Bob Pettit, the first player to ever win the NBA's Most Valuable Player award, has died at 93. The Pettit family confirmed he passed away peacefully at his home in Metairie, Louisiana, on Wednesday, September 23, with LSU and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announcing the news Thursday.
Pettit spent his entire 11-season career with the Hawks franchise, winning MVP honors twice (1956 and 1959), leading St. Louis to its only NBA championship in 1958, and becoming the first player in league history to score 20,000 career points. He was an All-Star in every one of his 11 seasons and was later named to the NBA's 25th, 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams.
But long before analytics and highlight reels, Pettit was known just as much for his faith as his footwork. For decades he was a fixture at Fellowship of Christian Athletes camps, teaching basketball fundamentals to young athletes while openly sharing his relationship with Christ - a commitment credited with leading at least one future FCA president to faith after hearing Pettit speak at a 1960 camp in Wisconsin. Asked once what he owed his success to, Pettit didn't point to talent. "God gave me the desire and the means of application," he said.
After retiring in 1965, Pettit built a career in banking and stayed close to LSU and the Hawks community for the rest of his life. He is remembered by the Hall of Fame as "a sleek, skilled big man who revolutionized the forward position" - and by those who knew him, as a man who never separated the game from his faith.
