It's Been Since '73

The New York Knicks last won an NBA championship in 1973, which was 53 years ago. That year they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 1 and had a team that featured many stars including Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, and Earl Monroe.

To put that into perspective for myself, it was ten years before I was born and ten years after that was when I found myself to be a Knicks fan.

So, I have been a Knicks fan for 33 years of my life. I was a die-hard Knicks fan from 1993-2004. Just a fan from 2004-2022, then in 2023 my love for basketball returned again especially more-so the last two years where I started coaching it. 

Basketball is back for me. The Knicks are back for me. A championship is back for New York.

*takes a celebratory sip, which means a gulp, of freshly brewed coffee*

I can remember all of the disappointing endings to the mid to late 90's Knicks teams that failed which included the 1999 team that beat all of the odds to the Finals to fall to the Spurs. So, to have this Knicks team beat the Spurs this year, made this long wait even more worthy.

To celebrate this year's team run through the playoffs, I started adding some autographs to my collection.

But first, I had to add a new card of the Finals MVP. I like shiny cards, okay?

Now onto the autographs,

 

(one of my favorite Knicks)

(what is this auto?)

(LEGEND)

(I know it's not Knicks uniform, maybe upgrade some day)

 

And finally, we end with Marcus Camby. Not only a fun 90's player in general, but he was a Knick for a short time as well.

My goal is to land my number one want, Patrick Ewing hopefully by year's end. There are also Knick legends I am hoping to add as well, some of which are the ones above in the previous championship team. Most wanted would be Willis Reed from that group. But would like to add them all. They are names my father talked about for years.

I do have two other Knicks cards on their way and will post those when they arrive. They are not autographed, but cool regardless. Some day when my arm is healthy, I would like to put my PC back together and see where I am at.

*takes a sip before closing up today's post*

I am not sure how many people can say they have watched all of their sports teams win a championship, but now I finally can. I have seen two NY Giants Super Bowls, many NY Yankees World Series and now I have a Knicks Championship. I can die a happy New York fan with a cup of coffee by my side of course.

In comments today, what was your thoughts on this year's Finals, and have you seen all of your sports teams win a championship?

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

It's November, Time For Christmas!

*gets ready with cup of coffee in hand for a new post on #CardsOverCoffee. Sits down, let's do this*

Just like with Cinderella, my pumpkin on October 31st at midnight turns into a Christmas tree.

As many know, I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of year. The music, the lights, the food, the family, the joy, the birth of Jesus, the giving, it's a pretty special time of the year. My celebration of the holiday always begins early as I slowly take down my fall decorations and replace them with Christmas ones. It's a month long lead up to December.

My wife and I are all done Christmas shopping as well, got done a few weeks ago actually, and we have begun to think about wrapping some of it up. But, for that to happen, it needs to have the right feeling.

 

You know...snow and Christmas music....and as you can see.....we got a little done. The snow didn't stay too long though, but it was fun to see. (remind me I said this in January when I am suffering with winter depression)

My wife also gave me an early Christmas present when we were getting gifts sorted out.

A new treasured shirt from my favorite all-time movie National Lampoon Christmas Vacation. One of the greatest lines from the movie. I am always up to adding new memorabilia from the movie whether it's cards, photos, shirts or Hallmark Ornaments.

*takes a sip, begins to show off some new Holiday Card additions*

Last year was the first time I took my passion for Christmas and combined it with cardboard. I aim for anything that is Christmas related such as the old Pro Set Santa's, Topps and Bowman Holiday Santa/Elf/etc bonus cards along with the Sp's (candy cane bats kinda thing) snowflake parallels and especially Santa Hat cards which are my favorite.

I had only ever seen Upper Deck and Panini produce Santa Hat relic cards up until today when I recently discovered that Playoff created a few.

Upon doing some research, I can't figure out how these cards got out to collectors hands. Maybe they were given to employees, maybe a hobby shop give away, not sure. But, I will say they are pretty cool and limited.

They are also huge. These are not normal card size, more like the size of a literal Christmas card.

So it filled up my lightbox. I like the the relics swatches on this one as it's the "fluffy" part of the Santa hat.

The dual relic only has 50 made of them. 

This one is a quad relic with the usual red relics of the hat.

I found it odd that the quad is /100 but dual is /50. Unless the duals are considered to have "prime" relics. Who knows.

