There were still plenty of elite shooters though? stockton and mark price and terry porter and abdul-rauf, plenty more lesser guys too.

i’m mostly just poking fun at this idea that people didn’t know how to shoot a basketball (and had no skills) 30 years ago

this is impossible, how could a borderline allstar from the 90s be skilled?? Have I been lied to?

Pistol by Mark Kriegel is a really great deep dive into the history of the sport and its early leagues (as well as a lot of great ABA/NBA era details)

Pete’s story on its own is wild and as dramatic as any tragedy, and then his Dad was heavily involved with the early leagues and helped push the style of game Pete played and ended up being the way the game is mostly played today. Great book in general that just happens to be all about basketball and one of the most skilled players ever

Pistol by Mark Kriegel is excellent. Press Maravich (Pete’s dad) was part of some of the very early precursors to the nba, one of the earlier pros that moved into coaching and had very modern ideas about the game. Pete’s story is shakespearean all on its own. Cool look into basketball part of its rustbelt culture. It touches on a lot of ABA/NBA competition too