Shane has won three DCC Master of the Table awards (2011, 2012, 2026), and he's not done yet. I'll make the same statement about him that I made about Fedor. If he passes Efren and gets six Master of the Table titles, he will have a very reasonable claim for being the best all-around player of all time. Wishing him the best as he chases down "The Magician."
Who knew? A thread about the 10 best players in the world becomes a thread about the best player ever!
I can accept Efren was the greatest overall pool player. As sjm mentioned in another post, he changed the conception of how the game is played.
The world championship pays 250k to the winner. The US Open 100k. Several other tournaments 10s of 1000s. The top players are now getting 6 figure sponsorships. They can earn more in exhibitions in a day than many people in the first world earn in 2 weeks. It's hardly third world status - maybe not yet a "minor major" sport like its bedfellows snooker and darts, but it's doing all right for itself.
Efren is clearly not in the discussion for best rotation player ever and, as you noted, it was chiefly because of his break. Also, Efren, the largely undisputed greatest kicker of all time, was hurt by the introduction of the jump cue, which reduced his advantage by making kicking a bit less common. Still, what those of us who watched him remember about Efren is that, even in rotation pool, he'd win when the biggest spots, when the prize money was on the line. He wowed us against Strickland in the race to 120 and again at the Japan Open, which had one of the biggest first prizes ever. I reckon Efren is in the 10-15 range of all time nine ball players.
This really isn't accurate. Efren surprised even the best commentators with his choices and ingenuity until the day he retired from mainstream competition. In fact, the entire pro pool world hasn't caught up yet, for it would be difficult to argue that any player of the modern era (possibly excepting Alex Pagulayan) plays with the kind of imagination that we always got from Efren. Billy Incardona, one of Efren's earliest influences, observed "when Efren started doing things that even I didn't understand, I realized he no longer needed my help with his one pocket game."
Not sure of this. A player's peak years can come at any time. Yes, Fedor and Josh will both continue to win big titles, but whether they'll reach a higher level in their games is to be determined. No doubt, we've seen some players find their highest form later on, such as FSR and Chua, but Filler and Gorst are, for lack of a better term, "finished products," and I wonder if they can go much higher given that maintaining their current level will take nothing less than workaholism.
I thought that's basically what I said. Or at least what I meant.
Yes, it can, but in all sports, the mid-20s to early 30s seems to be the norm. A few such as tennis it happens even earlier - Alcaraz is the latest example.
I think both players are clearly better now than they were two or three years ago. They did rise to higher levels.
Really like the young Mr. Pongers. Don't believe he's reached his true gear yet, kid could have a very special game.
At rotation games, Efren's best came in the 1985-96 range, although some say it came before that, even before he came to the United States. Some say he played his best in the early 1980s. There was just one guy back then who wore him out at rotation games and that was Sigel, probably the best finisher I've ever watched, not to mention the one that Efren cites as the best player that he's ever seen.
Efren was 45 in 1999, already on the downswing of his prime except, of course, at one pocket, where he was still the one to beat.
Maybe some truth in this, but I'd say that announcers never understood Efren's approach and play, and it's part of why other players never figured out how to do things the way Efren did. He simply thought differently and saw things that nobody else saw.
Yes, pretty much how I feel on the subject. I think it's possible Fedor will push Josh to a higher level the way Karen Corr forced Allison Fisher to step up her play some 25 years ago. As we know, Allison answered the challenge and then some. Similarly, Josh may push Fedor to a higher level. It will be fun to watch!
Yes, he was one of a kind as both a player and a human being. Actually, I've heard Aloysius Yapp make the "I got lucky" comment after a big win, too, but nobody could say it like Efren. There's only one original.
Chi Chi Rodrigues, just after winning a PGA event by holing a pressure putt on the 72nd hole, was asked by a commentator "how did you deal with the pressure on the 72nd hole?" His legendary answer was "That's not pressure, Real pressure is a twenty-dollar putt when you only have ten in your pocket."