If you have any information on these cards, let me know in comments. Also, have any Christmas cards I may be interested in? Drop me an email!

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

I haven't decorated much yet this year, but I think this weekend may change things. I am still a little sick so that may put a damper on things. I also may try to push through as I need to get my lights in the ground before it freezes.

Hope everyone has a great Saturday.

In comments, are you a big Christmas fan? Put up decorations early? What's your favorite part about Christmas?

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Retro Cup:Fireworks

Blogger intro: I have spoiled you readers this week with a fourth consecutive post day. Enjoy it while you can, I can't post every day on here as it is very time consuming to write/create this posts. Some of these even take two days to prepare and up to a few hours.
 
*not much sleep last night, time to refresh with a cup of hot coffee to keep me awake*

Over the years, my fourth of July's have evolved to pretty much a usual day like today will be. I have nothing special planned, just going to put this post up and get to my usual daily duties.

However, when I was younger, those were the July 4th's I will never forget.

*takes a sip of coffee, now flashing back*

Ah, the good old days of the 90's, July 4th was always exciting. My parents when I was really young would take me to the local fairgrounds where we would fireworks in the car together. We didn't get to watch them every year as things popped up, but the years we did it, it was memorable.

As I got older, we stopped going all together and stayed home to watch what one could call a one man show or as we would call it, Cousin Terry.

He would show up, beer, lawn chair and fireworks in hand and would be the entertainment of the night. He would sit out in his lawn chair, drink a few beers, then use the empty bottles as holders for the fireworks to send them off in. The thing is, when you have had a few, not everything goes as planned....

*takes a sip, smiles, then continues on*

And that's when the real fun would begin.

From a distance,  we would watch Terry burning his fingers lighting the fireworks up (cursing some funny words as well), sometimes setting them off close to himself (he just had to make sure they were lit) and sometimes the bottle would tip over and be aimed at him (think Looney Tunes). Surprisingly, no major injuries ever occurred. Just many laughs.

*another sip, remembers Cousin Terry tripping over his own feet once and landed face first onto the ground. watched him get back up and walk casually to his chair like nothing happened*
 
*another sip, now onto some cards*

There were some fireworks recently in the mail for myself. And no, they weren't from Cousin Terry. They were from The Diamond King in the big box he sent. The box was full of basketball goodies including some that appear like fireworks and I figured fit the theme of today.

These 1994-1995 Ultra Power was a 10 card set that fell 1:3 packs.

The card design featured a full player cut out and laid over a sparkly, glittery, starburst background that appears there are fireworks behind the player. I chose Charles Oakley to feature because he was a Knick in an era I watched basketball and provided some fireworks during his playing and non playing years on the court both in good and bad ways.

The card back features another shot of the player, a write up and more of those powerful starburst fireworks. They don't feature the sparklyness the front does however.

In all, I now have half of the set thanks to The Diamond King and I can't imagine the rest would be too hard to chase down to complete the set. Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Shaq will be the toughest to grab.

Here is the rest of them that were in the box,

Derrick Coleman

Shawn Kemp, this bright red really stands out.

Dikembe Mutombo

And check out this snazzy Larry Johnson. I am not a fan of purple, but wow, this card looks outstanding.

While I am at it, the other two cards in this set I will need are Dennis Rodman and Chris Webber.

If these aren't fireworks, I don't know what is!

*takes a few final sips of cup numero uno, then pours second cup to finish up today's post*

I haven't seen my Cousin Terry in well over 20 years, but it sounded from my other cousin that maybe he smartened up some since those days. Of course he was in his mid 20's back then and now he would be roughly 40ish with a teenager from what I have heard. I would hate to imagine him doing crazy stuff like this now. And there are other Cousin Terry stories to tell another time.

*takes first sip of second cup*

Well, I have decided that maybe I will sort some cards when I find some free time today. I am buried in card projects so it won't be too hard to find one to work on. First I have to close up this post and get some chores done.

So I hope all of you have a Happy 4th of July and stay safe. Remember, DDWTD. Don't Do What Terry Did.

Retro Cup:Inside Outside

The Diamond King sent me a box loaded with 90's basketball goodness. LOADED. So I came up with an idea to do a mini series with so many great cards to show off called, Retro Cup. Along with the card showings, I will re-live a memory I had as well when it comes to coffee. So I hope you are sitting down with a cup of steaming fresh hot coffee so we can give this series a go.

