I had another solid week for autograph returns, as we had 24 successes come back this week.
We had some pretty nice returns this week with former New York Yankees great Bobby Richardson, Terry Porter, and many vintage returns.
We post these every Sunday on our YouTube channel, so if ‘through the mail autographs’ are something you’re interested in, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
I another solid week for autograph returns, as we had 22 successes come back this week.
We had some pretty big returns this week with Cecil Fielder, a former AL MVP and one of the hosts of ‘Inside The NBA’ on TNT.
We post these every Sunday on our YouTube channel, so if ‘through the mail autographs’ are something you’re interested in, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.
So, I’ve been busy starting a new hobby this year. I’ve been sending off sports cards to athletes through the mail to get signed. I found it to be rewarding and fun.
I’m horrible at anything video-wise, but I have been posting videos on my YouTube channel. I include my weekly returns from athletes from baseball, football, basketball, and even WWE and the Olympics. I’ll explain how I do this below the embedded video.
The NBA season kicked off in October, but many don’t pay much attention to it until around Christmas (or when the NFL season ends).
This year’s rookie class has been fun to watch and we already have a tight race for the Rookie of the Year award.
This year’s class looked top-heavy early, but players like Orlando’s Franz Wagner and Oklahoma City’s Josh Giddey are jumping up the leaderboard.
Here are the top ten NBA rookies (so far) this season.
1. Evan Mobley – Cleveland Cavaliers (Picked #3) – Mobley and Barnes have been the two-best rookies so far and have jockeyed between #1 and #2 so far. I wouldn’t put up a fuss if you think Barnes is better, but Mobley has improved every month. His ceiling is really high, and once the Cavs group of young players are 100% healthy next year, they could be a really fun team to watch. He may even lead the Cavs to a playoff berth this year.
It’s been a few years since I added to our reDraft series. I like the ten-year mark to look back at a draft class and assess the talents. I used to do them after six or seven years, but if you go back and read some of those, they feel dated now due to some players peaking early.
In 2011, Kyrie Irving was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was arguably the consensus best player in the draft at the time. The drop-off after Irving was steep and few people thought anyone else should have been the top pick in that draft.
The Cleveland Cavaliers had two picks in the top-five. They selected Irving and power forward Tristan Thompson. Things could have been much different had they selected the players we pick in our reDraft.
We look back at the 2011 NBA Draft and reDraft based on their careers so far.
The 2021 NBA Draft is two rounds and consists of just 60 picks, so not every good college basketball player will hear his name called. Many NBA teams opt to select players with a higher upside and some of those picks are foreign players they wish to just stash overseas.
There are still some very good players left to sign, but with another short offseason, they may not get as many opportunities to get noticed as in previous years.
Milwaukee Bucks guard Bryn Forbes won an NBA title this year and he went undrafted back in 2016.
This is not the end of the road for these players. There are many undrafted players in the NBA, so a few of these guys will still make their dreams come true in the future.
Here are the best undrafted players not selected in the 2021 NBA Draft.
The 2020 NBA Draft is two rounds and consists of just 60 picks, so not every good college basketball player will hear his name called. Many NBA teams opt to select players with a higher upside and some of those picks are foreign players they wish to just stash overseas.
There are still some very good players left to sign, but due to the pandemic, there is no Summer League to prove they belong in the league. Also, it’s unknown what sort of Gatorade League will happen for the 2020-21 season. This group of undrafted players will have some unique obstacles in their way.
Guys like Alex Caruso and Quinn Cook won an NBA title this year and they went undrafted in their respective draft classes.
This is not the end of the road for these players. There are many undrafted players in the NBA, so a few of these guys will still make their dreams come true in the future.
Here are the best undrafted players not selected in the 2020 NBA Draft.
There are some pretty hot debates over which sport is, of all of them, the quintessentially American sport. There’s football, of course, and baseball. But when it comes to cultural impact, it’s hard to look beyond the meteoric rise of basketball and just how deeply ingrained with the fabric of the US that it is. Here, we’re going to look at the impacts basketball has had beyond the same itself, and how it has shaped a generation of fans and people who are, if anything, only tangentially tied to the sport.
The democratization of sport
You can’t talk about the basketball court without talking about how it opened up the way for a lot of people to participate in sports in ways they might not have before. When it comes to football and baseball, there’s a need for a field, which requires space that simply isn’t available in many urban areas. Basketball courts fit into urban areas without any problem and, as such, a lot of kids were able to grow up playing in their local courts, taking that passion with them to school and, if lucky, on to the college and the professional level. Basketball made sports available to those in the city who didn’t have the opportunity before and, as such, has very much become the game of urban America.
Coming into the season, Zion Williamson, Ja Morant and R.J. Barrett were the overwhelming picks to be the Rookie of the Year this year. I didn’t see anyone pick any other rookie as a possible winner. I’m picked Barrett this preseason as he looked pretty damn good.
Since the start of the season, there have been a handful of other rookies that have shot up the leaderboard. Miami guard Tyler Herro, Memphis small forward Brandon Clarke and Golden State power forward Eric Paschall have thrown their name in the running. Things could change once Zion Williamson debuts, but as of early December, he has yet to appear in the regular season.
Can second-round pick Paschall win the Rookie of the Year?
Every year, only 60 players get picked in the NBA draft. That’s 60 players versus a multitude of that number in NBA hopefuls. And if you consider the NBA draft picks being the main and only game in town that decides on the future of the NBA, you might be mistaken. The world of unrestricted and restricted free-agents might be just as exciting and vibrant and, more importantly, decisive in the NBA power rankings. There could be many reasons why someone is or has become a free-agent, unpicked in the draft, released by a team due to rebuilding purposes, salary cap issues, but being a free-agent does not diminish someone’s value in the market.
The 2019 NBA Draft is two rounds and consists of just 60 picks, so not every good college basketball player will hear his name called. Many NBA teams opt to select players with a higher upside and some of those picks are foreign players they wish to just stash overseas.
There are still some very good players left to either sign for an NBA team’s Summer League spot in hopes of catching on with a team. Most will probably end up in the Gatorade League or play overseas.
Guys like Fred VanVleet and Jeremy Lin won an NBA title this year and they went undrafted in their respective draft classes.
I’m sure people who love ‘their team’ always wonder why the star of their college team didn’t even play a single minute in the NBA.
This is not the end of the road for these players. There are many undrafted players in the NBA, so a few of these guys will still make their dreams come true in the future.
Here are the best undrafted players not selected in the 2019 NBA Draft.
We don’t usually do mock drafts on the site, but we do them when a draft class is this darn stacked.
There are players in this year’s draft class that will be taken after the Lottery and will make instant impacts for their teams. There are even guys who were Lottery pick locks just a month ago, but are now slotted to go in the 20’s. There are also some young talents who suffered injuries last season (Bol Bol) and are tumbling down draft boards.
The first three picks are almost a certainty (even though I think there’s a chance #3 could be a Wild-Card), but after that trio, it could be a wild ride. There are also some teams picking early in the draft who are shopping their picks, so that could change things even more.
Here is our 2019 NBA Mock Draft.