No. Very little college footage of Pistol remains. Surprisingly -- and because there was never an NBA Films comparable to NFL Films which has film of every play from the date they stared -- there is not much pro footage of Pistol Pete. Remember this fact: basketball was very poorly covered until the 1980's. The weekday Best of Seven NBA World Champion Games between Larry Bird's Celtics and Magic Johnson's Lakers in their rookie season were tape-delayed to 10:30 PM CDT starts by CBS. All 7 Games of the NBA title series did not go live until 1982 or so.
It might be a little out on a limb (not much) to say Pistol and Chris Jackson are #1-2, but I sure would be willing to say all time guards Pistol, CJ and Bob Petit are all within the Top Ten and maybe all within the Top Six or Seven.
We know Pistol averaged 44 pts. per game for his college career. On YouTube, there is a tribute to Maravich by Bill Walton, and he says Dale Brown reviewed game film and determined that if Pete had played when there was a 3 point line, he would have averaged 13 points per game higher, that's 57! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk-JJX2SRHc
I'll never forget when he scored at the time an NBA record for a guard 68 points. I believe he scored 14 points in the first, 17 in the second, 17 in the third and 20 in the fourth quarter. I remember that game like it was yesterday. Funny thing was George "the Iceman" Gervin broke the record about 3 weeks later.
I only vaguely remember him playing at LSU! and remember a little more of him from the Jazz. Something non basketball that's always amazed me is how much he and one of my cousins looked alike. They even sounded alike. It's scary. Cousin couldn't play a lick of basketball though. :rofl: I think his life might have started to spiral out of control because he was ALWAYS looked at as the savior. I mean, he was Pistol Pete, right? He was the man before there was the man. That's got to be a ton of pressure for anybody. Those were some kewel vids. Thanks. I don't know about comparing Pete to Byrd, though. Byrd wasn't the passer or ball handler that Pete was; Pete couldn't, i don't think, play the physical game Byrd did; it's a push when it comes to putting the ball in the net. One of my favorite bets goes something like this (works best on non-:lsup: fans): Who holds the all time records for career points and average points per game in NCAA basketball? I'll give you a few hints, he only played 3 years, he wore number 23 and he went to high school in North Carolina. Think you get many Michael Jordan answers to that?
Pistol Pete #1 no doubt but there is an lefire: player named Johny Newman that many people forget that came along right after Pete. I think he led the nation with over 40ppg. Only played his soph. year and turned pro.
yeah, the really amazing part beyond 44 ppg in a college setting is that it occurred in the 60s when you got 3pt plays the hard way. i am sure he would have been above 50ppg during 3pt era. i haven't read the article yet, but I would add Glen Rice as one of the best pure "shooters" ever - he had a beautiful, smooth stroke. the kid Curry from Davidson right now looks pretty special, too. don't know if his dad was Dell Curry, but DC certainly had a beautiful shot.
