An astonishing lack of a sense of humor, knowledge of pop culture memes, and understanding of sarcasm is being displayed in this thread.
One might even say that it approaches the amazing pace of basketball play back in the day.
Lol. Honestly I hate that Maravich is getting collateral damage here in making my point (which I guess isn’t working). I know he was taking tough shots and deep ones and was ahead of his time in creativity. Great player but just not efficient because he had to carry his team.
I would say "with some of the same", not "the same." Guys like Abdul-Jabbar and Maravich had additional benefits above most of the players of his era. Most notably that - despite being talented enough to play and star for a good team - he chose to go to a school with no bball history where his dad was allowed to make the program a showcase for Pete. Had Pete gone to, say, NC State or UNC, he still would have been a superstar player, but would have probably scored 10-15 fewer points per game playing with better teammates and against better competition. He simply wouldn't have been allowed by his team to take 38 shots per game.
I'll again point to Johnny Neumann, who averaged 40 ppg for Ole Miss (a similarly bad program like Tennessee) the year after Maravich went pro. Neumann turned out to be a mediocre pro, but had he not left after his one year of college, he might have threatened Maravich's record himself. Which sort of illustrates the point about the era and circumstance.
It's an impressive point total. It's a record. But it's also very much influenced by the era and the circumstance. Maravich's dad went to a program which would allow him to showcase his son, and he then built the gameplan totally around Maravich taking every possession. And when you combine that with the lack of defense and pace of play in that era, it was a perfect storm.
Obviously Maravich had to be a very good player to score 40+ ppg. But it was very much also a function of playing on a bad team coached by his dad as well. Doesn't mean Maravich wasn't a great player. Nor does it mean that Davis is even in the same conversation of talent as Maravich. It's just acknowledging that THAT particular record is very much a confluence of not only a really talented player (one of the most talented players of his era) but also an era and a team circumstance that made it possible.
We agree on a little of it, yes. You're welcome.
I would also say that Antoine Davis' point total is impressive. Sure, like Maravich, he benefited from some advantages that other players of his era didn't, and some advantages that players of other eras didn't. But it's still a really impressive accomplishment by Davis. Yet for some reason folks in this thread are fired up about minimizing his accomplishment because of his advantages while ignoring the advantages Maravich had.
Last edited by CDu; 03-21-2023 at 04:17 PM.
I would go ahead and say that it's more than possible. Pistol Pete was a hot commodity, and LSU was a nothing of a program back then. I think there's a high likelihood that a big factor in Press getting the job was the probability that Pete would come too.
Unfortunately for Press, showcasing Pete at LSU didn't lead to team success, and LSU let him go just 2 years after Pete left.