*Takes a sip from a very hot cup of coffee, tongue goes numb for a second but it's okay, the coffee is in*

When I was younger, I always used my time wisely. I didn't waste a single minute because even at that age, I knew, life goes by way too fast. So have fun whenever you can was my approach. So no matter if I was inside or outside, I found a way to not sit around and waste anytime.

INSIDE:

When I wasn't outside, which wasn't very often (it had to have been way too cold or really raining), I found some fun things to do that wasn't sitting down in front of the TV.

I would write first of all. Hundreds of stories, hundreds of comics (I created a series off from Ren and Stimpy called Aaron and Stimpy. It was the adventures of my friend Aaron and the lovable cat Simpy).  I would play with action figures and use my imagination. I would read. I absolutely loved to read, non fiction of course. Then throw some PS1, not a lot, in there later on in the 90's but no matter what I did, I always kept myself busy. I was never bored.

Oh, and there was coffee. I can't forget the coffee when I was a bit older. I should also say there was cards to. At that point in my life, there wasn't Cards Over Coffee 😏. When I finally got into collecting, I spent a lot of time organizing, re-organizing, and writing down EVERY SINGLE CARD I OWNED in a notebook to keep track. Along with that, I would write down their "book values" and keep track of down and up value arrows, etc. I studied the Beckett like it was U.S. History.

OUTSIDE:

Long before the days of the internet, in the 80's and 90's, we had something called outside. I would play out there in snow, rain, sun, sometimes even an occasional rumble of thunder. I would be there from the time I woke up til the time I went for bed (with a few snack breaks in-between)

The outside was a marvelous place where you could use your imagination and let it blossom. I spent a lot of time by myself using mine. I would take myself on this wonderful journeys created in my mind either re-creating myself as Darkwing Duck or Tommy from the Power Rangers or even make myself some new hero I created. I would travel different dimensions, times, planets, etc fighting against the most evil villains ever. My imagination was endless. 

Other times, especially as I got older, I would play sports by myself. I found ways to use my garage to bounce a baseball off of and try to catch it. If I dropped it, the player was on base and safe. I created a full MLB league and kept track of stats/standings etc doing so. During the winter, I would do football season. I would throw the ball to myself and dive into snowbanks or try to keep my feet in bounds from doing so while playing as some of my favorite players in the league. I would keep track of stats, standings,etc. Then of course came basketball. I wont' go too far into this sport quite yet, but let's say it was comparable to the other sports I already mentioned.

Why not talk too much about basketball yet, well, that's because The Diamond King sent a lot of it and I have stories to save for another day.

*takes a much cooler sip of coffee, starting to get tongue feeling back*

Back in 1993-1994, Fleer Ultra created a basketball insert set called Inside Outside. This 10 card set was built of guys who dominated inside and outside the rim. These cards fell in random packs of 1993-1994 Fleer Ultra Series 2. I couldn't find the exact odds on these but I assume it was one of the easier inserts to find.

The front of the Patrick Ewing, the number one card in the set, of the card looks pretty cool. A fireball of a basketball flying into huge hoop with player in the forefront. The only place you can find a cool looking insert like this is the 90's.

 

The back has a write up and another new pic of Ewing with the Inside Outside.

Here's a look at other cards in the set that came along with the ride from The Diamond King

Dan Majerle

Jim Jackson

John Starks

Latrell Sprewell

Walt Williams

Larry Johnson

Seven of the ten cards are here and I believe I have the other three. I definitely have the big one in MJ. I pack pulled it about ten years ago. I will let you know in another post if I have the set.

*finishes up first cup, pours a second cup*

As an adult now, inside and outside has really changed but what hasn't changed is my approach to life. Don't waste a single moment.

INSIDE:
Blogging, card sorting/organizing, playing Madden, house chores, DRINKING LOTS OF COFFEE

OUTSIDE:
Even as an adult, I still prefer to be outside more than in. Unless it's freezing cold or boiling hot. I could handle that more as a kid than I can now.

Gardening, playing wiffle ball with my nephew, taking a walk.

Though I will admit that my imagination is still there, just can't express it the way I used to. How odd would it look if my wife came home from work and I had my action figures out on the table.

Instead, I take a look back on those memories I made and write about them on here. While also have some Cards Over Coffee.