Oscar Robertson
Before there was LeBron James, before there was Michael Jordan, before there was Dr. J, there was Oscar Robertson. He is the only NBA player to average a triple double (double figures in points, assists, and rebounds in a game) over an entire season, a feat he achieved without the benefit of a three point shot. He learned to shoot as a child of the projects, first in North Carolina and later in Indiana, often practicing using old tennis balls he found, and sometimes using balled up rags secured with tape. His family was too poor to allow him to buy a real basketball.
When his high school team won the Indiana State Championship, the first all-black school to do so, Indianapolis officials re-routed the traditional championship parade through the city’s black neighborhoods rather than the downtown streets where it had always been held before. Robertson attended the University of Cincinnati following high school, and there averaged 33.8 points per game, the third highest average in college basketball history. Yet he was not allowed to stay with the team in hotels on many road trips, instead sleeping in dorm rooms or private homes due to race restrictions.
Even in the town which was home of the university for which he played Robertson encountered theaters which denied him entry, white only water fountains, and restaurants in which he was denied service by the simple means of the staff ignoring him, just blocks from the arena which he helped fill whenever the Bearcats played. He was a member of the 1960 Olympic basketball team which won the Gold Medal, and when he entered the NBA he changed the way the game had been played. He became a perfectionist, placing demands upon himself and his teammates that he could meet, but they often could not.
While playing in the NBA Robertson made his biggest change to the game, and it was in an altogether different type of court than the one upon which basketball is played. The NBA and the competitor American Basketball Association (ABA) were preparing to merge and as president of the NBA Players Association Robertson filed a lawsuit blocking the merger until issues regarding player movement between teams, the reserve clause, and other issues including the annual draft were addressed and resolved. The result of the suit was a decision known as the Oscar Robertson rule, which gave the players free agency after meeting minimum guidelines and service.
The Robertson rule led to the financial situation enjoyed by the players to this day, in which they are free to negotiate with other teams after they have completed the required number of years in the league. Every highly paid free agent in the NBA today has Oscar Robertson to thank for it, as do the players and their agents approaching free agency. Contrary to the warnings of the owners who fought against the Robertson rule, claiming it would bankrupt the league, it helped lead to the expansion and financial success the NBA has exhibited since it was introduced. Its impact is also felt in college basketball, creating more and more millionaires as players leave school early for their piece of the NBA pie.