The writing of the book
I must preface this review. I walked away from this book wowed- I was moved. However, this was, I'm sad to say, in spite of the author, not because of him. It's not that the facts weren't right or they weren't thorough, it was that the emphases were all wrong. Mark Kriegel knows and love sports. Through the book, this comes out as you get to know, in detail, all the stats, the big games, and the teammates of Pistol Pete. The depth and emphasis of Pete's basketball ability is well-covered.
However, it is very apparent that Kriegel fails to emphasize the psychological importance of Pete's relationship with his father. What also shows is his failure to really understand the mind and moods of Maravich. Finally, it's clear that Kriegel has little to no spiritual interest or knowledge. From this vantage point, Kriegel attempts to give us a biography of one of the most complex, haunted lives in the history of basketball: a life whose epicenter lies on the day he met Jesus Christ. It suffices to say that the highs of finding his Savior and his lows of utter despair aren't truly felt by the reader nearly as much as they could be. This is why simple basketball fans will love this biography (Sports Illustrated called it "The best sports biography of the year") but anyone who is interested in the emotional makeup, the darkness, the anxiety, the family troubles, and the spiritual emptiness that can motivate men, will find this book lacking.
Now, having said that, I must say that in this book I managed to meet Pete Maravich, though I often had to read between the lines and think deeply for myself to get at him. I don't want the review to end here because like I said, I was deeply moved in spite of the author. With the negative behind, I now begin a look at the things I did get from this sad tale with the happy ending as well as the man himself, Pistol Pete.
Who was Pete Maravich?
Pistol Pete was the most prolific scorer of all time. He averaged 44 points- for his career. Pistol Pete owns the NCAA career scoring record with 3,667 points.
...He did it without a three point line- and he had the best range in the country. It's said that he would have averaged over 50 points a game
...He did it in 3 seasons because freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity.
...Most say it will never be broken
It is arguable that Pete Maravich is the greatest basketball player of all time. Better than Jordan, Bird, and Johnson (all made famous for their championships and the greatness of their teams). Pete never had the luxury of being on a great team. He spent his college career as well as his pro career single-handedly turning entire parts of the country on to a sport that many had never even watched. Both his college and professional arenas would go on to be known as "The House that Pete built". Without Pete and his dad, Press, LSU (and perhaps the entire SEC and maybe even the entire south) might still only be interested in football.
Pete's story
Press
Pistol starts off, and rightfully so, with the most influential man in Pete's life: his dad, Press Maravich. It brings us through his uneventful upbringing and eventually to Press's discovery of a new game sweeping the country: basketball. From their on, his new obsession would carry him from the mill in the area that H.L. Mencken would describe as "the most loathsome towns and villages ever seen by the mortal eye" into the first professional basketball leagues.
Press, who was coincidentally Mike Ditka's basketball coach, was born for basketball- for playing and coaching basketball. Even as a player, everyone knew that it was Press's team. Why did John Wooden go with the high-low post offense after acquiring Lew Alcindor (and before unleashing the greatest dynasty in sports history)? The answer is Press Maravich. "I would go to him first" Wooden would say.
"One should never underestimate Press's knowledge of the game," says Wooden. "over the years he was the one I would go to for analysis on several aspects of the game." At UCLA, Wooden would become the most successful coach in basketball history. He'd win ten national championships and coach nineteen first-team All Americans. Press never got to work with that kind of talent. He only had Pete. (Pistol)
As Press's playing career ended in disappointment, he knew that the Maravich name would be forgotten. Unless... unless his newborn son had anything to say about it...
It's a boy!
Pete was born with a basketball in his hands. He'd follow his dad to practice- high school teams and then college. Little Pete always sat on the bench. Yes, right by the head coach. Yes, Division 1 college basketball. Press would make up drills for Pete to practice, which would later become famous. By age six, he was all Press could talk about. He would show off Pete to his players, to Wooden, and to other coaches: and they were wowed. By eighth grade, the 100-pound stringbean was starting varsity. He played for two high schools (as Press would move from his head job at Clemson to coach at NC State), breaking scoring records at each.
This passage is from when Pete was a high schooler, hanging out after his dad's practice and playing against the starters on the NC State team that won the conference.
Passage from Pistol
It had happened earlier that season, over the Christmas break at Reynolds Coliseum. Only a half dozen or so guys were there, but Bill Bradley himself could inspire only a fraction of the awe they felt that day.
