Sport: I Was Ready

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A Polaroid camera cradled in his huge hands, Center Walt Dukes of the Detroit Pistons joked his way through a Syracuse, N.Y., locker room one evening last week snapping one distorted picture after another with wildly exaggerated incompetence. His purpose: to relax his teammates on the West squad for the National Basketball Association's annual all-star game. Of all Jokester Dukes's teammates, none had so much cause for tension as the Cincinnati Royals' Oscar ("The Big O") Robertson, the only rookie to crash the starting lineup of either the East or West team. But, as always, Robertson was the loosest man in the room. Said he later: "I was ready."

He was indeed. When the game began, Robertson looked like the most seasoned pro on the floor. He kept star teammates such as Los Angeles' Elgin Baylor and St. Louis' Bob Pettit running at top speed with a series of pinpointed passes that set up easy baskets. In the very first period, Robertson himself scored 13 points—hitting on all five of his shots from the floor —to lead the West to a 47-19 lead that made inevitable his team's final victory of 153-131.

In all, Robertson scored 23 points (he sat out much of the second half), fed teammates for 14 baskets, a league record for all-star games. For putting on one of the greatest one-man shows in the history of the N.B.A., Robertson was given the game's most-valuable-player award, another proof that at the age of 22 he has become the finest all-round player in basketball. Said the West's Coach Paul Seymour: "He was excellent. He was great. He was spectacular."