Hoops Hobby

Since the Pacers franchise doesn’t have any players in its history with a last name starting with ‘I’, we move on to the letter J, which more than makes up for it with 30 players. This post is going to cover the first 15 alphabetically, although I’ll have an overall count for the letter J.

Autographs of Pacers with Last Name starting with ‘J’ – 16 of 30, 53% Complete

Up first, the Pacers I have autographs of so far for the first 15 alphabetically.

Jarrett Jack

Appreciated Jarrett Jack’s time on the Pacers, which lasted just one season (2008-09) where he played in all 82 games. He just seemed like a great teammate and leader. After a long NBA career, he’s recently moved into coaching, where he currently serves as an assistant for the Detroit Pistons. It makes sense to me based on the player he was and his personality.

From the card perspective, even though his time with the Pacers was fairly short, he does have several autographed cards where he is pictured in a Pacers jersey. Jack is in several of my personal favorite sets, 2008-09 Topps Murad and 2009-10 Bowman 48. I’ve yet to pick one up though, since I traded for the one pictured shortly after his trade to the Pacers back in the Summer of 2008. I’ll grab one of these at some point, especially since the autograph on the SPx Super Scripts shown above is cut off by the sticker ending. It’s definitely in my plans to replace this one in the binder.

Isaiah Jackson

Jackson may not have the best or fullest signature, but he did play some important playoff minutes for the 2023 Pacers. I always appreciate his shot blocking and strong finishes at the rim. If he could just stay out of foul trouble, he’d be a real force.

Isaiah Jackson has no shortage of autographed rookie cards. His signature leaves much to be desired, but I liked the parallel enough to grab this one off eBay earlier this year and I’m glad he should continue to play a role as a backup big this upcoming season.

Mark Jackson

What is there to say about Mark Jackson? A key member of the 90s Pacers, one of my favorite players to imitate in my driveway growing up, and 6th place on the NBA All-Time assists list (2nd at time of retirement behind John Stockton). I certainly miss him backing down smaller guards into the paint, and I can picture his 3-point shot. In combination with Travis Best, I always felt good about the point guard situation for the Pacers.

Jackson has plenty of Panini era autographs, but my favorite are his playing day cards. He’s in the 1996-97 Autographics set, as well as an autograph set from 1999-00 UD Retro. I’m a big fan of the 1998-99 SP Authentic Sign of the Times die-cut autograph set, and that’s the one that’s in the binder. Jalen Rose is also in the set, and I’ve shared the Erick Dampier Warriors card in an earlier ‘By the Letter’ post.

Quenton Jackson

Quenton Jackson is a current Pacer on a 2-way contract. He made his way into three Pacers games this past season, and nine games with the Wizards the previous season, scoring 19 points in a loss to the Rockets at the end of that season.

He’s included in several Panini draft sets such as Prizm and Chronicles, and every single one of the 31 different cards/variations are sticker autographs. I opted for a Silver Prizm for the binder.

Stephen Jackson

Stephen Jackson was a part of the perennial playoff Pacers of the early to mid-2000s. In a tough trade for me as a fan, the Pacers traded Al Harrington to the Hawks for Captain Jack. It was more just losing one of my favorite players more than Jackson coming over. Skill wise he was a great fit with the rest of the roster, and it showed on the court.

When I saw that Jack had a Crown Royale, die-cut, on-card auto and it was available for a very reasonable price, it was almost an immediate eBay purchase. This card is /17, but honestly I would have grabbed it even if it wasn’t numbered. It’s even thin enough that it fits in the z-folio binder, something fairly rare for on-card autograph cards from the ultra-modern era.

DeJon Jarreau

Jarreau played in 1 game for the Pacers during the 2021-22 season, and that’s enough to earn a spot in the Pacers autograph project binder. He played in 9 games for the Grizzlies this past season during a 2 1/2 week stretch in March. Most of his time’s been spent in the G-League over the last 3 seasons.

Collegiately he was the AAC defensive player of the year as a senior at Houston.

Jarreau is the second player in this post whose only cards in a Pacers uniform are autographed. In this case, it’s 12 different parallels/variations of cards from 2021-22 Panini Contenders. This is the Rookie Season Ticket Stub die-cut parallel out of 53. May as well have a die-cut version if it exists and it’s accessible.

Sarunas Jasikevicius

Even though Sarunas played for the Pacers for a season and a half, I remember him best for his Olympic play for Lithuania, especially against the USA.

