A half century ago, Oscar Robertson had already experienced a Hall of Fame basketball career. "The Big O" was a high school icon, who led his team to consecutive state titles, won Indiana's coveted "Mr. Basketball" award, and was named the nation's best player. At Cincinnati, he was one of the most dominant players college basketball had ever seen, locking down three straight first-team All-America nominations. There, he won the nation's scoring title (33.8 PPG), was named national player of the year, and co-captained Team USA at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
In Rome, he was part of a squad that steamrolled the competition, romping to a gold medal. He was drafted by his hometown Cincinnati Royals, named Rookie of the Year, and made first-team All-NBA nine times over the next decade. He averaged a triple-double for a season which, until recently, was hallowed ground. He was the league MVP in 1965. Had he wanted to, he would've averaged a triple-double for five consecutive years. The Royals were never very good, but by the end of the 1960s, Robertson was already one of the greatest basketball players who had ever lived.
There was friction between him and the franchise, and the Royals decided to trade him to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970. "I was told I was going to be traded... the team didn't care for me anymore," Robertson recently told me during an interview on The D.A. Show. "My wife actually picked Milwaukee [before the trade]... she wanted a good school system and had some acquaintances there." Her instincts were right.
Having never won a championship, and missing the playoffs the previous two seasons, Robertson joined a green Milwaukee team with potential but lacking experience. The Bucks had only joined the league two years earlier, but had an amateur basketball legend of their own in Lew Alcindor, now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In their first season together, Robertson and Alcindor dominated the league. The Bucks won 20 consecutive games, finished 66-16, and then romped through the playoffs. Milwaukee went 12-2 in the postseason, and swept the Bullets to win the NBA championship. Robertson had changed everything.
"I made a lot of sacrifices myself with my offensive game... and I knew what I had to do as a player," Robertson told me. "My scoring was secondary for the team. I kept us together on the court... I had to make sure we got into our offensive plays... and keep teams off balance."
In his final four seasons in the league, Robertson helped guide the Bucks to four playoff appearances, three conference finals, and two NBA Finals. In his final game in 1974, the Bucks lost Game 7 and the title to the Boston Celtics. Robertson had put his stamp on Milwaukee, the NBA, and a young team learning to win.
Fast forward 50 years later, and Chris Paul is following an eerily similar path. He was a prep superstar, named North Carolina's "Mr. Basketball" back in 2003, and was USA Basketball's male athlete of the year in 2004. He was dominant in his two seasons at Wake Forest, and the fourth overall pick of the 2005 NBA Draft. Paul was a 10-time All-Star, with four first-team All-NBA nominations with the Charlotte Hornets, LA Clippers, and Houston Rockets. Paul had a Hall of Fame career, but winning a title always eluded him.
Paul had been part of some of the previous decade's most crushing playoff losses, like the flameouts with the Lob City Clippers, and blowing a 3-2 series lead over the historically great Golden State Warriors. Injuries in the playoffs hobbled him for the second half of his career. Misfortune, street clothes, and watching his friends do all the winning appeared to be the stark reality of his basketball life.
Then before this season, the talented but raw Phoenix Suns acquired him. They had lottery picks in Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. They had made a run in the bubble last year, falling just short of the playoffs. They were on a decade-long postseason drought. They were frisky, but needed to be shown how to be professionals, and become winners. Paul provided that.
The Suns were a machine all season long, neck-and-neck with the Utah Jazz for best record in the league. Phoenix was sensational on the road. Booker became unstoppable. Ayton finally flashed the potential of the top-overall pick. The offense hummed. Paul orchestrated the perfect flow, picking and choosing when to attack, while setting his teammates up for their own scoring chances. He impressed good habits on them. The Suns rose to the occasion in the playoffs, winning Game 1 in all four of their series. They have closed out their first three series on the road. No moment has overwhelmed them.
It's all because of Paul, a flawed superstar who has become his best self this season. "He added an element of the game they didn't have before, a couple of years of experience," Robertson said of Paul. "He didn't try to overdo it. He has other [great] players on the team." A half century ago, the same could be said for "the Big O." He won a championship in his first year with the Bucks. Paul is now two wins away from doing the same thing against them.