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"It'll Get By." To Oscar Robertson, the game is worth the hardship. "I didn't get a kick out of college basketball," Robertson now admits. "It didn't excite me. But this game—the pro game—is plenty exciting." Playing guard for the Royals (he is too small for forward), Robertson has taken charge of the Royals, with the tacit backing of Coach Charley Wolf, just as he automatically has run every one of his teams from the seventh grade on. Robertson has learned to work in close tandem with Jack Twyman (6 ft. 6 in., 210 lbs.), the team's only other established star, but he does not hesitate to turn his sharp tongue on a veteran who has made a bonehead play. Says Cousy: "Robertson acts as though he's been in this league for ten years."
Robertson on the prowl is grace itself. He flows down the court, head bobbing, shoulders feinting, every part of his body blended into one rhythmical pattern of deception. At his side, controlled by a sensitive hand, bounces a basketball that seems to accompany him like an old and trusted friend. For the flicker of a second, a Royal breaks loose, and in that instant Robertson hits him with a pass. Says Robertson of the art of passing: "Throw it as close to your man's head as you can. It'll get by—he'll have to blink."
If no teammate gets away for a pass, Robertson can often do the job by himself. The instant his opponent lets his weight fall on the wrong foot, Robertson takes a giant step and starts to move like a sports car slamming into gear. Crouched over the ball, his left arm thrust out as a shield, Robertson maneuvers through the melee under the hoop until, in one blurred motion, he rises from the floor to hang alone in mid-air like a puppet on a string. At last he shoots—a precise, gentle release of the ball that is cocked behind his right ear, a final flick of his fingers. The mark of Robertson's shot is the hiss of the net as the ball falls cleanly through.
"Play Him Tight." Defending against such an attack is a thankless task—but the pros do their rugged best. Says Paul Seymour of his St. Louis team's tactics against Robertson: "We pick him up at three-quarters court. We haven't picked up a man back there in years." Alternatively, many teams sag their defense against Robertson to keep him from crashing through the middle.
Each of the N.B.A.'s stars faces special defensive techniques. Says Cincinnati's Wayne Embry of playing against Boston's Russell: "Get Bill off the boards. I try to push him out as far as he'll go. I try to bump him out with my thighs and forearms. You can't push Wilt out. He's too strong." Says Russell on defending against Chamberlain: "Make him take that fall-away shot of his—it takes him away from the backboard." Says Twyman about Baylor, one of the great stars in the history of basketball. "Play him tight at the beginning of the game. Your whole object in life after he gets the ball is to block him off, give him the outside shot." Says Syracuse's Coach Alex Hannum about Pettit: "Keep him off the offensive board. Face-check him sometimes, even if you have to sacrifice the idea of getting the rebound."