great Kobe Bryant<\/a>. <\/p>\nIn 1984 the NBA\u2019s New Jersey Nets drafted him in the sixth round and he trained with them but declined a contract. At the time NBA players were not allowed to play for national teams. Schmidt said he had no regrets at his Hall of Fame induction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the choice (No,) 144,\u201d he said. His idol Larry Bird laughed next to him. \u201cThey came to offer me a no-cut contract to play for the New Jersey Nets. I said thank you very much but if I play one game here I will never again play for my national team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree years later we beat the Americans here in the U.S. Sorry, that was the greatest thing I did in basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bird released a statement Friday, saying: \u201cI always admired Oscar and considered him a friend. He was, without a doubt, one of the greatest players to ever play the game. It was an honor of a lifetime when Oscar asked me to present him at his well deserved induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. My sincere condolences to Oscar\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr compares Schmidt to Steph Curry<\/p>\n
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said in comments before the Warriors played the Phoenix Suns on Friday that Schmidt \u201cwas one of the greatest shooters I\u2019ve ever seen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust no conscience, just a little bit, you know, of a Steph Curry mentality,\u201d Kerr added. \u201cNever, ever thought twice about letting it fly, just a beautiful player with an incredible mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr played against Schmidt at the 1986 world championships and tore his ACL during the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe literally picked me up, carried me off the floor,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cIt was an incredible gesture on his part. And over the next few years, he really exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so sad to hear about the news today. Only 68 and the guy was absolutely beloved in Brazil. So to all our Brazilian fans, I just want to say my condolences, and from the Warriors, we\u2019re feeling for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portland Trail Blazers coach Tiago Splitter and NBA champion Anderson Varejao, two Brazilians in the league, praised Schmidt while passing along their condolences on social media.<\/p>\n
Holy Hand<\/p>\n
Standing 2.03 meters (6-foot-8), he was a keen 3-point shooter in the 1980s when many coaches advised against it. That earned him the nickname \u201cM\u00e3o Santa\u201d (Holy Hand). Schmidt didn\u2019t believe he was worthy of the tag.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a holy hand. I have a trained hand,\u201d Schmidt used to say in interviews.<\/p>\n
He debuted for Brazil at 19 in 1977 and made 326 appearances, averaging 23.6 points per game.<\/p>\n
He played in a record-tying five Olympics and four World Cups. He\u2019s the all-time leading scorer in both tournaments. He still has seven of the 10 highest scoring games in Olympic history and he holds the single-game records for points scored in the Olympics (55 vs. Spain in 1988) and World Cup (52 vs. Australia in 1990).<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than results and medals, Oscar represented values that define the Olympic spirit; dedication, resilience and respect to the opponents,\u201d Brazil\u2019s Olympic committee said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The 1987 Pan Am Games victory in Indianapolis marked the first time a U.S. team lost a major international tournament on home soil. Brazil won 120-115 and Schmidt led with 46 points.<\/p>\n
Schmidt retired in 2003 at 45. He passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the unofficial career highest scorer and his known tally of 49,737 points for club and country was eclipsed by LeBron James in 2024.<\/p>\n
Hall of Fame honors <\/p>\n
Schmidt was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2010, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, and the Italian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.<\/p>\n
After retirement, Schmidt became one of his country\u2019s most popular motivational speakers. He often talked about his battle with the brain tumor diagnosed in 2011, his love for Brazil and basketball.<\/p>\n
Schmidt is survived by wife Maria Cristina Victorino, whom he married in 1981, and two children. One of them, Filipe, spoke about his father\u2019s death on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you rest in peace, dad. You are in the hall of fame of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2014-<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer David Brandt contributed from Phoenix.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAO PAULO (AP) \u2014 Oscar Schmidt, the Basketball Hall of Famer known to his Brazilian compatriots as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[258025,402,941,671,793,8728,30947,3013,258024,87669,2971,3509,1593,6415,6406,99,3781,30534,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-590977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-anderson-varejao","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brazil","11":"tag-brooklyn-nets","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-kareem-abdul-jabbar","14":"tag-larry-bird","15":"tag-lebron-james","16":"tag-maria-cristina-victorino","17":"tag-naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame","18":"tag-national-basketball-association","19":"tag-notable-deaths","20":"tag-oscar","21":"tag-phoenix-suns","22":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-steph-curry","25":"tag-steve-kerr","26":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}