Show & Tell - Through the ages

[bkcardcollector]

Allright folks, it is time, feeling pretty complete with my sets, just missing a few in 1948 and a few in 1986. Some of you may remember my thread from 2016, well I have been slowly acquiring, expanding to a point where I am ready to show it off, after all it is the offseason!

In 1933, the first "official" (we love that word around here) basketball player cards were made. I see some of those Canadian girls that smalltown has and as well as the 4 university cards but I guess I didn't go hard enough for those and now probably impossible to find. These 1933 are pretty tough, as well, but you can still see a sale every now and then. A psa 7 Ed Wachter, went for 750 recently a pretty good deal as far as I am concerned.

There are 48 cards from 18 sports and 4 of these from ballers, 3 from the Celtics. The "Original Celtics" were disbanded for WWI and actually were the New York Celtics and regrouped after the war. Lapchick, mispelled "Lopchick" was the best center of the era at 6'5'' (I am taller than him haha). The Great Depression forced an end to the ABL in 1931 but Lapchick stayed strong and re-formed the Celtics and hit the road for five years, with Lapchick handling driving duties.

Holman was also an important player for the Original Celtics known for his exceptional ball-handling and his accurate shooting. Eddie Burke doesn't really belong here (the only non HOF)..., he was a rich oil tycoon making millions and stopped playing because of business obligations. Ed Wachter it says he is the greatest center the game has ever known on the back of his card. Maybe he is wearing a Troy Trojans uniform? where he is from in New York.

The 2-3/8" by 2-7/8" cards offer beautiful painted portraits and gotta love the little silhouettes.

[AbraCalabro]

what? what is this non-profit, topic related thread on the basketball card hobby forum? c'mon bro, we just want more discussion on percentages, ROI, the markets, investing, profiteering and how great the biggest crooks in sports cards are.

[elontusk1119]

Man I do love the old simple and colorful design. Refreshing.

[soey10]

Those are great. This is why I love vintage, the simplistic designs without all the migraine triggering other stuff going on


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tallboy]

Originally Posted by bkcardcollector

Allright folks, it is time, feeling pretty complete with my sets, just missing a few in 1948 and a few in 1986. Some of you may remember my thread from 2016, well I have been slowly acquiring, expanding to a point where I am ready to show it off, after all it is the offseason!

In 1933, the first "official" (we love that word around here) basketball player cards were made. I see some of those Canadian girls that smalltown has and as well as the 4 university cards but I guess I didn't go hard enough for those and now probably impossible to find. These 1933 are pretty tough, as well, but you can still see a sale every now and then. A psa 7 Ed Wachter, went for 750 recently a pretty good deal as far as I am concerned.

There are 48 cards from 18 sports and 4 of these from ballers, 3 from the Celtics. The "Original Celtics" were disbanded for WWI and actually were the New York Celtics and regrouped after the war. Lapchick, mispelled "Lopchick" was the best center of the era at 6'5'' (I am taller than him haha). The Great Depression forced an end to the ABL in 1931 but Lapchick stayed strong and re-formed the Celtics and hit the road for five years, with Lapchick handling driving duties.

Holman was also an important player for the Original Celtics known for his exceptional ball-handling and his accurate shooting. Eddie Burke doesn't really belong here (the only non HOF)..., he was a rich oil tycoon making millions and stopped playing because of business obligations. Ed Wachter it says he is the greatest center the game has ever known on the back of his card. Maybe he is wearing a Troy Trojans uniform? where he is from in New York.

The 2-3/8" by 2-7/8" cards offer beautiful painted portraits and gotta love the little silhouettes.

Love this and can't wait to see your collection!

Also fun to think about who should have been in a basketball card set in 1933. As you say, 3 of the 4 here are worthy, even those 3 weren't necessarily the 3 most worthy - and of course, none of the Black Fives players are represented.

