Beckett Basketball

As a collector, which would you choose – a signed Larry Bird and two Magic Johnson jerseys or an original pair of 1985 Air Jordans? During a Heritage Auction event on November 2, two signed Johnson jerseys sold for $139 and $114, and a signed Bird jersey fetched $256.20. At Heritage on Oct. 30, a buyer swooped up the iconic Nike Air Jordan 1 footwear (size 9.5) that continues to be at the forefront for sneaker lovers across the planet for $750. Adding up the three jersey sales, $509.20, subtract $750 for the shoes, with the remaining $240.80 a couple more signed jerseys could’ve been had.…

As collectors, once our mind gets set on something – watch out. Niche collecting allows us to go down a path, more often than not, that is less chosen. One niche is collecting the starting five, or all who logged minutes, in the highest-scoring NBA game ever. The points were sky high in “The Mile High” on December 13, 1983, at McNichols Sports Arena. Fresh off a 135-131 loss to Seattle, Detroit (10-12) rolled into Denver (11-11) unaware of what was about to happen. THE KEY PLAYERS Pre- “Bad Boy” era, the Pistons started Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, John Long, Kelly Tripucka, and Cliff Levingston. The Nuggets starters: Kiki Vandeweghe, Alex English, T.R. Dunn, Dan Issel, and Rob Williams. If too young to know the talents of the players listed…

Every season brings new hope for NBA fans, and that hope, more times than not, can point back to the draft. Key free agent pickups can make all the difference in the world but a hot shot rookie a team can build around for the next decade brings enthusiasm unlike any other. In the hobby, draft night means rookie cards – a bump of enthusiasm in the card collecting business in every major sport. Five years removed, we look back at the 2020 NBA Draft, the key players and some of their valuable cards on the secondary market. THE DRAFT Moved from May 19 to June 25, and then to November 18 because of COVID, along with postponement of the lottery selections, the growing anticipation of which teams would take…

Time will make strong proclamations fools of us all, but based on NBA history, it is safe to say the league will never have another player like Devean George. Or more pointedly, D-III basketball will never have a player like George ever again. Back when the NBA would draft players until the pizza, snacks, and beverages seemingly ran out, getting into the later rounds, general managers and coaches were left grasping for straws to make their picks… a lot of players unlikely to ever touch an NBA court were taken in the late rounds. Through all the scouting, uncertainty, and reaching on talents, there has been only one Division III player drafted in the first round – George. Growing up in Minnesota, George played high school ball at Benilde-St. Margret’s…

The history of men’s ACC basketball is as important to the growth of the game over the last 40-50 years as most other conferences combined. The conference spotlight always turns to North Carolina and Duke but David Thompson at NC State, Ralph Sampson out of Virginia, Horace Grant from Clemson, and Tim Duncan from Wake Forest, just to name a few, show the ACC has more to offer than what is coming from the Tar Heels and Blue Devils rosters. One of the all-time greats, out of the University of Maryland, was forward Len Bias. Jay Bilas: “We used to call him Superman because that is what he appeared to be every time he stepped on a basketball floor. And he was a magnificent jump shooter. Just had beautiful form…

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