OT: 26 years since Pistol Pete's death | Syracusefan.com

OT: 26 years since Pistol Pete's death

cliftonparksufan

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If you are of a certain age then you probably wore the floppy socks and wanted your hair to flop also like Pistol Pete. Of course we could never do what he did on the court so maybe we could look like him off the court. It's still hard to be believe he averaged over 40 pts a game in college without the 3 pt rule.

Here are the top ten plays of Pistol Pete's career (some of these black and white shots make me feel a lot older than I am).

Here are his stats and info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Maravich
 
I remember the story of his father, a coach, having him dribble a ball from out the car window while his dad drove down streets when Pete was a little kid.

I first saw him when I was around 14 or 15 and he was playing for LSU. College games were rarely televised back then and this one was in black and white - the ball seemed like it was on a string in his hands. He could shoot, pass, drive like no other. I loved his passing game.
 
He was certainly one of the best passers and ball handlers ever. Fun to watch even on the old tapes. He played in a charity game a year before he died and even fooling around he made an unbelievable 3/4 court bounce pass for an assist. BB was in his DNA.
 
I remember the story of his father, a coach, having him dribble a ball from out the car window while his dad drove down streets when Pete was a little kid.

I first saw him when I was around 14 or 15 and he was playing for LSU. College games were rarely televised back then and this one was in black and white - the ball seemed like it was on a string in his hands. He could shoot, pass, drive like no other. I loved his passing game.
Weird drill...not even sure what it would accomplish? Learn to dribble while running as fast as a car?
 

Think this may be a better highlight film. The first part is mainly shots but the second part highlights some of his passes and his unbelievable ball control skills. He was so advanced it appeared that he was playing against himself in trying to create as many different ways he could deliver the ball.
 
Weird drill...not even sure what it would accomplish? Learn to dribble while running as fast as a car?
Having never tried the drill, I can't speak from personal experience, but just the notion of trying to dribble out the window of moving car sounds incredibly difficult, especially as the speed of the car increases. I would expect that a player who does this regularly would end up being able to dribble like the ball is attached to their hand.
 
He did the impossible on the court and then did it again and again and again. With all due respect to Michael Jordan, Pistol Pete may have been the best ever.
Come on now Stuck...the guy was a slick passer but his gaudy scoring numbers are a result of his absurd shooting numbers. He shot a hair under 44 percent in college (Jordan was 54 percent). He averaged nearly 40 shots a game! Jordan's craziest year in college he didn't have half the attempts in college. People gripe about melo at 21 or so a game. He was a nice player.
 
Weird drill...not even sure what it would accomplish? Learn to dribble while running as fast as a car?

He was inside the car dribbling the ball outside the window. He said that he had to control the ball whether he was on a dirt road, potholes, when his father turned corners. Very strange but he could do things with a basketball no one else could and at full speed. He said that drill was the reason and the results seemed to confirm it. His dad from all accounts was very very tough on him.
 
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Come on now Stuck...the guy was a slick passer but his gaudy scoring numbers are a result of his absurd shooting numbers. He shot a hair under 44 percent in college (Jordan was 54 percent). He averaged nearly 40 shots a game! Jordan's craziest year in college he didn't have half the attempts in college. People gripe about melo at 21 or so a game. He was a nice player.
Pete was far more than a "nice" player. Jordan, nor anyone else I can think of, could handle/pass the ball like Pete. Pete's shooting numbers might have been better if he had more help on the floor while at LSU.
 
Having never tried the drill, I can't speak from personal experience, but just the notion of trying to dribble out the window of moving car sounds incredibly difficult, especially as the speed of the car increases. I would expect that a player who does this regularly would end up being able to dribble like the ball is attached to their hand.
Yeah it basically sounds impossible. I can't imagine how fast you'd need to dribble for even say 15 mph. And the odd angle you'd have to be at.
 
I remember his first year with the Atlanta Hawks. He kept hitting teammates in the head with passes until they learned that if they were open there was a good chance he would hit them - even if he wasn't looking at them. Was pretty funny actually.
 
Pete was far more than a "nice" player. Jordan, nor anyone else I can think of, could handle/pass the ball like Pete. Pete's shooting numbers might have been better if he had more help on the floor while at LSU.
Well were comparing him to the greats right? We're talking about a 5 time all star. I mean he had a lot of fancy passes, but his numbers (even assists) are pretty high avg (I thing his high page was 6.6).
 
I remember his first year with the Atlanta Hawks. He kept hitting teammates in the head with passes until they learned that if they were open there was a good chance he would hit them - even if he wasn't looking at them. Was pretty funny actually.
Funny you say that because i was watching the link Cherie posted and thought that it was amazing that his teammates always were expecting his crazy passes.
 
I remember the story of his father, a coach, having him dribble a ball from out the car window while his dad drove down streets when Pete was a little kid.

I first saw him when I was around 14 or 15 and he was playing for LSU. College games were rarely televised back then and this one was in black and white - the ball seemed like it was on a string in his hands. He could shoot, pass, drive like no other. I loved his passing game.
I read the book Pistol by Mark Kriegel in one day--good read.
 
Come on now Stuck...the guy was a slick passer but his gaudy scoring numbers are a result of his absurd shooting numbers. He shot a hair under 44 percent in college (Jordan was 54 percent). He averaged nearly 40 shots a game! Jordan's craziest year in college he didn't have half the attempts in college. People gripe about melo at 21 or so a game. He was a nice player.
Of course his scoring and percentage were down because he was shooting from downtown (before the 3pt rule). He did not have the physical abilities of Jordan, but he could do things with the ball that Jordan could not do while dreaming.
 
Forget the points, he was a spectacular passer.. The best I can remember. Not so much in the number of assists he had but he had assists where your chin would just drop.. He was not the best player of all time but if I had a chance to watch just one player in the history of bb for one game it would be Pistol.
 
Of course his scoring and percentage were down because he was shooting from downtown (before the 3pt rule). He did not have the physical abilities of Jordan, but he could do things with the ball that Jordan could not do while dreaming.
Well mike did some pretty amazing things with the ball although bird and Pete seem more comparable as passers
 
Back in the day assists were only rewarded when a player scored immediately. Today, they are given out if you are on the same half of the court (or in the same zip code).

Pete's assists were spectacular. (But the best for my money was the Big O who averaged a triple double for a season. And that was also under much stricter rules.)

Pete also shot a lot of three pointers before they has the three point line.

No sens comparing greats from different eras. They were all great and Pete was certainly one of them.

RIP Pistol.
 
I attended a lot of Knicks games during the 1970's and I always looked forward to games when Pete was coming to town. Dale Brown, the former LSU coach, once calculated how many points he would have scored in college if the 3-pt shot were in effect. He said Pete would have averaged thirteen 3-point scores per game, lifting his career average to 57 points per game.
 
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I attended a lot of Knicks games in the 1970's, and I always looked forward to games when Pete was in town. Dale Brown calculated how many points he would have scored in college if the 3-pt shot were in effect. He said Pete would have averaged thirteen 3-point scores per game, lifting the player's career average to 57 points per game.

Wow.
 
I attended a lot of Knicks games during the 1970's and I always looked forward to games when Pete was coming to town. Dale Brown, his college coach, once calculated how many points he would have scored in college if the 3-pt shot were in effect. He said Pete would have averaged thirteen 3-point scores per game, lifting the player's career average to 57 points per game.

I attended a lot of Knicks games back then as well. When the Garden spontaneously started chanting DEFENSE and the place shook it was amazing. Now, it is all artificial noise that gives me a headache.
 

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