Yao Ming to miss the rest of season?

February 2008

General manager Daryl Morey made the announcement Tuesday, hours before the Rockets put their 12-game winning streak on the line against the Washington Wizards. All-Star center Yao Ming is out for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot, a stunning blow to the surging Houston Rockets.

Yao was examined after Monday’s practice at Memorial Hermann Hospital and met Rockets team physician Dr. Tom Clanton to go over the test results. The Rockets confirmed the news this afternoon. He is averaging 22 points and 10.8 rebounds for the Rockets (36-20), who have won 12 straight games to move within 2.5 games of front-running San Antonio in the Southwest Division. Yao has been an All-Star in each of his six NBA seasons, averaging 19 points and 9.2 rebounds.

Clanton said there was no specific event that led to the injury, but rather an accumulation of stresses on the bone. Yao first experienced soreness and pain in his ankle before the All-Star game and tests were done Monday when the situation didn’t improve. This is Yao’s fourth major injury in the last two years. He missed 32 games last season with a fracture in his right leg and 21 games in late 2006 with a toe infection that required surgery. He missed four games in April 2006 after breaking his foot.

If Yao chooses surgery, Clanton said, it would involve placing screws across the bone to hold it together. The second option would be to treat it with a cast and crutches. Both options involve a healing time of about four months.

CAVS'S NEW TEAM

February 2008

Show No Mercy

Cavs made a great game, 3 of their starter scored double-double. Lebron James: 25 points and 11 assists. Ben Wallace: 12 points 10 rebounds. Zydrunas Ilgauskas: 22 points 13 rebounds. They won 109 - 89 over Memphis grizzlies. Is this a new beginning? Are they become a superteam such as Boston Celtics? You can see the complete result, click below to enlarge the statistics.

In another game, Phoenix Suns loss with minus 30 points from their opponent. Grant Hill showed a bad appearance. With 26:35 minutes play he didn't score at all. But Shaq still their best defender with 11 rebounds and 7 points. Amare Stoudemire scored team high 31 points, Rasheed Wallace scored team high for Pistons with 22 poits. The Pistons made a good field goals but Phoenix did it bad, click below to enlarge the statistics.

The Cavs Extreme Makeover, is it Good?

February 2008

3 Party Exchange

You have heard the News: Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown to the Bulls and Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall to Seattle. In exchange, the Cavaliers acquired forward/center Ben Wallace and forward/center Joe Smith plus Cleveland will get the 2009 second round draft pick from the Bulls and swingman Wally Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the Sonics. The last transfer is Andrian Griffin from Bulls to Cavs to Seattle (yeah, this one really 3 party exchange).

The new players have picked their numbers. Wallace's normal No. 3 is worn by Sasha Pavlovic, so Wallace will wear No. 4. Smith will take over Hughes' No. 32, Szczerbiak will wear his normal No. 10 and West will wear his normal No. 13.

But the new players didn't play when the Cavs won 90-89 over the Wizards. Actually, Lebron James wanted to have Jason Kidd. But James said he was pleased that the move brought front-line help and improved shooting, two areas he thought needed shoring up. He also is looking forward to playing alongside Wallace.

Do you think the move will make the Cavs win the NBA title this year? You can share your opinion in our pooling on the right.

SUNS BEAT THE CELTICS

February 2008

The DieseL "Slow but Sure"

After the lost from Lakers 124 - 130, Phoenix Suns won over Boston Celtics 85 - 77.

Shaquille O' Neal, after getting 15 points in his debut, just score 4 points. But he had a good defence with 14 rebounds, 2 block Shots. His team mates, Grant Hill scored double double, 14 points and 13 Rebounds. Amare Stoudemire scored team-high with 28 points. Kevin Garnett Scored team -high for Celtics with 19 points.

It's a prove, that Shaq can score and still a tremendous defender. I think in his age, Shaq have to concetrate on 1 point, scoring or defending. With shaq on the defence, his teammates can focus for making points. You can see the complete result below (click to enlarge), that Shaq has 13 defensive + 1 offensive rebounds. It's good to use his nicknames "DIESEL", because if many people argue that Shaq is become slow, The Diesel himself can prove that he is maybe slow but sure.

Certificate Of Authenticity - COA

February 2008

Is there anything you like most in collecting cards, than having a card that personally autographed by the player you have adore for years? I don't. Thus, i really love my autograph cards, wether it's include piece of other memorabilia or not.

You can get those autograph by asking the player, or get it from pacs. An autograph card from cards manufacture have their own certificate of authenticity printed on the card. Usually in the back have an annoucement that the card company certify the autheticity of the autograph.

Card company such as Topps, has sticker on the autograph.

Skybox (Fleer) has seal of authenticity in the front of the card.

If you can ask the player to sign a card from you, there is no Certificate Of Authenticity (COA). Unless you send it to a company such as Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) or Global Authentication (GAI) or other reputable company, i guess it's hard to convince other person that your autograph's card is authentic.

Months ago, i bought a card that signed by Larry Bird with a COA, but i had sold the card. You can see the example of a Certificate of Authenticity. If you ask me is that an authentic autograph or not, honestly i really don't know. But the autograph it seems typical with the autograph cards from Card Company, see here. Click the picture below to enlarge.

