1970-71 Topps Pete Maravich #123 RC

The tall boys

Topps returned to basketball cards with its 1969-70 set, its first since the 1957-58 season, and it chose an odd shape: cards 2 1/2 inches wide and 4 11/16 inches tall, a format Topps had used for 1964 hockey and 1965 football. Collectors call them the tall boys. The 1970-71 set kept the size, grew to 175 cards and was released in two series, cards #1-110 and #111-175, sold in 10-card packs that came with gum and an 8-by-10-inch color poster.

The 1970-71 set was the first Topps basketball issue with league leader cards (#1-6), All-Star cards (#106-115) and postseason cards (#168-175), so some stars appear several times. Team logos are missing, likely because of licensing, and some players appear to have been asked to wear their jerseys backward. The final card in the set, 'Knicks Win It,' commemorates New York's first championship.

Twenty-two short prints make the set hard to finish, but the card everyone wants is #123, Pete Maravich of the Atlanta Hawks. It is his only recognized rookie card. As one longtime set builder from Baton Rouge put it, 'The set literally begins and ends with Pistol Pete Maravich.'

Pistol Pete

Peter Press Maravich was born June 22, 1947, in Aliquippa, a steel town near Pittsburgh. His father, Press Maravich, the son of Serbian immigrants, was a pro player turned coach who began drilling Pete in fundamentals at age 7. The boy practiced ball-control tricks, passes and head fakes for hours; as a junior high student he once won a five-dollar bet by spinning a ball on his finger for an entire hour, switching fingers when the first one began to bleed.

He earned his nickname at Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, for his habit of shooting from his side as if drawing a revolver. At LSU, where his father was the coach, he was not allowed to play varsity as a freshman, and there was no three-point line or shot clock. He still scored 3,667 points in three varsity seasons, 44.2 points per game over 83 games, and led the nation in scoring all three years. It remains the NCAA Division I men's career scoring record.

The Atlanta Hawks took him third overall in the 1970 draft and gave him a contract reported at $1.9 million, a figure that bothered some veterans. He debuted October 17, 1970, and averaged 23.2 points as a rookie, earning All-Rookie honors. Traded to the expansion New Orleans Jazz in 1974, he led the NBA with 31.1 points per game in 1976-77, and on February 25, 1977, he scored 68 points against the Knicks, at the time the most ever by a guard. Knee injuries ended his career after a final half-season with Boston in 1980.

Maravich entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. On January 5, 1988, he collapsed and died at 40 during a pickup game in Pasadena, California; an autopsy found a rare congenital heart defect, a missing left coronary artery. He was named to the NBA's 50th anniversary team in 1996 and its 75th anniversary team in 2021.

The 1970-71 season

Maravich arrived in a league just crowned by the Knicks, who won their first NBA title on May 8, 1970, beating the Lakers 113-99 in Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. His rookie season belonged to Milwaukee: the Bucks won the 1971 championship, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was MVP. Dave Cowens and Geoff Petrie shared Rookie of the Year, with Maravich third in the voting.

In Atlanta he was not a natural fit next to scorer Lou Hudson and center Walt Bellamy, but the two guards coexisted: Hudson set a career high at 26.8 points a game. The Hawks went 36-46, still made the playoffs and lost to the Knicks in five games, with Maravich averaging 22 points in the series.

From $18,000 to $730,000

In August 2007 a PSA 10 copy sold at auction for $18,000; at the time PSA had graded 875 Maravich rookies, with one 10 and 49 nines. A PSA 9 brought $3,660 at auction in June 2015.

On July 6, 2023, a PSA 10, one of only two, sold at auction for $552,000, the most ever paid for a Maravich card at that point and, according to the report, the fifth-highest price for a pre-1980 basketball card. PSA had then graded 3,818 Maravich cards in all.

The second PSA 10 took a stranger path. It was seized by federal authorities in an investigation of the offshore betting company 5Dimes, and in April 2025 it was sold at a U.S. Treasury seized-asset auction for $330,000 to actor and collector Rob Gough, who had paid $5.2 million for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle PSA 9 in 2021. In October 2025 Gough sold it privately for $730,000, a record for any Maravich card.

The PSA 8 named in this entry trades in a far different range. Recent auction results for PSA 8 copies include $2,700 in May 2025, $2,176 in December 2025 and $2,310 in February 2026.

