Pistol Pete Maravich

Peter Press Maravich (June 22, 1947 - January 5, 1988) was an American basketball player known for his dazzling ballhandling, incredible shooting abilities, and creative passing.

Also known as "Pistol Pete", he starred in college at Louisiana State University and for three NBA teams. Maravich is still the all-time leading NCAA scorer, averaging a staggering 44.2 points per game, without the benefit of a three-point line.

Early Life

Born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, and of Serbian descent, Pete amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. His father Press Maravich, a former professional player turned coach, showed Pete the fundamentals starting when Pete was seven years old. Pete would obsessively spend hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long range shots.

High school

The practice paid off when he joined the high school varsity basketball team as an 8th grader. He attended two high schools as a teen: D. W. Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina and Needham B. Broughton in Raleigh, North Carolina. Commonly it is thought that he attended a preparatory year at Edward Military Institute in Salemburg, North Carolina, in fact, he attended Southwood College in Salemburg which was formerly EMI until 1964. During his years at those schools, he wowed college scouts with his ability to shoot, dribble, pass and score points. It is said that the young Maravich wanted to attend West Virginia University, but his father told him that if he didn’t sign with LSU he might as well leave home. And so, in 1966, Maravich decided to attend Louisiana State University, and play for his father, who was the school’s new head basketball coach. Under his father’s tutelage, Maravich would become known as "Pistol Pete".

College

When he took the court for his first freshman game at LSU, a large crowd turned out to see what all the fuss was about.

In those days, freshman players didn’t play with the varsity squad. So, after Maravich put up 50 points, 11 assists, and 11 rebounds on Southeastern Louisiana College, the crowd got up and went home, ignoring the varsity game. And so it would go the rest of the season, as LSU’s freshman squad lost only one game, while the varsity team won only three.

Noted for his mop of brown hair and floppy gray socks, Maravich scored more points in college than any other player in history. In only three years playing for his father Press at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points, 1,138 points in 1968, 1,148 points in 1969 and 1,381 points in 1970 while averaging 43.8, 44.2 and 44.5 points per game. In the process, "Pistol Pete" set 11 NCAA and 34 Southeastern Conference records, as well as every LSU record in points scored, scoring average, field goals attempted and made, and free throws attempted and made, and assists. In his collegiate career, the 6-5 (1.96 m) guard averaged an incredible 44.2 ppg in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring three times. He also set an NCAA record by scoring more than 50 points 28 times. He was named a three-time All-American and still holds many of these records, more than 35 years later. Notably, his 3,667 points don’t factor in the 741 he scored his freshman year, or the fact that they played without a three-point line.

Maravich was a three time first team All-American and was named The Sporting News’ player of the year in 1970, and received the USBWA College Player of the Year and Naismith Award as well. He scored a personal record of 69 points versus Alabama during a game that year, and garnered numerous other awards and college records.

Maravich shone on the court and LSU slowly turned around a lackluster program. The year before he arrived, the varsity posted a 3-20 record. In Pete’s senior season, LSU was 20-8 and participated in the NIT, where they were defeated by Marquette 101-79 in the semi-finals. Pete Maravich was probably the best player in the history of college basketball who never played in the NCAA tournament. In 1970, only 25 teams got into the tournament (instead of the 65 who get in today), and LSU did not win its conference championship to qualify for the tournament.

NBA

After graduating from LSU in 1970, Maravich was the third selection in the first round of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) player draft and made league history when he signed a $1.9 million contract - one of the highest salaries at the time - with the Atlanta Hawks. He wasted little time becoming a prime time player by averaging 23.2 points per game his rookie season. After spending four seasons in Atlanta, Maravich was traded to the New Orleans Jazz where he peaked as an NBA showman and superstar. He made the All-NBA First Team in 1976 and 1977 and the All-NBA Second Team in 1973 and 1978. He led the NBA in scoring in 1977 with a personal high 31.1 points per game. Prior to the 1979-80 season, Maravich moved with the team to Utah. He was waived by the Jazz on January 18, 1980 and was quickly picked up by the Boston Celtics where he played the rest of the season alongside Larry Bird. Maravich retired in the fall of 1980.

In ten NBA seasons, Maravich, a five-time NBA All-Star, scored 15,948 points in 658 games for a 24.2 ppg average (15th All Time). He led the league in scoring with 31.1 points per game in 1977. His NBA single game high, a 68-point explosion, came against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977. He shares the record for most free throws made in a quarter with 14.

Later Life and Death

After a leg injury forced him to leave basketball in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life." He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, and took an interest in the field of ufology. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics. Eventually, he became a Christian and began traveling the country sharing his faith.

On January 5, 1988, while playing a pickup basketball game at the Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included Focus on the Family head James Dobson (Maravich was scheduled to appear on Dobson’s radio show later that day), he collapsed and died of a heart attack at the age of only 40. An autopsy revealed that his death was due to a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect; he had been born with only one coronary artery instead of the normal two (he had no left coronary artery, a very rare condition)

"He’ll be remembered always", former LSU head basketball coach Dale Brown said on hearing the news of Maravich’s death. "When we see some tousled-haired kid with drooping socks standing on some semi-darkened court or in a yard after everyone else has gone home, he will be shooting a basketball, and we will remember Pete."

Years before his death Maravich told a Pennsylvania reporter, "I don’t want to play 10 years [in the NBA] and then die of a heart attack when I’m 40."

Pete Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Legacy

  • Maravich was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in May 1987. He remains the youngest player ever to be inducted.
  • Pete Maravich released the Pistol Pete’s Homework Basketball video series in 1987. The series contains four different videos - one each on passing, ball-handling, shooting, and dribbling. The videos are meant for people of all ages who want to learn the great skills and drills that made him one of the greatest basketball players of all-time.
  • In December 1987, just days before his death, Maravich was honored at the O’Reilly All-College Basketball Classic in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
  • After Maravich’s death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially naming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
  • In 1991, a biographical film dramatizing his 8th grade season entitled, The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend, was released.
  • In 1997, he was named one of the 50 greatest NBA players in history by a panel made up of NBA historians, former players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. His two sons, Jaeson and Joshua, accepted the honor in his place.
  • In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled, Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
  • Maravich’s son Josh played at LSU as a walk-on.
  • In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all-time.
  • In 2007, two biographies of Pistol Pete Maravich were released. MARAVICH was written by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill in collaboration with Pete’s widow, Jackie. Pistol was written by author Mark Kriegel, who achieved acclaim for an exhaustive biography of football star Joe Namath. The book is also in cooperation with Jackie Maravich.

Source: This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia.