Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt (born February 16, 1958), nicknamedMão Santa (Holy Hand), is a Brazilian retired professionalbasketball player. Schmidt primarily played thepower forward andsmall forward position, was 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) tall and weighed 109 kg (240 lbs). Along with his home country, Schmidt also played inItaly forJuveCaserta andPavia, andSpain forFórum Valladolid.[1] He was born inNatal,Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
He was considered to be theall-time leading scorer in the history of basketball, with 49,973 career points scored (proclub league play, plus seniorBrazilian national team play combined), untilLeBron James broke this record on April 2, 2024.[2] He is the record holder for the longest career span of a professional basketball player at 29 years. He is also thetop scorer in the history of the Summer Olympic Games, and thetop scorer in the history of the FIBA World Cup.
He was named one ofFIBA's 50 Greatest Players in 1991. He received theOlympic Order in 1997. On August 20, 2010, Schmidt became aFIBA Hall of Fame player, in recognition of his play in international competitions.[3] On September 8, 2013, Schmidt was inducted into theNaismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.[4] He was inducted into theItalian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
Schmidt played youthclub basketball in theyouth systems ofS.E. Palmeiras andMackenzie College. With Palmeiras's youth teams, he scored 2,114 points in 85 games, for a scoring average of 24.9 points per game. With Mackenzie's youth teams, he scored 1,332 points in 36 games, for a scoring average of 37.0 points per game.
Schmidt began his professional club career in 1974, at the age of 16, with theBrazilian Championship clubS.E. Palmeiras. As a member of Palmeiras, he won theSão Paulo State Championship in 1974, and the Brazilian Championship in 1977.
In 1978, he moved to the Brazilian clubE.C. Sírio. As a member of Sírio, Schmidt won the São Paulo State Championship in both 1978 and 1979, and the Brazilian Championship in 1979. With Sírio, he also won theSouth American Club Championship, and theFIBA Intercontinental Cup title in 1979. He scored 42 points in the1979 FIBA Intercontinental Cup's Final against theYugoslav First Federal League clubBosna Sarajevo.[5] Schmidt was the top scorer of the Brazilian Championship in both 1979 and 1980.
In 1982, Schmidt joined the Brazilian clubAmérica do Rio. However, he only stayed with the club for a brief amount of time.[6]
For the 1982–83 season, Schmidt joined theItalian 2nd Division clubJuveCaserta. With JuveCaserta, he played in the first division levelItalian League, for the first time in the 1983–84 season. That same season, Schmidt played in a Pan-European club competition for the first time, as he also played in Europe's third-tier levelFIBA Korać Cup's1983–84 season. Schmidt played in Europe's 2nd-tier level competition, theFIBA European Cup Winners' Cup (later renamed toFIBA Saporta Cup), for the first time, in the1984–85 season.
With JuveCaserta, he won theItalian Cup title in 1988. In the European-wide secondary level1988–89 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup's Final, Schmidtscored 44 points against the Spanish clubReal Madrid. However, Real Madrid's star playerDražen Petrović, scored 62 points in the same game, and JuveCaserta lost the game, by a score of 117–113.[7]
Schmidt led the Italian top division in scoring six times, while he was a member of JuveCaserta (1983–84, 1984–85, 2015, 1986–87, 1988–89, and 1989–90 seasons). JuveCaserta eventually retired Schmidt's#18 jersey.
In 1990, Schmidt joined theItalian 2nd Division clubPavia. With Pavia, Schmidt led the Italian 2nd Division in scoring, in both the 1990–91 and 1992–93 seasons. With Pavia, he also led the first division Italian League in scoring, during the 1991–92 season. He was also a member of theFIBA European Selection in 1991.
As a member of Pavia, Schmidt also had his highest scoring single game in the top division Italian League, as he scored 66 points in a 1991–92 season game versusAuxilium Torino, on 30 November 1991.[8][9] Pavia eventually retired his#11 jersey.
While playing club basketball inItaly, Schmidt earned a fan in futureNBA starKobe Bryant. At that time, Bryant was a young child that was living in Italy, while his father,Joe Bryant, played professional basketball in the country. Bryant called Schmidt one of his childhood idols,[10] and also stated that Schmidt could have been one of the greatest players in the NBA, if he had played in the league.[11]
Overall during his club career in Italy, Schmidt was theTop Scorer of the Italian First Division seven times (1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1989–90, and 1991–92 seasons). In 2017, Schmidt was inducted into theItalian Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 1993, Schmidt joined theSpanish ACB League clubValladolid. With Valladolid, Schmidt was theSpanish league's top scorer in the1993–94 season, with a scoring average of 33.3 points per game, in 33 games played (regular season and playoffs). On 19 March 1994, Schmidt made 113-point field goals, in a Spanish League game againstMurcia.[12]
Schmidt also spent the1994–95 season with Valladolid. In that season, he averaged 24.0 points per game, in 38 games played. His single-game scoring high in the Spanish League, was in a game that season versusMálaga, in which he scored 47 points, and made all 8 of his 3-point field goal attempts.[13]
In two seasons in the Spanish ACB, Schmidt scored a total of 2,009 points in 71 games played (regular season and playoffs), for a scoring average of 28.3 points per game.[14]
Schmidt returned to his native Brazil in 1995, to once again play in theBrazilian Basketball Championship. He was a member ofS.C. Corinthians Paulista, from 1995 to 1997. He then played withGrêmio Barueri Bandeirantes / Mackenzie, from 1997 to 1999, and he finished his club career withC.R. Flamengo, where he played from 1999 to 2003.
