Pete Maravich was born with a rare heart defect

Pete Maravich, who died January 4, 1988 playing in a church pickup basketball game, had no left coronary artery. His heart condition was such a rare congenital defect that cardiologists don’t even have statistics on how frequently it occurs.

Dr. Barry Maron, a cardiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md. says that Maravich’s condition was so rare that it only affects less than one-tenth of the population.

Although Pete Maravich only had his right artery, it was enlarged and fed blood to both sides of his heart which enabled him to live the strenuous life of an athlete. “Pistol” Pete Maravich played basketball at Louisiana State University and also spent 10 years in the National Basketball Association. Dr. Maron is astounded that Maravich was able to lead that type of lifestyle with little or no symptoms.

Towards the end of his life, Maravich had a terminal arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) and Dr. Maron stated that his death could have occurred at rest, but more likely during exercise.

Dr. Ira Gessner believes that even after many routine physical exams, Maravich’s condition would have passed unnoticed. Pete was given many extensive physicals during his 10-year career with the NBA because of a sizeable insurance police that the Utah Jazz carried on him.

Also, it was unlikely that any physical exams given to Maravich as LSU would have revealed the abnormality due to the fact that only athletes with a family history of heart disease are given stress tests. Otherwise, the college physicals are purely routine.

Dr. Barry Maron believes that perhaps an EKG would have been abnormal and Maravich’s enlarged heart might have been evident in a chest X-ray, but Dr. George Sopko, another cardiologist at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute disagrees. Dr. Sopko believes that an EKG wouldn’t show coronary abnormalities and an X-ray would not reveal changes in “hard” vessels like the heart.