NEW ORLEANS (Diya TV) — Bob Pettit, the Hall of Fame forward who won the NBA’s first Most Valuable Player award and led the St. Louis Hawks to a championship, died Wednesday at his home in Metairie, Louisiana. He was 93. His family confirmed his death; no cause was announced.
Pettit won the NBA’s inaugural MVP award in 1956 and won it again in 1959. He played all 11 of his NBA seasons with the Hawks, joining the franchise in Milwaukee as the second pick of the 1954 draft and moving with it to St. Louis the following year. He earned an All-Star selection every season and made the All-NBA first team 10 times.
His defining performance came in Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals. Pettit scored 50 points as the Hawks beat the Boston Celtics 110-109 to clinch the franchise’s only championship. The teams met in the Finals four times between 1957 and 1961; the Hawks won once.
A Baton Rouge native, Pettit led LSU to its first NCAA Final Four in 1953 and led the Southeastern Conference in scoring in each of his three seasons with the Tigers. LSU retired his No. 50 jersey in 1954, the first jersey retirement in any sport at the school.
Pettit retired in 1965 with 20,880 points and 12,849 rebounds. He was the first NBA player to surpass 20,000 points and was the league’s career scoring leader when he retired. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted him in 1971.
