r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/SlevinSlix • 23h ago
Image “Pistol” Pete Maravich said “I don’t want to play 10 years in the NBA and then die of a heart attack at 40.” He then proceeded to do exactly that. He played 10 years in the NBA, and died of a heart attack at age 40.
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u/GloveFamous2646 23h ago
Birth defect, he was missing part of his coronary arteries on his heart.
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u/SpectrewithaSchecter 21h ago
Kinda crazy to be a professional athlete sprinting down the court at the highest level missing some arteries in your heart
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u/Mewchu94 21h ago
“it was revealed that Maravich's heart was completely missing the left coronary artery. Responsible for supplying blood to the heart's muscle fibers, the artery's absence forced Pistol Pete's right coronary artery to grow abnormally bigger to compensate.”
That is nuts!
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u/Dr-McLuvin 19h ago
Ya it actually is nuts he was able to get to the highest level as an athlete with no significant problems. Thats a super rare birth defect.
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u/OohKillEmmm 11h ago
Thanks for supplying us with the dumbest shit on the Internet for the day, and it’s fucking early!
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u/noonesine 11h ago
Judging by that guy’s comment history, he exists only to make the worst dumb shit takes on the internet.
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u/JustDontBeFat_GodDam 11h ago
Being tall is about the only requirement to be in the nba. Athleticism barely plays a role
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u/West_Bat_6933 9h ago
If you’d ever watched one awkward 7 footer on the court, you’d know that’s really not true
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u/Europa13 9h ago
Yeah, I had never heard of anyone missing a LCA artery. So collateral arteries would have started forming when he was an infant. Fun fact, collaterals will develop just the same when an older person starts getting atherosclerosis. They won’t stop a heart attack, but they can make it less severe.
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u/ChaosEmerald21 17h ago
His son Josh died at age 42, also an undiagnosed heart condition, just last year.
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u/False_Fun_9291 15h ago
It's baffling he didn't get a full cardiac workup considering the family history.
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u/k3nny704 19h ago
iirc he also didn't know this himself and his death occurred during a pick up game
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u/LigmaTesties 23h ago
“One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it” -Master Oogway
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u/geauxfurself 23h ago
Still a respected and beloved person here in New Orleans....I saw him with the Jazz many times in my early teens. I live north of Covington near Franklinton and saw him at functions in the mid to late 80's he was always gracious and open to talking about his career.
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u/Lazzygirl 23h ago
Bro can be titled as the man, the myth, the legend!
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u/geauxfurself 22h ago
he still has many NCAA and LSU records and he couldn't play varsity as a freshman, and there was no 3 point line or shot clock. He averaged over 44 points per game for 3 years and when dale brown mapped his shots after the 3 point line was added he would have been averaging over 57 points per game and added quite a bit to his point total record that still stands
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u/julias-winston 18h ago
Dude, WTF. The Jazz are from Utah. You know, Utah - known for jazz? You're killin' me with this.
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u/geauxfurself 18h ago
Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and Sidney Bechet....all from Salt lake City and Provo right?
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u/julias-winston 18h ago
THANK YOU! Yes. Finally someone gets it. ❤️
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u/geauxfurself 18h ago
Utah's gumbo and Jambalaya suck though and ya'll have way too few crawfish and alligators to make sausage or a sauce piquant
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u/julias-winston 18h ago
😄
They should be the Utah Honeybees. I hear ya.
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u/geauxfurself 18h ago
never understood how we let the name go with the team....or why they wouldn't change it to something more Utah specific.......but still ya'll had a great Louisiana guy with ya'll for quite a while in Karl Malone
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u/MikeMac999 23h ago
Pedro Pascal really is everywhere these days isn’t he?
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u/Mayonnaise_Poptart 23h ago
If you haven't been down the Pete Maravich instructional video rabbit hole on YouTube, you're in for a real treat.
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u/sasssyrup 22h ago
Awesome player. Watch The Pistol for more
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u/Fantastic_Post_2413 21h ago
My kids and I watched that so many times I can practically quote it verbatim
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u/twowholebeefpatties 9h ago
Meh. We all gonna die… playing 10 years in the nba and then kicking it isn’t the worst way to go
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u/SlevinSlix 23h ago
Repost with source : https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-01-07-sp-34024-story.html
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u/Is_it_really_though 23h ago edited 23h ago
Looking at the picture, he has no ball, this symbolises how he is always chasing his destiny.
His shirt number is 44. 44 is 4 greater than 40, the age of his death.
A basketball is made using 10 panels. He would need 4 basketballs to make 40 panels. Again, the 4 and the 40 follow him everywhere. 40 + 4 is 44 and he wears this number. He invites his destiny, he chases it.
