Pee Wee Day: Maravich book brings back memories of showtime

Livingston Parish News

Pee Wee Day: Maravich book brings back memories of showtime

PETE'S PALACE - This time forty years ago on a football farm in Tigertown, a basketball seed suddenly sprouted out of the turf.

Back then, freshmen were not eligible to participate on the varsity squad, so all eyes were focused on the LSU Baby Bengals basketball team.

Actually, all eyes were zeroed in on one particular player, a skinny 6-foot-5 mop-top phenomenon, who was about to change basketball forever at LSU.

Pete Maravich took Louisiana by storm during the 1966-67 season and proceeded to cultivate a new fan base that spread far beyond Baton Rouge.

Four decades later and 19 years following his untimely death at age 40, the "Pistol" remains firmly planted in the hearts of his fans, whom he inspired both on and off the court.

Bringing "Showtime" to a cow barn, which laid down a hardwood on top of the dirt floor to house basketball for four months a year, Pistol Pete dazzled the crowds with an array of basketball skills that one could only see before when the Harlem Globetrotters came to town.

Three years later, Maravich had become the NCAA all-time leading scorer, while at the same time, leading the Tigers to their first post-season action in 15 years.

Far from a fluke, Maravich went on to have a very successful professional basketball career, where he was a multiple All-Star selection and scoring leader. Following his retirement in 1980, Maravich was named one of the "NBA's 50 Greatest Players" of all time. He was also enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Many books have been written on Maravich, beginning with a pair while he was still at LSU. Maravich himself joined in with an autobiography entitled "Heir to a Dream," which paralleled his entire of life in basketball with his father Peter "Press" Maravich, who was also his coach during his tenure at LSU.

But none of the books come close to documenting his incredible story of trials and tribulations like the current "Maravich," written by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill. What even authenticates the book to the utmost, is the fact it's the first book written with collaboration of Maravich's widow, Jackie.

Not to be confused with yet another current book on the racks, "Pistol," by Mark Kreiegel, the 400-plus page "Maravich" is practically a play-by-play of his life. Not only is the book packed with incredible detail and statistics, but the eight-year project by the authors unveil some stunning facts that even a diehard Pistol Pete fan like myself never knew, including one mystery never revealed before.

Even though they interviewed some 300 people who, in some way or another, crossed paths with Maravich, I'm living proof that the number of lives Maravich actually touched, is countless.

I was fortunate enough to be at the ideal age, 11-13-years-old during his playing days at LSU. I stood in line for hours to buy one of those "standing-room-only" general admission tickets for the student section. I was fortunate enough to have mid-court tickets for the night he broke Oscar Robertson's all-time scoring record and I can still watch myself on the highlight reel dashing on the court with a friend moments after he made the milestone bucket.

But I must confess, I also snuck into the sold-out home finale his senior year against Kentucky. But well-worth the risk.

Although I still treasure the autographs and memorabilia I've collected over his entire career, the memories of watching Maravich play are still etched in my mind to this day.

"Pete would always make the comment, 'when you die, they forget about you. You're last week's news,'" said Jackie Maravich McLachian.

How wrong he was.

Pete's "Homework Basketball" video series, which he filmed at the Albany High School gym in four days back in the late 1980's is still widely sold to help youngsters learn the fundamentals of the game.

And Pete's basketball camp at Clearwater Christian College in Florida is thriving as well.

Or just type "Pete Maravich" into the ebay search engine and one will finds trading cards, replica jerseys and various other memorabilia up for auction day-in and day-out ... and garnering top dollars.

Fans won't need a computer to get a signed copy of "Maravich," however, as Jackie, her and Pete's two sons, Jaeson and Josh, along with author Marshall Terrill, will all be on hand at none other than the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday afternoon to sign copies of the book prior to and at halftime of the LSU-Florida game.

Both Jaeson and Josh played roundball at St. Paul's in their hometown of Covington, with both trying their hand at college basketball as well. Josh followed in his father's footsteps as a member of the Tiger squad from 2002-2005.

The two were just eight and five years old when their father died of a heart condition while playing a pickup game of basketball at the First Church of Nazarene in Pasadena, Calif.

