Throughout Basketball History many amazing games, streaks, and seasons have occurred. From Wilts 100 to the 71-72 Lakers 33 game winning streak, to the 96 Bulls 72 win season, the NBA has been filled with accomplishments that blow the minds of basketball fans everywhere. In 2017 among the presence of basketball’s royalty one season shined the brightest, and that one is the season of Russell Westbrook.The thunderous dunks, mesmerizing passes, and tenacious rebounds of Westbrook were constant throughout the NBA season. He stuffed the stat sheet with ease and never looked like that was his sole purpose. After amazingly being snubbed for 2017 All-Star game Westbrook in an interview with Fred Katz of the Norman Transcript noted “ I don’t play for All-Star nods or All-Star bids. I play to win championships and compete at a high level.” This is a clear and poignant indication of Westbrook’s attitude towards, team, individual success, and statistics. Although his stats are amazing, this season represents something a lot larger.
When listening to ESPN commentators discuss Russell Westbrook’s season they continually looked back at the only other person to accomplish what Russell Westbrook accomplished: Oscar Robertson. In the list of the greatest NBA players to ever set foot onto the hardwood Oscar Robertson sometimes goes unappreciated and forgotten. In an interview with CBS Robertson’s teammate and close friend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stated that while LeBron and Michael are great players Oscar would have “kicked them in the behind” and that Robertson “got the job done every night”. Robertson, who grew up in a segregated housing project in Indianapolis during the 1940s and 1950s, played ball for the all-black Crispus Attucks High School, where he was named Indiana’s “Mr. Basketball” in 1956 after leading his team to the state title. He went on to play at the University of Cincinnati for three years, before being drafted by the Cincinnati Royals in 1960. Robertson then spent the next fourteen years being one of the league’s most dominant players.
In the days of Robertson, the game was played at a different level. Most of the game was still played under the rim and with hand checking isolation dribbling was not common. Players were not nearly as strong and athletic as they are today, but they didn’t have a better understanding of the fundamentals of the game. This allowed many of the league’s stars to put up huge numbers such as Wilts 50.4 ppg average in the 1961-1962 season and Bill Russell’s 24.7 rpg average in 1963-64.
The second part of this article will come out later