Comments on: Mike Newlin http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/ Voice of the Mathematically Eliminated Wed, 30 May 2012 18:37:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Champ Summers http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4424 Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:13:03 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4424 13.  Ha. This card is great. It seems as though there should be a third “starburst” on the card stating “Trust us, he really DOES play for the Knicks”

]]> By: El Lay Dave http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4423 Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:05:26 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4423 12.  One of the great things about the ABA was the wardrobes, for example, head coach Larry Brown:

http://i.a.cnn.net/si/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/07/27/gallery.larrybrown/gallery3.jpg

]]> By: Josh Wilker http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4422 Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:25:59 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4422 11.  10 : My favorite poster on my wall in childhood was the one of a skying David Thompson.

He did get a to play for Moe for a little while, averaging 25 ppg for the Nuggets the year Moe took over as head coach in midseason (’80-’81) then chipped in 15 ppg for the ’81-’82 English-Vandeweghe-Issel team.

]]> By: Lonnie Smith for president http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4421 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:30:30 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4421 10.  Sadly, I did not see the 1976 ABA finals. I did however have a ticket for the All-Star Game that year, one of the few documented legends of “that other league” that lives up to the hype. Being as I was only nine years old at the time, however, I did not stay awake through the Glen Campbell and Charlie Rich concerts to even see tipoff, never mind The Dunk Contest in person: http://www.remembertheaba.com/ABAAllStarGames/AllStar9.JPG

The highlights are still out there on the youtube, for those interested in searching, and don’t stop with The Dunk Contest. David Thompson was no Julius Erving, but for a brief professional moment, he soared higher than Doc, Connie Hawkins, or Jordan ever did. Unconfirmed is the story of Skywalker scooping silver dollars off the top of the backboard, but no one who saw him doubts that he could have. He flamed out for all the reasons you might suspect could bring down young millionaires in the late 1970s, and he never saw the Nuggets under Doug Moe bring the true ABA spirit to the NBA (even if that team never won anything important). Those were the days, my friends.

]]> By: Josh Wilker http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4420 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:40:43 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4420 9.  7 : Wow, season tickets for the ABA Nuggets. I wonder if you were able to see Skywalker Thompson face off against the Doctor in the End Times finals of 1976. Erving’s play in that series was described by many who were there as the greatest basketball performance in the history of the universe. The ABA all-star game was also in Denver in ’76, where the Doctor won the dunk contest with his launch from the free-throw-line.

As for Jumping the Shark: well, I won’t go that far. I’m still a fan, but not like I used to be. There was a time when pro hoops moved up to almost equal status to baseball for me, and that’s not so anymore. I still think it can be a thing of beauty (look at the Suns), but I won’t ever care as much as I did when Larry Bird carried my vicarious hopes and dreams on his sloping shoulders.

I just watched the Larry Bird/Small Town video again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlaAEvYvl5o&feature=related), as I am wont to do, and it makes me realize that hoops was actually bigger than baseball for me for a while. There’s no baseball player from my childhood that I miss seeing play as much as I miss seeing Larry doing his thing. He and Magic took b-ball to the level of art, a level it had never reached before and hasn’t reached since.

]]> By: Brent is a Dodger Fan http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4419 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:22:52 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4419 8.  7 I know it will be viewed as heresy as some, but to me, the NBA jumped the shark when Michael Jordan unretired a third time and played for the Wizards. I was pretty excited to watch the NBA when Shaq, Kobe and Phil Jackson found their groove, but it double-jumped the shark when Karl Malone and Gary Paton joined them and fell short of the NBA title. Perhaps it is a far-too LA-Laker centric view of the NBA, but when you grow up during Magic’s Showtime era, everything pales in comparison.

]]> By: Lonnie Smith for president http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4418 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:35:58 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4418 7.  Back when Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News were the only sources for national sports news (if you didn’t have that new-fangled cable teevee), I had a subscription to the former and my best friend the latter. We were easy to shop for that way, and we bartered the new issues back and forth until the data was permanently imprinted on our frontal lobes. Ah, the blissful ease of childhood concentration; I miss it so.

Nowadays, I can’t remember where my keys are, but I do recall SI’s big writeup on Newlin in the spring of 1981. It came in an issue with what is still my favorite SI cover:
http://dynamic.si.cnn.com/si_online/covers/issues/1981/0330.html

Newlin was a little quirky but definitely an above-average player:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/newlimi01.html
He left Houston just before they broke through as a playoff power. The Nets got him for next to nothing (John Stroud?), and then flipped him to NY for Mike Woodson.

The NBA in those days still had that “hey, are we going to make payroll this month?” feeling to them. Offense was still pretty and often involved more than one player, and your guards didn’t have to be cornerbacks to lay good defense on opponents. We had season tickets for the Nuggets in their last ABA season and first NBA season, then we moved to Oregon and were swept up in the Blazers/Supes teams of the late 1970s.

As a big college hoops fan, I was as happy to see Magic and Bird play for pay as the next guy, but those were still glorious times without them. I didn’t have those cardboard gods of hoops, Josh, I just loved the game. I wonder when the NBA jumped the shark for me…? Has it for others?

]]> By: Josh Wilker http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4417 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:24:19 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4417 6.  5 : In a way, Newlin’s exit brought to a close the aimless post-ABA years and ushered in a brief hopeful phase for the Nets: with Sugar Ray Richardson and Sugar Ray Williams in the backcourt and Albert King and Buck Williams at the forward spots, they were young and talented and on the rise. But then Albert never really got as good as people thought he’d be and the Sugar Rays self-destructed. The Nets first post-ABA title still eludes them. Some call it the curse of Dr. J, but I prefer to think of Billy “The Whopper” Paultz as being the source of any and all Nets curses.

]]> By: Joe Romano http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4416 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:06:28 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4416 5.  I vaguely remember Newlin. I was a huge ABA fan, and in particular a NY Nets and a Dr. J fan. I followed the Nets for a couple of years after the merger even after all the wind went out of my sails with the Dr. J trade.

]]> By: philthyrat http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4415 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:33:20 +0000 http://cardboardgods.net/2007/12/10/mike-newlin/#comment-4415 4.  I always wondered how a 30-year old man who makes french fries for a living gets up and goes to work each day. He must have something really special going on in his life when he’s not making french fries. Frying ain’t much of a way to make a living, son.

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