Although the average fan may have known of Maravich's struggles on the court, battling both injuries and acceptance as a pro player, those were overshadowed by his many off-the-court struggles in life.

Just days before the beginning of his first season with the New Orleans Jazz, Maravich had to deal with the suicide of his mother.

Maravich gave his life to the Lord a little more than five years prior to his death and proceeded to coach his father into reborn Christianity. Press Maravich died of cancer just months prior to Pete's death.

"What was surprising was that as fun as he was to watch, there was the dichotomy that he was tortured and unhappy in his personal life because of so many factors," said co-author Terrill. "He was the highest paid player in pro sports, but he didn't get respect by his teammates. He was an all-star, but he never played on a winning team. He was so expressive on the court, but was a very private person.

"I think any baby boomer who loved basketball gravitated to the 'Pistol,'" said Terrill. His game was not only innovative, but fun to watch. Every kid on the playground wanted to be "Pistol Pete."

Me included.

(P.S. - If you're not able to attend the LSU-Florida game on Saturday to obtain an autograph copy of "Maravich", Jackie Maravich is finalizing dates to sign books at various Livingston Parish libraries in March.)

Sam Muffoletto is a sportswriter for the News and long-time newspaper and radio figure on sports in the Baton Rouge area.

A look at Pistol Pete and more

Kevin Hench / Special to FOXSports.com

Hanging out at the free carbs media brunch at the MGM Grand on Sunday morning, I caught up with Wayne Federman, the world's foremost Pete Maravich biographer/comedian.
After a week of slaying 'em at Harrah's, Federman, co-author of Maravich, fielded questions about Vegas, All-Star weekend and his favorite NBA subject, Pistol Pete.
1. The big question surrounding this weekend's festivities is should the NBA make a permanent home in Las Vegas. What do you think?

I don't know if this is such a great idea. Every time a guy goes 3-for-17 you'll wonder if he's shaving points. They'll be surrounded by strippers, hookers, pimps, gamblers and gangsters — and that's just at the buffet line at Treasure Island — but the players will still have a dress code. No jeans! And now that they all have at least a semester of college under their belt, the NBA doesn't have to worry if they're mature enough to handle Vegas. I mean, how could a 19-year-old millionaire get into trouble here? Impossible.

If the NBA has a team in Vegas, the so-called "fifth quarter" will be extended to three overtimes. And there will be a whole bunch of new proposition bets. You'll be able to bet the over-under on positive paternity tests or get odds on Tim Hardaway and Elton John co-hosting a charity event.

2. If Bird and Magic through Jordan was basketball's Golden Age, where do you see the league right now?

I think the league is in great shape. The globalization of the game is incredible. I mean, just 10 years ago could you imagine that the two best players in the league would be Canadian and German? Not after the Leo Rautins and Uwe Blab flameouts. Like any era, there are only about eight teams you care about, but that's to be expected. I mean, does anybody really want to watch the Milwaukee Bucks? Or did they fold? Are they still in the league?

3. It's the 30th anniversary of Pete Maravich leading the NBA in scoring and the 10th anniversary of his being named to the Top 50 all-time team. Where do you see the Pistol's influence?

Well, Pete only had the moustache for a couple of years, the ancient mariner look, but it's great to see young Adam Morrison picking up the mantle. It just gives you that moment of hesitation, is that a basketball player or an arms dealer?

You see Pete's influence everywhere in the league. Steve Nash goes between his legs three times just bringing the ball up the court. What is common now was extraordinary when Pete was doing it. Nobody was making behind the back passes. Pete used to say that there was a method behind throwing a behind the back pass, that it gave another option for the defender to think about. Pete was all about misdirection, like a great close-up magician. Not like David Copperfield who makes entire airplanes disappear.

4. Bird won three MVPs and Nash has won two, but there hasn't been a white scoring champ since Maravich. Do you root for Pete to maintain this legacy?

Wow, I hadn't thought about that. I guess I'm just color blind when it comes to the NBA. I just see ballplayers. But now that you mention it, I guess Pete was white.

5. A young Dick Bavetta made a dubious charge call that led to Maravich fouling out of his career-high 68-point game in 1977. Do you feel a measure of satisfaction with Bavetta's loss to Charles Barkley on Saturday?

