Before triple-doubles became something we regularly tracked, Oscar Robertson was putting up numbers that looked impossible.
There is a reason they called him The Big O.
Robertson was a 6-foot-5 point guard with size, strength, scoring ability, rebounding and elite playmaking. At a time when point guards were generally expected to distribute the basketball, Robertson showed that the position could be so much more.
The easiest way to explain his greatness is with one season. In 1961-62, only his second year in the NBA, Robertson averaged 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists per game.
A triple-double. For an entire season.
It was an accomplishment so ridiculous that nobody duplicated it for more than 50 years, until Russell Westbrook finally averaged a triple-double in 2016-17.
But Robertson’s dominance went far beyond one season. Across his first five NBA seasons, The Big O averaged 30.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 10.6 assists per game.
Read those numbers again.
Oscar Robertson essentially averaged a 30-point triple-double across the first five years of his NBA career.
In 1963-64, he averaged 31.4 points, 11.0 assists and 9.9 rebounds and was named NBA MVP during an era featuring legends like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.
Robertson eventually joined the Milwaukee Bucks, where he teamed up with a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In 1971, Milwaukee finished the regular season 66-16 and won the NBA championship, finally adding a title to Robertson’s incredible résumé.
Robertson finished his career as a 12-time All-Star, 11-time All-NBA selection, NBA MVP, NBA champion and six-time assists leader. He also retired with 181 career triple-doubles, a record that stood for decades before Westbrook eventually surpassed it.
But Robertson’s legacy is bigger than the numbers.
He showed generations before today’s do-everything guards arrived that a point guard could score like a superstar, control an offense, dominate the glass and create for everyone around him.
The Big O was doing it all before doing it all became normal.
Oscar Robertson takes the #3 spot on my list of the greatest point guards of all time.
Next up: #2 Stephen Curry.
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