AMID THE BEST BASKETBALL TALENT EVER ASSEMBLED, Oscar Robertson stood out in a way even he didn't realize that cold February afternoon in Cleveland's Gund Arena.

Oscar Robertson loved his years in Milwaukee.

It was halftime of the 1997 NBA All-Star Game when he and 49 other players were honored as the greatest in league history. Robertson certainly earned a spot on the elevated podium with a stellar 14-year career.

Yet he was alone in his choice of with which team he wanted to be remembered. While four others alongside him - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dave Cowens, Moses Malone and Nate Archibald - had played for the Milwaukee Bucks, only Robertson wore the team's jacket that day.

He had spent his first 10 NBA years and enjoyed most of his individual success in Cincinnati. But it was the final four seasons and lone championship in Milwaukee that were most special. They helped make his choice of outerwear at this NBA gala easier.

Enjoyed Milwaukee
"Cincinnati is no longer in existence (in the NBA), plus I had an enjoyable experience in Milwaukee," Robertson said later. "My kids grew up there. Everything that happened to me in Milwaukee was enjoyable."

Most of Robertson's life after retiring from the Bucks also has been enjoyable. His three daughters have grown up, with one making him a grandfather. He is president of three successful businesses that employ about 300 people. And he continues to see the results of a winning court case in the late 1970s that changed the NBA for its players.

Robertson long ago returned to Cincinnati, where two of his companies are located (the other is in Southern Illinois). His firms deal in chemicals, corrugated products and flexible packaging, and keep him plenty busy at age 58.

"My typical day is spent on the phone a lot and dealing with management," he said. "I do quite a bit of traveling, so it's about like my basketball days. "You need a lot of patience. I have problems the way other businesses have problems, but the good points far outweigh the bad."

Robertson learned plenty about business from nearly a decade as NBA Players Association President. It was during his tenure that the "Oscar Robertson Case" started. When it was settled, the groundwork for today's players was laid.

Stood up for rights
"It was a case which the NBA owners hated," he said. "Basically it stated you had the right to play out your option.

"Teams had first refusal, but if they didn't use it, you couldn't play for

Success followed Oscar both on and off the court.

someone else. This opened the doors for free agency. It was like the Curt Flood case in baseball. Owners still have the power, but they can't control your destiny."

On the court, Robertson certainly controlled his own fate. His 26,710 points (25.7 ppg), 9,887 assists (9.5 apg) and 7,694 free throws ranked fifth, third and second on the all-time lists, respectively, entering this year. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979.

A 6-5, 220-pound guard, he was the 1960-61 NBA Rookie of the Year, 1963-64 Most Valuable Player, and appeared in 12 All-Star Games. Perhaps most incredible was his 1961-62 season, when he averaged a triple double - 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.3 assists per game.

In the four years after the April 21, 1970 trade to Milwaukee for Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk, his numbers "slipped" to 16.3 points, 7.5 assists and 4.9 rebounds per contest. But he won his lone NBA title in 1971 and came within one game of another in 1974. Still, he thought his career could have been even more successful.

Missed traded teammates
"I felt like we had some good teams in Cincinnati in 1964 to '67, but they traded away some of the key players like they did here with people like Greg Smith, Bob Boozer and Dick Cunningham," he said. "They changed the whole nature of our team here. What makes a great team is a great bench."

Robertson retired Sept. 3, 1974, nearly three months short of age 36. Six weeks later, the Bucks retired his jersey No. 1.

He spent short periods of time owning property, working in development, on television analyzing NBA games, and on his case before settling back in Cincinnati and starting his first business in the early 1980s. He's been in the company president's chair ever since.

While he rarely plays anymore, Robertson tries to keep contact with the game as much as possible. Like many of his generation, he doesn't always like what he sees.

"It's a different game - talent is a real key," he said. "You have to guard someone yourself.

"When I watch basketball, I see guys doing very little without the ball to help their teammates. Today, everyone seems to want to play the pivot, but not everyone can play the pivot.

Lack of 'great ballplayers'
"What I want to know is why isn't there more than four or five great ballplayers every year, with all the players coming out each year? That blows my mind."

Once an Indianapolis prep star, Robertson also can't believe his home state's change from the traditional single-class high-school tournament to a four-class playoff system beginning next year.

"I think change is good when it is planned out well," he said. "What I would have liked them to do is add one class this year and see how it goes and maybe add another the next year, and if it doesn't work, drop it.

"I went to a high school with 900 students. If there had been the same thing then, you may not know about Oscar Robertson. You don't know small-school players. The press only has two legs. They can only cover one class, and that will be the big schools."

Fortunately for basketball fans back then, and over the next 18 or so years, Oscar Robertson never had an identity crisis.

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