[bkcardcollector]

Originally Posted by AbraCalabro

what? what is this non-profit, topic related thread on the basketball card hobby forum? c'mon bro, we just want more discussion on percentages, ROI, the markets, investing, profiteering and how great the biggest crooks in sports cards are.

hhh, glad to see you are along for the ride again! Don't worry I am pumping vintage hard for the ROI. A good ol pump n dump. lol.

Originally Posted by elontusk1119

Man I do love the old simple and colorful design. Refreshing.

Yeah, be interesting to see a modern, non-remake, set. Those 1961 remakes /61 are doing pretty good.

Originally Posted by soey10

Those are great. This is why I love vintage, the simplistic designs without all the migraine triggering other stuff going on


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

lol migraine, never thought of mosaic and sparkle and all that as migraine triggering but now that you say it, lol.

Originally Posted by Tallboy

Love this and can't wait to see your collection!

Also fun to think about who should have been in a basketball card set in 1933. As you say, 3 of the 4 here are worthy, even those 3 weren't necessarily the 3 most worthy - and of course, none of the Black Fives players are represented.

Nice shout out! Had to lookem up. Pretty cool, well not cool, but interesting.

[bkcardcollector]

The 1948 Bowman Basketball set consists of 72 cards, each 2-1/16" by 2-1/2" so slightly smaller than the 1933 cards. There are only two colors red and blue, so it may look like all teams are blue or red but if the background is blue than the jersey is red and vice versa. There are also error cards with grey background and sometimes Mikan's jersey is black and it should be red.

The set was issued in two series of 36 cards each with the second series being much more SP than the first and are at a premium. 12 play cards were inserted one every 6th card. A nice legend on the front and description on the back really helps out my coaching game.

[bkcardcollector]

^and you thought exquisite was white. Tough to find really white copies of these play cards. Tough to find any of this 1948 set, the market is drying up pretty good with only a few graded copies up for auction at any one time.

All right on to the Washington Capitols. In my sets I will start with the East and order from the standings, this one from the 1948-49 BAA regular season, the last season of the BAA before merging with the NBA.

Red Auerbach was the coach, in his first professional gig, from the Navy and brought a fast-pace and several navy players to the team. All BAA Second Team members were Bones McKinney and Bob Feerick, who got nominated to the 25 year anniversary team in 1971. No HOFers though and no championship. They beat the Warriors and Knicks before losing to the Lakers in the Finals. All red backgrounds for this smashing lot.

[smalltown]

Amazing stuff as usual!

[bkcardcollector]

Originally Posted by smalltown

Amazing stuff as usual!

Thanks smalltown, nice to hear from you How bout them Canadians getting drafted and the emergence of Wiggins! Gotta say I really like Mathurin, might go after some of his stuff but nothin crazy like Ennis

Up next is the knickerbockers. Our old friend Joe Lapchick coached the team but went to the hospital over a stomach disorder and Ray Kuka, featured below tookover coaching duties. Kuka only played/coached 8 games that season and was let go. Was he that bad of a coach?

Got a HOFer in Braun. He might be the only player to be featured on the 57 and 61 cards (Risen is in 57). He won a chip in 61 with the Celtics and was a 5 time all star. Funny fact: Though sportscaster Marty Glickman made the term "swish" a popular basketball colloquialism, he attributed the genesis of the word to Braun, who he heard say it following a good shot during warmup.

Bud Palmer is a pretty good honorable mention. He is one of the originators of the jump shot and his card is a pretty tough find.

[Deadshot]

I can already tell this thread is gonna cost me some money via some unexpected eBay trips!

[volblorx8634]

Oh man, this is a great thread. I'm really liking the format you've chosen to share with slow rolling even individual sets, and the info you're providing is excellent. Learned a lot already and look forward to learning more. The swish tidbit is very cool.

[bkcardcollector]

Originally Posted by Deadshot

I can already tell this thread is gonna cost me some money via some unexpected eBay trips!

Excellent in my best burns voice hhh.

