https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34323568/boston-celtics-great-bill-russell-11-nba-champion-dies-88

Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, 11-time NBA champion, dies at 88

1:19 PM ET
ESPN

Bill Russell, the cornerstone of the Boston Celtics' dynasty that won
eight straight titles and 11 overall during his career, died Sunday. The
Hall of Famer was 88.

Russell died "peacefully" with his wife, Jeannine, at his side, a
statement posted on social media said. Arrangements for his memorial
service will be announced soon, the statement said.

"But for all the winning, Bill's understanding of the struggle is what
illuminated his life. From boycotting a 1961 exhibition game to unmask
too-long-tolerated discrimination, to leading Mississippi's first
integrated basketball camp in the combustible wake of Medgar Evans'
assassination, to decades of activism ultimately recognized by his
receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, Bill called out
injustice with an unforgiving candor that he intended would disrupt the
status quo, and with a powerful example that, though never his humble
intention, will forever inspire teamwork, selflessness and thoughtful
change," the statement read.

"Bill's wife, Jeannine, and his many friends and family thank you for
keeping Bill in your prayers. Perhaps you'll relive one or two of the
golden moments he gave us, or recall his trademark laugh as he delighted
in explaining the real story behind how those moments unfolded. And we
hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill's
uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to
principle. That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6."

Over a 15-year period, beginning with his junior year at the University
of San Francisco, Russell had the most remarkable career of any player
in the history of team sports. At USF, he was a two time All-American,
won two straight NCAA championships and led the team to 55 consecutive
wins. And he won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics.

During his 13 years in Boston, he carried the Celtics to the NBA Finals
12 times, winning the championship 11 times. The one year the Celtics
lost, in 1958 to the St. Louis Hawks, the series was tied 2-2 when
Russell got hurt and was hospitalized. The Celtics lost the next two
games by a total of three points.

A five-time MVP and 12-time All-Star, Russell was an uncanny shot
blocker who revolutionized NBA defensive concepts. He finished with
21,620 career rebounds -- an average of 22.5 per game -- and led the
league in rebounding four times. He had 51 rebounds in one game, 49 in
two others and 12 straight seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds. Russell
also averaged 15.1 points and 4.3 assists per game over his career.

Until Michael Jordan's exploits in the 1990s, Russell was considered by
many as the greatest player in NBA history.

Russell was awarded the Medal of Freedom by former President Barack
Obama in 2011, the nation's highest civilian honor. And in 2017, the NBA
awarded him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

William Felton Russell was born Feb. 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana. His
family moved to the Bay Area, where he attended McClymonds High School
in Oakland. He was an awkward, unremarkable center on McClymonds'
basketball team, but his size earned him a scholarship at San Francisco,
where he blossomed.

"I was an innovator," Russell told The New York Times in 2011. "I
started blocking shots although I had never seen shots blocked before
that. The first time I did that in a game, my coach called timeout and
said, 'No good defensive player ever leaves his feet.'"

Russell did it anyway, and he teamed with guard K.C. Jones to lead the
Dons to 55 straight wins and national titles in 1955 and 1956. (Jones
missed four games of the 1956 tournament because his eligibility had
expired.) Russell was named the NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player
in 1955. He then led the U.S. basketball team to victory in the 1956
Olympics at Melbourne, Australia.

With the 1956 NBA draft approaching, Celtics coach and general manager
Red Auerbach was eager to add Russell to his lineup. Auerbach had built
a high-scoring offensive machine around guards Bob Cousy and Bill
Sharman and undersized center Ed Macauley but thought the Celtics lacked
the defense and rebounding needed to transform them into a
championship-caliber club. Russell, Auerbach felt, was the missing piece
to the puzzle.

After the St. Louis Hawks selected Russell in the 1956 draft, Auerbach
engineered a trade to land Russell for Ed Macauley.

Boston's starting five of Russell, Tommy Heinsohn, Cousy, Sharman and
Jim Loscutoff was a high-octane unit. The Celtics posted the best
regular-season record in the NBA in 1956-57 and waltzed through the
playoffs for their first NBA title, beating the Hawks.

In a rematch in the 1958 NBA Finals, the Celtics and Hawks split the
first two games at Boston Garden. But Russell suffered an ankle injury
in Game 3 and was ineffective the remainder of the series. The Hawks
eventually won the series in the six games.

Russell and the Celtics had a stranglehold on the NBA Finals after that,
going on to win 10 titles in 11 years and giving professional basketball
a level of prestige it had not enjoyed before.

In the process, Russell revolutionized the game. He was a 6-foot-9
center whose lightning reflexes brought shot-blocking and other
defensive maneuvers that trigger a fast-break offense into full development.

In 1966, after eight straight titles, Auerbach retired as coach and
named Russell as his successor. This was hailed as a sociological
advance, since Russell was the first Black coach of a major league team
in any sport, let alone so distinguished a team. But neither Russell nor
Auerbach saw the move that way. They felt it was simply the best way to
keep winning, and as a player-coach, Russell won two more titles in the
next three years.

