hornets! hornets!

the los angeles lakers were back-to-back nba champions when i went away to college. i had followed them fairly closely during my high school years thanks to friends being fans and the showtime era of lakers basketball. my favorite player was kareem, whose 1977-78 topps card i had pulled from the very first pack of basketball cards i ever purchased. i wish i still had that card but i sold it in the early days of ebay.

anyway, while at college in southern california, some friends and i decided that we should go to a laker game. for me, the chance to see kareem before he retired (he had announced that the 1988-89 season would be his last) was the primary motivator. i had never been to an nba game before, although i had been to many hockey games at the fabulous forum where the lakers played.

we went to the local ticketmaster outlet for tickets, and the only game for which tickets remained for sale was a game against the expansion charlotte hornets. in the rafters. yes, the lakers were a hot ticket back then for sure. we bought the tickets and wound up heading up to inglewood on january 27, 1989 to see the game.

the game was memorable to me as it featured former laker kurt rambis getting his championship ring before the game, and kareem scored a season high (up to that point) 19 points. magic johnson had a triple double and still sat out pretty much the entire second half. and, since it was the only visit the hornets paid to the lakers' home court, i figured i would see if i could find some cards featuring images from that game after i picked up a card from another nba game that i attended in person.

i was pretty happy to see that rambis' 1989-90 nba hoops card

featured a photo of him going up against the lakers' mychal thompson. rambis had 19 points and 9 rebounds in the game. and rambis' card wasn't the only one!

dell curry (who recently had his number retired by the hornets - or is it the bobcats franchise that retired the number?) is shown with either magic or kareem behind him, and mark macnamara makes an appearance on his own card (with dave hoppen) as well as tim kempton's. i don't recall mark mcnamara, and i don't recall paying much attention to who was on the court once magic, james worthy, and a.c. green checked out of the game. byron scott didn't play, giving michael cooper a chance to start along with those other three and kareem. 

i dug through my ticket stubs to find the one from this game

and i found some photos that i took. remember, i was in the nosebleeds so i was using a zoom lens, it was the 80's, and the lighting wasn't super bright.

this is the pregame ceremony where kareem presented rambis with his ring

and this is shortly thereafter when the rest of the lakers greeted rambis

note that i do not believe jack nicholson was at this game, but i don'r really recall.

here are a couple of game action shots - magic passing the ball to kareem posted up

and the skyhook!

the eggs were chilling....

here's the scoreboard at the end of the game

taking a picture like this is something i did because of my dad. he always did it and i've found it to be a nice way to remember the game, or even identify it if a stub is lost. i can't say that i do this every time i go to a game these days, but sometimes i remember.

finally, it's not from the hornets game, but i also picked up magic's card from the set, on which he is shown as earvin

this one goes in my memorials binder because of the black band he is sporting. it was worn during the 1989 postseason in honor of larry fleisher, a founder of the nba players' association who passed away in may of '89.

after attending this game, i didn't get to another nba game for about 20 years. in all, i would say i've been to a half dozen (ten at the most) nba games. definitely the fewest of the four major sports. still, having cards that represent two of those games is pretty cool. or, as they say about the nba, it's fan-tastic!