Blackballed
This NBA Finals has been chased by history. There’s Kobe Bryant, and, inevitably, there are the comparisons with Michael Jordan and Bryant’s hunt for Jordan’s legacy. There’s Paul Pierce and the comparisons with the great Boston Celtics legends. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were brought together by the NBA before the series began to discuss the great Celtics-Lakers rivalries of the 1980’s. Images of Wilt, Kareem, Shaq, Russell, Cousy and Havlicek have hovered over the games, ghosts of the legendary past.
I’ve been thinking about this as I’ve watched the series. These teams have accounted for half the championships in the history of the NBA, produced most of the so called memorable moments, maybe even some left in the next week.
But as I watch these great players and recall their incredible basketball ancestors, I wish everyone could have seen more of the player whom I consider the most perfect in NBA history, Oscar Robertson.
I’m perhaps not the ultimate judge, though I was fortunate to have seen in person more of Jordan’s games than any journalist. I am old enough to have seen Wilt and Russell Sunday afternoons on TV and have seen the likes of Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain in Madison Square Garden, near where I grew up.
That’s the good news compared with most of the fans today who missed that era. The bad news is they’ll likely live much longer. Yes, there’s always a but.
Everyone around sports is asked at one time or another about the best ever, and in basketball we generally agree it’s Jordan, the championships being the dividing line. Wilt was more dominant and his statistical achievements remain effectively out of reach. Of course, it’s impossible to compare between eras. Was Willie Mays better than Babe Ruth?
Was Joe Louis better than Muhammad Ali?
I recently spent some time talking with Robertson, who turns 70 later this year.
If I owned an NBA team, I’d hire him as team president or general manager because Robertson still knows the game as well as anyone I’ve spoken with in the last 30 years.
Not that Robertson even would accept. But the NBA should in some way acknowledge the effective blackballing of Robertson for his principal role in the labor action - the Oscar Robertson suit - that granted free agency to NBA players. Robertson even found himself forced off network TV after his career ended, in large part, because of his labor activity.
It seems difficult to believe that no one would ever give Robertson a chance to coach or run a team, something that just about all the great players in the game have done.
Yes, Robertson was an outspoken figure. But there are few people in the history of the game I’ve ever found who were both able to play the game to its highest level while also understanding how that is accomplished.
Sure, Robertson notices. He’s been the successful owner and CEO of his own chemical company in Cincinnati, married for almost 50 years, a devoted father who a decade ago donated a kidney to his daughter. He does some appearances for the NBA and the Basketball Hall of Fame, though always has remained more on the periphery, the name always mentioned when someone in today’s guard-dominated NBA achieves something.
Then it becomes something like, “The first since Oscar Roberston in…” Or Joins Oscar Roberston with…”
“Kobe, LeBron, they are very good players, no doubt,” says Robertson. “But they are what the ESPNs of the world are pushing all the time. It behooves them to push these guys. I understand. They’re always saying who is the greatest and asking guys who weren’t around and never saw guys play, like it all just began.
“I give them this. They make the guys seem so glamorous they seem so much better than everyone else,” says Robertson. “But here’s a guy (Chamberlain) who averaged 50 points and 25 rebounds. I averaged a triple double one season (Robertson averaged a triple double in his first five seasons combined). And while I’m also averaging 30 points (with only about 18 shots per game). Now guys get triple doubles with 10 points.
“There’s no question guys like Kobe, LeBron, Chris Paul could play against anybody,” Robertson continued. “But they’ve got guys averaging one or two points a game making $5 million. And some guys getting a million dollars who don’t even get in the game. And they think they deserve it.”
Robertson laughs at his own observation. He knows he can sound bitter, though he isn’t.
“I’m grateful for the life I have,” he says. “The family is doing fine. I’m working hard every day, going out and competing.”
Would he still like to in basketball?
“I never was given a chance to get involved in a managerial position,” Robertson observes. “Life goes on. But like an elephant, you never forget. You just bring up what happened and go on.”
It’s likely one reason Robertson never was fully embraced by the NBA establishment. He was always direct, and always black. And that combination wasn’t popular or acceptable for a long time.
