Pistol Pete in black-and-white

From Phil Berger’s 1999 ‘Forever Showtime” to Mark Kriegel’s 2007 ‘Pistol,” not to mention countless other books and articles and even a fully devoted Web site, the written word abounds when it comes to chronicling his game and his life.
There also are video-game depictions, instructional videos, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary and even a biographical film dramatizing his eighth-grade season.
So what’s left when it comes to telling the tale of the Pistol Pete Maravich, the late, great basketball magician whose uniform number is retired by the Jazz, hanging alongside the likes of John Stockton and Karl Malone and Adrian Dantley and Darrell Griffith and the rest at EnergySolutions Arena?
Released in late March, Danny Brown’s ‘Shooting the Pistol” is the latest entry devoted to remembering Maravich.
The 109-page hardback book (LSU Press; $23.00), subtitled ‘Courtside Photos of Pete Maravich at LSU,” tells the story of Maravich’s career in the late 1960s/early 1970 at Louisiana State University via a collection of photographs ‘ all black-and-white.
Though some are a bit blurry and admittedly lack proper lighting, the picture collection from Brown ‘ an LSU journalism student at the time, and later the primary photographer for two Louisiana governors ‘ is a comprehensive array of action shots, with a few off-court frames filling things out.
A few that stand out:
‘Maravich lined up to rebound a free throw, dwarfed as 7-foot University of Tennessee giant Tom Boerwinkle (one of Jazz coach Jerry Sloan’s ex-teammates with the Chicago Bulls) stands to his right in virtually the same pose;
‘Maravich being handed the game ball by his father/coach Press after scoring his 1,000th collegiate career point;
‘Maravich in mid-air, the ball squarely behind his back as he completes a fast-break basket in a 1969 game against Pitt.
Maravich, a three-time NCAA scoring champ, played five seasons for the New Orleans Jazz, and another 17 games after the franchise moved to Utah in 1979.
He died in 1988.
To see Maravich on YouTube video, by the way, just Google ‘Pistol Pete Maravich.” The first entry is a seven-minute mix. The second shows him, in a Jazz uniform, making some incredible shots while competing in a televised HORSE competition.