Pete Maravich interview

we have this finger right here if you're not gonna take it off I hope we can get this done all right there we go okay you just hold that finger there let's see if we can get this on my finger last time oh here we go look it must be somewhere on my finger I think you're danger my flatter that's what it is gonna play an edge on it but you just pick it up then you extra spin this thing and how long did it take you to learn to start doing tricks like you do with the best probably just a couple of weeks I was sweeping out the garage one morning my dad see if you're gonna sweep out the garage take it and learn to balance it once you learn to balance it then you'll be able to spend so I went around all day trying to balance different things on my finger and then finally I I was able to get the ball and then just do this and do different different things with with it you know all all the things that you do with the basketball I mean the guys going up and down his fingers man everyone uses good I have trouble holding my hand like I used to a festival when I was a kid but maybe when you started playing basketball your dad had a particular strategy that he used on you when to make a hunger for basketball developing there's no doubt about it he and my mother both they really baited me into the game my dad would come home from practice he would shoot every day I'd be by the window watching him and I try to go out and shoot with him but he would just tell me you're too young you can't reach the goal I'd go back in sometimes crying or whatever one day my mother said go out to him let's try one more time so he won't he won't let me shoot mom well go out one more time so I went out I I was looking around the corner Dessie come on out over here so he let me he said I'll let you shoot but I want to teach you first he's put my hands on the ball and then I shot and that was it and from that day on it took a lot of shots a lot of shots man your dad was a basketball player and a coach yourself and he was kind of like a guy you really looked up to well my dad was my hero there's no doubt about it I wouldn't be in the position I am today if it hadn't been for my father he was a very committed and devoted person to me as was my mother and he had a dream and his dream back in 1927 was to since he played basketball and he was a real good college player and he also played pro basketball was to the basketball could be much more than just a fundamental type of situation and he wanted to elevate it that was his dream but he didn't fulfill that dream but he is too the dream was fulfilled in me because we did have something to do with elevating the game especially in the south back during the 60s no question about that and your brother Ronnie played basketball with you and he was kind of like one of Heroes as well Ronnie was my hero I wore his number 23 and in college and he was a really a good basketball player had many scholarships in football and basketball but he chose another route he chose to join the Marines at a very early age and at 18 and and basically from that choice he started walking you know the way he walked and but he was an excellent basketball player you know when you begin to discover you had a particular was it when you begin to discover that you had a unique talent well basically when I was 7 years old my dad sat me down and said Pete I can't put you through school I can't put you or Ronnie through school I'm only making $96 a week you have to get a scholarship and if you get a scholarship maybe you'll be able to just plan plan that pro level maybe you'll get that ring if you get that ring go paid they'll pay you to play well to a seven-year-old my like toothpicks were in them I couldn't believe it and I really began committing myself then 6 to 10 hours a day I became to ten hours a day oh there's no doubt about it in fact I used to take the ball to bed with me I'd sleep I was sitting on the bed and shoot and say three things well after my mother tucked me in and said she loved me I would say fingertip control backspin and follow-through I would sneak out the window door and thought thunderstorms and play in a muddied area I would take my ball to the to the movie and sit on the owl watching the movie and dribble I played six to ten hours a day I was really a basketball Android that's the only thing I was committed to banned I was totally dedicated and possessed by basketball there was nothing else in my life even though I loved my parents basketball meant much more to me out of ignorance even though he was handing this dream down to me the dream was later on really become a nightmare well that really was true because the dream come show me you get what you pay for and you invested literally your life into basketball and you became at that time forward probably the first million dollar contract ever signed the best part I was one of them and t70 I had three offers I could have went with the ABA I could have went with the NBA and I was the first white man ever to be offered a million dollar contract with the Harlem Globetrotters know you would think boy this is it I mean is the guy said I has a ride you were there man and we're right at the top you had all school you infect a lot of your score and records you sit there unless you still stand and a lot of the wreckage is said in the NBA still stands so you would think man now that I've arrived I mean I mean the big time this is it I had it all in fact I remember walking down Bourbon Street one day and a shoeshine kid came up and he said can I shine your shoes I said yeah why not so he shined my shoes and I gave him $300 and I kept walking on and a kid said excuse me I said yes and he said you think you'd be walking back this way this week again so I really I did I really did have it what I thought was all I had all the success all the fame all the popularity I was on Sports Illustrated cover four or five times and had everything I dreamed of you see from very early age Ben I thought that if I could just get that success and and sit by my pool twinkle my toes in the water and hold my little drink everything would just work out fantastic but I did that at the end of a very long career a very hard difficult career of that very great amount of stress and distress and it