With Corinthians Paulista, he won the Brazilian Championship in 1996. As a member of Grêmio Barueri Bandeirantes, he won theSão Paulo State Championship in 1998. With Grêmio Barueri Bandeirantes, Schmidt, at the age of 39, scored 74 points in a São Paulo State Championship game on 28 November 1997.[15][16][17]
As a member of Flamengo, he won theRio de Janeiro State Championship in 1999 and 2002. Flamengo eventually retired his#14 jersey. Schmidt was the Brazilian Championship's top scorer in each of his last eight seasons playing in the competition (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003). That was in addition to the two times that he had previously led the same competition in scoring, in 1979 and 1980.
Schmidt retired from his club basketball playing career on May 26, 2003, at the age of 45. During his club playing career, he scored a total of 42,044 points, in 1,289 games played, for a career scoring average of 32.6 points per game. He also scored a total of 236 points in All-Star Games. However, those totals do not include all of the games that he played in during his pro club career, as the data for some of the national cup games, Pan-European games, and all-star games that he played in Europe are not available.
Schmidt was drafted by theNew Jersey Nets in the sixth round of the1984 NBA draft, and he played with them in their 1984 NBA training camp and preseason. However, he declined the club's offer of a fully guaranteed contract, because it was for considerably less money than he made at the time playing in Italy, and also because to accept the team's contract offer would have meant that he could no longer represent the seniorBrazilian national team. That was because until 1989, NBA players were not allowed to play fornational teams.[18]
Schmidt played in the youth systems of Brazil's national federation program. He played in 15 games with the junior selection ofSão Paulo, with which he scored 393 points in 15 games, for a scoring average of 26.2 points per game. He also played in 31 games with Brazil's national junior selection, in which he scored a total of 569 points, for a scoring average of 18.4 points per game.
With the seniorBrazil national team, Schmidt played in fiveSummer Olympics (he was the second player to do so afterTeófilo Cruz) and was the top scorer in three of them. However, he never went past the tournament's quarterfinals. In the1980 Summer Olympics, he played in seven games and scored 169 points, for a 24.1 average.
He again scored 169 points in seven games in the1984 Summer Olympics. His best Olympic performance was the1988 Summer Olympics. At that tournament, he scored 338 points, for an average of 42.3 points per game. In1992, he scored 198 points in eight games, and in1996, he scored 219 points in 8 games. In 38 career Olympic basketball games,Schmidt scored a record of 1,093 points, for an average of 28.8 points per game.
Schmidt is also theall-time career leader in total points scored in theFIBA World Cup, having scored a total of 843 points in 33 games, for a scoring average of 25.5 points per game. He won the bronze medal and made theAll-Tournament Team at the1978 FIBA World Cup, and he also made the All-Tournament Teams of both the1986 FIBA World Cup and the1990 FIBA World Cup, which he also led in scoring,with an average of 34.6 points per game.
Schmidt played in the gold-medal match of the1987 Pan American Games, which was held inIndianapolis. TheUS national team, which was composed of NCAA Division Icollege basketball players at those games, featured twoAll-Americans inDavid Robinson (Hall of Fame member) andDanny Manning, twoNCAA Championship Final FourMVPs, inPervis Ellison andKeith Smart, and other futureNBA players, such asRex Chapman,Pooh Richardson, andWillie Anderson. Brazil faced a 68–54 halftime deficit. However, Schmidt finished the game with 46 points, in a 120–115 win for Brazil.
In 1996, at the age of 38, Schmidt retired from playing with the senior Brazilian national team as its all-time leading scorer. While representing Brazil, he scored a total of 7,693 points in 326 games played, for a career scoring average of 23.6 points per game.[19] In 1997, Schmidt was given theOlympic Order award.
In 2004, Schmidt started his career in management. He was the CEO of "Telemar Rio de Janeiro", a Brazilian professional basketball team which won the "Campeonato Carioca" (Rio de Janeiro State Championship) in 2004, and theBrazilian Championship in 2005.
In 2006, Schmidt, along with other Brazilian basketball greats such asPaula andHortência, (anotherHall of Fame member), led theNLB: Nossa Liga de Basquete ("our basketball league"), an attempted rival to theBrazilian Basketball Championship. However, the league folded a year later.
Oscar is married since 1981 to Maria Cristina Victorino, and has a son Felipe, and a daughter, Stephanie.[20] Felipe played with Oscar in his last season in Flamengo before deciding to be a director.[21] His brother Tadeu Schmidt is a journalist, and his nephewBruno Oscar Schmidt is a beach volleyballer.
On May 13, 2013, Schmidt hadbrain surgery to excise amalignant tumor.[22] At first, nobody knew about it except for his family. Thepress found out about the disease fifteen days after the surgery, at a dinner celebrating the 50th anniversary of the two-timeFIBA World Champion senior men'sBrazilian National Team. Schmidt did not appear at the event, as he was recuperating from dailychemotherapy sessions. The disease was later put intoremission.[22]
In 2016, Schmidt was one of the guests at theopening ceremony of the2016 Rio Summer Olympics, alongside other Brazilian celebrities, such as modelGisele Bündchen, actorGustavo Goulart, and singerCaetano Veloso.
Gold (1977, 1983, 1985)
Bronze (1978)
Silver: (1979, 1981) Bronze (1979) Gold (1987) Bronze (1989)In the spring, he had his second brain tumor surgery in two years. He is now on chemotherapy five days a month...
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