Tipoff Time (One More Time)

It's that time of year again! No, not THAT time of year, but this time. Only this year, not like last year. I found this lovely thing sitting neglected on a lower shelf at some large super store chain out in the suburbs. I know this isn't baseball cards, but at 22 packs for only $12.99, this could have NASCAR drivers on it for all I care. Actually, no...

Here's the first half of the box, to which I strategically repositioned the sale price sticker so we wouldn't have to look at this clown's face. And... dare I say... Go Blazers! I'm heading out to the Rose Garden after work tonight to catch the opening game against the Suns, the very team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season. The schedule-makers like to do that sort of thing.

The first two packs were of the all-glossy parallel variety, with a twist in that the borders are bronze-ish. Surprisingly, they didn't even bother with a wrapper and just wrapper the glossy packs in clear plastic.

Pack 1:

87 - Charlie Bell

92 - Quentin Richardson (Does he still do the horns thing? Does Darius Miles?)

23 - LeBron James (What an unbelievable pile of waste. I'm just showing this off in case anyone out there actually likes him and wants his card. I have a few others.)

89 - Eddy Curry

128 - Ronnie Brewer

191 - Kyle Lowry

148 - Brandon Bass

208 - Joe Alexander (The rookie cards are clearly made before there was any game action for them to take place in. I suppose this is better than the draft day pics that they used to use back in the day.)

Pack 2:

70 - Ben Gordon

85 - Ramon Sessions (Does he really pronounce his name Ruh-MAWN? Who decided this?)

31 - Brendan Haywood

80 - Jared Dudley (No relation to the former Blazers center turned gubernatorial candidate.)

123 - Deron Williams

142 - Raja Bell

195 - Kevin Durant (Durant's a huge star these days. What's up with that crazy looking uniform that he's wearing?)

MJ-2 - Michael Jordan Retrospective

Pack 3:

163 - LaMarcus Aldridge (Back to the regular design here. Nice to get a Blazer right off the bat. I keep hearing good things about the L-Train lately. Hopefully they'll translate to good regular season results.)

119 - Kurt Thomas

114 - Morris Peterson

245 - J.R. Giddens / Walter Sharpe / Joey Dorsey (In a nod to the classic 1980-1981 Topps basketball cards, they printed some rookies in a three-player strip. I think these are short printed.)

94 - David Lee (The subject of just about every conceivable trade rumor, Lee finally switched teams and headed to the Bay Area this offseason.)

14 - Antonio McDyess

54 - Marvin Williams

36 - Andrea Bargnani

Pack 4:

154 - J.R. Smith (Likes to dunk.)

147 - Jason Terry

141 - Boris Diaw (Confusing player who can play every position.)

86R-185 - Darrell Arthur '86 Rookies (Fleer has really milked this design over the years.)

42 - Elton Brand

15 - Keith Bogans

12 - Rasheed Wallace (How could you not love this face?)

34 - Nick Young

Pack 5:

192 - Hakim Warrick

175 - Mikki Moore (Pronounced like Mikey but looks like it should sound like Mickey.)

186 - Rashad McCants

130 - Tracy McGrady

78 - Raymond Felton (Ladies and gentlemen... your new New York Knicks starting point guard.)

63 - Yi Jianlian

43 - Samuel Dalembert

84 - Michael Redd

Pack 6:

178 - Shaun Livingston

131 - Yao Ming

224 - George Hill

2 of 132 - Al Horford '88 (This is another insert based on the 1988-89 Fleer design. I like this design better than the '86 one, to be honest. I know, that's probably blasphemy.)

55 - Acie Law IV

93 - Nate Robinson

21 - Anthony Johnson

8 - Chauncey Billups

Pack 7:

189 - Mike Conley

200 - Desmond Mason

120 - Bruce Bowen

86R-188 - J.R. Giddens '86 Rookies

83 - Charlie Villanueva

25 - Delonte West (Lock up your mothers!)

29 - Gilbert Arenas (Not a very normal guy. He strongly resembles the actor Jesse L. Martin.)

27 - Daniel Gibson

Pack 8:

132 - Luis Scola (For legal reasons, I am not allowed to show Scola's hair on this blog. Be grateful.)

145 - Josh Howard

215 - Robin Lopez (Lopez represents the enemy in tonight's game. At least they don't have 'A'm'a'r'e' anymore.)

AS-24 - Tracy McGrady All-Star Sensations (McGrady took a pretty steep fall from prominence. He's been in the league a long time, but he's only 31.)

91 - Zach Randolph

98 - Alonzo Mourning

46 - Andre Miller (Second current Blazer of the box.)

41 - Jamario Moon

Pack 9:

173 - Brad Miller (Hugely unlikable.)

136 - Grant Hill

116 - Tim Duncan

125 - Kyle Korver

37 - Chris Bosh

50 - Zaza Pachulia

88 - Jamal Crawford

62 - Vince Carter

Pack 10:

198 - Damian Wilkins

152 - Allen Iverson (I read earlier that he's going to play in Turkey for a couple of years. He must really, really not like coming off the bench.)

223 - Kosta Koufos

86R-171 - Brook Lopez '86 Rookies (The other, better Lopez twin. They kind of creep me out.)

39 - Jermaine O'Neal

96 - Daequan Cook

40 - Anthony Parker

52 - Joe Johnson (I think that's something like 10 Hawks already.)

Pack 11:

129 - Shane Battier

146 - Jerry Stackhouse (THE Jerry Stackhouse.)

134 - Carl Landry

101 - Kobe Bryant

67 - Josh Boone

28 - Maurice Williams

65 - Devin Harris (Another message board trade favorite. Why did ESPN have to invent that stupid trade machine anyway?)

69 - Luol Deng

Part 2 will be up fairly soon... too soon, I'm sure, for most of you baseball fans.