Basketball legend The Big “O”

Oscar Palmer Robertson is a retired professional basketball player, 12-time NBA All-Star, and Olympic gold medalist. He is one of only two players to average a triple-double for an entire season. Frequently known as the Big O, he is 85 years old and was born in Charlotte, Tennessee.

Robertson grew up in poverty in Indianapolis. He dominated in basketball at Crispus Attucks High School and he was a member of the National Honor Society. During his sophomore season, they lost to the famed Milan Indians, the eventual state champion, in the state quarterfinals (called semi-state in Indiana) in 1954. They wouldn't be stopped during his junior and senior seasons. They finished 31-1 in 1955 and were the first all-black team in the nation to win a state championship. In 1956, they were undefeated and repeated as champions and he was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball. He and others fought racism from his time in high school through the NBA.

Robertson played college basketball at the University of Cincinnati. They were 79-9 in his three playing seasons there. He averaged almost 34 points per game in those 88 games. He was the all-time leading NCAA scorer for a career and his record stood for a decade. The Bearcats went to the Final Four two times during his three years. They lost to eventual champion California in the national semifinals 64-58 in 1959. They lost to the Bears again in the same spot in the tournament the next season. Interestingly enough, the Bearcats won the next two championships after he graduated and narrowly missed a third one in 1963. He earned a degree in business from UC.

In 1960, Robertston was a co-captain of the United States Olympic basketball team. They won a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome where he played with future NBA legends, Walt Bellamy and Jerry Lucas.

Before 1966, the NBA let local teams have the first crack at popular players in their area. These were called territorial draft picks. The Cincinnati Royals (later Kansas City and finally Sacramento Kings) exercised their option to take Robertson with a territorial pick. They wouldn't resent it. In his very first professional game, he recorded a triple-double. In his rookie season, he averaged over 30 points per game. He averaged 10 rebounds. He narrowly missed the triple-double average in his first season with 9.7 assists per game. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year, All-NBA First Team, and an All-Star.

By 1962, Robertson was continuing to dominate the league. He averaged almost 31 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists per game and was the first player to ever average a triple-double. He was the only player to ever do it until Russell Westbrook did it for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017. Westbrook has done it three times since.

Robertson was making his mark with his numbers in the league but the Royals couldn't win the title in an era dominated by the Boston Celtics. In 1970, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. He and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) dominated the league and won the NBA title in 1971. 1974 would be Robertson's last year in the league and they advanced to the NBA Finals where they lost the seventh game to the Celtics.

Robertson was the president of the NBA union. He was the named plaintiff in Robertson v. National Basketball Association in 1970. Basketball and most professional sports at the time had what is usually called a reserve clause in their contracts which tied them to the team that drafted them in perpetuity. The case was settled in 1976 and would soon result in what is now known as free agency which led to much greater prosperity, for both the players and the owners. The initial free agency rules were often referred to as the Oscar Robertson rule.

Robertson moved to broadcasting after he retired from the game working for CBS Sports in 1974-75 but it didn't last. He did it once again in the late 80s for Turner Sports.

Robertson was a 12-time NBA All-Star, nine-time All-NBA first team, six-time assists leader, and three-time NBA All-Star Game MVP. He scored over 26,000 points in his professional career with a per-game average of over 25. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBA in 2019, one of only four players ever so honored. He was a three-time All-American in college. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. He was an inaugural inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980.

Robertson is an advocate for health and wellness. He is involved in kidney health issues and has served on the board of the International Prostate Cancer Foundation. He has been involved in a variety of business interests including information technologies. He is a public speaker and is an advocate for minority-owned businesses. He is involved in several charities such as the NBA Legends Foundation and the Boys Club of New York. He helped his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati, raise one billion dollars in capital for projects.

Robertson has three daughters with Yvonne Crittenden (pictured). They have been married for 64 years. In the late 90s, their daughter Tia was suffering from lupus and needed a kidney transplant and he donated one of his kidneys to her. He is an outspoken advocate of the National Kidney Foundation. He and his wife live in Cincinnati.