Legends profile: Bob Pettit | NBA.com One of the best forwards in NBA history, Bob Pettit was an 11-time All-Star and a two-time MVP. NBA Photos/NBAE via Getty Images Legends profile: Bob Pettit Posted Mar 3 2013 8:07PM When Bob Pettit came out of college in 1954, no one thought he was talented enough to make it as a professional basketball player. Although he had been a prolific scorer at Louisiana State University, the tall, thin forward was deemed too slight at 200 pounds to survive the pounding of an NBA season. However, the scouts failed to factor in Pettit's willingness to work harder than anyone else on the court in order to succeed. And succeed he did. After 11 years with the Milwaukee and St. Louis Hawks, he retired having become the first player in the league to top 20,000 points. The greatest forward of his era, Pettit was an All-Star in each of his 11 seasons, an All-NBA First Team selection 10 times, and an All-NBA Second Team pick once.

He never finished below seventh in the NBA scoring race, and he left the sport with two Most Valuable Player Awards and an NBA championship ring. BOB PETTIT Drafted by: Milwaukee Hawks, 1954 (first round); franchise moved to St. Louis for 1955-56 season (1948) Height: 6-9 Weight: 215 lbs. Honors: Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1970); NBA champion (1958); NBA MVP (1956, '59); 10-time All-NBA First Team (1955-64); All-NBA second team (1965); Rookie of the Year (1955); One of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996). After Pettit's playing days had ended, rival Bill Russell offered this tribute: "Bob made 'second effort' a part of the sport's vocabulary. He kept coming at you more than any man in the game. He was always battling for position, fighting you off the boards." Born in 1932, Robert E. Lee Pettit Jr.

learned about second effort long before he reached the professional ranks. His basketball career had gotten off to a discouraging start after he was cut from the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) High School team, first as a freshman and then as a sophomore. But with encouragement from his father, a county sheriff, the younger Pettit worked endlessly to improve his game, firing countless shots at the basket set up in his backyard. When he tried out for the high school team as a junior, Pettit was already 6-foot-4, and he finally made the squad. One year later, in 1950, he led Baton Rouge High School to its first state championship in more than two decades. He later said that the state title game was one of two contests that he could really remember clearly. The other was Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, a game in which he poured in 50 points. "You can't really compare the games," Pettit told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"But at the time, winning the state title meant so much." <p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> After Pettit's outstanding high school performance, he was rewarded with a scholarship to Louisiana State University. His willingness to work hard to score points and collect rebounds earned him All-America honors twice, and he averaged 27.4 points during his college career. By the time he reached his senior year at LSU, he had added five inches to his height. Pettit was selected in the first round of the 1954 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Hawks. He had more than his share of doubters, who wondered if the slender 6-9 youngster had the strength and endurance that was required for survival in the NBA. Although he seemed thin at 200 pounds, Pettit was by no means frail. Being in superb physical condition, he was more than a match for the rigors of the NBA, and he proved it in his first season by winning the league's Rookie of the Year Award by averaging 20.4 ppg and 13.8 rpg.

He also played in his first All-Star Game that season and earned the first of 10 consecutive selections to the All-NBA First Team. Despite Pettit's Rookie of the Year performance, Milwaukee finished in last place in the Western Division with a 26-46 record. During the offseason owner Ben Kerner moved the team to St. Louis. The Hawks showed some improvement during their first year in St. Louis, winning 33 games during 1955-56. Most of the credit for the improved showing had to be given to Pettit, who was named the NBA Most Valuable Player after leading the league in scoring (25.7 ppg) and rebounding (16.2 rpg). He also earned the MVP Award at the 1956 NBA All-Star Game, in which he racked up 20 points, 24 rebounds and 7 assists. The Hawks underwent a major retooling for the 1956-57 season. In the offseason St. Louis acquired Ed Macauley and rookie Cliff Hagan from the Boston Celtics for the draft rights to Bill Russell.

Then guard Slater Martin came to the club in an early season deal with the New York Knicks. Alex Hannum arrived a few weeks later after being released by the Fort Wayne Pistons. The team also went through three coaches during that season. Hannum took over as player-coach with 31 games left on the schedule, and the team began to hit its stride. Hannum later credited Pettit's attitude for the club's success. "I was an old-timer when he was a rookie, and I saw him mature into a great player," said Hannum in the Houston Chronicle. "He's a winner, whether it was in playing cards or on the court. I always said it was no fun to play poker against Bob Pettit, because he always played to win, not just to have fun." <p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> St. Louis posted a less than stellar 34-48 record in 1956-57, but that was enough to earn the club a tie with Fort Wayne and the Minneapolis Lakers for first place in the weak Western Division. The Hawks earned the division title by besting those two rivals in a series of tie-breaking playoff games. St.

