Saturday, February 21, 2009

"Anything is Possible!"-Kevin Garnett

Well, around October 2007 I bought a couple packs of 06-07 UD Ovation and lo and behold I draw a UD Black Redemption card. I read the description in the back and it said the Redemptions would expire at August 1, 2007. I figured I might as well send in the request anyways and see what happens. Well, according to UD, the package should have came around 12-16 weeks. Several months past and I pretty much forgot about it.


Yesterday, I got a package from Upper Deck. Suprise suprise, my request was actually put through even though I was late by more than two months. Of course, I did not expect them to actually send me a UD Black card, but they gave me a decent replacement instead. As a replacement, UD sent me an 07/08 Ultimate Virtuoso Kevin Garnet GU Auto card. It was numbered 12/25. While obviously a step down from a UD Black card, I was still happy since it's several steps above not receiving a card at all.

UD also sent me a set of "Lebron James Freshman Season Collectibles" set. Apparently LBJ does not have enough "rookie sets." I'm not sure how many total cards are in the set as I only received cards 16 to 55. But I think the cards cover every game and notable event during his rookie season. UD has really saturated the market with all their crap about Lebron. But hey, how can you blame them when LBJ has games like his 55 point performance against the Bucks.


Friday, August 8, 2008

Finally Decided On My Player Collection: Bobby Brown


Oh Woops. Wrong guy. I'm talking about Bobby Brown, former point guard from Cal State Fullerton, not Whitney's man, or ex. Several weeks ago he was signed to a 2 year contract by the Sacramento Kings after a stellar summer league. Bobby Brown of CSUF(gotta clarify from now on, especially on when it comes to search engines) is the first player from my school to be in the NBA since Pape Sow. Hopefully he'll make as big as an impact as Bruce Bowen or even Cedric Ceballos did. Even though he wasn't drafted, I'm fairly certain that UD and Topps will include him in their products. Who knows, he might even be included in their first hobby boxes to be released for the 08-09 season.
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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Greg Oden Returns to the Court

Finally, Greg Oden is officially back to full strength. Although the full contact workout he participated in today was a 1v1 session with Channing Frye(not exactly what you would consider an intimidating presence), it is good to hear that he's on track to be ready for the season. Oden is already a defensive force and his offensive game is probably more effective than 80 percent of the stiffs that play the 5 in the league. His post game, based on what I saw of him at OSU and the summer league last year could seriously use some polishing. If you look at the Youtube vid I embedded below, you can tell that the old... er I mean young man has packed quite a few pounds of muscle. It will be interesting to see him go up against the likes of Yao Ming, Dwight Howard, Shaq, Bynum, etc....

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2006-07 Bowman Draft Picks & Stars Pack Break

Here's another pack break, this time the 2006-07 Bowman Draft Picks & All Stars. I pulled 2 hits from this pack break. The first hit was the Adam Morrison rookie card. This card would have been more coveted if I pulled it a couple years ago. Morrison was supposed to be the next great white hope or something, but thus far he has not really panned out. To be fair, Morrison has only played in the league for 1 full year since he was injured last season. I see him at his peak being a more talented version of Luke Walton.

The other hit I pulled was the Vince Carter Bowman Chrome. For those of you that do not know, the Chrome cards are basically the shiner versions of the base cards. Boy how the mighty have fallen. Vinsanity was one of the long list of players being dubbed the next Michael Jordan. Back in his heydays with the Raptors I remember that he was recognized as being the superior player to Kobe Bryant. Things sure have changed now. That's what happens when one player plays the game with passion while the other is satisfied at staying at his current level of play.

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Monday, August 4, 2008

Fan-Created Player Nicknames

I'm not talking about the mainstream nicknames like Air Jordan or Larry Legend. If you've surfed through the basketball forums of the information superhighway, you've probably catched quite a few posters nicknames by playing with words. For example, posters who find Lamar Odom to have low basketball IQ call him Lamar Odumb. I find some of the nicknames quite funny. Below is a list of nicknames that I can think of from the top of my head.

Lebrick- created due to the popular notion that Lebron has no J.
Lebronze- created due to his participation on the 2004 USA team that garnered the broze medal.
Lechoke- created by Lebron haters whenever he misses a shot during a clutch situation.
D-Fade- name used by posters to describe how Wade has faded since his 2006 Finals MVP season
D-Whistle- reference to his enormous amounts of fta, most notably during the 2006 Finals
KoMe- pokes fun of Kobe's selfish and arrogant demeanor
Snaq- usually used by poster's to emphasize the fact that Shaq is out of shape
Ben Wallets- One of my favorites, referencing to how Ben Wallace is getting a fat paycheck from the Bulls and doing nothing in return.
Steve Trash- coined by Steve Nash haters.
Fright Coward- Dwight Howard haters who think he is soft.
Lamar Odumb- some posters claim he has bad bball IQ
Fluke Walton- when Luke Walton has a good game, posters regard it as a fluke.
T-Crap- coined by McGrady haters, also used whenever he loses in the first round.
Feel free to contribute to this list.
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Sunday, August 3, 2008

Topps 1952 Style Pack Break

My apologies for the long period of no posts. My schedule has been full since summer began with work, summer school, getting a new apartment, etc.... But now that my summer school has finally concluded, I should have a little more time on my hands to post. Today's pack break is the Topps 1952 Style Packs. The title of this set is pretty self explanatory. I like the portraits of the base cards in this set. The only problem: I had absolutely NO HITS! Not only that, but the only superstar base card I pulled was a Kevin Garnett base card.


Once again, apologies for the lack of posts. I must admit I won't be posting as frequently as I did right during May. So make sure you subscribe to my RSS Feed by clicking on the RSS Feed link on the upper right side of the page.Or, you can click on the logo below.
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008

2007-08 UD SP Rookie Edition Pack Break


Today I ripped open 3 packs of Upper Deck SP Rookie Edition. According the the Pack descriptions, there are 5 cards per pack with an average of 1 rookie card per pack. I was thinking about starting a Kevin Durant player collection so with any luck, I may pull a Durant rook. A while back I ripped open a couple packs of 2006-07 Fleer Ultra and I got several hits. Hopefully this time will produce similar results.


Pictured above is a Chris Paul base card. The base cards in this set have decent designs in my opinion. I was expecting something similar to the regular SP design so the lack of the clean white SP background kind of caught me off guard.


The rookie cards look fairly similar to the base cards except for the fact that the rookie cards are vertical instead of horizontal. Also, there is a incomplete diamond shape around the rookies. The card above is the Joakim Noah rookie card. I never understood why he was such a hyped up player, even after his first National championship. He is nothing more than a hustle player.


I guess the "hit" of my pulls was this Wilson Chandler "Future Watch" insert. Chandler finished the season fairly strong and hopefully will get more playing time next year. Well, as you can see, no luck with pulling a Kevin Durant. Better luck next time.