Though not the first black player, Robertson perhaps was the most outspoken and active. He took on the players’ association presidency when most declined in the era of the game’s reserve clause and few rights for players. His wife marched at Selma. He regularly suffered through segregation and discrimination because of his color growing up in Indianapolis and playing ball in Cincinnati, both southern style cities. He believes he was ignored by Indiana U. for a scholarship, despite being the state’s Mr. Basketball, because “they had too many (blacks) on the team.”
He fought always and it led to eventually a trade from Cincinnati to Milwaukee, where he would get his one NBA championship, to a bitter parting there as well when he felt pushed out of the game because of age at 35 and the longtime effects around the NBA of his labor activity.
Through it all, he retained his dignity and pride, but most of all to me played the game as perfectly as it could be played.
Tim Duncan is now renowned for his fundamental play, but longtime observers of basketball will tell you no one was more fundamentally sound than Robertson, the ultimate quarterback in the ultimate team game.
Certainly, the statistics alone bear that out in his triple doubles, effectively accounting for more points per game than everyone but Chamberlain.
There wasn’t anything Robertson couldn’t do as well as any other player in the game, though in a time when dunking was considered an insult and flashy, individual play was frowned upon, Robertson was the most coolly efficient player of the game.
There’s a famous quote from Dick Barnett, who played on the early 1970’s Knicks’ title teams and against Robertson in high school when Robertson’s team won the first of its two state titles, that describes Roberston: “If you give Oscar a 12-foot shot, he’ll work you until he has a 10-foot shot. Give him 10, he wants eight. Give him eight, he wants six. four, two. Give him two, you know what he wants. Right, baby, a layup.”
Robertson knows there’s some old fogy in all the old guys. He laughs about shooting guard and point guard.
“A guy can’t do something, now they create a position for him,” he notes. “He can’t handle the ball so he’s a shooting guard.”
Robertson was just a guard. Oh, what a guard.
No, he didn’t get the championships, so he rarely gets into the discussion of the greatest. Though if you ask him his all-time team the guards are Jerry West and Robertson. His misfortune was to play for a poor franchise in Cincinnati that would have gone out of business if he weren’t available in the territorial draft. The Royals had the misfortune of being moved to the East when the Philadelphia Warriors relocated and spent the 1960’s going against Boston and its six or seven Hall of Famers every season in the playoffs.
Eventually, toward the end of his career Robertson would get to Milwaukee and get Abdul-Jabbar his first championship with what could have been the best team ever. The Bucks were 65-11 when coach Larry Costello rested the regulars for the rest of the season and they lost five of the last six. No one chased record seasons then.
But to hear Robertson talk about basketball skills is to understand what’s missing in today’s game.
In asking Robertson about skills, he doesn’t talk about dunking or shooting or dribbling as much as filling the lane at the proper angle, rubbing off a defender on the pick-and-roll, seeing the court to know where the help is coming from, pacing yourself and your speed (Robertson looked slow because of that but was one of the game’s quickest players), knowing when to hit a teammate with pass the moment he frees himself from the screen and where to get him the ball so he can shoot in rhythm.
Asked about that, Robertson mentions Duncan and Jason Kidd and then is quiet.
Robertson is occasionally at book signings these days for his book, “The Big O: My Life, My Times, My Game.”
It’s his life story with interesting tidbits about losing in his first high school season to Milan High School the year it won the Indiana title in the famous Hoosiers story. Robertson also notes how the movie just happened to leave out the part about the team Milan really beat, Muncie Central, was an integrated team.
Robertson changed the game as much as any of the pioneers of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. But if you watched Jordan back his opponent in for a fadeaway or fallaway, that was Robertson. Seeing Johnson spinning on a drive or protecting the ball with his body driving, that also was Robertson.
Robertson was a natural that way. Even as a kid playing against bigger kids, they’d try to trap him to take advantage of his small size then. Robertson said it was then he learned to recognize the double team, where his teammates were to pass and how to blow by to avoid the pressure.
Just speaking with Robertson is like a lesson in pure basketball, what really makes it a game of grace and beauty. That’s not dunking and shooting three-pointers or some behind-the-back pass. Robertson could do all that as a kid, but growing up a black basketball player in the 1950’s you stayed away from that lest you not be considered serious. The Harlem Globetrotters were the clowns of basketball then and a popular act. But they also bordered on the insulting. Many whites looked at the Globetrotters as black basketball, clowns performing for white audiences. You know, “Dance, kid.”
