7/30/26 - Jeff Query

Name: Jeff Query

Team: Green Bay Packers

Position: Wide Receiver

Card Year: 1991

Card Maker:  NFL Pro Set

Card Number: 160

This has been a busier week than the past two had been so I'm glad to have pulled a card like that of this week's athlete - Jeff Query of the 1990 Green Bay Packers. I have a lot of these NFL Pro Set cards so it's not surprising another has come up. However, this one is special. When I first looked at the back of this card, I was convinced that was just Keefe from the Righteous Gemstones, but nope - that's the real hair of Jeff Query, a rare breed in the National Football league.

As it states on the back of the card, Query was drafted from Millikin University in the fifth round of the 1989 NFL draft. He remains the only player to ever have been drafted out of Millikin University, part of a small percentage of NFL players to have played college football at a division three school, and part of an even smaller percentage of NFL players to have been drafted out of a division three school. The 1989 draft was not a particularly strong draft for wide receivers. The most prolific wide receiver career that resulted this draft was that of Andre Rison out of Michigan State - a good but not great receiver. However, this does not negate Query's accomplishment of making an NFL roster. 

It should also be noted that he still has the 10th overall single game receiving performance (190 yards), the 8th and 10th overall single season receiving yards (783, and 830 yards respectively), and the 3rd overall career receiving yards (2548 yards) in Millikin University Football History. 

In his rookie year, Query was the WR3 behind Sterling Sharpe and Perry Kemp with Magic Don Majkowski, in his only season starting all 16 games, at quarterback. This is the Green Bay Packers in their final few seasons before the arrival of Brett Favre - territory that given my age, I'm not all that familiar with. As a Lions fan, perhaps I would have enjoyed it a bit more than the Favre years. In any event, Query saw some time at receiver in his first year while managing punt returns and occasional kick returns. Per the official 1989 Green Bay Packers season recap, he had some hiccups (5:50) as well as some successes (7:21) and (11:09).

His second season with the Packers was his most productive with the team despite there being a shake up at quarterback as Majkowski tore his rotator cuff in the 10th game of the season against the Cardinals. Majkowski was replaced by Anthony Dilweg who tossed Query this very pretty touchdown pass (2:35), one of his two for the season, against the Rams. Query played one more season for the Packers but was released from the team after the 1991 season, unfortunately for him, just one season before Brett Favre would end up the starter after another Majkowski injury. 

He was claimed off waivers by the Bengals for the 1992 season but only played as a receiver and was no longer returning punts, and was injured late in the season going on IR. He came back for his most productive career season in 1993 catching 56 balls for 654 yards and 4 touchdowns, starting all 16 games for the Bengals. Unfortunately, this was for a truly terrible Bengals team - one that only scored 14 offensive touchdowns all season. Query remained in Cincinnati for one more full season, and then in 1995 was released by the team and was signed by Washington where he would appear in one game, with no receptions. This would be the last stop of Jeff Query's career.

Jeff Query had an unlikely NFL career on some subpar teams with truly subpar quarterback situations. From what limited Linkedin research I could do, it appears that Jeff is now retired after a career with Subsea7, an offshore energy services company - that is, of course, assuming that there isn't another Jeff Query who graduated from Millikin University.

Sources

Pro Football Reference

Millikin University Football Records 

Jeff Query LinkedIn

7/26/26 - Rumeal Robinson

Name: Rumeal Robinson

Team: New Jersey Nets

Position: Point Guard

Card Year: 1993

Card Maker: Fleer 

Card Number: 136

So the last athlete's card I pulled, that of Hartford Whaler Adam Burt, led to a story that while was unexpected, was ultimately pretty tame. Rumeal Robinson's story, however, takes some turns that while certainly interesting, are far more unfortunate, both for himself and those around him than really those of any of the athletes I've profiled so far.

At least as far as the card is concerned - this one is pretty straightforward. No silly copy on the back, but some detailed stats and a nice action shot in front of Robinson's last name in glowing neon blue. This was still pretty early in his career in his first and only complete season with the New Jersey Nets - nothing nefarious has happened - yet anyway.

Rumeal Robinson was the star point guard for the 1989 University of Michigan National Championship team. He is most remembered for his overtime game winning free throws against Seton Hall to win the championship for Michigan. He did this despite the fact that on replay, it's very much unclear as to how he was fouled. This can be debated by any Michigan or Seton Hall fans reading this - it is not the focal point of this blog.

Robinson played one more season at Michigan, earning second team All American honors and going on to be drafted by the Atlanta Hawks as the 10th pick in the first round of the 1990 NBA Draft. He is also one of only eight players born in Jamaica to have played in the NBA.

