NBA legend Bob Pettit died on Wednesday. He was 93.
Pettit was a blend of many things. Born in Louisiana during the Great Depression, Pettit attended LSU, and was one of the first great players in the NBA. Drafted by the Milwaukee Hawks in 1954, Pettit averaged 20.4 points and 13.8 rebounds per game that season, and won Rookie of the Year. He also had to move from center to forward, a position he had never played.
Didn’t matter: he excelled, anyway.
In 1958, the Boston Celtics had Bill Russell, and were building the greatest dynasty in the history of American professional sports. The St. Louis Hawks (the team moved after Pettit’s rookie season) nipped the Celtics in Game 6, 110-109, to win the title. Russell played injured for much of the series, but no one could control Pettit, who scored 50 points in that game.
His game was surprisingly modern. He was a good enough ball handler to drive and score, or he could shoot from well outside. And, as noted above, he was an excellent rebounder. If he played today, he’d be called a Stretch 4.
He earned a lot of respect during his career, notably from Russell, who said that Pettit invented the concept of second effort, and praised his fierce play.
In a small, kind, but still crushing anecdote, Russell once brought his grandfather to an NBA game. When Russell introduced his grandfather, who was born not all that long after slavery ended, Pettit shook his hand and said “Nice to meet you, Mr. Russell.”
On the way home after the game, the elder Russell told his grandson that that was the first time a white man had ever called him Mr. Russell.
In a small twist, Boston traded Ed MacCauley to St. Louis in order to obtain Russell, who the Hawks took with the #2 pick of the 1956 NBA Draft. Odds are Russell wouldn’t have lasted long in St. Louis, with the racism woven into the city at that time, but it’s fun to wonder what the Hawks would have been like with Russell and Pettit.
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