Bill Russell, the lynchpin of the Boston Celtics dynasty, died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer. He was 88 years old when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“Russell died peacefully,” according to a statement shared on social media. He was with his wife by his side. According to the announcement, the details of his memorial ceremony will be released soon.
The cause of Russell’s death has not been released, however he was unable to accept the NBA Finals MVP trophy in June due to a long illness.
Bill’s life was illuminated by his understanding of struggle, not just his victories, as stated in the statement. “In the wake of Medgar [Evers’] murder, Bill called out injustice with an unforgiving candor that he intended to disrupt the status quo, and with a powerful example that, though never fully realized, would have a lasting impact. He led Mississippi’s first integrated basketball camp and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his decades of activism.
“His wife, Jeannine, and his numerous friends and family are grateful for all the prayers you’ve been sending their way. Most likely, you’ll go back to some of the memorable experiences he shared with us, or remember how he laughed as he retold the narrative of how those occurrences came to pass in real life. So let’s all try to emulate Bill’s unwavering, dignified, and always constructive devotion to principle by finding new methods to act or speak up. One final victory for our beloved #6 would be a fitting farewell.”
From his junior year at the University of San Francisco, Russell went on to have the most amazing career in the history of team sports. On the basketball court, he was an All-American at USF, won two NCAA titles, and led the team to a 55-match winning streak. And he won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympic Games, as well.
As a player and the NBA’s first Black coach, he led the Celtic team to 12 NBA Finals appearances, winning 11 of those crowns. His final two championships were earned while he was still playing for the Celtics.
The Celtics released a statement saying that “Bill Russell’s DNA is woven into every facet of the Celtics organization, from the tireless pursuit of brilliance, to the celebration of team rewards over individual glory, to a commitment to social justice and civil rights off the court. “As we grieve his passing and celebrate his great legacy in basketball, Boston, and beyond, our sympathies are with his family.”
He dubbed Russell “the greatest sports champion of all time,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Sunday.
Said Silver: “I treasured my friendship with Bill and was overjoyed when he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom….” “Basketball’s Babe Ruth because of how he transcended the eras he played in. The impact of Bill’s legacy on the NBA will be felt for generations to come.”
As a five-time MVP and 12-time All-Star, Russell revolutionized NBA defense with his amazing ability to block shots. Averaging 22.5 rebounds per game over the course of his career, he concluded with 21,620 lifetime rebounds, including four league-leading performances. For 12 straight seasons, he averaged more than 1,000 rebounds every season and he had 51 rebounds in one game. Additionally, in his career, Russell has posted averages of 15.1 points and 4.3 assists per contest.
Russell was widely regarded as the greatest NBA player until Michael Jordan’s heroics in the 1990s.
Basketball legend Michael Jordan stated in a statement that Russell “was a pioneer” as a player, a champion, the NBA’s first black head coach, and a social crusader. “All of the Black players who came after him, including myself, followed in his footsteps. A legend has been taken away from us. I send my sympathies to his loved ones and pray for their comfort during this difficult time.”
The Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, was bestowed upon Russell by former President Obama in 2011. Also, in 2017, he was honored with the NBA’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his accomplishments.
Obama remarked in a statement that “we lost a giant” on Sunday. “The legacy of Bill Russell, both as a player and as a person, rises far above the height of his stature. Bill, perhaps more than anybody else, had a deep understanding of what it takes to succeed and lead.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest issued a statement praising Russell’s lifelong work in civil rights and sports and calling him “a towering champion for freedom, equality, and justice.”
One of the greatest athletes in our history—an all time champion of champions and a decent man and great American who worked tirelessly to fulfill the American dream for all of us—Bill Russell, Vice President Biden stated.
Russell, William Felton was born on the 12th of February 1934 in Monroe, LA. McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, was where he attended high school. McClymonds’ basketball team had him as an uncomfortable and mediocre center, but his size got him a scholarship to San Francisco, where he flourished as a player and as a person.
In 2011, Russell told the New York Times, “I was an inventor.” “Even though I had never seen a shot blocked before, I began to block shots. My coach called timeout the first time I did that in a game and said, “No good defensive player ever leaves his feet.””
When K.C. Jones joined Russell on the Dons’ 1955 and 1956 championship teams, they went on a 55-game winning streak. (Jones was ineligible for the 1956 tournament, so he missed four games.) This accolade was bestowed upon Russell in 1955, when he was crowned NCAA tournament MVP. It was then in Melbourne, Australia, that he guided the US basketball team to victory.
Red Auerbach, the Celtics’ head coach and general manager, was eager to add Russell to his roster as the NBA draft approached in 1956. Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, and Ed Macauley formed a high-scoring offensive juggernaut, but Auerbach thought the Celtics lacked the defense and rebounding to become a champion-caliber team. Auerbach believed that Russell was the missing piece of the puzzle.
As soon as St. Louis picked Russell in the draft, Auerbach orchestrated a deal to get Russell for Macauley.
Russell, Tommy Heinsohn, Cousy, Sharman, and Jim Loscutoff were a potent starting five for the Red Sox. During the 1956-57 season, the Celtics had the NBA’s best regular-season record, and they swept the Hawks in the playoffs to win their first NBA championship.
