Toronto Wins NBA Championship!

The Toronto Raptors are the NBA Champions after defeating the Golden State Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals 4-2.  I watched a ton of NBA this year and it was so much fun and Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors were a big part of it.  They rolled the dice in the offseason to pick up Leonard and Danny Green for what may be a one year rental.  It worked and was worth it no matter what happens this offseason.  Brilliant move and it's hard not to be happy for this team.  Glad to see long time Raptor Kyle Lowry get to hoist the trophy.  If Toronto hadn't won the series who knows what this team would look like going forward.  Now, no matter what happens, he's a champion and his story is a happy one. It was also fun watching Pascal Siakam, Serge Ibaka, Danny Green and Marc Gasol play big parts in the series or in parts of the series.  

The Warriors were great in defeat.  If they aren't devastated by injuries this series is absolutely different but do they win?  I don't know.  What they showed in defeat is amazing.  It shows how great they are and the heart they have.  At times it was Stephen Curry and Draymond Green against all odds.  Props to the Warriors for another great season and showing what they are made of in these finals.  Quick side note - I listened to Draymond Green's interview after game 6 and he came across so different from what I think of him.  Great interview.  Smart dude.  Changed the way I look at him.

Now the offseason starts which will be wild.  Injuries to two of the top 5 free agents may or may not change the free agent landscape.  Me?  I give Durant and Thompson max contracts, injuries or not.  They are stars of this league and game changers.  I don't hesitate.  I'll be curious to see what teams do.  This year's free agent class is historically great and it should be wildy fun to watch.  The season may be over but the fun is just beginning.

St. Louis Blues Win First Ever Championship

The St. Louis Blues defeated the Boston Bruins 4-3 in the Stanley Cup Finals last night.  While I am a casual fan I do root for the Bruins.  They played well but in the end couldn't overcome the goaltending and defense of the Blues.  Congrats to Boston on a great season.  I live near St. Louis so I'm far more familiar with them than even the teams I root for (Calgary & Boston).  I know all about the suffering this team has endured in it's 52 year history.  No Stanley Cup for them...until last night. 

Honestly this has been fun to watch.  From listening to the build up with coworkers, TV stations and the radio stations the city has been so excited while you knew they were just waiting for the other shoe to fall.  Losing in the Finals would have been pretty devastating, not "at least we got there".  Seeing everyone celebrate last night, all the long time fans and personalities telling their stories of years of misery, to all the individual stories that go along with anything this special it really is fun to watch.  One special story is that of Laila the superfan who the team has adopted and was there last night for game seven and celebrated on the ice with the team after their victory.  She is 11 years old and has been diagnosed with a rare disease but she been there all along this great journey. 

I would hope any fan from any fan from any sport can appreciate this long road the Blues and their fans undertook.  52 years of existence and no championship!  49 years between Stanley Cup Finals appearances.  The Blues fired their coach in November.  They were in last place in the January!  Rookie goalie.  Gloria.  And now Stanley Cup Champions.  And now that all takes a back seat to the excitement and joy last night's game 7 victory has brought to the fan base and city.  And has it been fun for me to watch.     

  

Random Wax: 2016-2017 Donruss Basketball

The NBA Finals could be decided tonight with Toronto holding a 3-1 series edge so this topical 2016-2017 Donruss basketball pack seems appropriate.  Kawhi was with the Spurs for this set but he is now on the verge of leading Toronto to their first title in franchise history.  I'm a huge Leonard guy and really hope they can close out the Warriors tonight...not saying I'm putting money on it but I'll be rooting for him and the Raptors.

These guys need no introduction and will play a big part in whatever happens tonight.  You have to just enjoy watching the Warriors and how good they are.  They have hit a road bump against Toronto so far but I never count them out.

Embiid is always a good pull.  It'll be interesting to see what Brooklyn does this offseason and D'Angelo Russell will be a big part of that whether he stays or goes.  Aaron Gordon is a PC guy so another nice card though I'm not a big fan of those Orlando grey jerseys.  This pack yielded a great pull iand a lot of fun.

Nice Hall Kings of Benard King, one of the great scorers of the league.  I still remember watching him drop 60 on New Jersey on Christmas day so many years ago.

Damian Lillard should sign a max extension with the Trail Blazers this year.  I'm excited to see him continue to be the face of the franchise.  While Golden State had Portland's number, and his for that matter, Lillard is a great player and he is fun to watch in a Portland uniform.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards
7 – RC
1 – Hall Kings
1 – Green & Yellow Parallel

Basement Find: 1995 Score Football

As part of this week's basement find was around 650 1995 Score Football cards.  Like the '95-'96 Fleer Ultra Basketball cards I have no idea where these came from.  I was not familiar with this set before now but I really like these cards.  The photos are sweet and I had a really tough time deciding on which one to lead with but settled on this Jerry Rice beauty. 

    Elway is an all-time favorite and I really like the photo on this card.  The design is pretty simple letting the photos take up most of the card while still giving us a nice sized team logo.

 Again a great photo with this one being a classic pose of Deion.  Definitely my favorite card of his outside of hin wearing a Falcons uni.  This 49ers jersey is my favorite San Francisco jersey which helps.

   So much fun seeing all the all-time greats in this set.  Again the photos and design really do it for me.

