Henry Liao

He is to international basketball what Pele is to world soccer.

Significantly, both legendary athletes are natives of Brazil.

His name: *Oscar Schmidt, the all-time leading scorer in Olympic men’s basketball history.

A 6-8 forward, Schmidt collected 1,094 points in 38 Olympic games. *In a record-sharing five Olympic appearances – 1980 Moscow (Soviet Union), 1984 Los Angeles (USA), 1988 Seoul South Korea), 1992 Barcelona (Spain) and 1996 Atlanta (USA) – he averaged an eye-popping 28.8 points every time out.

Schmidt, who twice visited Manila during Brazilian club Emtex’s guest participation in the Philippine Basketball Association in 1977 and in his national team’s stint in the 1978 World Basketball Championship (now known as the FIBA World Cup), was the No. 1 scorer in three Olympic Games – 42.3 ppg in 1988, 24.8 ppg in 1992 and 27.4 ppg in 1996.

Until now, Schmidt, the son of a German father and a Brazilian-Yugoslav mother, still owns the all-time single-game Olympic scoring mark of 55 points, which he set in Brazil’s 118-110 loss to Spain in 1988.

Australia’s Andrew Gaze ranks second on the all-time Olympic scoring list with 789 points in an Olympic-record 40 games and record-tying five stints.

A member of the Aussies’ Olympic unit in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000, the 6-7 Gaze was the top point-producer during the 2000 Sydney Games with a 19.9-point average in eight appearances.

Gaze, who played collegiate ball at Seton Hall University, played two seasons in the National Basketball Association (1993-94 Washington and 1998-99 San Antonio).

Aside from Schmidt and Gaze, the only other men’s basketball athlete to suit up in five Olympics is Puerto Rico’s Teofilo Cruz, who made his debut in Rome in 1960 then donned the national colors once again in 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976.