Growing up in Mishawaka, Ind., next door to South Bend, Larry Showalter filled his time like most Indiana kids, at least if you believe in Hoosiers:
Played basketball on a rim nailed to his grandparents' barn.
Gramps once said he'd been pretty fair at hoops himself, and he claimed his own father "was never beaten in a footrace in three states." So Larry had the genes for greatness, all right.
Larry's father, a Studebaker dealer, moved the family to Dallas to sell cars when his son was 15. Larry played his first basketball game at Adamson soon after, and city hoops were never the same.