Oscar Robertson Player Quotations

If you're a basketball player, you've got to shoot.

I think that basketball players should get the job done no matter how it looks on the screen.

But I think the image that's thrown out on television is a bad image. Because you see players who want to imitate hip-hop stars. And the NBA is taking advantage of the situation.

You have to teach now - tell a kid how to box out, tell him how to pass, teach him footwork. Players don't understand that anymore.

Some players are more physical than others, some play with more finesse. Some are just really great all-around players. So you have to change your game.

This is where young players today want to land. They want to be NBA players because of the money.

People will think there are no other great ballplayers. Look at Garnett. Look at Duncan, Shaq, Kobe. Look at the players with Sacramento. The have a really good basketball team.

I don't know hardly any of the players who have the in-between game like me, who can go to any position on the court.

College coaches want to power the ball inside, they want (their post players) to power the ball up, but no one can shoot from that 15-foot area anymore.

In sports, you're going to have players who are great but haven't won championships. That's true. You only get one winner a year, and the rest of the guys don't win.

I don't blame David Stern because a player gets on the court and he doesn't put out competitively. No one can make you play if you don't want to play.

I don't think that players learn how to play any other aspect of the game in high school or college.

I played when I played, and played, I think, against the greatest players in the greatest time in the history of basketball.

When you play against different people from all walks of life you can't do the same thing against every player defensively or offensively. You have to change up the way you go at a player.

You've got to learn the footwork, the positioning, how to box out, how to pass, how to shoot your free throws. All these things are necessary, not to be the No. 1 player in the world, but maybe you can play against him.

So many kids think that, ... But when you look at the history of players coming out (of college) early, only a handful really make it.