YouTube Gold: The Big O

Oscar Robertson was an amazing basketball player

With apologies to JJ Redick, Oscar Robertson was no plumber.

Robertson, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor were part of a second wave of NBA giants that took it from a start-up league to one that was capable of greatness.

Born in 1938, Robertson grew up in Indianapolis and took to basketball early.

In high school, he was part of a major historical moment though on the losing side - his Crispus Attucks team lost to Milan in the famous Indiana high school tournament the movie Hoosiers was based on (they won the following year).

He attended Cincinnati before being a territorial draft pick of the Cincinnati Royals and this video is of his early years.

One of the limitations players of his era faced was equipment, specifically shoes: everyone wore Chuck Taylors.

If you’ve ever worn them, then you know and at times in this video of his early years with the Royals, you can see that he’s being cautious and not going as hard as he can. It never ocurred to us that you could see the shoes limit someone on video, but you can. And as you can see here, this man had few limits athletically.

Even so, you can see his athleticism and his brilliance, not to mention superb fundamentals. Robertson was an immense talent.