While Robinson had two triple doubles during the 92-93 season, and was the March 14, 1993 Player of the Week, this season with the Nets was arguably the last season of what was a very limited amount of production in his career. He was traded in the middle of the 93-94 season to Charlotte and finished the season there. In the 95-96 season he signed as free agent with the Portland Trailblazers but was soon released and began a confusing cycle of contracts next with the Lakers, then Suns, and finally back to the Blazers. He never played close to a full season after the 92-93 season of this card with the Nets, and his NBA career was over by 1997. 

But here's the real story:

Well before any of his college successes or pro disappointments, Rumeal Robinson had been effectively abandoned by his mother at the age of 10 and adopted into the home of Helen and Louis Ford, who were both pillars of their Cambridge, Massachusetts community. The Fords had several foster children as well as their own children in the house and dedicated their lives to providing a stable childhood to them all. Robinson was able to grow, both as a person and an athlete under their care and in 1986 accepted an offer to play basketball at the University of Michigan. 

After being drafted by the Hawks in the 1990 draft, Robinson purchased both Helen and Lou their own Rolex watches and Mercedes. He moved into a large house in Atlanta and in a story not uncommon to many new pro athletes of the time, began to spend money faster than he was making it on any number of things - strippers, clothes, cars, dogs, cigars - really any luxury item. He moved from Atlanta to a high rise in Miami and continued this spending throughout the course of his struggling NBA career as well as for a few seasons spent outside of the country after the NBA no longer had a place for him, playing in Croatia, Italy, and Venezuela. By the end of his basketball career in 2002, he had spent everything that he had made.

Robinson did have a legitimately solid business idea in developing a flagship resort on the northern end of his native Jamaica, known as "Harmony Cove" and was skilled at getting investments from others, including asking his adoptive mother, Helen Ford, to take out a mortgage on her already paid-off home to help start the project. She believed in Rumeal and followed through on what she thought was the mortgage, but she actually signed paperwork that sold the house to Robinson's assistant. Robinson then ran an ongoing scheme involving home appraisers to 'sell' the house to others in his circle for increasingly larger sums - eventually up to one million dollars, pocketing the profits. Money that was supposed to go to the Harmony Cove project, but instead like his NBA earnings, got spent as quickly as it was made.

Beyond this, a friend of his got him in touch with a loan officer at a small bank in Iowa, Community State Bank, who had money problems of his own. Robinson was willing to kick back some of the money he wished to take out, for the officer to overlook his credit and expedite the time to process the loan. This occurred repeatedly for several loans of various amounts, with the loan officer eventually making around $100,000 in kickbacks before being found out by the company and ended up facing two years in prison. Rumeal unsurprisingly made very few payments on any of these loans, and he too quickly found himself in a courtroom facing charges of federal wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and issuing false statements to financial institutions. 

Helen Ford attended the hearing to testify against Rumeal after she had been evicted from her own home, the home that Rumeal Robinson grew up in, upon finding out that she had been swindled when Robinson asked her to file for the new mortgage. The Harmony Cove project had never advanced beyond the fundraising phase, with all of that money stolen and spent, and Robinson willing to screw over his own mother in order to maintain his spending habits. As a result, Robinson was given the maximum six and a half year sentence in federal prison for his crimes and was released in 2016. Helen Ford was still allowed to live in the house that had been hers and paid off, but was then forced to make monthly payments to be able to do so. Robinson has a LinkedIn page showing him to be in the Greater Boston area and working for "Omnicrom LLP" a company that I haven't been able to find any further information on. 

This was certainly not where I had expected this story to go, and certainly not where I would want it to go given the people, especially Helen Ford, who were harmed by Robinson's actions. My initial thought when pulling his card was, "oh a guy from the 90s Nets? This will be bad". It turns out I was right, just in ways that I never would have expected. While this was a gripping story - the first where I could watch a TV documentary in doing research (Check out the American Greed Episode on this linked below if you have Peacock) I hope the next blog is on an athlete with a bit more of an upbeat of a story. 

 Sources

University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library 

College Basketball Reference 

Pro Basketball Reference 

Detroit Free Press - Mitch Albom Archive 

American Greed - Season 11 Episode 8 

FBI Archives

ESPN Article - Bringing Down the House 

Rumeal Robinson LinkedIn

 

7/21/26 - Adam Burt

Name: Adam Burt

Team: Hartford Whalers

Position: Defenseman

Card Year: 1995

Card Maker: Topps 

Card Number: 184

So this is an interesting one. I like when I can find out pretty easily what guys are up to in the current day, and that certainly was the case with the player on this week's card, Adam Burt from the 94-95 Hartford Whalers. 

Aesthetically, there's a lot to like in this card series - the beveled transparent team name, the gold foil scratched script font for the athlete name, the Hartford Whalers logo in general.  You'll never convince me anything about the Carolina Hurricanes is better than the Whalers, regardless of Stanley Cups won. The Whaler's logo is just a great sports logo. But that is not my primary focus here. We're here to learn a little bit about the athlete on the card, defenseman Adam Burt.

