Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich

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.

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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.

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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

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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

Feeding the dog

The other day my dad held out some food to our dog, Maddie, at the table. Maddie went nuts- she was ecstatic. Once the food was consumed, she quieted down and walked away. I made a comment, and immediately after saw the analogy. I jokingly said, "You ever wonder if she likes you or just the food you give her?".

What would make you feel loved? If your dog loved you for being you, OR if your dog simply enjoyed the food you gave her (not you), and got excited about you simply because she figured out the correlation between you with the things you give. That doesn't feel very loving, does it?

Let's put ourselves in God's shoes. God feels. It isn't too hard to wonder what he feels when all we want is more stuff or different stuff or comfort or some other relationship. I must ask myself, "What do I want more - God himself, or stuff from God?" He loves to give but he hates when the gifts become god in our life. We must always look past the gift to the giver and, as hard as it is, look to the most satisfying thing- more of God, even if it means giving up some of God's things, which it usually does. I'll leave you with a quote from Pipebomb.

"The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—
is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the
friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and
all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties
you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no
human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with
heaven, if Christ were not there?"
— John Piper (God Is the Gospel)

Psalm 23 & Antipsalm 23

Taken from David Powlison: http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001827.cfm

Antipsalm 23
I'm on my own.
No one looks out for me or protects me.
I experience a continual sense of need. Nothing's quite right.
I'm always restless. I'm easily frustrated and often disappointed.
It's a jungle — I feel overwhelmed. It's a desert — I'm thirsty.
My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck. I can't fix myself.
I stumble down some dark paths.
Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.
But life's confusing. Why don't things ever really work out?
I'm haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.
I fear the big hurt and final loss.
Death is waiting for me at the end of every road,
but I'd rather not think about that.
I spend my life protecting myself. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort.
I'm alone ... facing everything that could hurt me.
Are my friends really friends?
Other people use me for their own ends.
I can't really trust anyone. No one has my back.
No one is really for me — except me.
And I'm so much all about ME, sometimes it's sickening.
I belong to no one except myself.
My cup is never quite full enough. I'm left empty.
Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?
Sartre said, "Hell is other people."
I have to add, "Hell is also myself."
It's a living death,
and then I die.

The antipsalm tells what life feels like and looks like whenever God vanishes from sight. The antipsalm captures the driven-ness and pointlessness of life-purposes that are petty and self-defeating. It expresses the fears and silent despair that cannot find a voice because there's no one to really talk to. Something bad gets last say when whatever you live for is not God.

And when you're caught up in the antipsalm, it doesn't help when you're labeled a "disorder," a "syndrome" or a "case." The problem is much more serious: The disorder is "my life." The syndrome is "I'm on my own." The case is "Who am I and what am I living for?" when too clearly I am the center of my story.

But the antipsalm doesn't need to tell the final story. It only becomes your reality when you construct your reality from a lie. In reality, someone else is the center of the story. Nobody can make Jesus go away. The I AM was, is and will be, whether or not people acknowledge that.

When you awaken, when you see who Jesus actually is, everything changes. You see the Person whose care and ability you can trust. You experience His care. You see the Person whose glory you are meant to worship. You love Him who loves you. The real Psalm 23 captures what life feels like and looks like when Jesus Christ puts his hand on your shoulder.

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Can you taste the difference?

You might want to read both antipsalm and psalm again, slowly. Maybe even read out loud. The psalm is sweet, not bitter. It's full, not empty. You aren't trying to grab the wind with your bare hands. Someone else takes you in His hands. You are not alone.

Brave New World

Ever since Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931, the world has been waiting- waiting to see how accurate Huxley's futuristic ideas of a world gone mad could really be. Seventy-eight years later, amazingly, we see that there is much that Huxley has shown great foresight in.

The setting for the book is a future society in which most of what we think normal is turned upside-down. The book opens in a government-run lab where people are being "made" by the hundreds. Due to advances in science, humans are no longer born into a family and raised by parents. In fact, the words mother and father have become an insult. Instead of being raised by the family, individuals are raised by the state. This includes sleep conditioning, appearance-altering, and many other specific processes.