So guys like Robertson avoided the possible comparison by making their plays and then getting into defensive position. This was no joke.
Robertson gives an example of how he saw the game in his book and it should be required reading for every high school and college basketball player and guard.
“Say I have the ball at the top of the key and I am dribbling, keeping my defender at bay with my body as I read the court,” Robertson writes. “Down on the baseline, Jack Twyman is running toward a pick set on the low block by Wayne Embry. Maybe Jack’s defender is trailing him, which means, I hope, Jack will run past the pick, curl tightly around it and pop out in front with his hands ready so I can hit him with a pass in rhythm. I’m watching for this. But I’m also watching to see if the defender is going to aggressively overplay or pop over Wayne’s pick and try to deny that very pass. If he does try to play aggressively, I’m trusting Jack to gauge this and react, perhaps fading to the corner for an uncontested jump shot or perhaps he will slip back door and be available for a bounce pass and a layup. Maybe Wayne, after setting the pick, is going to be able to pop out for an open shot. Or maybe he will roll to the basket. Meanwhile, I’ve got my defender in front of me looking for the first chance to reach in, ruin our plans and head the other way with the ball.”
And yes all this is about two of three seconds.
Robertson also notes the play is just a part since if Twyman is running through picks and not getting the ball or Embry is fighting for position and likewise ignored, how often do they continue to do that and how quickly are they getting back to defend if the guy with the ball is shooting and making plays for himself, no matter how successful.
Robertson was averaging more than 10 assists per game overall through his first nine seasons in the NBA, and that at a time when as assist was only counted if the scoring player did not dribble with the ball. Now, a player can get an assist if the scorer has up to two dribbles.
“Winning is not complex,” says Robertson. “You need good players playing together.”
Somehow you believe Robertson would have gotten it done for some team if he’d only been given the chance. It’s a shame that the NBA has too long wasted one of its most valuable resources.
tony Said,
June 12, 2008 @ 6:29 pm
Yep…you’re right. An excellent basketball mind forever in the shadows. Respected for his on-court accomplishments, but unwilling to be trusted to bring about the same at the helm of a franchise.
tom Said,
June 12, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
great article. sounds like a legend, would love to have a talk with Oscar.
ML Said,
June 12, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
Very Intersting Article Sam. I never knew that Oscar’s wife’s marched at Selma. And yes it is ashame the Big O Doesn’t get the respect & love he deserves. But at the End of the day he is still one of the all time greats.
Jerry Powell Said,
June 12, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
Oscar is the GREATEST player who ever played.The most complete player in the history of basketball and that includes the likes of Michael Jordan, Wilt, West and Baylor.
Richard Said,
June 12, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
Ah, one of the best articles I’ve read. I love the Big O and would love to hear his perspective on today’s game, the college game and what kids aren’t grasping from the game at the same age when he was coming along.
I respect all the Hall of Famers because the game of basketball has turned into a highlight show, reality TV and ESPN meets MTV. Where are the fundamentals? Who pride’s themselves in playing both side of the floor? Money is ruining the game and in an era where foreign players were bringing fundamentals back, with the American dollar losing it’s power daily, that’s going to set fundamentals back too.
Great article!!
eduardo's way Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 12:25 am
I couldn’t agree more with that assement! I think when LeBron James is being compared, he should be compared to Oscar not Michael Jordan. I don’t think we respect the history of the game because Oscar Robertson still has an infleunce how certain teams run their offense. He is one player I wish he played in the advent of the three point shot.
Bayo Ojikutu Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 1:14 am
Thank you, Sam, for treating the truest of legends in such suitaby elegant fashion. More of your generatiohn’s insights are sorrily missing in the contemporaty perception of the game. For the sake of celebrating this most glorious of team sports, please keep doing what you do, sir. Very best,
Bayo
Eugene Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 1:37 am
Hi Sam,
Great piece. Are you writing anywhere else these days? I am deeply sorry to see that you’re no longer writing for the Trib.
Best Wishes,
Eugene
Don Sellers Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 6:36 am
Sam, one hell of a job. This was a darn good basketball player, but moreover he is one hell of a role model. The thing people who participate in team sports should take away from this story is the quote that “Winning is not complex”, You need good players playing together”. I consider it an honor to be able to comment on Mr. Robertson. You are easily at the top of any conversation about all time greats. Young fellas realize this player is one of the reasons you have the freedom to move inside of the game and inside of life.
