Golden State Warriors forward Gui Santos says that the late great Oscar Schmidt meant everything to Brazil’s basketball culture.
(via Golden State Warriors):
“So for me, Oscar, I never watched him play, I’m too young. I think the year that he finished his career in 2003 was the year that I was one-years-old, so I didn’t really watch him playing. But Oscar was a lot for Brazil, he meant a lot for everybody, because I think he put Brazil on the map when you talk about basketball, because nobody knew Brazil for basketball before him, and that was just soccer. But then Oscar come in the Olympics, he was scoring 45, 50 points, 40, 55. The fact that he’s the second guy to have most points in history of basketball, he’s just behind LeBron [James], it tells a lot. Oscar Holy Hands, like he’s known in Brazil. He was a big, big thing for all of Brazilians, and you could see in Brazil right now, the only thing they talk is just Oscar. He had a big and huge impact for us. It’s kinda like Pelé of basketball for us. Yeah, it was a hard time for all the people to love basketball in Brazil. Oscar is really, really the biggest idol and the biggest guy in the basketball history for Brazil, so nobody can be like him again.”
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