Bavetta still can't keep up with the speed of the league, even if the league is a 44-year-old, 300-pound, hungover TV commentator. Tom McMillan still hasn't gotten set on the one charge call where Bavetta waved off a Maravich basket. The bucket should have counted and Pete should have gone to the line. That would have been 71 right there.


Pete Maravich probably would have felt right at home in the modern era of the NBA All-Star game. (Dick Raphael / NBA / Getty Images)

6. Pete must have loved the All-Star game, the one game every year where nobody else played any defense either.

He was playing zone defense when the rest of the league was playing man-to-man. It's just another example of his artistry. Of course there are a couple of people, including Pat Riley, who had their career highs against Pete.

7. Doesn't the All-Star skills competition look like something right out of a Maravich instructional video?

It's almost like it was designed by his dad Press Maravich, except he would make Pete do it blindfolded hanging out a moving car.

8. Wouldn't Pete have owned the 3-point contest?

He loved the idea of the 3-point shot. Anything that made the game more exciting to the fans, he liked. Pete said, "The game is entertainment for the fans. It's not for the coaches, it's not for the players, it's for the fans. If you don't have the product that's marketed right, that's out there, that's entertaining, nobody will show up." In his one NBA season with the 3-pointer Pete went 10-for-15 from behind the arc as a part-time player for the Celtics, so the mind boggles at what might have been had he had the 3-pointer for his whole career.

9. Is it just me or has the All-Star game lost a little of its luster?

It's just you, you've lost a little of your luster. Pete had an idea for the All-Star game. Instead of teams of 12, he wanted to go five-on-five for the whole game. That's a game you wouldn't forget. There's always a point in the second quarter of the All-Star game where the subs come in and the game loses some juice. Pete's idea would have solved that. Not sure what his contingency plan was for guys getting hurt.

10. What can the hoop world learn about Pete Maravich that it doesn't already know by reading your book?

Well, one thing people don't know is that Pete's teams won 82 percent of the games in which he scored 40 or more points. What that tells me is Pete should have shot more. Also, Pete is the only player in NBA history to score 50 points on Super Bowl Sunday, which he did in 1972 against the Sixers. But you probably knew that.

Benefit raises $250,000

Barbara McQueen takes the stage for mesothelioma research.

By BARBARA POTTER
Orange County Register
Twenty-six years ago actor and Hollywood legend Steve McQueen died from exposure to asbestos.

Each year up to 3,000 patients in the United States are diagnosed with the same form of aggressive cancer – mesothelioma. This slow growing cancer is linked to asbestos, a natural fiber that was once used in manufacturing industrial and household products. Medical studies show that men in their mid-60s are most often affected, but women have also been diagnosed with the disease.

For McQueen, it was contracted from his years stripping asbestos off hot pipes on U.S. Navy ships and from the flame retardant race car driver suits that he wore.

To raise funds for research for this rare cancer, Roger and Ann Worthington held an asbestos cancer benefit featuring Grammy-award winner and jazz musician Chris Botti. The event was held at the Worthington's beautiful Capistrano Beach home on Feb. 10. Barbara McQueen, wife of Steve McQueen, also made an appearance and autographed copies of her book, "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile," a publication of never before seen photos she took of Steve more than 25 years ago.

Roger Worthington, Barbara McQueen and Chris Botti also have in common that all three are from the same small community of Corvallis, Oregon.

Also gracing the stage was Jordan Zevon, a singer and songwriter, and Floyd Landis, winner of the 2006 Tour de France, who raised his voice for the need to end asbestos-related cancer.

"It was a smashing success. People had a whole lot of fun and it was great to have some of the best jazz artists performing in our front yard," Roger Worthington said.

By Monday evening, he said he had received many "hugs and kisses" via e-mail, thanking the couple for a wonderful evening.

More than $250,000 was raised at the event, which will go to the Punch Worthington Research Lab at the Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for research projects in finding a cure for mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

Roger Worthington's father, David "Punch" Worthington died from asbestos poisoning on Aug. 25, 2006. In August 2002, Warren Zevon, an acclaimed folk musician and father of Jordan Zevon, also died of the disease. Jordan, sang his father's classic song, "Werewolves of London," at the benefit. Chris Botti's drummer Billy Kilson also performed – his mother recently died from mesothelioma.

