Mookie Blaylock

I think it's pretty well known fun fact amongst fans of Pearl Jam that the band briefly went by the name Mookie Blaylock after the NBA guard.  They played a 10-show tour with Alice In Chains under the name before changing it in early 1991.

There's different stories out there about how they ended up with the name Mookie Blaylock, but I'm inclined to go with the story guitarist Jeff Ament gave -that involved basketball cards- to The Missoulan in 2008: 

"When we were recording our first record, we had a per diem of about $10. So when we got lunch at the store across the street, we'd always buy a pack of basketball cards. When we turned in our tape, we didn't have a name for the band yet so we put a Mookie Blaylock card in the case. We were about to go on a tour and still didn't have a name and needed one quickly. We were told it didn't need to be the name that we were going to use forever, just something for the tour. Someone saw the Mookie Blaylock card and said, ‘How about Mookie Blaylock?' We decided to go with it and did a 10-show tour with Alice in Chains as Mookie Blaylock. Mookie was cool about it, too—he didn't sue us. I actually got to meet him later on and shoot around a little bit. We also made a Pearl Jam T-shirt with a picture of him on it. I guess we owe Mookie a lot."

I read that it was revealed on Bill Simmons' podcast that the card that was the inspiration was actually the the 1991-92 Skybox, where I chose the 1990-91 design.  The reason being is finding quality images from that period was, well, they probably didn't know that one day some guy would want to make a custom basketball card and needed quality pics to do so.  Let's just say that.  I really like the image of Vedder and Ament on this card, but it didn't work well in my opinion with the 1991-92 design, but I thought it looked stellar inside of the 1990-91 confines.  

UPDATE: I believe I've determined that the card that was the inspiration for the band originally being called Mookie Blaylock actually could not have been the 1991-92 Skybox.  On 3/10/91 the band went on Seattle's KISW and formally announced the name Pearl Jam.  The 1991-92 Skybox was not even out at that time, let alone months before when they started calling themselves Mookie Blaylock.

There's stories that Mookie Blaylock (the person) threatened to sue over the unauthorized use of his name, but I've also read that that may not be true.  What is true though is that for Mookie it's better that he be a trivia question to the history of one of the most successful rock bands ever than to have totally lost his individualism had they kept his name.  Of course we didn't know then how we'd access information and media these days wit the internet, but imagine Mookie wanting to show his kids or nieces/nephews his highlights and having to sift through all the Pearl Jam stuff.  It would totally suck.

I've read that Pearl Jam's first album being named Ten was a nod to Mookie Blaylock being that it was his jersey number.  So, I gave this card the #10 as an Easter egg to that.  In the space where the team logo is on the front of the card I created a modified version of the Super Sonics logo that was in use in 1991 with the Seattle skyline, with Pearl Jam being synonymous to Seattle's grunge rock scene that exploded onto popular culture in the early '90s.

Personal Fun Fact: Every once in awhile when I'm feeling the prod of life's existential ponderings I end up listening to Pearl Jam for three or four days in a row.  

I just want to scream HELLOOO!

My God it's been so long
Never dreamed you'd return
But now here you are and here I am.

Personal Fun Fact #2: The best dog I ever had was named Mookie. 

Snake Plissken

This card is based on the basketball scene from John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. (1996) starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken.

This particular card drove me a bit mad.  I like the way it turned out overall, but I didn't get to do *exactly* what I wanted to do.  I didn't get to add the Skybox signature basketball motion trail.  The quality of the image wasn't the greatest for starters.  The positioning of the ball didn't make the most sense and the trail also made the card look a bit crowded.  I wasn't as discouraged after seeing that at least the James Worthy card in the set just has the glowing ball without a trail.  Fortunately, I didn't have this problem with the first card I did using the 1990-91 Skybox inspired design because there wasn't a basketball present in the image. But, like I said, overall I feel it's a pretty cool card.

1990-91 Skybox

Well, That's Redundant.

The idea behind Phantom Cardboard is the creation of cards that are modeled after vintage trading cards that didn't actually exist.  Well, when doing some scrolling recently on eBay I happen to come across the card pictured above.  Not only was an Ahmad Rashad card made for the preseason game in 1990 that he suited up for the Sixers, but it was made by the exact same card set I was looking to emulate -- the 1990-91 Skybox set.

It wasn't part of their regular set, it was a part of special broadcasters set Skybox put together.  I searched out and found that there's a total of four cards to this set.  Along with Ahmad there is Julie Moran, Bob Costas and Pat Riley (although I could only find images for Rashad and Moran).

Whoopsie.  Oh well. 

Ahmad Rashad

Back in the mid through late ‘90s times were tight in our house and my parents decided cable television was a luxury we could do without.  This meant basketball obsessed me only got to see my beloved Pistons and occasionally games on NBC towards the end of the season.  I’ve never been an evening news watcher --it’s always depressing-- so I didn't get a lot of out-of-market highlights from around the NBA, because with no cable there’s no SportsCenter.  For this reason I looked forward to each Saturday afternoon to NBA Inside Stuff hosted by Ahmad Rashad to feed my Basketball Jones.  I would even often times record the episodes so I could watch them again because I was that obsessed.

I really liked the show’s format.  The “Rewind” segment was probably my favorite where they would recap the best action from the previous week from around the NBA.  There was also “Jam Session” where they’d do a montage of dunks set to popular songs.  In addition Ahmad would also do interview segments with players that would give you insight to their personalities and interests away from the court.  They packed a lot into their 30 minute time slot and it was always upbeat and entertaining.

As a way to promote Inside Stuff and their new partnership with NBC the NBA allowed Ahmad, a former NFL player, to suit up for the Philadelphia 76ers and log a couple of minutes in a preseason game against the then expansion Minnesota Timberwolves.  Eighteen thousand plus turned out to Minneapolis’ Target Center for this preseason game to see their new franchise take on the Sixers and a guy who played wide receiver for their Vikings from 1976 to his final season in 1982; making the Pro Bowl from 1978 to 1981.

For his part Ahmad went one-for-one knocking down a 20-foot jumper in his couple minutes of play.  The Sixers won the game 102-96.  The footage, which included Sixers’ practice, was later used as a segment on NBA Inside Stuff.

1990-91 Skybox

For this card I’ve chosen a 1990-91 Skybox inspired design.  This was Skybox’s inaugural basketball set.  The cards featured a more premium look than that of NBA Hoops or Fleer.  They were packaged in foil packs and featured action photos with state-of-the-art (for the time) computer graphic backgrounds.  The card back featured a candid photo of the players with very minimal statistical information.  I remember collecting these back in 1990.  I want to say they were a later season release if I remember correctly.  They were okay but I much prefer the NBA Hoops release from this year with Fleer bringing up the rear, the wayyy rear.

I’ve actually been wanting to use this design for the longest time now but nothing really made sense to me; which is why I was thrilled when I came across the photo of Ahmad in Sixers gear and learned it was from 1990.  I love the way this one turned out, it’s exactly the way I pictured it in my head. 

With my satisfaction from this card I’ve got another project planned for this template.  It’s a long term one though because the design takes a little more time and the subject is season specific.  No more hints.