just wasn't true whenever people say or come off at nervous I mean you know things this is a real world and you run into some problems I mean you just didn't know how to handle big money you were country boy and all of a sudden you had the big money just to get in Hamlet well I tried to fill myself up with things that everybody tries to fill themselves up with I've driven everything from a Rolls Royce to BMW Mercedes the Porsches you name it I've gone anywhere I wanted to vacation anytime I want to use to carry three to five thousand dollars in cash around with me all the time but there was something missing in my life it encrusted them you hear that all the time and I used to mock Christians I used to tear up their letters they say I've been praying for you one guy prayed for me since 1968 and said I prayed one prayer Pete and I said what was a said that God would make you miserable he said it was my prayer answered I said yes it was thanks a lot brother that's what I thought if I said thanks a lot but if you had gotten all those things these things had us satisfied you I mean where do you think it had been today P I would have been dead because of the day that I did get saved in 1982 basically I was contemplating suicide I had been doing that for basically a year and and why I mean why would a man who's whose name is a household word I mean her kids scream when he comes down the street people pay money to come watch you do things with a basketball I mean why in the world would you be talking about blowing yourself away well because I think were society of getters and not givers and and I've gotten all my life of course I worked for everything I had but I thought that getting these things all these things would make me happy and and it did I was temporarily happy it's fleeting momentary it's happiness but it's not true joy it's not peace what Jesus Christ talks about it's not peace at all and when he came into my life he literally transformed me I mean totally drastically you see I can only speak for my shoes I can't speak from anybody else's I got to run my race I can't worry about this guy this guy I know what guys called me to do he literally transformed me in wordly and outwardly and when he did that I was in such awe of that I still am every day of my life you know as long as your heart beating and you got a little breath left we should be thankful because I know that there's a billion people that make less than hundred fifty-three dollars a year annually so I don't really I can't empathize with people making millions of dollars even myself who made upwards over five hundred thousand dollars a year during the time I played I can't empathize with people that go in and say I need more I can't play for this amount that God really changed my life he changed it money didn't you know been money will buy you a fine dog but only love will make it wag its tail and that's what I found out from Christ that only loved people honestly if somebody like me to come to you when you were at the height of your career and things were really cooking for you and somebody said to you I'm your Pete what you need is Jesus I would have probably just said thanks a lot Ben I appreciate it and when you turned around I'd shoot an arrow at you like that because I really never did have too many people come up to me either because of intimidation or what but you know 19 I rejected Christ straight out I mean that was it I rejected him a friend of mine went forward with tears in his eyes it was just like me I couldn't understand it didn't want to because I had goals and I wanted to just keep on going but I tell you something I am so just just in awe that God saved me and he did do that and the joy that I have today is he is unspeakable I can't explain to people the peace I have is permanent lasting and it's every day of course it's like when I practice basketball that's why I'm practicing in the word every day I'm practicing in prayer because Christianity has to be practical to me I don't want it and Christ is very proud he's real and I can't explain that to people I'm not here to make anybody a Christian I can't make anybody a Corvette that's why I tell young people but he will change your life how did you ask Christ into your life and what did you did you go to a church or did you go to someone what did you do just to say to get your life checked go to make a long story short it was just one night I went to bed after really just searching and searching and searching for years and years and I was there and and many things came up into my mind that night and the things that were coming up in my mind were sent there was no doubt about it I knew right from wrong and yet I will continually habitually fell into these things even when I would swear them off make resolutions everything I would just keep going into it this night things kept coming up kept all night long and finally I just cried out in my spirit my wife laid next to me she was not saved at the time it was still dark and I cried out to God and said Lord can you save me can you forgive me because I've done some of the dirtiest things in the world and as I was going off my bed I reflected back when I was 19 I remembered a simple little prayer of forgiveness it's someone at bill bright at Campus Crusade had prayed and as I was getting off the bed the Lord spoke to me he spoke to me audibly I'll never I'll never shrink from that I you know it was meant for me but he said be strong enough that on heart that didn't save me what saved me was when I got off the bed and asked Christ to come into my life forgive my sins and he did that and from that day been my life has changed so dramatically I can't explain that but I know it's true and I know where I'm going I have a purpose and I just want to share with people not force the Bible honey but everybody's got to make their choice in life Adam and Eve had a choice we have choices to me and that's all I want people to know that Christ can change your life totally not ritual not ceremony but totally individually you can have great joy you can live for him and for your family

Channel: 1avardac

Views: 208,366

Keywords: pete, maravich, pistol, lsu, hawks, jazz, celtics, basketball

Id: t6PXUr3ttXs

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 09 2011