(01-30-2021 11:19 PM)levydl Wrote: (01-30-2021 09:49 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: LSU didn't decline after Pistol Pete left, either. They were better the year AFTER Pete left than they were his sophomore and junior years.
I've always found it remarkable that immediately after Oscar graduated UC won back-to-back titles and lost a 3rd in a row. All the fans who lived through that era are spoiled as hell.
You are 100% correct - we are spoiled. There will never be another Oscar - at UC or any other school.
BTW, the reason that we won titles after Oscar graduated is a fairly simple reason. When other players around the country saw that Oscar enrolled at UC, all of the great players in high school wanted to follow him. Of course, that was long before Al Gore invented the Internet and before ESPN carried many games on TV. That should tell you how respected he was. Without #12, there would have been no George Wilson, Tony Yates, or other great players.
There have been three schools to go to five consecutive Final Fours - UC, UCLA, and Duke. UC did it and was the first to do it because of Oscar.
I’m sorry for those of you who never saw Oscar play. Unless you were there, it is hard to believe. Much in the same way that Beatlemania was something so encompassing that it is impossible to describe without sounding like a hype machine in overdrive.
One other thing that everyone should remember is that outside of Armory Fieldhouse, Oscar was treated like absolute dirt. When on the road, hotels didn’t want black players. Ditto that for restaurants, airlines, and stores. One time, while playing at X, Oscar was hit in the head with a glass beer bottle full of beer by an X fan who didn’t like the idea of blacks and whites playing on the same court. Of course, at the time, the only people who were allowed to enroll at X were white males.
Some fans complain that Oscar is too bitter about how he was treated. Only Oscar can judge that. I would be surprised if anyone who posts on this board has any inkling of what it was like for Oscar to be the greatest player in the world and outshining all white players.
All I know is that when Oscar learned that my mother was dying of cancer, he wrote a very long note to her that she cherished until the day she died. Away from the court and away from the sounds and lights of radio and tv, Oscar is a better person than he was as a basketball player and he was and still is the greatest basketball player who ever lived.