Oscar Robertson will return to the Bradley Center tonight to have his #1 jersey banner re-dedicated, as well as be honored as one of the greatest 20 Bucks of all-time, as voted by the fans. (Getty)

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March 28, 2008

MILWAUKEE -- Oscar Robertson might be the all-time classic example of someone who was, at long last, rewarded for never losing faith in his principles.

As a teenager, Robertson carried Indianapolis’ Crispus Attucks High School to the Indiana state championship, the ultimate achievement for just about anyone who has played the game in the hoops-obsessed state. Then he did it again the very next year.

In each of Robertson’s subsequent three seasons at the University of Cincinnati, he won the national scoring title, was named an All-American, and was selected College Player of the Year. He set 14 NCAA records and 19 school records in the process in leading the Bearcats to a 79-9 overall record.

Before anyone coined the phrase “triple-double,” Robertson became the only National Basketball Association player to average one for an entire season, with numbers of 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists per game in 1961-62, his second year as a professional.

He went on to average a triple-double over his first six seasons in the league. He was voted the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 1961, its Most Valuable Player in 1964 and was a 12-time league All-Star. In his 14 NBA seasons, he not only scored 26,710 points, but set an NBA record for most assists in a career (9,887) that stood for nearly two decades. He entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980.

As great as Robertson was, though, from 1956 -- the year in which his team won its second Indiana high school state title – through 1970, he experienced a championship only once, as a member of the gold-medal 1960 United States Olympic Team.

It would have been easy for Robertson to rest on his unparalleled individual achievements in the game, but he clung steadfastly to this belief: “When I played, it was never a personal challenge for me to go against anybody because I knew that for us to win, we had to play as a team. We couldn’t go out and try to overcome anyone individually.”

Robertson’s perseverance was further put to the test when the Cincinnati Royals unceremoniously put him on the trading block and eventually dealt him to the Milwaukee Bucks.

He and his convictions were finally rewarded, though, on April 30, 1971, when Robertson hoisted and his teammates hoisted the NBA Championship trophy following the Bucks’ four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA Finals.

On the night of Friday, March 28, Oscar Robertson the champion – the only player ever to wear No. 1 for the Milwaukee Bucks – will be have his retired jersey rededicated and be honored along with the rest of the franchise’s 20-member 40th anniversary team at halftime of the Bucks’ 7:30 p.m. game against the Orlando Magic at the Bradley Center.

"The people of Milwaukee were great, and they always have been," Robertson said. "For me to have an opportunity to come back and be a part of something like this and see some of those people again, I have to take advantage of it.

"People need an opportunity to get together sometimes. Gatherings like this are special."

Following the 1969-70 season, Milwaukee was deemed the most up-and-coming franchise in the NBA. In Lew Alcindor's second pro season, the Bucks had won 56 regular-season games and defeated Philadelphia in the opening round of the playoffs before falling to New York in the Eastern Division semifinals.

At the same time, the Cincinnati franchise was headed in a much different direction.

"The team was going to move to Kansas City (which it did, in 1972)," Robertson said. "Bob Cousy (the former Boston Celtics great who was imported to run the Royals) was going to trade me to Baltimore, but I vetoed that trade because I had a clause in my contract that I could do that. Cousy had no idea I had that clause.

"The way they handled that situation, they acted as if I hadn't done anything there. It was emotional. I didn't want to go anywhere. But they were destroying the team, and I didn't want to go to Kansas City, anyway."

There were discussions with several teams involving Robertson.

"My attorney was J.W. Brown, who was very astute in negotations," he said. "There were several teams calling. and he was in contact with several other teams when the Royals were trying to trade me. The Lakers didn't want to do it, supposedly because they had Jerry West. The Knicks backed off because they had Walt Frazier.

"I thought, 'Well, what does that have to do with Oscar Robertson?' That was the mentality people had in those days."

If players had changed teams the way some do today, Robertson and Alcindor (who would become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) could have put their heads together and figured that, if the Royals and Bucks could make a deal, Robertson's arrival would establish Milwaukee as an instant championship contender. But nothing like that ever happened.

For the most part, Robertson wound up in Milwaukee because he handled the situation like a regular guy, a devoted family man who put the happiness of his wife and three daughters first.

"I hadn't really thought that much about playing with Kareem, or about winning a championship at that particular time," he said. "My attorney asked me where I wanted to go, and I told him I wanted to stay in the Midwest, since that's where I'm from, and go somewhere where they had a good school system, where my family and I could fit in and have a nice house."

So on April 21, 1970, the deal went down. The Bucks acquired Robertson in exchange for sharp-shooting guard Flynn Robinson, and forward Charlie Paulk, who had been their first-round pick in the 1968 NBA Draft.

Soon after Robertson's arrival, he knew the change was going to be a good one for him and his family, and most of his reasons had nothing to do with basketball.

Throughout his childhood, his teen years and his early adult life, Robertson had been subjected to harsh racism. Even when he arrived in Milwaukee, he said there were some who did not want him in his new neighborhood. But he and his family rose above the hatred and made themselves a home.

