The basketball world has lost one of the towering figures who helped build the NBA into what it is today.
Bob Pettit, the LSU legend who became the first Most Valuable Player in NBA history, died Wednesday at age 93. LSU announced his passing Thursday.
No cause of death was immediately disclosed.
Pettit established the standard for the modern power forward, combining relentless rebounding with a scoring touch that defenders struggled to contain.
LSU Basketball shared the university’s official tribute to its homegrown legend:
The LSU family mourns the loss of Tiger legend and Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Famer Bob Pettit.
– https://t.co/T6HcRKfh9f pic.twitter.com/uWNNKLt3B9
— LSU Basketball (@LSUBasketball) September 24, 2026
Pettit’s rise began in Baton Rouge, but it was hardly preordained. He was cut from the varsity team as a sophomore at Baton Rouge High School before growing five inches, transforming his game and leading the school to its first state championship in more than two decades.
LSU Athletics recounts how Pettit stayed close to home for college and became a force for the Tigers. He led LSU to its first Final Four in 1953, paced the Southeastern Conference in scoring in all three of his varsity seasons and averaged 31.4 points and 17.3 rebounds as a senior.
His No. 50 became the first jersey number LSU retired in any sport. Decades later, a statue outside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center ensured that new generations of Tigers would still see the player who first put LSU basketball on the national map.
The Milwaukee Hawks selected Pettit second overall in the 1954 NBA Draft. He won Rookie of the Year, and one season later he became the first player ever awarded the league’s regular-season MVP trophy.
The NBA remembered the records Pettit set and the championship performance that defined his professional career:
Pettit spent all 11 of his NBA seasons with the Hawks organization, first in Milwaukee and then in St. Louis. He made the All-Star team every year, earned 10 First Team All-NBA selections and won a second MVP award in 1959.
His signature performance came in Game 6 of the 1958 NBA Finals against Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics. Pettit scored 50 points, including 19 of the Hawks’ final 21, to secure a 110-109 victory and the only championship in franchise history.
The NBA notes that Pettit retired as the league’s all-time leading scorer after becoming its first 20,000-point player. He finished with 20,880 points and 12,849 rebounds, career averages of 26.4 points and 16.2 rebounds, and four All-Star Game MVP awards.
He led the NBA in scoring in 1956 and again in 1959, when he captured his second league MVP award.
Commissioner Adam Silver remembered Pettit as the player who raised the bar for excellence at the league’s forward position. Silver also singled out the 50-point Finals performance that delivered the Hawks championship.
Those numbers came during an era dominated by Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson and Elgin Baylor. Pettit’s Hawks reached four NBA Finals, all against Boston, and his 1958 team interrupted what otherwise would have been a run of 10 consecutive Celtics championships.
The Basketball Hall of Fame honored Pettit as a pioneer who changed how the forward position was played:
Pettit was later named to the NBA’s 25th, 35th, 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams, one of only four players selected to all four. The Hawks retired his No. 9, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrined him among the game’s immortals.
Basketball has changed almost beyond recognition since Pettit entered the league in 1954. His place in its history has not.
He leaves behind the legacy of a champion, a two-time MVP and a foundational star whose influence still reaches every corner of the modern game.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
