Maybe the greatest basketball player who has ever lived. He’s always been No. 2 on my Pantheon List of the Greatest Basketball Players Ever. But the truth of the matter is Bill Rusell off the court was a more impactful role model than Michael Jordan ever thought of being. Not a put down of Michael, just an observation.
Bill Russell came from Louisiana so as as a kid growing up he always understood the hypocrisy of racism in America.
He attended the University of San Fransico where his teams won back to back national championships. Needless to say San Francisco never made another national champ[ionship game again beyond the Bill Russell Era.
He was drafted by Red Auerbach and the hated Boston Celtics where his teams won eleven out of thirteen NBA champaionships during Bill Russell’s illustrious career.
He was not a pretty boy scrorer like Kareem, nor anything like Wilt basketball-wise on offense. Bill Russell was a warrrior on the defensive end who started the Celtics’ vaunted transition game with his shot blocking, outlet passes, and finishing ability on the break.
Bill Russell was clearly the most dominant center the game has ever known from a standpoint of making his teams better around him.
In 1966, Bill Russell was made the player/coach of the Boston Celtics. To put this in proper historical perspective, it was not until Frank Robinson in 1975 was the named the first black manager in Major League Baseball or in 1990 when the Oakland Raiders named Art Shell the first NFL head coach that a black man coached in one of America’s premier pro sports leagues.
Think about the above paragraph. Bill Russell by a margin of nine years became the first black man in America to become the head coach in either the NBA, NFL, or MLB. That is greatness and speaks to the respect which Bill Russell garnered among his peers.
Bill Russell even wrote an iconic autibiography titled Second Wind which should be a must for any serious fan/student of the NBA.
However, my favorite Bill Russell book is The Last Pass which details the strained relationship between Bill Russell and Bob Cousy up until the very end of their respective lives. Another must read for serious NBA fans and Americans for that matter on the issue of race in our country.
This past weekend the NBA lost perhaps its most influential player of all-time, while America lost one of its shining beacons.
The world is a pretty simple matter when you follow the lead of someone like Bill Russell.