Originally Posted by
miramar
Kareem rightly got the credit for the Buck's victory that year, which means that Robertson never led his team to a championship.
He also started to fade towards the end of his career, so Jerry West (another player with one championship) had a better career overall even though Robertson was the better of the two at the beginning. Robertson was averaging about 30 PPG before he turned 30, but by the time he retired at 35 he was scoring only 12.7. West also retired at 35, but he was still scoring 20.3.
Robertson and West were teammates on the 1960 Olympic team and started in the NBA in 1960-1961, and both retired at the end of the 1973-1974 season.
Oscar put on about 40 pounds and, although he cast a larger shadow, it was a shadow of his former self. I was living in LA when Jerry West retired -- some thought too early, as he was still averaging 20 PPG. He told people he didn't want to end up like Oscar.
Early Oscar, however, was a phenomenal basketball player.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013