When I usually think of a hidden treasure... I'm thinking of a semi-valuable card. Well the featured card in today's post is far from valuable. According to Beckett it has a book value of $10.
So you might be wondering, what makes this a treasure. Well... it's not... unless you're a Matt Barnes fan or a Lakers fan. In my case, I'm a Laker fan... and have witnessed Barnes, along with Steve Blake and Shannon Brown transform a mediocre bench last season into something special this year.
Barnes is playing out of his mind... averaging 21.8 minutes per game, 9.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, and 2.5 apg. In addition to these stats he's brought a much needed "toughness" to the Lakers bench.
It was just this past March where Barnes and Kobe were going at it, while Barnes was a member of the Magic. It's one of my favorite clips, because Barnes tries to fake an inbound pass to Kobe's face, and the Black Mamba doesn't even flinch. At the time, I hated the guy... but now that's he's on the Laker's roster... it's hard not to love him.
Just last week against Minnesota, Barnes went off. He was a perfect 7 for 7 from the floor. Five of those seven shots were three pointers. He was also perfect from the free throw line going 5 for 5. And if that wasn't enough... he added 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals in a little under 24 minutes of play. Sit back and check this out...
I've had the week off and on Wednesday, I spent a few hours going through my autograph tradelists... I finally put all of my autographs in alphabetical order (except hockey). Well sitting there in my basketball binder was this Matt Barnes:
Like I said, it's nothing special to 99.9% of the collectors out there... however to me... it's a hidden treasure. I have this autograph for years and nobody ever bothered to take it off my hands. In fact, I think it was destined to be in my PC. So... as of Wednesday, I've taken it off my tradelist and added to my Laker's PC.
What make this card special is that Barnes doesn't have many certified autographed cards out there. He signed for three products and all of them were draft pick products in 2002: Press Pass, Sage, and Sage Hit.
Today's question of the day is...
Have you ever had a player you disliked, join your favorite team? If so, did you let go of your grudge against him?
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. I appreciated all of the kind words in yesterday's comments. Have a great weekend!
That first video is the best. The coolest thing about it is that "Black Mamba" doesn't even flinch. Barnes is a scraper who does the little things to win, or dirty work. I love what the Lakers did to improve their team. The hard work Brown put in helps too.
ReplyDeleteThe Yanks brought in Johnny "No Arm" Damon and i hated him in Boston and I hate him to this day. Even after the yanks didn't resign him.
P.S. the word "Hate" used purposely.
There were rumors that Tony LaRussa would not return to St. Louis and the Reds would sign him. They were mostly unfounded, though Walt Jocketty (Reds GM) and Bob Castellini (Reds owner) both were with St. Louis and are supposedly fond of Tony.
ReplyDeleteLaRussa is my least favorite person in all of sports. It's more than just that he is the manager of the Cardinals, who seem to dominate the NL Central (not this year!!!!). His quote "everyone knew Canseco was doing steroids" means he was either turning a blind eye or is just a liar who was protecting McGwire (I think both).
Thankfully, we had a good year, re-signed Dusty, and I don't have to choose.