FanHouse OscarRobertson

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Monday, there is one day remaining.

He was known as The Big O, but all he wanted to be was No. 1.

His production was unrivaled. He put up fat numbers. Big, fat, succulent numbers; numbers so ripe and beautiful you couldn't help but stand and gawk. Of course, you know about his famous 1961-62 triple-double season (30.8 points, 12.5 boards and 11.4 dimes) and that he averaged a triple-double (30.3 ppg, 10.4 rpg, 10.6 apg) for the first five seasons of his career.

And wIth 29.3 points per game, 10.3 assists and 8.4 rebounds for the first 10 seasons of his career, Oscar Robertson was second to none in the NBA at the point guard position.

But there was another big, fat number that also defined The Big O -- 0, as in zero NBA titles. Zero, as in big, fat goose egg.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Friday, there are 74 days remaining.

The Milwaukee Bucks were once the envy of – and the beacon for -- every expansion team in any professional sport, winning a championship in just the third year of existence. They returned to the NBA Finals in Year 6, losing this time but still making it all look so easy.

That was 1974, the end of their incredible start -- and the beginning of an incredibly long dry spell that continues today. Yes, they have had some success since -- three more trips to the conference finals -- but everything has paled in comparison to the standard they set in those formative years.

Not since Michael Jordan in Chicago has any team won an NBA title relying so heavily on one individual player.

That might be the next trick for LeBron James.

By winning the Most Valuable Player Award on Thursday, James cemented his status as the best basketball player in the world today. If he wants to reach the real rarified air where the best in history reside, there are other things he must accomplish now.

You may not know what he looks like, who he was and why people felt he was special enough to teach them but Pete Newell was one of the best coaches college basketball has ever seen.

Newell died yesterday at the age on 93.

Newell was a legend and held the respect and admiration of the game's other legends. Newell coached for 14 years at San Francisco, Michigan State and California. He compiled a 234-123 record and won the 1959 NCAA Tournament while at Cal. His final head coaching gig came the very next year when he took an Olympic team with Oscar Roberston, Jerry West and Jerry Lucas to a gold medal.

He also beat UCLA's John Wooden the last eight times they met.

He's legacy lives on with his "Pete Newell Big Man Camp". The camp has been going on for over 30 years and has taught the likes of Lew Alcinder, Bill Walton, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. The camps have become a mandatory stop for any big man wanting to get into the NBA.