Hoops Hobby

Autographs of Pacers with Last Name starting with ‘J’ – 17 of 30, 57% Complete

I’m slowly but surely documenting my progress on collecting an autograph from every Pacer player, past and present. In this post series I’m up to the letter J. In the post for Part 1 of the letter ‘J’, I covered the first 15 players alphabetically, through Clemon Johnson.

Up next, the Pacers I have autographs of so far for the last 15 alphabetically, and a quick look at the other players.

Eddie Johnson

I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that if I have a reason to grab an autograph from 2006-07 Chronology, I’m going to grab it. Just really enjoy the clean design, even if this isn’t a Pacers card. Until I can grab a signed Pacers card, I’m glad to have a card from Chronology take up a binder spot.

I have a few Pacers cards of Eddie that I would like to get signed, in particular a base card from 1996-97 Upper Deck, a set that I’m fond of.

Orlando Johnson

OJ had a promising rookie season, playing 12 minutes per game over the course of 50+ games in his first season with the Pacers. But he joined a pretty veteran team and was ultimately waived in 2014 during his second season.

I wrote about picking up this Immaculate rookie autograph at a card show I attended back in 2022, which was the first card show I had been to in years. Beautiful patch and autograph, but I need a card for the binder project as well. Plenty of options out there for a thinner card, and I enjoy 2012-13 Select, but those are sticker autographs, like most of OJ’s autograph cards.

And in searching for a card that would take a place in the binder, I realized OJ is included in the 2012-13 Panini Signatures set with a film/autograph card. Easy add, to go along with Ben Hansbrough and Ian Mahinmi. The remaining Pacers appear to be /10 (George Hill, Tyler Hansbrough, and Danny Granger).

Dahntay Jones

Solid role player for the Pacers from 2009-2012, who eventually won a championship with the Cavaliers at the end of his NBA career in 2017. I appreciated his willingness to drive and finish at the rim, and though he could knock down a jump shot from outside, it wasn’t really his game.

From a card perspective, Dahntay doesn’t have any certified Pacers autograph cards that I am aware of. He does appear in many earlier Panini era sets, so there is an opportunity to get one of those signed at some point down the road. My preference would be 2010-11 Donruss, possibly my favorite early Panini era set with great action shots.

2003-04 is one of my favorite card years, with many quality products, and happens to be Dahntay Jones’ rookie year. The autograph I have comes from 2003-04 Fleer Showcase, a nice looking card that isn’t as obvious as far as it being a card of another team. He isn’t shown in a Memphis jersey, which helps, the logo is in all gold, and the Memphis text is very small. It is a horizontal card which I don’t love for the binder, though.

Fred Jones

Where do I start with Freddie? The two guard who never really shot it as well as you’d hope for with a two guard, but was a valuable bench piece for strong Pacers teams. Jones was picked in the middle of the first round, and boy did I collect his cards during his rookie season. Because of his position, he was viewed as the heir to the 2-guard spot, but ultimately that wasn’t his role. I like to refer to him as Slam Dunk Champ, as well, because technically he did win one.

Early 2000s I was collecting heavy and 2002-03 I added every Fred Jones card I could. I considered his 2002-03 SP Authentic rookie autograph for the binder. I opted to include his Finest rookie card out of 999, because the autograph shows up better and ultimately I just like the design more. I would like to add the Refractor version of the card out of 250 some day.

James Jones

Ultimately a teammate of LeBron James in Miami and Cleveland and now a pretty successful GM with the Suns, I wanted a Pacers rookie to collect so badly in 2003-04, and so I picked up as many cards of James Jones as I could find. Without a first round pick in 2003, the Pacers took James Jones in the second round. Jones doesn’t have nearly the quantity of cards as the first round picks from that year, but he is included in some nice sets, my favorite being 2003-04 Mystique (still looking for the Gold parallel /50). Happy to have his 2003-04 SP Authentic rookie card for the binder, right next to his teammate, Fred. Crazy how young he looks here.

Solomon Jones

2006-07 was a great year for cards with some unique products (Bowman Elevation had some great looking cards, Turkey Red was the only year for basketball, Topps Chrome was one of the best years for the product, and I’ve expressed my love of UD Chronology several times already), but the rookie class didn’t end up being the most exciting. I remember opening a Solomon Jones Sweet Shot autograph from a box that year, and that was probably the hit of the box. Then he came over to the Pacers and I was upset I had traded the card.

I am glad to have a reason to own several of these Topps Chrome Black Refractor autographs. I have the Shawne Williams as well. They are great looking cards. And the photo on this Jones is top notch.

