Black Champions; Interview with Oscar Robertson

fb there's a toilet i'd written an inept as indiana west side of town neighborhood were mostly guys that i played with all that insane financial situation you know money my father worked for joe meek up a coaching intern cut the woods waiting mood of the city we had supporters are social event when a government always wanted to go to a church we were important

that is bad i spent most of my summers with my grandparents where it will control of tennessee which as it was called bills burton to say because my grandfather was a bailiff and this is all his relatives there whole hillside realtor there really been an actress was over a poor situation little shotgun houses over colo public still a lot of time but there was heckled happy days well we'll have to rather than they would have followed of course my mother played basketball before that we all played some form sports because this is all that was that in those days in the sun aleppo pride thing to get amal was forced to consolidate the past who plays fortune talk about though so many soviet plant when you sat down this has to shoot the ball but do most intimate as a box what this on the globetrotters play it was

so like this the way out and there was nothing else of ethical our societies that the people involved and people talk about been a doctor or lawyer not personally talked about the work and then the company mitsui was television hour was to tell his request unless listen to radio quite a bit and listen to the people and the last box sugar ray and tatum played that's walt all know proud of these things are known slacker pressure is unfortunate to do however that of the box i could not alabama are also a political force really actually i wasn't pretty good baseball player i played baseball time basketball the sport was playing late in the afternoon when the sun went down was so hot but i played baseball at time we've been apart again that ground ball in chief la balls and all these things and also played football i ran track i think when you grow up you almost think it was as much a little stage in those days i

mean we did play tennis well consider the girls they don't know if they saw this as one still struggling like this today a listener allan alley crazy about was there something particular to play art of ballet is in full it's unfortunate will travers and this was somewhat an all white high school an entry fee understand this situation and in that was in the fifties and fervor difficult to get any kind of recognition for black people that at the time but in indiana and i think that i school then into a state championship in nineteen fifty one they were in the final four this brought out a lot of the press to publish a lot of talk and i think from that point home most of a blind deaf and did not live in my in my neighborhood there is to go to christmas ads has to start to come here as they could the son and like a snowball going idealistic the momentum huge huge role in the debate and it was just a way of a black people say in to the city in the next week and we can

play basketball we can meet unique will turn on local courtney flatt socially lefauve for the idea of her devastated by one night in annapolis than a couple years ago in a tornado i do work although it's true they all the great athletes never i played where many many other gets played a place called waterloo was really a dust ball i think the dust bowl turn on the street where i live we played on the court because the house was torn down and it was all that's in just like a mess of this hard clay and that i think is where the dust bowl idea came from you went into apart were which was close close by minute how the particle like feel and this is when he had a paid court but they still consider the dust bowl but it has this torn down it was really disheartening to say that that you know that we we're you know if black

people can't a second thing happened to keep pollsters historic things up in the way they can move to protect some of the place with a sing that because a political nature that in an effort to leave the media for not tough enough to keep it to keep it alive and that's a real shame you too oh yes you know i think that my father made the records will and i think they didn't really respect to parents of a lot of the routine today my father could say anything to me you know and i would never question wouldn't be a decision i think i played basketball has a very good coaches as amanda felt they were like one follows us or just didn't really cared for you simply don't get that much anymore i think was unique as i said before in all black high school i think it will help it will happen not involve a lot of the kids' development as well the maximum first course was

getting counseling he played for obama university and the football player i think he got started we're on the fundamentals and will be until things things sometimes it was coming from the outdoors and go into our ash carter you know we shot them in the outdoor he really didn't you know mahler and make him a faker who also wanted to really put him down but he gets all work together as a team and from that point own i went into that red crow recall was a really little footprint an episode that taiwan not the limelight for white people or it he's able to get warranty getting played a getting all these kids who are between bill that while one basketball to pull together and it's really taken don't happen once in a lifetime out the laramie that way again through all this i have had babies all the centers in all of

this you know you will be called fair competition all about airplane he would never play his youth in an old brother family and a whole rose and i this is something that they don't know that the group you for evil in iowa and you know we just thought that would just be really play out this kid around with a really serious and alabama played on a nineteen fifty six undefeated team and their eyes glued together but that wasn't it security oh mighty fifty five with former have to you know sell to black schools planting a little farther than that was nineteen fifty five and i think

