The Hobby Boards

ChrisP57 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 8:16 pm I collect modern guys and watch modern basketball. It might not be the same as the 90's but basketball is still my favorite sport and I'll continue to watch. Collecting and watching for me will always go hand and hand so I can't imagine not buying cards of today's stars.

kingofsnake wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 12:36 am I have League Pass and watch a lot of modern basketball. I do buy cards of modern players - mostly Contenders rookies to keep the continuity going, and otherwise singles here and there. But pre-Covid I also used to open a lot of wax - it was one of my favorite activities and now seems unimaginable.

Hondo wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 1:51 amYes & yes!

FrankAZHP wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 7:59 am When it comes to modern players I'll do rookies that have promise and guaranteed or probable future HoFers. It's easy to do when you only do 2 products (Topps Chrome and Donruss Optic).

I watch modern basketball, but not near as much as I did when I was younger. Just don't have the time to watch many games. I try to watch YouTube highlights or weekly recaps.

darz90scardz wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 10:41 am I watch the Knicks as much as I can every year, but I’ve never actually collected any modern players. I also try to catch Nuggets games just because I’m amazed by Jokic. It’s like he’s psychic out there, most entertaining player to watch by a mile. The 3-point-centric league in general is a buzzkill for me though. Guess it’s unavoidable as offensive skills and shooting in general get better each year.

To your point about nostalgia, I sometimes try to convince myself it’s not the reason why I collect what I do, but it’s undeniable. I do feel like there was a blip there in the late 90s where design was objectively at its peak, but then I remind myself that nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

AbraCalabro wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:53 pm I don't collect any modern players because I don't watch the games, I don't like the product, I don't like the brand, I don't like how the game is played and I am excessively turned off by the highly publicized political involvement of both the league and individual players, disgusted by it, even. The players, for the most part, I find to be insufferable, spoiled brats. The game is boring, bland, stale and guaranteed not to hurt anyone's feelings, everything is a foul. It's all about as cookie cutter as it gets. The cards themselves lack the creativity of previous years. Although to be fair, there are standouts that I myself enjoy and I can see how other cards would appeal to followers of the association's modern era. However for me, especially when comparing the product, both the league and the cards to the 90s...for the majority part, it's all cookie cutter junk. Too many jerseys, too many different logos, you can't even tell who's playing home and who's away.

The NBA's efforts of making these grassroots slogans, jerseys, team logos, etc., is contrived, disingenuous and see-through, it's all over produced crap for money. I also despise the hyper-sensationalized nature of it all and this is something that turned me off even as a kid back near the end of the 90s, I stopped hearing Tesh's Roundball Rock and the TNT themes and started hearing trashy lil wayne instead, the commentators started sounding like that one guy everyone knows who doesn't know how to shut his mouth and wants to stir up problems between two other people so they can see a fight.

Again this is not true of all the players, but that's the overall image of the league and its players.

I liked Zion's game, but there aren't really any nice inserts of his and on top of that, his signature is hideous, so I opted to maybe pick up some patches, but found out about the manufactured 88 jerseys and that was the final straw.

Saves me a lot of time and money, so, nothing of value lost for me. ...and it's unlikely I will ever watch a game. The only time I would tune in is to see the Choke-lahoma City Blunder fail year after year.

Also, no more SuperSonics...so, even less for me to care about, but even if they came back that wouldn't be enough, David Stern would have to self resurrect and offer to blow me (which I would decline) and give me 100 million tax free dollars, bring the trophy that rightfully belongs to Seattle back to Seattle and then somehow cast a spell that banishes clay bennet to the 9th circle of hell where he will be tormented for ever, being trampled over and over and over by Sonics fans, while a demonic parallel of Shawn Kemp dunks on him and then farts in his face a thousand times in rapid machine gun fire style farts while being held down by rabid Sonics fans and each fart becomes progressively worse to the Nth degree with even the first fart being so venomous that if a single scent molecule were to be picked up by Earth's breeze we'd be living on Mercury. All this while demonic Gary Payton talks sh!t to him until clay bennet cries while being reborn in hell only to suffer the same routine for eternity.

Also all that stuff I mentioned would have to be reversed and has to be like the 90s again and the NBA had better be on NBC again, with some classy music and commentators.

Also the dink head that owns star bucks would have to get eaten by a dinosaur. Then, before stern dies again, I get to soccer kick him in his shriveled nuts.

Thanks for hearing me out.

MittenStateCollector wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:23 pm Since the Pistons have been mediocre to bad (mostly bad, and more recently, just awful) since I started college in 2008, I really haven't had the desire to collect any panini era sets for active players outside of my Pistons refractor/prizms chase so I can continue to have a similar style card for all of the main players from late 90s onward (matching the years I have been emotionally invested in this team).

I still watch as many Pistons games as I can because I'm a true fan (or really just a self-loathing fan), but I really do find the current style of play pretty meh. Maybe that will change if the Pistons become competitive again, but for now, I'm content for my collecting to match my fandom: dwelling on the past.

dengbang wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 7:25 am Abra, I didn't know you felt so strongly about the current state of the NBA lol
I do agree that compared to the 90's, the game is geared towards scoring and protects players much more than in the 90's. I think the one we thing we have to understand is that it has always been a business but now the business is much much bigger than it ever was so the plans change and it has to evolve to accommodate for profitability. They definitely need to change the All Star weekend events though, I don't understand why it's so difficult for them to make it more competitive.

Your passions for the Supersonics is undeniable and as a Bulls fan I do have some choice words for our organization as well but not as strongly as you description of course lol
I have a feeling they will be bringing the team back to Seattle, but definitely won't be the same as before regardless of the team name.

If I had a time machine, you're the first person I'd let use it but only if you document everything and come back and show me the clips. Don't think I've ever seen anyone describe farts as a weapon so passionately as you have my friend lol
We need to grab a beer or something and talk about 90's ball lol

MittenStateCollector wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:23 pm Since the Pistons have been mediocre to bad (mostly bad, and more recently, just awful) since I started college in 2008, I really haven't had the desire to collect any panini era sets for active players outside of my Pistons refractor/prizms chase so I can continue to have a similar style card for all of the main players from late 90s onward (matching the years I have been emotionally invested in this team).

I still watch as many Pistons games as I can because I'm a true fan (or really just a self-loathing fan), but I really do find the current style of play pretty meh. Maybe that will change if the Pistons become competitive again, but for now, I'm content for my collecting to match my fandom: dwelling on the past.