Being a youngin’ and all, I find myself constantly boning up on the sports past I never lived - and that ain’t an easy thing to do (yeah that’s right, I said bone). It’s kinda like a necessity for writing this here website – don’t want to be the guy caught describing a woman’s breast as a bag of sand – it tends to say bad things about your credibility. So even if the guys weren’t the stars of their generation, I’ve got to have a few things to say when the names Artis Gilmore or Jim Rice come up in conversation, to name a few. Which brings me to the subject of this post: Pete Maravich.
Pete Maravich was certainly a name I had always heard of, probably because he had a cool nickname, “Pistol.” I had heard he was a bad ass and I knew he was on the Top 50 players ever list from a while back, but man, until recently, I had no idea about the intricacies of Maravich. So you know you’re not alone in your ignorance, here are some cool things I recently found out about Pistol Pete.Â
- He averaged 43.6ppg his freshman year at LSU
- He holds the NCAA record for most career points, highest career scoring average, most career field goals made, most career field goals attempted
- He was selected 3rd in the 1970 draft, right behind Rudy Tomjanovich
- He was a 5-time NBA All-Star
- He only got to play one year when the 3 point line was invented (and he was 10-15 that year)
- He died of a heart attack at age 40 while playing a 3 on 3 pickup game
So why bring up Pistol Pete you ask? Because a few books about Maravich have just been released. One is called Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich and the other is called Maravich. The marketing people from the 2nd book made a genius move – digging up the old school Pistol Pete mix tapes in order to promote the book. One of them made its way around to me, and let me tell you, these vintage puppies are sick! Check out the one below. When you do, keep in mind that these moves were made prior to the invention of the 3 point line! My favorite is the passing display around the 3:20 mark – he was doing the And 1 basketball moves 30 years ago!
