By Paul Gotham
****Remember, try this without research. Make like Wally, and release your inner James Joyce. Show us your stream of consciousness as you try to decipher the answer.
I won a national championship, but you probably don’t know about it much. You see as a teenager I won the national championship for baton twirling. Like I said, it didn’t exactly make me famous. You might know me from my other endeavor.You could say the Vincentians taught me a thing or two about charity. Yeah, Coach Layden brought me to the university near one of the wonders of the world. I delivered for him in the name of two first-team All-Americans and one second team nomination. We advanced to the Sweet Sixteen my senior season. That was the school’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament and the furthest the school has ever advanced. Those accomplishments earned me a spot in the NBA. I was first-team all-rookie right out of the gate. I dropped a grand a total of eleven times during my hall-of-fame career. You might remember me for size or lack of it. I was short, so I used my speed to create contact and get to the line. Twice, I led the league in free throw percentage. I finished in the top three of that stat 10 times in my career. I finished my career making more than 89 per cent of my 3,864 free throw attempts. That is good for top ten all-time. When I finished, my 17,949 points ranked first in team history. Now, that total is good for second. The “Dream” took my spot.
Who am I?
Okay, this guy is obviously a shortie and a legendary FT shooter … that narrows it down a bit. Hall of Famer, so it’s not Spud Webb. He must’ve played for the the Houston Rockets … since Hakeem “the Dream” took over his team scoring rank. I’m thinking it’s gotta be Calvin Murphy … I know he went to Niagra (one of the “7 Wonders”) and I remember he was also proficicient at somthing unusual … like bowling, tumbling or gymnastics. Okay then, it must’ve been baton twirling. But Murphy was one of the first legendary short players in the NBA and he was an awesome FT shooter.