal (If he's not all costumed-up in '90s hip-hop and/or movie gear, then he's not worth showing a picture of here.)

The Blazers/Lakers game is game 2 of the doubleheader tonight on TNT. Feel free to revel in the awesomeness that is the Blazers. Meanwhile, if anyone wants any of these cards, please let me know. I can always use more Blazers cards.

I went to Concord Mills tonight and, after getting schooled in Tekken 5 again, I bought two more 10ドル/10 pack repack boxes(one baseball and one hockey) that I love so much. To make it better, they were "Buy 1, Get 1 50% off" which made me feel peachy inside. I have never gotten one of the hockey versions of these, so, expecting some older stuff, I decided to open the hockey stuff first. The first pack I will open is 05-06 Upper Deck hockey. You are guarenteed a Diary of a Phenom insert per pack, so lets see what happens! I will post a video of the breaks
I do from now on, just like someone else on here does(forgot the name).

[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/bWkDzZEg3RY&hl=en&fs=1]

This one's for Brian...

This is the first time in years I built a basketball set, but I would still pick up a pack or two a year when the baseball offerings got slim for old time's sake. Back in the day though, the NBA was my favorite sport. I'd go to at least 3 or 4 Hawks games a year and this is when 'Nique and Doc and Moses and Willis were roaming the court, not the current trainwreck of a franchise. I bought basketball cards back before they were cool and have several vintage Fleer sets to show for it now. Ever since Dominique got traded to the Clippers though, my interest in hoops has dwindled to almost nothing but for some damn reason I still got the urge to open a pack every so often. Then they usually end up just like this one, filed away still in the wrapper in a box full of other unappreciated basketball packs.

154 Rasheed Wallace
12 Cuttino Mobley
184 PJ Brown
165 Nick Collison
9 Rafer Alston
39 Mike Dunleavy Black parallel numbered 455/500 (1:19)
239 Hakim Warrick RC
55 Jason Kidd
199 Dikembe Mutombo
68 JR Smith
169 Josh Howard
124 Speedy Claxton
Checklist card

This set mystifies me. The wrapper is pitch black. Allen Iverson is the featured player, complete with tats, cornrows and a dark Sixers uniform. To top it off, the Topps logo itself is totally blinged out in so many diamonds Tom Shane had to make a second trip to Antwerp. Anyone seeing this pack on the shelf would immediately think this set is hard core. All Black borders, platinum foil stamping, relic cards of 50 cent's bloody gauze from the last time he got shot, this set has total street cred. Then you open the pack.

The best way I can think to describe the design of these cards is that it's like a pattern you'd see on a set of brightly colored tumblers you'd find in the outdoor/garden department at Target during a "Spring into Summer" sale. Kind of a wavy, bubbly, watery motif in bright colors on an extremely white background with shiny foil stars and a basketball floating in the upper right corner so you don't confuse this for a pack of invitations to a wedding shower. I think this is the first set to include celebrities in the base set, further adding an Entertainment Tonight feel to it. This is a really nice, pleasant looking set. That looks absolutely nothing like the wrapper it's in. I guess what I'm saying is this set is NWA Ice Cube on the outside and "Are We There Yet" Ice Cube on the inside.

The pack isn't too bad. Jason Kidd's not a bad pull. Rasheed's a good player and his stat line of one game with the Hawks amuses me. Speedy Claxton needs to be in Leavenworth for stealing cap space though. I've heard of most of the players in the pack which is saying something. The rookie is not one of them however, and I have no clue if he's still in the league to be honest. The Mike Dunleavy parallel card comes closest to the promise of the menacing wrapper as it is thick as about three regular cards and has a black border. Well, dark gray border at least. It looks like it was the pack searcher deterrent card for the set. I'll take a numbered parallel over a chunk of worthless cardboard every day of the week. I'm not sure why Topps is the only company out there that realizes that the thick cards inserted to fool people looking for jersey cards can actually be something useful. I do wish I hadn't looked over the checklist card though, now I really want a Jenny McCarthy or Carmen Electra card. I'm a big fan of their, erm, work in various periodicals.