Oscar Schmidt Believes He'd Be 'One Of The Best 10 Ever' If He Joined NBA

[RealGM Wiretap]

Oscar Schmidt played overseas as a Brazilian star, despite overtures over three years from the then-New Jersey Nets to leave his professional team -- and the national team -- to play in the NBA in the 1970s and 80s.

Schmidt will be inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame on Sunday, and he says he would have been one of the best players in NBA history had he entered the league.

“Yes,” Schmidt said. “Anytime. It was easier, because in the NBA at that time it was one-on-one, always. One-on-one, I’m free. If it comes to two players guarding me, maybe.

“I would be one of the best 10 ever.

“There was not a price [the Nets could have offered]. There was national team. That’s it. The national team doesn’t have a price. It’s proud. It’s what you live for. And today, people don’t like to play for the national team. That’s very sad for me.”

Schmidt was asked what he would have averaged in the NBA and said, “One point a minute. Twenty minutes, 20 points. Forty minutes, maybe 60.”

Via Scott Howard-Cooper/NBA.com

[Nanogeek]

This guy never played defense. Name a top 10 player that never played defense.

[Woodsanity]

Its debatable if he would even be an All Star....

[RoundMoundOfRebound]

Top 10 no. Legit player yes.

[inquisitive]

maybe possibly a drazen petrovic type of player, but top 10..no way!

[up n under]

A point a minute? So he thinks he would of averaged 33-35 ppg?

[Islander]

You guys never saw him play and most who claim to are lying.

Oscar Schmidt never played in the NBA. He played in Europe and for his native Brazil in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Retiring in 2003 after 28 years in professional basketball.

The guy scored 46 points in the Pan Am games and single-handedly beat a U.S. team of future NBA all-stars. He's the greatest shooter in the history of the game at any level. He averaged 42.3 points in the Olympics when no NBA player averaged 20.

He's Kobe Bryant's idol and favorite basketball player ever.

I saw the guy play. He would have averaged 35-40 points in the NBA. Yes, Oscar would have been one of the 10 best players in the history of the NBA.

A true Hall of Famer.

[JonFromVA]

Yes, Oscar would have been one of the 10 best players in the history of the NBA.

He was voted the 10th best player in FIBA history behind Sabonis, Petrovic, Kukoc, and a bunch of guys most American NBA fans never heard.

I don't see how the 10th best FIBA player could crack even the top-50 in the NBA.

[Blame Rasho]

He is an idiot with that comment.... he was scared to come to the NBA due to lack of being a star in his mind and national team commitments and now he thinks he would be one of the best players ever in the NBA? It isn't like he sucks, but the myth of him being all an all time great is overblown. He was a Drazen level player... not top 10.. esp when players like Tim Duncan/Dream/ and etc are on the bottom end of the top 10.

The guy couldn't guard a chair as well... he did give us that quote about moving pianos though...

[Blame Rasho]

“I know my limitations, my defects,” he said “but I could never play 10 minutes a game. [The] NBA is great if you are a star. But if not, you get moved around. My friend (Georgi) Glouchkov played a year in Phoenix. He tells me bad stories about [the] NBA. The guards [did not] like him, they don’t pass him the ball. I would not like that. I could not stand that.”

[vege]

You guys never watched him play, he was a monster, he is a legend. If half crap Brazilian players like Nenê and Varejão are starters in the NBA I can't even imagine what Oscar would have done.

Calling him and idiot and saying he was scared to come to the NBA is really pathetic.

You want a top player that never played defense Nanogeek? Dirk Nowitzki and Oscar was 100 times the player Dirk is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0pDfmleirw

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I vaguely recall seeing Schmidt play at the end of his career. I think he would have been similar to prime Rick Barry had Schmidt been an NBA player. He was certainly way better than the college players the USA used to send to the Olympics.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource. ... ug=1499146

More than any other basketball player in the world, he is the reason for the Dream Team. He is the sharpshooter who riddled U.S. hoop egos. He was the player who truly humbled our fresh-faced all-Americans.

In Indianapolis, on a lazy summer afternoon in 1987, in the finals of the Pan-American Games, Oscar Schmidt brought the Brazilians back from the dead. He burned every imaginable United States defense and upset Team USA to win the Pan-Am gold.

It was the beginning of a precipitous decline for U.S. teams in international basketball.

Here's what George Karl (FWIW) said about Oscar Schmidt back in 1992, right before the Dream Team played for the first time:

"Worldwide, he's as special an offensive player as anybody knows," Sonic Coach George Karl said. "And he's done it over a long period of time. He averages huge numbers everywhere he goes, against double-teams, box-and-ones, zone defenses.

"He's real clever. He doesn't have any blazing speed, great size or one-on-one moves. He just knows how to get open, how to freeze you a little bit, and he has a great release of the ball.

"He could have played in the NBA if someone had been patient with him. He wouldn't get the respect from the referees that he gets in international basketball. But we see the way (New Jersey's) Drazen Petrovic is progressing. If Oscar had been given a similar opportunity when he was younger, he could have made some noise."

As I said above, I think Oscar in the NBA would have fared like a young Rick Barry. He would have averaged 25 PPG IMO.

[Blame Rasho]

You guys never saw him play and most who claim to are lying.

Oscar Schmidt never played in the NBA. He played in Europe and for his native Brazil in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Retiring in 2003 after 28 years in professional basketball.

