Why is it that the casual sports fan knows a lot about Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown, Dick Butkus and Gordie Howe but very little if anything about NBA greats Bob Pettit or Bill Sharman?
These players were all contemporaries - Williams, Howe and Pettit even shared the jersey number nine - but even though Pettit retired in 1965, before Mays and Mantle, he was the NBA's all-time leader in points and rebounds. That's like being the all-time baseball leader in home runs and batting average or runs batted in.
Even after earning first team All-NBA honors in 10 of his 11 seasons, winning two regular season MVPs, leading the Hawks to their only title in 1958 (the only non-Celtic championship from 1957-66) and four All-Star MVP awards when the game was actually a competition, the accomplishments of this 6-9 Dave Cowens-play-alike are known only by hard-core NBA fans.