Oscar Schmidt, Brazilian Superstar Who Spurned the N.B.A., Dies at 68
Oscar Schmidt, the brash Brazilian basketball superstar nicknamed the Holy Hand for his Hall of Fame shooting ability and often cited as the best player to never play in the NBA, died Friday in Santana de Parnaiba outside São Paulo. He was 68 years old.
In a statement, his family confirmed that he died in hospital but did not give a cause. After being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2011, he had surgery in 2013. He said he recovered in 2022.
Schmidt, a 1.80 tall forward, was one of the world’s top scorers and an elite ball player.
“There wasn’t a shot I didn’t like,” he said. documentary profile NBC Sports broadcast during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “I love them all because I practiced them all. I shoot over 1,000 shots a day. So give me the ball. If you don’t want me to shoot, don’t give me the ball.”
Steve KerrThe Golden State Warriors coach, who played against him in international competitions, told reporters after Schmidt’s death that Schmidt was “one of the best shooters I have ever seen in my life.”
“No conscience,” he added, “a bit of a Steph Curry mentality. I never, ever thought twice about letting it fly.”
Schmidt accumulated 49,973 points over 29 years with Brazil’s national and Olympic teams and clubs in the Brazilian, Italian and Spanish leagues; That number nearly equals LeBron James’ record total of more than 51,000 in NBA regular season games and playoffs over 23 seasons. Schmidt’s records include 1,093 points in Olympic competition achieved at five Summer Games from 1980 to 1996.
During the 1988 Games in Seoul, he broke the single-game Olympic scoring record: 55 points in a loss to Spain.
In arguably his most exciting performance, Schmidt scored 46 points to lead Brazil to a 120-115 upset victory over the United States in the 1987 Pan American Games final in Indianapolis. He called it “the greatest thing I’ve ever done in basketball.”
At a time when loosely enforced international rules prohibited NBA players from participating in the Olympics, Pan Am Games, and other amateur events (where other countries’ professionals were allowed to play), the U.S. team was filled with star college players such as future Hall of Famer David Robinson and was considered unbeatable; He had won 34 consecutive matches in Pan Am competitions.
Schmidt, who scored 53 points in Brazil’s victory against Mexico in the semifinals, scored only 11 points against the Americans, who were ahead 68-54 in the first half. But Schmidt exploded in the second half, scoring 35 points on shots from all over the Market Square Arena court.
“It’s hard to be prepared for something like this,” Robinson told NBC.
Schmidt, who made seven three-pointers in the game, was an early master of the long-range shot long before it became a ubiquitous offensive tool in the NBA. After winning the final, he was asked how he became so proficient.
“My wife comes with me to training and passes the ball to me 500 to 1,000 times,” he said. “That’s why I married him.”
Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt was born on February 16, 1958, in the city of Natal on Brazil’s northeastern coast, to Oswaldo and Janira (Bezerra) Schmidt. In his youth, Oscar initially played football, but as he grew taller, his family encouraged him to play basketball.
When he was 13, he attended a youth basketball camp where a coach named Laurindo Miura gave him some critical and obvious shooting advice. In a story he often told, Schmidt said he held the ball in front of his face before hitting it.
“Can you see the basket?” he asked.
“No,” said Schmidt. When the coach said, “Put the ball over your head,” Schmidt responded, “I understand now.”
He was still in his teens when he quickly gained fame as a star player for São Paulo club Palmeiras and the Brazilian national team. In the late 1970s, Michigan State University tried to sign him to the Spartans, whose roster included Magic Johnson, but he turned down the offer, preferring to remain with the national team. And in 1984, the New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) selected Schmidt in the sixth round of the NBA draft.
By then he was a star in the Italian league, averaging 27 points per game. He turned down the Nets, as well as Michigan State, because he did not want to comply with NBA rules that prevented his players from competing on national teams at the time.
“They came to offer me a no-cuts contract,” he said. started He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. “I said thank you very much, but if I play one match here, I will never play for my national team.”
The Nets pursued him for three years but never offered him enough money to persuade him to sign with them and give up his national team membership.
Since his father served in his country’s navy, Schmidt attached great importance to playing for the Brazilian team.
“In my home and in my family, we are extremely patriotic,” he told basketball magazine Slam in 2009. “Choosing between my country and the NBA was an easy decision.”
Schmidt nevertheless earned the respect of many NBA players, including Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and Kobe Bryant.
Speaking to NBC, Bird described Schmidt’s ability to shoot at almost anyone: “If they were big, they’d get around him.” “If they were little he would hang them.”
The Geneva-based International Basketball Federation, known by its French acronym FIBA, inducted Schmidt into its Hall of Fame in 2010, and he was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. He was the top scorer in three Olympics: in Seoul, he averaged 42.3 points per game; at Barcelona in 1992 (24.8 points); and at Atlanta in 1996 (27.4 points).
Schmidt’s survivors include his wife, Maria Cristina (Victorino) Schmidt; and two children, Stephanie and Felipe.
As a teenager growing up in Italy, Bryant watched his father, Joe, known as Jellybean, play against Schmidt in professional competition in that country.
“When I heard Joe say his teammates were going to talk to Kobe about Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan,” Schmidt told The Associated Press after Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash in 2020. “And the boy answered: ‘Oscar is the good one; he always beats your team.’ And Joe would laugh.
