It was in 1986 that I first started watching basketball, as my parents got caught up in the fever of the Detroit Pistons, excited by the two rookies John Salley and Dennis Rodman. I quickly became obsessed, to the point where I would spend hours outside at our hoop working pretending to be my favorite player, Adrian Dantley. Dantley was absolutely masterful on offense, with a series of pump fakes and exquisite footwork that I would only come to understand much later. Even then, though, I knew the guy could score off of a variety of moves, but especially through drives to the basket and utilizing the backboards. Even more noteworthy was his free throw routine (which I've come to learn was toned down a bit from his earlier years): dribble, dribble, wipe foreheard twice, dribble, flip the ball and catch, then shoot. I'm sure I annoyed all of my friends at school with countless Dantley gushing, and I even dressed as him for Halloween one year. I got a framed picture of Dantley that I still have to this day, as well as a #45 jersey in my 7-year-old size that I can't seem to find.
Watching the Pistons became my first deep connection to sports and the ensuing heartbreak, as the infamous Bird steal in the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals and the Dantley/Vinnie Johnson collision at the end of the 3rd quarter of Game 7 which sent Dantley to the hospital left the Pistons so close to the Finals but ultimately a tiny bit short. Then again in 1988, when the Pistons would vanquish the Celtics in 6 (and Michael Jordan before that), and go up 3-2 needing just one more victory to become champions. Detroit would end up losing those final 2 games by a combined 4 points. They seemed poised to make another run the next season. Lo and behold, they did, but not before breaking my heart.
I remember hearing at school from a friend that the Pistons had traded Dantley, and I was incredulous, trying to calm myself by saying "Maybe they'll trade for him back", not understanding that this wouldn't be possible that season. I came home and sobbed in my mom's arms.
When Detroit traded him, my 8-year-old heart was crushed. I swore off the Pistons and that is how I became a Blazer fan (as well as a fan of Utah and Seattle, but Portland was my new #1). I attended the first game against Dallas (his new team), and Dantley was given a loud ovation.The following summer, I was at a sports shop called Nabozny's and saw that they were selling basketball cards. I never even knew that basketball cards were made, as I had only heard of baseball cards and couldn't stand baseball. My parents bought me 3 packs of 15, and I was desperately hoping Dantley would be in there.
First pack?
Nope.
Second pack?
Nope.
Third pack?
Gold!
I was so happy, and I then learned about his insane statistics, as back then, that was the only way I could get access to season stats. The picture on the back even had Dantley still clearly in a Pistons jersey judging by the colors. For my birthday one year, my brother illustratred the Dantley card onto my birthday poster. For Christmas in 1990, my cousin's husband bought me the entire subsequent set of basketball cards in a blue binder, and even had a gold plate with my initials emblazoned on the front. I spent countless hours sorting through these cards and making pages and pages of lists in notebooks of sorted season statistics, birthdays, and other tidbits I gleaned. I remember asking my Dad why Reggie Miller's career scoring average was 12.8 despite his first season's average being 10.0 and his second season's average being 16.0, and my Dad explained that the career average had to be weighted by the number of games played. Combining my passion for basketball and numbers, collecting basketball cards probably had more to do with my inclination to turn statistics into an occupation than I realized. I would go on to collect basketball cards for many years with allowance and birthday money before our local shop closed down around 1995. With the internet, I've been able to track down many more over the years, and I've probably got well over 5,000.
Of all of my basketball cards, that first Dantley card I got is far from the most expensive - a quick eBay search shows that you can buy 50 of those cards for just over $3. Nonetheless, it's easily my most prized card, and arguably one of my most prized possessions. I carried the original card in my wallet for over 10 years until it disintegrated (and I wondered why I struggled to find a girlfriend), and had a few copies of it in pristine condition.
Every once in awhile, I'll dig out these cards and be reminded of those times.
Here's the box where I used to keep my cards. You can see that my favorite players weren't renowned as the stars of their era...
