Pete Maravich, better known as “Pistol Pete”, died on January 5, 1988, from a heart attack during a match between friends. He was 40 years old.
If he left such a deep trace in the NCAA and NBA imagination, it is obviously for his qualities as a player. Pete Maravich was thus ahead of his time. His technique, fantasy and outside shooting would have been perfect for the fast-paced, attacking basketball of the 2010s and 2020s.
This cocktail was perfectly expressed during the 1976/77 season, where he finished top scorer in the league with 31.1 points on average, and even more on February 25, 1977, against the Knicks.
“Something happened tonight”, says his Jazz teammateMo Howard. “The room was almost full. I had no idea things would turn out like this. As soon as we started playing, he put everything on. And shots like I had never seen in my career. However, I grew up in Philadelphia, I saw Wilt Chamberlain. But Wilt was playing close to the circle. There, if there had been the 3-point line, Pete scored 80 points. “
A forerunner for Curry, Thompson and Harden
As it does not yet exist and he came out for six fouls 1 minute 18 from the end, Pete Maravich stops at 68 points, 26/43 in shooting, 16/19 in free throws. In detail: 17 points in the first quarter, 14 in the second, 17 in the third and finally 20 in the last act.
“I could have scored more”will miss the hero of the evening for the New York Timesafter the victory of his family 124-107. “I missed a lot of easy shots at the start of the game. “
Never had an outsider scored so many points in NBA history at the time. Only Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor had done better, but much closer to the circle.
David Thompson, Michael Jordan, David Robinson, Kobe Bryant and Devin Booker will follow thereafter.
“Anyone seeing how Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and James Harden shoot? Maravich did the same”recalls Bob McAdoo, MVP 1975 and three-time leading scorer in the league between 1974 and 1976. “We didn’t have the 3-point line so we weren’t training for that style of shooting. Pete was able to shoot from afar and there weren’t many like him. This is the greatest performance I have witnessed. “
