Regular-season Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award winners: Atlanta Hawks
Bob Petit stands alone with 2 regular-season MVPs with the Atlanta Hawks.
The Atlanta Hawks have had a player win the regular season MVP award two times in their franchise history. Both MVPs were won by the same player. Let’s dig into those two campaigns and discuss the path that led to the award.
The then Milwaukee Hawks selected Pettit with the second pick in the 1954 Draft. He made an immediate impact, making the All-Star team and averaging 20.4 points and 13.8 rebounds in his first campaign. That was also good enough for him to win the Rookie of the Year award. He was even better in 1955-56, averaging 25.7 points and 16.2 rebounds per game. He led the NBA that season in points per game, field goals made per game, field goals attempted per game and free-throws attempts per game. The result was him winning his first career regular season MVP award.
The Hawks made it to the playoffs in 1955-56 with Pettit averaging 19.1 points and 10.5 rebounds across eight playoff games. While they did not win a championship, Pettit went on to win a championship with the Hawks in 1958. During that playoff run, Pettit averaged 24.2 points and 16.5 rebounds per game.
After winning the MVP in 1955-56, Pettit finished second for the award the following season. He then came in fourth place for the MVP award in 1957-58. Following the Hawks winning the title in 1958, Pettit won his second regular season MVP award in 1958-59. That season, he led the league in points per game (29.2), field goals made per game (10.0), free-throws attempted per game (12.2) and free-throws made per game (12.2). He also averaged 16.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.
While Pettit didn’t win another MVP award, he did finish inside the top five in MVP voting four more times during his career. In the 1960-61 season, he came in second place in the voting. He played a total of 11 seasons for the Hawks and was selected as an All-Star in each of them. He shined in the All-Star game, winning the All-Star MVP award four times.
Across 792 regular season career games, Pettit averaged 26.4 points, 16.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists. He never averaged lower than 20.4 points per game or 12.4 rebounds per game in any season of his career. Over 88 playoff games, he averaged 25.5 points, 14.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists. In 1971, Pettit was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