Louis then made short work of the Lakers with a three-game sweep in the Western Division finals. The Hawks moved on to face the Celtics in the 1957 NBA Finals. No one expected St. Louis to put up much of a fight against a Boston team that had posted the best record in the league. But St. Louis notched a surprise win in Game 1, eking out a 125-123 victory in double overtime. Boston evened the series the following night, and the two teams split a pair of games in St. Louis. After four games the series was tied at two games apiece. Boston came out on top in Game 5, winning 124-109. Two nights later, Hagan tipped in a Pettit miss at the buzzer and the Hawks edged the Celtics 96-94 to force a seventh and deciding game. Game 7 was a heart-stopping thriller and one of the most exciting games in the history of the NBA Finals. The Saturday afternoon contest was seen by a large national television audience. It was a closely played affair, with the Celtics taking command and the Hawks fighting back. St.

Louis trailed by two points late, but Pettit sank a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to send the game into overtime. It took a basket from Jack Coleman with time winding down in the first extra period to keep the Hawks' hopes alive as the game moved to a second overtime. With just seconds left, Celtics forward Jim Loscutoff sank a free throw to give Boston a two-point lead. Pettit tossed up a shot as the buzzer sounded, but his offering skipped off the rim, giving the Celtics a 125-123 win and the championship. Although the Hawks were defeated, Pettit excelled during the 1957 playoff run -- averaging 29.8 pg and 16.8 rpg. Tempered in the heat of the previous season's playoffs, St. Louis came back the next year to win 41 games (a franchise record) and claim the division crown. Pettit scored 24.6 ppg and pulled down 17.4 rpg, and he earned All-Star Game MVP honors with a performance that included 28 points and 26 rebounds.

<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> In the postseason, the Hawks and the Celtics squared off in the NBA Finals for the second straight year. The Hawks took Game 1 with a two-point win, but a Celtics victory in Game 2 tied the series. The tide turned in favor of St. Louis when Russell suffered an ankle injury in Game 3; the Hawks won that game, lost Game 4, then squeezed by the Celtics in Game 5, 102-100. In Game 6, played in St. Louis, Russell made a brief appearance but was hampered by his injury and did not play well. Pettit was remarkable, setting a then NBA Playoff record by scoring 50 points. The Hawks won by a point, 110-109, to dethrone the Celtics and claim the crown. St. Louis finished at the top of the Western Division in each of the next three seasons. In 1959 Pettit was named NBA Most Valuable Player for the second time in his career, after he led the league in scoring (29.2 ppg) and placed second to Russell in rebounding (16.4 rpg).

He put up similar numbers in each of the next two years, finishing fourth in the NBA in scoring in both 1959-60 (26.1 ppg) and 1960-61 (27.9 ppg). Despite the relentless output from Pettit, the Hawks were unable to recapture the league title during those years. They lost their chance to repeat as champions in 1959 when the Lakers ousted them in the Western Division finals. In 1960 St. Louis challenged Boston in the Finals once again but lost the series in seven games. The Hawks and the Celtics played for the championship for the fourth time in five years in 1961, and Boston took that series in five games. St. Louis slipped a bit the following year, but Pettit had his finest season ever. While the Hawks were struggling to a 29-51 record and a fourth-place finish in the Western Division, Pettit was filling up the basket at an incredible rate. He averaged a career-high 31.1 ppg in 1961-62, and he collected rebounds at the astonishing rate of 18.7 rpg.

He was also called upon by Kerner to act as the team's head coach late in the season and in six games he piloted the squad to a 4-2 record. The Hawks bounced back the following season as Kerner hired former New York Knicks great Harry "the Horse" Gallatin to coach the team. St. Louis finished second to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Division, and Pettit posted his usual sparkling numbers: 28.4 ppg and 15.1 rpg. The Hawks flew by the Pistons in the opening round of the postseason but were then ousted by the Lakers in a tough seven-game series. The 1963-64 campaign was a near repeat of the previous season. St. Louis finished in second place in the division once again, then was bumped in the division finals in seven games, this time at the hands of the San Francisco Warriors. Pettit contributed 27.4 ppg and 15.3 rpg during the regular season. At season's end, he earned his 10th and final selection to the All-NBA First Team.

