YouTube Gold: The Big O Remembered

The pantheon of great basketball players has a problem with recency bias. Think about it: who do you think about when you think about the all-time greats?

These guys are probably on your list:

• Michael Jordan
• LeBron James
• Kobe Bryant 

After that? Maybe Kareem, Magic, Bird. Maybe Olajuwon. Jerry West at least gets the logo. 

Usually left off are guys like Bill Russell (11 rings), Wilt Chamberlain (averaged 50 points and 27.3 rebounds in the 1961-62 season)  and Oscar Robertson. 

Known as the Big O, Robertson was one of the greatest guards in basketball history. 

You’ll see in this video that Robertson was very much a product of his time. He can’t really go to his left, but that wasn’t unusual for his era. And as we’ve mentioned before, the shoes of that era were dreadful by modern standards, the nutrition was misunderstood, and the technology that would revolutionize basketball wouldn’t come along until 15-20 years after he retired. 

Some guys even smoked at halftime.

But there’s no question about his greatness. His fundamentals were impeccable, his shot was beautiful and he could do anything he wanted, including against Chamberlain and Russell.

It’s unfair that he’s mostly forgotten today. If you’re not sure about his greatness, look at the picture at 10:21. The man was physical perfection. He was a great, great talent. 

This video also delves into his fury at the racism he had to face and how little respect he got overall. The racism is still there, but the world is vastly different than it was in the 1960’s and early ’70’s. 

He’s a remarkable man and is now 87. Along with Bob Pettit, Satch Sanders his old coach and antagonist Bob Cousy and a few others, he’s one of the last faces of the first great era of NBA basketball. 

We hope that he is more at peace with his role in basketball history.