Thanks Oscar!!!!!!
Don Sellers
Rochester Razorsharks
Premier Basketball League
Mat, Switzerland Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 6:58 am
Hi Sam,
How is the life without the Tribune?
Still not decided to come to Switzerland?
Have a nice w-e
Mat, Ecuvillens City, Switzerland.
C Fatz Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 7:20 am
Great article.
Respect.
Respect the game. Respect the greats. Big O get’s nothing but props here
CF
Henry Young Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 7:31 am
AWSOME…AWESOME…AWESOME article. I enjoy today’s NBA game…and
I wish I was alive to see the true ol’ school NBA games. This article painted a very vivid image of what I missed. Truly, if a guy averages 30 points per game on 18…19…20 shots per game, he definitely has to be mentioned amongst the greatest scorers of all time. The MOST startling statistic is how assists were attained.
I read the Chicago Tribune often and I don’t recall an article that you wrote that I disagreed with. Keep up the good work.
Pax Rightorwrong Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 9:48 am
No way. Vinny del Negro would have been a greater player, if he had been treated fairly, and will be a greater coach.
sincerely,
Pax
Gerry Vaillancourt Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 10:16 am
Had the pleasure of interviewing Oscar.After the session we spent close to an hour just talking about the game and his life. A very gracious man who indeed was a very special talent.Listening to him share his stories gave life to the book I read that same evening.
Nice work Sam !
Regards
Gerry Vaillancourt
New Orleans Hornets Broadcasting
David Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 11:00 am
I actually got to have dinner with Oscar here in San Antonio during the final 4 in 2005. He was such a gentleman, although he was picking the Lakers that year to win it all.
JB Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 11:32 am
I probably would have read the entire article if it werent for all the grammatical errors.
Jax Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 11:51 am
i totally agree… Oscar is one of the greatest ever. one of the 5 best - ever!
i love this article… keep it up!
Jax Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 11:53 am
i totally agree… great article, keep it up!
Oscar is definitely one of the greatest ever, perhaps one of the best 5 ever!
Jax Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 11:53 am
i totally agree… great article!
Oscar is definitely one of the greatest ever - in the Top 5!
Mike Winter Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
Does Oscar say that MJ is the best player ever? It doesn’t sound like it whenhe says he and West are his top two guards. I think Oscar was wonderful but not as wonderful as MJ.
jp Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
I enjoyed the article but felt like Oscar was praising his era a little too much. He acts like only the top few players today could compete against the Chamberlains of his time, when in reality 9/10 guys in the NBA today would dominate in that era. There were no foreign players, a very small global outlook (complared to today) and the market for basketball just wasnt that big (which explains the somewhat poor pay in that era). Im sorry but I have to say this- Wilt Chamberlain wouldnt be a top 10 center in the NBA today. The players are alot more athletic now and the talent pool is amazing compared to the “old school” era. Of course Wilt could average those numbers when he was one of only a handful of seven footers. Now Oscar Robertson on the other hand, he was amazing compared to the guys he played against but I still think players like Iverson, Nash, etc are more impressive bc they are putting up these numbers against the best players in the world.
Gnism Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 1:52 pm
Real nice piece…I’ve always argued on behalf of Big O as being the greatest.
Every player in the league (especially those opting out of contracts and testing free agency) owes him some money!
Gnism Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
Real nice piece…I’ve always argued on behalf of Big O as being the greatest.
Every player in the league (especially those opting out of contracts and testing free agency) owes him some money!
iNDY Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 3:12 pm
Wow! This brought back great memories of a great player, teammate and gentleman. I was too young to know about his off-court struggles, but I sure remember how he played ball, even late in his career.
It always makes me proud to be a Hoosier when I hear folks speak fondly of the Big O. I had the pleasure of seeing him honored during the innaugural season for the Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse. It gave me chills to see Oscar, Larry Bird and John Wooden on the same floor, under spotlights as the 3 greatest Indiana basketball legends ever. What a moment.
Ed Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
wow! great article!
