Oscar Schmidt

From Hoopedia

Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt (born February 16, 1958 in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) is a Brazilian former basketball player. He is also known as Oscar Schmidt and Oscar Schmidt Bezerra in Spain, where he played for Fórum Valladolid for the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, and simply Oscar or Mão Santa (Holy Hand). He is considered one of the best players never to have competed in the NBA. He scored 49,703 points in his professional career.

1 Clubs
2 Honors
3 External links

He played in five Olympics, and was the top scorer in three of them. His teams, however, never succeeded in proceeding beyond the quarterfinals. In the 1980 Olympics he played in seven games and scored 169 points for a 24.1 average. He again scored 169 points in seven games in the 1984 Olympics. 1992 he scored 198 points in 8 games, and in 1996 he scored 219 points in 8 games. In 38 career Olympic basketball games, Oscar scored 1093 points for a record 28.8 PPG average.

Schmidt is probably most remembered in the United States for his performance in the gold-medal match of the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis. The US team of college players at those games featured two All-Americans -- David Robinson (an almost certain Hall of Famer) and Danny Manning, two NCAA Final Four MVPs in Pervis Ellison and Keith Smart, and several other future NBA players. Brazil faced a 68-54 halftime deficit. Oscar almost single-handedly led Brazil to a stunning comeback, finishing with 46 points in a 120-115 win.

He was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in the 1984 NBA Draft, and had several other opportunities to play in the NBA, but declined them all in order to maintain his "amateur" status and continue to play in Brazil's national team (until 1989 NBA players were not allowed to play in the national teams). He retired on May 26, 2003.

In 2004, Schmidt started his management career. He was the CEO of Telemar Rio de Janeiro, a Brazilian team which played for two years and won the Campeonato Carioca (Rio de Janeiro Championship) in 2004 and 2005.

In 2006, he and other great Brazilian players, including Paula and Hortência, led the NLB: Nossa Liga de Basquete ("Our Basketball League"), that seeks to coordinate the Campeonato Brasileiro de Basquete (Brazilian Basketball League). But the league disbanded after one year.

In 2007, Schmidt provided the commentary for the 2007 Pan-American Games on Brazil's TV Globo.

[edit]

Clubs

[edit]

Honors

[edit]

Personal

All-time best scorer with 49.703 points

[edit]

Brazil

sixth place in Pre-Olympics Tournament in San Juan (Puerto Rico - 1974)
three times south-american champion (Chile - 1977, Brazil - 1983 e Colombia - 1985)
World Championship's bronze medal (Philipinnes - 1978)
second place in south-american championship (Argentina - 1979 e Uruguay - 1981)
bronze medal in 1979 Pan-American Games (San Juan - Puerto Rico)
fourth place in Pre-Olympics Tournament in San Juan (Puerto Rico - 1980)
fifth place in 1980 Summer Olympics Games (Moscow - CCCP)
World Championship's eight place (Colombia - 1982)
champion in American Pre-Olympics Tournament in Sao Paolo (Brazil - 1984)
ninth place in 1984 Summer Olympics Games (Los Angeles - USA)
World Championship's fourth place (Spain - 1986)
gold medal in 1987 Pan-American Games (Indianapolis - USA)
champion in American Pre-Olympics Tournament in Montevideo (Uruguay - 1988)
fifth place in 1988 Summer Olympics Games (Seoul - South Korea)
bronze medal in America's Cup (Mexico - 1989)
World Championship's fifth place (Argentina - 1990)
bronze medal in Pre-Olympics Tournamente in Portland (USA - 1992)
fifth place in 1992 Summer Olympics (Barcelona - Spain)
bronze medal in American Pre-Olympics Tournament in Buenos Aires (Argentina - 1996)
sixth place in 1996 Summer Olympics in (Atlanta - USA)

[edit]

Clubs

FIBA World Championship (Sírio - 1979)
South-American League (Sírio - 1979)
Brazilian Championship (Palmeiras - 1977; Sírio - 1979 and Corinthians - 1996)
Sao Paolo Championship (Sírio - 1979, 1980; Palmeiras - 1974 and Mackenzie - 1998)
Italian Cup (Caserta - 1988)
Italian Championship Serie A-2 (Caserta - 1983 and Pavia - 1991)
Rio de Janeiro Championship (Flamengo - 1999,2002)
second place in Brazilian Championship (Flamengo - 2000)
second place in South-American League (Corinthians - 1996,1997).

[edit]