What to look for

The card is #123 in the 1970-71 Topps set and shows Maravich in an Atlanta Hawks uniform, with his name, team and position in the bottom right of the front. Genuine examples measure 2 1/2 by 4 11/16 inches. Like the Lew Alcindor rookie from the year before, it has a large photo and narrow borders, so many copies grade off-center, and the set is known for print flaws.

The population thins sharply at the top. The current population report shows 514 copies at PSA 8 with 139 graded higher, 87 at PSA 9 and just two at PSA 10. That scarcity explains the steep price gap between grades: a PSA 8 sells in the low thousands, while the two 10s have sold for six figures.

Because the cards came in packs with no protective holders, and because high-grade copies are so scarce, collectors check centering, corners and surface print defects closely before paying a premium for a high grade.

The numbers

1970-71 rookie season (Atlanta)

81 G, 36.1 MPG, 23.2 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 4.4 APG, .458 FG%, .800 FT%, 1,880 points. All-Rookie; third in Rookie of the Year voting.

1971 playoffs

5 G, 22.0 PPG; Hawks lost to the Knicks in the first round

LSU (1967-70)

83 G, 3,667 points, 44.2 PPG; led the NCAA in scoring all three seasons

1976-77 season (New Orleans)

73 G, 31.1 PPG, 2,273 points, 5.4 APG. NBA scoring champion; third in MVP voting.

Career best game

68 points vs. New York, February 25, 1977

NBA career (1970-80)

658 G, 15,948 points, 24.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 5.4 APG, .441 FG%, .820 FT%; 10 of 15 three-pointers

Honors

5x All-Star, 4x All-NBA, Hall of Fame 1987, NBA 50th and 75th anniversary teams

Timeline

1. Jun 22, 1947

   Pete Maravich is born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.

2. 1965

   Graduates from Broughton High School in Raleigh, where he became 'Pistol' Pete.

3. 1970

   Finishes at LSU with 3,667 points and a 44.2 average; LSU places fourth in the National Invitation Tournament.

4. 1970

   Drafted third overall by the Atlanta Hawks.

5. Oct 17, 1970

   Makes his NBA debut.

6. 1970

   Topps issues its 175-card 1970-71 basketball set in two series; Maravich is #123.

7. 1971

   Named to the NBA All-Rookie team after averaging 23.2 points.

8. 1974

   Traded to the expansion New Orleans Jazz for two players and four draft picks.

9. Feb 25, 1977

   Scores 68 points against the Knicks.

10. 1977

    Wins the NBA scoring title at 31.1 points per game.

11. 1980

    Retires after a final half-season with the Boston Celtics.

12. 1987

    Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

13. Jan 5, 1988

    Dies at 40 of an undetected heart defect.

14. Aug 2007

    A PSA 10 sells at auction for $18,000.

15. Jul 6, 2023

    A PSA 10 sells at auction for $552,000, a record for Maravich at the time.

16. Apr 2025

    The other PSA 10, seized in a federal betting investigation, sells at a Treasury auction for $330,000.

17. Oct 2025

    That PSA 10 resells privately for $730,000, a Maravich record.

The world in 1970

• Jan 11, 1970

  The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.

• Apr 13, 1970

  An oxygen tank explodes on Apollo 13; the crew returns safely four days later.

• Apr 22, 1970

  The first Earth Day is celebrated in the United States.

• May 4, 1970

  Ohio National Guardsmen kill four students at Kent State University.

• May 8, 1970

  The New York Knicks win their first NBA title, beating the Lakers in Game 7.

• Sep 21, 1970

  Monday Night Football debuts on ABC.

• Dec 2, 1970

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 8 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1970-71 Topps Pete Maravich #123 RC is number 90 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (40 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Maravich scored 3,667 college points without a three-point line, a shot clock or a varsity freshman season.
• The NBA adopted the three-point shot in his final season; he made 10 of 15, a career 66.7 percent.
• One of the two PSA 10 copies was seized in a federal investigation of an offshore betting company before it was auctioned by the U.S. Treasury.
• Each 1970-71 Topps pack came with an 8-by-10-inch color poster.
• The 1970-71 set was the first Topps basketball set with league leader, All-Star and postseason cards.
• As a boy he won a five-dollar bet by spinning a basketball on his finger for an hour.
• His 68 points against the Knicks in 1977 were the most ever scored by a guard at the time; his coach that night was Elgin Baylor, one of only two players who had scored more.