Pete Maravich

Pete Maravich
Pete Maravich from his days at LSU, taken from Fox Sports
Position(s) Guard
Jersey #(s) 44, 7, 23
Listed height 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight 200 lb (91 kg)
Born June 22, 1947(1947-06-22)
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Died January 5, 1988(1988-01-05) (aged 40)
Pasadena, California
Career information
Year(s) 1970–1980
NBA Draft 1970 round 1 pick # 3
College LSU
Professional team(s)
Career stats (NBA)
Points 15,948
PPG 24.2
Assists 3,563
Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com
Career highlights and awards
Basketball Hall of Fame as player

Peter "Pistol Pete" Press Maravich (June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988) made basketball history as the most spectacular college scorer ever. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University (LSU) and for three NBA teams. He is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game.[1] Maravich died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game as a consequence of a previously undetected congenital heart defect. One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was cited by the Hall as "perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history".[2] In an April 2010 interview, Hall of Fame player John Havlicek said "but I guess the best ball-handler of all time was (Pete) Maravich". A biographical movie, "Pistol: The Birth of a Legend", was made in 1990. This movie is based on his first season of high school varsity basketball (which he played when he was in eighth grade).[3]

Contents

Early life

Pete Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a small steel town in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a very supportive father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. His father, Press Maravich, a former professional player-turned-coach, showed Maravich the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long range shots.

Maravich got his nickname "Pistol" in high school. He would shoot the ball from the side like he was holding a pistol. Maravich attended and played basketball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina from 1961 to 1963 while his father was the head basketball coach at Clemson University. While at Daniel, Maravich participated in the school's first ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963, his father joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State, and the family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where Pete attended and played for Needham B. Broughton High School.[4]

Playing career

College

While Maravich would tell friends later in life he always desired to play basketball for West Virginia University and was all set to be a Mountaineer, his father was the varsity coach at LSU and his father offered the "Pistol" a spot at LSU. In his first game on the LSU freshman team Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds, and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.[5]

In only three years playing for his father 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 his collegiate career, the 6' 5" (1.96 m) guard averaged an incredible 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring in each of his three seasons.[6]

Maravich's longstanding collegiate scoring record is particularly impressive when two other factors are taken into account. First, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. His long-distance shooting skill thus produced far fewer points than would have been the case in a later era. Years later former LSU head basketball coach Dale Brown charted every college game Maravich played, taking into consideration all shots he took. Brown calculated that at the NCAA rule of a three-point line at 19-foot (5.8 m), 9-inches from the rim, Maravich would have averaged thirteen 3-point scores per game, lifting the player's career average to 57 points per game.[7] Second, NCAA rules at the time of Maravich's collegiate career prohibited freshmen from taking place in varsity competition, preventing Maravich from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshmen competition.

More than 35 years later, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival.

At Louisiana State University, Maravich was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

NCAA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1966–67[8] Louisiana State 19 ... ... .452 ... .833 10.4 … … … 43.6
1967–68 Louisiana State 26 ... ... .423 ... .811 7.5 4.0 … … 43.8
1968–69 Louisiana State 26 ... ... .444 ... .746 6.5 4.9 … … 44.2
1969–70 Louisiana State 31 ... ... .447 ... .773 5.3 6.2 … … 44.5
Career[9][10] 83 ... … .438 ... .775 6.5 5.1 … … 44.2

Professional

After departing LSU in 1970 (he left after the NIT tournament and did not graduate, and therefore can never be inducted into the LSU Hall of Fame), Maravich was the third selection in the first round of that year's NBA player draft[11] 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 and being named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. After spending four seasons in Atlanta, Maravich was traded to the New Orleans Jazz for 8 players, 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 the 1976–77 season with 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.[12]

A leg injury suffered during the 1977–78 NBA season ultimately prompted his retirement two years later in 1980. Pete Maravich was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in May 1987. At age 39, he was one of the youngest players ever inducted.

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1970–71 Atlanta 81 … 36.1 .458 … .800 3.7 4.4 … … 23.2
1971–72 Atlanta 66 … 34.9 .427 … .811 3.9 6.0 … … 19.3
1972–73 Atlanta 79 … 39.1 .441 … .800 4.4 6.9 … … 26.1
1973–74 Atlanta 76 … 38.2 .457 … .826 4.9 5.2 1.5 .2 27.7
1974–75 New Orleans 79 … 36.1 .419 … .811 5.3 6.2 1.5 .2 21.5
1975–76 New Orleans 62 … 38.3 .459 … .811 4.8 5.4 1.4 .4 25.9
1976–77 New Orleans 73 … 41.7 .433 … .835 5.1 5.4 1.2 .3 31.1
1977–78 New Orleans 50 … 40.8 .444 … .870 3.6 6.7 2.0 .2 27.0
1978–79 New Orleans 49 … 37.2 .421 … .841 2.5 5.0 1.2 .4 22.6
1979–80 Utah/Boston 43 … 22.4 .449 .667 .867 1.8 1.9 .6 .1 13.7
Career[10] 658 … 37.0 .441 .667 .820 4.2 5.4 1.4 .3 24.2

