On this day in NBA history, October 17th of 1970, Pistol Pete Maravich made his NBA debut with the Atlanta Hawks against the Milwaukee Bucks and their superstar duo of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. Although Maravich, who averaged a ridiculous 44.5 points per game during his final year at LSU, only scored a total of seven points (nine players in the game had more) in his debut, it was obvious within minutes, he was going to become a fan favorite with his flamboyant passing and dribbling. The problem was his flamboyant style on the Hawks was like sticking Jason "White Chocolate" Williams on a Popovich Spurs squad. And considering the Hawks had to trade up in the draft and outbid the ABA's Carolina Panthers with the biggest contract ever ($1.9M) for a first-year player, some of his teammates weren't exactly welcoming him with open arms.

Team chemistry got better as team scoring leader Lou Hudson averaged a career-high 26.8, thanks to a lot of assist by Maravich. Pete picked up his scoring too, finishing with an average of 23.2 per game (8th in the league) and an All-Rookie first-team spot.

Maravich had a slight sophomore slump but picked up the production in his final two seasons with the Hawks as he and Hudson both became top five scorers in the league.

In 1974, he was traded to the Jazz and that's when Pete Maravich became "The Pistol" most NBA fans remember.

NBA DEBUT HALFTIME INTERVIEW

TOP 20 PLAYS

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On Friday, future LSU great Ben Simmons got to meet LSU legend, Shaquille O'Neal. Simmons shared the moment on his Instagram page with the caption "cannn you diggg it!!!!!" referring to Shaq quoting the film 'The Warriors' during one of the Lakers Championship parades.

During a Nola.com interview, earlier in the day, Shaq - who has a 900-pound statue of himself at LSU and was inducted into the Lousiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2013 - was asked about his thoughts on Simmons.

''I haven't seen him play. But daddy Dale (former LSU coach Dale Brown) says he's the best thing since Chris Jackson. I said come on coach, Chris was the baddest ever at LSU. I'm going to check him out today (Friday).''

For those who don't know about Chris Jackson (later changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul Rauf during his NBA career), I consider him the best NCAA freshman ever and the original unstoppable partner of Shaq - long before Penny and Kobe.

Jackson played two years at LSU but it only took 2 weeks for him to let the world know about his scoring ability as he scored 48 and 53 points in the first month of his college career.  His season high of 55 (with nine 3 pointers) came soon after against Ole Miss and he would go on to average 30 points as a freshman and set the NCAA freshman scoring record with 966 points. His averages would take a slight dip his sophomore season, dropping to 28 points per game, but his overall game continued to improve. He scored 40+ points 11 times, 50+ points 4 times and topped his 3 point barrage against Ole Miss by hitting 10 3 pointers against Tennessee.

As for Shaq, during his freshman year, he was mainly just a defensive player because of Jackson and "better center" Stanley Roberts. So Shaq played D and played it pretty well as he became the first SEC player to block more than 100 shots in a season and recorded two triple-doubles with blocks - how about a 17-year-old Shaq putting up 20 points, 24 rebounds and 12 blocks against Loyola Marymount?

Often fouled and double and triple teamed over his next season, Shaq would leave after playing 3 years at LSU and finished as the school’s 4th all-time leading scorer and 2nd in rebounds.

Shaq also became the 3rd LSU player to have at least 2 700+ point seasons at LSU. Pete Maravich and Chris Jackson were the other 2.  Let's see if Ben Simmons can become the 4th.

THE LSU GREATS

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On this day in NBA history, February 25th of 1977, the late, great Pistol Pete Maravich scored 68 points (one less point than his college career high) in a 124-107 victory over the New York Knicks. 68 without a 3-point line. 68 without being a 7-footer. 68 against a team loaded with Hall of Famers: Earl Monroe, Bob McAdoo, Bill Bradley, Phil Jackson and Walt Frazier. Granted most of those guys were near the end of their careers but Pete actually outscored all of them combined by 20 points.

"I could have scored more." Said Maravich, who fouled out with a minute left in the game. "I missed a lot of easy shots early in the game."

His final stat line in 43 minutes was 68 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists. 26-of-43 from the field and 16-of-19 from the line. He scored 17 in the 1st quarter, 14 in the 2nd, 17 in the 3rd and 20 in the 4th.

As an encore, Maravich scored 40 points in his next game, which gave him a three-game total of 146 points. That's a lot of shooting even for a guy named Pistol.

BEST HIGHLIGHTS

Before we get to the highlights, I always like to remind people that the NBA added the 3-point line during Pete's final season. He made 10-of-15 threes during those 43 games. Can you imagine how many points a young and healthy Pistol would have averaged with a 3-point line?

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It looks like Jordan Walton of the MoKan Elite AAU team has been watching some Pistol Pete and Jason Williams highlight videos.

Now, i'm not calling the incoming high school freshman at Glendale High in Springfield the next White Chocolate - who was named USA Today's West Virginia Player of the Year before he became a NBA star - but I will say he's worth keeping an eye on right now for his ability to make some sick highlight passes and anklebreakers.

BONUS VIDS: Williams and Maravich in high school 

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Growing up as a Laker Fan, Nick Van Exel was my favorite player. However, Jason “White Chocolate” Williams was a close second. The way he played the game was not like anyone I had ever seen. J-Will strove during a time when streetball was becoming popular. His style of play brought streetball to the mainstream. Yeah, I know Rafer “Skip to my Lou” Alston was a streetball legend, but he wasn’t doing it in the League like J-Will did during that time. Skip was still fighting for his spot on NBA teams when J-Will was getting crowds hyped with his highlights. He threw all kinds of passes from no-look lobs to one-handed behind the head bullets. In the Rookie/Sophomore game, he threw a behind-the-back, off-the-elbow pass. He did things that I can’t even explain in words. He was always criticized for being too flashy leading to too many turnovers, which is one of the reasons why Sacramento traded him to the Grizz for Bibby. But during his prime, J-Will was one of the most exciting players to watch because no one ever knew what he was going to do next.

Some of you probably don’t even know who Pete Maravich is, but he’s known as one of the best college players ever. At LSU, he averaged 44 points a game without a 3-point line. But we’re not arguing who’s better. “Pistol” Pete had a knack for doing the unsuspected. His style was unmatched during that time. He was throwing passes no one had ever done and came up with ones that NBA players to this day still can’t do. He opened up the game to a whole another style of play. Pete Maravich was one of those players I wish I could go back in time and watch him play live. I can only go off highlights and articles I read, but from what I’ve seen and read, Pete Maravich did things no one ever thought of before.

There’s no question that Pete Maravich was the better overall player, but who was the better showsman? “Pistol” Pete opened up the game to those who came after him, and J-Will took advantage and created his own flamboyant style. So who’s the flashier player: J-Will or Pistol Pete?

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