I have one vintage card of Lew Alcindor from Topps with the beckett value. He is a player who played for the Milwaukee Bucks 1969-75 and the Los Angeles Lakers 1975-89. He was named basketball's most valuable player a record-breaking six times between 1971 and 1980, won six National Basketball Association (NBA) championships, and is the game's all-time leading points scorer with 38,387 points. He played centre and, being 2 m 18 cm/7 ft 2 in tall, was noted for his ‘sky hook’ shot.
1971-72 Topps #138 Alcind/ Hayes/ Havl LL $12.00
Born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor in New York City, he changed his name in 1971 after converting to the Muslim faith in 1968. His new name is Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Here are the lists of his vintage cards that i own with the beckett value.
1972-73 Topps #163 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar AS $25.00
1973-74 Topps #155 Wilt/ Guokas/ Jabbar LL $12.00
1974-75 Topps #1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ! $30.00
1979-80 Topps #10 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar $8.00
1981-82 Topps #55 Lakers TL/ Jabbar $1.25
Career highlights :
Regular season scoring: 38,387 points (average 24.6); play-off scoring: 5,792 points (average 24.3); Most Valuable Player: 1971-72, 1974, 1976-77, 1980; Play-Offs Most Valuable Player: 1971, 1985
This is Topps 1977-1978 #73. I scanned the card's back. I always like to read the Bio on these set. Hope you enjoy this card like i do. And here is the player story from wikipedia.
The Player
Nicknamed Iceman (or Ice) for his cool demeanor on the court, Gervin was primarily known for his scoring talents. He led teams at both Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan and Long Beach State. After leaving college due to an altercation, Gervin was set to try out for the Virginia Squires of the ABA. It is rumored that Gervin made 22 of 25 three-point attempts, after which he was signed without Virginia officials having seen him play competitively.
His first scoring crown, which took place in 1978, was one of the most memorable moments in NBA history. He defeated David Thompson by seven hundredths of a point (27.22 to 27.15). Although Thompson came up with a memorable performance for the last game of the regular season, scoring 73 points, Gervin maintained his slight lead by scoring 63 points (including an NBA-record 33 in the second quarter) in a loss in his last game of the season. With the scoring crown in hand, he sat out some of the third, and all of the fourth quarter. Gervin went on to lead the NBA in scoring average three years in a row from 1978 to 1980 (with a high of33.1 points per game in 1979-80), and again in 1982. The Spurs drafted high scoring guards Oliver Robinson of UAB and Tony Grier from South Florida to take some offensive pressure off Gervin. Prior to Michael Jordan, Gervin had the most scoring titles of any guard in league history.
When he left the NBA he played for several years in Europe: in Italy for Banco Roma during the 1986-87 and in Spanish National Basketball Leaque, in TDK Manresa team (when he was already 38). At this point in his career he had lost some of his quickness, but his scoring instinct remained; he averaged 25.5 points, 5 rebounds and 1.2 assists and in his last match he scored 31 points and got 15 rebounds to stay Manresa in the first Spanish division.
His trademark shot was the finger roll, a shot where one rolls the basketball along his or her fingertips. While others mimicked this style when shooting layups, Gervin was known to "finger roll" from as far as the free throw line.
While sitting out 3 games due to injury, Gervin's replacement, Ron Brewer, averaged over 30 ppg. When Gervin returned, he scored 40+ points. When asked if he was sending a message, Gervin said, "Just the way the Lord planned it" and added, "Ice be cool" (with Ron Brewer).
The card is 1974-75 Topps #176. This is the only Jerry West Topps 70's card that i have. I'll show you the front and the back picture.
Player's Story
Like many NBA stars, West came from humble beginnings. His first nickname, "Zeke from Cabin Creek," was actually based on faulty information. He grew up in Cheylan, W. Va., although his family got its mail in Cabin Creek. He was the son of a coal mine electrician who could afford no luxuries and who was usually too drained from work to play with his children. Jerry's closest brother, David, was killed in the Korean War when Jerry was only 12.
