With very little fuss and fanfare, but clarity on what he wanted to achieve.

On Monday, the Illawarra Hawks’ star announced he would be retiring in a letter to the fans and the Illawarra community sent to the Mercury.

Oscar made it clear that’s what he wanted.

Simple, but effective.

It ends a remarkable career spanning an incredible 17 seasons in the National Basketball League. 

The 36-year-old will finish with 511 career games, the 11^th most in NBL history and he will be considered one of the greatest shooting big men who has played in the league.

He has dropped 904 three-pointers in his career, which puts him at number 13 in the league’s all-time list.

Earlier this year Oscar told a story of one of the Hawks’ development players commenting how “lucky” he was to be able to come into the game off the bench and drop three-pointers seemingly at will.

Oscar put the youngster in his place by reminding him how much work he’d put in over the years to become that “lucky”.

Off the court, Oscar has become a respected and much loved member of this community.

He  is loved and adored by fans and is widely admired for his down-to-earth, unassuming manner.

If it wasn’t for his 206 cm frame and the skin folds of a greyhound, you wouldn’t know “Ozzie” was an elite athlete. 

What you see is what you get with Oscar Forman.

Just a genuinely nice person.

The beautiful part about the Illawarra Hawks is they are a community club.

At games you see club greats - absolute superstars of Australian basketball – such as Glenn Saville and Matt Campbell sitting among fans in the crowd watching games. No fuss. 

Oscar will now join them. 

Oscar reserved a special mention for the region in his letter saying: “Thank you to the Illawarra community for the love and support over the last eight years, and for accepting me and my family as one of your own”.

No, Ozzie. It is we who should be thanking you.

Thank you for all the memories champ and all the best for the future.