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I played when I played, and played, I think, against the greatest players in the greatest time in the history of basketball.

Oscar Robertson

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Oscar Robertson
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: November 24
Basketball Coach
Basketball Player
The Big O
Oscar Palmer Robertson
Greatest
History
Time
Think
Thinking
Players
Played
Basketball
Player

More quotes by Oscar Robertson

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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.
Oscar Robertson
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But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.
Oscar Robertson
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There's so many young peoople who start to play basketball and never learn the fundamentals.
Oscar Robertson
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I think that teaching coaches are the norm now.
Oscar Robertson
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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.
Oscar Robertson
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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.
Oscar Robertson
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Look, I think you should promote the game, but I think you should make it what it ought to be. Not some kind of a side-show.
Oscar Robertson
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But after that you don't see a lot of real good fundamental play. You see a showboat-type basketball which is almost parallel to street basketball.
Oscar Robertson
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When I started playing, I wasn't fast, I was gangly, my jumpshot was terrible.
Oscar Robertson
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But if people are buying the products, naturally they're gonna use them.
Oscar Robertson
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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!
Oscar Robertson
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Now, I guess, people want stars. People are trying to invent stars.
Oscar Robertson
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When you play against different people from all walks of life you can't do the same thing against every player defensively or offensively. You have to change up the way you go at a player.
Oscar Robertson
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You have to teach now - tell a kid how to box out, tell him how to pass, teach him footwork. Players don't understand that anymore.
Oscar Robertson
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But when I did it (the triple-double), I didn't even know it until someone told me.
Oscar Robertson
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I think that basketball players should get the job done no matter how it looks on the screen.
Oscar Robertson
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It's a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to race.
Oscar Robertson
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I think that everyone should be able to dribble. Everyone should be able to pass. Otherwise, why are you out there?
Oscar Robertson
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I think no one has written a history of the great coaches who were around 30 to 40 years ago who taught the fundamentals.
Oscar Robertson
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When you go into a game on offense, you make a couple moves and see what the defender is going to do. Then you pretty much can figure out what he is going to do against you - whether he carries his hands low or high, whether he is bumping or pushing, those type of things.
Oscar Robertson