Burt was born in Detroit (just like me!) and played pee-wee hockey for the Detroit Compuware team (a company I vaguely remember existing growing up!) before eventually being drafted by Hartford in 1987 after playing with the North Bay Centennials in the Ontario Hockey League alongside other future successful NHL players - Kevin Hatcher of the Hatcher Brothers, and Darren Turcotte. He saw a little bit of playing time towards the end of the 1988-89 season but his real rookie season was 1989-1990, playing 63 games with the Whalers. The card states that he was an NHL All Rookie Team selection, however from what I found, this was not the case, but maybe this was referencing a different publication? Who is to say?

Burt had a successful career as a defenseman for Hartford, up through the end of the team's existence before becoming the Hurricanes at the end of the 1998 season. He didn't have any individual seasons that were too statistically significant, but he had good size and wasn't afraid to fight when called upon. A quick youtube search finds videos of Burt scrapping with some of the most likely suspects of 1990s hockey, Rick Tocchet, Darren McCarty, Dale Hunter, and Joey Kocur just to name a few. But more interestingly, Burt also squared up with Wayne Gretzky during a five on five brawl during his rookie year, despite initially backing off and Gretzky hanging on, at least as he's told the story. 

Burt played for the Whalers, and then the Hurricanes through part of the 1998-99 season when he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for winger Andrei Kovalenko. He only spent one more season with the Flyers, but in that time, he ended up playing in the longest NHL game of the modern era - a playoff game in the 2nd round of the 99-00 playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins that went into 5 overtimes. Fortunately for Burt and the rest of the team, the Flyers prevailed with a 2-1 win, thanks to a Keith Primeau goal in the 5th OT. The Flyers won the series and made it to the conference finals, only to lose to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the New Jersey Devils.

After that season with the Flyers, Burt was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers, but suffered a herniated disc that required surgery during the 00-01 season. He officially retired from the NHL in 2002 after a solid 12ish year career as a reliable, occasionally chippy, veteran defenseman. 

But the story doesn't end there. When doing the research on Adam Burt, fairly recent articles popped up among the hockey reference sites and wikipedia page because Adam Burt is now (and has been for some time)...a Christian Minister! After 9/11, Burt was called upon to act as a Pastor at his church's then newest location in Manhattan NYC despite having no formal training. He is now the lead pastor of the Every Nation Church in Morris Plains, New Jersey. But wait there's more!

In 2009, New York Jets defensive tackle Kenyon Coleman attended Burt's church and asked him to 'try out' for a position as the Jets' team chaplain, in which he had to compete against other clergymen to win the position, and he did! From what I could find, he has been the team chaplain ever since (however this position was not listed on the Jets website so do not quote me). While I don't doubt Burt's efforts, if there was a team that God had completely forsaken, I think most folks would agree that it is the New York Jets. 

Finally in 2026, Burt wrote an inspirational book with a title inspired by the lengthy playoff game he played with the Philadelphia Flyers - The Longest Game and claims to draw from Burt's time in the NHL as well as his experience as a pastor. A preview can be viewed at the link provided above on the Every Nation church's website.

All in all, this was a fun rabbit hole to go down. I always like when I can find recent updates on players, and depending on the magnitude of their careers, it's sometimes a lot easier than others. I didn't have the highest expectations when I pulled out a Hartford Whalers' defenseman whose name I didn't recognize, but people will surprise you which has absolutely been the case in learning about Hartford Whaler and New York Jets Team Chaplain, Adam Burt. 

Sources

Hockey Reference 

Hockey DB

NHL.com Interview 

UPI Archives 

Every Nation Church Bio 

Christian Broadcasting Network 

7/16/26 - Kent Hrbek

 

Name: Kent Hrbek "Herbie"

Team: Minnesota Twins

Position: First Base / Designated Hitter

Card Year: 1993

Card Maker: Topps 

Card Number: 9

I've returned after some time out of town, by picking career Minnesota Twins slugger, Kent Hrbek. It was a lucky pull as I've recently been feeling that the players selected have had far too many vowels in their names. But I digress! This card is from 1993 - almost the very end of Hrbek's career with the Minnesota Twins (He retired after 14 seasons, all with the Twins, in 1994), and while the 1992 season was a bit less productive than the recent previous seasons, he still hit 15 home runs in 112 games. I appreciate the notes on the card that Hrbek 'enjoyed' both 17 and 23 game hitting streaks at points in his career. It's really not enough just to achieve something - you're hoping guys are having a nice time as well.

