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Pete Maravich
One collector is trying to find a single signature from every man who ever played for the Jazz — all 370 of them, from the 1974 New Orleans team to today. For many of them, this page is the only one on the internet. Here is Pete Maravich: what he did on the floor, a few things most people never knew, and every card that carries his name. If you have a better example of his signature, or a story about it, the note at the foot of this page still stands.
No one scored like Pistol Pete. His 3,667 points at LSU, 44.2 a game while playing for his father Press, with no three-point line and no varsity as a freshman, remain the NCAA Division I men's record. Traded from Atlanta to the young New Orleans Jazz in 1974, he gave the franchise its first star for five-plus seasons.
The nickname came from his habit of shooting from the side, as if holding a revolver. Five times an All-Star and four times All-NBA, he finished with a part-season in Boston and entered the Hall of Fame among its youngest inductees. He died at 40 in January 1988, collapsing during a pickup game from an undetected heart defect, and made the NBA's 50th and 75th Anniversary teams.
HOW HE CAME & WENTThe expansion Jazz gave Atlanta a package of picks for him in May 1974, mocked as the Louisiana Purchase. He moved with the club to Utah in 1979, but his knees kept him out of practice and Tom Nissalke did not play men who missed practice. Utah waived him that January.
- Full name
- Peter Press Maravich
- Jazz tenure — New Orleans & Utah
- 1974–80
- Position
- Guard
- Born
- 1947, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
- Died
- 1988
- Height
- 6′5″ (196 cm)
- Weight
- 198 lb (90 kg)
- College
- Louisiana State
- Drafted
- 1970, 1st round (No. 3), Atlanta
With the Jazz
PETE MARAVICH · 1974–80 · PER GAME| SEASON | TEAM | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974–75 | NOJ | 79 | 36.1 | 21.5 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 1.5 | 0.2 | .419 | — | .811 |
| 1975–76 | NOJ | 62 | 38.3 | 25.9 | 4.8 | 5.4 | 1.4 | 0.4 | .459 | — | .811 |
| 1976–77 | NOJ | 73 | 41.7 | 31.1 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 1.2 | 0.3 | .433 | — | .835 |
| 1977–78 | NOJ | 50 | 40.8 | 27.0 | 3.6 | 6.7 | 2.0 | 0.2 | .444 | — | .870 |
| 1978–79 | NOJ | 49 | 37.2 | 22.6 | 2.5 | 5.0 | 1.2 | 0.4 | .421 | — | .841 |
| 1979–80 | UTA | 17 | 30.7 | 17.1 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.2 | .412 | .636 | .820 |
| JAZZ TOTAL | 6 SEASONS | 330 | 38.3 | 25.2 | 4.3 | 5.6 | 1.4 | 0.3 | .434 | .636 | .829 |
Season by season, regular season, with this franchise only. More info: Basketball-Reference ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Did you know
PETE MARAVICH · 12 NOTES- Scored 68 points against the Knicks in 1977, a record for a guard at the time.
- Elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1987, months before his death at 40.
- The autopsy revealed he had been born without a left coronary artery — doctors said his entire ten-year NBA career happened on a heart that should not have allowed it.
- The floppy grey socks were superstition — his father Press, who coached him at LSU, built both the offence and the legend around his son.
- The Jazz waived him just months after the move to Utah — he finished his career in Boston, playing his final games alongside a rookie named Larry Bird.
- As a schoolboy he won a five-dollar bet by spinning a basketball on his finger for a full hour, switching fingers when one began to bleed.
- After he rallied LSU from fifteen down to beat Georgia in overtime, Georgia's own cheerleaders carried him off the court.
- As a boy he dribbled a basketball out the window of his father's car at 20 miles an hour and down the aisle of a movie theater.
- He wore "Pistol" on the back of his jersey instead of his surname.
- Bob Dylan, who had watched him play in New Orleans, began writing the song "Dignity" the afternoon he learned of Maravich's death.
- He tore a meniscus against the Buffalo Braves on January 31, 1978, and the surgery and heavy knee brace that followed cost him most of the next two seasons.
- The young franchise wanted him partly as an attraction, since he was already a celebrity in Louisiana from his LSU years.
All photographs
1 PHOTO