Sketch Card #11 - Basketball time

Nope, I didn't draw this card of Sir Charles. This was an actual card in an actual licensed product, 1999 Upper deck MVP Basketball. I found this thing looking for some Mavs cards for Big D over at Hey, That's Mine! Jason James Kline drew this masterpiece and it was selected as a winner for Upper Deck's Draw Your Own Card contest. How fabulous is this card? Let us count the ways.

Louis XVI Chair - Check.
Butler - Check.
Basketball on a Silver Platter - Check.
Monocle - Check.
Ruffled Cuffs - Check.
With no sleeves - Check.
Legs crossed English style - Check.
Might be a walking stick, might be a Wizard's wand - Check.
Daintily sipping tea - Check.
PINKIE MOTHAF@$%#ING EXTENDED - Now that's class right there.

Now this is how a sketch card is done.

Since Big D is a Mavs fan and they just won a Championship, I figured a basketball subject might be a good one for his sketch card. I don't remember any of these trades anymore, I think he sent me some stickers. Who's the face of the Mavs? Why, Dirk Nowitzki of course. Here was my attempt:

Not bad, but it ain't no Sir Charles. I was thinking of these old Topps inserts when I originally came up with the idea. I regret now not doing this one on sketch paper and pasting it on card stock to copy the original dimensions. I think this would have worked better if Dirk was a little more lanky and noodley. Dirk is a little short on the standard sized card. The final sketch looks more like the the Dallas Mavs made a guest appearance on A Pup Named Scooby Doo after the Harlem Globetrotters cancelled. Dirk could be Shaggy's long-lost older brother. Which could work because...

Just look at that face. That's an awesome face! I didn't just dive into this one, I did a little planning beforehand.

Let's block everything out, figure out a pose...

Let's take that pose on a test run. Uh oh! Watch those hands, Dirk! The face isn't quite right. Time to experiment.

Hey, art isn't always pretty. This is kinda horrifying actually. Once I decided I couldn't draw another eye without gouging my own out I figured out the color pallette and dove right in. I shoulda practiced some more.

Ways Dirk is not as fabulous as Charles:

Dirk is 12.
With a full goatee.
Soft, gentle eyes instead of crazy caveman eyes like I wanted.
Still can't draw hands.
Totally ran out of room for the legs and it shows.
KNEES DO NOT GO THERE.

I am however, proud of that hair. Sir Charles wishes he had hair like that.

6 in 30 - Basketball edition

The Hawks beat the Celtics! In Boston! Holy crap, the Hawks might actually be good! (Watch them go 2-19 after this post) To commemorate this momentous occasion, here is a 6 in 30 from an ancient basketball binder.

1993 Upper Deck Team MVP box set Dominique Wilkins

This card came out of a small box set Upper Deck put out in 1993. That blurry thing behind 'Nique is a hologram. Can you comprehend how ridiculously amazing this card looked in 1993?

1977-78 Topps Artis Gilmore

Artis Gilmore is probably my all-time favorite non-Hawks basketball player. Include his ABA stats, and he's got 24941 points, 16330 rebounds, 3178 blocks and the highest field goal percentage of all time (.582, .599 in the NBA). Plus, he has the best hair ever in the history of basketball. Yet, he is still not in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Why? Because all Halls of Fame are worthless wastes of space and should be nuked from orbit. Only after packing all Hall of Fame voters into a rocket and shooting it into the sun, of course.

1970-71 Topps Basketball Walt Frazier All-Star

Why? Beause Clyde is the best. And the card is big. If you have big cards, you have an obligation to show 'em off occasionally.

1992-93 Fleer Larry Johnson Rookie of the Year insert

This is a neat card of Grandmama. I have a soft spot for basketball cards, and in the early '90s I was a Hornets fan thanks to LJ and 'Zo. I even have a hideous teal and purple Hornets windbreaker in the back of the closet I plan to bring out of retirement as soon as my kids are old enough to be mortified by the fact that theur father is wearing something so awful in public.

1992-93 Upper Deck Stacey Augmon 6 million point man

Stacey was my favorite Hawk after 'Nique and Doc left the team. It's sort of odd how a player whose greatest strength was his tenacious defence would end up being known for scoring the 6 millionth point in NBA history.

1992-93 Fleer Charles Barkley All-Star insert

Just 'cause Sir Charles is cool.

Olympics Day 2

Here's the second Olympic Daily from 1996. I really noticed the date for the first time. Saturday, July 29, 1996. What idiot decided July in Georgia was a good time to do anything outside, let alone the Olympics? For some reason I thought we held the games in September. Oh well, it could have been worse, it could have been August. August in Atlanta suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. Blazing hot, then massive thunderstorms with tornadoes and hail and frogs dropping from the sky, then blazing hot again the next day and 150% humidity thanks to the storm. My absolute favorite season is fall, obviously.

This magazine has a ton of filler in it due to the Opening Ceremonies being the only event the day before. There are only two pictures of the ceremony though, the cover photo and this fantastic two page spread in the magazine:

That is significantly cropped from the full picture. I couldn't fit the whole thing on the scanner. One thing I regret is not going to a single event at the Olympic Stadium. Although I've been to The Ted plenty of times, I would have liked to have seen it once before a big slice was taken out of the stadium to convert it to the Braves' park. This photo is neat in that it is from the perspective of being almost right behind home plate in Turner field. You can see the upper deck curving out on either side and poor old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium way in the background. I'm glad this picture is of generic flags and dancers and such, and not the infamous "Pickup Trucks With Cheerleaders" bit that caused such a stir.

Speaking of southerners being uncouth at the games, there's a fantastic article in there written by Gerry Callahan about the pickpockets, street hustlers and proselytizers that descended on downtown Atlanta for the games. The alternate title of the article is perfect: "I Went To The Olympics And A Flea Market Broke Out". That was a pretty good description of the Games in many ways. This was without a doubt the biggest thing Ever to happen to the South since Sherman came to town, and everyone looking for a piece of the action descended like locusts. The biggest hustlers through were the organizers, who marketed, merchandised and sold the Olympics to death.

Since there was a lot of space to kill in this issue most everything in it was a fluff piece promoting what was to come or giving a behind the scenes look at the games. There is a huge article chronicling the last second finishing touches put in place days before the Games began. The new sports introduced this year were featured, including Women's Soccer which became of of my enduring memories of the Games, and the very TV friendly Beach Volleyball. Like all issues of SI a few pages were reserved for a Scorecard section that had smaller articles and factoids about the events. Some tidbits were insightful such as boxer Lawrence Clay-Bey getting a brutal first round draw to match up against 1995 World Champion Alexei Lezin (Which was changed for some reason to an even more difficult match with Wladimir Klitschko), to goofy stuff like the guy who made his house into the New Mexico Consulate when a resident of Santa Fe was denied ordering tickets by phone since he was from a foreign country. The thing that really caught my eye was this quote from the athlete who ended up having the biggest moment of all in the Olympics:

The feature article in the issue was a piece on the Men's Basketball Dream Team. It had a big picture of Hakeem Olajuwon in front of a flag backdrop that I'm pretty sure was used in at least two trading card sets. The main thrust of the piece was how this Dream Team was a classy group of professionals, unlike those thug hoodlums from the 1994 Dream Team. They then illustrate this fact with the absolute best photo of the issue, Charles Barkley stalking some unsuspecting reporter possibly for this.

Damn, I love Charles...