The 1970-71 ABA All-Star 5×7 Picture Pack cards aren’t really “cards,” they’re simply pieces of 5″ x 7″ paper. The backs are blank. Authenticity isn’t really an issue, but it doesn’t hurt to check the stock and color of the paper against plain white. The cards will be appropriately yellowed with age. These are simple “cards,” just black-and-white photos with player and team names underneath. There’s no numbering, so I’m ordering alphabetically by last name. Twelve All-Stars from the ABA make up this set and the Rick Barry card is the highlight. But for those willing to explore and spend time with the set, there’s a lot of fascinating history here.
The seventh card in the set when organizing alphabetically by last name is this Larry Jones card. Larry Jones was a great basketball player. He was the first ABA player to reach 5,000 points. But he never got the recognition he deserved. But for those of us interested in the history of the game, it makes for an intriguing story. He was drafted by the NBA in 1963, but it was the fifth round, so he chose to stay in college another year. He was drafted higher in the third round in 1964 by the Philadelphia 76ers, but they sent him to play for their minor league team. The ABA started in 1967 and Jones knew he needed a chance to really compete. He wrote every team in the ABA for a job and the Denver Rockets were the one and only team to accept. His numbers were great with them (he topped 30 points 23 games in a row during one season, he had a 52-point game, he was the first ABA player to score 2,000 points in a season). In the 1970 ABA All-Star game, he was the leading scorer. But it was at this game that his bitterness toward the Denver Rockets really took off The All-Star MVP went to Spencer Haywood, a Denver Rockets teammate of his who just joined the league in 1969. Haywood had a $1.9 million contract and $50,000 signing bonus, while Larry Jones was making $23,000 a year. Imagine being a top scorer in your team and scoring the most points in that All-Star game while that large of a discrepancy existed. He escaped to the Floridians in June 1970.
These cards are also important as a chance to encounter teams and team names that only existed for a very short time. This card captures one of these brief snapshots in history. The Floridians have a shaky and quick history. The team was pretty bad in 1969-70, with a 23-61 record. So they replaced all of their players and changed the team name right as this 1970-71 basketball card set was produced. The “Miami” Floridians became known as simply “The Floridians.” Dropping Miami meant more than saving some ink. The Floridians became a regional team this season and were now playing in a variety of locations. Larry Jones, along with Mack Calvin (another card in this set) arrived for this 1970-71 season. Together they averaged about 55 points per game. Really strong! But all of these changes for the Floridians were kind of acts of desperation. Attendance was still miserable and the franchise was disbanded after the 1971-72 season.
Despite the “cards” being paper, as well as being off-the-beaten-path for basketball cards, they can be a unique addition to a collection. You can see them listed as the first set in comprehensive price guides like the 2001 Standard Catalog of Basketball Cards. This guide lists the price of the set at $60, but frankly, the price is unpredictable because it’s rarely on the market and depends on if there’s a buyer searching for it! But for those looking to explore the volatile history of the ABA (it doesn’t get too much more volatile than the career of Larry Jones here), this set is really great!
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