For the past 18 years Roger Worthington, an attorney, has taken on his clients' cause. In 1999, he founded The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation to advance funding and research toward finding a cure.

"A lot of passion comes from personal experience," he said.

Worthington has helped more than 400 clients over the years in asbestos-related cases.

"We're very aggressive and we get the highest settlements," he said.

The Veterans Administration does not have a program to treat its patients diagnosed with mesothelioma.

"The government has not taken this (mesothelioma) seriously," Worthington said.

Jessica Like, executive director of Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Los Angeles, said the evening was a wonderful outpouring from the more than 350 people who attended the fundraiser.

"People connected with other mesothelioma patients, survivors and their families. Doctors also got to speak with each other and with patients, too. It was a great networking experience, a total success," she said.

Also among the guests was Sandy Hazen, whose husband Tom also died of the disease in 2000. She was instrumental in organizing the fundraiser, Worthington said.

"For eight months, my husband battled mesothelioma," she said.

"It isn't a blue collar disease. It doesn't respect job titles – judges, accountants, doctors, inventors, housewives, school children have had it – it's not a ship yard disease," Worthington said.

Funds raised included $15,000 from the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union, $60,000 from the estate of David "Punch" Worthington, $50,000 from the law firm of Simon, Eddins and Greenstone, $25,000 from Roger Worthington, $10,000 from John Markovich, $10,000 from the law firm of Simmons Cooper and $5,000 from Owens-Illinois. Auction items also raised $9,000, from sculptures by Eric Peltzer and Alex Pavlenko, paintings by local artist Rick Delanty and Thomas Schmidt and photographs of Steve McQueen and limited edition copies of Barbara McQueen's book.

Mesothelioma can take 20-40 years to develop tumors. Possible signs include shortness of breath, pain under the rib cage, pain or swelling in the abdomen, lumps in the abdomen and weight loss for no known reason. There is no cure, and treatments are limited. Until recently mesothelioma patients have lived only months after diagnosis, but advancements in research have extended some patients' lives by three to five years.

Vanity Fair recommends "The Last Mile"

Hot Type

A monthly overview of great new books.

by Elissa Schappell March 2007

What is the key to an artist's creative success? Joan Acocella's rich and brilliantly wrought trove of essays, Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints (Pantheon), proves it's "patience, courage, and the ability to survive disappointment."

Hold on to your helmet: In Leni (Knopf), Steven Bach unspools the dark truth about Nazi-friendly filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, proving her to be anything but apolitical. Conservative, patriotic soldier Joshua Key's allegiance to the U.S. government was decimated by the atrocities he witnessed in Iraq, and with the help of Lawrence Hill he tells The Deserter's Tale (Grove). In her harrowing memoir, Infidel (Free Press), Ayaan Hirsi Ali once again tempts the fury of fundamentalists. Senator Chuck Schumer comes out swinging for the middle class in Positively American (Rodale). Bambi vs. Godzilla (Pantheon) sees David Mamet spitting, growling, and batting his eyes at the business of making movies. Kevin Sessums's memoir is a portrait of the writer as a Mississippi Sissy (St. Martin's). Makeup maven Bobbi Brown (now 50 herself) shares midlife sleights of hand to achieve Living Beauty (Springboard).

L'amour! L'amour! L'amour! Daniel Jones, editor of the eponymous New York Times column, presents its loveliest and thorniest tales of "desire, deceit, and devotion" in Modern Love (Three Rivers). In Sally Wofford-Girand and Andrea Chapin's anthology, The Honeymoon's Over (Warner), writers such as Jane Smiley and Terry McMillan dish about why they split or stayed. From Dietrich to Streisand to Cher, Bronwyn Cosgrave shows how fashion and Oscar were always Made for Each Other (Bloomsbury). Life online goes off the hook in Walter Kirn's The Unbinding (Anchor). Forty years in the making, Clive James's Cultural Amnesia (Norton) recalls seminal moments in history and the arts. By Alec Wilkinson's account, Poppa Neutrino, a builder and sailor of trash rafts fit for one cross-Atlantic jaunt, is The Happiest Man in the World (Random House).

