I have one player who comes right to my mind but there is a story to go along with this....
The date was April 3rd, 2004 and it was a Saturday night. The final four game between UConn and Duke were about to begin and I knew right from the start that I loved Duke +1.5 points that night. I had to go to a party that night at a pretty nice reception hall but I knew they had tv's so as far as me watching the game it wouldn't be a problem. One of my good friends who bets sports games here and there called me up and asked me who I liked so I told him, then later on before the game starts we meet up at the party. There's around 10-15 guys at the bar watching the game. Everyone else at the party is in another room with the dance floor, food, and another bar. I knew all of the people at the bar watching the game, not well but I knew them good enough that they had money on the game. Once the ball tips me and my friend quickly find out we are the only ones in the room who bet Duke +1.5 the other 15 or so guys all bet UConn. The first half comes and goes and let me add no cheering was going on between me and my friend. I am not a dick. When I know other people have the other side of a game when im in public I keep my mouth shut. Even when I don't know if someone has the game I never cheer out loud because you never know what the guy besides you has on the game. Anyways its halftime and Duke is getting 1.5 and they are up by 7 points, and me and my friend are just shooting the shit, when one of the guys across the bar yells over to us and says to my friend, "did you bet the game"? My friend says, "yea were both big on Duke what about you?" Of course everyone of them look over and say were all on UConn big. Immediately after that I knew shit was going to go wrong in the second half. When I mean wrong I don't mean brawling or anything because remember we're at some sort of party here with families and shit. So the second half starts and Duke pretty much started where they left off controlling the tempo of the game. Through the whole second half their whole side is cheering every time UConn makes a shot, which is fine. They have money they can cheer im just not that type of person. Especially in basketball who cheers for every play? I remember this like it was yesterday. UConn calls a timeout with about 5 minutes left in the game and Duke is up 8 points getting 1.5. My friend looks at me and says, "how are you feeling about this", and I just replied with its hoops man anything can happen. He says, "okay because I have fifteen dimes on Duke". That bet size was rare for this friend. He is usually a 1-2 dime player not 15. I didn't ask him his situation because right off the bat I knew he was probably down a large sum and I didn't want to hear any stories at that time because the game just came back from commercial break, and when it did shit started hitting the fan. Little by little UConn was chipping away and the ass clowns across the way were getting louder and louder. With 25 seconds left UConn takes a 2 point lead and I look to my friend and say, "were fucked my friend". Then Duke goes Down three with about 10 seconds left and Reddick launches a three and it rims out, Okafor grabs the rebound with 3 seconds left and Duke fouls him. All of the UConn backers are going crazy clapping hands, saying they knew it was a lock, and pretty much rubbing it in. One of them buys us a couple of beers. So now we have about 3 drinks already bought for us and I look at my friend and he is as white as casper. So Okafor is now at the line and misses the first free throw. My friend then says, "I was down $14,000 coming into this game". I remember very clearly that I had $2,000 on the game so the outcome really didn't mean much because I was up a nice amount on the week already. With this loss my friend is down a nice chunk of change, but he has the money to pay. He was just pissed off. So here comes Okafor's second free throw.....its a miss with three seconds left and Chris Duhon is flying up the right hand side of the court. He gets to about 10 feet before the half court line and launches a meaningless shot...And all you hear next is swishhhhhh and complete silence from the other side of the room. This is the only time in my life I started going crazy in public because of a win. My friend immediately is jumping up and down looking at the other side of the bar and pointing and laughing. So of course I buy them all a drink, but most of them just walked out with a look on their face like someone died. So the name Chris Duhon will always stick out for me.
