More old basketball cards

Here's the next five cards from the four dollar grab bag of vintage basketball cards.

1974-75 Paul Westphal

Another nifty design from the '70s. The name down the side would be seen 10 years later in the baseball set. The action background was seen 20 years before in the 1955 All American football set. The day-glo colors were pure '70s. Paul is a Celtic here, but had his best years as a player and eventually coach of the Phoenix Suns. 

Why are all the girls in the cartoons beauty queens? Why no Mother Teresas or Golda Meirs or Gertude Steins? I don't know why they would ever be mentioned on the back of a basketball card from the '70s, but still. The beauty queen has a mad crossover dribble though. 

1973-74 Chet Walker

Looks like Chet is getting stripped by a Milwaukee player. I had never heard of Chet before, but he was a scoring machine in the '60s and early '70s. Chet is a seven time All-Star with almost 19,000 points in his career. 

Chet was a rookie with the Syracuse Nationals the year before they became the Philadelphia 76ers. He also won a title with the 76ers in 1967 as a teammate of Wilt Chamberlain.

1979-80 James McElroy

Jim played with the New Orlens Jazz but moved on to Detroit the year they moved to Utah. He also played a few years with the Hawks but 78-79 was Jim's best season in the pros. 

Can someone explain to me why the team kept Jazz as a nickname once they moved to Salt Lake? It's not like the Osmonds were known for their Dixieland sound. 

1975-76 Dave Bing

Detroit legend Dave Bing gets no respect on this card. I love the look on his face as he stares at the cameraman. "Why the heck are you photographing me while I stretch? What's the matter with you??"

The 19667-67 NBA Rookie of the Year had played his last game for Detroit when this card came out. Two more years with the Bullets and one more with Boston and he retired. He was elected tot he Hall of Fame in 1990.

1979-80 John Long

In the last post I mentioned that some '79-80 basketball cards were among the first I ever owned. One of the ones I got way back when was this card of John Long. I've always associated Long with the Hawks even though he only played one year with them. Probably because I had this card for so long. Notice the Washington Bullet player int he background. a ton of photos from these old sets were taken at Washington home games for some reason. 

This was Long's rookie card and the Detroit native had a pretty solid rookie season for the Pistons.  He had a good ten year run as a starter before he started coming off the bench. 11 more cards to go and we'll be through that grab bag. There's a few more Hall of Famers, more checklists and a sticker yet to come!