Oscar Schmidt

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Oscar Schmidt

Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt (born February 16, 1958 in Natal, Brazil), known as Oscar Schmidt, Oscar Schmidt Becerra in Spain, where he played for Fórum Valladolid for the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, and simply Oscar or Mão Santa (Holy Hand).

He played in five Olympics, and was the top scorer in three of them. However, he never went past the quarterfinals. In 1980 he played 7 games and scored 169 points for a 24.1 average. He again scored 169 points in 7 games in 1984. His best Olympic performance was the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He scored 338 points for and average of 42.3 points per game. In 1992 he scored 198 points in 8 games, and in 1996 he scored 219 points in 8 games. In 38 career Olympic Basketball games, Oscar scored 1093 points for a record 28.8 points per game average.

He scored 49,703 points in his top-level career, the most ever^[1].

Oscar is probably most remembered in the United States for his performance in the gold-medal match of the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis. The US team of college players at those games featured two All-Americans in David Robinson (an almost certain Hall of Famer) and Danny Manning, two Final Four MVPs in Pervis Ellison and Keith Smart, and several other future NBA players. Brazil faced a 68-54 halftime deficit. Oscar almost single-handedly led Brazil to a stunning comeback, finishing with 46 points in a 120-115 win.

He was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in 1984, and had several other opportunities to play in the NBA, but declined them all in order to maintain his "amateur" status and continue to play in Brazil's national team (until 1992 NBA players were not allowed to play in the national teams). He retired on May 26, 2003.

Currently, Oscar is leading the NLB: Nossa Liga de Basquete ("Our Basketball League"), that wants to coordinate the Brazilian Basketball League.