Investor's Business Daily, March 7th, 2007
Pete Maravich knew no compromises in pursuit of his goal.
He wanted to be the best basketball player he could be.
The seed was planted in his mind by his basketball-coach father, Press, and embraced by young Pete.
"I fervently believed that an athlete or any young person in general, should have his long-range goals in life planned by the eight or ninth grade," Maravich wrote in "Heir to a Dream," with Darrel Campbell and Frank Schroeder.
Hard work and practice helped Maravich (1947-88) maximize his talent. "You're wasting your (life) if you don't settle down and work, work, work," Maravich wrote. "You will never become a great basketball player if you fail to dedicate yourself 100% to perfecting your game or if you fail to practice."
"Pete was really one of the hardest-working individuals that you could ever imagine," former New Orleans Jazz teammate Stu Lantz, now the Los Angeles Lakers' TV analyst, told IBD. "His father, Press, started him out at a very early age with a work ethic."
Full-Court Press
Press Maravich dedicated himself to teaching the game to his players as a college head coach, most notably at Clemson and Louisiana State universities, and to his young son.
He explained to Pete that basketball excellence could lead to a college scholarship and to being paid to play it. When young Pete grasped that, "My eyes lit up," he said.
Playing for his dad at LSU, Maravich scored a Chamberlain-like 44.2 points a game -- still the National Collegiate Athletic Association record for highest career average.
A 6-foot-5 guard, Maravich was a three-time All-American and in 1970 was the Sporting News College Player of the Year and the Naismith Award winner.
Pistol Pete, as he was called, also triggered big numbers in the National Basketball Association. A five-time NBA All-Star with career averages of 24 points and 5.4 assists a game, he was the league's leading scorer in 1977 at 31.1 points. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987 and to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team as one of the 50 greatest players.
Another of those 50, Elgin Baylor, was his coach with the Jazz and lauded him in Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich." Baylor said Maravich was "as talented as anyone who ever played."
In the late 1970s, former Atlanta Hawks teammate Lou Hudson said, "Raw talent-wise, (Maravich is) the greatest who ever played."
Maravich's legacy was mostly his style -- the Harlem Globetrotters-like artistry he displayed on the basketball stage.
"I'm just trying to push the game to its limits," Maravich wrote.
As a youngster, Maravich developed his ball-handling skills by making the basketball an extension of himself. He dribbled his ball two miles during walks, alternating with each hand so he was equally adept with his left and right. He dribbled while riding his bike. He even went blindfolded while bouncing between furniture at his house.
It paid off.
"I remember watching Pete when he was in junior high, and even then he could do more things with a basketball than I had ever seen anyone do," said legendary UCLA head coach John Wooden, as quoted in "I Remember Pete Maravich," by Mike Towle.
Hall of Fame guard Bob Cousy, who starred with the Boston Celtics, told Towle, "Of all the point guards that have played up to now, Pete might have been the most skilled with all the unorthodox things that he could do."
Because Maravich made controlling the ball second nature, he had great court vision and awareness to find his teammates, said college basketball analyst Billy Packer in Towle's book.
To refine his shooting touch, Press Maravich worked with his son on proper mechanics and on visualization techniques. "Eventually, before every shot I attempted, I pictured the ball through the hoop before it left my hand," Maravich said.
He stood just 5 feet 2 inches when he entered high school. "But long hours of practice and continual learning from my father helped me overcome such disadvantages and helped prepare me for high school basketball. Though I was a foot shorter than my teammates, I had the confidence to challenge anyone," he wrote.
His desire to practice continued through his pro career. Veteran NBA assistant coach Bill Bertka, now with the Lakers, was an assistant with the Jazz when once he made a bad call while refereeing a practice. Maravich became heated.
"I said, 'Pete, this is just practice.' And he said, 'No, not when I'm playing basketball,'" Bertka told IBD.
"Pete worked very hard in practice, which I think sets a good example for his teammates. He loved to play basketball whether it was practice or games, and he always played it at his hardest," Bertka said.
More than a great individual talent, Maravich was a student of the game. While Press Maravich was the head coach at Clemson, Pete functioned as a scout as he joined his father to watch other teams.
"At age 13, I identified plays and patterns and made suggestions to Dad as to how he should devise defenses to combat certain offenses, and vice versa," Maravich wrote.
He would also watch and learn from the best in the game. "Pete had studied the great pros, guys like Elgin Baylor, and especially the guards, most notably Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. He took and adapted what he could," Kriegel wrote.
Although Maravich won scoring titles in college and in the NBA, his teams never won championships. That took its toll on him.
"Losing was like a knife in my heart." he said. "Inside, I had conditioned myself for so long to be only a winner, so anything less was unacceptable."
Last Shot
After he left his last team, the Celtics, in 1980, Maravich worked to find peace of mind. The son of a supportive but alcoholic mother, Maravich had battled his own issues with alcohol dependence. He won that battle after becoming a born-again Christian. When he died of a genetic heart defect at age 40 after a church pickup basketball game on Jan. 5, 1988, he left behind his wife, Jackie, and two young sons.
He also left his mark on his sport and became a legend in the process.
Maravich said his parents taught him "that character never quits and that, with patience and persistence, dreams can be realized."
Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