Hrbek was born and grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota and was drafted by the Twins in the 17th round of the 1978 draft out of Kennedy High School. After a few years in the Twins farm system, Hrbek made 24 game appearances in 1981. In 1982, his true rookie season, Hrbek batted .301 with 23 home runs and 92 RBIs earning his only All Star game appearance and finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting, losing to Cal Ripken Jr. but finishing one place ahead of Wade Boggs.

Hrbek was productive throughout the 80s despite only playing more than 150 games in a season once in his career. In 1984 he was runner up in the American League MVP voting behind World Series Champion Pitcher Willie Hernandez of the Detroit Tigers. While he never again made an All Star game, nor finished high in MVP voting, Hrbek was on both the 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams, with 1987 being his best home run hitting year with 34 in the regular season as well as this being the year he hit his iconic World Series game six grand slam. Whereas he is known for this play during the 1991 World Series against Atlanta, which if you read the comments is infuriating Braves fans to this day. 

Hrbek was often injured throughout his career and retired in the 1994 lockout season at the fairly young age of 34. His number was retired by the Twins in 1995, only the 3rd number retired by the team at the time. As of 2021 he was still employed by the Twins organization in a mostly representative role, and still has his namesake restaurant at Target Field. In April 2025 he suffered a stroke just days after another Twins hero, Tony Oliva also had a stroke. Both Hrbek and Oliva have recovered.

Despite that frightening setback, Kent Hrbek continues to enjoy his retirement from baseball while still being very much a part of the Twins organization. Having learned this much about him, I believe he did really enjoy those 17 and 23 game hitting streaks, among so much else he accomplished in his time with the Twins.

Sources:

Baseball Reference

Twins Trivia 

ESPN Classic 

Minnesota Twins Retired Numbers 

Minnesota Good Age Profile 

CBS News 

Fox 9 Interview

6/30/26 - Pooh Richardson

Name: Jerome 'Pooh' Richardson

Team: Indiana Pacers

Position: Point Guard

Card Year: 1993

Card Maker: Topps Stadium Club

Card Number: 106

For the second card pull of 2026, I drew Jermoe "Pooh" (A nickname given to him by his grandmother due to his resemblance to Winnie the Pooh as a baby) Richardson from his first (1992-93) season with the Indiana Pacers.

I like this card for a few reasons - the first of which is that it features not only Richardson, but also Detlef Schrempf setting a pick for Richardson AND the card does not provide full season stats, but commemorates Richardson's first triple double in the NBA after three seasons with the Timberwolves before being traded to the Pacers. Given the emphasis on this accomplishment, I had to see - how many triple doubles did Richardson have in his career? The answer to this question is 2 - he had one more in the 94-95 season at which point he had been traded for a final time to the LA Clippers. I do not believe that performance also warranted its own card.

Richardson had an extremely successful college career at UCLA, and is 4th on the UCLA record list for most assists, and is the UCLA record holder for assists per game at 7.6, while earning All PAC-10 honors in three of his four college seasons. Despite his first two seasons overlapping with eventual Pacers teammate Reggie Miller's last two at UCLA, Richardson's passing abilities and Miller's scoring abilities were only able to win a PAC-10 tournament championship during Miller's last season in 1987 and were out in the second round of the NCAA tournament that same year. Richardson played in one more NCAA tournament in 1989, his senior season before being drafted by Minnesota Timberwolves in their first season as an NBA expansion team. 

Richardson led the Timberwolves in assists, and made the NBA All Rookie team, but the Wolves finished 22-60 in their first season, with things not improving in the following two seasons, Richardson was traded along with Sam Mitchell to the Pacers for Michael Williams and one of my all time favorite athlete names - Chuck Person. 

Upon being reunited with Reggie Miller in Indiana, Richardson and the Pacers made the NBA playoffs in the 92-93 season - that of this card - losing to the Knicks in the first round. They returned to the playoffs in the 93-94 season, making it all the way to the eastern conference finals, only to ultimately lose to the Knicks once again. In the February 1993 issue of SPORT Magazine, Richardson is quoted regarding his trade to the Pacers: 

“Now that I’m in Indiana, when you go to a new organization and find out how classy it is compared to another, how one organization reeks of basketball direction, basketball executives, and the other one has none—one, two basketball people at the most—it’s [easy] to understand. If you ask me what’s the difference between Minnesota’s team and Indiana’s team, I’d say the commitment to winning.”

However, Richardson's time in Indiana ended with that second season as he was traded along with Malik Sealy and Erik Piatkowski to the LA Clippers for Greg Minor and previous card draw point guard, Mark Jackson. He remained in Los Angeles for the remainder of his career until his being waived by the Clippers in 1999. 

Richardson's professional career was underwhelming relative to his college success. It seems that expectations for him were high upon being drafted by Minnesota, but was placed in an environment that was not conducive to getting the best out of him. Despite this, Richardson is still involved in basketball, assistant coaching at the California junior college, College of the Desert since 2017. 

