Today would have been the 60th birthday of NBA Legend Pistol Pete Maravich considered to be one of the best to ever handle a basketball.
He was a wizard on the court, a b-ball prodigy, a player extraordinaire. 
His magical passes, net swishing shots and uncanny dribbling wizardry as well as his ability to put the ball into the basket from all angles of the hardwood and dominate the game was a testament to his natural talent. His playmaking skills seen in the early years of the NBA was way, way ahead of his time.
He was one of the original purveyors of Showtime Basketball and his Legend will forever live in the hearts and minds of every basketball fanatic all over the world.
Here's a 1977 film clip of Pistol Pete as he knocked the lights out of the the New York Knicks...
Friday, June 22, 2007
The Pistol
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The Birth of a Legend.
It was twenty years ago today, when a young and skinny freshman playing for the Tarheels of the University of North Carolina made his mark in the finals of the 1982 NCAA College Basketball Tournament that heralds the birth of a legend.
Michael Jordan drained a long two with 15 seconds left in the game to lift his team by a point in a 63-62 victory over the Patrick Ewing- led Georgetown University Hoyas to clinch the college hoops title thus giving his coach Dean Smith his first March Madness title after years of frustrations..
His Airness soon rose to great heights in the National Basketball Association winning the Championshipsin a very rare Three- peat fashion not only once but twice in 1991- 93 and 1997- 1999 for the Chicago Bulls.
He also won every award possible in Hooplandia with his firm leadership, gravity- defying ability, hard-nosed defense and soft- feathery touch with the basketball that earned him legions of fans all over the world as well as millions of dollars in salaries and commercial endorsements long after his retirement.
For all his achievements, we can say that Michael Jordan's legacy was cemented even before it began with that single shot during that hotly- contested basketball game at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana two decades earlier.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Master of the Table
To become Master of the Table is to win or figure consistently in the three contested events in the Derby City Classic held in Louisville, Kentucky which is not quite an easy thing to do considering the depth of the field and the quality of the opposition which is a veritable who’s who in the world of poll.
Efren “Bata” Reyes once again showed the sports world who is the real King of Pool when he ruled the 2007 edition of the Derby City Classics and was now crowned as the Master of the Table for four consecutive years in a row.
He did it this time by topping the One-Pocket and placing second in the Banks while placing a decent one in the 9- Ball whom he admitted is the weakest one in his arsenal despite having been crowned as the world 9- Ball Champion in 1999 and ruling lots of big -time 9- Ball tournaments worldwide for ages.
Ask any professional pool player around today who their favorite pool player and they will always say that it is Efren Reyes which is a testament of how good a player you are when your peers chose you among other else and was even honored recently by the Billiards Digest Magazine with the Men’s Most Outstanding performance Award for winning the 2006 IPT 8- Ball Championships where he won $500,000 the highest prize in the history of pool, despite the hullabaloo surrounding its promoter Kevin Trudeau and all.
With his legendary shot-making skills and his cool demeanor on the pool table he is considered to be one of the best, if not the best, player that ever wielded a cue stick by his peers and critics alike. He is one hell of a billiards player, bar none. He thrives well under pressure where in this particular sport, nerves of steel are a must. He showed once again that the higher the stakes, the chance of beating him is nil. He did not top the money lists of the billiard circuits for nothing and he’s been at the helm since, no mean feat for a man who first break into US consciousness as a person named Cesar Morales in Las Vegas, the gambling Capital of the world.
Bata have been dominating the billiards scene for ages now and he will continue to do so as the 55- year old toothless Magician from Angeles City, Pampanga in the Philippines showed no signs of slowing down as he greeted the new year with a bang that earned him the top prize worth $37,000, a good start for one who scaled down on some of his tournament particpation in the past years because of age and health issues.
The Filipino magician will continue to weave his magic for years to come...
