Each NBA team’s best trade in franchise history

Milwaukee Bucks

Oscar Robertson for Charlie Paulk and Flynn Robinson to CIN (1970)

Oscar Robertson’s impact on player movement paved the way for the free-flowing free agency moves we see today and the trade that sent him to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970 was likely the eye-opening experience that caused him to fight to change what was a very restrictive NBA marketplace at the time.

The Cincinnati Royals (the future Sacramento Kings) took Robertson in the 1960 draft with a territorial pick — Robertson attended the University of Cincinnati prior to declaring for the draft. In 10 seasons with the Royals, Robertson set the table for players like Magic Johnson and Russell Westbrook.

He was tailor-made for the breakneck pace most teams in the league employed at the time, as the abundance of possessions in the 1960s gave him plenty of chances to gobble up rebounds and dice up defenses with his scoring and passing. Of course, this culminated in 1961-62 Robertson becoming the first player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season.

Despite these feats, Royals head coach Bob Cousy reportedly grew jealous of the attention Robertson received from the fans and the media. The discontent eventually metastasized to the front office, which led to them swapping him out for Charlie Paulk and Flynn Robinson, a move that shocked most NBA observers.

The move was ultimately a blessing in disguise for “The Big O”. While he wasn’t the player he was in Cincy, he still had enough in the tank to serve as a viable co-star alongside Kareem-Abdul Jabbar. In their first season together, the Bucks became the best team in the NBA, winning a franchise-record 66 games and bringing the NBA title to Milwaukee.