<p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> A knee ailment limited Pettit to 50 games in 1964-65. It was the first time in his career that he had been sidelined for more than a handful of games because of an injury. (It was not the first injury of his career, however. He played part of the 1957-58 season with a cast on his hand, which didn't prevent him from scoring 28 points in that year's All-Star Game.) Despite the injury to his knee, Pettit averaged 22.5 ppg. The Hawks scratched out another second-place finish in the Western Division but were eliminated in the semifinal round of the playoffs. Pettit was 32 years old at the end of the 1964-65 campaign, and he decided to call it quits. He retired having accumulated 20,880 points(26.4 ppg), the most ever scored in the NBA at that time, and his 12,849 rebounds ranked him second all-time.

He never averaged fewer than 20 points, nor did he miss an All-Star Game in any of his 11 seasons. His rebounding totals were no less impressive: he never fell below 10 rebounds per game for a season and his career average was 16.2 -- still third best in league history behind Wilt Chamberlain and Russell. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970, and was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996. SEARCH NEWS Bob Pettit Bio - LSUsports.net - The Official Web Site of LSU Tigers Athletics Release: 07/14/2014 ALL-CENTURY TEAM MEMBER A three-time first-team All-SEC member, Petit led his Tigers to a second place finish in 1952, conference titles in 1953 and 1954 and the NCAA Final Four in 1953.

He led the SEC in scoring all three years, with the highest averages seen to date in the conference: 25.5 points in 1952, 24.9 in 1953 and 31.4 points per game in 1954. At the same time he was averaging 13.1 (1952), 13.9 (1953) and an LSU best 17.3 (1954) rebounds per game. Only Pete Maravich and Chris Jackson would also break the 30-point average barrier at LSU. Coach Cliff Wells of Tulane summed up Bob Pettit’s days at LSU, “He’s the best big man in college basketball today and I’ve seen them all.” LSU Coach Harry Rabenhorst called him, “the greatest LSU player since Sparky Wade.” He was a first round draft choice in 1954 of the then Milwaukee Hawks. Pettit played his entire 11-year career with the Hawks, moving with the club to St. Louis in 1955.

He wrote nearly every record in the Hawks’ record book and was a four-time MVP of the annual NBA All-Star game. He led the Hawks to the 1958 NBA Championship and five NBA Finals. In 1954, his number 50 was retired at LSU, the first number in any sport retired in Tiger Town. In 1964, he became the first NBA player to exceed the 20,000-points scored barrier. In 1970, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and in 1997 was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history. “Those were great years at LSU,” Pettit once said. “They were such great years. I couldn’t have asked for anything better than my four years at LSU. I received my degree in Business, played the sport I loved and made so many friends.” -- From 1957 through 1966, the Boston Celtics won nine of 10 National Basketball Association championships.

For years, Celtics coach Red Auerbach would needle Tom Heinsohn about the one that got away: “We would’ve won 10 straight if you had held Bob Pettit to 48 points.” Pettit scored 50 points in the final game of the 1958 playoffs, accounting for 19 of the St. Louis Hawks’ last 21 points. His jump shot with 15 seconds remaining in the game wrapped up the title. That’s not too shabby for a guy who was cut from the junior varsity team as a sophomore at Baton Rouge High School. There were 17 candidates for that team, and five of them – including Pettit, who was then an awkward 5-11 – didn’t make it. Although Pettit led his Baton Rouge High team to the state championship two years later, Coach Kenner Day would always be introduced as “the man who cut Bob Pettit from his team.” For one generation, Pettit was an example of perseverance leading to sports greatness. He played church league basketball as a sophomore, grew five inches in less than a year and made the All-City prep team as a junior. The next year, he was nearly 6-7.

He not only led Baton Rouge High to the state title, but was selected to play in a North-South all-star game at Murray, Ky. He had scholarship offers from 14 universities, but seriously considered only one: Louisiana State University. Pettit averaged 30 points a game in leading the LSU freshmen to an 8-2 record. The following year, he averaged 25.5 points to rank third in the nation and lead the Tigers to 17 victories in 24 games. Joe Dean, who is now Athletic Director at LSU, was a senior guard who gave the sophomore center a piece of valuable advice during that season. “Bob,” he said, “you are only as good as you think you are. Any time you walk on that basketball court, you have to think you are the best player out there. You cannot believe there is anybody better than you, or that anybody can stop you.” In 1952-53, Kentucky’s basketball program was shelved by an NCAA probation and LSU sailed through a 23-game regular-season schedule with only one loss (to Tulsa), qualifying for the NCAA playoffs with a clean sweep of Southeastern Conference opponents.