In short: Sara Davidson's advice for baby-boomers, Leap (Random House); Charlotte Chandler's Bergman bio, Ingrid (Simon & Schuster); Steidl's Martin Munkacsi; Charlie LeDuff's US Guys (Penguin Press); Barbara McQueen's Steve McQueen, The Last Mile (Dalton Watson); photographer Tierney Gearon's meditation on motherhood, Daddy, Where Are You? (Steidl); André Schiffrin's intellectual autobiography, A Political Education (Melville House); Lucinda Franks's memoir, My Father's Secret War (Miramax); Larry Brown's posthumous (sadly) novel, A Miracle of Catfish (Shannon Ravenel); Tara Ison's psycho-comic novel, The List (Scribner).

The insane, compassionate, balls-out genius William T. Vollmann traversed the globe asking Poor People (Ecco) the question, "Why are you poor?" And the answer is …

Elissa Schappell, author of the novel Use Me (Perennial) and editor-at-large of the literary magazine Tin House, has written Vanity Fair's Hot Type column for nearly a decade.

Comic chronicles the tragic showman, 'Pistol' Pete Maravich

By Jerry Fink
Las Vegas Sun

(appearance info deleted as it is out of date)

Book: "Maravich" by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill with Jackie Maravich (SportClassic Books, 2006)


Unless you're a Harlem Globetrotter fan, basketball and comedy usually don't mix.

It's odd then, that a stand-up comedian would co-author a biography of Hall of Famer "Pistol" Pete Maravich, sometimes a clown on the college and pro basketball courts, but a tragic figure in life.

Wayne Federman, 47, is a comedian and actor who has appeared onstage in Los Angeles at places such as the Improv and the Laugh Factory; on television in such series as "The Larry Sander s Show" and such movies as "Jack Frost" in 1998 and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in 2005.

He and co-author Marshall Terrill have written perhaps the definitive book on Maravich, who died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 40. Aiding in the book were Maravich's widow, Jackie, and sons Jaeson and Joshua.

During a recent telephone interview with the Sun from his home in Los Angeles, Federman discussed the remarkable book about the remarkable Maravich.

I'm a basketball fan. When I was a kid I was a Dr. J fan - that was sort of my era. In 1987 Pete Maravich released these instructional videotapes on basketball and they were just fascinating. Ever since then, I became more and more interested in the guy and I started researching him, especially his NBA career. Then Marshall Terrill, who had started writing the book, took me on as a co-author.

How did the two of you hook up?

He contacted me through the Internet. I had put up this little site because I had started collecting Pete Maravich videos and I had a couple of basketball games he wanted.

All of this collecting you were doing, was it with the intent of writing a book?

No. It was totally a hobby, but I have a knack for research and I started speaking to this guy, and the next thing I know he tells me I know more about Pete Maravich than anyone he has spoken to and he's been writing this book for half a year and would I like to be his co-author. I go, no, I'm trying to get an audition for "Mad About You" or something. But my girlfriend convinced me and so I say, "OK, let's give this a try."

I wrote it with the idea of making it into a movie. I just thought it would always make a great sports movie in a nontraditional way. It's not like "Hoosiers," where at the last second they win the game; it's a much more nuanced and sad and thrilling story. There's just a lot to the story.

Do you still have hopes of turning it into a movie?

Yes. Definitely. Very much so. I've been contacted by several producers. We are putting together something right now, and, let's just keep our fingers crossed, but it's looking very positive.

How exciting would that be to see your book come to life?

It's such a compelling story. Tragic. Thrilling. All the things I like in a movie. I don't know if you know this, but when Pete died, an autopsy was performed because he dropped dead of a heart attack at 40, after setting all these records that still stand till this day - and they find out he never had a left coronary artery and shouldn't have lived to the age of 20 and shouldn't have been allowed to play any sport, not even badminton; maybe he could have been on the chess team.

Was he aware of this?

