Unnoticed then, Oscar Robertson's triple-double unparalleled
Former Bearcats, Royals star achieved a singular if silent feat 50 years ago


AP file photo
Former NBA star Oscar Robertson poses for a photo after taping "The Finals: Summit of Champions," in May of 2004 at the NBA store in New York. Robertson joined a roundtable discussion with some of the league's legends; it was aired during the NBA Finals.

Written by
Tom Groeschen

At the time, Oscar Robertson had no idea that he averaged a triple-double for the entire 1961-62 basketball season. Robertson that winter was in his second NBA season with the Cincinnati Royals, and the 6-foot-5, guard/forward combo compiled what remains the only full “triple-double” season in NBA history:

30.8

Points Per Game

12.5

Rebounds Per Game

11.4

Assists Per Game

In basketball, a triple-double is the accumulation of a double-digit number total in three major statistical categories in one game. The most common way to notch a triple-double is through points, rebounds, and assists. On rare occasions, players also may record 10 or more steals or blocked shots in one game.

This is the 50th anniversary of Robertson’s special season. Back then, did the young “Big O” have any idea what he had accomplished?

“Not at all,” Robertson said in a recent interview with The Enquirer. “I didn’t know anything about it forever, to be honest. I was just part of some history, I guess.”

In 80 games during the 1961-62 season, Robertson had 41 triple-doubles (the NBA record for a season) and the Royals won 75 percent of those games. Robertson’s highest scoring game of the year was 49 points. His best rebounding game was 22, and his top assists game also was 22.

Robertson also may have had several “quadruple doubles,” for all anyone knows, if steals were official statistics then. The NBA did not introduce steals and blocks as official stats until the mid-1970s, just as Robertson was finishing his playing career.

Jack Twyman, a Cincinnati Royals teammate and like Robertson a Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame inductee, was an established NBA star when Robertson joined the Royals in the 1960-61 season. Twyman, like Robertson also a former University of Cincinnati star, played six NBA seasons with Robertson in Cincinnati.

“Looking back, I never fully realized what he was doing,” Twyman said. “It was not called a triple-double. We just went out every night trying to win. I don’t think Oscar or anyone really worried about statistics.”

Twyman said Robertson, who was powerfully built at 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, was unique in his era.

“Oscar was the first big, strong guard that overpowered you with his strength,” Twyman said. “He could have two guys hanging on him and not be fazed one bit.”

Robertson, like all the great ones, also had an uncanny ability to see the entire floor – front, sides and the sixth sense of what was happening behind him.

“If I had my choice of who I wanted to play with, it would be Oscar over Magic Johnson,” Twyman said. “I think he was a much more complete player, quicker, stronger, a much better shooter and much tougher defender. It’s different eras, but Oscar certainly is in the top tier all-time. I was privileged to have played with him.”

Basketball a team game

Robertson said his main goal as a player was to incorporate his teammates into the game. Few one-man teams have ever won NBA titles. Robertson himself didn’t win one until 1971, a year after the Royals traded him to Milwaukee and Robertson teamed with a young star named Lew Alcindor. Alcindor later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“My objective each night was trying to get the other teammates involved in the game,” Robertson said. “I think basketball, when I played, you’ve got to get the weakest player offensively into the game. That’s how you win. You get a guy that’s averaging two or three points a game, if they don’t get 12 or 13 points you don’t win the game.”

Hence, while Robertson usually got his 30 points, he also registered big assist totals.

“His record speaks for that, in getting all his teammates involved,” said Adrian Smith, a Cincinnati rookie in ’61-62 and Royals teammate of Robertson for most of the 1960s. “In the beginning of the game Oscar wanted everyone more involved, but when it came down to it, if it was a close game at the end, I don’t think anybody wanted the ball more than he did. He had that much confidence.”

Robertson, after dominating the college game at UC, immediately made the Royals better. They won 33 games in Robertson’s first season after winning only 19 the year before.

The Royals then won 43 games in Robertson’s triple-double year (’61-62). The next two years, the Royals lost in the Eastern Division finals and peaked with 55 regular season wins in 1963-64. In those days, the Boston Celtics dynasty stood in the way of the Royals and everyone else.

'Never played like a rookie'

Robertson sometimes was a man among boys in the NBA, even when Robertson was a relative pup himself.

Fellow Naismith Hall of Fame players such as Jerry West (Los Angeles Lakers) and Tommy Heinsohn (Boston Celtics) remember that Robertson sometimes was impossible to stop. Heinsohn also tried to contain Robertson as Celtics coach in the 1970s, when Robertson’s career was winding down with the Bucks.

