2026 NBA Finals: New York Knicks vs San Antonio Spurs

Knicks-Spurs kick it off tonight in the 2025-2026 NBA Finals.  It's hard not to be as excited as everyone else about San Antonio and Wemby but the Knicks are good.  Really good.  Led by Jalen Brunson, they are a deep team with multiple players who can shoot and score.  This includes one of the best shooting big men ever, if not the best, in Karl-Anthony Towns.  His play around the 3-point line could make for an interesting matchup for Wemby who likes to sag a lot and can do so against traditional bigs.  But Wemby and the Spurs seem to have an energy right now that might be hard to stop.  And New York doesn't have the defense OKC did. San Antonio needs the ball in De'Aaron Fox' hand to keep down turnovers and to be that calming presence.  Wemby will be flying everywhere on defense which makes it tough for shooters and anyone close to the lane alike.  I like San Antonio in this series.  The Spurs can be streaky though and the Knicks have plenty of scorers so I think it will be close and I expect 6 games.

I did enjoy looking back on the 1999 NBA Finals where Tim Duncan and David Robinson led the Spurs over the New York team with Latrell Sprewell, Allan Houston, Marcus Camby and Larry Johnson in 5 games.  While we knew that Spurs team was good and that Duncan was special, did we really know it would lead to 5 San Antonio Spurs Championships?  I've always been a closet Spurs fan dating back to George Gervin, Artis Gilmore, and Johnny Moore in the early 80s, so I definitely have a rooting interest in this series.
 

Random Wax: 1991-1992 Topps Stadium Club Hockey

91-92 Stadium Club:   I don't do much Hockey but with the NHL Stanley Cup starting tonight between Las Vegas and Carolina let's do it.  Al MacInnis is a Hall of Famer who won a Stanley Cup in 1989 with Calgary and was a 7X All-Star.

Stadium Club has always been solid.  This isn't my favorite design of theirs.  We need a logo or at least something more here.

The backs are solid.  I really like getting the player's rookie card here.  That's great!  I was a big fan of The Sporting News back in the day, but I'd like to see more stats here but that wasn't the norm with Stadium Club.

Photos weren't quite as consistently good as we see today but I think a lot of that has to do with technology and availability.  Still, it's hard to complain about their cards.

We do get horizontal cards which is great and I like this photo.  The card also has an update showing Ray Sheppard is with a different team.

Fun pack and we get some goalie love.  I don't have a rooting interest in the Stanley Cup but maybe I'll go for Carolina since their owner is also the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers now.

BREAKDOWN:
12 - Total Cards

Random Wax: 2024 Prestige Football

2024 Prestige:  Andre Tippett was a dominant linebacker in the 80s being inducted into the Hall of Fame while earning 2X All-Pro, 5X Pro-Bowl and All-1980s Team honors.  And the 1985 Defensive Player of the Year got to wear those cool Patriots unis.

Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars had a great season going 13-4 but lost a close Wild Card game to the Buffalo Bills that saw the teams combine for 28 points (14 each) in the 4th quarter.  And wow was it fun to watch.

Panini had last their college license by this point.  Xavier Legette and Adonai Mitchell have become productive receivers in the NFL.

Two nice inserts and two great players. I like both Prestigious Pros and Power House.

These two are Xtra Points parallels giving the cards a shiny aspect.  Malik Nabers has done well in New York and was a nice pull.  I look forward to see what John Harbaugh can do as the Giants' head coach.

We also get retired greats like Drew Brees on this For the Record insert.  Nice card.  Any given Sunday cards look really good while highlighting specific games from the season.

Could have started the post with A-A-Ron but we'll put him here.  I don't see why Pittsburgh thinks he's a good option to bring back.  No doubt he's one of the great passers we've ever seen, but I saw him many times last year and nothing said he was going to get Pittsburgh to the next level.  That said the Steelers are in purgatory, being good enough to not get a chance at a good QB in the draft but disappointing enough each season to leave their fans wanting more.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards

5 – RC

4 – Retired Greats

2 – Xtra Points

1 – Power House

1 – For the Record

1 – Prestigious Pros

1 – Any Given Sunday

Random Wax: 2024-2025 Donruss Basketball

24-25 Donruss:  Wemby had a great third season and helped the Spurs take a big leap forward this year.  We get him here on a Magicians insert.

Domantas Sabonis is on a Holo Green Laser Parallel.  KAT and the Knicks have had a really good season.  Feels like he has some ups and downs but he's so talented and maybe the best shooting big man we've seen.

Zach Edey only played 11 games this season, but he looks like he'll be a good center when he can stay healthy.

Big man love.  Dereck Lively is the only player still on the team shown.  Nurkic was in Utah this season while Horford played for the Warriors.

Jalen Johnson really took a leap this year.  He averaged 22/10/7 for the Hawks this year shooting 35% from deep.

Tyrese Maxey is one of the top guards in the NBA.  I'd be very surprised if he isn't an All-NBA selection this year.  DeMar DerRozan is now 16th on the NBA's all-time scoring list passing Tim Duncan and Oscar Robertson amongst others.

BREAKDOWN:
30 – Total Cards
5 – Rated Rookie
2 – Holo Green Laser Parallel
1 – Magicians
1 – Great X-Pectations

Bob Horner passes away at age 68

Bob Horner passed away yesterday at age 68.   Horner is my favorite all-time baseball player.  He resonated with me when I started watching the Braves, and I watched a ton of games back in the day.  I did a look back at him on the blog in 2016 and you can see it here.  As players of our youth age, we expect these things but it's still not fun knowing they are gone.  It's a sad day for me.

I even had a customer Bob Horner figure made.

One of my favorite cards of his.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu Movie (No Spoilers)

The Mandalorian and Grogu movie is good and I enjoyed it more than I expected.  I thought they did well adapting it to the big screen and it felt like a Star Wars movie while keeping the feel of the series.  A ton of action in the movie too.  As a Star Wars fan, I'm guarded going into movies now and this one coming from the television series gave me more pause.  But it was just fun.  The grandsons really enjoyed it and they are the toughest critics.  

Nuremberg

Nuremberg:  Really enjoyed Nuremberg which centers around the Germans on trial after World War II.  Specifically Hermann Göring who is played very well by Russell Crowe.  Also really good is Rami Malek who plays the psychiatrist (Douglass Kelley) who looks over the prisoner's well-being.  Michael Shannon also plays the lead US prosecutor and Lee Woodall plays Sergeant Howie Triest, an American soldier who is also German and the interpreter.  I point them all out as they are the focus of the film and all make it as good as it is.  There's a ton of information on the Nuremberg trials but this movie concentrates on a specific piece of the trials highlighted by the interactions of Göring and Kelley.  The movie is 2 1/2 hours long but both pop and I were very surprised at that as you never notice the length.  It jumps right into the story and even with the tough topics brought up it is as easy watch.  We are military history fans so it might be easier for us than others, but again this really is a good movie.