The only Brazilian inductee into the NBA Hall of Fame and one of the country's greatest sports legends, former basketball player Oscar Schmidt, a star of Juventus Caserta, has died in hospital at the age of 68, local media reported.

Oscar had been battling a brain tumor for fifteen years. A few hours earlier, he had been admitted to the Santa Ana Municipal Hospital in Santana de Parnaíba, in the state of São Paulo, after feeling unwell, but he passed away. In early April, Oscar's son, Felipe Schmidt, received a tribute on his father's behalf from the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC). The wake will be held exclusively for the family. On social media, his son posted a touching tribute: "As a son, I just have to say: Dad, I will miss you. I will honor everything you taught me about being a man and I will try to be at least 10% of the human being you were. You were an example to me in life and I will never, ever forget you," Felipe Schmidt wrote.

Standing 2.05 m (6 ft 1 in) tall and weighing 110 kg (240 lb), Oscar is known worldwide as Mão Santa (Portuguese for "holy hand") for his shooting accuracy. Holder of Brazil's record for most Olympic appearances, he played in five consecutive Olympic Games and became the only athlete to surpass the 1,000-point mark in the competition's history. With the Brazilian national team, he won three South American and one Pan American championships, as well as a bronze medal at the 1978 World Cup. A Brazilian icon of international sport, he was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame and, unprecedentedly, the NBA Hall of Fame, despite never having played in that league. Recognized for his brilliance and global impact, he was elected one of the 100 greatest basketball players of all time.

An absolute star for Juvecaserta, during his Italian career he earned first place in the league's all-time points scoring rankings, later being displaced by Antonello Riva, who, however, played nearly double the number of games as the Brazilian. With 13,957 points, he remains the top-scoring foreign player, averaging 34.6 points per game and peaking at over 60 points. Among players with at least 100 appearances in the Italian league, he is the player with the most points scored in a single game, specifically 28 times out of 403 games played (about 7%), ahead of two other legends: Dražen Dalipagić (15/241, or 6.2%) and Joe Bryant (14/247, about 5.7%). Juvecaserta retired his number 18 shirt, and in 2016 he also received honorary citizenship of the city of Caserta.

(Unioneonline)

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