Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich (Hardcover)

by Mark Kriegel (Author)
Key Phrases: assembly center, basketball establishment, basketball genes, Pistol Pete, New Orleans, Pete Maravich (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Book Description
Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream--and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete--a basketball icon for baby boomers--all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.

Almost four decades have passed since Maravich entered the national consciousness as basketball's boy wizard. No one had ever played the game like the kid with the floppy socks and shaggy hair. And all these years later, no one else ever has. The idea of Pistol Pete continues to resonate with young people today just as powerfully as it did with their fathers.

In averaging 44.2 points a game at Louisiana State University, he established records that will never be broken. But even more enduring than the numbers was the sense of ecstasy and artistry with which he played. With the ball in his hands, Maravich had a singular power to inspire awe, inflict embarrassment, or even tell a joke.

But he wasn't merely a mesmerizing showman. He was basketball's answer to Elvis, a white Southerner who sold Middle America on a black man's game. Like Elvis, he paid a terrible price, becoming a prisoner of his own fame.

Set largely in the South, Kriegel's Pistol, a tale of obsession and basketball, fathers and sons, merges several archetypal characters. Maravich was a child prodigy, a prodigal son, his father's ransom in a Faustian bargain, and a Great White Hope. But he was also a creature of contradictions: always the outsider but a virtuoso in a team sport, an exuberant showman who wouldn't look you in the eye, a vegetarian boozer, an athlete who lived like a rock star, a suicidal genius saved by Jesus Christ.

A renowned biographer--People magazine called him "a master"--Kriegel renders his subject with a style that is, by turns, heartbreaking, lyrical, and electric.

The narrative begins in 1929, the year a missionary gave Pete's father a basketball. Press Maravich had been a neglected child trapped in a hellish industrial town, but the game enabled him to blossom. It also caused him to confuse basketball with salvation. The intensity of Press's obsession initiates a journey across three generations of Maraviches. Pistol Pete, a ballplayer unlike any other, was a product of his father's vanity and vision. But that dream continues to exact a price on Pete's own sons. Now in their twenties--and fatherless for most of their lives--they have waged their own struggles with the game and its ghosts.

Pistol is an unforgettable biography. By telling one family's history, Kriegel has traced the history of the game and a large slice of the American narrative.

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"Why Pistol?"
An Exclusive Essay by Mark Kriegel
"Why Pistol?" I'm asked that all the time.Pete Maravich became famous in the late 1960s, while setting scoring records at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. I'm not a son of the South. Nor, at 44, do I have any meaningful recollection of basketball's boy wizard in his floppy-socked prime. I grew up in the Seventies, on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, a few blocks from Madison Square Garden. I was a fan of the Knicks and their star guard, Walt "Clyde" Frazier. In terms of basketball style, Clyde and Pistol were antithetical. Frazier's flamboyance--I recall committing his "wardrobe stats" to memory--was not apparent on the court. Rather, he was celebrated as a dogged defender. His game was wise, economical, his gaze expressionless. Maravich, by contrast, was considered a head-case. His eyes were sad--even a kid could see that. Still, there was a distinct exuberance in the way he moved. No one moved like that, before or since.

Continue reading "Why Pistol?"

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From Publishers Weekly
As he did for another larger-than-life sports star whose achievements in his game were always shadowed by his demons outside of it, Kriegel (Namath) offers a rounded, insightful look at one of basketball's enigmatic icons. Kriegel presents Pete Maravich (1947–1988) as a "child prodigy, prodigal son, his father's ransom in a Faustian bargain." His father, Press Maravich, was the poor son of Serbian immigrants to Pennsylvania, a man obsessed with basketball as a means of personal and financial redemption. His rise as a coach loomed over Pete, who described himself as a boy as "a basketball android." A veteran sportswriter, Kriegel is more than up to the task of eliciting Pete's on-court greatness and describing basketball action in a fluid, dramatic fashion (Pete's deadeye shot earned him the nickname "Pistol"). But the book is more notable for how Kriegel evokes Press's support turning into suffocation, and the effect of the impossible expectations on Pete (he played for Louisiana State, then later for the New Orleans Jazz). In the end, Kriegel's portrait is a sad celebration of a gifted player whose collegiate legend never quite blossomed into professional greatness as he battled alcoholism, sought solace in religion and left a troubled legacy that's still felt by his children and those who knew him. (Feb.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 4th edition (February 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743284976
• ISBN-13: 978-0743284974
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #217,587 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best sports book I've ever read, February 1, 2007

By	MH129 (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I've read tons of sports biographies and loved many of them, but this has got to be the best one I've ever read. I'm too young to remember Maravich's glory days, but I'm a big basketball fan, so I just picked this up randomly. It hooked me almost immediately. Maravich was an amazing player, way ahead of his time, but his life story is fascinating for much more than just the basketball. And Kriegel's writing is brilliant--very novelistic. You rarely if ever see writing this good in sports biographies.

I wasn't originally expecting much from this, but it blew me away. I can't recommend it enough.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "PISTOL",The BEST Pete Maravich book EVER, February 1, 2007

By	Pistol Pete Fanatic (New Orleans, LA,) - See all my reviews

After reading the excerpt is Sports Illustrated I knew I had to have "Pistol." It's riveting and compelling, I couldn't put it down. Kriegel's "NAMATH" was good but this book is GREAT! When you are reading you forget these people are no longer with us. No other book has talked about Press and Pete. Press alone is worth the read. What an amazing story! As I read the book, I can see Pete on the court,like it was yesterday. EVERYBODY WANTED TO BE PETE. Kriegel writes a well crafted story, as if you are there with him. An AMAZING book.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, March 4, 2007

By	Dana49 (New England) - See all my reviews

Sports biographies are usually written by authors who care enough about the athlete to avoid the hard facts and lean toward the fiction. In 2005, a book entitled "Namath" was released. The author was Mark Kriegel. A few chapters in, I realized that this book was different from most sports biographies. This writer could tell a great story while using the truth and avoiding the fiction. "Namath" was both informative and entertaining.
Recently, Kriegel's newest biography "Pistol" was released. This time he takes us through a lifetime of basketball and the Maravich family. Setting fiction aside, he exposes the personal struggles and success that was once Pete Maravich. This is one of the best sports biographies that I have ever read. As good as "Namath" was, this one's better.