Sacramento Kings: 30 greatest players in franchise history

When discussing the all-time cream of the NBA crop, everyone has the usual list of names including Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and others. Both Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain are mentioned as well. But funny enough, another guy from their era rarely comes up, and his name is Oscar Robertson.

The Big-O was such a dynamic all-around offensive weapon. At 6-foot-5, he was taller than the average point guard which put him in the driver’s seat every time he had the basketball. Robertson could post up smaller guys and simply shoot over the top, and his quickness and ball handling capabilities allowed him to get to the bucket with ease.

Now onto the reason most people know of Robertson’s Hall of Fame career. He was the original king of the triple-double. He led the league in assists seven different times and was able to haul plenty of rebounds, whether it required tracking one down or outleaping an opponent for it.

The pace of play back then was so high, it allowed Oscar to play at his best, pushing the tempo and creating open looks for everyone including himself.

Before Russell Westbrook’s 2016-17 campaign, Robertson was the only player in league history to average a triple-double over the course of an entire season with 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists during the 1961-62 season, just his second in the league.

Some might lessen Robertson’s achievements due to the lack of talent in his era, but then plenty of those same people will go on to praise the likes of Russell and Chamberlain.

In his era, not many were better, and in Kings history nobody is. Robertson wasn’t much of a winner, but he was doing things nobody had ever seen or would see for over half a century, and for that, he’s the greatest player the Sacramento franchise has ever had.