"My wife (Yvonne) and I had three daughters," he said. "We lived in a cul-de-sac near Green Bay (Ave.) and Good Hope (Road), on Dunwood Place, right near Brown Deer Park. They had a great school system in the area, and we made a lot of friends.

"We had a great neighbor who worked for the Falk Corporation, George Priester. The girls walked right over there for babysitting. We loved it there."

The simple pleasures of being Wisconsinites won the Robertsons' hearts.

"We loved to take drives up to Sheboygan, and up to Door County ... just to take in the natural beauty," Oscar said. "Our girls enjoyed seeing the animals running around. I guess those are fleeting things. Little things that happen to you in your life when you have a family are important to you. Sometimes you don't appreciate how important they are.

"When you've got a great neighbor, it makes such a difference. Thinking back on things like that makes you say to yourself, "Some things should never change.'"

When Robertson finally set foot on the practice court with his new teammates, he began to come to another realization.

"After I got there, and started practicing with the guys, I started thinking that maybe we could win a championship," he said. "We didn't talk about it right away, though. We didn't know each other. We really had to get together, get to know each other and start playing together as a team.

"I really think the key to us winning the championship was our subs. We had McCoy McLemore and Bob Boozer and big Dick Cunningham, who was my roommate. Then Lucius Allen came along. Once we all got together and started playing a few exhibition games, we just blew everybody out of the water. At that point, I thought, 'We've got something special.'''

Robertson was right.

With Alcindor in the low post and Robertson running the point, Coach Larry Costello's Bucks rang up a league best 66-16 record, including a then-record 20-game winning streak.

They averaged a league-high 118.4 points per game. All five of their starters -- Alcindor (31.7 points per game), Robertson (19.4 ppg.), Bob Dandridge (18.4 ppg.), Jon McGlocklin (15.8 ppg.) and Greg Smith (11.7 ppg.) averaged in double figures. Alcindor was named league MVP, and was joined in the All-Star Game by Robertson, who led the team with 668 assists.

Robertson looked beyond all of those impressive individual numbers, though, to pinpoint the dual factors he believed lifted the Bucks to the NBA's pinnacle.

"You must commit to playing together," he said. "And we did that. What I liked about the Bucks ... I know there were a lot of personalities, but we always played together. I sacrificed my offense my last two or three years. I could have shot the ball more, but I knew for us to win, we needed to make everybody on the team productive. And that was my goal."

The other factor focsued on the opposite end of the floor. The Bucks allowed 106.2 points per game -- the third-fewest in the league -- giving them an average winning margin of 12.2 points per game.

"The way you win is through defense," Robertson said. "I don't care how good your offense is; you've got to play good defense. We were quick on defense -- Bobby (Dandridge) and myself and Greg (Smith) would switch, and it didn't matter if we were guarding a guard or a forward. We picked up whoever it was."

Robertson scored 30 points in leading the Bucks to their 118-106 title-clinching victory at Baltimore on April 30, 1971. Afterward, as he celebrated his first championship at either the collegiate or professional level, Robertson was quoted as saying, "Finally. This is the first champagne I've ever had, and it tastes mighty sweet."

Robertson played three more seasons with the Bucks, and he and Abdul-Jabbar led them to two more division titles in 1971-72 and 1972-73. In Robertson's last season in a Bucks uniform, 1973-74, he helped lead them to a league-best 59-23 record and they advanced all the way to the 1974 NBA Finals. The Boston Celtics defeated Milwaukee in an epic seven-game series.

As gratifying as it was for Robertson to finally experience a championship conquest with Milwaukee, he believes the Bucks could have won more titles if management had kept the nucleus of the 1970-71 team together. Both he and Abdul-Jabbar have noted what a difference it made when Greg Smith and Bob Boozer left the fold.

"I remember telling people we'd continue to win games, but we'd never win the championship again because they hurt the core of our team," Robertson said. "When you win as a team, you should be allowed to play out until somebody beats you. We beat ourselves. I will always believe that."

Robertson still helped lead the Bucks to a 248-80 record during his four seasons in Milwaukee. His jersey No. 1 was originally retired on Oct. 18, 1974, and he looks forward to Friday's rededication ceremony and the chance to reunite with some of his teammates.

Seeing his jersey unveiled will no doubt be an emotional experience for Robertson, just as it has been for his fellow Bucks all-time greats. But you can bet that when he looks toward the Bradley Center rafters, he'll no doubt have a wandering eye toward the biggest banner of them all: the one commemorating Milwaukee's NBA championship.

That is the one that means the most to Robertson.

"Well, it does," he admitted. "That championship didn't come for me until my 11th year in basketball. It is what I played for.

"Like a lot of things in life, you should have occasions when you can get together with people and remember things, and hopefully that can continue to go on in the future. That was such a special time for Milwaukee, when we won the championship."

Yes, 1971 will always be remembered as a special time. It was the year in which Oscar Robertson and Milwaukee became NBA champions for the first time.

And they did it together.