Top 40 Oscar Robertson Quotes (2025 Update)

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

— Oscar Robertson

2. “Who do I think was the greatest? This might shock you: Elgin Baylor. He did so many great things. Nobody could guard him, playing in the forward spot. I’d love to see some of today’s greats playing against Elgin. They couldn’t guard him. Nobody could.”

— Oscar Robertson

3. “The triple-double is just a stat. It’s a test of your strength and stamina and playing ability, really.”

— Oscar Robertson

4. “Just fundamental things – I played guard and I played forward, so you get into a position where you are pivoting out on the court.”

— Oscar Robertson

5. “It’s like all guys want to do is make a dunk, grab their shirt and yell out and scream – they could be down 30 points but that’s what they do. Okay, so you made a dunk. Get back down the floor on defense!”

— Oscar Robertson

6. “You look at today, it’s a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot – a three-point shot – or a dunk.”

— Oscar Robertson

7. “People say that, but I think the NBA was bigger than Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.”

— Oscar Robertson

8. “You need a teaching coach who understands the game of basketball, not just some guy coming on the court talking about Xs and Os.”

— Oscar Robertson

9. “It’s a sad commentary when I have to say that sometimes in our country we are real sensitive to race.”

— Oscar Robertson

10. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson

11. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson

12. “But after that you don’t see a lot of real good fundamental play. You see a showboat-type basketball which is almost parallel to street basketball.”

— Oscar Robertson

13. “There’s so many young peoople who start to play basketball and never learn the fundamentals.”

— Oscar Robertson

14. “If you’re a basketball player, you’ve got to shoot.”

— Oscar Robertson

15. “Now, I guess, people want stars. People are trying to invent stars.”

— Oscar Robertson

16. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson

17. “You don’t cut anywhere, don’t pick down anywhere, don’t double screen, no weak side picking. All these things that should happen in a game of basketball don’t happen anymore.”

— Oscar Robertson

18. “They should have a rule: in order to be a sportswriter, you have to have played that sport, at some level; high school, college, junior college, somewhere. Or, you should have had to have been around the game for a long time.”

— Oscar Robertson

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

— Oscar Robertson

20. “The thing about it is almost everyone could pass that way, but we were kept from doing it by our coaches.”

— Oscar Robertson

21. “The Olympics were great, because you had to make the team, and then go to the games. Now, I don’t know, these guys today don’t want to do anything like that.”

— Oscar Robertson

22. “I was taught to play that way when I was in high school and even before I got to high school.”

— Oscar Robertson

23. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson

24. “Actually, Magic and the Lakers beat Philadelphia for Magic’s first NBA Championship.”

— Oscar Robertson

25. “Basketball is basketball.”

— Oscar Robertson

26. “Just because it is an All-Star Game doesn’t mean that you are playing as efficiently as you should.”

— Oscar Robertson

27. “You see what happens in college and high school games today – a three-point shot or a dunk. I think that’s the reason that you see a lot of that in the pros today.”

— Oscar Robertson

28. “Look, I think you should promote the game, but I think you should make it what it ought to be. Not some kind of a side-show.”

— Oscar Robertson

29. “When you go into a game on offense, you make a couple moves and see what the defender is going to do. Then you pretty much can figure out what he is going to do against you – whether he carries his hands low or high, whether he is bumping or pushing, those type of things.”

— Oscar Robertson

30. “I played on an all-black high school team and we didn’t want people saying that we were clowns.”

— Oscar Robertson

31. “When you play guard, you’re not going to block a lot of shots. Inside, you’re going to block shots.”

— Oscar Robertson

32. “We’re all Americans trying to compete. Magic was competing for his team and Larry for his team.”

— Oscar Robertson

33. “I think no one has written a history of the great coaches who were around 30 to 40 years ago who taught the fundamentals.”

— Oscar Robertson

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

— Oscar Robertson

35. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson

36. “I’d like to think that the nature of the two teams – Boston being a championship team over the years and the Lakers, same thing – was a lot bigger than Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.”

— Oscar Robertson

37. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson

38. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson

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

— Oscar Robertson

40. “The players have no real self-esteem when it comes to putting the best image out there in a real competitive fashion.”

— Oscar Robertson

41. “When I came into the league, once a team drafted you, they owned you forever. If they didn’t like the clothes you wore, or the car you drove, they could blackball you.”

— Oscar Robertson

42. “But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.”

— Oscar Robertson

43. “When I started playing, I wasn’t fast, I was gangly, my jumpshot was terrible.”

— Oscar Robertson

44. “I think that everyone should be able to dribble. Everyone should be able to pass. Otherwise, why are you out there?”

— Oscar Robertson

45. “But if people are buying the products, naturally they’re gonna use them.”

— Oscar Robertson

46. “I think that teaching coaches are the norm now.”

— Oscar Robertson

47. “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.”

— Oscar Robertson