Gen Z Investigates Bob Pettit The NBA’s FIRST MVP

Comments · 3

• AR

  @aramhamparian9641 · 4 days ago

  R.I.P. to a true sports legend.

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• CA

  @carolehall1000 · 4 days ago

  Thank you for this Bob Pettit video. There&apos;s few people alive today who would have had the opportunity to see Bob Pettit play. Those of us who love basketball and want an understanding of basketball history have to take the initiative to go back and learn. By doing this video, you may have helped people who would never have taken then time to do that, know a little more about basketball.<br><br>To answer your question: It is still legal today, to jump on a free throw, as long as you don&apos;t cross the line. <br><br>Let&apos;s address the dribbling. &nbsp;Many, if not most, of those guys had great handles; but, THE RULES PROHIBITED THEM FROM USING THEM IN THE NBA. Please pay attention. If you took Steph, Kyrie, SGA, Luka or Ja, sent them back in time to play in the league that Petit played in, and let them retain all the skills they possess right now, you&apos;d still be sitting there saying non of those guys have handles either. <br><br>The rules absolutely mandated that players had to dribble with their palm down, parallel to the floor, from only the top of the ball. Not from even a little to the side. Definitely not from the full on side. Absolutely not from underneath the flippin&apos; basketball. And they had to pretty much keep it in continuous motion. (None of this dribble, stop, hesi, hold, carry they&apos;re allowed to get away with today.) This was strictly enforced with penalties. This is not speculation. There are many players from the 50&apos;s and 60&apos;s and into the 70&apos;s who had elite handles. Some examples of these are Wilt Chamberlain, Connie Hawkins, Bob Cousy, Jimmy Walker, Earl Monroe, Spencer Haywood, and Pete Maravich. Oscar Robertson, who you completely dissed, is considered a great ball handler. Some of this was on display in college, which also had suppressive dribbling rules, at the time, but were sometimes less strict in enforcing them. Jimmy Walker did spin moves and between the leg crossover dribbles in college, although he did get called for it a lot. Oscar could dribble equally well with both hands, and the first time his college coach saw him play as a kid, he executed a perfect behind the back, change of pace switch of the ball dribble from his right to his left hand. But because NBA rules restricted him, Oscar had to use strength and essentially piledrive the ball into the floor to get it up the floor past defenders. (I don&apos;t know where that would leave Steph, if he had to resort to brute strength playing under those rules. SGA could probably do it.) For some of these guys their elite ball handling skills were on display in exhibitions or time spent playing with the Globetrotters, like Wilt Chamberlain; so, it was known they had them. Pete Maravich who grew up so obsessed with basketball he practiced 8 hours a day as a kid, used to dribble outside the passenger window while his dad drove the car, &nbsp;to master crazy levels of ball handling. He dribbled while riding his bike to school. He could simultaneously dribble balls in both hands and do crossovers. He was such an elite ball handler and playmaker that he was offered $1 million (worth almost $9 million in today&apos;s money) to sign with the Globetrotters when he was a senior in college, the first white player they had ever made any offer to. (He wanted to play in the NBA, so he played out his required senior year and took a contract for less than $500k per year just to play in the NBA.) But he wasn&apos;t allowed to showcase his off-the-charts handles in NBA games. You can still see evidence of his elite handles in highlights, though, because he figured out a loop hole. While he couldn&apos;t get away with doing it while bringing the ball up and down the court, he discovered he could finesse and confuse the refs and get away with it if it was on a pass. So he would use elite ball handling on a dribble to confuse defenders, but immediately, in an explosive movement, using exquisite fingertip control and wrist strength, convert it into a change of direction or palm up behind the back pass, which effectively changed it from dribbling rules to passing rules. Heck, he could ricochet a ball off his wrist if he needed to turn a dribble into a pass. <br><br>The point is please stop saying or believing that players couldn&apos;t dribble when they were following the rules imposed on them.

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• RO

  @romelsligh2788 · 2 days ago

  Yall young people need to start actually using yall brains why do yall think they should be dribbling like todays players back in the 50’s and 60’s yes they dribbled like that because basketball was in the beginning stages of skill levels make it make sense 🤦‍♂️