Happy Bday: Juan Dixon, Keith Booth & Brian Roberts
Happy birthday Juan Dixon. I’ve already written a post about Juan being my favorite college basketball player of all time, you can read it here. Happy 31st Mr. Dixon!
Happy birthday Keith Booth. Wow, 2 of my favorite basketball players of all time were born on the same day! Keith was a part of Maryland’s renaissance period of 94-97. He was the first Baltimore area player to commit to UMD after the Bob Wade era ended in NCAA violations. Keith went to 4 NCAA tournaments and 2 Sweet 16’s while at Maryland. Keith is among MD’s all time leaders in points, rebounds and steals and is a member of the UMD Hall of Fame. Keith won a NBA Championship with the Bulls during the 97-98 seasons. Keith is now entering his 6th season as an assistant under Gary Williams. Happy 35th Mr. Booth.
Happy birthday Brian Roberts. Brian just finished his 9th season with the Orioles, another stellar performance for one of baseball’s best 2nd basemen. Brian batted .289-16-79 last season and added 30 SB’s and 56 doubles! Brian also scored a career high 110 runs last season, his 3rd consecutive season of 100+. Brian is fast moving up the Orioles all time offensive records, ranking in or near the top ten in several categories including 3rd all time in steals. With the likely departure of Melvin Mora, Brian will become the longest tenured Oriole. I hope the O’s can turn it around before Brian’s gone; he’s a hard-nosed ball player that deserves to win. Happy 32nd Mr. Roberts.
Cheers and Hail
Posted by fatpickle Date: Friday, October 9, 2009
Categories: Happy Birthday!, Orioles, Terps, Wizards
Tags: Brian Roberts, juan dixon, Keith Booth, Uncategorized
These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things
Over the next few weeks I will be randomly posting about my favorite things. For instance, this post is about my favorite all-time NCAA basketball player, Juan Dixon. Moving forward you’ll see my favorites in all walks of sports. But enough about that, lets talk about Juan.
Dixon was the 2002 ACC Player of the Year award winner on his way to leading my beloved Terps to the 2002 title. Despite being undersized at a billed 6’3” and 164 lbs, Dixon overcompensated by having “the heart of a tiger” as quoted by his Coach Gary Williams. He holds countless career and single season records at Maryland.
Dixon played a role that I always find myself rooting for, a true underdog. He overcame family tragedy on his way to College Park. It’s well documented that both his parents died from the AIDS virus. He was also lightly recruited out of high school despite a stellar career.
I will never forget the big wins over Duke, and the way he led the underdog Terps to their only title. He turned around so many games with a clutch shot or a big steal. I remember jumping for joy when Michael Jordan made him a first round pick for the Wizards.
Although Juan’s pro career has never reached the heights it did in college, he will always have a special place in my heart as my all-time favorite NCAA player.
Apologies to Len Bias, Patrick Ewing, Nik Caner-Medley, Keith Booth, Alonzo Mourning
Trivia: Juan Dixon’s older brother Phil lived in the dorm room directly beside Fatpickle in college. Phil was a D-III All-American.
Cheers and Hail
Posted by fatpickle Date: Monday, June 8, 2009
Categories: Fatpickled, Terps
Tags: favorite things, juan dixon, NCAA, Terps
