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18 l MACON MAGAZINE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 John-Wesley Villas A Macon Tradition! All Apartments Ground-Level Independent & Assisted Living Recuperative care Maintenance-Free Living 478-207-7172 John-Wesley Villas, Inc. 5471 Thomaston Road, Macon www.JohnWesleyVillas.com "Retirement Living at its Finest" bits & pieces Donald "Duck" Richardson was a legend in Macon high school basketball circle, producing one of the winningest athletic programs in the history of the city. Henry Goss has written a book about the greatest of Richardson's team. "Duck's Boys: The Greatest High School Basketball Team in Georgia History Southwest High School — Macon Georgia The 1978-79 National Championship Season" details the story of the Patriot squad considered the greatest high school basketball team in state history. It featured a core of seniors who'd gone undefeated as sophomores, losing in the state title game and then lost once as juniors before winning one of Richardson's six state titles. Matt Winklejohn, writing on ESPN's website, offered these insights: The Patriots were loaded with 13 players who are said to have gone on to play college ball of some sort. Guard Jeff Malone played 13 seasons in the NBA, mostly with the Bullets and Jazz, averaging 20.1 points in a career that included two All-Star berths. Malone and Terry Fair would become high school All-Americans in '79. When a team averages 85.3 points in an era without a 3-point line, makes 55 percent of its shots, and wins by an average of 28.8 points (27.5 in the postseason) … that team is kicking butt. "They played defense, too," said Miami Heat scout Bob Reinhart, who coached Decatur High to a state title in '82. "They were quick enough to play whatever they wanted; they just overpowered teams." The 6-foot-4 Malone went to Mississippi State. Fair, who at 6-foot-7 was Southwest's most athletic player, played with Dominique Wilkins at Georgia and later in Europe. Testimonials offered to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for the 10-year anniversary of that Southwest team said plenty: "You couldn't play them zone," former Murphy coach Henry Adams told the newspaper. "You couldn't play them [man-to-man]. You couldn't press them. Duck's Boys