Don Ohl’s Thoughts on NBA Greats

by | Dec 11, 2024 | Blog

Rule Changes in Professional Basketball

Dec 11, 2024 | Blog

Don Ohl Shares His Thoughts on NBA Greats 

Coordinating an oral history recording for the museum can be challenging. First, is the person you want to record willing to participate. Second, if you are interviewing more than one person you have to arrange a time that works for everyone. We have recorded two groups where it took 15 months before we could set a workable date. Third, you need to find a suitable location that will work for the recording. The final part is prepping the person or group of people, so they are comfortable during the interview. If you’re wondering if we have been turned down, the answer is a disappointing yes. It has happened a couple of times. On one occasion we were told by a person that if a particular person was also part of the group interview that they would not participate. With all of that being said, an attempt to interview IBCA HOF Player Don Ohl took some time and coaxing. We had to gain his confidence and once that was accomplished the end result was an informative and fun interview. This oral history was recorded from his home. The last part of our conversation with Don centered around his playing days in the NBA.

It’s important that we give you some biographical background on Don. After his playing days for the University of Illinois he will play AAU basketball for one year before playing in the NBA. He will play for the Detroit Pistons, Baltimore Bullets and Atlanta Hawks. Don was an NBA All-Star five times and scored over 10,000 points. He is one of only 30 players from Illinois High Schools to achieve this feat.

Below are some questions from Bruce Firchau and answers from Don Ohl (with some paraphrasing). We think you will enjoy Don’s responses.

Q – “Since you played against Wilt Chamberlain what are your thoughts on him as a player?”

A – “Wilt could do anything he set his mind to. He was so strong and athletic. He led the league every season in scoring and rebounding. Yet he was criticized for being a selfish player and not winning the “Big Game”. So, what does he do the next season, he leads the league in assists. Wilt was a likable player off the court, and he competed hard on the court.”

Q – “If you had to pick one player to help you win an NBA Championship, who would that be?”

A – “Bill Russell. I didn’t care for him on or off the court, but he knew how to win. Winning an NBA Title started with Bill Russell.”

Q – “In your opinion who is the best NBA player of all-time?”

A – “Everyone but me believes it’s Michael Jordan; however, I believe it’s the “Big O” (Oscar Robertson). Think about this. Oscar one season averaged a triple double (Points, Rebounds and Assists) no one does that. Look this up, for his career he came very close to averaging a triple double. I rest my case. You couldn’t block his shot (Don goes through the motion of how Oscar shot the ball.) Oscar had an uncanny ability to position himself to feed you the pass if he thought you could score, but if he thought you wouldn’t be able to score, he wasn’t going to pass to you.” We then discussed his court vision, and I mentioned how the great point guards could see two passes ahead. Don agreed with that, but he took it further when he stated: “No one had better court vision than Oscar”.

Q – Do you have a favorite NBA story from your playing days?

A – (Don didn’t hesitate, and he proceeded to tell the Jerry West story). It’s 1965 and Don’s Baltimore Bullets are playing the Lakers in the second round of the NBA playoffs. The Lakers won the first 2 games, and they were close games. The third game is being played in Baltimore and the Bullets win. After the game a reporter asked Don how he played. Don’s response was: “I think I played well”, and he asks: “how many points did I score”? The reporter responded: “you scored 35”. Since Don had defensive responsibilities guarding Jerry West, he asked the reporter how many points Jerry scored. When told he scored 44, Don responded with: “I guarantee you he won’t score 44 the next game.” Don then stated: “I was right he scored 48”. The Lakers will go to win this playoff series in 6 games.

We hope you enjoyed this part of the conversation as much as we did listening to Don share some time with us. (Images courtesy of the University of Illinois and the Edwardsville-Intelligencer Newspaper).

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