A Venerable Old Card Part 57

This past week saw the NBA Draft come and go.  There were several NC State in the draft, but the only one who had a legitimate shot at getting drafted was Dennis Smith Jr.  In a normal year, where there are not half a dozen point guards amongst the top players in the draft, it's likely that he would have gone higher in the draft than 9th to the Mavericks.

I like the idea of Smith going to the Mavs.  The Mavs have been down the last year or two, but I figure that Mark Cuban is the type of owner who isn't going to let his team slip too far down the NBA food chain.  While I am not an huge basketball card collector, I have started adding cards of former NC State players the last year or two.  I am excited to add to my Dennis Smith collection which currently stands at just one.  

This is the one, it appeared in a post two weeks ago.  

The whole Dennis Smith draft excitement got me thinking a few weeks ago about other high NC State draft picks.  There is the obvious David Thompson pick from the 1970s who was the first overall pick in both the ABA and NBA drafts.  He was not on the Flint Tropics.  So, besides that the highest NBA draft pick out of NC State was this guy.....

Googs was drafted sixth overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 1992 NBA Draft after averaging more than 22 points a game with 10 rebounds during his senior year in Raleigh.  He wasn't a great pro by any means, but a 16 season career with 13 points per game, including two over 20, has to be at least deemed as solid.  

So, I didn't have a Gugliotta autograph until a week or so ago when I found this gem for next to nothing.  

Seems like a pretty cool card, makes me miss Upper Deck baseball cards a little bit.  I used to love the SP Authentic sets and the autographs.  I have picked up a ton of them over the years.  The basketball versions look pretty nice too.  On card autographs, nice spaces for the players to sign, and classic Upper Deck design.  

I also looked around to see if he had any NC State autographs, but I could not find any.  Considering that card companies have gone back to make autographed cards of Vinny Del Negro and Spud Webb in Wolfpack uniforms I was hoping I could find a Gugliotta.  Besides, I am not sure I have seen Spud or Vinny at a State game recently, Googs still goes and he had that one run in with Karl Hess......

North Carolina is a basketball crazy state, and there is much that fans of the big 4 ACC schools can find to argue about, we are all in agreement that Karl Hess is/was a horrible referee.  The ACC actually canned him a year or two ago for a rather nasty incident at a Wake Forest game.  

More basketball cards later in the week.