Searching for Tony Bennett
Former Charlotte Hornets guard Tony Bennett will always be one of my favorite basketball players. We have a unique connection in that we both attended the same high school and college (University of Wisconsin- Green Bay). Bennett’s career college three-point field goal percentage of 0.497 still stands as an NCAA Division I record. He was the first UWGB player to be drafted by an NBA team and played three seasons for the Hornets before a foot injury cut his career short. He has since found success as a college basketball coach, winning the AP Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year in 2007 while at Washington State. Currently, Bennett is the head men’s basketball coach at Virginia.
In recent months, I have been tempted to buy a few Tony Bennett singles on ebay. However, almost any single comes with a $2 price tag when shipping is taken into account. Instead, I opted to buy a lot of 400 Charlotte Hornets basketball cards for $2.79 (shipping included) and take my chances. How many players could have suited up for the Hornets during their fourteen year stint in Charlotte? The odds of finding a few cards of #25 clad in short teal shorts were pretty good.
In actuality, the lot yielded a total of seven different Tony Bennett cards. Score! That’s less than $0.40 per card. The 145 Larry Johnson cards that came in the lot were just a bonus (good player, peaked at Space Jam). A scan of my favorite cards appears below. It’s a shame that Bennett never recovered from his foot injury. He could have been one of the great role players of the 1990s. You can have Steve Kerr and Robert Horry. Tony has always “been it” for me.
7 comments:
Tony was a great college player and is an underrated college coach who should make Virginia competitive once again. His father was a great college coach who offered a lot with his blocker mover offense.
I can still remember purchasing my Tony Bennett Pro-Line Classic card. Good memories.
I always enjoyed watching his teams at Washington State. Very fundamentally sound basketball.
Guy- thanks so much for allowing me to make a contribution to 'The Basketball Card Blog." Hopefully, Tony Bennett's best days are ahead of him. I appreciate all of the comments that readers have left for me. If anyone has a use for 100+ Larry Johnson cards or 100+ common Charlotte Hornets cards, just leave a comment with your email address. I already got my money's worth from this lot :)
Do you have any LJ inserts, refractors and/or auto's?
No, sorry ... everything in the $2.79 lot was part of a base set.
If you happen to run into any player collectors of, well, other players from Bennett's era, feel free to let me know. I probably have 7000 basketball cards from that era that I really don't need.
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