2005-06 Topps Basketball Set

The Christmas sets continue to trickle in.  On Saturday the 2005-06 Topps basketball set arrived in the mail.

Kobe Bryant was still wearing uniform number eight on this card.  I guess he wasn't going 24 hours a day yet.  There was the period of time when the Lakers wore these baby blue uniforms a couple of times a season.  I think they are throwbacks to the 1950's or 1960's.  They matched well with their in-town UCLA Bruins.

Here are a couple of Hall of Famers.  Ironically, I recently watched their induction speeches on YouTube.  Both were unexpected.  Iverson was very humble and appreciative.  Shaq used a lot of colorful language.

Here are a couple of future Hall of Famers.  When I was a little kid I remember Kareem Abdul-Jabbar closing in on Wilt Chamberlain's career scoring record.  I was pretty excited when he finally did it.  Now I'm starting to wonder the same thing about LeBron James as he closes in on Kareem's record.  There was a time when Karl Malone seemed certain to catch Kareem, but then he got hurt and things stopped in a hurry.  I'm a Lakers and Kareem fan, so I'm not rooting for LeBron to do it.  But I don't want the guy to get hurt either.  LeBron's been talking lately about not seeing his kids enough and how he's missing their games and everything.  But I think he sticks it out.  I think he'll break the record.