I mostly only collect baseball cards. I played baseball in school and to this day, it's my favorite sport to play or watch. I also played basketball and was the high scorer on our team during my junior year of high school averaging 13 points per game which pretty much informs you as to how bad we were. I did track and field and won a New England high jump competition in 1977 jumping my height of 5'11" to win and then going to the Nationals in South Carolina where I learned there were lots of guys who could jump higher than I could. I was also a New England chess champion in 1976 and a runner up table tennis champion. But enough about me.
The only other sports cards I collect, other than baseball are of players who played baseball, i.e., Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders football cards, Michael Jordan basketball cards, etc. For today's post, just for fun, I've dug through my collection and come up with nine "baseball" cards of players who played in the NBA.
1957 Topps #28 Gene Conley (Conley played 11 seasons with the Boston Braves, Phillies and Red Sox making the All-star team three times and winning a World Championship with the Braves. He also spent six seasons in the NBA playing for the Celtics and Knicks, winning three NBA Championships with the Celtics. He was the first athlete to play for three professional teams in the same city playing for the Boston Braves, Celtics and Red Sox.)
1959 Topps #137 Dick Ricketts RS RC (Rickets pitched for the Cardinals in 1959 and played three seasons in the NBA for the St. Louis Hawks and the Royals of Rochester and then Cincinnati.)
1965 Topps #297 Dave DeBusschere (DeBusschere pitched for the White Sox for two seasons and then went on to play in the NBA for 12 seasons for the Pistons and the Knicks. He was an eight-time NBA All-star and two-time NBA Champion. His number 22 was retired by the Knicks and he was elected to the basketball Hall of Fame.)
1967 Topps #567 Steve Hamilton (Hamilton pitched for 12 seasons with the Indians, Senators, Yankees, White Sox, Giants and Cubs and spent two seasons in the NBA with the Minneapolis Lakers.)
1972 Topps #787 Ron Reed (Reed played two seasons with the Detroit Pistons before embarking on a 19-year MLB career with stops in Atlanta, St. Louis, Philadelphia and the south side of Chicago. He was an All-star and a World Series Champion and was the winning pitcher of the game in which Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth with his 715th home run.)
1981 Topps Traded #727 Danny Ainge XRC (Ainge started out as an infielder for the Blue Jays and spent three seasons with them before embarking on a career in the NBA. He held the record for being the youngest player to homer for the Blue Jays until Vlad Guerrero Jr. did it. He played 14 seasons in the NBA winning two championships with the Celtics then playing for the Kings, Trail Blazers and Suns. He is now a NBA executive.)
1994 Fun Pack #170 Michael Jordan RC (Michael Jordan's baseball career is well-documented as is his NBA career. In 1999 "His Airness" was voted as the number one athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN for their SportsCentury biography program beating out Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Wayne Gretzky. His manager on the minor league Birmingham Barons was none other than Terry Francona. Here is one of his baseball rookie cards.)
2004 Upper Deck First Pitch Inserts #SP7 LeBron James (I was so disappointed when I pulled this card from a pack back in 2004 because he wasn't a baseball player. However I had heard that he might be pretty good one day so I hung on to it.)
2006 Upper Deck #825 Mark Hendrickson (Hendrickson played four seasons in the NBA for the 76ers, Kings, Nets and Cavaliers. Frustrated by not getting enough playing time, he switched to MLB where he pitched for 10 seasons for the Blue Jays, Devil Rays, Dodgers, Marlins and Orioles. He owns the distinction of serving up Ken Griffey Jr.'s 600th home run.)