Bob Pettit: He Lived on the Foul Line (Tall Tales)

Terry Pluto

Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA, in the Words of the Men Who PLayed, Cpoached, and Built Pro Basketball

Simon & Schuster (1992)

In 11 years, Bob Pettit scored over 20,000 points-and over 6,000 came from the foul line. 

That meant on nights when he scored his usual 26, eight of those points were free throws. 

That is what most opponents remember about the 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward who played for the St. Louis Hawks from 1954-65. 

That's 11 years an All-Star; the league's MVP in 1956 and 1959. 

Pettit also was one of the game's remarkable rebounders, averaging 16.2.

CHICK HEARN: 

Bob Pettit is one of those great players who is forgotten. He was a guy who couldn't make his high school team, a guy whose features were soft, almost feminine. He just developed into a helluva scorer and rebounder, and from just looking at him, you never would have believed it.

BOB PETTIT:

Basketball never came easy to me. I grew up in Baton Rouge and I was very tall and thin, but not coordinated at all and had very few skills. Even though I was taller than most kids, I still was cut from my high school team as a sophomore. I stayed with basketball because I wanted to earn a letter in something. Being tall, I figured basketball was my best chance. We had no summer AAU leagues, no basketball camps and very little coaching. My high school coach is a dear friend of mine, but he also was the assistant football coach and football was his sport. So I taught myself to play, through trial and error. I learned to shoot one-handed because that was the way the ball went in most often. I had no idea how you were supposed to shoot. I made the team as a junior, and didn't become much of a player until my senior year. By then, I was 6-foot-8 and I had about six college offers-LSU, Tulane, Mississippi State and some smaller schools. I grew up only a few miles from the LSU campus, and it wasn't until I was 19 years old at LSU that I got any real coaching.

CLIFF HAGAN:

Bob and I were tremendous rivals in college, him at LSU and me at Kentucky. In December of 1953, I scored 51 points against Temple, which broke an NCAA record that Bob had set. But a few months later, Bob scored 60 against Louisiana College, which we're still trying to find on the map. Both of our teams were 14-0 and we met on a neutral court in Nashville and we beat LSU in a close game. That's why I found it ironic that we both ended up on the same team and became roommates and such close friends.

BOB PETTIT: 

I was the second pick in the 1954 draft, behind Frank Selvy, who went to Baltimore. No one from any NBA team ever spoke to me before the draft. I don't think anyone scouted me until the postseason all-star games in Madison Square Garden. Ben Kerner owned the Milwaukee franchise and we met in a hotel room in Milwaukee. I asked for $15,000. He offered $9,000. I was afraid to move from my offer. I figured if I dropped down first, then I'd lose even more money before we settled. Mr. Kerner would not move, either. So we sat there for two hours, barely speaking to each other. It may have been the longest two hours of my life. Finally, he waited me out and I said, "Mr. Kerner, I want to play pro ball. How much is fair?" We settled on $11,000.

BEN KERNER: 

I knew that Pettit was a top college player and everyone had heard of him, but never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd have such a great career.

BOB PETTIT: 

In my first training camp, Red Holzman made a move for which I'm eternally grateful, switching me from a college center to a pro forward. I just wasn't strong enough to play center in the NBA, especially at that point in my career.

SLATER MARTIN: 

Bob was very weak when he came into the NBA and had real problems hanging on to the ball in traffic under the basket. At 6-foot-9, Bob was a big, big forward for his time. But the pushing and grabbing bothered him, and then he learned to push and grab with the best of them.

BOB PETTIT: 

I was one of the first basketball players to go on a weight program. Coaches always told us not to touch weights, that weights would ruin our shooting touch. I was 24 years old and had won the rebounding title, but I also was 215 pounds. I wanted to be the pounder, not take a pounding every night. I worked with a guy named Alvin Roy, who was a strength coach at LSU. My coach and owner didn't like it, especially when I showed up at 240 pounds. But I felt my hands, my arms, everything was stronger. With today's conditioning programs, I'd play at 265.

CHARLIE SHARE: 

The biggest break of my career was to be the Hawks' center when Bobby Pettit came to our team. I was a limited player, but for six years I set picks for Bob. Through his dogged determination, we became a very good team. Bob Pettit was the reason I had a 10- year NBA career.

LARRY STAVERMAN: 

If you guarded Pettit, then you had to deal with the likes of Charlie Share and Clyde Lovellette. You'd rather run into a brick wall than a pick from Share. And Lovellette, if you ran past him he'd always nail you with a hip or an elbow. There were times when Lovellette would hip you into Pettit right after Pettit shot the ball and he'd end up at the foul line, going for the three-point play.

RUDY LARUSSO: 

If he got the ball inside the foul line, he owned you. He was so tall, he could shoot the ball over you. He also had one-dribble moves to either side. And he was protected by the refs. It was horrible. Bailey Howell told me that he was at a game where Pettit made a free throw and the announcer said, "That's Pettit's 15,000th career point." Bailey said, "Yeah, and 12,000 of them came at the foul line."

JOHNNY KERR: 

We always said that Pettit had two shots-a jumper and a free throw.

TOM MESCHERY: 

When Pettit wasn't shooting free throws, he was scoring on offensive rebounds. He probably averaged eight points a game on the offensive boards. He wasn't that physical. He didn't hurt you. But you'd think you had him blocked out, and you'd feel his elbows in your back and shoulders, pushing you out of the way. He was a very sneaky rebounder.

ZELMO BEATY: 

Bob was the greatest offensive rebounder I'd ever seen. He showed me some of his tricks, how he always stayed on the side of his defender, not his back. But I never could do it.

BOB PETTIT: 

My offensive rebounding was not an accident. When my teammate shot the ball, I never watched the ball hit the rim. The first thing I did was look at the defender trying to block me out. By not watching the ball, it gave me a chance to make the first move and my first move was to block out my defender, then look up to see the ball hit the rim. I made it into a science and it reached the point where I didn't believe anyone could block me out. I also held my arms up and my elbows out when I jumped. Usually, my elbows were over my de- fender's shoulders, so when he jumped for a rebound, he carried me up with him. The offensive boards were worth 8-12 points a night to me, then I'd get another 8-10 at the free throw line. All I had to do was make a few jump shots and I was on my way to a good night.

JERRY GROSS: 

I'd watch Pettit night after night and think, "This guy never has two bad games in a row." He was so consistent. Every move he made was under control. One of his tricks was to keep the ball over his head. He'd catch a pass about head level, and he'd go right up with his jumper from there, not bringing the ball down where the defender could knock it out of his hands.

LENNY WILKENS: 

Bob's hands were like vises. He'd get the ball and you couldn't knock it loose. He wasn't a graceful player, but he was a smart player who would still be damn good today.

ED MACAULEY: 

There was a game when I was coach where I found myself yelling at Pettit during halftime. Right in the middle I stopped and thought to myself, "Why am I yelling at Bob Pettit? He plays over his head every night." No one ever had a bad word to say about him.