Bob Pettit (Kings of the Court)

The St. Louis Hawks' great star Bob Pettit tries for a basket in typical Pettit style in a game against the Cincinnati Royals in New York City on December 10, 1957. 

Pettit was one of the great scorers in NBA history: his career average of 26.4 points per game ranks fifth on the all-time list. 

Pettit also was the first NBA player to score 20,000 points. 

However, Pettit was an unorthodox scoring machine. Pettit had an accurate outside shot, but was a lousy dribbler and rarely drove to the basket. 

His greatest offensive assets were his skill at drawing fouls and his uncanny ability beneath the offensive glass.

Alan Minsky

Kings of the Court

The best way to describe Bob Pettit in terms of contemporary players would be as a Dennis Rodman who could shoot. Rodman, known as The Worm, starred for the champion Detroit Pistons in the late eighties and early nineties, and now, as a member of the San Antonio Spurs, is the NBA's leading rebounder. But though Rodman is a terror on the boards and a tenacious defender, he is a joke outside the paint -- every defender in the league loves to see The Worm with the ball on the perimeter because he has the outside touch of a mason. Not so with Pettit: the wiry forward from Louisiana could bring down offensive rebounds with the best of his generation and he could also shoot the lights out. Over his eleven-year career, Pettit averaged not only a remarkable 16.2 rebounds but also 26.4 points per game as he led the St. Louis Hawks to five Western Division titles, four appearances in the finals, and one NBA championship. Unquestionably, Bob Pettit was one of the greatest stars in NBA history.

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Robert Lee Pettit, Jr., was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on December 12, 1932. Raised in a middle-class family, Pettit was a conscientious student and not initially a basketball fanatic. Tall and thin, but not very coordinated, he tried out for the basketball team his sophomore year because he wanted to earn a varsity letter and thought that with his height basketball was his best bet. Bob didn't make the cut, but resolved not to give up: "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 six foot eight [202 cm]...." And he was a terror. Pettit was an All-American as a senior. Avidly recruited, he ultimately decided to attend Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Bob continued to tear up the South in college. He was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year his last three years, averaging 27.4 points and 14.6 rebounds per game. There was just one problem: Bob played center in college, and even though the Milwaukee Hawks made him the second player draft- ed, serious doubts arose that a six-foot-nine-inch (204 cm), 220-pound (100 kg) low-post player could succeed in the NBA, especially since Pettit had yet to prove himself on the perimeter. Nevertheless, Hawks Coach Red Holzman took one look at the skinny Pettit in his rookie training camp and declared him a forward.

Bob made the transition to forward successfully, averaging 20.4 points and 18.8 rebounds his rookie season. The Hawks moved to St. Louis in Pettit's second season and he really took off, leading the league in both scoring and rebounding, winning the MVP awards for both the 1955-56 season and the All-Star Game, and leading the Hawks to within one game of the NBA finals. The next year the Hawks won their first of five consecutive Western Division crowns and reached the final, where they lost a heartbreaking series to Bill Russell and the Celtics in seven games. The decisive contest was decided by 2 points in double overtime.

The Hawks had built an excellent team around Pettit in only a few years. Because they could have drafted Bill Russell, but were uncertain whether he was going to play in the NBA, the Hawks traded their high draft pick to Boston in exchange for a proven forward, Ed Macauley, and a bright prospect, center who became a star forward for the Hawks. Cliff Hagan, a six-foot-four-inch (193cm) college Veteran point guard Slater Martin, a textbook field general, ran the team (literally for two weeks, after Red Holzman was fired and before backup guard Alex Hannum was promoted to coach), and either Charlie Share or Clyde Lovellette provided solid support at center.

The St. Louis Hawks reached the 1958 NBA against the Celtics. With the series tied at two games finals and vowed they would exact their revenge apiece, the Hawks won Game Five in Boston and returned to St. Louis with a golden opportunity to win their first title, on their home court. In perhaps the greatest clutch performance in NBA history, Pettit scored 50 points, including 19 of St. Louis' final 21 points, including a medium-range jumper with 15 seconds to play, as the Hawks defeated the Celtics 110-109. Bob Pettit blocked a remarkable 12 shots in the game and the Hawks brought St. Louis its only NBA championship.

Bob Pettit's formidable offensive repertoire featured three weapons: his jump shot, his uncanny ability to draw fouls, and, of course, his offensive rebounding skills. Pettit was a great jump shooter but his dribbling skills were marginal. Teammate Ed Macauley recalled: "He knew what he could do, and when he went out on the court, he did it.... He really couldn't put the ball on the floor for more than one bounce, but he learned to be effective with that one bounce, to get past his man and go up for the jump shot." Pettit was so effective moving quickly to his left or right to set up his one-handed jump shot that once he was past his defender, he often hesitated before shooting in order to draw a foul. (In the late seventies and early eighties, Adrian Dantley was a master of drawing the foul by using a head fake to fool his defender into leaping to block a shot and then taking the shot where the defender had no choice but to land on him and send him to the foul line.) Bob Pettit scored almost a third of his career points at the foul line, hitting 76 percent from the charity stripe during his NBA tenure.

Pettit's incredible success as an offensive rebounder was the product of a perfected personal technique: "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." Another factor that aided Pettit under the boards were his strong, viselike hands. Pettit averaged more rebounds per game than any forward in NBA history, a remark- able 16.2 per game throughout his career. Pettit's job on the offensive boards also usually contributed 8 to 12 points to his scoring total.

St. Louis had its best regular season ever in 1958-59, finishing 49-23, and Pettit won a second scoring title and a second MVP Award. However, Elgin Baylor and the upstart Lakers downed the Hawks in the NBA semifinals. St. Louis returned to the finals each of the next two years but lost to the powerful Celtics. Pettit had his best year ever as a scorer in 1961-62 with a 31.1 average, but the Hawks fell out of contention. The Hawks finished second in the Western Division each of Pettit's final three years, but they failed to return to the finals.

Bob Pettit retired following the 1964-65 season to pursue a career in law, having played only eleven seasons in the NBA. Nonetheless, Pettit had become the first player in league history to score 20,000 points, and left pro basketball as its all-time leading scorer. Pettit's success stemmed from his tremendous dedication and drive to win. He was very economical on the court, always playing to his strengths. "He was never known to make a foolish move."

In a 1960 game against the Cincinnati Royals, St. Louis Hawk Bob Pettit definitively snatches a rebound from Hub Reed, who flails helplessly in the background as Clyde Lovellette looks on. Pettit had an exceptionally powerful grip. Large, strong hands like Pettit's are a great asset on a basketball court, where always try to slap the ball loose especially under the boards, where Pettit did his best work.