Pat Williams

05/16/19 • 39 min

Pat Williams knew the luck of the lottery back in 1992 when his Orlando Magic found the pingpong ball that landed them Shaquille O’Neal. Williams, the 79-year-old co-founder and senior vice president of the Magic these days announced his retirement last month.

But that’s just an excuse for Pat to be out on the circuit telling more stories about his entertaining life in sports, which began with a love of baseball and a brief career as a minor league catcher in the early 1960s.

In this episode of "30 With Murti," Williams tells us about his baseball roots as a young boy in Philadelphia and how it eventually led him to becoming one of the top executives in the history of the NBA. But all the while, baseball is still in Pat’s heart, and you’ll hear about all his wonderful connections to the game, including one to a Hall of Fame pitcher and another to the current manager of the Yankees.

Previous Episode

The Stories Behind Tyler Kepner's New Book, 'K'

Tyler Kepner, the national baseball writer for The New York Times, has written a different kind of baseball history book. It’s called “K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches,” from Doubleday.

In this new episode of "30 With Murti," we are joined by Kepner to talk about the stories behind the book, which traces baseball from Walter Johnson’s fastball to Sandy Koufax’s curveball to Mariano Rivera’s cutter. Stories about how pitches are passed down from one generation to another, to the mastery of such pitches that end up taking these men to highest reaches in the game.

Take a listen here and purchase the book anywhere books are sold.

Next Episode

Dave Twardzik

Dave Twardzik spent his life in professional basketball, an eight-year career in the ABA and NBA highlighted as the point guard on the 1977 world champion Portland Trail Blazers.

But before he teamed up with Hall of Famer Bill Walton, he wore the blue and gold of the Middletown Blue Raiders from Middletown, Pennsylvania, which also happens to be the hometown of our very own Sweeny Murti.

In this edition of "30 With Murti," Sweeny takes a stroll down memory lane with Twardzik about Middletown’s run to the 1968 Pennsylvania state basketball championship, a small-town run to the title straight out of the movie “Hoosiers.”

Listen here as Twardzik recounts his high school glory days as well as his days in the ABA playing alongside none other than Dr. J, Julius Erving himself. A must-listen for basketball fans in this episode of "30 With Murti."