Chuck, Seymour, MSSubj: The Andy man
I heard Andy Garcia used to be a basketball player. Was he any good?
Absolutely, Chuck. Garcia was an outstanding guard with quick hands and a decent outside touch. Unfortunately his high school career came to a crashing halt during his senior year when he came down with a nasty case of mono, followed by a bout of hepatitis. “I got derailed,” he recalls. “I couldn’t exercise for close to six months.” Garcia’s lack of stamina forced him to switch his focus and he started getting involved with school plays instead. Although Garcia was forced to shelve his dreams of becoming a basketball star, he still follows the game closely as a Los Angeles Lakers season ticket holder. “The Lakers were one of the teams I followed when I was a kid in Florida because of Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor,” he says fondly. “We didn't have a team in Florida. And my first exposure was watching the games on television. We wouldn't have games on TV every night, but when the Lakers were in the playoffs you'd get much more exposure to them.”
