Aug 7

Aug 7 Lord of the Rings: Bill Russell and his 11 NBA Titles

Roger Cumberbatch

Stories

Bill Russell: 11 Championships and A Huge Impact Off Court

Before the shot clock, 3-pointer, and slam dunk eras, there was Bill.

Longtime Boston Celtics legend and Hall Of Famer, Bill Russell is the most decorated NBA player to ever play the game.

Bill Russell in action against the 76ers and Wilt Chamberlain

Yes, he played in an era when analytics and statistics were not measured, unlike today’s game.

There was no Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, information about the games was shared by newspaper reporters who went to the games.

Russell’s greatness came from his obvious gifts of talent, but also from his impact on the game, even today, as well as his contributions to society off of the court.

Continuing in the series of the Greatest Players in NBA History, this is the legacy of Bill Russell.

Bill Russell’s Career in Numbers

Simply put, Bill Russell was a winner. Let us get that out of the way. The numbers alone will suggest that Russell might very well be the greatest on our list of the greatest;

11x NBA Champion (8 Straight)
5x NBA MVP
12x NBA All-Star
4x NBA Rebounding Champion
2x NBA Champion (As Coach)
14,522 Career Points Scored
21,620 Rebounds
4,100 Assists

Only former Montreal Canadiens great Henri Richard and Russell share the honour of having the most championships won in a North American sports league, with 11.

Russell was the first player in the NBA to average 20 or more rebounds per game.

He snatched 20 or more boards per game in 10 of his 13 playing seasons. Nobody has since even come close to that accomplishment.

Only Wilt Chamberlain had a higher game historically when it came to rebounding with 55 in one game. Russell once grabbed an unbelievable 51 rebounds, good for the second-highest total ever in the history of the league.

Russell’s 32 rebounds in a half against the Philadelphia 76ers in 1957, is still the highest total amount of rebounds by any player ever. Imagine that?

Even with the likes of Chamberlain, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Shaq, Dennis Rodman, and Ben Wallace, that single-game record remains intact, and probably will never be broken again.

Bill Russell on Racism And Social Injustice

Russell, on top of being a Hall Of Fame basketball player and coach, he has fought and beaten racism his whole life.

Bill Russell was born in Monroe, Louisiana on February 12th, 1934. The southern United States at that time, like now, was embroiled in racial strife nationwide.

Growing up in the southern United States, Russell and his family were subjected to racist attacks and segregation. To try and escape the prejudice and mistreatment, Russell’s parents moved the family to a government-funded housing project.

Even when he was a star athlete in college, Russell and other black teammates experienced taunting and slurs from white students.

As a Boston Celtics star, Russell was denied access to hotels in North Carolina during a special tour put on by the NBA of All-Stars. It was before a game that was scheduled in Lexington, Kentucky, where he and other black teammates were refused service at a restaurant, that Russell had enough.

Russell The Heel

Not surprisingly, Russell’s and his teammates’ refusal to play the exhibition game in Kentucky was met with outrage and ire. What was shocking, however, was the response to racism.

Russell became an activist of the Black Power movement. Russell made headlines not with his play, but because of the nature of his comments to the media.

There are direct quotes of Russell saying that he hated white people, and he only liked people who looked like him, which were black people.

He was not shy about his public comments supporting Muhammad Ali’s decision to avoid being drafted by the U.S. Army.

Russell was often seen as flip-flopping on his bold statements, in particular, his initial dismissal of the impact certain white people had in his life.

Russell almost denied the positive effect on the life of his high school coach George Powles.

Powles, a white man, was the first person to encourage him to play the very sport with which he was getting paid very well to play.

He later recanted (in an article for Sports Illustrated) on Powles, and praised Red Auerbach for being a pioneer in the anti-racism movement.

Russell gushed over the Celtics organization for affording his opportunities in coaching and rewarding him handsomely for his play on the court.

He credited the team with being the first to have a black player and to start five black players.

Bill Russell The Head Coach

Bill Russell, the head coaching career with the Boston Celtics (1966-1969) was brief but wildly successful.

Russell cut off all personal ties and relationships to the men he played with, and the roster before him, and was business-like in how he dealt with them.

Whatever or however his players back then wanted to describe his methods and attitude, none of them would take back the two NBA Championships (back to back in 1967 and 1968).

After joining the Seattle SuperSonics, Russell failed to enjoy even a small portion of success.

Under Russell, the SuperSonics missed the playoffs in his first season as head coach.

From that point and for the next few seasons, Russell’s teams faced earlier-than-expected elimination from the playoffs, missed the playoffs entirely, or when he was fired as coach of the Sacramento Kings, his record was 17-41.

At The Buzzer

William Felton Russell is a legend in the sport of basketball and in life itself.

Through his sharing of his experiences growing up with racism, Russell has inspired the players of today in the NBA to become more vocal in these current times of racism and social injustice.

Stars like Lebron James owe a debt of gratitude, according to them, for Russell paving the way for them to use their status as a platform to get their messages of support for anti-racism, and their denouncing of the brutal murders of black people at the hands of the law enforcement.

Moments such as the boycotting of games in the 2020 NBA season (albeit a condensed version of a season due to the pandemic of 2020), would not have been thought of if it were not for black athletes like Russell.

Before Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets existed, Bill Russell took a stand against racism that was not as popular or as welcomed as it would be in today’s society.