The 2012-13 NBA regular season is right around the corner. For fans, this means it’s time to re-up on your team’s merchandise. Anyone can go to the nearest sporting goods store and pick up a brand new jersey or hat, but what about the unique collectibles that separate the dyed-in-the-wool fan from the bandwagon supporter? These can be found on eBay. In the weeks leading up to NBA tip-off, Bidding Basketball will scavenge the online auction site’s “infinite inventory of NBA junk” for rare, memorable and/or quirky basketball memorabilia from every team around the league.
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–How To Become A Superfan In The Atlantic Division
We continue on in the East today with a look at goods from teams in the Central Division.
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CHICAGO BULLS
Live Auction: Vintage 90s CHICAGO BULLS CARICATURE T SHIRT 1998 NBA CHAMPIONS JORDAN DUNK M/L
Buy It Now: $40.00, plus shipping
The Chicago Bulls dominated the 1990s. Unless you slept through the decade, you of course know that the Bulls, led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, won six titles in eight years, the last of which came in 1998 against the Utah Jazz. Since Jordan’s famous “Last Shot” in Game 6 of that series (although, technically, that came five years later at the free throw line in Philadelphia, but I digress), the Bulls have mostly toiled in mediocrity. Perhaps most indicative of the team’s post-Jordan performance is the fact that Chicago has drafted first overall in as many years as they’ve made it past the second round of the playoffs (twice). And just when things were starting to turn around for the Bulls – best record in the East two years running – star point guard Derrick Rose went down with that fateful ACL tear in last season’s playoffs. Rose is projected to return sometime in the spring of 2013, but even then, it’s hard to know whether or not he will be the same sort of player when he does. As a consolation, Chicago fans can still relive the Bulls’ dynasty of the 1990s through merchandise such as this vintage 1998 NBA Finals caricature t-shirt.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
Live Auction: Terrell Brandon 1996-97 Cleveland Cavaliers Authentic Game Issued Jersey 48+3
Buy It Now: $328.50, plus shipping
Twenty years before the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Kyrie Irving with the first overall pick, the Cavs selected another ultra-quick point guard by the name of Terrell Brandon. Brandon ran the Cavs offense for six seasons, in which he averaged 12.7 points (.446 field goal percentage), 4.9 assists, and 1.4 steals. Brandon’s best statistical season as a pro came in 1997: He put up 19.5 points (career-high), 6.3 assists, 1.8 steals and 3.9 rebounds in 36 minutes, and was named to his second All-Star team. Sports Illustrated even put him on the cover of a February issue with the hyperbolic headline, “The Best Point Guard in the NBA.” Cleveland fans can get a hold of a game-issued jersey from Brandon’s magical season for $328.50 – 10 percent of the original listing price.
DETROIT PISTONS
Live Auction: Lindsey Hunter 2005-06 Detroit Pistons game used warm up
Buy It Now: $95.00, plus shipping
One of my biggest pet peeves as a consumer of basketball apparel is the homogeneity of current NBA warm-up uniforms. Weird, I know, but indulge me for a second. Pregame attire used to be an extension of a team’s unique identity; now, they’re template designs. When did this become acceptable practice? One of the few teams to attempt a unique warm-up design in the modern era is the Detroit Pistons. Since at least the 1980s (with a few interruptions), the Pistons have had a policy of embroidering player’s first names on warm-up apparel. For instance, during the “Bad Boys” era, names like Isiah and Joe and Dennis appeared on players’ pregame tops. Similarly, in the above auction selling a warm-up worn by Pistons’ mainstay Lindsey Hunter during the 2005-06 season, the name “Lindsey” is displayed prominently on the right breast of the jacket. Unfortunately, the Pistons, like the rest of the league, recently abandoned this personalized design treatment in favour of the new (and boring) Rev30 apparel templates. I wish they hadn’t. Not only did it make the warm-ups aesthetically interesting, but as a fan, a first name – even if it was on the front of a jacket – connected you with players in a way that a surname on the back of a jersey couldn’t.
INDIANA PACERS
Live Auction: 1993-94 Indiana Pacers Starting Five Nesting Doll Set. Reggie Miller Rik Smits
Buy It Now: $9.99, plus shipping
The 1993-94 Indiana Pacers are one of the most memorable teams in franchise history. After finishing the regular season ranked fifth in East, the Pacers went on a postseason tear, sweeping Shaquille O’Neal‘s Orlando Magic in the first round, and defeating the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks in the semis. In the conference finals, the Pacers met the rival New York Knicks. The teams split the first four games rather uneventfully, but in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden, and the Knicks up 12 heading into the fourth quarter, Pacers’ guard Reggie Miller dropped 25 points to lead his team to victory. Infamously, Miller taunted director/New York superfan Spike Lee, who was seated courtside, with choke signs, crotch grabs and staredowns after every basket. Reggie later said of his exchange with Lee in the ESPN documentary “Winning Time,” “You pay a lot of money for those seats. OK, you’re going to be part of the game now. He became part of the game.” Although New York ultimately carried the series in seven games, the play of Reggie and his Pacers teammates in the 1994 NBA Playoffs is remembered fondly by Indiana fans—so much so that a nesting doll set exists of the Pacers five starters, including Miller, Derrick McKey, Rik Smits, Haywoode Workman and Dale Davis.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
Live Auction: MGD MILLER GENUINE DRAFT Light Milwaukee Bucks NBA Beer Tap Handle Box #25
Buy It Now: $26.95, plus shipping
Milwaukee is synonymous with two things: Beer and Bucks. The city is home to the Miller Brewing Company, which has brewed its suds there since 1855. In fact, the oldest functioning brewery in the United States can be found in Milwaukee’s “Miller Valley.” On the other hand, the Milwaukee Bucks have played 45 seasons in Wisconsin, winning an NBA championship in 1971. The ’71 team featured a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who then went by Lew Alcindor), Oscar Robertson and Bob Dandridge, and lost a mere 18 regular season and playoff games combined. Although the Bucks have never really recaptured the magic of the Alcindor and “Big O” era, the current Brandon Jennings-Monta Ellis backcourt practically guarantees that the Deer will be an exciting bunch this season. The above auction is an appropriate pairing of Milwaukee’s two most prominent attractions, and might work well for those nights when Bucks fans just want to sit down with a cold Miller beverage and watch their team go to work.
What’s the best basketball-related thing you ever got off eBay?
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