IIRC, Walton and Maravich were teammates on the Celtics in the latter part of their careers.
Could have been the first white Globetrotter. He was invited.
I would tend to agree with Walton.
Overall, although there was no official 3-point stat for most of his career ( the 3 point shot became rule near the end of his career), Pete Maravich’s reputation and playing style strongly suggest he would have been a phenomenal outside shooter in today’s game.
Many players today though have duplicated his legendary ball handling skills ( Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry, just to name two ).
i was a student at Tulane in the 60’s and was able to watch him play in college. His charisma and personality, flamboyant style, and showmanship drew large crowds and made him a fan favorite. He could create his own shot and was nearly impossible to stop.
Pete Maravich was the greatest scorer in college basketball history. And it’s not even close.
There is a lot of discussion today about Pete because of Clark breaking the Division 1 womens and mens record. But that’s a good thing. A new generation should be introduced to Pistol.
The problem with sports is we get into these generational discussions comparing like Babe Ruth to Hank Aaron and so on.
In basketball, in college we have players who were not allowed on the varsity freshman year like Jabbar. So some play 4 years and some play 3. Also there was the anti-Jabbar rule in college, no dunking.
Then there is the record you have to pay attention to. Clark is the DIVISION 1 record holder, not the all time college record holder. That belongs to two guys who went to the same school. Here is the leading career scorer in college basketball, all divisions and organizations men and women and the number two whose record he broke in mentioned:
John Pierce is living proof of the old saying, “Good things come to those who sit and wait.” After a redshirt freshman year for the Lipscomb University basketball team, John started rewriting the record books on both the school and national level. John is all-time leading scorer in the history of college basketball, scoring 4.230 points from 1990 to 1994. Ironically, his former roommate Phillip Hutcheson held the title at the time.
Included in the record are school career marks for free throws made with 881 and field goals made with 1,627. His 54 points on Nov. 14, 1992 set a school single-game scoring record. Known as much for his rebounding as for his scoring, John also holds the school career record with 1,497. He was a two time NAIA Player of the Year. He was named an All-American all four years he played with the Bisons, earning first-team honors for three seasons. John played five season of professional basketball in both Australia and Japan. He has also been inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame.
Pistol Pete would have averaged a much higher average game total than 57 if the 3-point shot were around at that time because Pistol would have simply shot more 3-pointers instead of driving in closer for 2 points.
it’s rare in today’s game that any player would average close to 30 points per game without developing a three-point shot.
May be rare but it’s been done.
Joel Embiid averaged 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 66 games in 2022-23. He made 66 3- pointers for the year, less than 1/game
Unfortunately Pete’s autopsy revealed that he was born without a left coronary artery, it was miracle he even lived as long as he did.
PP’s unworldly ball handling skills weren’t entirely natural gifts, he earned them. At LSU, he was never without a b-ball. He dribbled everywhere he walked on campus.
The LSU varsity hated him when he was on the JV because the gym would fill for JV games (because PP was such a phenom), then be empty when the varsity played.
His LSU teammates stayed covered with bruises because his passes were lasers, and he never telegraphed that he was about to pass. One of his teammates commented that the only time you could be sure Maravich wasn’t going to pass to you is when he was looking at ya.
His specialty was HORSE. He was a high school underclassman when his father was coaching at Clemson, but that didn’t stop him beating his dad’s starting five at HORSE with regularity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_of_basketball#H-O-R-S-E
When he was in the NBA, he proved he still was the master of HORSE.
Pete’s long hair annoyed my father to no end, especially because he constantly was brushing his bangs aside when he played. Dad said he could be twice the player if he’d only get a proper haircut (because then he could play with both hands!!).