By Ed Piper, Jr.
With so much talk this past NBA season about Russell Westbrook's averaging a triple-double to match Oscar Robertson, let me clear this up: Back in the 60's when the "Big O" was operating, there was little glamor surrounding him on the woeful Cincinnati Royals.
He played on a lousy team, and as a result, they got little publicity. Nobody wanted to be the "Big O" back then, the way kids want to be Steph Curry, or K.D., or Westbrook today.
Back in those days, the concept of the "triple-double"--double figures in points, assists, and rebounds--had not even been originated. The term wasn't used until more recently in basketball, with the explosion of statistics-keeping and the heavy coverage of the sport.
Robertson, a great player, partly had those gaudy statistics because he played for a lousy team. The ownership of the team, as is the case with many pro franchises, didn't want to spend the money it would take to revamp the lineup and give the guard some teammates who could play at a high level. And so Robertson, stuck as the big fish in a little pond--Cincinnati was a media backwater--had to handle the ball every time downcourt and do most of the passing and a lot of the shooting. Hence the over-the-top statistics.
During the 1967-1968 and 1968-1969 seasons, the team didn't even make the playoffs.
The most publicity the guy ever got during his career was in the trade that sent him to the Milwaukee Bucks, joining the young Kareem Abdul Jabbar and leading to an NBA championship.
In a similar way, Westbrook, the OKC star, has to play stellar ball and either pass or shoot on most plays from his point guard position for the Thunder--because the talent around him, like in Robertson's case on the Royals, is thin.
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