Hakeem Olajuwon Court Relic

There was a pretty big NBA game tonight, with the Golden State Warriors taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers in an elimination game for the NBA Championship. From what my Facebook feed says, the Warriors were able to finish the job, handing LeBron James and the Cavs a 4-1 series defeat. I lost much of my interest in the playoffs after my Houston Rockets got eliminated in embarrassing fashion by a Spurs team that was missing their superstar, Kawhi Leonard, but I still kept an eye on the headlines.

As I often do when the Rockets are eliminated from postseason play, I turned my eyes to the Rockets of the past, specifically Hakeem Olajuwon, who led the team to two Championships in 1994 and 1995. He's not wearing a Rockets uniform on this card, though. He spent the last season of his career playing for the Toronto Raptors, as pictured in this 2001-02 Topps Heritage Basketball Articles of the Arena relic card. I think this is my first floor relic, and I always like getting a new relic type.

The back of the card certifies that it contains an authentic piece of the Boston Garden floor on which Hakeem Olajuwon played an NBA game. I guess it's something. It's not quite on the level of UFC mat relics, which can sometimes be matched to a specific sponsor logo at a specific UFC event. Then you can watch the fight in question and see if the fighter stepped on that logo or had their face dragged across it or something.

Anyway, I'm glad I was able to add a new relic type to my collection, and especially glad that the card features my favorite basketball player of all time, even though he's wearing the wrong uniform on this card.