The Black Refractor autographs had different odds for different groups. According to TCDB, this Jones is part of the group with odds of 1:161 packs.

While Jones has one Pacers card, in the 2009-10 Panini release, he is pictured in a Hawks uniform. I’m content with this Topps Chrome Black Refractor.

Cory Joseph

A solid point guard for many teams over the years, Joseph played in all 82 games in both of his seasons with the Pacers.

With Joseph not having any Pacers autographs, I opted for one that looks close to an unlicensed card from his first year of Panini cards, and it’s an on-card autograph. I’d appreciate having his 18-19 Hoops or a Pacers Panini Instant card signed one day.

Butch Joyner

While Joyner played in two games for the ABA Pacers during the 1968-69 season, his only card is a 1986-87 card where he is pictured with Indiana University. Pretty cool card with a black and white photo.

I grabbed this signed copy recently and I don’t have any reason to believe it’s not authentic.

Certified Non-Pacers Autographs

James Johnson – Going into his 3rd season with the Pacers, Johnson is in autograph sets going back to his rookie season with the Bulls in 2009, and he has an Exquisite on-card autograph with Wake Forest as well. I’ve held off in picking up one of these certified autographs in hopes that he gets a Pacers autograph this upcoming season, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Players with Pacers Cards

George L Johnson – Johnson played a key role for the early 1980s Pacers teams, starting over 80 games at forward from 1982-84 while averaging over 11 and 13 points a game over that stretch.

Johnson’s Bucks rookie card is from 1980-81 Topps, a Triple card where he’s shown alongside Robert Parish and Moses Malone. Not a bad pair to be alongside. He’s also on another card with Mickey Johnson, who comes next in this post.

His only Pacers card is from 1983-84 Star. I’ve really enjoyed picking up cards from these Star sets during this autograph project, and I’m just glad they exist.

Mickey Johnson – Mickey has a handful of sweet Chicago Bulls cards from the late 70s. His only Pacers cards are from 1980-81 Topps. One a triple card with George Johnson and Leonard Robinson, another other is a scoring leader card with Dennis Johnson, and the last is a Rebounding leader card. His highest scoring season came in his only season with the Pacers, when he averaged 19.1 points per game along with 8.3 rebounds per game. Then he was traded to the Bucks for the same George Johnson that he shares a card with.

Wil (Wilbert) Jones – Wil played most of his career in the ABA, including an All-Star season with the Memphis Pros during the 1971-72 season. He played for the NBA Pacers during the 1976-77 season and averaged 13 points per game.

As far as cards, Jones is featured as a Pacer in 1977-78 Topps, but is also in a lot of great 70s sets with other teams. My personal favorite has to be his 1971-72 Topps rookie card where he’s featured with the Memphis Pros.

Kevin Joyce – A South Carolina Gamecock, Joyce played four seasons in the ABA, two of those with the Pacers, averaging over 14 points per game in 1974-75.

Joyce is included in the 1975-76 Topps set with both a standalone card and as a member of the Pacers checklist card.

A member of the 1972 USA Olympic team, which has an interesting story itself, Joyce was drafted by the NBA Warriors and the ABA Spurs. Due to a contract dispute spurred by his agent (read a great blog post here on his ABA and NBA career), Joyce signed with the Pacers, who were willing to give him guaranteed money.

Players with Non-Pacers Cards

Gus Johnson – Johnson was a five-time NBA All-Star and was a part of the 1973 ABA Championship Pacers at the very end of his career. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Johnson passed away in 1987 at age 48 from cancer.

Johnson is in some iconic Topps sets pictured as a Baltimore Bullet. His 1969-70 Topps rookie is my favorite, showing him with the ball behind his back, pictured in a Bullets warm up jersey. While nearly all his cards are Bullets cards, he is in 1972-73 Topps as a member of the Suns.

TCDB also shows two copies of a Cut Autograph card as a part of the 2016 Leaf Best of Basketball release. I would say it’s possible this card will never appear. And a card that is on eBay is a cut signature from 2009 SP Legendary Cuts, listed for a good amount of money. This is going to be a tough autograph to find for a reasonable price.

Players with No NBA/ABA cards

Charles Jordan – Played 71 games for the 1975-76 ABA Pacers, averaging over 5 ppg, including a career high 18. And despite learning of his passing in November 2023 and his struggles late in life, it was nice to learn about his career through reading an article from the Indy Star. It paid tribute to Jordan and his prominent high school career in Indiana, where he went down as an all-time great.

Next up will be the letter K, with 10 players.