Background

Oscar Robertson was born on November 24, 1938 in Charlotte, Tennessee, United States. He was the youngest of three sons born to Henry Bailey Robertson and Mazell Bell Robertson. When Robertson was very young, his family moved to Indianapolis, where his father became a sanitation worker. His mother worked as a domestic and later became a beautician.

Education

Growing up in abject poverty in a segregated housing project, Robertson was drawn to basketball because of its popularity in his neighborhood, and by his brothers who played at the local YMCA. The Robertson brothers also practiced by shooting a makeshift basketball - a rag-wrapped tennis ball bound with rubber bands - into a peach basket behind his family's home. The young Oscar improvised by shooting with tin cans and tennis balls, and at the age of eleven received his first basketball, which was almost thrown away by the family who employed his mother as a maid.

Mazell Robertson was determined to help her sons make lives for themselves beyond the projects. She made sure they stayed out of trouble by keeping busy with schoolwork and sports. Her son Bailey, Oscar's older brother, went on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Robertson attended Crispus Attucks High School, an African-American institution that was part of Indianapolis's segregated school system. The building had no gym, and white schools refused to play against its teams, but even under these circumstances, Robertson's exceptional ability and sharp instincts emerged. His coach Ray Crowe polished and refined his raw talent with intensive fundamentals. The hard work paid off: Robertson led his team to two consecutive state championships (1955 and 1956), a state record of forty-five straight wins, and the first undefeated season in the history of the Indiana state high school system. In 1956, his senior year, Robertson was named Indiana's "Mr. Basketball."

Robertson was not only a basketball star, but also excelled in track and field as a high jumper and in baseball as a pitcher. In spring 1956 he graduated sixteenth in his class of 171 students and was a Scholar-Athlete and member of the National Honor Society. He was also chosen for three All-America high school teams. More than thirty colleges recruited him, but Robertson chose to stay close to home and attend the University of Cincinnati because its flexible system enabled him to study part-time, work part-time at the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company, and play full-time basketball for the Bearcats.

Robertson was the first African-American to play basketball for Cincinnati at a time when the Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation throughout the South. Even though he was brilliant on the basketball court, Robertson experienced off-court discrimination at both the university and on the road. Though initially barred from college locker rooms, he was allowed entrance once the other players saw his abilities. Robertson was frequently denied entry to whites-only establishments, such as theaters and restaurants, even in Cincinnati. Traveling through the Midwest and South as part of an integrated college sports team was also dangerous. Unable to stay in hotels with his team until his junior year, Robertson often was forced to stay alone in college dorms. Especially while in the South, Robertson coped with fears of the Ku Klux Klan, who had attacked and lynched individuals involved in the Civil Rights Movement; he nearly dropped out of college because of the emotional distress.

Robertson excelled in all aspects of basketball. He set nineteen school and fourteen National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division scoring records. He led the Bearcats to a 79-9 record and two straight NCAA tournament third-place finishes in 1959 and 1960, tallying 62 points against North Texas State University his senior year. Robertson's scoring, which averaged 33.8 points per game and totaled 2,973 points, placed him seventh on the all-time NCAA scoring list. It was during his college days that Robertson earned his nickname "the Big O" for his relentless offense. He possessed not only a deadly outside shot, but also worked tirelessly to create scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates.

In 1960, Oscar graduated with a degree in business administration.

On June 9, 2007, Robertson received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for both his philanthropic and entrepreneurial efforts.

Career

In 1960, after graduation from the University of Cincinnati, Robertson and future NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West led the 1960 United States Olympic basketball team to a gold medal, a team that many consider one of the most talented ever assembled. That same year Oscar began his fourteen-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Cincinnati Royals, earning $33,000 in his first year. From 1960 to 1967, Robertson also served in the United States Army with the rank of Private First Class.

In his first season, 1960-1961, Robertson finished third in the league in scoring with an average of 30.5 points per game. He also scored 23 points and made a record 14 assists. Robertson's second year was even more spectacular: he became the only player in NBA history to average a "triple-double" - double-digit averages in scoring (30.8), rebounds (12.5), and assists (11.4) - for an entire season.

The 1963-1964 season was another banner year for Robertson. He earned both regular-season and All-Star MVP honors, cementing his place as one of the NBA's dominant players. No other player excelled in as many categories as Robertson did. Over his first five seasons (384 games), Robertson averaged a cumulative triple-double (30.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 10.6 assists), an amazing series of averages.

In 1970 Robertson, who was president of the players' union from 1963 to 1974, filed an antitrust suit against the league to stall the proposed merger of the NBA and the American Basketball Association. He challenged not only the legality of the merger, but also the legitimacy of the college draft and the NBA's prohibition against free agency. Six years elapsed before the NBA finally settled the case, and by then the leagues merged and the draft remained intact. Drafted players won the right, however, to ignore their prospective employers for a year and reenter the draft. In addition, teams were no longer required to provide compensation when signing a free agent. This allowed more players to negotiate as free agents and eventually led to higher salaries for all players.

In the 1970-1971 season, the Royals stunned the basketball world by trading Robertson to the Milwaukee Bucks. Rumors flew that the Royals coach Bob Cousy instigated the trade out of jealousy that Robertson had broken all of his records. A more likely reason, however, was Robertson's search for a championship.

The move to the Bucks was the right one. Robertson and teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led the Bucks to the NBA title in the 1970-1971 season. Robertson played three more years with the Bucks, but managed to get to the playoffs only in his last season. The classic contest, which pitted Milwaukee against Boston, stretched over seven games before Boston sealed its fifteen-point victory.