Sources

From Way Downtown Blog

UCLA Hall of Fame  

Desert Sun News 

Pro Basketball Reference 

Sports Reference - College Basketball

6/24/26 - Brian Blades

Name: Brian Blades

Team: Seattle Seahawks

Position: Wide Receiver 

Card Year: 1991

Card Maker: NFL Pro Set

Card Number: 298

After a long hiatus, we are back! I thought I would have the mental fortitude to keep writing these during the school year, and well folks - I did not. But it is once again the summer and my day-to-day responsibilities have plummeted, so I decided to dig through the big box of cards and pulled out the first of hopefully many for this summer - Seattle Seahawks wide receiver, Brian Blades.

I was especially excited to pick this card, because upon seeing the name and given the age of the card, my first thought was - this guy has to be related to former Lions safety, Bennie Blades. I remember Bennie Blades from my childhood, mostly because his name was Bennie Blades (His name was actually Horatio Benedict Blades). But sure enough, my suspicions were immediately confirmed on the back of the card with Brian being the older brother to Bennie (Horatio). 

But while I love to remember an alliterative Lion, this post is about an alliterative Seahawk - Brian Blades, member of the 1987 National Championship Miami Hurricanes and drafted by Seattle in the 2nd round of the 1988 draft. The 1988 draft was wide receiver rich, featuring three future Hall of Fame receivers taken in the first round - Tim Brown, by the Raiders, Sterling Sharpe, by the Packers, and Blades' teammate at Miami Michael Irvin, by the Cowboys.

According to the Seahawks website, Blades was selected as "heir apparent to [Steve] Largent" given that Largent was at the end of his career as the Seahawks number one receiver, and he started off his career in Seattle with a respectable rookie season. He caught 40 balls for 682 yards, resulting in a very solid 17.1 yards/reception. He also scored 8 receiving touchdowns, a career high, and made the NFL All-Rookie team with the aforementioned Tim Brown earning the other WR nod, as well as his brother Bennie (Horatio) at Safety. 

1989 was another successful year for Blades, as he eclipsed 1000 receiving yards for the first time in his career, finishing the season with 70 receptions for 1063 yards and 5 touchdowns. This season would be the first and only season that Blades would make the Pro Bowl. He was also the only Seahawk in that season to score two receiving touchdowns in a single game, doing so against the Chargers. 

Beyond the scope of this card, Blades played all 11 seasons of his NFL career with the Seattle Seahawks, tallying four 1000-yard seasons in that time. In 1995 he was charged with 2nd degree manslaughter due to a gunshot wound that killed his cousin Charles Blades, during an argument in a condo that [Brian] Blades owned. He was convicted, but a judge overruled the verdict over lack of evidence. This led to a civil suit filed against him and his brother by [Charles] Blades' ex-wife. He remains third on the Seahawks all-time list for both receptions and receiving yards behind the aforementioned Steve Largent and Tyler Lockett. 

Sources

Pro Football Reference 

Seattle Seahawks Website 

UPI News Archives 

VA Tech Archives - Roanoke Times 

Seattle Times Archives

9/3 - Mark Jackson

 

Name: Mark Jackson

Team: New York Knicks

Position: Point Guard

Card Year: 1992

Card Maker: Skybox

Card Number: 162

We're back after a one-week hiatus with perhaps the card of the player most immediately relevant to current day sports at least up to this point in the blog - 1992 New York Knick, Mark Jackson. 

Mark Jackson was drafted by the New York Knicks as the 18th pick in the first round of the 1987 draft after four years and a 2nd team All American season in 1987 at St. John's. 

His rookie season couldn't have gone better as he won the Rookie of the Year Award and the Knicks reached the playoffs for the first time since 1984. During that season, Jackson averaged nearly 40 minutes per game playing time while scoring an average of 13.6 points and 10.6 assists per game respectively that season. Despite the Knicks losing to the Celtics in the first round, it was clearly their best season in some time and would be the first in a string of seasons where Jackson would unsuccessfully attempt to lead the Knicks against the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

The next season was a statistical improvement for Jackson, as he averaged 16.9 points per game as a point guard. It would be his first and only All Star game, despite what would end up being a lengthy career. He would help lead the Knicks to the Eastern Conference semifinals, only to lose to the Chicago Bulls 4-2. 

The 1988-89 season also saw Jackson sign a multimillion dollar, 5 year deal with the Knicks only for his production to decrease and Knicks fans become impatient with the team's lack of playoff success. The 1991-92 season, the season of this card, would be Jackson's last season with the Knicks until much later in his career. He then was traded to the LA Clippers as part of a three way deal between New York, Los Angeles, and Orlando. After two years in LA he was traded to Indiana where he would play until 2000 with one season in Denver in between.