Below are some additional pointers to keep in mind when you are told that an autograph card has a certificate of authenticity:

* To repeat: Always see read, understand, and substantiate the full text of any certificate of authenticity BEFORE you buy the card.

* If the card is for sale online, request and review the complete COA, front and back, and not just a portion of it. Either have the seller FAX it to you or send clear, legible, and complete digital images.

* Any conditional statements found in a certificate of authenticity such as "in our considered opinion..." or "we believe that..." are warning signs that the card may not be genuine. A valid certificate states that the card is unquestionably signed by the player who has signed it.

* A valid certificate of authenticity should contain documented proof or evidence as to why the autograph is genuine.

* If you have any questions about a certificate of authenticity, contact the individual or entity that authored it, assuming that person is not the seller, and ask those questions BEFORE you buy the card.

* A certificate without adequate contact information for the person or company making the statements, or with only an unidentifiable signature should not be considered valid. Illegible or incomplete contact information is NEVER acceptable.

* Certificates for card by famous company such as Upper Deck, Classic, and Topps should include the exact titles of the card, dates the card was produced, names of publishers (for limited editions), edition sizes (for limited editions), and exact dimensions of the card.

* Anytime that a certificate of authenticity does not meet all of the above requirements, consider yourself at risk if you buy the card.

INSERT CARDS

February 2008

Insert card has many variety. The popular insert card is an autograph insert card. The most popular autograph insert card is an autograph patch insert card. It sell more expensive than a common insert card. Here are some of my autograph patch insert cards (click to enlarge):

Larry Bird Auto Patch Exquisite

Jason Kidd Auto Patch Exquisite

Kobe Bryant Auto Patch UD Game Used

ALL STAR RESULT

February 2008

Here is the result of the latest All Star Game . . . Well Lebron James got the MVP, it think it's predictable. In the image (below) you can see all players name, the full statistics, the name of stadium, the attandance, e.t.c. Just click it.

SLAM DUNK CONTEST :

WON BY DWIGHT HOWARD THE SUPERMAN

The dunk itself not too revolusioner (i think), but the costum make it so unbelievable. I retouch the photo to make the costum more "fly-like" ( see below). You can see the original photo on this site

The Basic of Basketball Cards

February 2008

I guess we have to understand the basic about basketball card, here we go . . .

CASE - BOX – PACK

CASE = The card company distribute its product with cases. Each case contain some boxes

BOX = In a box, you can find 1 pack or more. Some manufacture, produce boxes that contain 36 pack.. The premium card usually has fewer packs. For Example Exquisite; it has just 1 pack

PACK = In a pack, you can find 1 or more cards. Recent packs usually has fewer cards. For Example Topps Trademark Moves has just 5 cards in a pack.

REGULAR CARD

Let’s talk about the regular card. When you buy a box or just a pack, its cover has informations about what you will find in a box or a pack. A product usually has regular cards (base cards) that produce massively (the picure on the left is Jordan's Exquisite base card). You can devide a regular card into 2 different type: statistic and subset.

Statistic Regular Card has a spesific player’s statistic history year by year and sometimes plus a short information about the player.

Subset Regular Card has a specific information or events or anything else beside a statistic regular card.

Why Collecting Cards?

February 2008

Basketball is NBA, so just collect Basketball cards!

Yeah, i like watching NBA action since a little kid. It's fun. The thing i like most is collecting basketball card. The funny thing is, if i remember about basketball i just remember all NBA players.

If you looking some NBA cards you can visit

http://cesariogallery.blogsome.com/ and you can ask a specific player that you wanted to collect.

Well, collecting is really challenging. Like the picture on the top. It's Michael Jordan Insert Card From Topps 1996-97 Super Team NBA Finals. This card more valuable than regular card.

I guess some people wondering about what is regular card? What is Insert card? e.t.c. Here it is:

Regular Card: Card that you can find in any packs from all basketball cards manufacture. Usually the front card consist the player photo's. Behind are the statistics and/or short story about the player.

Insert Card: Card that you can find from a pack but there is an odds. Example, an odds to find Magic's All Rookie Insert Card From HOOPS is 1:36. It means, You can find 1 card in every 36 packs.

Parallel Card: Card that similar to Reguler or insert Cards, but with diffrent design. And there is an odd to find this kind of card (see: Insert Card). A parallel card from a regular or insert card is more difficult to find.

But what exactly that make people crazy to collect them?

If you like someone or something, you will often imagine about it. Like to talk about it. And become interesting everything about it. In a basketball card, you can see a picture, a statistic, history, story, a piece of memorabilia such as signature/autograph, jersey, warm up, shoe, floor and any other things. And it's really cool to have some of the cards and see them in your possession.

The second thing, a basketball card has a value. If you have a Lebon James Rookie card from exquisite, it worth around $10,000. Can you imagine it? If the player are hot or on the fire such as Kevin Garnett, the value of his card will gradually up. Why? That's refer to Economic theory, supply and demand. If many people searching for specific player's card and not much people offer to sell it, it will more valuable than a player that not much people want to buy, in the other hand many seller offer the cards.

Third is the challenge and satisfaction. If you want to collect a player, for example Jason Kidd, you will exciting if you have his card that only 25 cards exsist. Or maybe just 1 card in the whole world it called 1/1 card. And if you can complete a series of insert card, that make your collection worth to proud of. But to complete a series is not easy.