You see, the "new world" runs strictly by the caste system. The castes are Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Alphas and Betas all come from a unique egg, but the lower castes are a sort of clone produced by what is called the "Bokanovsky Process".

What I find most interesting is how the government chooses to program each individual. Instead of encouraging low good consumption, they teach every member of society to consume as much as possible. Rather than encouraging abstinence and monogamy, they encourage free sex from the age of toddlers. In fact, staying together with one person for too long could get you in trouble. "Everyone is everyone else's". Finally, the wonder-drug, soma, is distributed throughout society for whenever one doesn't feel 100% happy.

Instead of going into the plot I'd rather comment on the parallels to today's world. Where the government has begun to program the mind in Brave New World, it seems that the private sector of entertainment and advertising has taken care of in American society. Addiction to consumption, addiction to sex, fun as the be-all, end-all, and wonder drugs to escape reality and go on a vacation. The result: people wandering through life entertaining themselves. People wandering through life without wondering why they're here... just like in Brave New World, conditioned to death, never entertaining ideas of God or purpose or thoughts of any depth. Sex reduced to a naturalistic act like eating. Men and women in the pursuit of pleasure and distraction, too absorbed in the everyday thoughts that someone else has given them to consider what matters in this life. And of course, if you're not feeling happy (like everyone else) figure something out immediately to escape your situation (rather than dealing with the full range of emotions that inevitably come with real life).

The culmination of Brave New World occurs in chapters 16 and 17 as the free man, John, talks with "The controller" (the guy in charge of it all). The issues that have been lying under the surface throughout the book rise to the forefront. Is stability worth the loss of freedom? What's more important? Stability and happiness or truth and beauty (with pain along with it)? Is a guaranteed programmed happiness really happiness? Is the absolute freedom and wealth of a few worth the multitudes that are subjected to long hours of work needed to sustain them? Is the immediate gratification of pleasure the way to go, or is there something to longing and waiting? Does immediate gratification rule out the possibility of love? At what level of conditioning does a human cease to be... human? Is the obsession with comfort, immediately satisfied longings, and entertainment really freedom? Or is it slavery?

Brave New World is loaded with big questions. Ethical questions. Philosophical questions. The best news is that the unique plot and setting provide an entertaining enough read to stay with the book to the end and really mull them over. This is a read that will force you to think about what life is really about and what the alternatives might be.

I Walked on the Moon

This is a guy named Brian Regan and he just kills me. Here's his gig- free on youtube. I've embedded my favorite part.

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The Tipping Point

The premise of the tipping point is, at first appearance, a simple one: tiny, seemingly-insignificant changes can produce massive effects. What makes this book so enjoyable are the varied examples Gladwell uses. These different instances are what paint the picture in our minds and make it a wildly interesting read.

What took the little-known shoes, “Hush Puppies”, and brought them from being discontinued to being a hundred million dollar staple of American fashion? It was friend-group of fifteen kids living in Soho who wanted to be different. They just went to the thrift store on the corner (one of the only places they were available), bought them, and started wearing them. As the trend snowballed to kids in neighboring districts and past the “tipping point”, Hush Puppies shortly went city-wide, state-wide, nation-wide, and then global nearly overnight.

So, what was the secret kindling to the explosion? Here’s where it gets more complex (and more interesting). After Gladwell lays out what the “tipping point” is, he seeks to look at situations from every angle to figure out the subtleties that make epidemics happen. If you could introduce these tiny elements into the equation, you would effectively have the power to make any idea, trend, or product “tip”.

What I found most interesting was a closer examination of the people involved in the epidemic spread of ideas. Most people roll with the crowd, says Gladwell, but some are different. These people are the key:

• Connectors: Think about the person you know involved with many different people and more importantly, many different groups of people. You’ve likely met a good portion of your friends through them.