His time in Indiana was similar to that in New York. He was a reliable point guard but not the star of either team (Patrick Ewing in New York and now Reggie Miller in Indiana) and in both cases, each team just didn't have enough to win an NBA championship. The Chicago Bulls earned their last championship with Michael Jordan in 1998, having just eclipsed the Pacers in the eastern conference finals 4-3 and ironically enough, the Pacers lost to the New York Knicks in the 1999 Eastern conference finals, though that Knicks team was handily beaten by Tim Duncan's spurs 4 games to 1 in the league finals. 

Jackson's playing career ended in the 2003-2004 season after spending a season each with New York once again, Utah, and Houston. He was consistently a starter for all but the last two years of his career, but he never reached the statistical peak of his sophomore season ever again. However, he did impact the game in a different way however, in literally changing the rulebook based on his style of play. It was not uncommon for Jackson to spend considerable time dribbling and boxing players out in the paint with his back to the basket before making another move - something that Charles Barkley also did to great effect. In 1999, the five second back to the basket rule was introduced, only allowing players five seconds of dribbling below the free throw line with their back to the basket until they stop, with violation of the rule resulting in a turnover. While not explicitly the result of Jackson, both Jackson and Barkley were the prominent players known for this style of play at the end of their careers and as such the rule is attributed to them both.

In 2011 he was hired as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, a team in a playoff drought similar to the Knicks when Jackson was first drafted. By the 2013 playoffs he got the team to the Western conference semifinals, and to the first round of the playoffs in 2014 but despite the general turnaround of the Warriors, he was not rehired as head coach. That job would go to Steve Kerr and the Warriors would begin their dynasty in the 2015 championship. There is much speculation as to what led to this decision by the Warriors organization, but it seems that under Jackson, there was a fair amount of dysfunction that occurred alongside the improvement in Golden State's record.

Finally in 2025 - the New York Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau after again not making an NBA finals and were in need of a new head coach. The likes of both Rick Pitino and Shaq publicly suggested Mark Jackson as a potential replacement for Thibodeau, but instead of getting his first coaching job since Golden State, Mike Brown is hired instead. Jackson immediately took to social media to demonstrate his displeasure with this outcome, revealing the insecurity that fans have been critical of his entire career. 

Jackson's frustration is understandable, both in that moment, and throughout his time in basketball. In so many cases he got close to championships both as a player and a coach but for whatever reasons, whether situational, personal, or some combination of both, he was never able to get over those humps. Time will tell if another opportunity will arise, and if so, will he be able to finally capitalize on it. 

8/21/25 - Doug Gilmour

 

Name: Doug Gilmour

Team: Toronto Maple Leafs

Position: Center (Hockey)

Card Year: 1996

Card Maker: Upper Deck

Card Number: 291

We're back on the normal schedule here and with a pretty stark pivot from last week's card. Despite the obvious difference of hockey versus basketball, last week's pick - Rich King had a brief, injury-filled career whereas this week's selection - 1994-95 Toronto Maple Leaf captain, Doug Gilmour had career longevity and success enviable by just about anyone. 

Doug Gilmour was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the 7th round of the 1982 NHL draft. Despite concerns regarding his small size for an NHL center, he was able to make his way onto the roster and played his first season for the Blues in 1983-84 playing in 80 games and tallying a respectable 53 points. He tallied his first 100+ point season in 86-87 with the Blues, scoring 42 goals and making 63 assists. It was during this time with the Blues that he was given the nickname of 'Killer' by then captain Brian Sutter, due to his aggression and defensive abilities.

He would be traded by the Blues to Calgary after the 1987-88 season where he would go on win the only Stanley Cup of his career with an absolutely dominant Flames team in 1989. He was traded by Calgary as part of a 10 player trade, the largest in NHL history, to Toronto midway through the 1991-92 season which was the starting season shown on this card, with stats both from Calgary and Toronto.

The following two seasons, 1992-93 and 1993-94, would be Gilmour's most productive with 127 and 111 points respectively and making the All Star Game in both seasons. In the 1992-93 season, he would lead the Leafs in assists and overall points, and was only two goals behind Nikolai Borschevsky for the lead in that category as well. This would also be the first and only time Gilmour would win the Frank J. Selke trophy for best defensive forward. Despite only finishing third in their division, the Leafs made it to game 7 in the Western Conference finals, but lost to the Los Angeles Kings, the eventual loser to the Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens.

1993-94 ended in similar fashion both for Gilmour and the Leafs. Toronto finished just two points behind the Detroit Red Wings in the new Central division of the Western conference and again made it to the conference finals, only to lose this time to the Vancouver Canucks, the eventual losers to the Stanley Cup Champion New York Rangers. Gilmour was third on the Leafs in scoring this season, but still led the team in assists with 84 and overall points with 111. He would be named team captain at the start of the 1994-95 season, that of this card, though that season was significantly shortened due to a league lockout. 