No. He knew something was wrong with his heart. It kept him out of Vietnam, which we uncovered in the book. He had no idea it was lethal. No idea. I talked to team doctors from the Hawks and the Jazz and the Celtics, all the team doctors, and I asked, "Did you give him stress tests?" and they're like, "Yeah. He passed with no problem." I go like, "Wow, that's pretty amazing." I talked to a cardiologist who said you don't know you have this condition till it's too late. Now, they inject dye into your vein and take a better picture of your heart. If they had the technology back then, they said it could have been detected - but with just the stethoscope and EKG, no. He was a pro basketball player. It's ridiculous.

When did you first get interested in Maravich?

Like I said, in '87. He died the very next year. My interest was further piqued in '96, when he was selected one of the NBA's 50 great players. I wondered why. He never won a championship. I thought his pro career was a bit of a washout compared to his college career, where he averaged over 44 points a game. So then I looked into his pro career and it was pretty spectacular, but like everything involved with Pete Maravich, there's always a sadness or a touch of tragedy to it. His mom ended up killing herself just after he got traded to New Orleans. He blew out his knee just as the team is about to make the playoffs. Every step of the way - at times it was hard to write, you just feel bad for him, yet all anyone remembers of him are these fantastic Globetrotter moves in a real game; it's like this ultimate showman and the price that was paid for that.

Jackie Maravich remained silent about the tragedy for 20 years. Why did she now decide to talk about it and help you with the book?

First of all the kids were too young. She didn't want to have that all around them when they were trying to grow up. And two, Jackie Maravich is a very private person.

Why was the timing right for this book?

Three things. The kids were older, going to college, and she thought they could handle it. Second, an unauthorized book written several years earlier, she didn't like. And three, she was looking for an author who would write a comprehensive, fair and balanced book about his life. I stepped in at the right time.

How has the book been doing since its December release?

If possible, it's doing too well. The first printing of 10,000 sold out in 3 1/2 weeks. Since Christmas it's been nearly impossible to buy the book. The second printing should be hitting the stores about now.

Why did you choose to write this book?

Pete was such a unique guy in the history of the game. He was not really accepted by the team when he went to the Hawks - don't forget, there was a bidding war for him between the NBA and ABA, before the leagues merged. He got like five times as much money as the highest paid veteran player on the team. They resented the heck out of him immediately. And on top of that he started getting endorsement deals with Vitalis, Pro-Keds and basketballs; and all those endorsement deals were worth more than anyone else's contract on the team.

A lot of jealousy?

And for good reason. They say, "Hey, we built up the Hawks, we have had to struggle to get an extra $10,000 a year and this kid comes in and gets $250,000." At the time he signed a five-year, $1.8 million contract, which was the highest in any sport at the time.

Are there more books in your future or are you going to stick to comedy?

I don't know. I can't imagine what it would be. The amount of work I put into this - I was in way beyond what I thought I was capable of. There's nothing on the horizon, but then I never thought I would write a book in the first place.

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at jerry@lasvegassun.com.

NY Times Sunday Book Review-"Maravich"

MARAVICH
By Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill in collaboration with Jackie
Maravich.
Illustrated. 422 pp. Sport Classic Books. $24.95.

PISTOL
The Life of Pete Maravich.
By Mark Kriegel.
Illustrated. 381 pp. Free Press. $27.

By JAY JENNINGS
Published: February 11, 2007

On May 3, 1989, I popped a VHS tape into my machine and recorded an
entire game of the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan to save for
posterity. It was an ordinary first-round playoff game against the
Cleveland Cavaliers, admittedly a team Jordan often torched, but I had
no idea what would happen. Jordan ended with 44 points and delivered a
few signature moments — a steal and a breakaway dunk, a series of
fadeaway jumpers, an end-to-end rebound, sprint and layup. In an ESPN
world of quick-cut highlights where a player’s dunk dissolves into the
next clip before he hits the ground, I wanted to preserve what
snippet-sports often denies us: context. While the most sensational
exploits of our athlete gods become as luminescent in public
consciousness as stained glass (Julius Erving’s behind-the-backboard
layup, Willie Mays’s over-the-shoulder catch), the proof of greatness
often lies in their ability to amaze every day. Arguably, no basketball
player, not even Jordan, met that test as regularly as Pete Maravich,
whose between-the-legs assists and next-ZIP-code jumpers still defy
belief. Too bad he played mostly pre-VCR.