Originally Posted by volblorx8634

Oh man, this is a great thread. I'm really liking the format you've chosen to share with slow rolling even individual sets, and the info you're providing is excellent. Learned a lot already and look forward to learning more. The swish tidbit is very cool.

Cheers, glad you like it.,,, I will be here for awhile...

Feel like the knicks should have been all blue... here we are back on the all red for the baltimore bullets. These guys have actually won the BAA championship in 1947-48. Buddy Jeanette was player/coach for three years and then Budko in 1950-51.

Buddy Jeanette is in the HOF and Connie Simmons is an honorable mention, I want to say Leo Mogus as well if you will let me. A solid group of reds.

[sethc1020]

Unbelievably awesome stuff!

[sethc1020]

Unbelievably awesome stuff!

[WillC]

I’ve not logged in or posted for months… I need to come here more often (and reach my 10,000th post) if I’m going to find more amazing threads like this. Right up my street.

You don’t see many posts about the likes of Bob Feerick and Nat Holman. More please.

[bkcardcollector]

Originally Posted by sethc1020

Unbelievably awesome stuff!

Cheers, Thank you I tried to not just look at the grade and the card inside. I find trimmed cards graded all the time with vintage and make sure I don't get any of that trash which is part of the reason it has taken so long.

Originally Posted by WillC

I’ve not logged in or posted for months… I need to come here more often (and reach my 10,000th post) if I’m going to find more amazing threads like this. Right up my street.

You don’t see many posts about the likes of Bob Feerick and Nat Holman. More please.

Cheers, thanks WillC. Nice to see you back. Please keep postin! Would love to see how your chronologies are coming along!

...Another solid group of reds. The Philly Warriors. Surprised they finished so low. Joe Fulks is an absolute legend. As a rookie he led the warriors to the BAA title in 1946-47 as well won the scoring title and as well in 47-48. He is also another pioneer of the jump shot and is nicknamed Jumpin Joe.

[WillC]

Joe Fulks is my avatar for those reasons

[Tallboy]

Originally Posted by bkcardcollector

Feel like the knicks should have been all blue... here we are back on the all red for the baltimore bullets. These guys have actually won the BAA championship in 1947-48. Buddy Jeanette was player/coach for three years and then Budko in 1950-51.

Buddy Jeanette is in the HOF and Connie Simmons is an honorable mention, I want to say Leo Mogus as well if you will let me. A solid group of reds.

Love how you're doing the slow roll and wanted to chime in:

1. I love that you're giving aesthetic commentary. 1948 Bowman is by no means a flawless set, but there is charm to the minimalism when it hits.

2. Jeannette may well be the winningest player of the 1940s. 4 World Professional Basketball Tournament championships (with 2 MVPs), 3 NBL championships, and finally with the Baltimore Bullets player-coach of the best ABL team of '46-47 before the left the league to join the BAA where they won that title. One of the great players in the set.

[bkcardcollector]

Originally Posted by WillC

Joe Fulks is my avatar for those reasons

This guy fulks. hhh

Originally Posted by Tallboy

Love how you're doing the slow roll and wanted to chime in:

1. I love that you're giving aesthetic commentary. 1948 Bowman is by no means a flawless set, but there is charm to the minimalism when it hits.

2. Jeannette may well be the winningest player of the 1940s. 4 World Professional Basketball Tournament championships (with 2 MVPs), 3 NBL championships, and finally with the Baltimore Bullets player-coach of the best ABL team of '46-47 before the left the league to join the BAA where they won that title. One of the great players in the set.

Cheers, thankyou for the addition! Also wanted to point out the two different jersey colors and Gale Bishop straight blue and Ed Sadowski nameless jerseys.

In 1940 Sadowski was named the National Basketball League Rookie of the Year and first team all-league and led the Eagles to the prestigious Chicago World Pro Tournament title. In 1941, he signed with Wilmington of the ABL and led the team to two consecutive ABL titles. He bounced around many times so who knows where this jersey is from.

