Oscar Robertson gets an honor, Bill Russell gets the laughs
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — The NBA gave Oscar Robertson a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Bill Russell gave Charles Barkley something else.
Barkley and fellow Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were the presenters when Robertson received his honor. After Barkley mentioned Russell, Boston’s Hall of Fame center flipped his middle finger in Barkley’s direction.
A Hall of Fame guard, Robertson — who played at Indianapolis Crispus Attucks High School — is the career leader in triple-doubles and was the first player to average one for a season. His antitrust case against the NBA also ushered in free agency for players. Robertson says that was his most important assist.
Robertson commended the activism of today’s NBA players, although he wonders why more white athletes aren’t speaking out.
“Where are the white athletes when this is happening?” he said backstage at the NBA Awards. “It’s not just black athletes when you see injustice in the world.”
Robertson went on to say he hopes “the whites and the blacks can get together, even with the football,” a reference to NFL players who have taken a knee or sat in silence during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality.
Robertson was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 1961, MVP in 1964 and won a championship with Milwaukee in 1971. The guard was a nine-time selection to the All-NBA first team and was voted one of the league’s 50 greatest players.
He also was co-captain of the 1960 U.S. team that won an Olympic gold medal.
Robertson also led Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis to consecutive Indiana state championships (1955 and 1956), the first all African-American team in the nation to win a state title.
Robertson also was president of the National Basketball Players Association from 1965-74, and the settlement of his anti-trust lawsuit against the NBA — known as the Oscar Robertson Rule — ushered in free agency in the league.
Russell won the award last year in the first season of the awards show.