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.
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