101 Greats of European Basketball

Vladimir Stankovic
“I practiced all my life to become the best basketball
player ever, and didn’t make it, but I am really proud
of what I did,” Oscar said on May 26, 2003, the day he
retired at age 45 after playing for 32 years. He couldn’t
hide the tears that day, which were so different from
those in 1979, at the start of his brilliant career. He
left some impressive milestones behind. He was 297
points short of getting 50,000 for his career, but still
owns the mark for the most points by any player in basketball
history. Some years before that, he had beaten
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s scoring record – 46,272 points
– established in 1989.
Even though Schmidt played until age 45, his golden
years were those in Caserta, a humble club in southern
Italy that Oscar led to an Italian Cup title in 1988. He
also played the Italian League finals in 1986 and 1987,
as well as reaching the Saporta Cup title game in 1989,
in an unforgettable showdown against Real Madrid in
Athens. The game was one of the biggest duels ever
between two great scorers. Madrid beat Caserta 117-
113 in overtime behind 62 points from Drazen Petrovic,
who played all 45 minutes. Oscar “rested” a little bit
and had 44 points in as many minutes. Drazen made
8 of 16 three-pointers while Oscar drained 6 of 11 from
downtown. Three years before that, in 1986, Caserta
lost the Korac Cup final against Banco Di Roma despite
33 points by Oscar in the first leg and 20 in the decisive
game.
The man who beat the United States
One of Oscar’s best games came against the United
States, in the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis,
where Brazil downed the hosts 120-115. Oscar
finished the game with 47 points! The victory was
history-making in two ways: it was the first defeat for a
U.S. team on its own soil and the first in which the U.S.
allowed more than 100 points.
His size (2.05 meters), weight (106 kilograms) and
big feet (size 48) made him a strong forward and a
good rebounder, but Oscar’s best basketball weapon
was shooting. He was able to score from any position
and at any distance, with his opponents’ hands in front
of him, despite being fouled, wide open, mid-range or
long-range. He started to play when the three-point line
was not yet implemented in world basketball but had
the luck to benefit from it starting in 1984. It was the
perfect rule for a shooter like him. Once he left Caserta,
Oscar played in Pavia, Italy for three years. He scored
340
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