Confessions of a Reformed Collector

      As a Kid I loved Isaiah Rider! From the moment in his rookie year when he revolutionized the Dunk Contest in 1994 with the East Bay Funk Dunk. Nine Year Old me sat mouth agape along with the rest of the basketball world as Rider was the first person to bring the "street dunk" to the NBA. Yes we had Free Throw Line Dunks, 360's, Reverses, Tomahawks and Windmills.  However, Rider was the first person to go between the legs in mid air before throwing it down with authority, While this dunk is now commonplace in dunk contests around the globe at the time it really opened the eyes of the world to the creativity dunking could allow.     The nine year old me that night sat transfixed convinced I was witnessing the arrival of the next Michael Jordan ( I will pause while you laugh.). That night I was "all in" on Isaiah "JR" Rider before I even knew what "all in" meant. That Monday on the playground I realized I was one of the few allowed to stay

Arkansas Legend Corliss "The Big Nasty" Williamsonis my new PC Player..      I love the movie Network! It really is a classic! There is a legendary scene in the movie where reporter Howard Beale played wonderfully by Peter Finch told his viewers the only way to make a change was to get mad! "Mad as Hell" were his exact words, if we wanted to change things. It remains one of the most quotable scenes in American film history.      However while I do not encourage yelling out your window that you are "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore." . There are ways to affect change within the hobby by simply deciding to get mad enough to force change. It is no secret that the hobby is broken and definitely in need of serious reform. Between mass production, flippers, breakers, inflated prices on wax and generally dishonest tactics from within, the hobby is no longer the innocent one from childhood. So how do we change it? We have to get mad! I do not mea

Allen Iverson was a pioneer of Today's NBA                In June of 1997 Slam Magazine asked the basketball world a simple question. "Who's Afraid of Allen Iverson?" At the time Iverson had just came off a Rookie of the Year Campaign after being selected #1 Overall out of Georgetown in 1996. In many ways Iverson started a revolution While Jordan was dressed in Armani, Iverson wore baggy clothes, Jordan was clean cut, Iverson had cornrows. While  Jordan represented Wall Street, Iverson represented Streetball. In fact every playground in my hometown of Lakeland, Florida had kids trying to emulate the AI Crossover. He gave every undersized ball player hope, I will go as far as to say if Iverson did. not succeed the current NBA is never blessed with Chris Paul, Steph Curry and other other small guard who's size was questioned.     So my question is where is the hobby respect for AI? You seldom see him as a main PC? He is hardly a chase card in high end sets. What Hap