not really is this a lone know what finally beaten does that affect their at another all like either that we got on the court so we attend full blood and so they had that for leather well liked in the job i think a lot of other things like that you don't really think about to live on about people that it lives think too much about it the next day almost that and read newspapers and then subsequent years to read about oh dear a little place christie said it has clinton all black finally and you become so well that we don't want the surge happened in this thing you don't read your comments conversation about that these types of things this is worse never thought there a thought about a funny story that when i was a sophomore reserve played a forcible was close to cover for the money bill mason because the

lawful of our sitting at a divided up and i was on trial for the reserve team of the freshman not play for travelers urging a sophomore and i'm sitting there and the state and that they can run and they were waiting for the coaches come and start you know still talk about what that would be we should expect an ending sales of a camel and truffle of our things like get this resolved as reasonably though the varsity nicholson because of him but another male that has the software the same year he was one the better a better defensive player the sixties simon and the cinnamon apple by the plaintiffs have every day i think he really got me become a little bit of that sculptor i think competition is a realty i've always said that no one cared become a great player plan and immediately attending yet he couldn't be put in stress situations they could have ditched their situation either failed or to be into it mrs

he says he he actually situate columnist at about all fourteen fifteen has concluded that that may happen you know i am a carrier is which is where beach grover oh elmwood and places like that just at about the fourteen self portrait of lettuce at the city they had quite a few high schools that number now what i'm sure will vote will attend during the two years that strip where it was in the early fifties evansville months a scoop anderson schools like that city since google tech partial technical high school with her video for five four thousand students got that school in its crew the people that schools were very tough when i was at the park worth though fort

wayne muncie edison schools like that i think well that really gets into it is the one year that my college coach george smith can always got a fellow teammate about legitimate winter weather and susana play in these celebs but from that point on iran i ran track in high school when i was a high jumper although i was not a great caregiver i could jump but i was just too heavy i waited a ninety five pound the sick for that just to lose weight to be a great hijab i should know how this it's about a seventy pounds and so as a result of what one in track and that did not include

june i could i could not be contacted by law schools and that that i was involved in an all star game of commerce is kentucky and it's also believe they do the recruiting so they can only contact lastly coach rick wrote about me about me going to a school assessments close beidler for and i did not want what indiana i totally kosher restaurant recommend and i just feel the situations for me another player within in indiana named howard bryant had some very unpleasant experience as walt while going to school there and i felt him to master basketball was mistreated report by the un and france for crack and so why they're one of those who are nice to us

as i said i thought how about juan the greatest basketball players ever sing play basketball those days virgin very good attitude until the person who got his green british student ngos and then and when he first went there they had ever pretty good basketball team crockett for a slot play that make that one ncaa championship aka be mistaken about that and i just don't think however i was ever given opportunity will play basketball there and make sure they recruited a couple of players past paxton welcome south of the city the conditions one

player named bill scott want to frighten college and in and around an annapolis was telling me that if we were to that school he was a great score an ad that affect him as well with thirty points a game the coach was telling that he didn't fit in well the place and those type of things where it's a plea we didn't publish them and push them like players alike with a lot a lot a lot of harsh stories about players who go to schools those days and that's what he did before i coached classic we would discuss whether they want you to really play great if you play great if you're mediocre that effect if you're mediocre they would take in the first place you look at the early days in a city with a lot of college teams they may have why get to maintain that they could really play basketball that but some of it is white kids were this struggling players what they'll get scholarships and i knew myself not only catcher has got it in cincinnati

fivefold since we should do at some point i was there's a lot of like versailles low but maybe because their academic requirements you could get you know another that's only thing you know not people our perceive a situation like that and they're some cultures think about the of the tents up alumni there's so many things to think about that people often have both have thought so in the same period why i think it's because we get we come from adam i had a good basketball has to push rates yet to be a disciplinarian because will get acquitted whether from a very difficult and what was it police at atlanta's all black which yet to really get insight into his combat zone even though they're an asset accounts to forgo so it's not because the economics of the my situation where you know we stayed in our memories and