The Tigers won the regional title in Raleigh, N.C., but fell to Indiana in the semifinals of the Final Four at Kansas City and then lost a third-place game with Washington. Facing collapsing zone defenses and missing four games because of a bout with pneumonia, Pettit slipped to 24.7 points per game that season. As a senior, he was unstoppable – setting an SEC scoring record of 60 points against Louisiana College in his second game that wasn’t broken until Pistol Pete Maravich came along 15 years later. He became the second player in major-college basketball history to aver more than 30 points a game, but didn’t win the national title because the other one – Frank Selvy of Furman – was setting a record of 41-7 points per game in the same season. Pettit’s average of 31.4 was an SEC record until Maravich broke it in 1968. Once again the Tigers had a perfect regular-season against SEC opponents. But Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky Wildcats were back in business, matching that record to set up a one-game playoff at Nashville for the conference title.

Kentucky won the game, 63-56, but passed up the NCAA playoffs. LSU went to a regional tournament in Iowa City and lost to both Penn State and Indiana. This was 1954, and all 12 players on an East College All-Star team that many observers considered to be the best group ever assembled were white. Two of them, Selvy and Pettit, were the first two players selected in the NBA draft. The Baltimore Bullets chose Selvy No. 1, and the Milwaukee Hawks took Pettit. He signed a contract with Hawks owner Ben Kerner for $11,000 – an all-time high for an NBA rookie. “I had only $100 in the bank when I graduated from college,” Pettit recalled later, “and $11,000 looked like all the money in the world to me.” The Hawks would up with both Pettit and Selvy when the Bullets folded, and they combined for 40 points a game as rookies. Pettit became the second rookie to win all-pro honors. But the team finished last in the Western Division, and moved to St. Louis before the next season got underway.

Three years later, the Hawks were world champions and Pettit was on his away to becoming the first NBA player to break the 20,000-point barrier. He averaged 26.4 points per game for his career and was an all-pro selection every season that he played except one. NBA.com: Bob Pettit Bio Complete Bio | Career Stats When Bob Pettit came out of college in 1954, no one thought he was talented enough to make it as a professional basketball player. Although he had been a prolific scorer at Louisiana State University, the tall, thin forward was deemed too slight at 200 pounds to survive the pounding of an NBA season. However, the scouts failed to factor in Pettit's willingness to work harder than anyone else on the court in order to succeed. Pettit was named All-NBA First Team 10 times and won two MVP trophies in his career. George Kalinsky NBAE/Getty Images And succeed he did. After 11 years with the Milwaukee and St. Louis Hawks, he retired having become the first player in the league to top 20,000 points.

The greatest forward of his era, Pettit was an All-Star in each of his 11 seasons, an All-NBA First Team selection 10 times, and an All-NBA Second Team pick once. He never finished below seventh in the NBA scoring race, and he left the sport with two Most Valuable Player Awards and an NBA championship ring. After Pettit's playing days had ended, rival Bill Russell offered this tribute: "Bob made 'second effort' a part of the sport's vocabulary. He kept coming at you more than any man in the game. He was always battling for position, fighting you off the boards." Born in 1932, Robert E. Lee Pettit Jr. learned about second effort long before he reached the professional ranks. His basketball career had gotten off to a discouraging start after he was cut from the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) High School team, first as a freshman and then as a sophomore. But with encouragement from his father, a county sheriff, the younger Pettit worked endlessly to improve his game, firing countless shots at the basket set up in his backyard.

When he tried out for the high school team as a junior, Bob Pettit was already 6-4, and he finally made the squad. One year later, in 1950, he led Baton Rouge High School to its first state championship in more than two decades. He later said that the state title game was one of two contests that he could really remember clearly. The other was Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, a game in which he poured in 50 points. "You can't really compare the games," Pettit told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "But at the time, winning the state title meant so much." After Pettit's outstanding high school performance, he was rewarded with a scholarship to Louisiana State University. His willingness to work hard to score points and collect rebounds earned him All-America honors twice, and he averaged 27.4 points during his college career. By the time he reached his senior year at LSU, he had added 5 inches to his height. Pettit was selected in the first round of the 1954 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Hawks.

He had more than his share of doubters, who wondered if the slender 6-9 youngster had the strength and endurance that was required for survival in the NBA. Although he seemed thin at 200 pounds, Pettit was by no means frail. Being in superb physical condition, he was more than a match for the rigors of the NBA, and he proved it in his first season by winning the league's Rookie of the Year Award, and by averaging 20.4 ppg and 13.8 rpg. He also played in his first All-Star Game that season and earned the first of 10 consecutive selections to the All-NBA First Team. Despite Pettit's Rookie of the Year performance, Milwaukee finished in last place in the Western Division with a 26-46 record. During the offseason owner Ben Kerner moved the team to St. Louis. The Hawks showed some improvement during their first year in St. Louis, winning 33 games during 1955-56.

