Oscar Robertson Legacy

Lore & Background

Robertson is a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, having been inducted in 1980 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team and president of the National Basketball Players Association. Also in 1980, Robertson was named to the NBA 35th Anniversary Team. He was again voted as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) renamed their College Player of the Year Award the Oscar Robertson Trophy in his honor in 1998, and he was one of five people chosen to represent the inaugural National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame class in 2006. He was ranked as the 36th best American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. In October 2021, Robertson was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. Robertson was also an integral part of Robertson v. National Basketball Ass'n of 1970. The landmark NBA antitrust suit, which was filed when Robertson was the president of the NBA Players' Association, led to an extensive reform of the league's strict free agency and draft rules and, subsequently, to higher salaries for all players. He was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2009.

Reader's Guide

In the 1961–62 season, Robertson became the first player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season, with 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists. Robertson also set a then-NBA record for the most triple-doubles during the regular season with 41 triple-doubles; the record would stand for over half a century until 2016–17, when Russell Westbrook recorded 42 and joined Robertson as the only other player to average a triple-double for an entire season.

Did You Know?

• Robertson was born into poverty in Charlotte, Tennessee, on November 24, 1938.
• He attended Crispus Attucks High School, an all-black high school, and led his team to the first state championship for any all-black school in the nation in 1955.
• In college at Cincinnati, Robertson averaged 33.8 points per game, the third-highest in college history, and set 14 NCAA and 19 school records.
• Robertson co-captained the 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball team, which won the gold medal and was described as the greatest assemblage of basketball talent ever at that point.
• He was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1961 and was the 1961 NBA All-Star Game MVP.