How good a Basketball player was Horowitz...

[Chalkperson]

This thread is for Mark and Len to discuss the finer points of Basketball and how that relates to Horowitz's pianism...I will ask Lance to (re)move your other comments from the Richter Thread...

[MarkC]

Fine with me.

BTW.......I didn't see anybody minding that stuff.

P.S. I looked back to see how it all started: when Lance misspelled KGB. [smiley suppressed]

[lennygoran]

>Horowitz's pianism<

Forget that--I wonder if he had exceptionally big fingers and could really palm that basketball--maybe he could have helped out on the rebounding the Knicks were so bad at! Couldn't find out the size of his fingers when I visited the very interesting Wiki site but learned a lot of other things about him.

On the fingers it said:

"Horowitz's hand position was unusual in that the palm was often below the level of the key surface. He frequently played chords with straight fingers, and the little finger of his right hand was often curled up until it needed to play a note; to Harold C. Schonberg, “it was like a strike of a cobra.”[1] For all the aural excitement of his playing, Horowitz rarely raised his hands higher than the piano's fallboard. His body was immobile, and his face seldom reflected anything other than intense concentration." Regards, Len

[Chalkperson]

Fine with me.

BTW.......I didn't see anybody minding that stuff.

P.S. I looked back to see how it all started: when Lance misspelled KGB. [smiley suppressed]

Normally when a Thread goes that far off topic Corlyss would have moved the Basketball part to the Pub, I can't do that so I started a new Thread just for you...

[some guy]

Horowitz was an amazing power forward. One of the very best ever.

But Richter was the top point guard ever.

And sure Neuhaus was a greater coach than a player. But how many great coaches were also great players? Be fair!

(I loved Richter's buzzer beating three pointer in the game against Yugoslavia in '65. And Horowitz's slam dunk to win the game against Finland in the semifinals in '59. Great years, great times.

Does anyone think that John Ogdon was a better center than Lazar Berman?)

[Wallingford]

Horowitz spanned at least an octave & a fifth. He could always hit that in Schumann's Toccata, where most others had to break the chord.

[MarkC]

Horowitz was an amazing power forward. One of the very best ever.

But Richter was the top point guard ever.

And sure Neuhaus was a greater coach than a player. But how many great coaches were also great players? Be fair!

(I loved Richter's buzzer beating three pointer in the game against Yugoslavia in '65. And Horowitz's slam dunk to win the game against Finland in the semifinals in '59. Great years, great times.

Does anyone think that John Ogdon was a better center than Lazar Berman?)

Good job -- hard to argue with!!!!!
BTW......I'd put Garrick Ohlsson at center.

[lennygoran]

>And Horowitz's slam dunk to win the game against Finland in the semifinals in '59. <

Yeah but actually he was guilty of charging! Regards, Len

[MarkC]

"Finland, Finland, Finland,
The country where I want to be!......"