Most of the credit for the improved showing had to be given to Pettit, who was named the NBA Most Valuable Player after leading the league in scoring (25.7 ppg) and rebounding (16.2 rpg). He also earned the MVP Award at the 1956 NBA All-Star Game, in which he racked up 20 points, 24 rebounds and 7 assists. The Hawks underwent a major retooling for the 1956-57 season. In the offseason St. Louis acquired Ed Macauley and rookie Cliff Hagan from the Boston Celtics for the draft rights to Bill Russell. Then guard Slater Martin came to the club in an early-season deal with the New York Knicks. Alex Hannum arrived a few weeks later after being released by the Fort Wayne Pistons. The team also went through three coaches during that season. Hannum took over as player-coach with 31 games left on the schedule, and the team began to hit its stride. Hannum later credited Pettit's attitude for the club's success. "I was an old-timer when he was a rookie, and I saw him mature into a great player," said Hannum in the Houston Chronicle.

"He's a winner, whether it was in playing cards.or on the court. I always said it was no fun to play poker against Bob Pettit, because he always played to win, not just to have fun." "Bob made 'second effort' a part of the sport's vocabulary. He kept coming at you more than any man in the game. He was always battling for position, fighting you off the boards." -- Bill Russell St. Louis posted a less-than-stellar 34-48 record in 1956-57, but that was enough to earn the club a tie with Fort Wayne and the Minneapolis Lakers for first place in the weak Western Division. The Hawks earned the division title by besting those two rivals in a series of tie-breaking playoff games. St. Louis then made short work of the Lakers with a three-game sweep in the Western Division Finals. The Hawks moved on to face the Celtics in the 1957 NBA Finals. No one expected St. Louis to put up much of a fight against a Boston team that had posted the best record in the league. But St.

Louis notched a surprise win in Game 1, eking out a 125-123 victory in double overtime. Boston evened the series the following night, and the two teams split a pair of games in St. Louis. After four games the series was tied at two games apiece. Boston came out on top in Game 5, winning 124-109. Two nights later, Hagan tipped in a Pettit miss at the buzzer, and the Hawks edged the Celtics, 96-94, to force a seventh and deciding game. Game 7 was a heart-stopping thriller; one of the most exciting games in the history of the NBA Finals. The Saturday afternoon contest was seen by a large national television audience. It was a closely played affair, with the Celtics taking command and the Hawks fighting back. St. Louis trailed by two points late, but Pettit sank a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to send the game into overtime. It took a basket from Jack Coleman with time winding down in the first extra period to keep the Hawks' hopes alive. The game moved to a second overtime.

With just seconds left, Celtics forward Jim Loscutoff sank a free throw to give Boston a two-point lead. Pettit tossed up a shot as the buzzer sounded, but his offering skipped off the rim, giving the Celtics a 125-123 win and the championship. Although the Hawks were defeated, Pettit excelled during the 1957 playoff run -- averaging 29.8 pg and 16.8 rpg. Tempered in the heat of the previous season's playoffs, St. Louis came back the next year to win 41 games (a franchise record) and claim the division crown. Pettit scored 24.6 ppg and pulled down 17.4 rpg, and he earned All-Star Game MVP honors with a performance that included 28 points and 26 rebounds. In the postseason, the Hawks and the Celtics squared off in the NBA Finals for the second straight year. The Hawks took Game 1 with a two-point win, but a Celtics victory in Game 2 tied the series. The tide turned in favor of St.

Louis when Russell suffered an ankle injury in Game 3; the Hawks won that game, lost Game 4, then squeezed by the Celtics in Game 5, 102-100. In Game 6, played in St. Louis, Russell made a brief appearance but was hampered by his injury and did not play well. Pettit was remarkable, setting a then NBA-Playoff record by scoring 50 points. The Hawks won by a point, 110-109, to dethrone the Celtics and claim the crown. St. Louis finished at the top of the Western Division in each of the next three seasons. In 1959 Pettit was named NBA Most Valuable Player for the second time in his career, after he led the league in scoring (29.2 ppg) and placed second to Russell in rebounding (16.4 rpg). He put up similar numbers in each of the next two years, finishing fourth in the NBA in scoring in both 1959-60 (26.1 ppg) and 1960-61 (27.9 ppg).

