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

 

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

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. 

8/11 - 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