The Rest of the Pizza

Hey, I finished a set! 

On the eve of the new NBA season, I can announce that I'm finally done with a set. Okay, sure, sure... it's a six card set. Back in May, I showed off an eBay pickup where I bought 4 of the 6 cards from the Blazers Papa Murphy's set (a single season item released in 2015-16). I had never seen the remaining two cards pop up online until the other day, when I was to pick up the missing pieces. Admittedly, I spent way too much money on cards that were given away for free with a reasonably priced take-'n-bake pizza, but I'm a big sucker for regional food issues (and the Blazers, obviously.)

I assume that Dame has watched a few more flicks since Straight Outta Compton came out. He and the team will get a crack at the Spurs in their second game of the season this Saturday. I will be there!

The elusive Lillard card made since, considering that he's one of the top players in the league (first team all-NBA in 2017-18!), but not being able to find Meyers Leonard was a little perplexing. Leonard enters his seventh season, the longest tenured Blazers -- in a tie with Damion Lillard, of course.

Is The Blacklist still on the air? I always meant to give it a shot.

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Finally, in much sadder news, Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen passed away today. He also owned the Seattle Seahawks, and had a lasting legacy in the tech world, music, research and philanthropy. He had owned the Blazers for 30 years and was only the team's second owner. He may have been an eccentric billionaire, but he was our eccentric billionaire. (And, you know, Seattle's.) I was hoping to find a basketball card somewhere with the man on it, but we'll have to settle for this (unfortunately watermarked) picture of him rockin' out on guitar instead.

RIP, Mr. Allen.

Pizza Time!

I love food issues. 

Confession time. I had an eBay auction in my "watched items" for at least a year, possibly longer, for a partial set of Blazers cards that were given out for free. It pained me to pay a lot of money for these, but after consuming a few beers at relatively new local brewery, I decided to take the plunge. I just paid money for pizza cards.

I don't think these cards were well promoted. If I recall correctly, a couple of seasons ago, with any Papa Murphy's pizza purchase, you could get a free Blazers card. There was a different player for every month of the season. It always sounded like something I would be totally into, but for whatever reason I never bit on it. There are two Papa Murphy's locations nearby, both about a mile away from where I live. I've never been a huge fan of their take 'n bake pizzas, but I'm also not against it. It's pretty hard for me to knock pizza of any kind, Papa John's notwithstanding. Maybe I just didn't want to ask some teenager for my free promotional basketball card while I waited for my order to be completed?

One of the most interesting things about this set is that it's fully NBA licensed. Panini did this! It's legit. Despite the fact, that the set is barely Google-able, the only officially licensed company was involved. As far as I know, these cards were really only promoted during local Blazers game broadcasts.

The minimalism of these cards is kind of a crack-up, but it's fun to see the 4 Questions format on the back. Ed Davis is a cheese pizza kind of guy. (Ed Davis is my kind of guy.)

The only (so far) ex-Blazer in the set is Mason Plumlee. Mase just seems tailor-made for dorky food issue cards. This is great.

Breaking Bad is actually my favorite TV show of all-time, so I'm with Plumlee here. Unfortunately, I can't take him seriously after seeing his answer to #3 here.

And finally, here's CJ. McCollum is probably the most media-available guy here in our little local market, but I wonder if he has any idea that he is featured on a Papa Murphy's pizza card.

Mission Impossible...? Be more specific, CJ!

Missing from my set at this time are two guys, Damian Lillard (obviously), and the guy that was also a lottery pick the same year as Dame. That guy is Meyers Leonard. It makes sense that Lillard's card is hard to come by, but Meyers? Seriously?