Taken with the second overall pick in the 1954 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Hawks (yes, the hawks played in the City of Brews in the early fifties, before moving to St. Louis and then to Atlanta in 1968), Petit was considered by some, too slight to play in the NBA, coming out of LSU. He would quickly prove his critics wrong.
Petit was an offensive threat immediately in the NBA. He racked up a cool 1,466 points in his rookie season with the Hawks and won the NBA Rookie of the Year award. Well, with such a prolific rookie season, what could he possibly do from there? How about lead the NBA in scoring?! Playing in St. Louis during the 1955-56 NBA season, Petit led all players in field goals, with 646, and points with 1,849. He would follow that up in his third NBA season by once again leading the league in field goals with 613.
Petit's high-water mark offensively came in the 1958-59 season as he accumulated 719 field goals and 2,105 points! For his career, Bob Petit had the following numbers:
- 20,880 points
- 7,349 field goals
- .436 field goal percentage
- 6,182 free-throws
- 12,849 rebounds
- 26.4 points per game (7th all-time)
- 16.2 rebounds per game (3rd all-time)
sources: nba.com, basketball-reference.com, wikipedia.com,
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