When Bob Pettit first dribbled a basketball, the sport of basketball was nowhere near what it is today. The NBA was barely known in the United States, with eight teams still far from big cities. For this reason, the one who ended up becoming one of the first legends of the competition, who died on Wednesday at the age of 93 near his native Baton Rouge, Louisiana, did not start playing until he was 16 years old. So little was known about the discipline at that time that he came to think that he was too tall and strange to shine in it.
It is fascinating, then, that in 1956, at 22 years old and one season after his debut, he was chosen as the first MVP of the American league, an award that he collected twice throughout his 11 seasons as a professional. Pettit was the first full-fledged power forward in the discipline, when the concept did not even exist, thanks to his precise wrist and ability to fight until the last rebound on the court. At 2.06 meters and 93 kilos, he became the first NBA player to surpass the 20,000 point barrier.
He is part of the exclusive club of seven players who have reigned in scoring throughout eight decades of the competition's history: Joe Fulks, George Mikan, Ed Macauley, Dolph Schayes, himself, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James.
Pettit, who trained his throwing skills in the backyard of his parents' house, at night and using the dim light of a lamp placed in his bedroom window, did not receive any formal training throughout his childhood. His first teams in high school cut him off, and it was not until his time in college at LSU when he was able to demonstrate his memorable scoring ability, still today the third best average in history (27.4 points).
After being chosen with the number two pick in the 1954 draft, Pettit was named rookie of the year in his first season and participated in the All-Star in each of his 11 seasons. Upon his retirement, he had averaged 26.4 points and 16.2 rebounds per game in almost 800 games played, the most memorable of all the sixth and final game of the 1958 Finals. With 50 points, he led the Hawks – then established in St. Louis, Missouri – to their only NBA ring against Bill Russell's all-powerful Boston Celtics, who only lost that title between 1957 and 1966.
"He was one of the fiercest competitors I have ever met. He knew what he was doing, and no matter how good he was, he was still better under pressure. He put the concept of 'second effort' in the sports vocabulary. He always tried again," Russell valued in his day, who only lost against him in his 12 appearances in the NBA Finals. Pettit and his Hawks lost four times against the Celtics of that era, two of them in the seventh all-or-nothing game. “He was one of the most intelligent and greatest power forwards in the history of basketball,” summarized Oscar Robertson, another myth of the time.
Despite his scoring prowess, Pettit was much prouder of his on-court attitude and rebounding numbers. "I played as hard as I could every minute I was on the court. I never took a break. I went for every rebound on offense. Every time a teammate shot, I went for the ball. Not once or twice, every time. And in the long run, that paid off for me. My game was to hit myself and push myself under the rim to get rebounds," he commented, now retired.
One of the keys to his success was his interest in physical conditioning and the gym, being one of the first basketball players to incorporate weights and personal training as a basic recipe for better performance in games. Pettit's figures, at his death, resist the always unfair passage of time: by averages, he is the tenth scorer and the third best rebounder in the competition.
“The NBA family mourns the loss of Hall of Famer Bob Pettit, two-time MVP of the competition and a member of the league's four anniversary teams,” the American league wrote in a statement. “His unwavering work ethic, competitive spirit and commitment to basketball helped shape the identity of our franchise,” noted the Atlanta Hawks, who retired his number 9. From the Naismith Memorial, they recalled that the player was “a true basketball giant, one of the first interiors to play facing the basket who revolutionized the wing position.”
Although he died on Wednesday, his alma mater did not make the news public until Thursday afternoon in the United States, early Friday morning in Spain, without giving more details about the cause of death. In the LSU pavilion, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, his bronze statue stands next to that of another university great, Shaquille O'Neal.
