BOB PETTIT (The Book of Basketball)

I'm asking for a little leap of faith, like when you watched The Hang over and never questioned how the boys could have done so many dif ferent things in Vegas during one ten-hour blackout." (*)

Could Pettit tang with guys like Duncan and Bosh today? Probably not. 

Offensively, I think he'd be okay—a less athletic cross between Carlos Boozer and Paul Pierce. (Pettit had three go-to moves: a don't-leave-me-alone 18-foote a leaning jumper coming off screens and a reliable turnaround that Bob Ryan once called "monotonous." He couldn't dunk unless a donut and coffee were involved. Tom Heinsohn once described Pettit's cagey offensive game by calling him "the master of the half-inch." Mrs. Pettit had no comment.) 

Defensively, you wouldn't be able to hide him. But everyone from that era describes Pettit the same way: Relentless. Banger. Warrior. Hard-nosed. Remember Boston's more physical playoff games when Bird couldn't get his outside shot going, so he'd switch gears and start banging bodies down low (eventually pulling down 18 boards and getting to the line 12 times)? That was Pettit. In 64 playoff games in his prime ('57 to '63), he averaged 28 points, 16 rebounds and a whopping 11.7 free throw attempts. (**)

He also exhibited remarkable durability playing 746 of a possible 754 games (including playoffs) without the help of chartered planes, arthroscopic surgeons, stretching routines and strength/conditioning coaches. And you can't play the "Pettit only thrived because the black guys weren't around yet" card because nine of Pettit's eleven seasons coincided with Russell, seven with Elgin, six with Wilt, and five with Oscar and West, even capturing the '62 All-Star MVP by scoring 25 points and notching a game-high 27 rebounds. Check out these numbers from '59 to '64.

PLAYER                Gs       PPG   RPG  FG%   TEAM RECORD (1959-64)

Pettit (Hawks)        457      28.4    17.4    44.7        269-197 (577)

Wilt (Warriors)       391      33.2    25.2    50.6        223-171 (.566)

Russell (Celtics)     454      15.3    23.8    44.5        345-121 (740)

Baylor (Lakers)      419      30.8    15.8    43.0        243-223 (521)

Oscar (Royals)       309      30.2    10.7    48.7        173-146 (.542)

J. West (Lakers)     281      25.8      7.2    45.3        185-134 (.580)

Beyond that, Pettit and Wilt were the only two alpha dogs to topple Russell's Celtics. Pettit avoided a Game 7 in Boston with a then-record 50 points, including 18 of St. Louis's last 21, as well as a jumper and a clinching tip in the final 20 seconds to seal the 1958 title. So what if Russell was limping around in a cast and only played 20 minutes? That's still one of the better performances in Finals history. (*)

Pettit hasn't endured historically partly because no tape exists of that game, and partly be- cause he didn't have that one "thing" that kept him relevant along the lines of Oscar averaging a triple double, Russell winning eleven titles in thirteen years or even West becoming the NBA's logo. He just missed the television era, didn't play in a big market and lacked an identifiably transcendent skill like Bird's passing or Baylor's hang time. If you want to dig deeper, his southern roots (as well as the damaging Cleo Hill in- cident) probably linger for many of the great black players from that era, none of whom seem that interested in singing his praises these days. (Russell battled Pettit in four separate NBA Finals and only mentioned him once in Second Wind, with a little dig about how Pettit traveled every time he made an offensive move and the refs never called.) But you know what really killed Pettit historically? His hair. He made Locke on Lost look like Michael Landon. You can't penalize him for that. You also can't penalize him for Russell's injury in the '58 Finals; only one year earlier, Boston needed a double-OT Game 7 in the Finals to defeat the Hawks. If he played today, Pettit would shave his head, grow a Fu Manchu, get a prominent tattoo, wax his body, and look like a fucking bad-ass. Back then, it was perfectly fine for the league's best power forward to look like he should be teaching eleventh-grade shop. You can't judge.

Resume: 

11 years, 10 quality, 11 All-Stars... 

MVP. 56, 59...

Runner up: '57, 61... 

Top 5 (55-64), Top 10 (65)... 

'55 Rookie of the Year...

4 All-Star MVPs... 

3-year peak: 28-18-3...

leader: scoring (2x), rebounds (1x)... 

career: 26.4 PPG (6th), 16.2 RPG (3rd)...

Play offs: 26-15-3 (88 G)... 

best player on one champ (58 Hawks) and 3 runners-up ('57, '60, 61)... 

first member of 20K-10K Club

(*) Grumpy Old Editor refused to make the leap: "Ranking Pettit this high is a joke. He'd be like every oversized white guy with post moves and cement feet who gest trampled in his first pro season. Think Kent Benson or Big Country Reeves." Yeah, but still 

(**) If not for Hack-a-Shaq, Pettit would have averaged more FTs per game than anyone with 50-plus career playoff games (10.4). That's reason no. 345 to hate Hack-a-Shaq.

(***) Did you know that the '58 Hawks were the last all-white team to win a title? I'm going out on a limb and predicting that's holding true 100, 200, and 500 years from now.