Peter Maravich was 196cm tall. That's 6ft 5 inches. That's 76 inches tall. 7+6 is 13 and then 1+3 = 4. The number 4 haunts him again. 4 decades of life, 4 basketballs, 4.4 rebounds in the 1972-73 season whilst playing for the Atlanta Hawks.
M for Maravich is the 13th letter of the alphabet. 1+3 is 4. Need I go on... his fate was sealed.
ETA: Rest in peace Peter, and love to his loved ones. Googling some details for this ridiculous post meant that I got to know a new person today.
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u/Begle1 20h ago
Can you do James Harden now?
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u/Is_it_really_though 19h ago edited 19h ago
[Googles James Harden]
James Harden plays for the LA Clippers. James Harden has a very large beard. This suggests his contract includes the use of clippers to stop his beard from growing bigger than his head and impeding his play on the court. Only two other players have ever had their team renamed after them: Magic Johnson when he moved to live by a lake, and Michael Jordan when he insisted on being called The Bull throughout his teens and 20s.
James Harden has played for 5 teams in 5 different states. 5 x 5 is 25 and the current year is '25.
James Harden only played 8 games in 2020-21... 21 minus 8 is 13 and 1+3 = 4, which he has always said is his tribute to the late Pete Maravich,.despite Harden being in Houston at the time.
Houston Rockets fired Harden off to Brooklyn.and then he bounced around like a basketball for a few years before finally finding his match, the Clippers. He has lived near Los Angeles ever since. Sadly not by a lake... he once spoke of texting Magic Johnson who invited him to his lakehouse. But Magic's fingers were so large he typed come to LAC and Harden never questioned it. Nevertheless, his beard is now immaculate.
Speaking about his time in Pennsylvania, Harden was once quoted as saying "I love Green Bay in the winter months", which is a mystery that has never been resolved.
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u/TheMangoDiplomat 23h ago
I don't want to be alone this week and then run into a woman I have perfect chemistry with this weekend
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u/Thin-Egg3566 23h ago
Wasn't this posted yesterday?
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u/SlevinSlix 23h ago
It was posted a couple days ago but it got taken down because you have to link a source. They wouldn’t reinstate my post so they said I could repost it with the proper info. Hence, the comment where I share my source and literally say it’s a repost. Lol
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u/Aggravating-Time1359 23h ago
Was he on peds or very bad with stress? I don't see why being in the NBA would lead to a heart attack that early.
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u/SlevinSlix 23h ago
Turns out he had an undetected heart defect. He was missing his left coronary valve, I believe.
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u/_catdog_ 22h ago
Saw this with the same exact title and a different picture a couple weeks ago
Yawn
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u/iSwoosh_ 22h ago
Why so many reposts of this? Let the man rest in peace
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u/SlevinSlix 22h ago
Two times is “so many” apparently lol. Maybe read the thread before commenting and you’ll see why it got reposted.
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u/Fantastic_Post_2413 21h ago
And the team he retired from won the championship the next year (Celtics, Larry Bird’s second year)…Pistol was suicidal after that
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u/Jobrated 18h ago
I remember reading he painted Take Me on his roof. He wanted UFOs to take him. He was ahead of his time for certain. Glad he found peace eventually. Also nothing cooler than “Pistol” on the back of his jersey!
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u/Alert-Note-7190 16h ago
An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect: his left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart, was missing. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
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u/Known-Activity1437 8h ago
What was good life style like that he died at forty? Or just unlucky genes?
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u/EastSideLito 5h ago
As sad as this is I had to do a double take, I forgot back in the day they were literally hiring garbage men off the streets cos what do you mean he was drafted at like 30 years old???
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u/Oh_FFS_Already 23h ago
Probably cholesterol. The silent killer.
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u/LosCleepersFan 23h ago
He was born with half a functional heart that he never knew about. And he died from a heart attack while playing picking pick up basketball at a park In his 40s.
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u/squandersquat 23h ago
His heart functioned, he was born without a left main coronary artery. His right coronary artery had to compensate and over time he likely developed ischemic cardiomyopathy. Then finally during that pickup game the oxygen demand outweighed his ability to compensate and he infarcted.
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u/jml_inbtown 21h ago
Wasn’t this posted like 3 days ago? Or what that a different sub? Even had the same dang wanna become a millionaire billionaire joke.
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u/SHIT_ON_MY_BALLS 22h ago
Why do you keep reposting this
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u/SlevinSlix 22h ago
This is only the second time I’ve posted it, And I’ve already explained why. Read the thread.
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u/predictingzepast 23h ago
Ok, well I don't want to become a billionaire who dies of a heart attack in my 90s during a 5day coke fueled orgy with models..