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Next Maravich?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by writestuff1, Mar 24, 2011.

  1. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Tall white power forward: McHale.

    White power forward with an outside shot: Bird

    White shooting guard who can handle: Maravich

    White point guard: Stockton, and now Nash. In the old days, Cousy.
     
  2. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Cool. I may have to pick that up. Maravich was before my time, but from all I've read or heard, he was a fascinating and ultimately tragic character.
     
  3. MrHavercamp

    MrHavercamp Member

    I second that you should read "Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich." A tremendous book that was researched incredibly well.
     
  4. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    I WAS the staff so suck it!

    Oh wait.
     
  5. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    And a Yinzer!!!
     
  6. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

  7. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    That passing is ridiculous. Ballhandling decades ahead of its time.
     
  8. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    No, you need to pencil in Jerry West's name where you have mistakenly placed Maravich's. Maravich was well behind West in terms of being an overall player (ie. offense AND defense) and doing the things designed to help your team win instead of just racking up stats and putting on a show.

    Pat Riley, a guy who played against both West and Maravich, and who's won a bucketful of championships as a coach, summarized the truth about Maravich that has been largely erased by fanboy revisionist history when he gave SI this quote late in Pete's career:

    "Maravich is the most overrated superstar who ever came down the pike. Every guard in the league wants to send a limo to pick Pete up at the airport and play against his soft defense. I not only don't think Pete could play any other way, I don't think he wants to."

    Maravich was always known as one of the worst defenders in the entire league, and despite all those amazing trick passes, he also was known for high turnover rates. But then those Pistol Pete youtube reels that have become so popular don't show him playing D, and they don't show the trick passes that bounced off his teammates head or went flying into the stands, so how's the younger fan today to know that? And, more importantly, Maravich was known for teams that were losers, but got better after he left, and the only contender he was ever a part of (his final season in Boston) was the one team that buried him at the end of the bench.

    Most overrated hoopster ever. And maybe second only to Joe Namath as the most overrated overall American athlete.
     
  9. Den1983

    Den1983 Active Member

    This has to be the most absurd, ridiculous thing I've heard this week. And I've heard more than my share.
     
  10. MrHavercamp

    MrHavercamp Member

    Really? Well, here's a quote I found from Pat Riley.

    “He was the original. When you talk about ‘Showtime,’ you talk about creativity, and bringing a whole different concept to the game of basketball. Pete was the original. He opened the minds of a lot of players as to how the game should be played. What he could do with the basketball at full speed was incredible. He was the best ball handler I ever saw. Ever.” -Pat Riley

    Maravich and West aren't an either/or proposition. Both were incredible, albeit different, players. West got to play on great teams. Pete did not for the bulk of his NBA career.

    Fanboy revisionist history? What a joke. Pete was considered great back then. He's still considered great. Except by Stoney, of course.

    But don't just take my word for it.

    “We’re all doing things he did first.”–Steve Nash

    “Pistol Pete is a legend to all who understand the history of basketball.”–Jason Kidd

    “Pete was ‘The Man.’ I’d just sit there and shake my head and say to myself: ‘How’d he do that?’”–Magic Johnson

    “Oh my. He did things with the basketball that players - still today - can’t do. If Maravich was playing today, he’d be a god.” — Isiah Thomas

    “(Oscar) Robertson was the best guard I ever played against. Jerry West was the best I ever played with. And Pete is the best I’ve ever seen.”–Elgin Baylor

    “I’ve got a lot of Pistol Pete in my game.”–Steve Nash

    “Like a master chess player, Pete Maravich saw things that nobody else did.”–Bill Walton

    “He was the greatest ball handler I’ve ever seen in my life. He could do things with the basketball that were unbelievable.”–Rick Barry

    “A lot of guys break the laws of gravity. Pete breaks the laws of physics.”–Red Auerbach

    “I learned all my tricks from Pete Maravich.”–Kobe Bryant

    “The stuff that Pistol did with the ball was the breaking ground for what we can do today.”–Jason Kidd

    “You talk of Jerry West or Oscar Robertson or any of those great ones who scored and passed so well. Maravich is better. He’s a show.”–Lou Carnesecca