I have always thought big O was a more complete player (and gentlemen) than anyon else on the court.
ed
Aaron Ray Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
JP….Are you kidding me. Wilt Chamberlain not be a top 10 Center….guys are more athletic today….R U KIDDING ME!?!?!?! Bet you didn’t know that Wilt Chamberlain had a 44″ vertical. Or that in high school he threw the shot put 61′ or ran a 10.9 100 yard dash…yeah thats longer than 100 meters. When he played he was considered the strongest man in the world. So yeah he didn’t play against many 7 footers…..but to do what he did is absolutely incredible. 100 points in a game with no 3 pointers. 50 Rebounds on multiple occasions are you kidding me. One season he average 48.9 minutes a game. Tell me what center can do that today. Tell me what other center today could draw attention from a team at the age of 50 when the Nets tried sign him to a contract. 50!!!!!! Yeah that was in the 80’s. Name 10 centers that would be better from today’s game….don’t worry I’ll wait. Even if I stretch it out and give you Yao, Shaq, Amare, Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard. That’s five and 3 of those players are true power fowards….what are you talking about????
Brian Boitono Said,
June 13, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
oscar wouldnt average 10 in the league now a days he reminds me of a poor mans ime udoka. just less athletic
Dave Said,
June 14, 2008 @ 4:42 pm
Oscar was an incredible. It’s a pity I’ve only seen games from late on his career. The sheer intelligence and composure of his play was phenomenal. Every possession he was always trying to work you over to a spot where he wanted to shoot or pass, always that spot and you could never stop him. So many weapons.
His book is very good and well worth reading.
hnations Said,
June 14, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
Great article! thanks a bunch. The Big O always was and remains a gentleman of the highest order. I only got to see him on tv with the Bucks; without him they would never have won their championship. Having said that, he prob’ly had slowed down a bit by then but made up for it with smarts and court awareness.
Terry Said,
June 15, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
I truely enjoyed this article my son is a point guard playing ball overseas. I know he could benefit from a legend like the big O. I am e-mailing this article to him now. I know a lot of players young and old can benefit from such a great legend.
satch Said,
June 16, 2008 @ 12:32 am
today,s players might be stronger due to weight lifting programs but they are not better basketball players.oscar hit it right on the head about espn.for example i never saw anybody who could stop george gervin and nobody today would stop him neither.you never hear his name mentioned ever.
ThinkLinks: Blackballed… Beyond Barry Bonds | Sports On My Mind Said,
June 16, 2008 @ 8:36 pm
[...] – Oscar Robertson: Sam Smith writes: “It’s likely one reason Robertson never was fully embraced by the NBA establishment. He was always direct, and always black. And that combination wasn’t popular or acceptable for a long time.” …the more things change… [“Blackballed” - HoopsHype] [...]
MIKE FRINK Said,
June 17, 2008 @ 7:29 am
THE BEST BASKETBALL PLAYER IN HISTORY (PERIOD) IS ONLY SURPASSED BY HIS PERSONAL LIFE’S STORY–HE HAS ALWAYS EXCELLED NO MATTER THE “OPPONENT”– POVERTY, RACISM, BIGOTRY,POLITICS, COLLUSION–AND HE PROVES IT MORE AND MORE EVERY DAY!
Carl S. Said,
July 28, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
To the guys think that Oscar, Wilt and their contemporaries can’t hold a candle to today’s stars - think again. His comment about the game today being made for the ESPN highlight reels speaks volumes. Flashiness does not equal good play. The older guys were the masters of the fundamentals. If you don’t think fundamentals are that important try watching reruns of Team USA the year they got smoked in the Olympics and didn’t even get a medal. Most of today’s players are too busy to work hard at learning the game.
Jay T Said,
July 30, 2008 @ 9:19 am
The guys commenting about Wilt and the Big O not being able to compete must be ten or have never seen any classic NBA games they played. The league was much more concentrated then and while there are as many good players now, they are much more spread out.
I live in Chicago and grew up in Cincy so I saw both play a great deal: with no disrespect to West I have to put Oscar and Michael in my all-time backcourt. In the modern game you put Oscar on the point and let him pound and befuddle todays incomplete point guards.
Dick H Said,
July 30, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
If you combine college and pro careers, noone (not even Kareem) was better than Oscar Robertson. As a pro, he is no worse than the second best guard, and you can make a case he is better than Michael. Just look at his record in the All Star game. Oscar almost never played on the losing side. Give him any decent big man and his team would have won the title every year.
pjz Said,
August 14, 2008 @ 3:33 pm
Sam -
great writing.
pjz