The guy scored 46 points in the Pan Am games and single-handedly beat a U.S. team of future NBA all-stars. He's the greatest shooter in the history of the game at any level. He averaged 42.3 points in the Olympics when no NBA player averaged 20.

He's Kobe Bryant's idol and favorite basketball player ever.

I saw the guy play. He would have averaged 35-40 points in the NBA. Yes, Oscar would have been one of the 10 best players in the history of the NBA.

A true Hall of Famer.

He as a grown man beat a US team full of college kids... Should we put alot of stock into Carlos Arroyo or Šarūnas Jasikevičius beating the US team full of real NBA stars in their prime in the Olympics now?

I mean lets all be in awe with a guy who could only do one thing... score while the entire team fed him while marginalize NBA players because oh my goodness... they never avg 20 points on a loaded team year after year.

So are you telling us now that he would have been better than Shaquille O'Neal,Tim Duncan,Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe, Lebron James, etc... if he had played... because he sure isn't on MJ,KAJ,Russell, Wilt,Magic Bird level...

If one would have said Sabonis in his prime... yeah there is a real argument that could be made that he would be one of the ten best in the NBA... but a guy who was only good at one thing isn't even on the radar of being considered that esp when he himself doubted being a star in the NBA.


I know people have a habit of talking out of their ass from time to time... but at least give it some thought.

[Total_Package]

You guys never saw him play and most who claim to are lying.

Actually rubbish. I saw him play a fair bit and whilst he was one of the better players in the world at that point he was too gutless to test himself out against the best. I highly doubt he would have been top 10 of all time... the guy had no idea about defense. Also world basketball was absolute rubbish back then. the Australian league was probably the #2 best league.

I'll never forget watching him against Australia... we had a local NBL player here Andrew Vlahov who completely shut him down and Brazil lost and Vlahov wasn't even an NBA player.

I reckon Oscar needs to pull his head out of his own ass. Anyone too gutless to play at the highest standard should shut up about how good they are.

[CousinOfDeath]

You guys never watched him play, he was a monster, he is a legend. If half crap Brazilian players like Nenê and Varejão are starters in the NBA I can't even imagine what Oscar would have done.

Calling him and idiot and saying he was scared to come to the NBA is really pathetic.

You want a top player that never played defense Nanogeek? Dirk Nowitzki and Oscar was 100 times the player Dirk is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0pDfmleirw

Just watched this....dude was a beast.

[Islander]

From reading these posts, the ignorance continues.

Oscar was a forward and a much better shooter/scorer than Dirk Nowitski was.

Who was Oscar? Takes Dirk's best ppg. average in his prime (26 ppg.) and add 10 points to it.

That's Oscar (say 36 ppg) in the NBA.

[Nanogeek]

You guys never saw him play and most who claim to are lying.

Oscar Schmidt never played in the NBA. He played in Europe and for his native Brazil in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Retiring in 2003 after 28 years in professional basketball.

The guy scored 46 points in the Pan Am games and single-handedly beat a U.S. team of future NBA all-stars. He's the greatest shooter in the history of the game at any level. He averaged 42.3 points in the Olympics when no NBA player averaged 20.

He's Kobe Bryant's idol and favorite basketball player ever.

I saw the guy play. He would have averaged 35-40 points in the NBA. Yes, Oscar would have been one of the 10 best players in the history of the NBA.

A true Hall of Famer.

He didn't and couldn't play defense. He was a one dimensional player. A great shooter? Yes. A top 10 player of all time? Hell no.

He scored more ppg than any US player because the US players were on teams where there were LOTS of great players sharing the ball. For example, if MJ had the crap players Schmidt had when playing in the Olympics he would have averaged 60 ppg.

[Nanogeek]

You guys never saw him play and most who claim to are lying.

Oscar Schmidt never played in the NBA. He played in Europe and for his native Brazil in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Retiring in 2003 after 28 years in professional basketball.

The guy scored 46 points in the Pan Am games and single-handedly beat a U.S. team of future NBA all-stars. He's the greatest shooter in the history of the game at any level. He averaged 42.3 points in the Olympics when no NBA player averaged 20.

He's Kobe Bryant's idol and favorite basketball player ever.

I saw the guy play. He would have averaged 35-40 points in the NBA. Yes, Oscar would have been one of the 10 best players in the history of the NBA.

A true Hall of Famer.

One other thing - if the guys was a top 10 player he would have led them to at least win a SINGLE MEDAL in the Olympics. Brazil never even won a bronze medal with him. The guy was NBA caliber but he was a very good player on a very crappy team. That's why he scored so many points. And he couldn't play defense. He knew he'd be at best a good starter in the NBA but never an all-star. THAT's why he never played in the NBA.

[sanity]

He certainly has the ego down pat.

I'm unsure how someone can make the claim that he's the greatest shooter of all time without any consideration that he played against inferior competition

[sanity]

From reading these posts, the ignorance continues.

Oscar was a forward and a much better shooter/scorer than Dirk Nowitski was.

Who was Oscar? Takes Dirk's best ppg. average in his prime (26 ppg.) and add 10 points to it.

That's Oscar (say 36 ppg) in the NBA.

Dirk NowitZki isn't a top-10 player of all time. Being able to shoot at an elite level doesn't qualify someone who played against the Joey Doughnuts of the Brazilian League/European League to draw comparisons to the Jordans/Magics/Wilts/Russels/Robertsons