Icee Bear Hoops Stars

Remember that time you threw a pot luck dinner and your cousin brought a bag of store-bought mini donuts? That's cousin is me whenever I post basketball cards in the middle of Topps new set release season. I get a funny look from most people and then they move on to the bloggers who found the advance copy of the new Gypsy Queen checklist.

But then there are the two people at the party who LOVE store-bought mini donuts. So I'm posting for them today.

I'm nearly done with the '72 Icee Bear set. Added several of the more costly stars in recent weeks. I don't look at a ton of basketball cards so I can't say offhand if many cards listed this guy as "Kareem Jabbar". I almost never see anything but the full "Kareem Abdul Jabbar".  Sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not.

Interesting picture as are most in this set.

Wilt's card is a completely different style of photo than the others in the set. I think that's one of the things that got me interested in these things...20 cards with almost as many different types of photos.

Check out the Icee Bear Fact on Wilt's card. He was ROY, MVP, ASG MVP and the league scoring and rebounding leader in 1959/60. Not a bad year.  At 7' 1" and 275 lbs. he'd have made a helluva tight end if he had taken up football.

I hardly have any John Havlicek cards which is surprising because I was a big fan of his and the Celtics growing up. My kids have a hard time believing that but it's true. 

Anyway check out this great piece of NBA history. "Havlicek Stole The Ball!!! It's All Over!!!" Oh that Johnny Most call is fun.

I had a friend who was a fan of the Lakers and in particular Jerry West. We got into some big debates over who the best NBA guard was. I always took up for Oscar Robertson. He never backed down from his Jerry West argument.

Pistol Pete Maravich is the only card I've picked up with a noticeable flaw. The stain along the bottom left is also on the reverse. I can live with it as it brought the price down quite a bit.

The 1971 Topps set used the same photo..with a different but equally fake background. Interesting that the Icee Bear card has washed out colors, at least for the jersey.

And finally here is The Hawk, Connie Hawkins. He almost never smiles.

EDIT: I just realized that I posted this card not long ago after I got it at the TriStar show. That's OK, you can never get too much Hawk goodness.

I think this is the same photo as the one on the '72 Topps. 

The rest of the set (there are twenty in all) is now in my sights. Once I'm done I will be able to concentrate on the '70-'71 Topps basketball set. I have a baseball project lined up to follow that one though.

Have another donut why don't you?