Milwaukee Bucks: Revisiting the Oscar Robertson trade 50 years later

The Milwaukee Bucks’ trade for Oscar Robertson was the catalyst for winning their lone championship and still stands as one of the biggest moves in the history of the franchise 50 years later.

In the 52-year history of the Milwaukee Bucks, there may be no trade that is more consequential than the acquisition of Oscar Robertson.

That move now stands a half-century old as of Tuesday, April 21 and the significance of dealing for The Big O still isn’t lost on any Bucks fans, many of whom didn’t even get to see him play with the Bucks from 1970 until he retired in 1974.

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The process of Robertson’s exit from his hometown team, the Cincinnati Royals, was long set in motion due to the tension that existed between Robertson and Royals head coach, Bob Cousy.

Cousy was installed as the team’s head coach beginning in the 1969-70 season and he systematically tore down many of the pieces and philosophies that existed in Cincinnati throughout the decade. That even included the roster, as he shook it up by jettisoning off All-Star forward Jerry Lucas to the Golden State Warriors early in that year’s campaign.

As Cousy sought to change the Royals’ philosophies and alter Robertson’s established role, the relationship between the two eventual Hall of Famers soured as the season went on.

Eventually, things came to a head late in the season as the Royals had a deal in place to send Robertson to the Washington Bullets, a proposal that Robertson nixed himself due to having the the ability to veto any trade and not agreeing to the contract demands the Bullets were willing to give the 31-year-old at the time.

The failed trade served as the final straw for Robertson and pushed him to seek a move away from his hometown team after 10 seasons, when he then had the choice to go to four teams before settling on Milwaukee as the New York Times reported back on April 22, 1970:

"“Robertson had his choice of four clubs, it was reported, and he chose Milwaukee. The terms of his contract with the Royals gave him veto rights over any trade.Robertson said sometime ago he had been approached by the Royals’ management and told he would be traded because Cincinnati could not afford to pay him what it was expected he would be asking after the current season. He denied that he had actively sought a trade.”"

The Bucks, meanwhile, had undergone a 29-win turnaround in light of drafting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the first overall pick in the 1969 NBA Draft and finishing with a 56-26 record for the 1969-70 season. After running through the Philadelphia 76ers 4-1 in a best-of-seven series in the Eastern Division Semifinals, the Bucks ran up against that season’s eventual NBA champions, the New York Knicks, who beat the Bucks 4-1 in the Eastern Division Finals.

It was following the Bucks’ 132-96 Game 5 smackdown that Bucks president Ray Patterson promised Abdul-Jabbar that he would get the big man some help for next season as he told Tom Oates of Madison.com in May of 2011:

"“I remember going into the locker room and telling Lew we were going to get him some help,” said Patterson, a four-year starter at UW in the 1940s who came to the Bucks after 17 years as president of Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam."

That was on April 20, 1970 and a day later, the Bucks made the trade to bring in Robertson from Cincinnati in exchange for Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk.

Certainly the biggest figure in helping bring Robertson to Milwaukee was a former teammate of his and future Bucks general manager, Wayne Embry. In a Q&A with NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner back in March of 2017, Embry talked about his role in the efforts to bring Robertson to Milwaukee after being brought into the Bucks’ front office by one of the team’s owners at the time, Wes Pavalon:

"“Wes said “What d’ya think?” I said, “That would be an instant championship, if you got him with Kareem.” I think Oscar had a no-trade contract or approval, and [Pavalon] asked me if I’d pick up the phone and give him a call, and kind of push him our way. I told Oscar I was going back and it’d be great for him to win a championship after all these years. And of course I was interested in pushing it along, if I was going to go back there too.”"

The rest is certainly history, as Embry put it. With Robertson forming a lethal trio between himself, Abdul-Jabbar and second-year forward, Bob Dandrdige, the 1970-71 Bucks team went on to mow through the rest of the NBA over the course of the season as they finished with a league-leading 66-16 record.

That carried into the Bucks’ playoff run where they took care of business against a pedestrian Warriors team for five games in the Western Conference Semifinals, a shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers squad for five games in the Conference Finals and cleanly swept the Bullets in the 1971 NBA Finals.

In speaking to Doug Russell of On Milwaukee back in February of 2012, Robertson reflected on the move and initial feelings upon coming to Milwaukee following his bitter exit from the Royals and the impact of winning an NBA title had on the city and community:

"“When I came to Milwaukee, it was a very special occasion to get something together like that,” Robertson remembers. “I think it was only because when I left Cincinnati, they brought in Bob Cousy (to be head coach), who wanted me out of there. I’m glad it happened.“At the time I came to Milwaukee, the Bucks were learning, the Bucks didn’t know what to expect,” he continued. “They hadn’t been in existence for very long, and to go out and win a championship so soon, I really think it took them by surprise. It was very, very well welcomed by the entire community, though.”"

Milwaukee certainly had a good foundation in place when Robertson arrived, but there’s no question that his all-around skills and overall presence put them over the top that season. And for those reasons and so many more, all Bucks fans will always have a special fondness for how Robertson helped transform the Bucks into a championship organization while cementing his own incredibly storied and decorated legacy in the process.