Pettit, league’s first MVP, dies at 93

NBA PHOTOS/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES

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

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971.

Hall of Famer, 11-time all-star led Hawks to franchise’s only championship in 1958

25 Sep 2026 - The Washington Post

BY GLENN RIFKIN

Bob Pettit, a Hall of Fame basketball player who led the old St. Louis Hawks to the 1958 NBA championship and helped define the position of power forward with his prolific scoring and powerful rebounding, died Sept. 23. He was 93.

His death was announced by his alma mater, Louisiana State University.

Before such stars as Larry Bird, Karl Malone and Kevin Garnett came to personify the modern power forward, Mr. Pettit was the player, with his rebounding prowess and deft shooting touch, who was credited with elevating the position to a game-changing level.

He was an NBA all-star in each of his 11 seasons and was the league’s most valuable player in 1956, the year the award was created. He won the MVP award again in 1959, was the first NBA player to score 20,000 points and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971. He was named to the NBA’S 50 Greatest Players list in 1996 and to its 75th anniversary team in 2021.

In the era well before professional athletes were paid a king’s ransom to play, Mr. Pettit retired from basketball and became a banker in his native Baton Rouge. In those days, players needed a summer job to make ends meet, and Mr. Pettit felt his future was more secure outside the game. He had signed with the then-milwaukee Hawks in 1954 for $11,000 a season and won the rookie of the year award.

Mr. Pettit was revered for his tenaciousness, combining athletic talent and pure will to become a dominant player.

“Bob made ‘second effort’ a part of the sports vocabulary,” Celtics center Bill Russell, considered by many the greatest defensive center in league history, once told an interviewer. “He kept coming at you more than any man in the game. He was always battling for position, fighting you off the boards.”

When he retired in 1965, in his prime at age 32, Mr. Pettit was the top scorer in NBA history, with 20,880 points. He was a 10-time first-team all-nba player, led the league in scoring two times and averaged 26.4 points and 16.2 rebounds a game throughout his career.