Oscar Schmidt

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Oscar Schmidt
S.C. Corinthians Paulista
1997–1999Bandeirantes / Mackenzie
1999–2003C.R. Flamengo
Career highlights and awards
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at Basketball-Reference.com
Basketball Hall of Fame as player
FIBA Hall of Fame as player
Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  Brazil
FIBA World Cup
Bronze medal – third place 1978 Manila
FIBA AmeriCup
Bronze medal – third place
1989 Mexico
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 1987 Indianapolis
Bronze medal – third place 1979 San Juan
FIBA South American Championship
Gold medal – first place
1977 Chile
Gold medal – first place
1983 Brazil
Gold medal – first place
1985 Colombia
Silver medal – second place
1979 Argentina
Silver medal – second place
1981 Uruguay

Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt (born February 16, 1958), nicknamed Mão Santa (Holy Hand), is a Brazilian retired professional

power forward and small forward position, was 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall and weighed 109 kg (240 lbs). Along with his home country, Schmidt also played in Italy for JuveCaserta and Pavia, and Spain for Fórum Valladolid.[1] He was born in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte
, Brazil.

He is considered to be the

Brazilian national team play combined).[2] He is the record holder for the longest career span of a professional basketball player at 29 years. He is also the top scorer in the history of the Summer Olympic Games, and the top scorer in the history of the FIBA World Cup
.

He was named one of

FIBA Hall of Fame player, in recognition of his play in international competitions.[3] On September 8, 2013, Schmidt was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.[4] He was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame
in 2017.

Youth club career

Schmidt played youth

. With Palmeiras' youth teams, he scored 2,114 points in 85 games, for a scoring average of 24.9 points per game. With Mackenzie's youth teams, he scored 1,332 points in 36 games, for a scoring average of 37.0 points per game.

Professional career

Brazil

Schmidt began his professional club career in 1974, at the age of 16, with the

São Paulo State Championship
in 1974, and the Brazilian Championship in 1977.

In 1978, he moved to the Brazilian club

Schmidt was the top scorer of the Brazilian Championship in both 1979 and 1980.

In 1982, Schmidt joined the Brazilian club América do Rio. However, he only stayed with the club for a brief amount of time.[6]

JuveCaserta

For the 1982–83 season, Schmidt joined the

FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup (later renamed to FIBA Saporta Cup), for the first time, in the 1984–85 season
.

With JuveCaserta, he won the

Real Madrid. However, Real Madrid's star player Dražen Petrović, scored 62 points in the same game, and JuveCaserta lost the game, by a score of 117–113.[7]

Schmidt led the Italian top division in scoring six times, while he was a member of JuveCaserta (1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, and 1989–90 seasons). JuveCaserta eventually retired Schmidt's #18 jersey.

Pavia

In 1990, Schmidt joined the

FIBA European Selection
in 1991.

As a member of Pavia, Schmidt also had his highest scoring single game in the top division Italian League, as he scored 66 points in a 1991–92 season game versus Auxilium Torino, on 30 November 1991.[8][9] Pavia eventually retired his #11 jersey.

While playing club basketball in

NBA star Kobe Bryant. At that time, Bryant was a young child that was living in Italy, while his father, Joe Bryant, played professional basketball in the country. Bryant called Schmidt one of his childhood idols,[10] and also stated that Schmidt could have been one of the greatest players in the NBA, if he had played in the league.[11]

Overall during his club career in Italy, Schmidt was the Top Scorer of the Italian First Division seven times (1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1989–90, and 1991–92 seasons). In 2017, Schmidt was inducted into the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame.

Valladolid

In 1993, Schmidt joined the

Murcia.[12]

Schmidt also spent the 1994–95 season with Valladolid. In that season, he averaged 24.0 points per game, in 38 games played. His single-game scoring high in the Spanish League, was in a game that season versus Málaga, in which he scored 47 points, and made all 8 of his 3-point field goal attempts.[13]

In two seasons in the Spanish ACB, Schmidt scored a total of 2,009 points in 71 games played (regular season and playoffs), for a scoring average of 28.3 points per game.[14]

Return to Brazil

Schmidt returned to his native Brazil in 1995, to once again play in the

S.C. Corinthians Paulista, from 1995 to 1997. He then played with Grêmio Barueri Bandeirantes / Mackenzie, from 1997 to 1999, and he finished his club career with C.R. Flamengo
, where he played from 1999 to 2003.

