Oscar Robertson Quotes

• 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

• You see what happens in college and high school games today – a three-point shot or a dunk. I think that’s the reason that you see a lot of that in the pros today.

  Oscar Robertson

• You need a teaching coach who understands the game of basketball, not just some guy coming on the court talking about Xs and Os.

  Oscar Robertson

• You look at today, it’s a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot – a three-point shot – or a dunk.

  Oscar Robertson

• You don’t cut anywhere, don’t pick down anywhere, don’t double screen, no weak side picking. All these things that should happen in a game of basketball don’t happen anymore.

  Oscar Robertson

• Who do I think was the greatest? This might shock you: Elgin Baylor. He did so many great things. Nobody could guard him, playing in the forward spot. I’d love to see some of today’s greats playing against Elgin. They couldn’t guard him. Nobody could.

  Oscar Robertson

• When you play guard, you’re not going to block a lot of shots. Inside, you’re going to block shots.

  Oscar Robertson

• 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

• 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

• We’re all Americans trying to compete. Magic was competing for his team and Larry for his team.

  Oscar Robertson

• This is where young players today want to land. They want to be NBA players because of the money.

  Oscar Robertson

• 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

• The thing about it is almost everyone could pass that way, but we were kept from doing it by our coaches.

  Oscar Robertson

• 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

• Some players are more physical than others, some play with more finesse. Some are just really great all-around players. So you have to change your game.

  Oscar Robertson

• Now, I guess, people want stars. People are trying to invent stars.

  Oscar Robertson

• 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

• It’s a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to race.

  Oscar Robertson

• If you’re a basketball player, you’ve got to shoot.

  Oscar Robertson

• 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

Oscar Robertson (29)

Birth:	24th November, 1938
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Basketball Player

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Today's Anniversary - 21st December

Births

• 1922 - Paul Winchell
• 1935 - Phil Donahue
• 1870 - Sir Patrick Duncan
• 1892 - Rebecca West
• 1944 - Michael Tilson Thomas

Deaths

• 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky
• 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger
• 1889 - Joseph Barber Lightfoot
• 1992 - Stella Adler
• 2001 - David Swift