After seeing him in the Olympics, my expectations for him were too high. I definitely picked up my fair share of his rookie cards. 2005-06 was a great year of basketball products, and it was nice to have a reason to pick up rookie cards, with both Sarunas and Danny Granger to chase.

I am pretty satisfied with the autograph from 2005-06 Finest that’s in the binder. Even though it’s not an on-card autograph, the X-Fractors from this set look great that the pattern on this card makes up for it.

Alize Johnson

Watching Alize Johnson during his time with the Pacers, I wanted to see what he could do with more playing time, and I think other fans felt the same way. It was nice to see him get more of a role and have success, even though it was still a fairly limited role, with the Nets after signing towards the end of the 20-21 season.

Being a second round pick, Johnson appeared in a handful of products during his rookie season, and a few sets the following year. He has Pacers autograph cards from the Donruss, Optic, and Hoops brands.

Anthony Johnson

AJ was a solid point guard who started over 90 games for the Pacers over course of three seasons. Whether he was starting or coming off the bench, he was always ready to play, and his best years statistically were easily the ones with the Pacers.

When lacking a Pacers autograph, a 1997-98 Autographics card is the next best thing. His only Pacers cards are from 2005-06 Upper Deck and a random inclusion in a memorabilia set from 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style. Ideally I’d have the 2005-06 Upper Deck card signed for the binder, but I’m happy to include the Autographics card.

Certified Non-Pacers Autographs

Al Jefferson – Big fan of Big Al, and I’m honestly devasted he doesn’t have an autographed card where he’s pictured as a Pacer. I would like to get one of his Pacers cards signed someday. He has plenty from his rookie year with the Celtics in 2004-05 and the years following.

His best playing days were definitely with the Timberwolves, Jazz and Bobcats/Hornets. Appreciated him in a bench role for the Pacers to provide some scoring punch. The man could score in the post.

Jefferson made 3rd team All-NBA for the 2013-14 season, despite never making an All-Star team.

Players with Pacers Cards

Warren Jabali (Armstrong) – Jabali chose to sign with the ABA Oakland Oaks after a collegiate career at Wichita State. He dominated the Pacers in the 1969 ABA Finals, averaging over 33 points per game in the series, per basketball reference. A four-time ABA All-Star and member of the ABA All-Time team, he joined the Pacers for the 1970-71 season, and is pictured as a Pacer in the 1971-72 Topps set, where his name is shown as Warren Armstrong, his name at birth. He played for several other ABA franchises, being named an All-Star in each of the three seasons after leaving the Pacers. Post playing career he did a lot of good being active in his community. Jabali passed away at age 65 in 2012.

Mark Monteith wrote a great piece on Jabali that is focused on his time with the Pacers but recaps his career as a whole and his life post-basketball.

Players with Non-Pacers Cards

Ralph Jackson – The UCLA product played 1 game for the Pacers before moving over to the CBA during the 1984-85 season. His pro playing career concluded in 1986. Jackson’s high school team won the National Championship and went undefeated.

As far as cards, Jackson has a single UCLA card from the 1991 Collegiate Collection set.

Tracy Jackson – Jackson played for the Celtics and Bulls in the early 1980s before finishing his career with the Pacers, playing in 2 games during the 1983-84 season.

He has only one card, from his time at Notre Dame in a set from 1990-91. Fun fact about Tracy Jackson- he was on the first ever McDonald’s All-American team in 1977.

Britton Johnsen – One of the players signed by the Pacers in the immediate aftermath of the brawl.

Signed on November 25th, 2004, Johnsen played in 6 games for the Pacers, including 1 start against the Clippers on December 1st. The starting lineup for that game was Johnsen, Eddie Gill at the point, Fred Jones, James Jones, and David Harrison at center. Gill scored a career high 21 points to lead the Pacers.

Johnsen has rookie cards in 2003-04 SPx, including a tough spectrum parallel out of 25.

Clemon Johnson – While Johnson does appear on a 1980-81 Topps Team Poster, it’s a 5 x 7 and wouldn’t fit in a z-folio binder, so I am putting him in this category.

A 6-10 center, Johnson played in 211 games for the Pacers, averaging between 8.5 and 9.7 points over the seasons in that period, which makes it kind of surprising that he doesn’t have any cards with the team. Most of his cards are Star releases with the 76ers. He won a championship with the 76ers in 1983 after being traded there mid-season.

Johnson coached at his alma-mater, Florida A&M, from 2011-2014.

The next post will conclude my recap of the letter ‘J’. I have seven more autographs in my collection to share, and 8 other players to write about.