With Corinthians Paulista, he won the Brazilian Championship in 1996. As a member of Grêmio Barueri Bandeirantes, he won the

São Paulo State Championship in 1998. With Grêmio Barueri Bandeirantes, Schmidt, at the age of 39, scored 74 points in a São Paulo State Championship game on 28 November 1997.[15][16][17]

As a member of Flamengo, he won the

Rio de Janeiro State Championship in 1999 and 2002. Flamengo eventually retired his #14 jersey
. Schmidt was the Brazilian Championship's top scorer in each of his last eight seasons playing in the competition (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003). That was in addition to the two times that he had previously led the same competition in scoring, in 1979 and 1980.

Schmidt retired from his club basketball playing career on May 26, 2003, at the age of 45. During his club playing career, he scored a total of 42,044 points, in 1,289 games played, for a career scoring average of 32.6 points per game. However, those totals do not include all of the games that he played in during his pro club career, as the data for some of the national cup games and Pan-European games that he played in Europe are not available.

NBA draft rights

Schmidt was drafted by the

Brazilian national team. That was because until 1989, NBA players were not allowed to play for national teams.[18]

National team career

Junior national team

Schmidt played in the youth systems of Brazil's national federation program. He played in 15 games with the junior selection of

São Paulo
, with which he scored 393 points in 15 games, for a scoring average of 26.2 points per game. He also played in 31 games with Brazil's national junior selection, in which he scored a total of 569 points, for a scoring average of 18.4 points per game.

Senior national team

With the senior Brazil national team, Schmidt played in five Summer Olympics (he was the second player to do so after Teófilo Cruz) and was the top scorer in three of them. However, he never went past the tournament's quarterfinals. In the 1980 Summer 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 Summer Olympics. His best Olympic performance was the 1988 Summer Olympics. At that tournament, he scored 338 points, for an average of 42.3 points per game. In 1992, he scored 198 points in eight games, and in 1996, he scored 219 points in 8 games. In 38 career Olympic basketball games, Schmidt scored a record of 1,093 points, for an average of 28.8 points per game.

Schmidt is also the

All-Tournament Team at the 1978 FIBA World Cup, and he also made the All-Tournament Teams of both the 1986 FIBA World Cup and the 1990 FIBA World Cup, which he also led in scoring, with an average of 34.6 points per game
.

Schmidt played in the gold-medal match of the

. Brazil faced a 68–54 halftime deficit. However, Schmidt finished the game with 46 points, in a 120–115 win for Brazil.

In 1996, at the age of 38, Schmidt retired from playing with the senior Brazilian national team as its all-time leading scorer. While representing Brazil, he scored a total of 7,693 points in 326 games played, for a career scoring average of 23.6 points per game.[19] In 1997, Schmidt was given the Olympic Order award.

Post-athletic career

In 2004, Schmidt started his career in management. He was the CEO of "Telemar Rio de Janeiro", a Brazilian professional basketball team which won the "Campeonato Carioca" (

Brazilian Championship
in 2005.

In 2006, Schmidt, along with other Brazilian basketball greats such as

Brazilian Basketball Championship
. However, the league folded a year later.

Personal life

Oscar is married since 1981 to Maria Cristina Victorino, and has a son Felipe, and a daughter, Stephanie.[20] Felipe played with Oscar in his last season in Flamengo before deciding to be a director.[21] His brother Tadeu Schmidt is a journalist, and his nephew Bruno Oscar Schmidt is a beach volleyballer.

On May 13, 2013, Schmidt had

FIBA World Champion senior men's Brazilian National Team. Schmidt did not appear at the event, as he was recuperating from daily chemotherapy sessions. The disease was later put into remission.[22]

In 2016, Schmidt was one of the guests at the

2016 Rio Summer Olympics, alongside other Brazilian celebrities, such as model Gisele Bündchen, actor Gustavo Goulart, and singer Caetano Veloso
, among others.

