The Weird and the Wonderful

For your Sunday viewing pleasure I give you two of my favorite cards from the oddly attractive 1970/71 Topps Basketball set. These came as part of my latest COMC haul.

First we have Mel Counts, journeyman and career backup center for six different NBA teams, a lot of them (the Lakers and Celtics) very good ones. That card though. What is up with that? Did they tell Counts to 'bend over so we can get more of you into the frame'? Is he seated on the floor and the picture rotated? Is that actually his leg we see near the top of the basketball?

And what about this Dave Bing? Most every pic in this set is a posed 'action' shot but this is a dorky portrait pic. Bing was a hell of a player. I got to see him up close and personal once while working the scoreboard at an NBA game in Houston. The Rockets played in Hofheinz Pavilion on the U of Houston campus and I fell into the job since I knew the board from working the UH womens' games.

Bing had 21 points in that Saturday afternoon game. I sat a seat away from Bill Russell. It was a cool day.