Despite the relentless output from Pettit, the Hawks were unable to recapture the league title during those years. They lost their chance to repeat as champions in 1959 when the Lakers ousted them in the Western Division Finals. In 1960 St. Louis challenged Boston in the Finals once again but lost the series in seven games. The Hawks and the Celtics played for the championship for the fourth time in five years in 1961, and Boston took that series in five games. St. Louis slipped a bit the following year, but Pettit had his finest season ever. While the Hawks were struggling to a 29-51 record and a fourth-place finish in the Western Division, Pettit was filling up the basket at an incredible rate. He averaged a career-high 31.1 ppg in 1961-62, and he collected rebounds at the astonishing rate of 18.7 rpg. He was also called upon by owner Ben Kerner to act as the team's head coach late in the season and in six games he piloted the squad to a 4-2 record.

The Hawks bounced back the following season as Kerner hired former New York Knicks great Harry "the Horse" Gallatin to coach the team. St. Louis finished second to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Division, and Pettit posted his usual sparkling numbers: 28.4 ppg and 15.1 rp g. The Hawks flew by the Pistons in the opening round of the postseason but were then ousted by the Lakers in a tough seven-game series. The 1963-64 campaign was a near repeat of the previous season. St. Louis finished in second place in the division once again, then was bumped in the division finals in seven games, this time at the hands of the San Francisco Warriors. Pettit contributed 27.4 ppg and 15.3 rpg during the regular season. At season's end, he earned his 10th and final selection to the All-NBA First Team. A knee ailment limited Pettit to 50 games in 1964-65. It was the first time in his career that he had been sidelined for more than a handful of games because of an injury. (It was not the first injury of his career, however.

He played part of the 1957-58 season with a cast on his hand, which didn't prevent him from scoring 28 points in that year's All-Star Game.) Despite the injury to his knee, Pettit averaged 22.5 ppg. The Hawks scratched out another second-place finish in the Western Division but were eliminated in the semifinal round of the playoffs. Pettit was 32 years old at the end of the 1964-65 campaign, and he decided to call it quits. He retired having accumulated 20,880 points(26.4 ppg), the most ever scored in the NBA at that time, and his 12,849 rebounds ranked him second all-time. He never averaged fewer than 20 points, nor did he miss an All-Star Game in any of his 11 seasons. His rebounding totals were no less impressive: he never fell below 10 rebounds per game for a season and his career average was 16.2 -- still third best in league history behind Wilt Chamberlain and Russell.

He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970, and was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996. Bob Pettit | American basketball player | Britannica.com American basketball player Alternative Title: Robert E. Lee Pettit Bob Pettit Shaquille O’Neal Bob Pettit, byname of Robert E. Lee Pettit, Jr. (born December 12, 1932, Baton Rouge , Louisiana , U.S.), American professional basketball player, the first to score 20,000 points in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A clumsy player in high school, Pettit turned himself into a graceful 6-foot 9-inch (2.06-metre) athlete, and today he is considered to be the first really agile player of exceptional height in professional basketball. Bob Pettit, c. 1955. NBA Photos/Getty Images After getting cut from his high school basketball team as both a freshman and a sophomore, Pettit began a single-minded practice regimen that resulted in his playing a starring role in his high school’s state title win during his senior year.

He attended Louisiana State University in his hometown of Baton Rouge, where he was a two-time consensus All-American (1953, 1954). In 1953 he led the Tigers to a berth in the Final Four (national championship semifinals). Pettit was selected by the Milwaukee Hawks with the second overall pick of the 1954 NBA draft. As one of the sport’s first “big men” with the skills to play away from the basket, Pettit made an immediate impact in the professional ranks, earning Rookie of the Year and first-team All-NBA honours in his initial season in the league. In each season but his last, he led the Hawks (who moved to St. Louis in 1955) in scoring and rebounding. Twice (during the 1955–56 and 1958–59 seasons) he was the NBA scoring champion and was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player. Pettit led the Hawks to four berths in the NBA finals (1957, 1958, 1960, and 1961) and to their first NBA championship (1958).

In the deciding sixth game of the 1958 finals, he scored a then postseason-record 50 points in a defeat of the Boston Celtics to clinch the title for the Hawks. In 792 NBA regular season games, Pettit scored 20,880 points (an average of 26.4 points a game) and captured 12,851 rebounds, both of which were NBA records at the time of Pettit’s retirement in 1965. During his 11-year career, he garnered 10 All-NBA first team selections and was named to 11 All-Star Games. Pettit was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970 and was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history in 1996. Learn More in these related articles: Bob Pettit - Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Bob Pettit Induction Year: 1973 From 1957 through 1966, the Boston Celtics won nine of 10 National Basketball Association championships.

