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Bob Pettit · The St. Louis Hawks had lost the 1957 NBA Finals to Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics in a heartbreaking double-overtime Game 7, and Bob Pettit was determined not to let history repeat itself. With 10,218 fans packed into Kiel Auditorium on April 12, 1958, the 6'9" power forward delivered the most dominant performance in Finals history to that point. Pettit pulls up from the wing for a turnaround jumper, then buries a bank shot off the glass, the kind of relentless scoring barrage that produced 19 of his team's final 21 points with the championship hanging in the balance. His tip-in with 15 seconds remaining gave St. Louis a three-point cushion they would not relinquish, sealing a 110-109 victory in Game 6 and the franchise's first and only NBA championship. Pettit's 50 points and 19 rebounds marked the first 50-point game in NBA Finals history, a record for a clinching game that stood alone for 63 years until Giannis Antetokounmpo matched it in 2021. The league's inaugural MVP and two-time winner of the award, Pettit was also the first player in NBA history to eclipse 20,000 career points, a testament to the consistency and ferocity that defined his 11 All-Star seasons with the Hawks. · State of Mint