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They recently wrote a massive tome on Pete Maravich (that link has great Pistol Pete video, too). It just came out. And it's pretty good.



But the current Sports Illustrated has an excerpt of PISTOL: The Life of Pete Maravich by Mark Kriegel. The Federman and Terrill book is instantly obsolete. No one's going to top Kriegel's effort, and as far as I can tell from the excerpt there's really no reason to read any other Pistol Pete books.



Kriegel wrote that Namath book that did so well, and the excerpt make clear he has not lost a step in the meantime. (Guess he's becoming the official biographer of flashy white guys from the 1960s and 70s.)



The excerpt is not online, but you can read a bit about it at PistolPete23.com.  UPDATE: Yes it is online!



I have read a lot about Pistol Pete, but a few pages of this one have taught me so much that I didn't know, especially about the extent to which Pete's maniacal work habits were an elaborate way to seek acceptance from his basketball coach father. Likewise, Kriegel makes it clear that to Press Maravich, his son Pete was born to live out the dreams of a man whose own prime as a player was lost to flying fighters in World War II for the U.S. Navy.



He quotes John Wooden, remembering that he questioned his friend Press about all the ball-handling drills he had Pete practice at a young age.



There is also a gripping account of the day Pete collapsed after a pickup game with an accountant, a minister, and a bunch of regular guys:

The game ends. Guys trudge off to the water fountain. Pete continues to shoot around. And now you wonder what he sees.



Is it as he used to imagine? "The space will open up," he once said. "Beyond that will be heaven, and when you go inside, then the space closes again and you are there... definitely a wonderful place... Everyone you ever knew will be there."



The preacher asks Pete Maravich how he feels.



"I feel great," he says.



In the next moment, Pete begins to sway. Then his eyes roll back. The sound of his head hitting the floor will haunt those within earshot. Pete has begun to foam at the mouth. The preacher holds his head, trying to keep Pete from swallowing his tongue. He and another player administer CPR. Next, the EMS crew takes its turn. As the medics work, shooting jolts of electricity through his torso, the players kneel in prayer.



God's will be done, they say.



Why now? they ask.



Finally, what remains of Pete Maravich is taken away in a slow-moving ambulance. No siren.