For years, Celtics coach Red Auerbach would needle Tom Heinsohn about the one that got away: ï¿½We wouldï¿½ve won 10 straight if you had held Bob Pettit to 48 points.ï¿½ Pettit scored 50 points in the final game of the 1958 playoffs, accounting for 19 of the St. Louis Hawksï¿½ last 21 points. His jump shot with 15 seconds remaining in the game wrapped up the title. Thatï¿½s not too shabby for a guy who was cut from the junior varsity team as a sophomore at Baton Rouge High School. There were 17 candidates for that team, and five of them ï¿½ including Pettit, who was then an awkward 5-11 ï¿½ didnï¿½t make it. Although Pettit led his Baton Rouge High team to the state championship two years later, Coach Kenner Day would always be introduced as ï¿½the man who cut Bob Pettit from his team.ï¿½ For one generation, Pettit was an example of perseverance leading to sports greatness.

He played church league basketball as a sophomore, grew five inches in less than a year and made the All-City prep team as a junior. The next year, he was nearly 6-7. He not only led Baton Rouge High to the state title, but was selected to play in a North-South all-star game at Murray, Ky. He had scholarship offers from 14 universities, but seriously considered only one: Louisiana State University. Pettit averaged 30 points a game in leading the LSU freshmen to an 8-2 record. The following year, he averaged 25.5 points to rank third in the nation and lead the Tigers to 17 victories in 24 games. Joe Dean, who is now Athletic Director at LSU, was a senior guard who gave the sophomore center a piece of valuable advice during that season. ï¿½Bob,ï¿½ he said, ï¿½you are only as good as you think you are. Any time you walk on that basketball court, you have to think you are the best player out there.

You cannot believe there is anybody better than you, or that anybody can stop you.ï¿½ In 1952-53, Kentuckyï¿½s basketball program was shelved by an NCAA probation and LSU sailed through a 23-game regular-season schedule with only one loss (to Tulsa), qualifying for the NCAA playoffs with a clean sweep of Southeastern Conference opponents. The Tigers won the regional title in Raleigh, N.C., but fell to Indiana in the semifinals of the Final Four at Kansas City and then lost a third-place game with Washington. Facing collapsing zone defenses and missing four games because of a bout with pneumonia, Pettit slipped to 24.7 points per game that season. As a senior, he was unstoppable ï¿½ setting an SEC scoring record of 60 points against Louisiana College in his second game that wasnï¿½t broken until Pistol Pete Maravich came along 15 years later.

He became the second player in major-college basketball history to aver more than 30 points a game, but didnï¿½t win the national title because the other one ï¿½ Frank Selvy of Furman ï¿½ was setting a record of 41-7 points per game in the same season. Pettitï¿½s average of 31.4 was an SEC record until Maravich broke it in 1968. Once again the Tigers had a perfect regular-season against SEC opponents. But Adolph Ruppï¿½s Kentucky Wildcats were back in business, matching that record to set up a one-game playoff at Nashville for the conference title. Kentucky won the game, 63-56, but passed up the NCAA playoffs. LSU went to a regional tournament in Iowa City and lost to both Penn State and Indiana. This was 1954, and all 12 players on an East College All-Star team that many observers considered to be the best group ever assembled were white. Two of them, Selvy and Pettit, were the first two players selected in the NBA draft. The Baltimore Bullets chose Selvy No.

1, and the Milwaukee Hawks took Pettit. He signed a contract with Hawks owner Ben Kerner for $11,000 ï¿½ an all-time high for an NBA rookie. ï¿½I had only $100 in the bank when I graduated from college,ï¿½ Pettit recalled later, ï¿½and $11,000 looked like all the money in the world to me.ï¿½ The Hawks would up with both Pettit and Selvy when the Bullets folded, and they combined for 40 points a game as rookies. Pettit became the second rookie to win all-pro honors. But the team finished last in the Western Division, and moved to St. Louis before the next season got underway. Three years later, the Hawks were world champions and Pettit was on his away to becoming the first NBA player to break the 20,000-point barrier. He averaged 26.4 points per game for his career and was an all-pro selection every season that he played except one.

Bob Pettit: By The Numbers - LSUsports.net - The Official Web Site of LSU Tigers Athletics Photo by: LSUsports.net , LSU Athletics Publications Bob Pettit: By The Numbers Published: February 26, 2016, 08:15 AM (CT) Johnny Jones Tipoff Luncheon - Feb. 29 NOTE: Saturday at 4:30 p.m. the public is invited to the plaza area at the front of the LSU men’s basketball practice facility at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center where the statue of Bob Pettit will be unveiled. In advance of the unveiling, LSUsports.net would like to present some of the LSU highlights of Bob Pettit, a timeline of his basketball career and a few things maybe you didn’t know.) LSU Basketball Career Bob Pettit is one of just two players to score 60 points in a basketball game joining Pete Maravich. He posted 60 points against Holy Cross in his second year against Holy Cross (12/7/53). Here are some of his top scoring games: 60 – vs. Louisiana College (12/7/53) 57 – vs.

