Blazers, A-to-W

A huge stack of Blazers arrives courtesy of @ElCaminoBilly as the sorting process begins. 

On a night when the Trail Blazers game in Minnesota was called off because the floor was too wet, due to (seriously?) Disney On Ice, I thought I'd show off a bunch of basketball cards I received from fellow blogger and Guilt-Free Basketball Card Club Member #101, Billy Kingsley. Billy runs both the Nothing But Nets and Cardboard History blogs, which is two more sites than I could ever hope to find the time to manage. Check them out if they're not already part of your regularly scheduled reading list.

It was a tragic day when the Blazers decided to join the majority and add a mascot to their team. Blaze is a "trail cat". That's his backstory. That's it.

I have fonder memories of Brandon Roy, whose legend seems to grow larger the more distance is created between his last moments in the league. I could see his number getting retired someday.

From a perennial All-Star whose career was cut far, far too short to a guy who just seems like he was happy to be there. Cliff Alexander only spent a season on Portland's roster, and this season has been playing in the D-League.

Gerald was another one year wonder. Someday, a Gerald Henderson Blazers jersey will probably be as interesting as, say, a Nick Van Exel?

I always have room for Dame rookie cards.

Speaking of rookie cards, here's a red parallel of CJ McCollum's rookie Hoops card. Even though he appears to be floating in space, this is a really nice get.

What do these symbols mean? My brain is boggled.

I think I have a healthy stack of these Meyers Leonard rookie cards by now, but I am never going to be able to resist the opportunity to laugh at this photo.

I have fond memories of Pippen's days as the surly floor general (sorry, Stoudamire) in Portland, but this card gives me a serious headache. This seems like that tv show NUMB3RS only much, much worse. (I never saw it.)

Sabas! I should strongly consider becoming an Arvydas Sabonis super-collector, but I'm afraid I might be competing with some foreign markets.

For as much grief as the Blazers have received over the years for drafting Sam Bowie, it was nice (and surprising!) to see Bowie included in last year's Prizm set. When actually healthy, Bowie was a pretty talented ball player. Of course, you could say the same about Greg Oden, though that dude had some serious off-court issues.

Speaking of issues... OH HELLO SHEED!

The NBA trade deadline's recent passing had me dreaming of a scenario in which Wesley Matthews somehow returned to Portland, but those thoughts exclusively existed in my own head. Oh well. I like the team Portland has this year, just not so much the results they have achieved (not good at all.)

I'm working on putting my unsorted Blazers cards in some sort of order, and then it's off to The Trading Card Database I go as I work on cataloging another collection of mine.