Even a casual fan may know of Maravich’s trademark floppy socks and
hair and his college scoring average of 44.2 points per game during his
three years at Louisiana State University, a record as seemingly
unassailable as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. The more ardent
will know Maravichiana like his idiosyncratic ball-handling drills, an
obsessive practice ethic that found him sitting in aisle seats at movie
theaters so he could dribble while he watched, and a checkered pro
career marked by injury, coaching turmoil, frequent drinking and, most
of all, losing. After retiring from the pros, he embraced evangelical
Christianity and died unexpectedly in 1988 at the age of 40, owing to a
genetic heart ailment.

A pair of recent biographies — one by Mark Kriegel, the author of
“Namath,” and the other a team effort from the actor and comedian Wayne
Federman and the journalist Marshall Terrill, with an assist from
Maravich’s widow, Jackie Maravich — cover this material baseline to
baseline, with admirable thoroughness. In “Maravich,” Federman et al.
assay a more exhaustive (and occasionally exhausting) approach,
dutifully summarizing statistics in parentheses, front-loading each
chapter with not one but two epigraphs and stacking up repetitive
encomiums. Once you’ve had the Hall of Famer and onetime Maravich coach
Elgin Baylor say, “Pete is the best I’ve ever seen,” do we really need
to hear the same from a dozen others? But its labor-of-love enthusiasm
is infectious, and it’s essential for Maravich completists, especially
for the reassessment of his pro career and for anecdotal feats of
basketball wizardry, like his delivering on a boast to hit 100 jumpers
from beyond 25 feet without missing two in a row. It also contains the
single most convincing statistical refutation of the charge that
Maravich was a selfish gunner: in the N.B.A., when he scored more than
40 points, his team won 82 percent of its games, compared with Jordan’s
69 percent and Allen Iverson’s 68.

Kriegel’s prose is flashier but often errant. A young Maravich is
described as having “a big head mounted on a wispy frame, dense as a
wafer”; the Maravich-as-Elvis theme is hammered ad nauseam; and one
chapter in “Pistol” has the truly awful title “The Unbearable Whiteness
of Being Pete.” But Kriegel does uncover some nuggets otherwise lost to
history, as when he traces one inspiration for Maravich’s dribbling
drills to a ball-handling sensation named Ah Chew Goo, whom Pete’s
father, Press, had seen when stationed in Hawaii in the service.

Kriegel also tries to situate Maravich in his times, particularly in
relation to the era’s racial dynamics. Despite the precedent of Bob
Cousy’s legerdemain, Maravich’s crowd-pleasing style was identified
with that of the urban playground and its black stars. Marvin Turner, a
black player from Baton Rouge who competed against Maravich in the
summer, tells Kriegel, “There had never been a white guy who played
like that — he had a soul game.” The growing National Basketball
Association was beginning to be dominated by African-Americans, and the
mantle of “great white hope” thrust upon Maravich, along with the
accompanying rich contract, didn’t help his transition to the league;
when he joined the Atlanta Hawks, black veterans like Lou Hudson and
Joe Caldwell, who’d toiled for years for a fraction of the money
Maravich commanded, were understandably annoyed. In time, the tempest
blew over, but over a 10-year career that saw enough success for him to
be named one of the N.B.A.’s 50 greatest players, a complementarity of
teammates and coach failed to materialize, and he never came close to
showcasing his skills in the service of a championship.

Over the 800 pages in these books, despite tales of drinking,
vegetarianism and interest in extraterrestrials, Pete Maravich the man
remains something of a mystery. Perhaps that’s because he was a mystery
to himself, constantly searching before his post-career embrace of
Christianity. His innate basketball talent was manifest so early in
life — he once said, “There isn’t anything I did at L.S.U. or in the
N.B.A. I couldn’t do at 13” — that the young man was the sum of his
basketball feats, which he all but admitted late in life when he
described that earlier self as “a basketball android.”