    “The best showman of all time? I’d probably have to say Pistol Pete.”–Isiah Thomas

    “He was one of the truly great players that could fill an arena. He was an excellent player. He could dribble with both hands, shoot with both hands, and see the whole court. I enjoyed playing with Pete. His biggest influence to my mind was his ability to pass. When he stepped on the court, it was like a warning sign: ‘Watch out. I know how to play this game.’”–Larry Bird

    “Through following basketball and enjoying his flair for the game, I feel as though I knew him. He was a great scorer and a great passer at the same time. The passes he made were unbelievable. He was so ahead of his time.”–Magic Johnson

    “Pistol was a big influence on me. I’ve often tried his moves on the basketball court. What he did on the court are things that players today still can’t do.”–Isiah Thomas

    “The way Pete played transcended the game. He was an artist. His canvas was the floor and his brush was the basketball. Only one guy got to be Elvis. And only one guy got to be Pistol Pete.”–Paul Westphal

    “He was a startling player. One of a half dozen I’ve ever seen who I’d buy a ticket to see play. He was as dazzling a passer and as great a ball handler as I’ve ever seen. He was like a great singer with a style all his own, a pacing that was different, a flair for the unusual.”–Chick Hearn

    “He was unstoppable. It’s as if they had melted down all 12 Harlem Globetrotters and then filled up this skinny 6-6 white frame with everything they had.”–Ralph Wiley, ESPN

    “He personified why I love basketball; why I enjoy watching it; writing about it; why sports itself is such an important part of human existence.”–Curry Kirkpatrick, Sports Illustrated

    “He was to basketball what the Sgt. Pepper album was to pop music: revolutionary and liberating.”–Bob McEwen, Rochester Times Union

    “Today’s game is about spacing, drawing double teams, and shooting off the pass. No one in the history of the game was better at that than Pete. He could do more things with the ball than anyone who ever played, and do them all well.”–Alvin Gentry
     
  11. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    I was rattling off the reflexive teevee talking-head/ talk-radio nitwit comparisons.

    Maravich was SUPPOSED to be a great ballhandler because he did a lot of behind-the-back/through-the-legs/dipsy-doodle Globetrotter showoff shit, so everybody assumed he was an awesome dribbler.

    His assists numbers were pretty good, but they pretty much had to be, because the entire offense of most of the teams he was on consisted of Maravich dribble around for about 10 seconds, shoot if he was even close to open, if not dribble around for about 10 more seconds, then fire it off to somebody else as the shot clock goes off.

    When you're dribbling the ball around for about 22 seconds of every single possession, sooner or later somebody will get open and you'll get some assists.

    He threw a lot of crazy passes, but a lot of them went off people's heads. Those aren't on the YouTube videos.
     
  12. Stoney

    Stoney Well-Known Member

    Ahh, yes, Riley did indeed years later seem to change his tune with that quote about Maravich, and do you know what happened in between that prompted the change? Pete's tragic DEATH.

    Before Pete died, Riley had been an outspoken Maravich critic, calling him the most overrated player in the league, bashing his refusal to play defense/team ball. But after Pete died and we learned about the heart condition, and he became this enormously sympathetic figure and this overblown cultlike following developed, the very shrewd and PR savvy Riley knew better than to keep repeating his earlier criticism. So, when asked after Pete's death, he wisely mentioned only the good things about Pete's game--the creativity, the ball handling ability, etc.

    Now honestly, in which Riley quote, pre-death or post-death, do you think he was being brutally honest, and in which one do you think he was being cautious to measure his words for diplomatic purposes?

    And, frankly, that Riley example typifies what has happened in general with Pete's legacy pre-1988 vs. post. During his playing career and prior to his death, it was not unusual to hear critics point out the flaws in Pete's game--namely, horrible defense, turnover prone, and a style that seemed to be more about racking up stats and putting on a show than winning. But his premature death fuled the development of an almost James Dean-like "Pistol Pete" mythology only augmented when we later got all sorts of books, movies and really cool youtube clips about the guy. After that happened all those pre-1988 Maravich critics knew better than to bash "St. Pete."

    As a result, there's this whole generation of young basketball fans who've been raised to believe the guy was much better than he actually was. Sounds like you might be one of em.
     
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