1991-92

Both the Blazers and basketball cards continued to be hot commodities during the 1991-92 season.

The Blazers signed undrafted guard Robert Pack from USC and beat out veteran Walter Davis for a roster spot.  He quickly made a name for himself, literally - Pack-man.  He had some exciting games until teams figured out that he had trouble making jumpers and shut down his drives to the hoop.

Fleer also continued in its efforts to produce the most garish cards possible.  The large blue boarder obscures a third of the card.  While some of the player picture overlays the boarder, it's still a mess.

Speaking of Walt Davis, here he is pictured on the Hoops card from this year.  The Blazers had high hopes when they added Walt to the roster as it left the team with 8 players who averaged double digits.  Unfortunately, Davis fell victim to the "too many talented players on this team" phenomenon and only lasted a year or so before returning to Denver.

No team card could be more 90s looking than the Hoops edition.  What I find funny about the Blazers version is that it features 4 of the 5 starters - Porter, Drexler, Buck, and Kersey - and then Alaa Abdelnaby.  No offense to Abdelnaby, but it's a definite case of which one doesn't belong.

The second, and I believe final, year of Hoops night sheets.  You can tell the difference from the previous season's base set in that the back of the card is white instead of yellow.  The front also has a darker tint.

McDonalds commissioned and issued their own collectors edition Hoops cards.  They were very similar to the standard 1991-92 Hoops cards but the font on the the players name on the front of the card and the card number itself were slightly different.

Panini also came out with their sticker books and sticker packs for this season.  Panini was an Italian company, and I imagine they helped garner some European interest in basketball card collecting.  The stickers are smaller than a standard card and were obviously meant for putting in the Panini books.

Skybox went white this season, but still felt the need to go with the fancy ball and the digitized background.  The set this season was also around 600 cards since they also threw in stuff like "Small School Sensations" and whatever else they could think of (such as cards featuring school subjects).

Skybox also produced this set of Canadian mini's.  The complete set of Skybox Canadian mini's featured 50 cards, and as the name suggests, they were mini - about inch high replicas of the regular set.

SI for Kids included some cards with their magazine which kids had to tear apart themselves leaving ugly soft edges.  These will never amount to much from a value standpoint but are still part of the sports card world.  Besides, who can't appreciate the lovely spotted red and teal background!

Franz however came out with what may have been their nicest issue ever.  The gold boarder was sharp and the pictures crisp.  They also realized that the cards needed some plastic protection before sticking them into a loaf of bread so this lot didn't come out soggy and beat up like some of the previous version occasionally did.

Upper Deck, who had a year previously opened up shop producing a nice baseball card product, made this entrance into the basketball card world.  This was the premier set of this year and were certainly the nicest cards.  They were glossy front and back with full pictures on both sides.  They also tended to display the most exciting player pictures (check out the Drexler below) as well as some iconic match ups - Drexler vs. Jordan.

As the Drexler/Jordan card alludes, this was the year the Blazers matched up against Jordan's Bulls in the NBA Finals.  It was an exciting series but unfortunately there was no stopping Jordan on his way to a second of six NBA titles.

1990-91

This was the year I got back into basketball card collecting in a big way.  It helped that it was a great ear for the NBA with Magic, Jordan, David Robinson, Ewing, etc. all in their prime.  Plus, my Blazer team was pretty darn good.

Basketball cards were being mass produced at this time, along with baseball and football cards. There were also lesser named companies, such as America's Finest (below) trying to make a name for themselves.  As far as I can tell, America's Finest only lasted a year in the sports card market.

The Blazers drafted Alaa Abdelnaby from Duke late in the first round in 1990.  He never saw a ton of playing time on the talent loaded Blazers though.

1990-91 Fleer basketball had a simple, nothing to write home about design.  However, their All-Star cards were kind of fun.

The Hoops cards from this set are the ones I collected in earnest at this time.  I opened pack after pack of this stuff.  Anything I could get my hands on.  I must have spent hours sorting and organizing these things.  I probably have every card from this set seared into my brain.  So, while it may not be a particularly important set from a sports card collecting standpoint, it was certainly pivotal in my collecting memory.

One of the nice things about living in Portland at this time is that the players were relatively accessible.  Between basketball camps and hanging around after games, it wasn't too tough to score player autographs, even from a superstar like Clyde "the Glide".  Buck Williams was my favorite player from this era though.  He was defensive minded but always a solid contributor.

The Hoops company gave away uncut "Night" sheets at NBA games in an effort to ignite kids interest in the hobby.  They looked a little different than the standard base set (note the yellowish tint) and featured less players, approximately 3 per team.

The Hoops company also put out these "Collect-A-Books".  These could be purchased at sports card shops (yes, sports card shops existed back then as this was pre-internet) and were for sale in one of 4 boxes.  Buy all 4 boxes and you had the complete set.

Each book had several pages of stats, pictures, and personal stories for each player.  While it's not super convenient to pull out each book from a sleeve and read it, it was a nice idea.

