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.

Nuttin' But The Hits:1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants Basketball

The late 90's. Is there truly any better time in the hobby?

The variety, the brands, the innovations, the value.

It's all in there.

For me there is also a bonus, the memories. This was and always will be my best time in the hobby. Nothing will ever change that.

So when I pulled off my last trade with Project Pedro blog I got the opportunity to take a trip back down memory lane with some packs/box breaks from my past. I loved every aspect of our trade, but these breaks were truly what hit me the hardest and what I enjoyed the most. With every pack I busted a smile can be seen for miles across my face and the next chance to open the next pack brought me joy like no other.

There will be multiple breaks coming up on here with mostly football, but today's I decided to kick it off with some NBA. My only NBA break from the trade.

When Shane told me he found some discounted packs at his LCS of 1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants basketball, I told him to jump on it all and I would work out a trade for them. He happily obliged. Like I said, this guy is pretty awesome and I am very fortunate to know him.

Overall he managed to score sixteen packs overall and a box normally has 24 so was almost a full box break. There are five cards per pack.  My biggest hope was to find some top rookies from the break but even more important is finding some gold. Those gold parallels have really held their value over the years.

Let's get to ripping these packs!

There are 25 Rookies to find in the product that fall 1:2 packs. I miss days rookies were randomly inserted like that. Drives up value. Key Rookies to find are Dirk Nowitzki, Mike Bibby, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Jason Willams, Paul Pierce, Rashard Lewis, Peja Stojakovic!

Here are the ones I found in the break. Biggy and Antawn were nice finds. Lue is now a coach so that's a little weird.

But this was the highlight of the group. I was really hoping to find a Dirk. But, can't complain about some Vinsanity! Dude was a highlight reel in his prime.

I didn't find any gold in my break, but found plenty of blue parallels. These fall Veteran 1:3 packs, and Rookies 1:6 packs. Shaq was the best find of the group. Some of the rookie parallels have some good value when you pull the top ones.

I also ended up finding an insert in Shining Stars that fell 1:20 packs. It has a Finest type protectant over the top. Mine was a tad peeled back.

 

Overall, I was pretty happy with the break. Pulled some good rookies, lots of parallels and an insert. Can't ask for much more in sixteen packs. I remember busting a few packs of this when it came out and I didn't do as well as this. Of course my grandmothers neighbor who collected NBA pulled some nice cards from these back in the day but more on that for another time.

Trading With Pops And Killin' It

I have tweeted out a few times and even posted on here how I got my father back into collecting and how his collection in just a few years had far surpassed mine of 24 years.

For the first time since I got him back into collecting, we decided to pull off a trade.

There was a few rookie cards he was in need of and there was one card he had I desperately wanted. After a few minutes literally, we struck a deal.

First I will show you a card he tossed in for free, this is a tough to pull rubies insert from 98-99 Skybox Premium. There are only 25 of them made, which in today's collecting means nothing. but back then it meant a lot. It's also an insert I didn't have so I always welcome those additions.

Did I mention it was shiny??

Then came the card I desperately wanted and finally talked him out of to give up....a 1995 Sp Ken Griffey Jr Buyback auto. For being that old, the auto is still really sharp and the overall card to me pops. It's on one of my favorite Sp designs.

The card also comes with an authenticity paper which he put behind the penny sleeve in the top loader. I didn't take a picture of card back because of this.

I was happy to be able to trade with him as it brought back some good memories from my childhood when we would trade. We have discussed future trades down the road but not sure any of them will ever top this.

CAPTION THIS CARD!

This card is crying out for a Caption.

 

Leave a caption below for this card. Please keep it free of language and clean please for our younger audience  

Mine would be....

"I did it. I touched Michael. I am never washing this hand again."

Random Card On My Desk:1998-1999 Collectors Choice Martin Brodeur

Random Card On My Desk:1998-1999 Skybox Premium "Ninety Fine" Ray Allen

Random Card On My Desk:1998-1999 Topps Allan Houston

Random Card On My Desk:1998-1999 Stadium Club "Transactions" Antonio Daniels

90's Flashback:1998-1999 Crown Royale Martin Brodeur

Crown Royale was one of my favorites in the 90's and just like yesterday, it was another top notch release done by Pacific. They seemed to know how to make cards and especially great base cards. If only they could have survived. I think great things would have come from them in today's market.

I have always been a fan of the crown die cut no matter how they positioned it. I am happy that Panini revived the product.

I acquired this Brodeur via trade with my father like some of the other hockey ones in the 90's I have recently been posting about. I still have more to go.

I must also note, that 90's Flashback will go away for a bit as I transition to a new way to display 90's cards. I am far behind on shout outs and stuff to show off so will have a new post that will be featured on Saturday's. When I am caught up,this form will return unless the other form is more popular.

90's Flashback:1998-1999 Aurora Paul Kariya

Aurora, another great Pacific brand, was always a fun product. This specific year had some great looking base cards with 3/4ths being full color and the last 1/4th of the card being a bronze foil photo double.

Once again, you can't appreciate a card like this until you see it up-close.

Breakin Wax:1998-1999 Finest Basketball Series 1 Pack Break

In today's edition of Breakin Wax, I am busting a pack of 90's Finest. These were some of the Finest, Finest ever. Wow, that was deep lol.

In each pack of 1998-1999 Finest basketball is 6 cards. Packs run roughly around $3. There were some key rookies, not in this series however but in Series 2 such as Paul Pierce, Vince Carter and Dirk. Refractor parallels to find in both series .

The base cards were simple. A chrome approach with some action photos and a name written down the side. I liked that they left the card open for photography. Just check out the Charles Outlaw below.

There was also a covering on the cards that was a peelable protector that I always left on.I think for me it wasn't to protect the cards as much as it was my hobby OCD.

Best two cards from my pack. Can't go wrong with The Admiral and Barkley.

Overall, not too bad. I didn't find any rookies because Series 1 didn't have any, but did get a couple of good players. I also wished I could have pulled a refractor, but maybe next time :)

Breakin Wax: 1998-1999 Topps Basketball Series 1 Pack Break

Topps basketball in the 90's was fun and produced some memorable and valuable inserts later in the 90's. Especially when you landed Jordan. I wanted to rip a pack to see if I could beat the odds and pull one. Well, I did beat the odds but it wasn't Jordan. However, it was still pretty stinkin cool!

In each pack of 1998-1999 Topps Basketball Series 1 is 11 cards. The 11 cards are a mix of rookies and veterans and packs now-a-days can be found pretty cheap. Key rookies in the product is Paul Pierce, Dirk and Vince Carter.

The base card design was pretty border heavy so I wasn't a complete fan. The border color wasn't the greatest either but I would say it does look better than the usual white. However, I did enjoy the photography on these.

These look like candidates for Caption This!

AND THE BIG BOOM! A Roundball "Finest" REFRACTOR!! These fell 1:144!! Was an excellent pull! The only thing that would have topped it would have been an MJ version.

Overall, this pack was the bomb! How can you beat such a great pull. I was more than beyond happy.

This insert pull alone shows you why I loved collecting in the 90's so much. They don't make pulls in this era of collecting that makes you feel like this one did to me. I will forever remember opening this pack.

While I am at it, for those of you who busted and collected packs in the 90's, what was your greatest pull?

That 90's Card: 1998-1999 Skybox Premium Carl Herrera