playing with all the guys in an ominous around watson and to set out and then i'll go off and it was it was my sport your stories that's allowed myself i had a best of my mother has a lot of indiana it's it's it's not quite accurate is how i got a basketball my mother worked for the domestic for whoa someone in indianapolis now are asleep remember they had received a five minute on broadway's where she works fifty five twenty ugly were fifty five eighty and she brought the basketball nets that was the first ball nice i played

i plan late at night to play in and they come and sit a hypothetical so situations that i've work on shot two shots there and i'm i didn't i didn't actually the best of all of that with the screw it up a lot of a new the size of paper of all the singers in madison school in baskets and against him tough defensive players and should the lineman sentence of them in one of the one at how much it blows a so called and they left a lot of a lot of players but i tell you now it's a i hadn't had and think about this i just love to play the game so there was also more saliva well mexican obsession an ailing us these coming he noted that but i think that key

that you know people have a thing that didn't need to those days but i have yet to be dedicated to certain point i'll think players today are that that will do anything like that i think kids are really love and that's paul was a good chance here to a friend's double the cancer or and i think it's a real tragedy really that the costs that while not a lot of market it's an american game it is not so much for a lot of people and i think and they can help your business to a certain extent i thought that is the doubt and that of these bubblings in a bed again i don't think those are strong today is a work i played that a reason why you know when i lived in annapolis migrant presley vincent in tennessee

and they have just two the next day i was i was on a farm revive my grandfather a sharecropper qualified literally was that or he lived and i work at manual labor i mean if you worked on a farm you know a mentally relieved irene i got when the when the rooster's crow i was given a day to eat and intellect and air raids target know when i was in the country because they didn't do those things for breakfast at five chickens five the table the five corners like that because that was a big deal cause you to work bill taylor four of thirteen to fourteen year ago well about six two and when you grow up in that would change is that a city or manhattan lift that bale all day long our work and corn are the southerners always many are seeking support for a word ending in a cue sounded that the day you know just how to work anymore i were to sell the software has been some type of a job and i think that i think

helped to wage today but i think of solo stretched out that those from its own server over and that for two years i don't think it's compounded by that are saving more because we played it we played a lot of man and the fence or depressed what were you had to approach a strategy at the dark somebody at the fundamentals of a certain way because sometimes you may become a position in all this because i'm six two men then again six seven us to have an obligation to do much as i can to keep it from getting them all this it's like a city in rome i enjoyed it i think of a woman's most normal situation there been a lot of them alive i think so because the players at the goal within the coach people more suppliers in order to build it myself and will build more blacks on the plane mr devol white but we all from the same tight situation that foreign money goes into

money was you know there was a lot of it and so we had a nice time people with a great coach with over a great basketball team and i think really get a great team and you saw a play together on some drug profits as it is to win or lose the academics were for good about everyone you know when he meets a lot of all of that was enough to get beaten and obsessive thing this thing the train wreck your life is the word that i think is something that we should all strive to get involved and recently there's been so much political input into the olympics that it's a real shame that the russian income issue because we'll develop that and for anyone to be so naive as that they're in the country are affected they were not quite honest with themselves that's right no but we were told not to lose let loose the russians by some us officials and you know the treatment that i think athletes get is not that that was not the

best in the past week state and politically wrong which was built this how's athletes and you had had worn as they were but the little things are the turnpike i think a great thing being long as intended blackjack use multiple infections summer at that made for someone like pete carroll thirty six psalm fifty seven he says he has no idea so i don't really think that much about the political level it was in the nineteen sixty olympics

is by yet they could play that waterford point but early years of the way no one on one basketball issue of all knowledge re competition or to get care in the state it was a sudden that they cannot overcome we didn't sell all along that we had the best basketball team there we work pretty hard that effect leading go to the libyan political might and four we had the play our first game i went to certain mcdonnell switzerland and stayed there without that the coat fell we're going get sidetracked anything site saying anything that was invalid take the time and work out fine for us and i think now you look back and single well that i haven't really gotten all of fond memories and you know this going out with some the guys talk about that while while in all of the filipino that it's a discipline this cannot replace

the polls he built them a great individual had a lot of respect for his basketball knowledge he did not overcoat get together play well together any really stressed the fiscal discipline that i've been held for so many many years and this fit right into my game plan and i think people didn't really start in indiana a lot of times we know retained the coastal than those that he really did to have great players that we had at that critical time as difficult for god to get them put together a body at the inspiration and then we'll have the ability to get this done i need it this is changing