Aaahhh, Skybox.  This was the inaugural year for Skybox basketball.  They broke the mold by featuring players overlaying a funky 90s style computerized background.  Of course, the ball was also highlighted.  To this day, these have to be considered the ugliest cards ever.  However, one can hardly argue that they were iconic at the time.

One plus to the Skybox card is the large player pictures featured on the back of the card.  The stats were also interesting.  They featured the most recent season ended plus player stats compared to all guards and if that player played all 48 minutes.  Not sure what sort of value the per 48 has as it's not like any player plays a full game nor is able to sustain that level of consistency over 48 minutes.  

                                                
The Star company, in one of their last bids for relevance, put out a 12 card tribute set to Clyde Drexler.  The cards are glossy, in contrast to their mid-80s sets but are other wise nothing spectacular.  I also don't recall seeing them until they popped up on the internet years later.

The 1991 Franz edition featured some highlights from the previous season plus some bold Blazer colors.  I've always wondered why on the Abdelnaby card, it looks like he's playint outdoors.

As I mentioned, may card companies were trying to make their way into the collecting world, including Wasatch which produced a 24 card set in 1990.

I couldn't you much else about this set though.  Clearly they weren't around long.

Despite a 63 game winning record this season, they Blazers had an early exit from the playoffs (anything other than the finals was considered early in this year) thanks to a brilliant play by Magic Johnson where he stole the ball and sent it bouncing down the length of the court while time ticked away.  We fans would have to wait another year for a crack at the title.

The Rest of the 1980s

After it's release of the wildly popular 1986-87 basketball set, Fleer continued producing basketball cards.  The follow up 1987-88 set is one of my favorites.  Fleer didn't get crazy with their design (as they often are inclined to do) and the result was a clean looking set.  It also included the Terry Porter rookie card and this beauty of Kiki Vandeweghe in a red jersey.

Terry Porter was drafted in 1985 out of small school Wisconsin Stevens Pt.  To this day he remains a Blazer fan favorite.

Vandeweghe was acquired in a controversial trade which sent Wayne Cooper, Calvin Natt, and Fat Lever to Denver in exchange for Kiki.

The Blazers would continue their post season struggles though and not progress out of the first round.

Kevin Duckworth was the 9th pick in the second round of the draft by the San Antonio Spurs.  He was acquired in a trade for Walter Berry who apparently did not want to play for the Blazers.  Funny, I don't remember him going on to have a great career but I digress.

I especially wanted to include Caldwell Jones since he passed away earlier this week.  CJ played against the Blazers as a member of the Sixers during the Blazers championship series.  He is one of 4 brothers to play in the NBA and played in the league for 17 years.

Below is the 1988 Franz Blazer set.

It's also important to note that 1988 is the year current team owner Paul Allen acquired the Trail Blazers.

I wish I had more history on the Terry Porter card below.  It appears to be European.  The back just shows the NBA logo.  Perhaps part of a game set?

The 1988-89 Fleer set featured star Clyde Drexler on one of it's sticker inserts.  It also included another nice looking base set.

The 1988-89 Franz set is relatively unspectacular aesthetically.  A 7'1" center out of Brazil, Ferrara played only one season for the Blazers.  However, he has the distinction of being the first Brazilian to play in the NBA.  More importantly (to me), my 5th grade class entered and won a Blazers reading contest in 1988.  Our prize was a classroom visit by two Blazers - Kenny Carr and Rolando Ferrara - as well as head coach Mike Schuler.  I remember reading nonstop to try to win that prize and was so thrilled to meet these players!

The 1989-90 Fleer set was a step down from the previous 2 years, largely due to the HUGE boarder.

However, the team surprised us by making it all the way to the NBA Finals.  The degree to which the city of Portland rallied around this team is unprecedented.  Every window had Rip City signs, every person wore t-shirts.  Fans showed up in droves in the middle of the night to welcome the team home following a series win.  I remember even my choir concert being interrupted with updated game scores.  Because of that, to this day this team remains my all-time favorite.

The 1989-90 season also featured the debut of Hoops basketball cards.  They featured a simple design, including a basketball key shaped center for displaying the player picture.  While the cards weren't fancy, they were a nice debut for the company.

The 1989-90 Franz cards honored the 20th Anniversary of the team.  They also included rookie cards of two popular Blazers - Drazen Petrovic and Cliff Robinson.

Petrovic was a star player from Croatia.  Unfortunately for Petro, with Drexler and Porter on the team, there weren't many minutes remaining for him.  He was frustrated and eventually was traded to New Jersey where he was able to display his immense skills.  He eventually was named to the All-NBA third team.  Unfortunately, Petrovic was killed in a car accident in Germany in the summer of 1993.

Robinson was the 36th pick of the 1989 draft out of Connecticut.  "Uncle Cliffy" attained All-Star status as a member of the Blazers and was a fan favorite.  He also recently had a stint on the reality show Survivor.