The Leafs started to wane in that shortened season, finishing only 4th in the Central divsion. Gilmour remained in Toronto until rebuilding began, and was traded during the 1996-97 season to the New Jersey Devils. From there, he bounced around the league with stops in Chicago, Buffalo, and Montreal while never reaching the same statistical success he had achieved in Toronto and earlier on in his career.

In 2002, Gilmour returned to the Maple Leafs, but was injured in his first game, resulting in him missing the season and retiring in 2003 after a 20 year NHL career. His number 93 was retired by the Leafs in 2009 and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 alongside Ed Belfour, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Mark Howe. He spent ten years with the Kingston Frontenacs serving as head coach, general manager, and head of hockey operations, but stepped down from his role there in 2025 to serve in a community relations role back with the Maple Leafs.

While he didn't have a long list of individual awards earned, Gilmour's consistency and longevity solidified him as deserving of the Hall of Fame accolades. With the exception of goals, he is effectively top 30 in all major career offensive statistics including both assists (15th) with 964 total and overall points (21st) with 1414. Extremely impressive for any hockey player, especially a kid who almost didn't make the league because of his height. 

Sources

Pro Hockey Reference

The Internet Hockey Database

The Kingston Whig Standard

The Hockey Hall of Fame

ESPN

8/11 - Rich King

 Name: Rich King

Team: Seattle Supersonics

Position: Center (Basketball)

Card Year: 1993

Card Maker: Topps

Card Number: 275

I have an early post for you all this week due to some upcoming responsibilities that'll keep me from looking up my silly stats. So not only do you get an early post, I've also pulled the first basketball card of the blog, that of 1991-92 Seattle Supersonics very large rookie center, and University of Nebraska star, Rich King. 

Rich King was taken by the Seattle Supersonics as the 14th overall pick of the 1991 NBA draft - a draft that included Larry Johnson going first overall to the still very new Charlotte Hornets, and Dikembe Mutombo going fourth to the Denver Nuggets. This was after a successful four years at Nebraska where at the time of this card's printing - King had the Nebraska single game, season, and career blocks records, as well as ranking third overall for all time rebounds. As of the current day he is still number 3 overall for career blocks with 183 and number 5 overall for total career rebounds with 761, fitting numbers given his huge 7 foot 2 frame. This card indicates that he had the single game block record with 7, however his name isn't shown in the Nebraska team reference page under that stat.

This is also the second Topps Stadium Club card I've picked out, Byron Evans being the first, if you're into that sort of thing. The reason I bring this up is The Sporting News skills rating system is also used here as it was on the Byron Evans card only with basketball skills instead. King gets 3.9's on both mobility and shooting range which to me translates to slightly above average (still assuming out of 5) - which feels generous but perhaps the card writer was grading on a curve given his size. However, that doesn't seem to be factored in at all to his 'intimidation' rating of 3.4 which is likely based on his poor 'defense' at 3.3. 

So while this card also alludes to his ability to both "pass the rock" and shoot the proverbial "J", his opportunities to do either of these things, let alone anything else basketball-related, was greatly limited in his time with Seattle. He was only healthy during his rookie season, playing 40 games and averaging 5.3 minutes per game. After that he fell victim to a slew of injuries resulting in 6 total surgeries between his thumb, back, knees, and feet. 

In a 2008 interview he describes the situation:

"Instead of being on the court, my memories of the Sonics are of being at Swedish Hospital, being in rehab, being with trainer Bob Medina. I'd never been hurt before that."

Following his rookie year, he only played 3 games in 1992-93, 27 games in 1993-94, and 2 games in 1994-95. After being dropped by Seattle, he went to training camp for Denver, Minnesota, and Vancouver, but did not make any rosters. He called it quits after his sixth and final surgery but remained in Washington, getting married and raising two sons, Christian and Beckham. Christian played the 2024-25 season for Washington as a 6'8 redshirt freshman forward and transferred to Montana State for the 25-26 season. 

King's professional life has involved real estate, a current 14-year stint at Amazon, and most interestingly - starting an investment firm with former teammate, Detlef Schrempf a few years after his career ended. 

Given all of this, I think it feels safe to say that while his NBA experience was a disappointment, Rich King is living a life like well, just that. 

Sources:

Sports Reference 

Kent Pavelka UW Interview

Basketball Reference

Seattle PI Interview

8/7 - Doug Jones

Name: Doug Jones

Team: Houston Astros

Position: Relief Pitcher 

Card Year: 1993

Card Maker: Topps

Card Number: 171

The thing I've enjoyed most about starting this blog, even in the few posts I've written, is getting
to learn about and piece together the stories of the athletes whose cards I've drawn. So far, I've encountered several common sports narratives (the draft busts, the career-ending injuries, the steady success of a hall-of-fame career) but in this week's card - 1992 Houston Astro, Doug Jones, a new type of story emerges - that of the late bloomer who played to his limited strengths and was able to have a long and successful professional career. 

