Friday's Sports Feature: Pistol Pete Maravich

Ladies and gentlemen I give you the greatest white basketball player of all time: Pistol Pete Maravich.

     Now this article isn't just about him being the best white player, it is about the way he changed basketball forever. 
     The year was 1966 and basketball was simple. A bunch of white guys mixed in with a few athletic blacks guys and everyone just stood around and passed. Pass, stand, pass, shoot. That is how the game was played. Moving with the ball was for suckers. Being flashy was unknown and probably frowned upon. Then this good 'ol boy from Pennsylvania came to LSU. Growing up with a ex-pro and basketball coach as a father, he spent most of his time playing. This led him to be a star at LSU. In fact, he defined the word star. In only 3 years he scored 3,667 points scored and averaged 44.2 points per game. These are both NCAA records to this day. He did this without the 3 point line also. His old coach actually spent time reviewing every game he played and calculated that with the 3 point line Maravich would have averaged an even more amazing 57 ppg. 
     How did he do it? He used a combination of a brilliant shot and ball skills that no one had seen before. His passes were amazing, he could dribble through anyone and pull up and shoot over whatever was in front of him. Since the game was so slow before him, these moves dominated the league. After Pistol things began to change in the NBA to the type of game we see today. 
     Not only is he the only white player to ever be recruited by the Harlem Globetrotters, he wore this awesome jersey

There isn't much more I can say about this legend who died far too young from heart complications at the age of 40; so I will let the highlights do the talking. They both get better as they go.