Bob Pettit: One of the Greatest Basketball Players of All-Time
Bob Pettit--the NBA's first regular season MVP (1956) and the first pro basketball player to score 20,000 career points--has passed away at the age of 93. Pettit, George Mikan, Bob Cousy, and Bill Russell are the only players selected to all four of the NBA's all-time Anniversary Teams (25th in 1971, 35th in 1981, 50th in 1996, and 75th in 2021). Pettit, Paul Arizin, Jerry West, Julius Erving, and Yao Ming are the only players who earned an All-Star selection in every year of their professional careers. Erving tops that list with 16 All-Star selections, followed by West (14) and Pettit (11).
After an outstanding collegiate career at LSU during which he led the SEC in scoring in all three of his varsity seasons (25.5 ppg as a sophomore, 24.9 ppg as a junior, 31.4 ppg as a senior), Pettit earned the 1955 NBA Rookie of the Year award by averaging 20.4 ppg, 13.8 rpg, and 3.2 apg. At that time (and until the 1969-70 season), NBA leaders were determined by totals, not averages; as a rookie, Pettit ranked fourth in scoring (1466 points) and third in rebounds (994), setting a high standard that he maintained throughout his career.
Pettit's first 10 NBA seasons stack up well with the first 10 seasons of any other player in pro basketball history: during that decade, he made the All-NBA First Team 10 straight times, won two regular season MVPs (1956, 1959) while finishing no lower than sixth in MVP voting nine times (the award did not exist during his rookie season), won two scoring titles (1956, 1959), won one rebounding title (1956), and led the St. Louis Hawks to one NBA championship (1958) in four NBA Finals appearances (1957-58, 1960-61).
In Pettit's first 10 NBA seasons, he ranked no lower than fourth in scoring and no lower than fifth in rebounding--and in his 11th, final season he averaged 22.5 ppg and 12.4 rpg but did not make the leaderboard because he played in 50 out of 80 games after missing just 12 games in his first 10 seasons (the NBA season lasted 72 games in Pettit's first five seasons, 75 games in 1959-60, 79 games in 1960-61, and 80 games in his final four seasons). Pettit averaged 26.4 ppg (10th in pro basketball history) and 16.2 rpg (third in pro basketball history) in 792 career regular season games while averaging at least 20.4 ppg and at least 12.4 rpg in each of his 11 seasons. He averaged 25.5 ppg (22nd in pro basketball history) and 14.8 rpg (fourth in pro basketball history) in 88 career playoff games.
Pettit is one of just eight players who held first place on the NBA's career scoring list: the others are Joe Fulks, George Mikan, Ed Macauley, Dolph Schayes, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and LeBron James. Pettit is one of six players who won at least one NBA scoring title and at least one NBA rebounding title: the other five are Neil Johnston, Wilt Chamberlain, Elvin Hayes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and David Robinson.
Pettit won a record four NBA All-Star Game MVPs (1956, 1958, 1959, 1962) at a time when NBA players took the All-Star Game seriously. Kobe Bryant (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011) is the only other player who won four NBA All-Star Game MVPs.
Pettit had a full offensive skill set that enabled him to shoot, drive, score inside, and draw fouls. He ranks second in pro basketball history with 10.25 free throw attempts per game during his regular season career, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain (11.35)--but Chamberlain was often fouled intentionally because of his low free throw percentage, while Pettit was a solid free throw shooter (.761 career FT%, including a career-high .820 in his final season to rank seventh in the league that year).
Bill Russell's Boston Celtics dominated the NBA by winning 11 championships during Russell's 13 seasons, but one of Russell's two playoff series losses came at the hands of Pettit's Hawks. Pettit scored 50 points in game six of the 1958 NBA Finals as the Hawks edged the Celtics, 110-109. Pettit shot 19-34 (.559) from the field while collecting a game-high 19 rebounds. Pettit held the NBA Finals single game scoring record until Elgin Baylor scored 62 points (which is still the record) in game five of the 1962 NBA Finals, and Pettit is still tied for sixth (with Giannis Antetokounmpo) on the NBA Finals single game scoring list. Pettit's Hawks twice pushed Russell's Celtics to seven games in the NBA Finals (1957, 1960). Pettit averaged 28.4 ppg in his four NBA Finals appearances, which is the seventh highest NBA Finals career scoring average. Note that the NBA Finals MVP award did not exist during Pettit's career.
Pettit's career totals are impacted by the reality that during his era the financial incentives to extend one's NBA playing career did not exist; players from that era also did not have the benefit of the advanced medical technologies and training techniques that exist today, and they had a brutal playing schedule in terms of back to back games and travel conditions. However, Pettit's decade of dominance and his elite per game averages place him among the greatest pro basketball players of all-time. In 2011, the Sporting News put Pettit on its all-time NBA First Team alongside Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Bill Russell, and in my article about the Sporting News' choices I mentioned that I rank Pettit just outside of my 14 player Pantheon. I consider Pettit to be the second greatest power forward behind only Tim Duncan.
Labels: Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Bob Pettit, Boston Celtics, Elgin Baylor, George Mikan, Jerry West, Paul Arizin, St. Louis Hawks, Tim Duncan, Wilt Chamberlain, Yao Ming
posted by David Friedman @ 12:18 AM