They were playing three-on-three. There were four starters: Coker, Lakins, Worsley, and Tommy Mattocks. There was Les. Pete made six. "We loved to play against Pete," Lakins would recall. "he was the coach's son. Coach worked our tails off. That was our only retaliation."
They bellied him. They pushed him. They shoved him. They hit him. "We were beating the shit out of him that day," says Coker.
Then again, none of the corporeal punishment made any difference. Whatever Pete threw up came down through the net. There were jump shots, hook shots, set shots, bank shots, left- and right- handed shots, driving shots, and shots that seemed to come all the way from Guilford County. The game went on for hours, as each player took his turn trying to guard Pete. None of them could.
...
He had never seen the kid like this: the way he was taunting starters on an ACC championship team, teasing them with that high yo-yo dribble. And then, as soon as you lean or lunge, you're embarrased, he's gone.
...
Everything about this boy's game was funky and flagrant. He went behind the back, over the back, between his legs, between your legs. Then there was that pass with English on it, the one that bounced of the floor at an absurd angle. Years later a basketball writer would liken the ball's movement to something that came off a pool hustler's cure stick. But the sense of timing suggested the work of an accomplished comedian.
As the game wound down, toward the end of its third hour, Pete invented a shot. He was fading to the deepest corner. The stairs to the dressing room, just beyond the court, led down from the court level. "Going down," Pete called, as he threw up a high, arcing hook shot. He didn't stop to watch it swish through the net. He didn't even break his stride. He just kept going, right on down to the locker room.
Coker and Les ambled over to the bench and sat, speechless, shaking their head, wondering if the show they had just seen- the finale of which they would call the "going down shot"- had just happened. Finally, Coker spoke: "Les, you ever see anything like that?"
Les shook his head no. "I think that was the best performance I've ever seen."
Coker wasn't arguing. "I think he might be..."
Les was nodding now.
"Might be the best who ever was."
Pete in College
Pete would go on to play at LSU, one of the worst basketball schools in the country, with his father coaching. His freshman year he could not play varsity because of NCAA regulation so the 5:30 p.m. freshman game would sell out- attracting thousands. When the varsity started at 7:30, the gym would be empty again.
As he made it to varsity, of course, Pete became an icon- overpacking every arena he played in for three years. This was in the south where basketball was hardly considered a sport next to football. His team was usually just above mediocre, but Pete was reinventing the game... and breaking every NCAA scoring record while doing it.
Now, however, Pete was a national star- and something dark and ominous was starting to show in the young man. Beneath the prodigy, and more, genius, was a discontent forged from a lifetime of pressure. Pete began to deal by drinking heavily. Of course, he could still hit his average (44!) hungover, but he was not healthy.
NBA
His NBA career includes the spotlight which was always on the Pistol and the struggles through injuries, alcohol, and serious anxiety and depression. The great Jerry West said, there was "probably more pressure on Maravich than on any rookie in the history of professional sports." Pistol documents Pete's ups (like when he put up 68 against 4 hall of famers, two of them on the all-defensive team) and his downs (alcohol and depression), his worsening condition and short career that he still managed 15,000 points in. The book portrays a desperate man, looking for escape through alcohol, vegitarianism, the extra-terrestrial, gardening, reincarnation, yoga, and even Pong.
Life and Death
Finally, after Pete's early retirement, Kriegel eventually brings the reader to that night in February 1982 where his life changed forever. At 5:40 a.m. after a night of sweating through a lifetime of memories, Pete Maravich asked God to forgive him. "Save me. Take me." The Lord, in his providence, spoke to Pete Maravich. He was born again. The deep sadness in his eyes disappeared. He was different man.
His famous death in the arms of James Dobson on a basketball court many call too crazy to be coincidence. After the doctors found what was wrong, a defect in his heart, they determined that he should have died before the age of twenty.
Thanks, Pete
To the man who Magic "Showtime" Johnson called "the original Showtime", the hall-of-famer in the top 50 players ever, the scrawny kid who no one could believe was "The Pistol", the tortured genius who changed the way a sport was played, and the innovator 20 years ahead of his time, I simply say, "Hats off, Pete." To me, Pistol Pete Maravich is one of the most interesting characters to walk this earth. I look forward to the day when we meet in heaven- I just don't want to guard him.
"He could have played blind... I hadn't forgotten him. Some people seem to fade away but when they are truly gone, it's like they didn't fade away at all."
-Bob Dylan on Pete Maravich
Here's two highlight videos- they had limited video back then, but this offers a taste of Pete on the court.
Ultimate Pistol Pete Maravich MIX