and then it's in his porch in london and today our yesterday yesteryear car tomorrow when as is the report especially to certain level you get in international competition like that when is what's really important because it's something that doesn't happen every year again like i feel very fortunate to be able to come from my background that i didn't in a nets a man and also in charlotte nc soundbite of ice being thin people are listening i was allowed under lock in the data with a lucky because i'm more year to later i would've had that opportunity i think that they would begin a situation and high school you're going to have three or four years in the pro you have a career but when an olympic situation like that when is this is is not just to compete because this to compete means that you think about when you know think about the things you have to be

sacrificed to make art not enough to win to come out on top in the hard work that you do practice so it means a lot to me to lebanon in the short term like that some has gone before everlasting the memories of something that you think about the articles in that first episode was there for the olympic games and also are volatile so what was your feeling really confident that you're going to be ok you think this special thing that we're dealing with a gamer wealth that effect of that in training camp and funny thing that is how that's

going to play the game is the final approach and then the kicker please about a goat who were coming in after the drilling for this is my role tonight i never thought about please just something i never thought about it like a play probing would be much rougher than i thought was one of a lot of question because he's a professional players and then laying them out of play pro basketball but i never really saw one word of a world they cannot make this pans out there and i guess my innate ability you know i take some time to get involved in something you can you can think too much about what i should do this a question that i think she won't play here again if your game even completely and all those all that is listed before and in my first look of last contract and we listen we put our best well the students line run and stop in tampa all things like that over the net they get about taking into account this week playing as

proof for the first time and also again the beginning as here the semiconductors this is just the first step oh yes that was a forensics there for me to be a big old traveled first elected in a lot of airplay before these type of thing you know i was on a bus and looking airplane going one of world's people will it he is can imagine people know that but when i wish it opens in business people corporations corporate giants athletic tainted family live in each own holidays and some for tragic and some for happiness and then you realize you know you think about those things i think it said the case i think they're wanting to in this country should be able to travel significant fall apart the world i think it's something that you know they would too

i can never explain to you my first boston now to china this was a couple years ago so all the people there are going to rome or spain and didn't involve the basketball team's the things you have to see because it's a tremendous education that you can never get in school this is different they were so thankful and i didn't know it was when he was a teen you don't think i'm a lot of things that i had some problems in certain places we played into north carolina we couldn't stay in the city with stay outside in a fraternity all played in houston and i'll never forget the total it was a live show right hilton i would

not label stay with the team we checked into a hotel and they got out later house to let them stay there as situations like that that that the global around and went to appear once in denton texas they're uncertain about things you think about maybe along one place next to you and other targeted an analogy going to be going to russia sometimes and you know that people stared at that but i think at this point and dedication ahead will not i think i think it's sport it's just so tremendous because there's a person playing that first things told us that when women has convened in an epidemic no longer normal person people are watching a glass bowl and so if you won't play sports you have to understand that we have yet to make allowances for these

types of situations and i think it did help protect not how to build these roy williams play ok you wrote a rough aggressive day that think that that typical time in my career that there are only ten proteins and you play there but in a debate camp has maybe more and we may after the inimitable around really was a twice about a village a place so the execution of verve are key and the players union all players in which you know which were the friendship wall to quote legitimate courtney looked it was all out this week i have to be i had to meet him in order to help my team win but if he was tougher and i think with a tougher game than at any anything really tough if you have campaigned in the post twenty or thirty four things

her voice well there was a great player i'd seen him play he was a couple years ago to me what was great bill russell coups it was i'd heard about using that the plaintiffs and before he retired journalist and i came at the same time but it was tremendous basketball player each player had set them in his own right his own gain that this put him a little bit further out in another ballplayer commander data could carry a basketball game and it was a very good under governments and he did he was a smart party stayed inside rebounded and it almost types of things well

