Sam Shepherd (born 21 April 1953), also known as El Mago, is a Venezuelan former basketball player who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics. He attended Delaware State University, and played basketball for the Hornets, as a member of which he toured with the league all-star team in Venezuela. He graduated in 1975, and after unsuccessful tryouts for NBA, CBA, and ABA teams, decided to go back to Venezuela to try his luck.[2] There, he played on various teams in the Liga Profesional de Baloncesto, including Trotamundos de Carabobo, Panteras de Miranda, and Guaiqueríes de Margarita.[3] His rise to fame there earned him the nickname El Mago. In order to qualify to join the Venezuelan national basketball team, he naturalised as a Venezuelan citizen in 1986 and gave up his U.S. citizenship.[2] He represented his new country at the Copa Sprite in 1990, and later led the national team to a silver medal at the 1992 Tournament of the Americas. He grew up in North Carolina. He has a daughter Gwendolyn, who attended Temple University in Philadelphia,[2] and a son Sam Jr., born in 1991, who inherited his fathers love of basketball and tried out for the Toros de Aragua in September 2013.[6]
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 00:19:05 +0000
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