• Mavens: What connectors are for people, mavens are for information. These are the people who are constantly learning and are always informed and many times ahead of great trends, products, and ideas. Mavens love to help people because they simply enjoy it. They might even have a blog reviewing books and writing on the big ideas of life…


• Salesmen: As the name implies, these people are good at tipping people who are on the edge about a particular idea into actually going with the idea. Think of the friend who always gets you to come out to whatever it is going on that night.

Along with the people involved in epidemics, Gladwell also looks at the message’s “stickiness”, and “channel limits” but these shan’t be expanded here. In elaborating on these concepts he probes Paul Revere’s midnight ride, crime in New York, syphilis in Philadelphia, Airwalk shoes, the absolute brilliance of Sesame Street, college vaccinations, the Ya-ya sisterhood, and even John Wesley’s preaching in England. Each of these examples lends different information vital to understanding what goes into the epidemic spread of ideas, giving us the huge output wrought by tiny input.

“So, then,” you might ask, “Where’s the application?” Honestly, you would be well served by simply reading this book for entertainment as I did. But, the potential applications are endless. “The Tipping Point” could have huge implications on starting a photography business, getting people to live healthier or eat organic food, gospel ministry, or simply alerting people about an upcoming concert. That’s what’s so doubly good about “The Tipping Point” Don’t get me wrong: the reader is learning a new concept, but through great writing and unique examples, learning rarely proves to be this fun.

Crazy Love

What kind of faith saves? Is it o.k. to just “believe” and not really do much else? What does God feel about my faith if I’m “sort of” all-in? If I’m not one of those “crazy Christians”? What about if I’m wealthy (and if you’re in America- you are wealthy)?

In my favorite opening sentence to a book, the beloved mystic, A.W. Tozer writes "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us". This is right where Francis Chan picks up. As Crazy Love moves from who God is to our response, Chan separates out American-church notions of God and Christianity from biblical ones. In this challenging but soul-stirring book, Francis Chan addresses, deeply and directly, the biggest confusion of our time. Namely, what is Christian faith?

As I read Chan’s biblical view of just how huge, just how powerful, and just how holy our God is, I really had no other option than to close my eyes and just sit in awe. I didn’t pray, I didn’t cry, I just sat and marveled- and I repented of the tiny view of God I had constructed in my mind. What else is there for man to do other than be wowed?

Through the book and the companion videos (the book has a website!) Chan succeeded in bringing me again and again to worship. Chapter 4, “The Profile of the Lukewarm” was the chapter that resonated with me the most. The idea of people calling themselves Christian while meanwhile having little idea what “Christian” really means. That was me for 19 years of life. So much to say here, but Francis basically talks about the new birth and signs of the new birth with slightly different terminology than Piper or I would use (check out my previous posts on the new birth!).

Nevertheless, Chan’s profile of the lukewarm cuts to crux of the problem: faith is not shown by creeds, church attendance, a clean mouth and not smoking or drinking. As Tozer or Chan might say, what a man believes about God shows through in what they do and how they act.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:18)

In a modern way, Francis simply shows biblical truth in a fresh way. The secret is not hours of painstaking research into the Greek meaning and the culture at the time. His secret: just read it. Just read it for what it says. It will blow your mind and call you to rearrange your entire life.

The quote that got me was “Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers”. Chan writes about when he was in bible college and his professor asked him a very simple question. “What are you doing right now in your life that requires faith?” This question hit me in the same way it hit Francis, like a brick. What situations was I in where if God didn’t come through for me, I was screwed? For all the bible studies, church services, and cru meetings I’ve been to and for all the theology and apologetics that I’ve studied, I realized that I was not really trusting God for anything. Nothing in my life required God to act. In two words… no faith.

As the book takes a look at some ways that a life of real faith might be lived, it should become clear that the American church, for the most part, is marching to a far different tune than that of Jesus- in fact it might actually be opposed to it. We see that we must repent of the ideas of God and faith that have shaped us our whole lives, from the first time we stepped into church. We must start to take our cues from the Bible instead of our surroundings. It is eternally important that we start to understand and to live out crazy love.