It seems the influx of potential talent during the end of the 90's and the beginning of the last decade has hurt the development of that potential and thus, the NBA.įortunately for us fans, the state of the NBA game has been improved somewhat by young players who are forced to develop at a slightly slower rate than just being thrown into the fire that is professional basketball. Not all, but many players need to go through a progression to develop both basketball and mental skills. Say what you want about the one year removed from high school rule, but it's apparent that the vast majority of NBA prospects need a few semesters of higher learning to develop leadership, basketball IQ, fundamentals and physically. Sure, I'm not going to argue one bit that players like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett haven't achieved their full potential, but there have been far more that haven't. Simply put, the vast majority of prep stars are not ready both physically and mentally for the NBA. This could be for a number of reasons, but I attribute much of this problem to the influx of high school players into the league. One issue that has plagued the NBA over the past decade has been the lack of true superstars throughout the NBA. There's no denying the state of basketball and the Association during that time, but today's NBA is certainly on the cusp of rivalling that time. Even perennial cellar dwellers like the Dallas Mavericks had " The Triple J's" or the Golden State Worriers with " RUN T.M.C.". From Clyde "The Glyde" Drexler in the Great Northwest to Sir Patrick at MSG or "The Human Highlight Film" in A-Town and Shaq and "Penny" in the wonderful world of Disney, the NBA was working on all cylinders throughout the mid 80's and 90's. Sure, the NBA's "Golden Age" was built by the likes of the above mentioned Bird, Magic and Jordan, but the Association was littered with exciting stars throughout the league. Without question, it's hard to argue that claim. So nine down and six to go.įor many sports fans, the "Golden Age" of the NBA started with Bird versus Magic and culminated with Jordan hitting a game winning shot over Byron Russell in the '98 NBA Finals. Actually, this is the cheapest card out of the nine I have from the set at $7.00 shipped. Also, this one didn't really set me back too much. The Payton isn't exactly the most sought after card in the set, but it's always nice for a collector to add a card from a set they're putting together. However, I wish the old Seattle Supersonics uniform was featured, but it's still cool non-the-less. The appeal of these cards for me is a colorful acetate background and 90's stars. Of course, if anyone out there has any cards from this set and is looking to trade, checkout my trade album and let me know. I have some of the tougher or more expensive cards in the set out of the way with the Shaquille O'neal, Anfernee Hardaway, David Robinson, Stockton and Malone cards, but there's still a few pricey ones to go like the Jordan. That makes nine out of the fifteen card insert set accounted for (You can view the other eight by clicking here). I recently added this Gary Payton to my ongoing '97 Ultra Court Masters collection. Signing Harper to a contract extension now, with so much of his current contract yet to go, would be a bad baseball decision.I've been working diligently on putting the 1997 Ultra Court Masters insert set together for several months now. Of course, Harper has also suffered from periodic back spasms throughout his career, and he also has a Tommy John surgery under his belt. Harper wants to play into his 40s, and there’s reason to think he will hold up better than most as he ages. With the exception of the steroid era, players always become less effective as they age, especially in their late 30s/early 40s. But of course, every player who signed a contract five years ago is underpaid based on today’s salaries, which increase every year. Part of the motivation to re-do his contract could be the fact that his $25.4 million average annual salary ranks 41st in MLB. Such an extension would be unprecedented in baseball history, and virtually every baseball analyst/insider would agree on the inadvisability of extending Harper with so much of his current contract yet to be played out. Yes, Harper’s camp wants the Phils to add an ADDITIONAL 3-5 years on the end of the 8 years he has left on his current deal. So it certainly comes out of right field (see what I did there?) that Harper’s agent Scott Boras says the future Hall of Famer wants a contract EXTENSION.
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