1970 Topps Basketball Pete Maravich ROOKIE #123 SGC 9 MINT

Pete Maravich ranks alongside Kareem, Oscar, Walton, and Russell as one of the best college basketball players in NCAA history. It is easy to make the case by comparing his stats to other all-time stars. Maravich averaged 44.3 points per game at LSU. Wilt Chamberlain averaged 29.9 at Kansas. Michael Jordan averaged 17.7 at North Carolina. Magic Johnson averaged 17.1 at Michigan State. Maravich’s total points are even more impressive. He scored 3,667 points in only three years–and he played before the introduction of three-pointers. He played his freshman year without a shot clock. He scored 60 points or more four times–in college games. Maravich scored these points in only 83 games. Most of the players trailing him on the all-time scoring list played 40-60 more games. Larry Bird, a scoring machine at Indiana State, scored 2,850 in 94 games. Oscar Robertson shot the lights out in college and scored 2,973 in 88 games. Maravich was not a once-in-a-generation scorer; he was a once-in-NCAA history scorer. And he continued sinking buckets in the NBA. In the 1976-77 NBA season, he averaged 31.1 points per game for the New Orleans Jazz. For perspective. Michael Jordan is the all-time NBA average points per game leader at 30.1. So, for an NBA season, Maravich posted a higher average points per game than the all-time career average held by Jordan. How did Maravich get so much better than his opponents? His father played professional basketball and trained him since childhood. He taught him how to handle the ball, pass efficiently, and deceive players. The repetition of these lessons helped Maravich develop extraordinary passing and shooting skills and elevated his basketball IQ. Maravich got his iconic nickname from his tendency to pull the ball out of his side like he was drawing a pistol. Unfortunately, Maravich did not play on good teams for most of his career, so an NBA title eluded him. He also played in small media markets. But these facts cannot diminish his bright star–nor does it change the nostalgia fans and collectors feel for him. Maravich died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart defect in 1988 at age 40 while playing a pickup basketball game. His records continue to elevate his legend. His cards have started following suit—none more so than his iconic 1970-71 Topps rookie card. Of the more than 1,750 times that SGC has assessed the Maravich rookie, just 30 have received Mint 9 grades with only eight higher. PSA has assessed the card more than 4,800 times with less than 2% getting a Mint grade or higher. The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 12/05/2025.