October 2, 2007
Today’s NBA Can’t Touch “Pistol” Pete
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m a huge basketball fan. Maybe it’s because I’m a short, slow, white guy, but I grew up idolizing players like Steve Alford, John Stockton and Larry Bird.
Now, I enjoy watching players like Steve Nash and Jason Kidd. I’ve always loved great passing, court vision, and stellar dribbling.
Once I started getting into the history of basketball, I realized that no one could touch “Pistol” Pete Maravich. While Pistol practically invented “showtime” basketball, paving the way for dramatic, flashy players like Ervin “Magic”Johnson and Isaiah Thomas, his biggest asset was his unrivaled command of basketball fundamentals.
The old cliche of “born with a basketball in his hands” doesn’t do this man justice. It would be more appropriate to say basketball was born with Pete Maravich cradling it.
Most of today’s players have no clue when it comes to being truly great. A few, like LeBron James and Chris Paul might come close. Even some of the “street” ballers such as the And One players have a better grasp on what makes basketball great than some of the scrubs in the NBA.
The desire to dominate isn’t enough. It’s all about turning liabilities into assets, as Maravich did. Oh, and the kid could shoot the lights out.
Maravich died of a heart attack in 1988 while warming up to play a pickup basketball game. He was 40 years old.
With that in mind, here are some of my favorite Maravich clips. School’s in session, suckers.