Robertson left the NBA in 1974 with 26,710 points, 9,887 assists, and 7,804 rebounds, which he collected in 1,040 games. He shot .485 from the field and .838 from the line. In 86 playoff games, Robertson averaged 22.2 points, 8.9 assists, and 6.7 rebounds. He made 12 consecutive trips to the All-Star game and led the league in assists 6 times and in free-throw percentages twice. His team made the playoffs in 10 of his 14 years in the league. With superior offensive and defensive skills, he single-handedly redefined the role of the guard position and was considered the first "big guard" in the game.

Since Robertson's retirement from basketball, he has worked as a broadcaster and served as president of the retired players' association. He also served as national director of the Basketball Hall of Fame from 1987 to 1989. Robertson wrote The Art of Basketball: A Guide to Self-Improvement in the Fundamentals of the Game (1998), with Michael O'Daniel.

Starting in 2000, Robertson served as director for Countrywide Financial Corporation, until the company's sale to Bank of America in 2008. In July 2004, Robertson was named interim head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball team.

Achievements

• Oscar Robertson is one of the greatest players in NBA history. He was the first player to average more than 10 assists per game and the first guard in NBA history to ever average more than 10 rebounds per game, doing so three times. In addition to his 1964 regular-season MVP award, Robertson won three All-Star Game MVPs in his career (in 1961, 1964, and 1969). Oscar is also credited with having invented the head fake and the fadeaway jump shot.
  
  On April 28, 1980, Robertson was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He received the "Player of the Century" award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2000 and was ranked third on SLAM Magazine's Top 75 NBA Players in 2003. In 2006, ESPN named Robertson the second greatest point guard of all time, praising him as the best post-up guard of all time.
  
  In 1998, the Player of the Year Award was renamed the Oscar Robertson Trophy in honor of the player who won the first two awards because of his outstanding career and his continuing efforts to promote the game of basketball.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Big O: My Life, My Times, My Game

    (The Big O is the story of a shy black child from a poor f...)

    2003
  • The Art of Basketball: A Guide to Self-Improvement in the Fundamentals of the Game 1998

• movie

  • Something to Cheer About

    (This powerful sports documentary tells the story of the C...)

    2002

Views

Oscar Robertson is involved in numerous charitable and community activities, including the NBA Legends Foundation, the Boys Club of New York, the National Kidney Foundation, and the International Prostate Cancer Foundation.

In 2015, Robertson was among a group of investors who placed a marijuana legalization initiative on the Ohio ballot. This initiative sought exclusive grow rights for the group members while prohibiting all other cultivation except small amounts for personal use.

Quotations: "But I like to think an athlete is an athlete."

"But I think the image that's thrown out on television is a bad image. Because you see players who want to imitate hip-hop stars. And the NBA is taking advantage of the situation."

"I don't blame David Stern because a player gets on the court and he doesn't put out competitively. No one can make you play if you don't want to play."

"I don't think that players learn how to play any other aspect of the game in high school or college."

"I think that basketball players should get the job done no matter how it looks on the screen."

"I think that everyone should be able to dribble. Everyone should be able to pass. Otherwise, why are you out there?"

"I think that teaching coaches are the norm now."

"I was taught to play that way when I was in high school and even before I got to high school."

"I'd like to think that the nature of the two teams - Boston being a championship team over the years and the Lakers, same thing - was a lot bigger than Larry Bird or Magic Johnson."

"If you're a basketball player, you've got to shoot."

"It's a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to race."

"It's like all guys want to do is make a dunk, grab their shirt and yell out and scream - they could be down 30 points but that's what they do. Okay, so you made a dunk. Get back down the floor on defense!"

"Just fundamental things - I played guard and I played forward, so you get into a position where you are pivoting out on the court."

"Now, I guess, people want stars. People are trying to invent stars."

"Some players are more physical than others, some play with more finesse. Some are just really great all-around players. So you have to change your game."

"The Olympics were great, because you had to make the team, and then go to the games. Now, I don't know, these guys today don't want to do anything like that."

"The thing about it is almost everyone could pass that way, but we were kept from doing it by our coaches."

"They should have a rule: in order to be a sportswriter, you have to have played that sport, at some level; high school, college, junior college, somewhere. Or, you should have had to have been around the game for a long time."

Membership

Oscar Robertson is a member of the Beta Eta chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and the National Basketball Retired Players Association.

Personality

Robertson's trademark expression was "Oh, Brent, did you see that!" in reaction to flashy or spectacular situations such as fast breaks, slam dunks, player collisions, etc.

Physical Characteristics: Oscar Robertson is 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) tall and weighs 205 lb (93 kg). In 1997, he donated one of his kidneys to his daughter Tia, who suffered lupus-related kidney failure.

Interests

• woodworking

• Sport & Clubs

  basketball; Harlem Globetrotters

• Athletes

  Marques Haynes, Goose Tatum

Connections

Robertson is married to a former teacher, Yvonne Crittenden, with whom he has three daughters - Shana, Tia and Mari.

Father:

Henry Bailey Robertson

(died May 27, 2004)

Mother:

Mazell Bell Robertson

(March 19, 1918 - October 16, 2007)

Spouse:

Yvonne Crittenden

Daughter:

Tia Robertson

(born 1964)

Daughter:

Mari Robertson

Daughter:

Shana Robertson

Friend:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

References

• But They Can't Beat Us!: Oscar Robertson and the Crispus Attucks Tigers An inspiring story that brings together joy, race, and achievement during a critical time in America, the chronicle of Crispus Attucks justifies the Indiana belief that basketball is just about the most important thing there is.
  1999
• Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City From native Hoosier and award-winning author Phillip Hoose comes this true story of a team-up against impossible odds, making a difference when it mattered most.
  2018
• Collision Course: The Basketball Lives of Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson and the Fall of the Cincinnati Royals A book by William A. Cook.
  2019