re: Who had the pleasure of watching Pete play?

I saw Pete throughout his college career. The first time was his freshman year after hearing a bunch of friends talk excitedly about a phenom incoming basketball player. Saw his first game and was hooked. It was like seeing magic for the first time. He'd be racing down court dribbling the ball and suddenly the ball would be in someone else's hands going in for a layup and you'd be thinking "how did he do that," similar to the reaction one has in watching a David Blaine trick or illusion. You see something but you think you can't possibly have seem what you just saw.

There was no instant replay so we would sit and wait for the next out of this world pass or ball handling skill. We liked all the scoring he did but by far the real entertainment was watching what he'd do with the ball. In those days few if any bounced the ball between their legs and they certainly did not put the ball behind their back or bounce a ball between their legs while running full speed between a defender's legs to an open man. It was like watching an alien who came to earth to defy the laws of physics. The number of ooooooohhh and aaaaaaahh moments he produced were countless. I feel very privileged to have been able to watch this frail wonder.

I was there at the Superdome the night he injured his knee trying to throw the ball forward between his legs. It was somewhat uncharacteristic of him to do something showy that wasn't connected to improving the ability of the team to score but this was one of those, and he paid quite a price for doing so. There was, in my opinion, a built in self destruct factor in Maravich, and this was one manifestation of it. He took all of us who saw him to the mountaintop again and again but he was not going to the mountaintop himself in terms of a collegiate or NBA championship. But with a basketball he was a true Renaissance Man.