yes remember about that if they go to girls about the kabbalah to give it a bath he knew he could do these things we didn't but he played it again i do i think all writers on telephone record the roslin tell that great pass me sixty three but that have won the great fortune the best one am today not because it all the great innate ability for the iraqi woman singing take a lot to figure that one time on the work and on the court you know you can do these things the plane overhead intelligent game and i feel that not a be a great great have to have some form of intelligence russell's another great basketball player not a great shot people didn't make it that's not the difficulty really made a tremendous defensive player in the young wilt chamberlain together journalist was and finesse player sam jones was underrated basketball player would allow things cruz it was like to fight with the celtics

i think those days that you have many many great stars original reporting and collector we plan together this is why they were great basketball player and i think i think sometimes that they have prepared with it a lot of those employees so sixty one now but that was more that i played with a hammer and says that it has a great shot didn't have a lot of rebuilding but he had the uncanny ability of getting open nothing as a gadget to look for these type of players and it was this all recording what is rebounding just passing activists said mom im it's literally to really carry a tape very few players that can really carry of a basketball playing and generate our friends not only by

individual himself but from developing a lot of them and they offer the end of the day you know if this is how you know when i played a you know i knew queen dies that can record we were running a basketball team where i played since then also milwaukee that year again the irs and that oh nonfiction if you know attain was going to get you to run an unreleased going to walk of all the floor figure out what where his path from the defensive and i guess do you and these types of things well that they never wished global warming thirty three games the first to whine and replay that then it bubbles it is jack twyman myself on bach aren't read when will fall they

say they've kept a couple a lot of the charitable summit as is the states really had a tough time we had to apply to control cut off pants and take advantage of and need yes it's the oscar or so i'll reply coach said i think it's very it's the wallabies really not much connection between being a great player you know there isn't i think it's because the people who rule coaches don't watch it because it gives them a note and i was so why should a coach go from team abc the dollar's continued potent up the slack calls the sat they say the great players the late great coaches and i'd offer up was told me was he said it's not true said great prepared to make great coaches social why but they will the deep recession today is that if your weight where

you can coach only cost of natural coating when it requires suggesting what i don't i don't really know it's it's hard to say i think there's a guard dog as a widget to do i think of the guard you set up a lot of things that you see the court i think that men can see the court also cuomo pointed the map and i think in a situation involving people have any athlete on duty not the way the game has got to that point and i say like what is the word you can have a one to get into even though benton when gotten into contests and come out successfully but today that just not true i spoke last year the charity or c eating was just voices in the

nation to sell these exchanges so forth i will think they've been taught to do these things you know i think that the college coaching techniques and terminology commonalities have all changes at a point where the kids were all americans get your prose and fall flat this summer no americans a day economic august right so that noted that the term means nothing today the comedown record as a pro player and ever since that that we did the fences behind you are you get when you offer to those are left the two things you witnessed covering the court is making a gas pedal mccourt spread on a court keep the core balance simplicity immunity no they don't do that anymore and it's because the adult i couldn't train a debate that they've been trained i'd come down a chord played this is known as the ball back for five fifteen times in

and the crowd roar because they think it's great be fierce there's not a big difference because there any tradition blunt i think these are things that i think so the terrible for colleges are asking what it does not teaching an individual defense you feel it yes i think that you know thirty seconds or thirty five seconds six thousand when a fat file cause that was about but that was adopted many many years ago and this would bring the game the first was invented then he played them at their best now get up and on a court to live by the slanted teach other people all the court and people a bigger quicker so you got the chemical adjust the tissue the con is that winter is they want resistance because i think the process it's false this is really happening on the streets now

because balance what about today i think i think the reception from the fans is really great at where it's you know i guess i'm just doubled in tennis made to triple attendance out that problem with a person sits in a certain reporters felt that they debated carefully as an athlete i think that is because maybe cause of the black athlete who played well i was that part of the law people in such an excited know the damage done a lot of reporters over the years you know that's something that's part of a danger to us too ranger louis came to the best what in cincinnati reports indicated that he and i had racial problems and a dish that was quite from

kentucky lama better better friends and socializing quite a bit to get on the road when you were in rome to get actual your look this was an altogether all that together and i just think that we have these type of people involved in sports there really are not professionally south so that fans athletes and reporters there about it or are they care about it you have an obligation get his power over its own world wanting to sell sixty four loss loss loss that's going up corruption case

