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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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Oscar Robertson
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: November 24
Basketball Coach
Basketball Player
The Big O
Oscar Palmer Robertson
Fast
Basketball
Motivational
Terrible
Playing
Wasn
Started
Gangly

More quotes by Oscar Robertson

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But if people are buying the products, naturally they're gonna use them.
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I think that teaching coaches are the norm now.
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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.
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I don't think that players learn how to play any other aspect of the game in high school or college.
Oscar Robertson
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I don't know hardly any of the players who have the in-between game like me, who can go to any position on the court.
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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.
Oscar Robertson
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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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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.
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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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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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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
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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 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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You've got to learn the footwork, the positioning, how to box out, how to pass, how to shoot your free throws. All these things are necessary, not to be the No. 1 player in the world, but maybe you can play against him.
Oscar Robertson
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Just fundamental things - I played guard and I played forward, so you get into a position where you are pivoting out on the court.
Oscar Robertson
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Just because it is an All-Star Game doesn't mean that you are playing as efficiently as you should.
Oscar Robertson
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We're all Americans trying to compete. Magic was competing for his team and Larry for his team.
Oscar Robertson
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The triple-double is just a stat. It's a test of your strength and stamina and playing ability, really.
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