’07 Knights, Eagles best ever? Some say so
The most recent contributions to the “which team was the best ever” debate came in from near and far, and produced a boomlet of support for two new contenders – The Cambridge and Christian Learning teams of 2007 -- plus a vote for the undefeated Christian Learning team of 2005.
This all started as a discussion over whether the current undefeated Eagles boys varsity basketball team, which has rolled through the season without serious challenge, should be accorded the sobriquet of best in League history. Juan Manuel Salas, a former Cambridge player now playing on a championship team in Lima, has countered by nominating the undefeated 2006 Cambridge team for that title.
The first contribution to the debate from a current player comes from a member of the 2009 Eagle team, who asked that his name not be used, but who was clear in his opinion. “I have to say I don’t agree with anything Juan Manuel said. I don’t believe he has any right to say . . . [which] team was the greatest ever because he has not seen how good we are.”
This player concedes the 2006 Cambridge team was very good, but urges consideration as well for the Christian Learning team that won the championship in 2005. That was the League’s first year, which presented its own set of challenges. The team had a great shooter in Jim Estes, a skilled big man up front in Jake Kennedy, plus all-around players like Jeremy Childers and Caleb Yoder.
No one came close to beating them, and this was back when the season included twice as many games as now. (The teams played each other twice at home, and twice away that first year.). The 2005 Eagles could score 40 points in an era when 20 was considered a high total, and won games by ten or 20 points at a time when two points was considered a substantial lead. Teams, he suggests, need to be considered in the context of their times.
Next to be heard from was Pablo Muñoz, who played center for International in 2006 and 2007, and may be better remembered as the hard-spiking volleyballer for the Griffins championship teams of those years. He’s now Specialist Muñoz of the US Army, and keeping track of SCISL action from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he is in training to be an advanced system data specialist making the maps artillery gunners use to locate targets. (His probable next stop: Afghanistan. Keep your head down, Pablo!)
There’s “no doubt,” he says, that the current Eagles are one of the best teams ever, but he wonders if they have the size to measure up against either the Eagles or Knights of 2007, the two best teams he played against. “After all,” he says, “we all know that high school basketball is all about big men.”
In 2007, he recalls, “I was the smallest center in the League and I´m 6-4.” Both Cambridge and Christian Learning had “amazing big men” that year. He doesn’t remember their names, but for purposes of comparison he points out that in 2007 Jeff Stabler, one of the main big men on this year’s Eagles team, “was a small forward or a shooting guard.”
Cambridge, for its part, had “an amazing center and super fast small forward” (probably referring to Manfred Grote and Jorge Yuan).
And the rest of the players on those teams were not bad. “The 2007 Christian Learning guards were definitely the best guards of all time.” (Here he probably means Jim Estes and David Zimmerman, both of whom have brothers on the current Eagle team.)
“They could set, drive, and shoot. That year I averaged five blocked shots per game, but against Christian Learning I had only three all year,” Muñoz remembers. The Eagle team had both height and speed, and Cambridge matched them.
Eduardo “Presi” de la Riva, the current International coach, also believes that the 2007 Eagles and Knights need to be considered in any ranking of the “best ever,” though for somewhat different reasons.
“Statistically there is no question,” he says, “that the current Eagle team has the best numbers, but statistics are not the whole story. There’s team spirit, resourcefulness, the ability to execute strategies,” says Presi.
He argues that the 2007 Knights and Eagles could do more things better than teams before and since, and demonstrated these abilities in the remarkable championship game they played that year, which he regards as the most “tactically fascinating” contest he’s ever seen. (Presi watched the game as an interested observer. He was in charge of physical education at Cambridge that year, but did not coach basketball.)
The two teams had dueled closely all year, with each team winning on the opponent’s court by two or three points, at least once in overtime. They were tied at halftime of the championship, as each team probed the other with a series of strategies and counter strategies. However, in the second half the Eagles engineered a nine-point lead with about three minutes to play and seemed to have the victory in hand.
Interestingly, very few people are sure what the final score of the game was, but anyone who was there remembers what happened in those last three minutes. Cambridge went to a desperation strategy, throwing up three-pointer after three-pointer -- and it worked. Incredibly, the Knights made four three-pointers, while holding the Eagles to one two-pointer, and won the game by one point.
“Because they won,” says Presi,” you have to say Cambridge was the better team, but truly they were equal.” In many ways, he says, it was too bad someone had to win that game.
And while the debate will no doubt continue through this year’s playoffs as to which was the greatest team ever, it’s unlikely there will be another championship quite as heart-stopping as that of 2007.
Have a comment or another opinion? Can you correct or improve any of the facts? (The records are murky.) Write David Boldt at boldt27@gmail.com.