Georgia (1/9/54) 44 – vs. Georgia Tech (2/13/54) 43 – vs. Georgia (1/8/54) 40 – vs. Ole Miss (1/30/52) Top Scorers In LSU History 3,667 – Pete Maravich (1967-70) 1,941 – Shaquille’ O’Neal (1989-92) 1,916 – Bob Pettit (1,951-54) Top Rebounders in LSU History 1,276 – Rudy Macklin (1976-81) 1,217 – Shaquille O’Neal (1989-92) 1,168 – Al Sanders (1969-72) 1,039 – Bob Pettit (1951-54) In his 70 career games, Pettit raised his shooting percentage from 43.2 percent as a sophomore to 49 percent each of his last two seasons.

Even more impressive was after making 118 free throws and shooting 59.9 percent in 1952, by the time he left in 1954 he made 223-of-308 free throws and 72.4 percent. Only Pete Maravich made more free throws in a season, had a higher single season scoring average and his rebound average best of 17.3 in 1954 is 1.5 better than the 15.8 his teammate Ned Clark would post in 1955. In fact, all three seasons of Pettit’s scoring and rebounding averages are in their respective top 10s for a year in school history. He’s on six of LSU’s top 10 career lists and probably would have been on more if they kept things like assists and such officially back then. Even more remarkable, his was the first jersey retired for any player in any sports at LSU. To be the first is also a remarkable honor. He was also that year inducted into the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame after graduating from LSU.

NBA Career And if you know Bob Pettit’s LSU career, some of the numbers and times in his NBA career just add to this marvelous mystique as a player: 1954 NBA Draft – 2nd overall pick, 1st round, Milwaukee Hawks Signed a contract for $11,000 – all-time high for an NBA rookie at that time 1955 – NBA Rookie of the Year – averaging 20.4 points, 13.8 rebounds 1955 – Second rookie to win All-NBA honors The Hawks, after finishing last that year would move to St. Louis. In his second season Pettit adjusted his game so that he would get to the free-throw line for easy points for his team and foul trouble for his opponents. Pettit told one writer: “Offensive rebounds were worth eight to 12 points a night for me. Then I’d get another eight to 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.” 1956 – NBA MVP leading NBA in scoring (25.7 ppg) and rebounds (16.2 rpg) 1956 – NBA All-Star Game MVP (20 points, 24 rebounds, 7 assists) 1957 – Hawks tie for Western Division title; Lose title in 7 games to Celtics 1958 – All-Star Game MVP – 28 points, 26 rebounds 1958 – Hawks win NBA Championship, beating Celtics in 6 games 1959 – All-Star Game MVP; Regular season NBA MVP 29.2 ppg, 16.4 rpg 1960 – Advanced to NBA Finals, falling in 7 games to Celtics 1961 – Averaged 27.9 ppg, 20.3 rpg … joined Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry Lucas as only players to average 20-20 in the NBA.

1961 – Advanced to NBA Finals, falling in 5 games to Celtics 1962 – Career high 31.1 ppg, 18.7 rpg 1962 – Named Player-Coach of team last six games: 4-2 record 1962 – Fourth All-Star Game MVP 1964 – 10th selection to All-Star Game 1965 – Retires after 11 seasons at age 32 1970 – Inducted into Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame 1973 – Inducted into Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame When he retired, he was the first NBA player to eclipse 20,000 points and nearly 30 percent of his points (6,182) came at the foul line. He finished with 11 all-star game appearances, two regular season MVPs, four All-Star MVPs, an NBA title and 10 first-team All-NBA selections. -- Pettit became a very successful businessman after his retirement and also was one of the first color analysts to work with John Ferguson on the old TVS network broadcasts of SEC Basketball.

Eddie Einhorn put those packages together and in if you closely to an old tape of the famed UCLA-Houston game in 1968 in the Astrodome before over 50,000 fans, sitting courtside with a younger Dick Enberg calling that game on TVS was one Bob Pettit. (Note: Einhorn passed away on Thursday night. After making college basketball on Saturday afternoon's appointment viewing 50 years ago, he had spent the last 25 years as a minority owner of the Chicago White Sox.) Now a statue remains to be unveiled Saturday and the public is invited to add another milestone to the long-lasting legacy of this legend. What a career! What a life! Bob Pettit statue to be unveiled Feb. 27 is about a full-court pass from @shaq 's on north end of Maravich C...

Question: Bob Pettit is associated with which sport?
Answer: Basketball