What may be a revelation here is the portrait that emerges of Press
Maravich, who might stereotypically be viewed as merely riding his
son’s remarkable skills to the L.S.U. head coaching job. Kriegel is
particularly good at offering a corrective, and the most successful
part of his book describes the elder Maravich’s hardscrabble upbringing
in the Serbian immigrant enclave of Aliquippa, Pa., a company town
where nearly everyone worked for the steel producer Jones & Laughlin.
These vivid pages follow Press as he masters basketball in a church
gym, stars in college and in the fledgling pro game, serves as a Navy
flier, and works his way up the high school and college coaching ranks
by forming teams of players as hard-nosed and hardheaded as he was.
“Press didn’t recruit ability,” Kriegel writes. “He recruited desire.
He wanted guys who loved the game as much as he did, who shared his
confusion of basketball with salvation.”

At basketball backwaters like Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia
and the football powerhouse Clemson, his undersize teams became so well
drilled in his theories of tenacious defense and meticulous execution
that the legendary U.C.L.A. coach John Wooden often sought him out for
advice. “They were an odd couple,” Kriegel writes, “Wooden measured and
modest while Press was loud and profane.” In both books, Press emerges
as a full, flawed but appealing man, driven and tender, boastful and
loving. “Press was one of the greatest, most entertaining guys I’ve
ever met,” an L.S.U. administrator says in “Maravich.” But Press’s
formidable basketball mind became mush when his son was involved. “He
had ... become obsessed with Pete’s numbers,” a former assistant coach
says in “Pistol.” “He had gone from being one of the greatest coaches
in the game to the coach of the greatest player in the game.”

In the end, reading about Maravich the son is like reading about Gale
Sayers, the incomparable Chicago Bears running back: it mostly makes
you want to watch those precious old films, to witness with your own
eyes the impossible moves. That’s why the most exciting part of either
of these books for me was in an appendix to “Maravich” under the
“Selected References” section, titled “Video”: “Games: 1967 L.S.U. at
Tennessee; 1968 L.S.U. at Georgia,” and so on. Out there somewhere is
Maravich in context.

Jay Jennings, a former college basketball reporter for Sports
Illustrated, is a frequent contributor to the Book Review.

Check out Book Soup today!

Book Soup to host Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill today. Here's the particulars, first posted January 11. Drop on by today and meet the authors.

Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill are "going Hollywood" in February when they appear at a world famous book store on the Sunset Strip to promote "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile."

The signing will take place 7 p.m. Friday, February 9, 2007 at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.

"Book Soup is the coolest bookstore in the world," said Barbara McQueen. "I used to shop there all the time when I lived in Los Angeles. I'm absolutely thrilled they are hosting a signing for us."

The event, which is billed as "McQueen for a Day," will be more than just a book signing promises co-author Marshall Terrill.

"I've had assurances from several McQueen friends and associates that they will show up and say something in tribute to Steve," Terrill said. "The signing will be a gathering of friends, associates and Steve McQueen fans. I guarantee this will be a once-in-a-lifetime event. Who knows, you might even bump into a celebrity or two."

Barbara McQueen and Terrill will read a few of their favorite passages from "Steve McQueen: The Last Mile," talk about how they wrote the book and why McQueen hasn't spoken publicly about her famous husband in more than 25 years. They will also take questions from the audience at the end of their presentation.

The 240-page book contains approximately 150 pictures documenting Barbara McQueen's three-and-a-half year relationship with the movie icon, which includes candid shots from 1977 to 1980 – McQueen's years out of the spotlight. It also chronicles Barbara's early history and modeling career; her years with McQueen at Trancas Beach and Santa Paula as well as behind-the-scene photos on the sets of "Tom Horn" and "The Hunter."

Book Soup will offer both the $95 special limited edition as well as a new $49.95 hardback version of the book.

The store will also have on hand the 2005 version of Terrill's "Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel" to sign.

The cost to attend the signing is free, but an RSVP is required to guarantee admittance. Contact Tyson Cornell at (310) 659-3684 or e-mail him at tyson@booksoup.com to RSVP.

For those who can't attend the event, Book Soup will broadcast the presentation on its website at www.booksoup.com

Publisher Dalton Watson will also take orders from buyers around the world who want to purchase a special limited edition with an inscription from Barbara McQueen and Marshall Terrill. Orders must be in placed by February 1, 2007. For more information, go to www.daltonwatson.com

"Pistol Pete's" Rectal Exam

"Pistol Pete" Maravich nixed the Sixers when Doc gave him the finger. Read on...