Card of the Week 04/06/09

In honor of the brand new season, Card of The Week is back. I think this feature will move from Monday to Sunday, but seeing how tonight is the NCAA Championship game, I wanted to post some hoops synergy:

1981-82 Topps Julius Erving

Dr. J

This is the 21st card in the 20-card basketball grab bag that I bought at the card show a few months ago. This card was on the top and is pretty much the reason I chose that pack over a vintage hockey grab bag. I freaking loved Dr. J when I was a kid. When I was first starting to get into sports he was one of the larger than life figures that captured my attention. Reggie Jackson in baseball, Mean Joe Greene in football, Pele in soccer, Richard Petty in racing and the Greatest, Muhammad Ali. Dr. J was basketball as far as I was concerned. Gotta love a guy who had the coolest nickname in sports and could dunk like no one else on earth.

There's a lot to like about Julius. He was on Sesame Street. He played for the ABA, which had the cool red white and blue balls. Both Doc Rivers and Dr. Dre took thier nicknames in his honor. He's Barack Obama's favorite player. Playing One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird on the school computer before class using a bootleg photocopied security wheel. He even played three preseason games as an Atlanta Hawk! Can you imagine what a team with Dr J and Pete Maravich could have done?? And the dunks. Holy crap, the dunks. I could watch this one a thousand times and still be amazed the 1001st time.

This card is from the 1981-82 set which was the last set from topps for a decade and the last major basketball set until Fleer would pick up the mantle in 1986. It's kind of a lackluster design on the front, but the backs are pretty attractive. Topps gimmicked the hell out of their basketball sets back then and this one was no different. The 198 card set had high numbered card that were split between three regions: East, Midwest and West. You could only get East cards in packs distributed in the East, and same with the Midwest and West cards. Can you imagine the outcry if they tried pulling that today? Don't think something like that couldn't happen, Upper Deck pulled the same thing in 1994. We're actually overdue for such shenanigans. Of course at least the set isn't perforated or the size of a postcard. Topps included a ton of these cards in their 2006-07 rack packs with the three vintage bonus cards. I think I pulled an entire Midwest set out of those things.

I know I'm late on those last five basketball cards (like some of you aren't tired of those yet) but I promise I'll post 'em tomorrow. I want to start finishing some of these things I've started. Since it's a new season, I'd like to finish up one of my old abandoned projects in the next few weeks. I'm in a completing mood and it will break up the dozen Heritage packs I have yet to post. These are the things I was thinking of finishing up:

The 792
My vintage Allen & Ginter type collection writeups
The 2002 Just Prospects Gold set

If you've got a better idea on what I should finally finish, let me know in the comments. I'll post a poll with the suggestions and let you all decide what I should post next. I've got something else to complete tomorrow as well! (this is foreshadowing)