What happened to Pete Maravich? The story of 1988 sudden death during pickup basketball game

What happened to Pete Maravich? The story of 1988 sudden death during pickup basketball game

Pete Maravich’s name is bubbling up lately with Iowa star Caitlin Clark knocking on the door of his NCAA Division I basketball career scoring record.

While Clark’s accomplishments are astounding, the details behind Maravich’s scoring crown stand the test of time.

When Maravich was at LSU back in the late 1960s, freshmen were not allowed to play varsity. There was no shot clock and no 3-point line. That means he tallied all 3,667 points over three seasons without hitting a single 3.

“Pistol Pete” averaged 43.8 points per game as a sophomore, 44.2 points as a junior and 44.5 points as a senior.

For 54 years, his record remained untouched. But Clark is on pace to make history in Iowa’s regular-season finale Sunday against Ohio State, as she enters the contest 18 points shy of Maravich’s title.

In such a passing-of-the-torch moment, you often see the current record-holder on hand to honor greatness. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was there when LeBron James took the NBA’s all-time scoring record. Ray Allen was in the building when Stephen Curry became the all-time 3-point leader.

Maravich, though, will not be there when Clark breaks his record. The LSU great passed away in 1988 at the age of 40 due to heart failure. Here’s the story of how it happened.

MORE: Caitlin Clark vs. Pete Maravich: Key stats to know

The story of Pete Maravich’s sudden death during a pickup basketball game

The legendary scorer died doing what he loved — playing basketball.

Maravich was playing in a pickup game at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 5, 1988, when he died of heart failure. A newly born-again Christian, Maravich was invited to play by evangelical Christian author James Dobson.

“I loved to play and inviting Pete was one of the most audacious things I’d ever done,” Dobson told NBA.com’s Shaun Powell, who wrote a tremendous feature on the story behind Maravich’s death. “He was showtime before anyone knew what showtime was.”

Maravich participated in two half-court pickup games before he unexpectedly hit the ground. He was taken to a hospital by an ambulance but was pronounced dead within minutes of his arrival.

Maravich was posthumously diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.

“He was born without a left coronary artery, which supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart, and the right artery, which had compensated for the imbalance, was overwhelmed,” Powell wrote. “It was a medical miracle he lived 40 years.”

There is actually footage from Maravich’s final pickup game. One of the regular players brought a camcorder, and the players took turns taping the game. You can watch a newscast featuring Maravich’s final shot below.

At the time of his death, Maravich was eight years removed from his NBA retirement. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987, just one year before his passing.