Senior club teams

Honors and awards

Summer Olympics Records

  • All-time leading points scorer: 1,093 points
  • Most total points scored in a tournament: 338 points
  • Highest per game scoring average in a tournament: 42.3 points per game
  • Most points scored in a single game: 55 points
  • Oldest player to score 40 or more points in a single game: 38 years and 155 days (scored 45 points)
  • Tied for most tournament appearances by a men's basketball player: 5 (tied with Teófilo Cruz, Andrew Gaze, Luis Scola, and Juan Carlos Navarro)

Individual

As a member of pro club teams

  • São Paulo State Championship
    champion: 1974, Sírio 1978, 1979, 1998
  • Brazilian Championship
    champion: 1977, 1979, 1996
  • South American Club Championship
    champion: 1979
  • FIBA Intercontinental Cup champion: 1979
  • Italian Cup winner: 1988
  • Rio de Janeiro State Championship
    champion: 1999, 2002

Brazil national team

See also

References and notes

  1. ^ Schmidt Oscar PROFILO CM 206 KG 109 (in Italian).
  2. ^ "FIBA Hall of Famers - Oscar Schmidt - FIBA.basketball". FIBA. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  3. ^ "FIBA announces 2010 Hall of Fame Class". FIBA. 2010-08-20. Archived from the original on 2010-10-19.
  4. ^ "Basketball Hall of Fame 2013". 2013-09-07.
  5. ^ E.C. Sírio 100 - Bosna 98.
  6. ^ CARREIRA DO BRASIL PARA O MUNDO (1982) (in Portuguese).
  7. ^ Final Real Madrid CF 117 - SC Sanidero Juventus Caserta 113.
  8. ^ a b Record individuali per Oscar Schmidt Più punti segnati (in Italian).
  9. ^ a b 30 NOV 1991 ASD Pavia 109 - Reale Mutua Torino 110 (in Italian).
  10. ^ "Kobe Bryant turns to David Beckham for advice on Achilles injury", Eric Pinkus, Los Angeles Times
  11. ^ "Oscar Schmidt Story: The Greatest Player Ever?", The Lead
  12. ^ Los 11 triples de Oscar Schmidt cumplen un cuarto de siglo (in Spanish).
  13. ^ Do you remember 'Mano Santa? This is how Oscar Schmidt scored 47 points, with 8/8 in triples, being 36 years old ... (Video) (in Spanish).
  14. ^ Historial estadístico Schmidt, Oscar (in Spanish).
  15. ^ a b Oscar Schmidt bate recorde de pontos num só jogo (in Portuguese).
  16. ^ a b Com 74 pontos em um jogo, atleta obtém sua melhor marca Oscar afirma, após recorde, que atingiu o limite do 'impossível' (in Portuguese).
  17. ^ a b O Mão Santa do Basquete (in Portuguese).
  18. ^ OSCAR SCHMIDT CIERRA EL CICLO GREPB (in Spanish).
  19. ^ Oscar Schmidt rejeitou a NBA e mostrou que o melhor caminho nem sempre é o mais fácil | Mais que um jogo #19 (in Portuguese).
  20. ^ "Oscar Schmidt credita aos filhos superação de câncer no cérebro".
  21. ^ Filho de Oscar, Felipe chegou a jogar com o pai, mas hoje faz sucesso como diretor de clipes
  22. ^ a b Casey, Tim (9 September 2013). "Oscar Winner". Sports on Earth. Retrieved 5 June 2015. In the spring, he had his second brain tumor surgery in two years. He is now on chemotherapy five days a month...
  23. ^ Oscar Schmidt: história, títulos e recordes do Mão Santa (in Portuguese).
  24. ^ a b c "Destruidor de recordes: dez façanhas de Oscar Schmidt nas Olimpíadas". sportv.globo.com (in Portuguese). February 24, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016.

External links