Not too much info on Gale Bishop. 1948 was his only year of pro ball.

[bkcardcollector]

On to the Boston Celtics! After and not at all related to the New York Celtics but before Auerbach drafted Bill Russell and began dominating.

Let's get into the history with the Cs. When the BAA was founded in 1946 there were two established professional leagues in the United States: the American Basketball League in the East, founded 1925, and the National Basketball League in Midwestern industrial cities, founded 1937. However, most of the ABL and NBL teams played in small arenas, and in some cases even ballrooms or high school gymnasiums. Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Garden, believed that major ice hockey arenas, which sat empty on many nights, could be put to profitable use hosting basketball games when there were no ice hockey games to be played.

The first year had many problems. In arenas shared with hockey teams, some arena owners simply put a wooden basketball floor over the ice. This caused some games to be cancelled due to puddles on the floor. In addition, some owners would not heat their buildings, leading fans to bring blankets to the games and players to wear gloves.

Before the start of the second season in 1947-48 the 11 teams dropped down to 7 with the Cleveland Rebels, Detroit Falcons, Pittsburgh Ironmen and Toronto Huskies folded, leaving the BAA with only seven teams. The Baltimore Bullets joined the league from the ABL making it 8 teams and actually took home the championship as previously stated.

As for these players of note Mel Riebe won the NBL Rookie of the year in 1943 and led the NBL in scoring twice. Halbert was decent at 6'9'' he won 1947 All-BAA Second team. Perhaps Garfinkel wanted to be a baseball star as you can see him wearing a baseball uniform and pitching the ball. Another solid group of reds.

[Tallboy]

Originally Posted by bkcardcollector

Perhaps Garfinkel wanted to be a baseball star as you can see him wearing a baseball uniform and pitching the ball. Another solid group of reds.

Some background on why Jack Garfinkel was nicknamed "Dutch".

- The original "Dutch" was Dutch Dehnert of the Original Celtics in the 1920s.

- Confusingly, the Original Celtics were a re-assembling of a Pre-WWI team called the New York Celtics. While both teams were New York teams, only the Pre-WWI team was made up of Irish-Americans. When the re-assembling got done after the war, the team made it a point to try to get players from ethnic (er, European) backgrounds to appeal to different groups. Nat Holman was Jewish, Joe Lapchick's parents were Czeck immigrants, the aforementioned not-very-good Eddie Burke was actually an Irish American which might have led him to greater prominence than deserved, and Henry "Dutch" Dehnert was - you guessed it - from a Dutch background.

- Dutch Dehnert then mastered what became known as the Pivot Play wherein a man took up shop at the high post facing away from the basket (think about how bizarre that looked to people who weren't used to it, why are you facing the wrong way?) and his teammates cut around him to get easy shots by the rim. Worth noting that at first "pivot" and "center" not only weren't synonyms but weren't necessarily the same player at all. Having height was acknowledged to help with passing vision, but you couldn't just put your jumping center in such a role and expect it to work any more than you can take a random center today and ask them to play like Bill Walton or Nikola Jokic - who are the modern analogues to Dehnert.

- Dehnert's Pivot Play rapidly ate the entire basketball world. At a time where college & pro basketball were 2 very different things and the style from college would end up largely be what won out, still, within a few years all the college teams - just like all the pro teams - were looking to have a man like Dehnert.

- And one of the other terms for "Pivot" thus became "Dutch".

- So Jack Garfinkel (Garfinkel not being a Dutch name) became known as "Dutch" because from a young age he excelled in the Pivot role with his excellent passing, and the image you see here likely represents one (of the many) passing techniques he used.

I have no explanation though for why he's wearing a different jersey than everyone else in his Bowman card though lol.

[AbraCalabro]

A Celtics baseball uniform? Interesting history here.

[bkcardcollector]

Cool, thanks for the info Tallboy!

[pnft17]

Those 1933 sport kings are beauties !!!