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1970–71 Atlanta 5 … 39.8 .377 … .692 5.2 4.8 … … 22.0
1971–72 Atlanta 6 … 36.5 .446 … .817 5.3 4.7 … … 27.7
1972–73 Atlanta 6 … 39.0 .419 … .794 4.8 6.7 … … 26.2
1979–80 Boston 9 … 11.6 .490 .333 .667 .9 .7 … … 6.0
Career[10] 26 … 29.1 .423 .333 .784 3.6 3.8 … … 18.7

Later life and death

After the injury forced him to leave basketball in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life." He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics. Eventually, he embraced evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that (sic) serves Him to the utmost, not as a basketball player."[13]

On January 5, 1988, Pete Maravich collapsed and died at age 40 of a heart attack[14] while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at the First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena with a group that included James Dobson ofFocus on the Family fame. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel which supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.[15]

"He'll be remembered always", former LSU head basketball coach Dale Brown said on hearing the news of Maravich's death.

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

Legacy

At his death, Pete Maravich was survived by his wife, Jackie, and his two sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Pete had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington and introduced him to Michael Jordan.

Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, even not allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral.[16] However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since...My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing." [17]

Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit his tutelage might have provided, each eventually was inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball, Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.[17] As of 2008, both men had also signed to play professional basketball with the Santa Barbara Breakers (West Coast Basketball League).[18][19]

Memorabilia

Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. [20] The signed game ball from his career-high 68 point night on February 25, 1977 sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction. [21]

Honors, books and films

Video game depictions

Collegiate awards

Collegiate records

  • Tied by Ben Woodside, ND State

NBA awards

NBA records

Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves, 01973-11-28 November 28, 1973

Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls, 01973-01-02 January 2, 1973

Second pair of teammates to score 2,000 or more points, season: 2, Atlanta Hawks (1972–73)
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029

Third pair of teammates to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets, 01977-04-10 April 10, 1977
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.

Ranks 4th in NBA history — Free throws made, none missed, game: 18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves, 01973-11-28 November 28, 1973

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Peter P. "Pete" Maravich". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-pete-maravich.html. Retrieved October 31, 2008. 
  2. ↑ hoophall.com
  3. ↑ "Pistol: The Birth of a Legend," DVD cover (2005)
  4. ↑ "Pete Maravich Summary". NBA.com. http://www.nba.com/history/players/maravich_summary.html. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
  5. ↑ Federman, Wayne; Terrill, Marshall; Maravich, Jackie (2006). Maravich. p. 68. ISBN 1894963520. 
  6. ↑ Rogers, Thomas. "Pete Maravich, a Hall of Famer Who Set Basketball Marks, Dies", The New York Times, January 6, 1988. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
  7. ↑ Levine, Les. "James' 55 were Pistol Pete-esque", The News-Herald (Ohio), February 22, 2009. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
  9. ↑ Pete Maravich, LSU Sports. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Pete Maravich, basketball-reference.com. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  11. ↑ "1970 NBA Draft". Basketball Reference. http://www.databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?lg=N&yr=1970. Retrieved October 31, 2008. 
  12. ↑ Deseret Morning News | 25 years later the Jazz are going strong
  13. ↑ Federman, p. 367
  14. ↑ New York Times, 1988/01/10: MARAVICH IS EULOGIZED
  15. ↑ Pistol Pete 23
  16. ↑ Thamel, Pete (February 17, 2004). "In the Name of His Father: The Journey of Pete Maravich's Son". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/17/sports/ncaabasketball/17MARA.html?ex=1392354000&en=b05e4e15f6eb9dca&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Weir, Tom (February 14, 2003). "Playing in Pistol Pete's shadow". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/2003-02-12-maravich-sons_x.htm. Retrieved May 22, 2010. 
  18. ↑ "Breakers Basketball". Breakers Basketball. 2008-03-27. http://www.breakersbasketball.com/pdfs/2008-03-27-Breakerssignhigh-scoringJaesonMaravich.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
  19. ↑ "Scout.com: Josh Maravich Profile". Louisianastate.scout.com. http://louisianastate.scout.com/a.z?s=107&p=8&c=1&nid=1613214. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
  20. ↑ [1] Sports Collector's Digest. Retrieved 8-5-10.
  21. ↑ "1977 Pete Maravich Sixty-Eighth Point Game Used Basketball Basketball Collectibles: Balls". Sports.ha.com. http://sports.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=716&Lot_No=82221. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
  22. ↑ PistolMovie.com – The Home of "The Pistol" on DVD

Further reading

External links