There was a story about Django Bustamante that has left a lasting impression on me about his character... fearless in the shadow of defeat.
The story starts out after a major tournament in the United States in the early 90's. Francisco Bustamante was just beginning to invade the United States to play in tournaments following his compadre Efren "Bata" Reyes and Jose Parica. The tournament lured many top professional players including the "Scorpion" Johnny Archer. Incidentally, Johnny Archer came up with his best pool performance in this particular story!
Amazingly, it was after the tournament that the real story starts. Django and Johnny started talking about matching up one-on-one. After a few minutes, they decided on a game of 9-ball, race to 13 for $2500.
The first set was won by Django 13-9 and Johnny was out $2500. Johnny decided he wanted to play another set of 13. Johnny wins the lag for the next set and proceeded to run 13 straight racks! Amazing! So set #2, Johnny Archer over Django Bustamante... 13-0.
Ironically, it wasn't the 13 straight rack that left a lasting impression on me. After seeing your opponent run 13 straight racks, any other player would have called it quits and acknowledged that your opponent in "in stroke". However, Django calmly came over to Johnny, congratulated him on his exceptional performance... and asked to play another set! On top of that, Django wanted to double the bet! One would think that he's crazy for doing that but take a minute to analyze the "mind" of this great pool player and you'll soon realize that he is truly a fearless player. I'm sure that Django knows that Johnny Archer at that time was one of the top players in the world, if not the best player of the time but this did not discourage him from taking a risky gamble. After seeing Archer ran 13 racks straight, Django still had the audacity and the confidence to play one more set and double the bet! Obviously, he knows that he can beat Johnny and he is sure of it.
Johnny Archer smartly turned down doubling the bet but decided to play another set, still for $2500. Johnny went on to lose the 3rd set 13-11 and decided to quit.
There is an irony in this story in that even though Johnny Archer played the best pool of his life, he still eventually lost the match to a fearless player... a man they call "Django".
