I'm talking vintage Big O in his Cincinnati days. I've seen a few old games with Russell, Chamberlain, Baylor, and West ... but there seems to be very little footage of Oscar Robertson in the early part of his career. The best I could find was a documentary of this CIN vs BOS playoff game in 1965: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K_h34wT3SHc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K_h34wT3SHc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9WUEf_dgdkY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9WUEf_dgdkY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IYCVbZwoDy4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IYCVbZwoDy4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Top 10, according to most. Amongst guards, he's usually considered top 3 along with Jordan and Magic.
I remember him shooting one-handed FTs. By the time I saw the "Big O" play with the Bucks, he was over the hill. My father taught him in high school.
Did you and your father ever compare him with other great guards? I've heard he was better than Jordan from some older people, even some former players have said so.
I'm not old enough to compare them and my father wasn't an NBA fanatic like me. I'll watch the videos later today.
Oscar may have been more talented but the problem is the championships. Jordan's six+the Finals MVPs he got in every one looks much better then the one championship Oscar got in which the Finals MVP ended up in Kareem's hands.
If I recall correctly, the Cincinnati Royals were a horrible organization with terrible management. Oscar wanted out and finally got his wish. It was truly a situation that was out of Oscar's control. By the time he got a chance to play for a real team/organization, he was entering the twilight of his career yet was still a terrific player that was crucial to their success. If he hadn't been stuck in a joke of an organization for the majority of his career, he likely would have won a lot more championships and awards.
It was a different game back then. For a guard to average double figure rebounds wasn't that incredible a feat. Look at it this way. His team grabbed 5665 rebounds that season in 80 games. Not sure how many overtime games they played, but let's say they played a total of 10 overtime periods all year. So that's 5665 rebounds in 3890 team minutes. Oscar grabbed 985 rebounds in 3503 minutes. So he was on the floor for about 90% of his team's minutes. Let's suppose his team got 5101 rebounds in the minutes he was on the floor. That means Oscar was credited with 19.3% of his team's rebounds while on the floor. I can do the exact same thing for LeBron this season, more exactly. Basketballvalue tells us that his team grabbed 2793 rebounds with him on the floor, and he has collected 589 rebounds himself. That means he's gotten 21.1% of his team's rebounds while on the court. What about the assists? Oscar's assist totals were uniquely high for his era, which makes it pretty special. He must have had the ball in his hands a lot to get so many of them. I'd estimate that his teammates hit 2561 field goals with him on the floor. That would mean he assisted on 35% of his teammate's baskets. How about LeBron? This season, he's assisted on approximately 38% of his teammate's baskets. LeBron is also probably scoring more per possession this season than Oscar ever did. It's a different era, with different rules. I have to think that if LeBron played back then and he averaged 45 minutes a game like Oscar used to (LBJ is a physical specimen, so I think he could do it), he'd have averaged a triple-double as well. There probably a number of players you could say that about. Magic and Jason Kidd could probably have averaged a triple double back then too.
Itd be cool if NBA could open up the vault for some of the older games. Like how MTV did for its videos
The games must not even exist on tape, which is what's sad. So much history is lost. Maybe someone out there has a private copy of some of these old games.
That just tells you that ring-counting is one of the worst ways to judge a player's greatness. Yet, there are so many people repeat the cliche over and over, "He won x number of championship. Case close."
Yep, you can be the 12th player on the roster, and played like 5 minutes in all the regular season, and get a ring, while a hall of fame player, that doesnt have any good players in his team, never will win a title.
The 2nd half of Wilt's 100 game turned into a joke where all the Warriors wanted to do was get him the ball and the opponent started fouling other Warriors to try and stop Wilt from scoring. The outcome was long-decided which is why the game degenerated so much. I've gathered this from written accounts of people who were there. IIRC, the Warriors even started fouling the other team just so they could get the ball back in a hurry. Get the video from Kobe's 81 points in a competitive game against the Raptors if you want to see something very special. This will seem hard to believe, but the Raptors blew the game. The Lakers needed Kobe to take over in order to win. The outcome was in doubt until about 4-5 minutes were left. I watched the entire thing and it's worth it.
