Basketball player, born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a three-time National Collegiate Athletic Association scoring leader at Louisiana State University (196870), virtually rewriting the National Collegiate Athlete Association record book. Among his many records, he averaged 44·2 points per game. He went on to play for the National Basketball Association Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Jazz, and Boston Celtics, where he averaged 24.2 points per game over 10 years. In 1987 he was elected to basketball's Hall of Fame.
Peter Press "Pete" Maravich (June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988) was an American basketball player known for his incredible shooting abilities, creative passing, and dazzling ballhandling. 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. His father Press Maravich, a former professional player turned coach, showed Pete the fundamentals starting when Pete was 7.
Basketball career
High school
The practice paid off when he joined the high school varsity basketball team as an 8th grader.
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. 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.
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. He also set an NCAA record by scoring more than 50 points 28 times. 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 in Maravich's era.
Maravich was a three time first team All-American and was named The Sporting News' player of the year in 1970, and received the 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 shined on the court and LSU slowly turned around a lackluster program.
NBA
After graduating 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 led the NBA in scoring in 1977 with a personal high 31.1 points per game.
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).
Later life
After a leg injury forced him to leave basketball in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse.
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.
"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 be 40 and die from a heart attack."
Legacy
Maravich was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in May 1987.
Pete Maravich released the Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball video series in 1987.
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 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all-time. 2.
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