30 NBA players who also had kids play in the league
NBA players who also had kids play in the league: Press Maravich/Pete Maravich
Petar “Press” Maravich played two seasons in the Basketball Association of America (now known as the NBA) as well as the National Basketball League (which was absorbed by the NBA in 1949). After his brief professional career, Press went back to his alma mater of Davis & Elkins to become a coach and spent the next 28 years coaching high school and college basketball. Most notably, he coached his son Pete while he played for LSU in the 1960s.
Despite only playing on the varsity team for three years and without a three-point line, Maravich is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored. In those three years, he averaged 44.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game.
He’s arguably the greatest player to never win a championship and is infamous for his innate scoring, playmaking abilities, limitless range, and unorthodox shooting form. The NBA finally instituted the 3-point line just before his final season in the league, and he made 10 of his 15 attempts despite no longer being the proficient scorer he was known to be. If he played in today’s pace-and-space NBA, he could easily be a top-five player and lead the league in scoring.
In conjunction with a myriad of injuries, chronic knee issues limited his NBA career to ten years. Still, Maravich played in 658 career games, averaging 24.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game.
He’s a five-time NBA All-Star, four-time All-NBA selection, and the 1976-77 scoring champion. His number 44 jersey has been retired by the Atlanta Hawks, and his number 7 jersey has been retired by both the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans as well. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.