Their biggest opponent was age. After he won his 11th championship in
1969 at age 35, Russell retired, triggering a mini-Boston rebuild.
During his 13 seasons, the NBA had expanded from eight teams to 14.
Russell didn't have to survive more than three playoff rounds to win a
title.

"If Bill Russell came back today with the same equipment and the same
brainpower, the same person exactly as he was when he landed in the NBA
in 1956, he'd be the best rebounder in the league," Bob Ryan, a former
Celtics beat writer for the Boston Globe, told the San Francisco
Chronicle in 2019. "As an athlete, he was so far ahead of his time. He'd
win three, four or five championships, but not 11 in 13 years, obviously."

Along with multiple titles, Russell's career also was partly defined
with his rivalry against Wilt Chamberlain.

In the 1959-60 season, the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain, who averaged a record
37.6 points per game in his rookie year, made his debut with the
Philadelphia Warriors. On Nov. 7, 1959, Russell's Celtics hosted
Chamberlain's Warriors, and pundits called the matchup between the best
offensive and defensive centers "The Big Collision" and "Battle of the
Titans." While Chamberlain outscored Russell 30-22, the Celtics won
115-106, and the game was called a "new beginning of basketball."

The matchup between Russell and Chamberlain became one of basketball's
greatest rivalries. One of Celtics' titles came against Wilt
Chamberlain's San Francisco's Warriors teams in 1964.

Although Chamberlain outrebounded and outscored Russell over the course
of their 142 career games (28.7 rebounds per game to 23.7, 28.7 points
per game to 14.5) and their entire career (22.9 RPG to 22.5, 30.1 PPG to
15.1), Russell usually got the nod as the better overall player, mainly
because his teams won 87 (61%) of those games.

In the eight playoff series between the two, Russell and the Celtics won
seven. Russell has 11 championship rings; Chamberlain has just two, and
only one was won against Russell's Celtics.

"I was the villain because I was so much bigger and stronger than anyone
else out there," Chamberlain told the Boston Herald in 1995. "People
tend not to root for Goliath, and Bill back then was a jovial guy and he
really had a great laugh. Plus, he played on the greatest team ever.

"My team was losing and his was winning, so it would be natural that I
would be jealous. Not true. I'm more than happy with the way things
turned out. He was overall by far the best, and that only helped bring
out the best in me."

After Russell retired from basketball, his place in its history secure,
he moved into broader spheres, hosting radio and television talk shows
and writing newspaper columns on general topics.

In 1973, Russell took over the Seattle SuperSonics, then a six-year-old
expansion franchise that had never made the playoffs, as coach and
general manager. The year before, the Sonics had won 26 games and sold
350 season tickets. Under Russell, they won 36, 43, 43 and 40, making
the playoffs twice. When he resigned, they had a solid base of 5,000
season tickets and the material to reach the NBA Finals series the next
two years.

On 7/31/2022 10:41 AM, Robin Miller wrote:
>
>
> https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34323568/boston-celtics-great-bill-russell-11-nba-champion-dies-88
>
>
> Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, 11-time NBA champion, dies at 88
> >

I remember listening to Celtics games featuring Russell when I was young
in Rhode Island, frequently hearing the announcer (Johnny Most)
exclaiming "BLOCKED by Russell!" or "Rebound RUSSELL". He didn't have
much of an offense, but he was brilliant on defense and rebounding. He
also had a very good basketball IQ, which allowed him to score near the
basket, with Most exclaiming "Russel LAYS IT IN!". It was amazing how he
was the main man on that Celtics team in spite of his lack of a good
offensive game. I think Draymond Green contributes a similar quality to
the Warriors - not great on offense, but his incredible IQ makes him
able to contribute, and his brilliance on defense lifts his team to an
entirely other level. (This is not to say Green is as good as Russell,
it's to recognize a type of player who dominates and lifts his team to a
higher level without having a great offensive game.)

Allen wrote:
> On 7/31/2022 10:41 AM, Robin Miller wrote:
>>
>>
>> https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34323568/boston-celtics-great-bill-russell-11-nba-champion-dies-88
>>
>>
>>
>> Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, 11-time NBA champion, dies at 88
>> >
>
>
> I remember listening to Celtics games featuring Russell when I was young
> in Rhode Island, frequently hearing the announcer (Johnny Most)
> exclaiming "BLOCKED by Russell!" or "Rebound RUSSELL". He didn't have
> much of an offense, but he was brilliant on defense and rebounding. He
> also had a very good basketball IQ, which allowed him to score near the
> basket, with Most exclaiming "Russel LAYS IT IN!". It was amazing how he
> was the main man on that Celtics team in spite of his lack of a good
> offensive game. I think Draymond Green contributes a similar quality to
> the Warriors - not great on offense, but his incredible IQ makes him
> able to contribute, and his brilliance on defense lifts his team to an
> entirely other level. (This is not to say Green is as good as Russell,
> it's to recognize a type of player who dominates and lifts his team to a
> higher level without having a great offensive game.)
>

Nice memories, Allen.

--Robin