West, who played with Robertson on the U.S. Olympic championship team in 1960 and entered the NBA the same season (1960-61) as Robertson, said Robertson was an instant professional star.

“He never played like a rookie,” said West, now a Golden State Warriors executive. “I know myself, sometimes I played like a rookie. Oscar right away looked like the most seasoned vet you could find, and you rarely see that.”

Robertson nearly averaged a triple-double right out of the gate, with rookie averages of 30.5 points, 10.1 rebounds and 9.7 assists for the Cincinnati Royals. That same season, West averaged 17.6 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.

West improved to 30.8 points per game in his second NBA season, and Robertson had something to do with that.

“Candidly, he was such an impetus for me to want to get better,” West said. “I never told him that. I don’t want to say you’re in awe, but I was so far behind the curve and I wondered, how did he get to this point so quickly? He was one of those unique players.”

Heinsohn, for his part, was a four-year NBA veteran when Robertson entered the league in the 1960-61 season. Heinsohn’s Celtics were in the middle of their dynastic run of NBA championships, and Robertson often made the Royals a factor against the Celtics in the conference playoffs.

“He was terrific competitor and that set him apart, and he was a freak,” said Heinsohn, now a Celtics TV analyst. “By that I mean he was bigger and quicker than most people he was playing against at that (guard) position. If you matched him with a defender his size, he would out-quick the guy. If you put a quicker guy on him, he would overpower them with his size.”

Years later, Heinsohn the coach had to scheme how to defend Robertson. Heinsohn’s Celtics beat Robertson’s Bucks in the 1974 NBA Finals, Robertson’s last season. Robertson was still dangerous in his final days, Heinsohn recalled.

“When I was playing, we would rotate people against him and try to make him work to bring the ball up,” Heinsohn said. “When I coached, we would pressure him in the backcourt to make him work it up and use his energy. That was the only way to slow him down.”

West won’t rate who was the best all-time player, but he can speak from the perspective of his playing days.

“He was the best player I ever played against,” West said. “I played with him in the Olympics, and we retired the same year. He was a very serious player, but he had a fun side, too.”

As for the triple-double season of ’61-62, West said:

“It’s one of those rare achievements in sports. We’ll probably never see it again. Oscar was a genius with the basketball in his hands.”

Robertson leaves, then Royals

By 1970, Robertson and the Royals had a strained relationship and the team had slipped. Robertson was traded to Milwaukee in April 1970 and won his lone NBA title with the Bucks a year later.

The foundering Royals left Cincinnati for Kansas City in 1972. The franchise now is the Sacramento Kings.

Robertson had a brief stint as an NBA television analyst and then became successful in several business ventures, including as owner/CEO of Orchem (specialty chemicals), president of OR Solutions and Oscar Robertson Document Management Services and as general partner of Oscar Robertson Media Ventures.

Can anyone ever have a triple-double season again? Robertson said LeBron James would be the most likely candidate. James averages about 29 points, eight rebounds and seven assists per game.

But the game obviously has changed since Robertson’s heyday. Scores are lower and and the stars don’t play as much, Robertson said. James averages about 37 minutes per game.

“A lot of guys today, in a 48-minute game they may play 35 minutes,” Robertson said. “That cuts you out of two or three assists and some rebounds as well. I think in those days I averaged 46 minutes a game. I think Wilt (Chamberlain) averaged more than I did. Wilt never came out of a basketball game.

“It’s a lot different the way guys play the game today. It’s more of a star-related type contest. It’s not how well you play together. Now it’s totally different. A guy can average 10 points a game in college, 12-13 rebounds, and they say he’s a great basketball player. Years ago that guy wouldn’t have gotten a chance to even try out for a team.”

Former Royals teammate Smith, the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1966, said he didn’t believe how good Robertson was until he saw him. .

“I used to read about the stats he was putting up at UC and I was thinking, how could anybody be that good?” Smith said. “Then I met him and started playing with him. He was a tremendous competitor, to start with, and he had so much talent. He was smart out on the court, too.

“You think, well, there’s so much he can do that he must have invented the game. He was that good.”

Quote:Key numbers for Oscar Robertson’s 1961-62 season

• 41 triple doubles in 79 games. That is an NBA record, as are his 181 triple doubles for a career.

• 40 or more points were scored eight times with a high of 49 against the Philadelphia Warriors. He had 38 or 39 points in another five games.

• 20 or more rebounds five times. He had 15 or more rebounds another 18 times.

• 15 or more assists 19 times, including twice at or above 20.

• 5 times he scored fewer than 20 points (18, 12, 18, 14, 19).

• 5 seasons to start his career, he averaged a cumulative triple double.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120...paralleled