Players Of My Past #2: Marcus Camby

I first want to admit that I messed up today's post by shorting it by a card. I am not sure where the fifth card is, but, it's gone. So let's take the four favorite 90's cards I have of today's player instead of the five and enjoy those. I will make sure this doesn't happen again.

There was one TALL DUDE coming out in the NBA draft in 1996 and his name was Marcus Camby. He was drafted second overall in the first round by the Toronto Raptors who were already cool for having a dinosaur dribbling a basketball on their jerseys.

I believe the combination of finding his rookie cards often in packs that year, playing for the Raptors who I liked only because of their uniforms and him standing so tall at 6ft 11inches,I began to be a fan. I remember feeling that tall in graded school even though I was nowhere near his height and still am not. But, I still towered above other classmates and that was a form of connection I felt with him.

On recess I used my long Marcus Camby like arms, well I thought they were, to block shots and be the man in the middle who would drive to the basket even though I was a much better three point shooter. However, sometimes when you use your imagination , you never know who you can become and what you are capable of. I probably should have used mine  a bit more as I was good at blocking shots but my layups needed some work.

I may nit have been him, but I was a collector of his back then. I definitely don't have the cards I used to of him as I downsized my NBA collection after I stopped watching it (something I honestly regret), but at least I have some still.

Here are my favorite ones I still have from the 90's,

Fleer Metal always looked cool, but toss in this graffiti look, it's super-dee-duper!

Jammin! Marcus above the rest!

I don't know what it was about these Hoops base cards, but darn it, I liked em!

 

And once again he is beating defenders to the rim!

Another great thing about Camby, was the fact he played for the Knicks when I loved the NBA, not much longer after playing for the Raptors. In the lockout shortened 1998-1999 season, he was traded to the Knicks for Charles Oakley, a deal I will never get, but oh well. I was sad to see Oaks go but was happy to see Marcus arrive. 

Marcus didn't get much playing time for the Knicks, but did contribute off the bench. The Knicks snuck into the playoffs and with Latrell Sprewell and Camby heating up, the Knicks took down top seeded Miami Heat (which was thrilling by the way), swept the Atlanta Hawks and then faced the mighty Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. That is also when Camby got more playing time because Knicks legend Patrick Ewing went down with a season ending injury. Camby helped lead the Knicks take down the Pacers in six games and advanced them to the NBA Finals. First time an 8th seed had gotten that far. It was just too bad they had to face a much better opponent.

The Knicks went onto play the Spurs in which they got their butts handed to them in five games. It was also the final season I watched of the NBA despite some of the key players I loved remaining on the Knicks.

Overall, Marcus played 17 seasons in the NBA for 6 different teams. I was amazed to see how many times he was moved around but that's just apart of today's game. One that I don't like for a variety of reasons this being one of them. He averaged 9 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks a game in his career.

I would love to own a Camby autograph someday for my 90's Knicks collection. He was a name I left off in my last post with Allan Houston.

More Players Of My Past to come and from different sports.