Unrealistic or not, West the perfectionist propelled the Lakers to the Finals repeatedly in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1961-62 West established himself as a deadly scoring threat in only his second year in the league. That year he averaged 30.8 ppg, the first of four seasons in which he averaged better than 30 points. The Lakers had risen from third place in the division to first since West's arrival, posting a 54-26 record. In the playoffs West averaged 31.5 ppg.
The Lakers' seven-game defeat at the hands of the Celtics in the 1962 NBA Finals was particularly heartbreaking. After taking the series lead on Baylor's then record 61-point performance in Game 5, Los Angeles dropped the next two. In Game 7 a 15-foot Frank Selvy jumper at the buzzer that would have won the game in regulation bounced off the rim. Boston won in overtime, 110-107.
West's long wait had ended. He had finally won a championship, in one of the greatest seasons ever for an NBA team. Revitalized, he went on to play for two more years. In 1972-73 the Lakers lost yet another Finals to the Knicks. In 1973-74 a pulled groin limited West to 31 regular-season contests and only one playoff game. "I'm not willing to sacrifice my standards," West told the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner when he retired. "Perhaps I expect too much."
In 1974, the 36-year-old West left the game as the NBA's third-leading career scorer, behind Chamberlain and Robertson, with 25,192 points in 932 games. His average of 27.0 ppg game stands as the fourth highest among retired players, behind Michael Jordan, Chamberlain and Baylor. His 31.2 ppg in 1969-70 (at age 31) is the highest average ever for a player over 30. And his 6,238 career assists (6.7 apg) rank among the best ever. Only Jordan had a higher career scoring average in the playoffs, and only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tallied more career points in the postseason.
After two years away from basketball, West became the Lakers' head coach for the 1976-77 season. In three campaigns with West at the helm the Lakers went 145-101 and returned to the playoffs after missing the postseason during West's absence from the team. He stayed on as a scout for three years and became general manager in 1982, helping to build the Lakers' dynasty of the 1980s.
West remained as uptight in the front office as he had been on the court. "If I'm not nervous, if I don't have at least a little bit of the same self-doubt and anxious feelings I had when I started playing, then it will be time for me to go on," he told the Orange County Register in 1990. "I must have that tension." West was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979. West was named the NBA Executive of the Year for 1995 after the Lakers posted their best record in four seasons.
He was also at the forefront of rebuilding the Lakers into championship shape by adding Shaquile O'Neal as a free agent and trading for Kobe Bryant, who entered the NBA out of high school in 1996. Those two players formed the nucleus of three consecutive championship teams beginning with capturing the 2000 NBA Finals.
After being employed by the Lakers for over 40 years, West retired but soon became the President, Basketball Operations of the Memphis Grizzlies on April 30, 2002.
I think it's a best time to post my vintage cards in this blog. Because I've seen a lot of baseball's card blogs posting their vintage cards. This is form Topps 1976 #100 and had been graded by PSA and have grade NM 7. It's a jumbo size.
I won't talk about Kareem History, but when most NBA players retire, their paths are pretty predictable. They become head or assistant coaches on the college or professional level; they snag a fancy NBA analyst job, or sadly, in the words of noted scholar Mike Tyson, they fade into Bolivian. And in some respects, Abdul-Jabbar has followed that same path.
He coached the Oklahoma Storm of the United States Basketball League (USBL) to a title in 2002, and he has also been a scout and an assistant coach for the Knicks, Clippers and the Lakers, where he currently serves as a special consultant to the big men, specifically Andrew Bynum.
But what sets Abdul-Jabbar’s post-NBA career apart from most of his other peers is his love of history, specifically black history. Abdul-Jabbar has written books on the Harlem Renaissance, the lost achievements of African-Americans in World War II and a book about his season on a Native American reservation. All of the books showcase his vast knowledge and interest in history. And selfishly speaking, as a sports fan, it is awfully refreshing to see another side of an athlete I admire and respect. I can look at Abdul-Jabbar’s books and get a glimpse into how he thinks, as opposed to trying to glean something meaningful from a 5-10 minute post-game rehearsed sound byte. This isn’t a knock on today’s athletes as much as it is homage to Abdul-Jabbar.
