He was the man! I recall as a kid. One and two years old my parents, grad students at LSU, used to take me to see him play. To this day my father is proud of this. When I went to LSU 20 years later I saw Shaq play at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The legend is hard to put to words. At one time Kentucky said we won't let him beat us. He put up 79 points.
Maybe the wiki overview on him says it all:
Peter "Pistol Pete" Press Maravich (June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988) was an American professional basketball player. Born and raised in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University (LSU) and played for three NBA teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980. He is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the three-point line was introduced to NCAA basketball and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. Maravich died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game as a consequence of a previously undetected congenital heart defect. One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was cited by the Hall as "perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history".
He was the freaking man. If you don't know about him just watch this:
My favorite line is from Pat Riley. Pat won multiple world championships with the Lakers. Now runs the Heat. He said:
Pete was "showtime" before there was showtime.
You show the best inner city African Americans what Pete did and they are stunned. A "white boy" did that stuff?.
He had so many demons. A drunk for most of his life. I am not a religious person, but he found god. Got sober. He died at 40 on a church basketball court. He did things with a basketball that few will ever do. I just can't help everytime I see basketball get to "prime time" on my TV there ought to be a little shrine for Pete. All the "cool shit" you see folks doing now, Pete did it first and some would argue better.