The Celtics and Hawks fought for a 2-2 draw in the opening two games at Boston Garden in a rematch of the 1958 Finals. Despite this, Russell was out for the rest of the series after injuring his ankle in Game 3. It took six games for the Hawks to take the series in their favor.
After that, Russell and the Celtics had a virtual lock on the NBA Finals, winning 10 championships in 11 years and elevating the sport to a new level of notoriety.
During this time, Russell transformed the game. Shot-blocking and other defensive moves that ignite a fast-break offense were made possible by his lightning-fast reactions as a 6-foot-9 center.
The following year, Auerbach stepped down as head coach and appointed Russell as his replacement. A social milestone had been reached, as Russell was the first Black head coach of a major league team in any sport, much less one of such distinction. Russell and Auerbach, on the other hand, didn’t see it that way. Russell, as a player-coach, went on to win two more championships in the following three years as the team’s greatest player and coach.
Their greatest foe was just time itself. Russell’s retirement in 1969 at the age of 35 triggered a mini-rebuild. The NBA has grown from eight to fourteen teams during his tenure. To win a championship, no one of Bill Russell’s Celtics teams had to go beyond the third round of the playoffs.
According to Bob Ryan, a former Boston Globe Celtics beat writer, “If Bill Russell came back today with the same equipment and the same brainpower, the same exact guy precisely as he was when he first landed in the NBA in 1956, he would be the best rebounder in the league.” “He was decades ahead of his time in terms of athletic ability. No way in hell was he going to win 11 championships in 13 years if he only won 3, 4, or 5 of them.”
The NBA Finals MVP trophy was renamed in Russell’s honor in 2009, despite the fact that he never won it because it was originally given out in 1969. The previous time Russell did so was in 2019, when it went to Kawhi Leonard. Russell was not there in 2020 due to the NBA bubble, and he was not present in 2021 due to concerns about COVID-19.
Russell’s career was shaped in part by his rivalry with Wilt Chamberlain, which he waged in addition to winning numerous championships.
The 7-foot-1 Chamberlain made his NBA debut with the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1959-60 season, where he set a rookie scoring mark of 37.6 points per game. During the November 7, 1959, game between Russell’s Celtics and Chamberlain’s Warriors, it was referred to as “The Big Collision,” and critics labeled it “Battle of the Titans.” When the Celtics won 115-106, it was hailed as a “new beginning in basketball,” even though Chamberlain outscored Russell 30-22.
The rivalry between Chamberlain and Russell grew to be one of the most storied in the sport’s history. In 1964, the Celtics beat Chamberlain’s Warriors in San Francisco to win a championship.
Despite Chamberlain’s superiority in terms of rebounds and points per game (28.7 vs. 23.7, 28.7 vs. 14.5) and their combined careers (22.9 vs. 22.5, 30.1 vs. 15.1), Russell was frequently cited as the superior player since his teams won 87 of those 142 lifetime head-to-head matchups.
It was Russell and the Celtics who prevailed in seven of the eight playoff series in which they faced off. Russell has 11 championship rings; Chamberlain has just two.
In 1995, Chamberlain told the Boston Herald, “I was the villain because I was so much bigger and stronger than everybody else out there.” “Goliath isn’t a popular character, and Bill was a cheery guy who loved to laugh. In addition, he was a member of the greatest squad ever.
“Because my team was losing and his was winning, I was envious. Not so fast. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Overall, he was the finest, and that only served to motivate and inspire me further.”
Russell’s legacy as a basketball player was safe, so he moved on to other endeavors after his retirement, including hosting radio and television talk shows and penning newspaper columns on a variety of subjects.
The Seattle SuperSonics, a six-year-old expansion team that had never entered the playoffs, were taken over by Russell in 1973 as coach and general manager. Seattle had won 26 games and sold 350 season tickets in the previous year. Russell led the team to 36, 43, 43, and 40 victories, as well as two playoff appearances. He left the team with 5,000 season tickets and two NBA Finals appearances in his two years in charge.
Reportedly annoyed by the squad’s unwillingness to accept his team concept, Russell resigned. In Russell’s case, some speculated that he was the source of the problem because of his seeming inability to accept anything other than the Celtics way of life. Seattle won the championship two years later thanks to the same team ethos Lenny Wilkens had tried to instill unsuccessfully in the club he managed.
Russell returned to coaching in 1987-88, ten years after leaving Seattle and taking over for Jerry Reynolds as the head coach of the Sacramento Kings. Russell left the squad after the season ended with a 17-41 record.
Russell was best known as a color commentator on television basketball games during his time away from coaching. With Rick Barry, he delivered brutally honest analysis of the game for a period of time. The Sacramento Bee quotes Russell as saying, “The most successful television is done in eight-second thoughts and the things I know about basketball, motivation and people go deeper than that.” Russell was never at ease in that situation, though.
Additionally, he experimented in acting and writing, appearing in productions of the Seattle Children’s Theatre and an episode of “Miami Vice.”
Russ was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for the first time in 1975, and the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America named him the NBA’s all-time greatest player in 1980. In October of that year, the NBA released its 75th Anniversary Team, which included him.