Christmas means presents and basketball in New York
By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor | Commentary
Christmas means presents, family and friends. In the sports world, it means a lot of basketball.
The NBA featured five games of some of the best teams and greatest historical rivalries in this year‘s edition.
The first game began with the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls, who have played each other often on Christmas, but this was the first time since the Michael Jordan era the Bulls have played on Dec. 25. New York has played on Christmas more than 40 times.
This season, much of the talk has surrounded New York’s Amar’e Stoudemire, but Knicks guard Raymond Felton showed why Stoudemire has been able to play at such a high level. Felton had 20 points and 12 assists in a 103-95 win over Chicago. One of the stats, they read off on television was Felton feeds Stoudemire for 38 percent of his assists.
Felton’s 2005-06 Exquisite Collection jersey auto Rookie Card /99 – his best RC – can be had for around $100 or less. When Felton first broke on to the NBA scene as the fifth overall pick by Charlotte, his cards’ value was high.
Felton was a quick guard coming out of North Carolina, one of the most stories NCAA men’s basketball programs.
His Exquisite RC initially booked for $800 and climbed to as high as $900 in a short time, but since then the RC‘s value has dramatically dropped.
Before arriving to New York this season, Felton never averaged more than 14.4 points with the Bobcats in five years.
Felton was likely seen as one of the players who could five the 7-year -old a surge, but Charlotte has just one .500-plus season. Last year, Charlotte finished 44-38 (.537) and made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. The bobcats lost in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs to the Orlando Magic.
Felton averaged 11.8 points a game in the postseason with just 5.0 assists.
Perhaps being on national television on Christmas Day will garner Felton more attention and get his cards to rise in value.
Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.
