Do you know of players who had such a great Talent, or and or pure Natural Talent, that they could have been a World Champion, but they either quit, or was not serious enough about the game, or maybe something ruined it for them, like drug addiction for example?
I think of Landon Shuffett for example, who did not quit, but decided to commit most of his time to Education, and think that he may have been strong enough to maybe someday have been a World Champion, if he were to have taken a path with complete devotion to pool. He was, and probably still is an amazing player, but I assume he has a career now, and maybe does not have much time to play pool as much as he did when he was winning all of those Junior championships.
I wonder about other players who were really great, but pool was just not their #1 passion in life, or maybe they got bored with it before reaching their full potential, and went on to doing something else, or maybe something went wrong in their life, like drug addiction or alcoholism to name a few examples, and it really hurt their game and life.
Keith McCready comes to mind too, but he probably was considered the best in the world at one time, but I wonder if he reached his full potential as a pool player. I read a quote from his somewhere that said that he stated that he never practiced or did drills, saying something like it was a waste of time. Not sure if that is true. Just something I read somewhere, or that someone told me. He is a Legend in my opinion though. Just wonder if he could have been even greater, and accomplished more in pool.
Love reading cool stories about players that were so good that they had the cue ball on a string, and could do anything they put their mind to on a pool table, but were never World Champions, or even that serious about the game to begin with. Just something they were naturally great at, but maybe it was not their #1 passion.