I think I picked these Hakeem Olajuwon inserts from 2014-15 Donruss Basketball around the time the set released. I opened one box of this stuff (that I never posted about) and I liked it enough that I considered finishing the set, but it was one of those things I never got around to doing. Donruss Basketball has about a million parallels and inserts, and all of the inserts also have a million parallels, so each box has a lot of colorful and serially-numbered cards. It leads to a pretty bloated and overproduced set, but it's a fun cheap NBA box break. I would definitely bust a couple more boxes of it if a good deal fell in my lap.
These two Olajuwon inserts are parallels of the Elite insert set, which in base form has a silver background. The one on the left is the Red parallel, and my copy is numbered # 06 / 25. The one on the right is the Blue version, and my copy is numbered # 07 / 99. They are nice and shiny on their own, but I think the two colors side by side look really nice together.
There's not much to the backs of these cards, with a repeat of the front photo, a team logo, some basic information, and a career stat line. I don't buy a lot of basketball cards or really even follow the NBA that closely any more, but there's always room in my collection for another sharp-looking Hakeem Olajuwon item.
Nice cards of a truly great player. They always listed him as 7' but he was two inches shorter than that. He'd come over to the Houston rec fields to run and work out in the late 80s and regularly 'crash' my soccer coaching classes. You haven't lived until you've attempted to stop a soccer ball kicked by Hakeem Olajuwon.
ReplyDeleteThat would be quite an experience to look back on. I am pretty envious. We don't have any pro teams here in Idaho, so there isn't much of chance of that kind of thing happening to me.
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