These Star Struck are a subset of the base cards.  Not my favorites as the blank background is "meh" and the close up cropped photos at times made it tough to recognize who the player is.  These are a couple of the better examples.

The Pass Time cards are inserts.  They are shiny gold on the front.  Nice looking cards and the backs are just as good with an additional two photos.

The backs are great showcasing a new color photo and nice stats.  This Irvin and Deion is an example of many of the nice photos to be found on these backs.  Offense Inc is another another insert set which is pretty cool.  Plenty of rookies here with Warren Sapp being the most notable.

  There are checklist cards for the Chase Program cards (inserts) and the base cards.  Both of these have really nice photos on the fronts which is a great bonus as opposed to standard checklists you find so often that have none.  The base card checklists are divided into NFC and AFC checklists with appropriate conference stars on the front.  I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Some of the stars of the day.  1994 was Sterling Sharpe's last season before injury cut his career short.  He was so great and an All-Pro in 5 of his 7 seasons.  

Plenty of defensive greats from the era as well.

I really like how the players take up the majority of the card and photos really stand out.

Wait, what?  Bryan Cox arguing with a referee?  Love those creamsicle unis!  Great photo on that O.J. McDuffie Card.

These were such a great find.  I really enjoy these cards and it was so fun going through them all.

Greatest uni ever!  This was before the stringent helmet rules made it so hard to wear different color retro uniforms.  I so want to see the Falcons wear these again.  There were a few other cards to include subsets and inserts that had players wearing retro unis which is always fun.

BREAKDOWN:
650 – Total Cards (Approximately)
64 – Rookie
62 – Star Struck
15 – Checklist
13 – Red Siege
2 – Offense Inc.
2 – Chase Program Checklist
2 – Pass Time

Basement Find: 1995-1996 Ultra Fleer Basketball Cards

We've lived here now for eight years.  Our house has no garage so our unfinished basement is pretty full with boxes of stuff that hasn't ever been unpacked.  We've started working on cleaning up the basement this week and this is part of the fun I've found.  I have no clue where these 1995-1996 Fleer Ultra basketball cards came from but they are are a fun find and they are in good shape which is never a given.  There were three of these Kevin Garnett rookie cards in the lot which is great.  I've recently added him as PC guy but honestly don't have many cards of his and this is my first rookie card of his.  

The base card design gives plenty of room for the photos but I can't say all the photos are that good.  That Payton is a good one but Hakeem does not look like a dream.  Seems like they could have zoomed out a bit on many of their pictures.  Only thing missing in the design would be the team logo.

 Again many of the photos just don't click for me.  Eddie Johnson is an all-time favorite of mine so I enjoyed finding him in the stack.  I'm sure Glen Rice is about to drain a three.  Could you imagine him in today's game?  He hit quite a few threes back in the day but I think he'd have quite a few more opportunities today.

The Encore subset are my favorites cards from those I found.  While the photos are in the same mode as the base cards these work better for me.  Maybe it is the background being muted in black and white.  I didn't have the base card for PC guy Detlef Schrempf but I'm happy with this Encore of his.

That Hardaway really sticks out.  Camera guy was able to get a full body shot.  Whose Hardaway yelling to?  Mullin?  Richmond?  Sprewell?

These were all inserts.  I like that USA card.  I may chase down more of those.  Stackhouse's Scrapbook seemed an odd choice for a insert set to me but I know he was a big name coming out of college.  Just don't see him scrapbooking...

The backs have not one, but three different photos from those on the front.  They take up a ton of space so the stats are minimized but still I've seen much worse backs.  These are colorful and we get a nice logo.  Speaking of, we see logos on the fronts of the expansion Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies cards which are different in style from the normal set base cards.  Not a bad design and I like how they are differentiated within the set.  The Damon Stoudamire card I really like showcasing that sweet uni.  This was a fun find.  I'll show off some other cards I found later.  Now I'm excited to get back into the basement.  Who knows what else I'll find?

BREAKDOWN:

99 – Total Cards

31 - Encore
24 – Rookie
5 – Toronto Raptors
3 – Vancouver Grizzlies
1 – USA
1 – Jam City
1 – Stackhouse’s Scrapbook

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 2 - NO SPOILERS

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina season two is good but doesn't quite live up to season one of which I'm a big fan.  Season two also takes the series into much darker territory than what we saw in season one.  With character development done this season sees Sabrina going up against all those who plot against her as well as a few surprise antagonists.  This is a fun season with the story going places I didn't expect.  Not all the different threads work for me but it is still good.  Always hard to live up to season one and that's exactly what happens here I think.  Season one was so good.  That's my quick look.  I'm not good at deep dives on movies and TV so I'll stop rambling now.

 

2019 Topps Big League Baseball Hobby Box Part Deux

Just showing off more of the 2019 Topps Big League Baseball hobby box I broke last week.  A fun set with great photos and design.  I'm very high on these cards.  Enjoy!

Great photo on this Adalberto Mondesi card.  He is on pace for 20 triples this season which would be the first time in 12 years someone reached that number.

BREAKDOWN:

240 – Total Cards
24 – Gold
16 – Stat Kings
14 – RC
10 – Highlights
6 – Award Winners
6 – Wall Climbers
6 – Blast Off
6 – Nicknames
6 – Star Caricature Reproduction
1 – Rainbow Foil #/100
1 – Artist Rendition #/50