Here is a story about David Vaughn. Long fall from riches to rags for ex-NBA player Vaughn

I just got home from one of my favorite weddings. Those of you basketball fanatics that are planning to get married soon should take note.

A buddy of mine from Microsoft, basketball, and poker just got married. Ceremony was great, reception was great, dancing was great, but the real kicker was that the wedding was at the Bellevue Club Hotel. The banquet hall happened to be right next to the health club which had a basketball court. Of course a big group of us knew each other from playing basketball, and nearly all of us had at least some basketball shoes in our car. In fact most of us were prepared with a full change of basketball close. So as the dancing was winding down, we migrated over to the basketball court and played a couple games of 3-3 and 4-4. I have never been so exhausted after a wedding. It was so much fun, and it worked out really well.

The groom loves basketball, so he naturally loved it, and I figure since the bride’s vows included supporting her husband through March Madness, she was cool with it too.

A bunch of my friends have been discussing this series a lot. All of us were surprised by Barkley’s prediction that the Magic would beat the Cavs, but he was right.

Here is a great pictorial summary of what Dwight Howard did to the Cavs last night… 40 points & 14 rebounds.

This kid is amazing. I have never seen a player hit so many tough buzzer beaters, and he is only a freshman in college.

Last Second Left-hander Lifts Minnesota Over Indiana – Watch the play on ESPN.com

I believe this is Blake Hoffarber’s second play of the night on SportsCenter. His first appearance won him an ESPY as the play of the year when he was a sophomore in high school.

Tonight you may have seen some clips of Blake Hoffarber on ESPN’s SportsCenter. Blake is the guy that hit the insane shot while lying on his back to force double OT in the Minnesota state high school championship three years ago. He was a sophomore at Hopkins High School at the time and won an ESPY for play of the year. I was fortunate enough to be in town for that state championship game and witnessed the shot first hand. I even got a chance to congratulate Blake and Coach Novak, his uncle, after the game.

Watch a video of the Most Amazing Basketball Shot Ever

Now he is a freshman at the University of Minnesota. Both of these schools are my alma maters. I was a sophomore at Hopkins back in 1993 when Blake was only five years old and one of our ball boys. I remember watching him run around and help get rebounds during warm-ups. I don’t recall for sure when he started to hit three pointers, but and I can remember watching him heave the ball from behind the three point line. He could barely make it to the rim, but he would put his whole body into it.

Now Blake leads the Big Ten in three-point field goal percentage and has a shot at setting a Gopher’s record for most threes in a season. In tonight’s nationally televised game against #9 ranked Indiana he went 2-3 behind the arc including a 4-point play to make his percentage for the season an even 50%.

Great article on ESPN.com published earlier today:
There’s more to Minnesota’s Blake Hoffarber than just trick shot

Blake is a great kid that has put in a lot of hard work. It is nice to see him get rewarded for it. Blake won the 2007 Mr. Basketball award in Minnesota, and he helped Hopkins win two state championships. There were even points in the season last year where Hopkins was ranked in the top 5 teams in the nation according to MaxPreps.com. I see that Hopkins is currently ranked #1 in the state again.

Go Royals and Go Gophers!

Third photo courtesy of Tom Dahlin

I like to collect cards of players who I have played basketball with or against.

Jeff Hagen was a freshman at Hopkins High School in MN when I was a senior.

Kris Humphries also went to Hopkins High School, and I played against him many times at open gyms.

Hiram Fuller played a few games at South Sound Athletics with the Club Seattle pro-am team that I played with for several years.

Doug Christie also played a few games with my Club Seattle team when we played in a league at his al-ammeter Rainier Beach last summer.

Martell Webster played on another team in that same league at Rainier Beach.

Jamal Crawford asked me to play with his team in a tournament at Green Lake after playing against him at the Redmond Athletic Club several times a few summers ago. My Club Seattle team also faced off against Jamal in several other Seattle area tournaments and leagues. Jamal is one of the nicest guys I have ever met!

Will Conroy was also on our team at Green Lake. He had just graduated from the University of Washington at the time.

Brandon Roy was our coach for the tournament. He couldn’t play because he was going to be a senior at the University of Washington.

Nate Robinson dunked on me during that tournament.

Shawn Kemp took my spot in the championship game at Green Lake, and Nate Robinson’s team crushed us. We only lost by 2 points on a last second shot by Nate when we faced them earlier in the tournament.

Kevin Garnett… well almost. He often played noon ball at Northwest Athletic Club in MN during the lock-out of 1998-99. My brother had played against him several times, so he got me into the club during one of my lunch breaks. After a long wait I only had time for one more game, and it would be against Kevin’s team. Unfortunately, there was only one spot left, and it was between my brother and me to shoot for it. I and still annoyed that he didn’t just let me play. The dork out shot me for the last spot, and I never got my chance to play against Kevin. He used to live about 3 miles from where I grew up in Minnesota, but now he is off to Boston where he and Ray Allen are going to win a championship for the Celtics.

Note: All of the images for this post were added by simply copying the HTML code generated by the “grab this card” feature I just added to all the card details pages on CheckOutMyCards.com. You are welcome to do this with any of your blogs or eBay listings.

This week the Seattlest posted an interview Seth Kolloen did with me about checkoutmycards.com. It is a nice article that gives some of the background regarding the site.

Interview with Tim Getsch, Founder of CheckOutMyCards.com and Nate Robinson Dunk Victim

Hey, Everyone!

On Friday we are going live with new features that will enable you (the public) to sell your cards on our site!

All day Saturday and Sunday we are going to be at the card show at the Jantzen Beach Super Center Shopping Mall in Portland, OR.

All you Portland people, come see us!

We look forward to meeting you!

The CheckOutMyCards.com Staff

It was tied with about a minute to go, but with a controversial call and the issuing three, the Explosion couldn’t come back.

The Santa Barbra Breakers were lead by 24 points from Lamond Murray.

Everett was led by Rashaad Powell’s 24 points, 6 rebounds; Donald Watts had 23 points and 4 assists. Jamaal Miller had 18 points and 8 assists, while Justin Murray put up 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Today at 5:30, the Everett Explosion (16-4) face Santa Barbra (15-5) in the semi-finals of the IBL West playoffs at Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon.

I played with the Everett Explosion until I broke my face two months ago. Now they are one game away from the IBL West championship, and the team that stands in their way has 8 players from the NBA or the D-League.

I am trying to talk my wife into making the drive down to watch the game and spend the night in Portland, but today is our 7th wedding anniversary, and she already made plans. If they win today, hopefully I can at least talk Julia into driving down for the IBL West All Star game and Championship on Sunday.

Santa Barbara Players
Bryon Russell 6′7” NBA – Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets

Samaki Walker 6′9” NBA – Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, LA Lakers, Miami Heat

Toby Bailey 6′5” NBA – Phoenix Suns
Fred Vinson 6′4” NBA – Seattle Sonics, Atlanta Hawks, LA Clippers
Jelani McCoy 6′10” NBA – Seattle Sonics, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers
Justin Johnson 6′0” NBA D-League
Jerry Dupree 6′7” NBA D-League
Mike Efevberha 6′5” NBA D-League