Pete Maravich, or ‘Pistol Pete’ as he’s better known, quickly became one of the NBA’s greatest offensive talents, resulting in him being one of the first million dollar contract players in history.
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He played with the finesse and skill of a modern day NBA offensive superstar while making highlight level plays in the 70s . He started his career off with the Atlanta Hawks, and he quickly became one of the best scorers in the game.
He averaged 23.2 points per game in his rookie season, and while he had somewhat of a sophomore slump, he quickly rebounded and improved his scoring numbers year by year.
Pete carried over his game from college perfectly into the NBA. During his time in LSU, he averaged 44.2 points per game, standing as an NBA record which led to a landmark deal from the Atlanta Hawks.
This dime from Pistol Pete Maravich🔥
Unrealpic.twitter.com/xvVmUOL2rV
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 16, 2020
Pete Maravich earned his way to a million dollar contract
That style of play and that level of offensive talent impressed the Hawks so much to where they offered Pistol Pete a 1.9 million dollar contract.
At the time, that was the largest contract ever in NBA history. With inflation, that contract would be worth about 14 million right now, which goes to show just how crazy his deal was at the time.
His razzling, dazzling, highlight-ridden style of play also caught the attention of the Harlem Globetrotters who offered him a deal as well. Pete had an offer from the ABA too, but eventually, he chose to go with the Hawks. Pete had his best season in the 1976-77 season where he was the leading scorer in the NBA, averaging 31.1 points per game for the New Orleans Jazz.
When Pete received his contract, he didn’t know what to do with that much money, and so it led to a lot of questionable decisions. In the following video, you can see Pete talk about what it meant to receive so much money and what he did with it at around the 4:15 mark including giving $300 to a shoe-shiner.
