Expert: Alessandro - 12/21/2006

Question
I was going through my father's closet and I found a Boston Celtic's autographed basketball (green and white rubber)  It has many signatures that I cannot read.  I can make out Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Reggie Lewis, Chris Ford, Larry Van?????, Mark A????, and many more.  Where can I find the names?  What's your best guess as to a value for something like this?  It's in great shape.  I believe he won it at a charity auction in the 80's or 90's, not sure when Reggie Lewis joined.  thoughts?  thank you

Answer
From the information you've given me, I'm fairly confident in stating that your basketball was autographed by members of the 1987-88 Boston Celtics team ... "Mark A" is most likely Mark Acres, who played two seasons with Boston (1987-88 and '88-89). As for "Larry Van", my guess is that the signature actually reads "Darren Daye", a little-used forward who also played just two seasons with the C's (1986-87 through '87-88).

For a full list of the roster of the '87-88 team, check out this site:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/1988.html

As for how much your basketball may be worth, I would suggest checking eBay and seeing how much autographed basketballs from a similar time period are currently going for ... Although, if I had to guess, I would say that the value will probably go down without a certificate of authenticity to verify that the signatures are legitimate. Sorry.

Alessandro
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