Bob Pettit (Total Basketball)
Bob Pettit was so ungainly that he didn't make his high school team until his junior season. But you wouldn't have known that once he turned pro. Pettit was the first rookie ever to make the NBA's All-League Team . In 1958, the " Bayou Bomber " hit for 50 points in Game 6 of the Finals and led the Hawks past the Celtics, the only interruption to Boston's run of titles from 1957 through 1966 . Over his first nine NBA seasons, he never finished below fourth in either rebounding or scoring . When Pettit retired in 1965, he was the NBA's all-time scoring leader with 20,880 points. Pettit had the dubious distinction of being cut from his high school baseball and football teams. He was 5-foot-9 as a freshman at Baton Rouge High School and his awkward play got him cut from the team. Then his father nailed up a basket in the backyard, and Pettit practiced around the clock . By his senior year he had grown to 6-foot-7; he scored 31 points per game and led his ...