Bill Russell, The greatest champion in basketball history, Dies at 88
"Bill Russell was the single most destructive force in the history of the game, and he was a Hall of Famer who helped the Celtics win 11 titles", according to his coach Red Auerbach.
Bill Russell invoked dominance at Boston Celtics games even before the first tipoff. He stepped on with a little stoop while other players rushed onto the floor to make their debuts.
He remembered, "I'd glare at everyone with disdain, like a drowsy dragon who can't be bothered to frighten off another would-be hero." "I wanted my appearance to announce that the king is present tonight."
The Celtics' incredible fast break overpowered the rest of the NBA because to Russell's outstanding rebounding. The center position, previously a place for sluggish and bulky individuals, was altered by his agility and his amazing ability to block shots, changing the landscape of professional basketball.
Russell, who coached the Celtics to 11 NBA titles, including the final two as the first Black head coach of a significant American sports league, passed away on Sunday. He was 88.
His family confirmed his passing, however they did not specify where he passed away.
Red Auerbach, who arranged Russell's move to the Celtics and coached him on nine championship teams, referred to him as "the single most destructive force in the history of the game" when he was chosen for the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975.
Russell was chosen as the best player in NBA history in a 1980 survey of basketball writers, which was conducted before Michael Jordan and LeBron James entered the league.
Russell was recognized as "the brightest player ever to play the game and the embodiment of a team leader" by former senator Bill Bradley, who faced Russell when playing for the Knicks in the 1960s.
As Bradley noted in his examination of Russell's memories of Auerbach in "Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend" (2009) for The New York Times, "At his heart, Russell believed that he was different from other players — that he was an inventor and that his own identity hinged on winning the game."
In the decades that followed Russell's retirement in 1969, when flashy plays delighted fans and team play was frequently an afterthought, his stature was further enhanced. He was remembered for his ability to highlight the skills of his teammates while controlling the action, and to do so without bravado: He detested dunking or gesturing to celebrate his feats.
In those later years, with his trademark white goatee, Russell made an appearance on the floor in the spring to present the 2009 Russell Trophy to the NBA Championship Series Most Valuable Player.
Russell was regarded for his prominence in civil rights issues as well.
He participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and during the "I Have a Dream" address by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he was sitting in the front row of the audience. After the assassination of civil rights pioneer Medgar Evers, he traveled to Mississippi and joined forces with Charles Evers, Medgar's brother, to launch an integrated basketball camp in Jackson. He was one of several well-known Black athletes who stood with Muhammad Ali after Ali rejected enlistment in the military during the Vietnam War.
At the White House in 2011, President Barack Obama presented Russell with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, praising him as "someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men."
Russell shared a photo of himself kneeling while holding the award on Twitter in September 2017, in response to President Donald J. Trump's demand for NFL owners to fire players protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem.
The winner was ultimately Russell. In 1955 and 1956, he guided the University of San Francisco to N.C.A.A. tournament victories. With the American basketball team in the 1956 Olympics, he took home a gold medal. He overshadowed the Yankees' five straight World Series triumphs (1949 to 1953) and the Montreal Canadiens' five consecutive Stanley Cup victories by leading the Celtics to eight consecutive N.B.A. championships from 1959 to 1966. (1956 to 1960).
He was an All-Star 12 times and five times the NBA's Most Valuable Player.
Russell was cagey beneath the basket, able to anticipate an opponent's attempts and get position for a rebound. He was a reedy, towering figure at 6 feet 10 inches and 220 pounds. And if the ball bounced off the rim, his amazing jumping abilities made it practically certain that he would catch it. He concluded his career as the No. 2 rebounder in NBA history, only three inches behind his old nemesis Wilt Chamberlain.
With an astounding 22.5 rebounds per game average and a single-game high of 51 against the Syracuse Nationals (the precursors of the Philadelphia 76ers) in 1960, Russell amassed 21,620 rebounds.
Despite not having much of a shooting touch, he averaged 15.1 points per game while scoring 14,522 points, many of which came on high-percentage, short left-handed hook jumpers. Games were changed by his blocked shots, the number of which is unknown because no one kept such data during his time.
Russell could come across as cold outside of the court. He was wounded by the abuse his family had endured in segregated Louisiana when he was a young man, as well as by the pervasive bigotry in Boston. He was the lone Black player on the Celtics when he signed with them in 1956. His Reading, Massachusetts, house was damaged during the start of the 1960s.
Russell's commitment was always primarily to his teammates and never to Boston or the supporters. He declined to sign autographs for fans or even as mementos for his colleagues out of respect for their privacy and a dislike of public shows of admiration. At his request, the Celtics held a private ceremony in Boston Garden to retire his No. 6 in March 1972. He disregarded his election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and declined to show up for the ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts, the heartland of the Boston Celtics.
In "Second Wind: The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man (1979)," co-written with Taylor Branch, Russell stated, "In each case, my objective was to remove myself from the star's concept about fans, and fans' beliefs about stars. Compared to the trust I have in my own passion for the game, I have very little faith in cheers, what they represent, or how long they will persist.
Who’s Bill Russell ?
On February 12, 1934, William Felton Russell was born in Monroe, Louisiana, where his father, Charles, worked as a paper bag manufacturer. He recalled a loving home environment but a racially charged one. He recounted how once a policeman had threatened to have his mother, Katie, arrested for wearing a fashionable attire similar to those worn by white ladies. While Bill was there, a gas station employee attempted to humiliate his father by refusing to offer service. This incident resulted in Charles Russell pursuing the employee while wielding a tire iron.
The family relocated to Oakland, California when Bill was 9 years old. When Bill's mother passed away when he was 12 years old, his father, who had started a trucking company and later worked in a foundry, was left to raise Bill and his brother Charles Jr. Russell has long remembered how their father instilled in them a desire for hard work, self-worth, and independence.
Russell, who prioritized defense and rebounding, started for the basketball team at McClymonds High School in Oakland as a senior. Hal DeJulio, a former University of San Francisco basketball player who served as a scout for his old institution, identified Russell's potential and suggested him to the head coach, Phil Woolpert.
With guard K.C. Jones, a future Celtic teammate, Russell led San Francisco to N.C.A.A. titles in each of his final two seasons as an All-American who got a scholarship, the squad won 55 straight games after suffering a setback against U.C.L.A. For his three varsity seasons, he scored over 20 points and grabbed over 20 rebounds a game.
When Russell looked back on his time in college, he told Sport magazine in 1963, "No one had ever played basketball the way I played it, or as well." They had never witnessed a shot blocker before. I'll admit it, I'm egotistical. I like to think I created a brand-new genre of play.
The Celtics had a very good squad in the middle of the 1950s that included Ed Macauley, a brilliant shooter up front, Bill Sharman, the league's best guard, and Bob Cousy, the best small man in the league. But they had never won a title because they lacked a strong center.
The Harlem Globetrotters were rumored to be willing to offer Russell a lucrative contract, but the Rochester Royals, who held the No. 1 pick in the 1956 N.B.A. draft, already had an excellent big man in Maurice Stokes and were unwilling to engage in what their owner, Les Harrison, thought would be a bidding war for Russell. In response, the Royals selected guard Sihugo Green from Duquesne.
The St. Louis Hawks, who had the No. 2 choice, did not believe they could afford Russell either. They agreed to send the Celtics that pick in exchange for Cliff Hagan, a talented rookie, and Macauley, a native of St. Louis. Boston was therefore able to get Russell.
