The Dream Team you’ve never heard of

 
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pio2u
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 9:57 pm    Post subject: The Dream Team you’ve never heard of

The Dream Team you’ve never heard of

Oscar Robertson says that ’64 team that toured Europe was loved there, ignored here

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There was actually another Olympic “Dream Team” 32 years earlier, comprised entirely of players who had not yet turned pro. Coached by Pete Newell and co-captained by Jerry West and me, that team won all eight of its games by an average margin of 42.4 points.


https://theundefeated.com/features/the-dream-team-youve-never-heard-of/
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Aeneas Hunter
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 6:20 am    Post subject:

Maybe it's just me, but I've gotten tired of hearing Oscar and the gang whine about how unappreciated they were back then. I apologize in advance if this post sounds pissy. I'm getting up in years myself, and I don't have a lot of patience for my fellow travelers who live in the past.

So, okay, Oscar's 1964 squad was a "Dream Team." Right. It's only missing Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and John Havlicek. But okay, we'll let Oscar call it a Dream Team.

So he took a tour of Europe in 1964 with some other NBA players and beat the snot out a bunch of Europeans who barely knew how to play the game and who didn't have arenas. No one in America much cared because . . . well, because it wasn't important.

So now he is telling us this story because . . . well . . . because he thinks it has something to do with race, even though most of his team was white. Whatever, Oscar.
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pio2u
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:16 am    Post subject:

Oscar was frustrated and kind of rubbed a few people the wrong way with his approach which I'm sure he meant no harm. I think since he has had his say that he'll find peace again.

The Big O just wants the people know about the long rich history of the NBA. He ultimately feels that the past is all but being overlooked. In a way he is correct but he was a little abrasive IMO.

Things in basketball,any sport and life for that matter, are cyclical. A lot of things, not all, that we see today evolved from these earlier roots. Some of these things are not new but many of the younger generation are just unaware of it which is understandable too.
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CBaller8
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 12:09 pm    Post subject:

Oscar Robertson: Get off my lawn
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gumby
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2016 7:11 pm    Post subject:

We live in a BSPN world where they are looking or manufacturing new stats and storylines that exault everything that is in the present.

Basketball doesn't have the rich history of baseball that is of mythic status.

Hell, it doesn't even have the NFL's history.

God help a guy who's forgot more about basketball than I or us on here would ever know.

Bye.
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activeverb
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 3:29 pm    Post subject:

pio2u wrote:
Oscar was frustrated and kind of rubbed a few people the wrong way with his approach which I'm sure he meant no harm. I think since he has had his say that he'll find peace again.

The Big O just wants the people know about the long rich history of the NBA. He ultimately feels that the past is all but being overlooked. In a way he is correct but he was a little abrasive IMO.

Things in basketball,any sport and life for that matter, are cyclical. A lot of things, not all, that we see today evolved from these earlier roots. Some of these things are not new but many of the younger generation are just unaware of it which is understandable too.


Oscar was a great player but he's also in the Whiners Hall of Fame. In fact, he might be the all-time Great Whiner next to Bill Lambier and Rick Barry.
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70sdude
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 1:19 pm    Post subject:

I have no problem with Oscar Robertson's complaint. That was a helluva team with West, but the passage of time badly dims the glow of every minor sport. College basketball was still a very minor national sport before 1960. Newspapers and radio relegated hoops news to pro teams. The Final Four as a spectacle didn't explode until late in Wooden's UCLA dynasty. Hell, the first college basketball game broadcast on TV in a prime time viewing slot was Houston-UCLA, 1968.

Give Oscar a break. He toiled in obscurity his whole career except that he was cited by his peers (West, Wilt, Russ, and Pettit) as the most complete player of the period.

I figure that If I'd been stuck in Cincinnati for the decade that Oscar was, - with essentially only one All Star player at a time throughout (Jack Twyman, then Jerry Lucas), I'd probably have become permanently P-O'd too. The '64 and '65 Royals were fine teams, but lacking a center who could contend in the least way with Wilt or Russell, they had no chance to advance past either one. It probably sucked wind to be the best guard in the league during the age of centers.
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