Retro Review – Ultra Competitive

I am under no delusion that I am in my athletic prime. In fact, I haven’t been for about 20 years. But I like to think that I can still compete within my demographic. And just what is my demographic, you ask? I think I fit into the 40+, overweight, desk jockey, father of two category quite nicely. I’m hanging on as long as I can in Softball, Basketball and even Kickball. I gave up on Football, because it is certainly not an old man’s game, and I never picked up Soccer so I don’t have to worry about that. In South Georgia, we can’t keep ice in our sweet tea from melting in the time it takes to finish a full glass, so Hockey was never an option for me.

I wrote about trying to keep my basketball career alive for another season just a few weeks ago. Our team is the oldest team in the league, collectively. We have 5 players at 40 or older. Technically, CJ is only 39 but he will be 40 in another month or so. Robby and I are in the early stages of our 40’s, Darrel has moved into the latter stages of the 40’s (sorry Darrel) and the Uncle Drew (Gary) of our team is 50. We have a couple of guys in their 20’s and one that is 16 but the rest are at least mid 30’s and older. When I wrote that piece a few weeks ago, we were just enjoying a little bit of success in the league and taking advantage of the chance to run up and down the court like we were kids again.

Well, we made it to the playoffs; where the season culminates in a win or go home scenario. We won in the 1st round of the playoffs last week and we advance to the Final 4 for the first time in our 4 seasons. We aren’t what you would call overnight sensations. We have slowly built a contender out of a rag tag group of friends who spend most of their time playing softball together. We started in the league 3 years ago and we didn’t win a single game. Two years ago, we won a couple. We didn’t do much better last year but we played better as a team. We were sitting at 6-3, our best season yet, heading into the final night of the playoffs.

I have played some form of organized basketball off and on for about 30 years. I started in R.A.’s (Royal Ambassadors) at the church and have skipped around from city leagues to competitive leagues to the recreational league we are in now. I never ran AAU games or anything sporty like that but I have always been around the game. In all my years of being around basketball, nothing beats the win or go home playoff game. That can be said about most sports but basketball has always been my favorite. That is why the NCAA Tournament is so exciting! That and copious amounts of money on teams like Rhode Island pulling upsets over Duke.

Playoff games in any sport will test the mettle of a man (or woman). You can be the best athlete on the court but if you can’t handle pressure, you are going to destroy your team when it matters. When you’re under pressure, you feel it all over your body. Free throws can feel like half court shots; driving to the basket feels like trying to slice through a forest of pine trees; and a defensive press can feel like a pressure cooker. I really don’t get that same feeling in a softball tournament. Basketball has a way of ratcheting up my emotions and putting my senses into overload. And the scary part is that it is a feeling that I crave. I personally love that pressure. I love feeling my heart beat in my own chest when I take the court for the opening tip.

That is what I most admire about Michael Jordan in my adult life. As a teenager, I loved to see him fly above everyone else. I loved to see him hit a shot in someone’s face as the buzzer was sounding. But now when I go back and watch him, I appreciate the type of competitor he was. He had no fear. He had no butterflies. He didn’t have an insecure inner voice in those moments. He was just there to do one thing; beat you. Say what you will about the MJ/Lebron debate but I have seen a look in MJ’s eyes that I have never seen in any other basketball player. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson came close but nobody could make you feel beaten just by looking at you like MJ could.

So regardless of whether I score 38 with the flu or score my season average of well below that, I want to take the court like I can’t be beaten. I want the person guarding me to be frustrated because I am outthinking him. I want to gracefully walk a fine line of confidence and cockiness. If you strip everything away and are just left with the game itself, basketball is still a beautiful sport. And that is where we are. Our gym doesn’t have a corporate name, we don’t have fancy uniforms and the news isn’t going to be there to report the score and interview the players. We are lucky if we have 25 people there to watch. But when you are on the court, you have to block it all out anyway.

In honor of our big night, I felt it was only appropriate to break a great box of Junk Wax Basketball. This was one of my favorite sets back in the day, partly because of Shaquille O’Neal, but also because of the great design and high quality of the card. My LCS picked up a few boxes of 1992-93 Fleer Ultra for the nostalgic section and I scooped this up for $14.95. That is a price you can’t beat for some top quality NBA cards from the early 90’s. The very best NBA players played in the league when I was a kid, I am convinced of that! The Bulls were unstoppable, Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson were leading the Phoenix Suns to the Finals and the league was home to other players named Magic, Bird, Olajuwan, Dominique, Grand-Ma-Ma, Shaq, Isiah, Tim Hardaway, Reggie Miller, and so many more.

