But at some point this year, we’re going to have to get some stops to win games. “We can score against anybody as a group. “Ultimately, it comes down to defense,” Haliburton said. Only two teams, the 1981-91 Denver Nuggets, finished a season allowing more points per game. Problem is, they’re giving up 125.8 points - the worst in the league this season. The Pacers are averaging 127.9 points, slightly ahead of Denver’s NBA-record average of 126.5 set in 1981-82. Bruce Brown scored 15 and Buddy Hield had 12, though shot 2 for 11 from 3-point range. Obi Toppin scored 25 for the Pacers, who trailed by as many as 16 in the fourth before making a late run. Haliburton also had 10 assists, the NBA’s first game of at least 44 points and that many assists since Donovan Mitchell’s 71-point, 11-assist night for Cleveland on Jan. Billiards, Corner Pocket Sports Bar, Diamond Billiards, HangTown Billiards, KP Karaoke & Dining, Hot Shots Billiards, Players Pub, Progressive Elks. cities with a 10-week season, three weeks of playoffs, and a national championship.Haliburton scored 28 points in the first half for the Pacers, who had 73 points at intermission - then gave up 78 in the second half. World Team Billiards also will serve as the prototype for Pro Team Billiards _ six-player teams representing eight U.S. In 1995 he envisions 32 teams competing over 15 weeks for $1-million in Hong Kong. Last year the Philippines won the $200,000 World Team Billiards championship. This year, six of its 16 events were televised by ESPN or Prime Network.īecause of the overseas popularity of pool, Mackey came up with the idea of teams representing markets where touring pros gather _ Sweden, Germany, Japan, England, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and so on _ and the United States. In 1991, they asked him to be its commissioner. It was successful enough for Mackey to devise the Pro Billiards Tour, owned by the players. Virgin Islands and came up with a British-vs.-U.S. Mackey looked at the British Virgin Islands and U.S. Two years after that, a Virgin Islands yacht company looking for exposure hired him. "They didn't know how to work with people running hotels and convention centers, with corporate sponsors, how to make money from TV."Ī few years later, in 1986, Mackey staged a tournament. "That's like Joe Montana paying to play football," he said. ![]() Mackey demurred then, but he was intrigued that the players had to come up with their entry fees. Mackey was operating a Philadelphia convention center about 10 years ago, hearing presentations from promoters of wrestling, music, home shows _ "and one day, here comes Willie Mosconi into my office with some top guys, saying they want to do some pool on TV." We need a few stars to create a breakthrough to a mass audience. "We've begun what I consider the game's golden era," Mackey said. ![]() He is a five-time world champion who is far better known overseas and will earn more than $300,000 shooting pool in 1994. It's being replaced by a different breed of player."Įarl Strickland, 33, has won more than 40 tournaments. But we're glad that kind of place, that kind of game, is dying out. You can probably find a few of the old-style pool halls, too. There are a few still around, but they're dinosaurs. That's just another word for predator, anyway. "TV has brought success to the game," Mackey said, "but it also has exposed the hustler. The best hustlers could make a good living a generation ago, scaring up games against local hotshots who had never seen them (and most likely never would again). "But the days of Wimpy Lassiter and Minnesota Fats going from town to town for fast money, those days are long past." "From a nostalgia perspective, I suppose we'd like to hold on to the past to a certain extent," said Don Mackey, 46, of Spring Hill, commissioner (and originator) of the Pro Billiards Tour, World Team Billiards and Pro Team Billiards.
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