
One of the best players from the legendary 1984 NBA Draft never played in the NBA.
But Oscar Schmidt changed basketball forever and once averaged 42 points in the Olympics.
Schmidt, a 6ft 8in forward, is from Brazil and didn't play at a United States college.
But he was so talented and promising, the New Jersey Nets used a draft pick on him in a 1984 draft that featured Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and John Stockton in the first round.
Five rounds later, another future Hall of Famer was drafted.
The Nets took Oscar Daniel Bezerra Schmidt with the No. 131 overall pick in the sixth round.
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While Jordan became the most dominant player in NBA history and Olajuwon evolved into one of the greatest centers of all-time, Schmidt never set foot on an NBA court -- he opted to proudly represent his country of Brazil rather then become a pro in the US.
Ahead of his time on the international basketball stage, Schmidt helped grow the game across the globe and played in the 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics for Brazil.
In 1988, he averaged an astonishing 42.3 points while shooting 56.9 percent from the field and 55.6 percent on 3-pointers.
Schmidt's diverse all-around game was compared to Larry Bird.
He led Brazil to the gold medal at the 1987 Pan-American Games and scored 46 points against the United States.
Schmidt also set an Olympic single-game record with 55 points against Spain and has seven of the 10 highest scoring games in Olympic history.
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LeBron James (40,474 career points) passed Schmidt in career scoring last season, but the Brazilian star has more points than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and Jordan.
Schmidt was elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2013.
He won three South American championship gold medals and was known as the Holy Hand to his Brazilian admirers.
Despite never playing in the NBA, Schmidt became the all-time leading scorer in Olympic history with more than 1,000 points.
The 2024 Olympics will be held July 26 to August 11 in Paris.
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