1980 Pete Maravich Game Worn Boston Celtics Jersey, MEARS A9. ...

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Sold on Jul 30, 2015 for:

$12,547.50 Bid Source: Live: Phone bidder

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The Pistol fires his final shots...

1980 Pete Maravich Game Worn Boston Celtics Jersey, MEARS A9. Almost as if it had been a parting gift to the game's greatest long distance shooter, the NBA instituted the three-point line for the 1979-80 season, which would prove to be Maravich's last. Despite creaky knees, diminished skills and limited minutes, "Pistol Pete" would take fifteen shots from beyond the arch, draining ten. Like Babe Ruth's three home runs in his final game as a struggling forty-year old slugger, it was a fitting farewell.

Presented is one of the last jerseys ever worn in organized competition by this Hall of Fame legend. After playing in seventeen early season games for the 1979-80 Utah Jazz, Maravich was waived by the team on January 17, 1980 and picked up five days later as a free agent by the Boston Celtics, joining a rookie Larry Bird at the Garden. Pete averaged 11.5 points in his twenty-six outings for the team, and still occasionally flashed his early brilliance, once scoring the final ten points in a come from behind win over the Washington Bullets. After playoff elimination in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Maravich faced the reality of his bad knee and announced the end of his ten-season professional career.

The offered road white knit gamer exhibits light to moderate wear (1-point deduction from MEARS) from these final games, and provides the classic Boston design with "Celtics 44" applied in white tackle twill to the chest, and "Maravich 44" on verso. The lower left exterior tail has a "Medalist Sand-Knit Size 44" and "Sand Knit Celtics Exclusivity" label. An absolutely extraordinary late-career gamer from the late, but not forgotten playmaker. LOA from Heritage Auctions, MEARS A9.

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