Jones was drafted by the Brewers in 1978 at the age of 20 as a starting pitcher and bounced around their farm system before being very briefly called up in 1982. He returned to the minor leagues until 1986 where Cleveland picked him up late in the season as a reliever and he was able to notch his first major league save, maintaining a 2.50 ERA over 11 games. He threw two pitches - a sub-90 MPH fastball and a change-up and had to rely on batters making contact to get most of his outs. He is quoted as saying "My game is to get batters to hit the ball to someone. If I walk people or give up home runs, I’d be gone in a minute because I don’t have anything else going for me.”

Jones was able to make the opening day lineup for Cleveland in 1987 and despite some hiccups early in the season, maintained his spot on the roster and ended up an All-Star for the first time in 1988, at the age of 31, and the first of three straight All-Star nods with Cleveland. The last of those All-star seasons was in 1990 where Jones tallied 43 saves - good for third overall in the MLB. Despite this, he never made the postseason with the Indians and in 1991 he was giving too many hitters too many good looks, causing Cleveland to not renew his contract, and making him a free agent going into 1992. He was then signed by the Houston Astros.

Jones ended the 1992 season with 36 total saves, a Houston team record at the time of this card's printing. He earned his 4th All Star nod and is still in the Astros record books with the 7th highest overall number of single season saves. He spent one more season with Houston until being traded to Philadelphia for "Wild Thing" pitcher Mitch Williams. Given his steady personality and low velocity, he earned the moniker "Mild Thing" while reaching the All Star game for the Phillies for his 5th and final time. 

After Philadelphia, Jones moved pretty consistently for the rest of his career from Philadelphia to Baltimore, the Cubs, back to Milwaukee in 1996 where he put together in 1997 playing in 76 games and earning 36 saves, then on to Cleveland in 1998 where he was part of a playoff squad for the first time in his career at 41 years old. That Cleveland team made it to the 1998 ALCS but lost to the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees. He finished his career in 2000 after two seasons with the Oakland A's - keeping his ERA below 4.00 at the ages of 42 and 43.

Jones finished his career with 303 saves and all but one of them after the age of 30. He sadly died in 2021 due to complications from COVID. He had a career that seemed perpetually on edge, but he was grounded enough to keep doing what was needed to keep it going for as long as possible.   

Sources

RIP Baseball

Pro Baseball Reference

Society for American Baseball Reference

MLB Obituary

7/31 - Byron Evans

 

Name: Byron Evans

Team: Philadelphia Eagles

Position: Linebacker

Card Year: 1991

Card Maker: Topps - Stadium Club

Card Number: 151

This week's card features Byron Evans of the 1991 Philadelphia Eagles - a defensive co-captain with Reggie White on what was a very, very good defense.

Evans is described on the card as a "hard nosed middle linebacker" who "specializes in stuffing the run" which is backed up by the numbers from that season. 

The 1991 Eagles only gave up 4 rushing touchdowns during the regular season tied for 1st in the league. They also led the league in team defense for both rushing yards and yards per attempt with 1136 total yards and 3.0 yards / carry, respectively.

Evans had a solid season with 111 total tackles that year as well as 2 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries, but he was one part of just a monster defense featuring three 1st team All Pro players in Defensive Tackle Jerome Brown, the aforementioned Reggie White - who had a 15.0 sack season, and Defensive Tackle Clyde Simmons. 

Despite this brutal defensive front and a 10-6 record, the '91 Eagles did not make it to the playoffs as the NFC east was won by the eventual Super Bowl Champion Washington Redskins, with the Dallas Cowboys taking a wildcard spot from 2nd place. 

While never receiving the accolades of his storied teammates, Evans was an integral part to the Eagles defense for the duration of his career from his rookie year in 1987 to his last season in 1994. His career was cut short due to a severe injury - a broken tibia and torn MCL on the same play against the Cleveland Browns in 1994. 

What's interesting albeit a bit frustrating about this card is The Sporting News' skills rating system which despite my best efforts, I could not find the criteria used to come up with the given numbers. Given Evans' strengths, it makes sense that he'd have his highest rating against the run, which 4.4 out of 5(?) feels accurate - I guess? According to oldsportscards.com, these Topps cards were in response to Upper Deck greatly improving the photography featured on their cards. This could provide some explanation for the limited content provided, as the high quality photography was the focus for this set.

While disappointing that his career ended far earlier than it likely needed to, Byron Evans was a reliable run-stuffing linebacker, for some superior Eagles defenses. He may not have the name recognition of some of his teammates, but one thing he will always have and we will always have - is this.

Sources

Philadelphia Eagles - where are they now

Pro Football Reference