NBA All-Time Rank No. 34: Bob Pettit

Ranking the top 50 players in NBA history…

34. Bob Pettit

Pettit, despite playing in an early era, has to be considered among the best power forwards in the history of the game.

He played 11 seasons in the NBA, all with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks from 1954 to 1965, becoming the first player to score over 20,000 points (he finished his career with 20,880 points). Pettit also led the league in rebounds on multiple occasions, amassing 12,849 career boards for a 16.2 career rebounds per game average, a Hawks franchise record.

Pettit was an All-Star in every season of his career. He won two NBA MVP awards in 1956 and 1959, and finished in the top five in MVP voting in six other seasons, meaning that there were only three seasons in his career in which he didn’t win MVP or finish in the top five in voting.

Pettit was named NBA All-Star Game MVP four times (1956, 1958, 1959, 1962) and was selected to the All-NBA First Team 10 times.

His numbers were absurd. 29.2 points per game and 16.4 rebounds per game in 1958-59. How about 27.9 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game in 1960-61!

Pettit led the Hawks to an NBA Championship in 1958, scoring a then-playoff record 50 points in the decisive Game 6. He averaged at least 20 points and 12 rebounds per game in every season, never finishing below seventh in NBA scoring.

Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1970, Pettit is one of four players named to all four NBA anniversary teams and is widely regarded as one of the greatest big men in NBA history.

But who ranks ahead of Pettit at No. 33 all-time?