Happy Birthday

Big O. 77 years young. The first, and probably last, NBA player to average a triple-double for a season.

1961-1962 season, his sophomore season: 30.8ppg, 12.5rpg, 11.4apg.

What's even more amazing is that the year before, his rookie year, and the three years after '62, he was just short of averaging a triple-double for the season by fractions in every year. He had enough rebounds in '61, but was .3 assists short. In '63 he had enough rebounds but was .5 assists short. In '64 he had 11apg but only 9.9rpg. In '64 he was a rebound short. His scoring average for those 5 straight years was 30+ppg too.

Happy Birthday, from a die-hard Celtic fan, Oscar Palmer Robertson.


bob


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Robertson was the scourge of the league in those early 60s. He was just so much further ahead of most of the other guys in the league (both physical and talent) especially when compared to other guards who were mostly (much) smaller, slower, less talented, etc, etc.

He came into the league just after I started following basketball as a kid and you could never see him play enough times. I used to beg my family to go to a Cs game when either he or Chamberlain was playing.

Cripes, now there are full time NBA centers who do not get double digit rebounds per game never mind double digit points AND assists. There are absolutely zero players who come remotely close to triple double stats for even a month never mind a full season today, and it is quite an accomplishment when a guy even gets a "double double" these days.

The "Big O" was certainly a talent ahead of his time. Almost like a man playing against children.

His fg% ranked number 1 amongst his Hall Of Fame contemporaries by a wide margin. He was way ahead of his time.  See below link.

http://bkref.com/tiny/pBpl3

swish

wide clyde wrote:Robertson was the scourge of the league in those early 60s.  He was just so much further ahead of most of the other guys in the league (both physical and talent) especially when compared to other guards who were mostly (much) smaller, slower, less talented, etc, etc.

He came into the league just after I started following basketball as a kid and you could never see him play enough times.  I used to beg my family to go to a Cs game when either he or Chamberlain was playing.

Cripes, now there are full time NBA centers who do not get double digit rebounds per game never mind double digit points AND assists.   There are absolutely zero players who come remotely close to triple double stats for even a month never mind a full season today, and it is quite an accomplishment when a guy even gets a "double double" these days.

The "Big O" was certainly a talent ahead of his time.  Almost like a man playing against children.

Wide

You have to be careful when comparing stats from vastly different generations-- Especially the 50's and 60's vs the last 25 years or so in regards to point an rebound averages.
For example. In 1961-62 Oscar averaged 10.1 rebounds per 36 minutes, during a year when a team averaged 60.1 rebounds per game, compared to 2014-15 when teams only averaged 43.3 rebounds per game. As a result of the fewer rebounds per game Oscars rebounds would reduce to 7.3 per game. And Oscars point per 36 minutes would reduce from 25.0 per 36 minutes to 21.0. because the average points per team in 1961-62 would come down from 118.8 to 100.0 in 2014-25. The huge number of shots taken in those early years, when combined with the very high number of missed shots, resulted in a very high rebound potential leading to the impression that the rebounders of those early years were superior to the present generation.

swish