This week in 1960: Oscar Robertson debuts with a triple-double as Jerry West scores 20 in his first game

Oscar Robertson and Jerry West walked onto the same floor for their first NBA game on Wednesday, October 19, 1960, and Robertson left it with a triple-double. He had 21 points, 10 assists and 12 rebounds as the Cincinnati Royals beat the Los Angeles Lakers 140-123 at Cincinnati Gardens. West answered with 20 points in a losing debut. Two months after they had captained the same Olympic team in Rome, the two best guards of their generation began a rivalry that shaped the next decade and a half of the league.

How the night unfolded

Cincinnati took control early, leading 29-19 after the first quarter and 66-45 at halftime. The Royals pushed the margin out with a 43-point third quarter, and the Lakers’ 40-point fourth only trimmed the final gap to 17. Robertson played 43 minutes, made 8 of his 20 shots and all five of his free throws, and spent the night running the offense from a position that did not yet have a name for what he was doing.

He was not even Cincinnati’s top scorer. Jack Twyman led the Royals with 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting, Bucky Bockhorn nearly matched Robertson with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists, and Wayne Embry added 15. As a team, Cincinnati shot 57 of 101 from the floor and finished with 42 assists, numbers that pointed straight at the rookie guard setting the table.

West came off a 7-of-16 night with 20 points, a perfect 6-for-6 at the line and 5 assists, though he also picked up four fouls. The Lakers’ leader that night was Elgin Baylor, who scored 35 points with 17 rebounds, but Los Angeles shot only 42 of 109 and never got close after the opening quarter.

Why it mattered then

The game carried more than two debuts. It was the Lakers‘ first game since the franchise left Minneapolis, and West was the first draft pick of the relocated team, taken second overall in 1960. His college coach at West Virginia, Fred Schaus, came with him as the new head coach. Robertson had arrived in Cincinnati as a territorial pick out of the University of Cincinnati with a $33,000 signing bonus, and the city treated his first game as an event. The 140 points were the most the Royals had scored since moving to Cincinnati.

What it led to

Robertson’s debut turned out to be a preview rather than a peak. He averaged 30.5 points, 10.1 rebounds and 9.7 assists as a rookie, won Rookie of the Year, made the All-NBA First Team and was MVP of the 1961 All-Star Game. A year later he became the first player to average a triple-double for a full season, putting up 30.8 points, 11.4 assists and 12.5 boards a night along with 41 triple-doubles, a single-season record that stood until Russell Westbrook posted 42 in 2016-17. Robertson’s 181 career triple-doubles were also the standard until Westbrook passed them in 2021. He won the MVP award in 1964 and finally won a title in 1971 with the Milwaukee Bucks, next to the center whose own debut we revisited this week, Lew Alcindor.

West became the face of the Lakers, a 14-time All-Star. He reached the Finals again and again before winning his only championship in 1972, the same season he was All-Star Game MVP. The Royals moved on too, through Kansas City to Sacramento, where the franchise now plays as the Kings.