Tribute to The Pistol

ESPN.com has this thing going on right now about the greatest 2-guards in the history of the NBA. The list looks something like this:

1). Michael Jordan
2). Kobe Bryant
3). Jerry West
4). George Gervin
5). Allen Iverson
6). Clyde Drexler
7). Reggie Miller
8). Pete Maravich
9). Earl Monroe
10). Joe Dumars

I have no problem with the first 3 names on that list. His Airness is a no brainer, Black Mamba will probably be a more clear choice once he unlaces his sneakers which might not be for another 5 years atleast and The Logo, well there isn't a more iconic player in NBA history than the actual Icon, is there? But here's where the list gets messy in my opinion. The Iceman, The Answer, The Glide and Miller Time are all ranked above the Pistol and I think that's a bit of an injustice. Of course, I might be a little biased (as I always am) but there have been few players in the history of the NBA as revolutionary as Pistol Pete.

Pete Maravich was to dribbling a basketball, what Dr. J was to dunking it. He made it cool. Yeah there were guys before him who dribbled behind their back or between their legs or threading a pass between defenders while looking the wrong way (see Cousy, Bob), just as there were guys before Dr. J who figured that the easiest and most effective way of putting the ball in the bucket was to throw it in from above. But Maravich was magic before Magic, showtime before the Lakers, White Chocolate before there was any other kind of chocolate. He was a pretty decent shooter too. 44ppg over 3 years in the NCAA and 24ppg over 10 seasons in the NBA. That's a little better than average considering that he didn't had a 3-pt line for most of his career when he was deadly from 25 feet away from the basket. In the twilight of his career and hampered by an eventually career ending knee injury, he still managed to shoot 10/15 from 3pt-land in the '79-'80 season, his final season and the first season in which the NBA had a 3-pt line.

But where's his place in history? He never won an NBA championship, played on a lot of sub .500 teams and despite his other-worldy abilities to pass and shoot the ball, was never known to make his team or teammates "better". Well, the same could be said of a lot of those other guys above Pistol Pete, except perhaps The Glide whose biggest fault was being born in the same decade as Michael Jordan. Plus, how effective would West have been without Wilt Chamberlain manning the post or Elgin Baylor slashing from the wing?

And once again I will admit that I am biased. When I was a kid, watching Chicago Bulls games and watching Michael Jordan play were what got me interested in basketball, but The Pistol was the reason I picked up a basketball and started playing, even though I never saw him play in person. I was inspired by the movie Pistol: The Birth of a Legend that chronicles his early exploits in high school. How many other kids did he inspire to play? How many kids did he inspire to use a basketball as an outlet for one's own creativity rather than as just a physical activity. For that alone I think he should be higher on the list.