Big O Shares International Experiences

In an article published in yesterdays New York Times, Oscar Robertson details his firsthand experiences with the USA Basketball team. A fitting follow-up to the recent SLAM World Championship article, the Big O shows just how different things were back in the day. “Let me tell you about the original Dream Team, the 1960 United States Olympic gold medalist basketball team coached by Pete Newell, with Jerry West and me as the co-captains. Fifty years after our triumph in Rome, that team will assemble again on Friday in Springfield, Mass., for enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame — along with the 1992 gold medalists, who had the Dream Team name bestowed upon them when they competed. Our team represented a changing of the guard for the United States in Olympic competition, just as the 1992 team did when N.B.A. players represented this country for the first time. Instead of Amateur Athletic Union players, our team came primarily from the college ranks.”