We received some great reaction to our recent Card of the Day piece on Julius Erving and his 63 point game on Valentine’s Night in 1975. I’m biased but as a young man, there was simply nothing like watching Dr. J in the ABA. That does not mean we can not and will not appreciate the greatness of others, but I will stick to my belief about Erving’s revolutionary greatness.
One reader mentioned another player whose career high was 68 points and thought he should be featured and I do agree. He set college scoring records by averaging more than 40 points each of his three college seasons plus his wizardly ball-handling always gave fans thrills. While he played most of his career out of the major media spotlights, he was a good enough player to lead the NBA in scoring average during the 1976-77 season. During that season, he had a career high of 68 points in a game on February 25, 1977 also in a game available to viewers on WOR Channel 9 in New York. I do remember watching that game and being amazed how dominant he was as a scorer within the flow of the game. And unlike that Dr. J game, there is footage on You Tube with every basket he scored that night.
However, sadly only about 11 years later, he would perish just after playing a pick-up basketball game. The great columnist Red Smith once mentioned one should always die at their pinnacle moment, And for a retired Hall of Famer, passing on after just completing a game is as good as it gets. While we lost him way too early, we can appreciate the greatness and ball-handling skills of Pete Maravich for as long as there are basketball highlights.
We have, in cooperation with eBay, selected the Pistol’s ’76-77 Topps card as today’s Card of the Day. It’s from later in his career and he’s shown playing defense, which is a little unusual. Click here to see this one.
More great Maravich cards can be found here.
I do remember watching that game in which Maravich went for his career high and that game also showed, sadly, that Walt Clyde Frazier’s best days as a defensive whiz were long past. Frazier would be traded shortly thereafter to the Cleveland Cavaliers to finish out his playing days.
We’d like to thank Lamore Vaughn for his suggestion for our column. Please let us know your thoughts for EBay card of the Day with your name and home town.
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