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"Pistol" Pete Maravich; A 20 Year Retrospective
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On January 5th, 1988, retired basketball legend Pete Maravich got out of bed, had breakfast with his family and took his kids to school. What made this day different from the day before and the day before that is this was to be the last time he would do any of these things. Playing in a pick-up game of basketball with his business partner and some friends, the greatest ballhandler to ever play basketball suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 40. Autopsy results would show Maravich was born without a left coronary artery, and the right artery just gave out after sustaining such a heavy workload for so long.
"He was phenomenally ahead of his time," said Hall of Fame center Bob Lanier, "And I could tell you to this day he is the only player I've seen that I would pay to see play."
"He was and is my idol," said Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, "even though he was only two years older than me." "He was just so far ahead of the game with his ballhandling and creativity." "To see him play you would think he was a ball-hog, only afterwards could you truly realize what he could do and how important he was to the game."
Maravich was the son of Press Maravich, a long time coach at LSU who raised his son to be different, to change the game, to be unlike no one else. And he was. Maravich himself went to LSU and in his three years there averaged 44.2 points per game, still an NCAA record. In the NBA, Maravich was a five time All-Star and had a career scoring average of 24.2 points per game before his career was ended prematurely due to a knee injury after just 10 seasons.
With his long socks and longer hair, Maravich was at first resented by his teammates with the Atlanta Hawks, who first drafted Maravich. "It was hard not to," said former teammate Lou Hudson, "because we didn't understand his game, we had never seen anything like him before." After three seasons, the Hawks traded Maravich to the expansion New Orleans Jazz, for eight players, and his game took off. With fringe players around him, Maravich took over the game and willed his team to an average of 38 wins per season during his first three years, an impressive total for an expansion team.
Maravich scored his career high of 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25th, 1977, but it was a game in Phoenix against the Suns three weeks later which cemented his legend and earned him the respect of his peers around the league. On their way back to the team hotel after the morning shoot-around, five Jazz players were injured in an accident when their taxi was hit by a delivery truck. While none of the players were seriously injured, none could play against the Suns that night, leaving only seven players in uniform. "We didn't know anything until pre-game," said Suns center Alvan Adams. "We just thought some players stayed in the clubhouse for treatment or something, then Coach came over and told us." "We didn't know what to expect, an easy win, what would happen if three guys fouled out?"
"Coach" was Suns coach John MacLeod. "We couldn't stop him." "We tried everything, double teams, traps, box outs, nothing worked." Maravich finished the night with a Veteran's Memorial Coliseum record 51 points on 21 of 34 shooting and 9 of 10 from the line. "That night," Adams said, "Maravich beat an NBA team all by himself."
Maravich led the league in scoring that season and after the Jazz moved to Utah, he suffered a serious knee injury. Unable to return to his glory, the Jazz waived Pete and he ended up a critical piece of the Larry Bird led Boston Celtics team of 1980, who went on to lose to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
The next season recurring problems with the knee forced Maravich to retire.
How would Maravich fare in today's game? "He would dominate," said Suns assistant Alvin Gentry. "Today's game is about spacing, drawing double teams, and shooting off the pass." "No one in the history of the game was better at that than Pete." "He could do more things with the ball than anyone who ever played, and do them all well."
In May 1987, Maravich became the youngest player ever elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame. His jersey is retired by both the Hawks and Jazz as well as by LSU. In 1996, Maravich was honored with a selection to the "50 greatest players in History" by the NBA, and LSU's home court is named after him.
In an eerie epilogue, Maravich, at the age of 25, was interviewed by then Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Andy Nuzzo. One of the Pistol's lines from that interview?
"I don't want to play ten years in the NBA and die of a heart attack when I'm 40."
Which is exactly how it played out.
Side Bar: In my year on the 'Chair, I've been a part of many discussions about yesterday's players compared to today's. Being as I'm likely older than most of you, my comments come from experience. I saw Wilt play. I saw Hank Aaron play. I saw Arnie and Jack in their prime. And I saw Pete play. Some things you just have to see to believe, and Pete Maravich with a basketball is one of them. The word legend or superstar is overused a lot, especially with today's players. However, when talking about the Pistol, those words are under used.
Sources:
here and the January 5th, 2008 edition of the Arizona Republic, article written by Doug Haller.
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