The Big O

My Life, My Times, My Game

Oscar Robertson (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

376 Seiten

2010
Bison Books (Verlag)
978-0-8032-3463-5 (ISBN)

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Tells the story of a shy black child from a poor family in a segregated city; of the superstar who, at the height of his career, became the president of the National Basketball Players Association to try to improve conditions for all players. It is the story of the man forced from the game at thirty-four and blacklisted from coaching and broadcasting.

Perhaps the greatest all-around player in basketball history, Oscar Robertson revolutionized basketball as a member of the Cincinnati Royals and won a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks. When he was twenty-three, in 1962, he accomplished one of basketball’s most impressive feats: averaging the triple-double in a single season—a feat never matched since. Cocaptain of the Olympic gold medal team of 1960; named the player of the century by the National Association of Basketball Coaches; named one of the fifty greatest players in NBA history; and inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980—Robertson’s accolades are as numerous as they are impressive. But The Big O is also the story of a shy black child from a poor family in a segregated city; of the superstar who, at the height of his career, became the president of the National Basketball Players Association to try to improve conditions for all players. It is the story of the man forced from the game at thirty-four and blacklisted from coaching and broadcasting. But two years after he left basketball, after six years of legal wrangling, Robertson won his lawsuit against the NBA, eliminating the option clause that bound a player to a single NBA team in perpetuity and ending restrictions on free agency. The Big O is the story of how the NBA, as we now know it, was built; of race in America in the second half of the twentieth century; and of an uncompromising man and a complex hero.

Oscar Robertson, seen by many as one of the best and most versatile basketball players of his time, played in the NBA for the Cincinnati Royals and the Milwaukee Bucks during his fourteen-year professional basketball career.

AcknowledgmentsPrefaceChapter One: The Crossroads of America 1938-1951Chapter Two: Li'l Flap 1951-1954Chapter Three: "They Don't Want Us" 1954-1955Chapter Four: "Talk Is Cheap" 1955-1956Chapter Five: Collegiate Life 1956-1958Chapter Six: "What They Eat Don't Make Me Fat" 1958-1959Chapter Seven: Gold 1959-1960Chapter Eight: Rookie Stardom 1960-1961Chapter Nine: The Triple-Double 1961-1963Chapter Ten: Union President, NBA Royalty 1963-1968 (Part One)Chapter Eleven: The Sixties Continued 1963-1968 (Part Two)Chapter Twelve: Moving On 1969-1970Chapter Thirteen: Milwaukee, Lew Alcindor, and the Championship 1970-1971Chapter Fourteen: Do Not Go Gently 1971-1974Chapter Fifteen: Endings 1974-1976EpilogueCreditsIndex

Zusatzinfo	22 illustrations
Verlagsort	Nebraska
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Basketball
ISBN-10	0-8032-3463-5 / 0803234635
ISBN-13	978-0-8032-3463-5 / 9780803234635
Zustand	Neuware