is still open and that in a nutshell that plant conditions and things that were involved with and says wood has to wean the us actually big because of the whole matter was been able to lay out options i really years ago on a first for playing basketball that's involved ever blacklisted from playing if i were an owner and you're lying on my pain and i say look i'm only ten thousand documented worker had about whether to comply and if you don't accept the terms conditions of anything that i did then i was ok i'll have cultural rights chief ever which means you can go to tame be a keynesian be an ever try to get a contract and we thought that was really well i think would have with the horses that they can resist this to resist this whistle law is eric is to have a meeting of the minds and even the players have to wait longer for her to go to court i think in a tiny record books or loses i think that's a professional people who have

strong are they should always sell the differences we're working the change again persuade i think it'll lead to that contains urgently of the aba in the nba i'm sure this this happened and there will be some other things happen that they get a salary cap situation at one is that the court did take a young parent covenant moses and rehabilitation of things that look we don't think it's not about if they can lose some players to make up the sour pickles go to court is going to hear woodley and would he was going to the same thing but i've had evidently somehow someway some all alternatives we use our supporters were moved and he got a little bit more money i think it is really look at that situation

i think it did help was going up the sport to a certain extent but what what hurts is that the gluttony over that money and kenny guin of all they don't fear one complains and soulless go negative of thousand at it maybe two words granted but at least he couldn't have forty five minutes a game or forty minutes a day maybe the whole game one about a guy sits on the mission makes for five thousand dollars you can only get in and again we'll be the one a loss today you'd either be the problem the tone of the ottoman empire that got the money for a city awash in ana be a fool enough to do exactly a new north of talent and maybe another fool not to complain about all the time don't get killed no one is worth two million dollars in the book a bit you know play basketball you know the agency is i think that there are two great things

boston of course the philadelphia phillies that they have a lot of andrew problems in these have any trouble key players the rest of the teams are less out there in this forest in a walled building goes into their struggling american cities some are they consistently compete ecosystem along sees something up for sale just in the couple came to a mood a certain couple of the locations where i think i think basketball to me this is about sports forced to space by individual football and they get on tv because they had the best contracts of basketball and not the county the people and then the cbs says they will tell the people all the bus pulled out of the draw but when you put it on tv they have they have tremendous tremendous reception about people that the watergate they will watch some mediocre our worst in mediocre teams play there what cleveland

play somebody and again and the dalai lama was that that they were still want the best people play i've always said basketball football baseball and now like the movie you have stars you know heavyset script just are the people will see people respond to anyone's been successful let's start restart character and they were a c all americans play and do well so that not all american haggadah taney been a law saying that you caused a huge entertainment right and that the top twenty they handled there was evident imported into watson analytics people on television it is

phoenician letter that i'm trying to negotiate some to write a book that i will write about education an athlete cover the black athletes and how they recruited and what to look for and anything you going to agents who use explicit get really get the <unk> colonies were given money let mr carson i believe that these people to make sure that people in the capital a place if you look at the makeup of the universe is you'll see where kids graduating seniors does in ca what is the obligation what the president university of that kind of what you think about iraq a case sometime ago by young men with dual your column that the midwest rhodes wouldn't continue the menu and a restaurant had to go back to a school in chicago just adjust to david edelstein i think it's a shame and disgrace that these coaches were set up they consider themselves mauled by just people and let a player go to school little for you are you take a plan and that influx

scoops i think if i'm a coach not to play and i know that it is the aptitude test is that it is academic ability to fire taken in on he can get to school and alex i feel the cold to file a fallen flat out of school the summer to begin with but this happens all the time like a little play some school than ever that when a basketball player well in the last ten to fifteen years of the same things besetting nations i would assume have been a fall at a hassle out of maiden for that he may not be that the accident up with

a whole book with kiev first if six sec is intelligence out and for us to go as for the individual and out our tide is sure indy that didn't take good education still make this the same type of money that he's a worthy basketball player and then i would i would tell him you know that he has to morris was billed himself and then leave it for someone else to do for mom and had those things and i think that that is a great player to know that in a world with basketball says business began to be a check what's the prize it takes hard work and dedication and it takes the more banal is to be victim's body to get the best of your ability to be a champion because a lot of hard work and dedication of patients

and i think it requires an individual who has the build to be get you to inspire you to play your best you know you have the building sometimes if someone can get a value that you will not be a great champion