“Pistol Pete” Maravich

In a recent post about the top 10 college basketball players of all time I received over 1,600 views, comments, and likes. (The post was dated 5/28.) I normally don’t do a follow-up post but there were a few comments that I would like to address. I totally understand not agreeing with me, that makes it more interesting and more fun. I listed my criteria which some of you must not have read. I do not claim to be an expert, but I ALWAYS try to give more than an opinion on what I write. I had the greatest response about the players I LEFT OFF my top 10. I mentioned in the post that it is difficult to pick a top 100, not to mention the top 10. I must have done something right because over 80% of you agreed with my picks. No matter who is chosen or how many are chosen there is always going to be someone left off. So, for some of my harshest critics here are the players that I had the toughest time NOT choosing.

In no order, I did not pick; Jerry West, Bill Bradley, Wayman Tisdale, Shaquille O’Neal, Tom Gola, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Kurland, Michael Jordan, Cazzie Russell, Grant Hill, Hakeem Olajuwon, Rick Barry, Danny Manning, Len Bias, David Robinson, Austin Carr, Tim Duncan, Elgin Baylor, Patrick Ewing, Elvin Hayes, Magic Johnson, and Tyler Hansbrough. A good argument can be made for any of these players. I thought the players I picked fit my criteria better than these players.
The three players, from my list, that were criticized the most were Christian Laettner, Ralph Sampson, and George Mikan. Here is my defense for Laettner. He played against great competition in the ACC, his teams were 123-26 and won two NCAA Championships. Grant Hill said that he was a “super star” at Duke, and he could not even imagine how much NIL money he could get if he was playing today. He was 2xACC POY, 2xAll-American, and 1xNational Player of the Year. For those of you who thought Laettner did not belong in the same sentence as Russell, I would say, Russell did not play in a conference anywhere near as good as the ACC and he played in an era where centers were 6’6”. (Laettner is not a better player than Russell, and I did not say he was.) Sampson’s Virginia team did not win a national championship but finished in the top two or three in the best basketball conference in the country when he played. He was still voted the best player in the ACC three straight years. (Only other player to do that was David Thompson.) His teams were 112-23. He was a THREE time All-American and THREE-time national POY. (I will admit that I may have ranked him too high at #3.) Mikan completely dominated his era in offense AND defense. Only Chamberlain was responsible for more rule changes.
The biggest argument that I would have for not putting some of the players I mentioned above in my top 10 is two-fold: 1) short college career, 2) competition. Several of you thought that Oscar should have been in the top 5. His teams at Cincinnati did NOT win a NCAA championship.
Finally, the player that I took the most “heat” for not having in my top 10 was Pistol Pete. I understand and would not argue with anyone who had him on their list. It is true that it was a post about players NOT teams. It would have been interesting if he had not played for his dad whose main objective was to make his son into a phenom.
Thanks to each of you for your comments, even to those who thought I must be from another planet to pick anyone over Wilt. (He played at Kansas for only two years and did not win a championship.) A few of you STRONGLY questioned how I could not have Russell in the top three. His SF Don’s team did win back-to-back NCAA Championships, but he had KC Jones on his team, a HOF player. SF played in the same league with Pacific, San Jose State, Loyola Marymount, St. Mary’s, etc. Not exactly “powerhouse” teams. thebasketballgoat.com