3rd Quarter ORB Review

Third Quarter Outside Reading Book Review
Peter Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill. Tyndale House Publishers, 2006. Genre: Biography

Pete Maravich, is the biography of one of the greatest basketball players and people to ever live on planet Earth. Pete grew up in Pennsylvania and went to high school in South Carolina where he got his nickname "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He went to college at LSU where he played basketball under varsity coach Press Maravich, Pete's father. Therer he scored over 3,000 points in just his sophmore, junior, and senior year making a 44.2 college career average, still the NCAA record for highest college career average. He went on to play professional basketball for the Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, and finishing his career with the Boston Celtics. In 1980 Pete retired from the game of basketball due to frustration in the game and a knee injury he suffered from the 1978 season. After he retired he went recluse for 2 years in search of the meaning of life and what to do with his life. He found what he was looking for in christianity. "I want to be remembered as a christian man not a basketball player." quote by Pete himself. In 1988 Pete was playing a pick-up game with a church group and seconds after telling a friend "i feel fine" he dropped dead. His death was due to a cardiac faliure. He died at age 40.

"Outstanding research on Pete Maravich and his life" by Bill Balton. "Pete was the originall. He was the best ball handler I ever saw. Ever" by Pat Riley. "He was one of the truly great players that could fill an arena" by Larry Bird.

It's kinda hard to explain what the writing style is becasue what the book is about is just Pete's life. They aren't interpreting it in their own way they are just finding quotes other people said and writing about what they research. They didn't put in any opinions or anything like that. But one thing about the writing style is that it is very informative.

"Dr. James Dobson wrote in his 1995 book Life on the Edge. He was the Michael Jordan or the Magic Johnson of his day" (pg. 384). What this quote shows is that the authors of this book researched a lot of different things to find quotes from people and multiple books on Pete's life and what people thought and how they thought of him as a player and as a person outside the game.

Pete Maravich is my 2nd all time favorite basketball player. This is due to his struggles and his hard work and dedication to the game of basketball and how he lived his life. I also am a huge fan of what they theme of the story is, which is to try the hardest you can, and all ways work and never give up, because with hard work and dedication nothing can hold you back to reaching your goals and anything you could ever want in the world. That is why i love Pete Maravich and this book because it is living proof that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to if you just work at it.

Will this decision turnout good or bad?

People make millions of trillions of decisions in their entire life, and for every action or decision they make they will have to face a reaction. Now that reaction could be good, bad, neutral, or have no affect on you because some of your actions affect people that you don’t even know. Like when your on the pitchers mound at a baseball game, you have a decision, you could throw a fastball having the ball move faster is harder to hit, but if he does hit it, it’s gonna go far because for every action we make there is an equal and opposite reaction. Now in the book The Old Man and the Sea a fisherman named Santiago is trying to catch this big marlin. He makes some choices that ultimately decide his fate for him.

The first decision that Santiago made that ultimately sealed his fat to a poor life was his decision to become a fisherman in Cuba. "he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches..." (pg. 24). A fisherman’s life can be very hard. There are many thing to be cautious about when becoming a fisherman and having to go out a sea almost every day, like being killed by the fish your catching, being eaten by sharks, being stranded out a sea, and sinking. The old man new all of these risks but still wanted to become a fisherman for it was a peaceful life and it made him happy. Santiago’s decision to become a fisherman led to him becoming a poor fisherman and in his later years having no luck to catch fish and supply food for even his own life.

The next decision that Santiago chose to make was denying the boy of coming out to sea with him. "No. Go and play baseball. I can still and Rogelion will throw the net." (pg. 12). Fishing in general is hard not to mention put an old man up against a thousand pound marlin and the conclusion does not look good for the old man. The old man could have used the boy for so many things. The boy could have helped keep the other lines steady, could have given food and water to Santiago and could have helped Santiago club at sharks when they were ripping off chunks of the marlin with their sharp teeth. The boy would have also made the mood of the situation more soothing, peaceful, and less lonely. Because the old man was arrogant and refused the boy’s help he lost the fish and later would be regretful of his silly decision.

The third decision that Santiago made was going out to sea very unprepared. "You should have brought many things, he thought." (pg. 110). When you go out fishing in any oceans especially when you are going out far or have the possibility of going out far you will have a good chance that you will sea sharks, and if you have a thousand pound dead bleeding marlin hanging to the side of your boat with blood spilling out into the water there is a 10x greater chance of seeing sharks attack your catch. Santiago's sloopy and careless behavior made himself unprepared when the multiple of sharks came for his fish that he spent days catching.

The fourth decision that Santiago made was letting the big marlin carry his little boat out so far into the Atlantic Ocean. "I went out too far."(pg. 120). The old man caught the huge marlin and then after a while it started pulling Santiago further and further out into the huge Atlantic Ocean. What Santiago also did was cut the three other lines he had. With that he couldn't cut the line with the marlin attached or he knew it would be impossible to bring anything home. So because he decided to cut the other lines and let the fish bring him so far out he put himself in a great danger zone and also that he couldn't catch anything other than that marlin. And in that danger zone he would have to fight creatures he was not prepared to fight, because the marlin brought him out further into a threatening enviornment.

In conclusion the old man made some decisions that ultimately decided what he chances and what road he was going down. Becoming a fisherman lead him down a path of poverty and starvation. Refusing the boy's help provided him with no help or support out at sea. Going out unprepared let things take advantage of him because he didn't have the tools to fight what he was up against. And letting the marlin bring him far out at sea took him far away from any help and in a place full of dangerous fish.