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Monday, April 20, 2020

Great Scott!

For those who cared to watch it, I hope you enjoyed episodes 1 & 2 of The Last Dance on ESPN. I thought it was great. Not only did I enjoy seeing the old footage of Michael Jordan and co., but there was a lot I just didn't remember. I was actually surprised by how little I did recall!

While I followed the NBA heavily in 1997-98 (I would have been in 8th grade), there was so much I just didn't remember. I don't remember Scottie Pippen's drama with ownership, and him deciding right before the season to have foot surgery. I don't remember the Bulls sluggish start that year. I don't remember the vitriol geared at Jerry Krause.

I'm sure I knew about it at the time, but 23 years ago (ha! 23!) was a long time ago. A lot has happened since then to my cloud my brain.

As for Pippen, he definitely deserved to be paid more. On one hand, he dug his own grave by signing a long-term contract in order for security - 7 years and $18mil. On the other, toward the end of the deal, he was grossly underpaid as league revenue - and player salaries - soared.

I have a fairly lot of Pippen cards in my remaining stack of basketball cards I saved. Nothing fancy, but a nice assortment. As I mentioned in my last post, most of my basketball collecting was while Jordan was out, so naturally I ended up with a lot of Pippens.

My favorite is probably the SkyBox Air Raid, which seems a bit like a knock off of Upper Deck's Skylights. It kind of looks more like a Nike shoe ad.
A pretty sweet Provisions card from Fleer, although I'm not so sure of the background. Are those bullet holes?
SkyBox Z-Force is the equivalent of Circa Thunder, I think. I could be wrong. Still, a neat card in a '90s kind of way.
These two inserts from Fleer Ultra would have come from the box I got for Christmas in 1995.
This Hoops Block Party is a really fun card, although not sure I'd say Pippen was known for his shot-blocking. Still, he could do it all, so I get it.
Here's the rest of my Pippen stash:
The next 8 episodes can't come soon enough!


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6 comments:

  1. Jeff LawsApril 20, 2020 at 8:21 PM

    I loved it! I was a Jordan/Bulls fan back when he was playing. I can't get into the NBA anymore but I loved the NBA back then. I miss those teams. I can't wait to watch the rest.

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  2. Elliptical ManApril 20, 2020 at 9:05 PM

    I was not a Bulls fan. But I see people talking about it all over Twitter.

    My favorites here are the SkyBox at the bottom (because I like me some SkyBox) and the middle one in the top row (dunking). The Air Raid card is my favorite of the ones you highlighted.

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  3. Collecting CutchApril 20, 2020 at 10:25 PM

    I was always for the underdog teams so I rooted for The Pacers and Hornets growing up. Reggie Miller and Alonzo Mourning were my guys growing up. I do enjoy seeing a new sports documentary though so I will definitely check out the rest.

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  4. JonApril 21, 2020 at 9:22 AM

    I have no plans to watch this "special", but I would hope that Scottie is getting some love too. I've been saying for years that without Pippen, MJ never wins a single title. There was so much talent in the league during that era, and quite a few really good teams (unlike now), that there's no way that Jordan would've ever been able to win anything on his own.

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  5. FujiApril 21, 2020 at 10:49 AM

    I can't wait for the series to land on Netflix. I wanna watch it so bad. Cool Pippen collection. I stumbled across a few while digging up my Jordans.

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  6. BulldogApril 21, 2020 at 2:45 PM

    I didn't appreciate Pippen as much as I should have back in the day but I've wised up. He was great. Fun post and good cards.

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