1992-93 was the inaugural release for Fleer Ultra in basketball. They were enjoying success in other sports and their introduction into the NBA was a welcome addition for me. One of the most famous Shaq RC’s remains the 92-93 Ultra version. That was the main motivation in buying the box but I found out that along with Shaq, this was easily the best draft class of my childhood.

When you are ripping anything in Series 2 for basketball, you can’t be real picky with the non-rookies. I did find some quality players though. The guards had names like Mark Jackson, Steve Kerr, Danny Ainge and Avery Johnson, who all became coaches in the league. Kids today will never know how fun Rex Chapman and Rod Strickland were to watch. And Dale Ellis could shoot the lights out!

The forwards were headlined by Charles Barkley. He had spent his career in Philadelphia up until this point but was about to find himself in the NBA Finals against MJ. I was always a fan of Xavier McDaniel too. He was a very good player at the forward position. Chuck Person has found himself in a little bit of trouble as an Auburn assistant but The Rifleman could fill up a stat sheet back in the day.

There wasn’t a lot happening with the Center position in Series 2. I did include Stanley Roberts because he was Shaw’s teammate at LSU and he had pretty high expectations attached to him at one point as well.

Here is a very awesome 20 card subset called, “NBA Jam Session”. This broke down the 20 best dunks in the NBA. There are some huge names here with MJ, The Admiral, Hakeem, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley. This is a great subset.

The inserts were slim. It I did pull some big names!

Here are the average rookies from the class. These guys had pretty serviceable careers. Weatherspoon was a stud for a few years while Oliver Miller and Richard Dumas helped Barkley get to the Finals.

Here is where the big rookies come in. Latrell Sprewell had his issues during his career but he was Uber talented and was an amazing player to watch.

Big Game Robert Horry would become known for the ice water in his veins when a big shot was needed. He went on to win multiple championships and played major roles on those teams.

Christian Laettner didn’t have the career that some expected when he was an All-American at Duke. He went on to play 13 seasons and averaged 13+ points in 8 of those. He topped 18 per game 3 times.

Here is an awesome Hall of Famer, Alonzo Mouring. “Zo” has an unbelievable list of accomplishments that include NBA Champion, 7x All-Star, 2x Defensive Player of the Year, 2X Blocks Leader and the recipient of the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Zo is a true legend!

A player who didn’t really pan out in the pros but was my absolute favorite when he came out of USC was Harold Miner. It is fitting they “Baby Jordan” was featured on this card with the real Jordan. I could write an entire post about the former Dunk Champion but I’ll save that for another day.

Here is the Card I came for. This is Shaq’s best rookie card and I pulled 2 of them! We all know the career that Shaq would have and the only thing I ever complain about is that he didn’t get a championship ring with Penny, Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott. That Magic team was something else. They just never put it together. This made the $14.95 price tag well worth it.

As for our playoff appearance, it turned out just like Shaq’s with Orlando. We won our semi-final matchup by 6 points and advanced to the Finals. We ran into a very tough team that had 2 good inside players and a shooter that could fill it up like Chuck Person did. We played tough and left it all on the court but it just wasn’t enough. It may have been that we had to switch from our blue jerseys to the white but I’m not superstitious or anything…..cough, cough. Regardless of that final score, it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time on the basketball court and I’m really proud of the guys. I can’t wait til next year!

With the possible exception of Fleer Metal Universe, this may be the best basketball set of the 90’s. It earns an easy “5” on the Dub-O-Meter. The photos are great, the card design and quality is top notch and the checklist is pretty unbelievable. The only knock at all is that the cards can stick together in certain parts of the box, which is the normal issue with early 90’s cards with UV Coating. But these cards are really beautiful cards, just as Ultra was known for. The price is just right on a box like this and seeing these players take me right back to the days I played in the backyard and hit buzzer beaters just like MJ!

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1.Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2.There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3.Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.

4.You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5.Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?