Olívia, a former basketball player who played alongside Oscar Schmidt at Flamengo, paid tribute to the Brazilian idol who, after suffering a cardiac arrest.
In an interview with CNN BrazilOlívia highlighted Oscar’s greatness and shared memories about her time with the legendary athlete.
“Oscar for me is more than a friend, he is a great idol. When I started playing basketball at 13 years old, it was simply in the month that he was competing in the Pan-American Championship in Indianapolis against the American team, where they became champions”, reported Olívia, who never imagined that one day she would play alongside her idol.
The former athlete recalled his first meeting with Oscar, when he was around 17 or 18 years old, during a competition in Spain. “When I heard him, I was paralyzed, static, and I just remember saying to him ‘nice to meet you'”, he said.
Years later, Olívia had the opportunity to play with and, later, on the Mackenzie Microcamp team, in Barueri, where Schmidt also served as president of the club.
Hard work and Oscar’s demands
One of the aspects that most marked Olivia’s relationship with Oscar was her obstinacy and dedication to training.
“We say he was Mão Santa, but he had nothing in Mão Santa, he had a trained hand”, stated Olívia, highlighting that Oscar was “the guy who trained the most on the face of the Earth in terms of throwing” and that he demanded the same commitment from his teammates.
Olivia shared a story that illustrates Oscar’s perfectionism. When they played together in Barueri, Oscar demanded that Olívia arrive an hour before every training session to improve her shooting.
“You need to practice your shot more. If you don’t arrive an hour before everyone else, you’ll be fined by me every single day,” Oscar reportedly said. “I thank Oscar every day for doing this for me, because yes, with training, he made me improve a lot”, acknowledged Olívia.
“Oscar didn’t like losing either odd or even”
The former player also highlighted Oscar’s competitive spirit, who did not accept losing in any situation, not even in games like “odd or even.”
“If you got the odd or even number with him, he would make you do it again until he won, and when he won, he would say “now I can go home, I won, now I’m at peace”, Olívia recalled fondly.
Oscar Schmidt’s legacy goes far beyond Brazilian courts. As Olívia recalled, the respect earned by Oscar is worldwide: “Proof of this is the respect he has, not only here in Brazil, but in the world, the NBA hall of fame without playing in the NBA.”
For the new generations of Brazilian basketball, Olívia reinforces that Oscar must always be seen as a reference: “We always have to look at Oscar as the best Brazilian basketball player who has ever lived.”
(Published by Luccas Oliveira)
