Russell said when he grew up in the segregated South and later in California, his parents instilled in him the calm confidence that allowed him to shake off racial slurs and insults.
“Years later, people asked me what I had to go through,” Russell said in 2008. “Unfortunately, or fortunately, I never went through anything. From my first moment of life, I had the idea that my mother and my father loved me. It was Russell’s mother telling him to disregard comments from anyone who might see him play in the yard.
“Whatever they say, good or bad, they don’t know you,” he recalls. “They are battling their own demons.”
But it was Jackie Robinson who gave Russell a roadmap for tackling racism in his sport: “Jackie was a hero for us. He always behaved like a man. He showed me how to be a man in professional sports.
The feeling was mutual, Russell learned, when Robinson’s widow Rachel called and asked him to be a pallbearer to her husband’s funeral in 1972.
“She hung up the phone and I was like, ‘How do you become a hero for Jackie Robinson? “, Russell said. “I was so flattered.
William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934 in Monroe, Louisiana. He was a child when his family moved to the West Coast and he attended McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, where Russell’s basketball career got off to an uneven start. He was kicked off the team at Herbert Hoover Junior High School, and later, at McClymonds, played as an extra during his senior year.
Still, Russell often praised McClymonds coach George Powles as an inspiration, and made regular appearances at Oakland.
After graduating early from McClymonds, Russell attended the University of San Francisco. He led the Dons to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956 and won a gold medal in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympics in Australia.
Celtics coach and general manager Red Auerbach coveted Russell so much that he made a trade to the St. Louis Hawks for the second pick in the draft. He promised the Rochester Royals, who owned the No. 1 pick, a lucrative visit from the Ice Capades, who were also managed by Celtics owner Walter Brown. Still, Russell arrived in Boston to complain that he wasn’t that good.
Still, Russell arrived in Boston to complain that he wasn’t that good. “People were saying it was a useless draft pick, wasted money,” he recalled. “They said, ‘He’s no good. All he can do is block shots and rebound. And Red said, “That’s enough.”
The Celtics also picked up Tommy Heinsohn and KC Jones, Russell’s college teammate, in the same draft. Although Russell joined the team late because he was leading the United States to Olympic gold, Boston finished the regular season with the league’s best record.
The Celtics won the NBA championship—their first of 17—in Game 7 in double overtime against Bob Pettit’s St. Louis Hawks. Russell won his first MVP award the following season, but the Hawks won the title in a Finals rematch. The Celtics won it all again in 1959, beginning an unprecedented streak of eight consecutive NBA crowns.
A 6-foot-10 center, Russell never averaged more than 18.9 points in his 13 seasons, averaging more rebounds per game than points each year. For 10 seasons, he averaged over 20 rebounds. He once had 51 rebounds in a game; Chamberlain holds the record with 55.
Auerbach retired after winning the 1966 title, and Russell became the player-coach – the first black head coach in NBA history, and nearly a decade before Frank Robinson took control of the Cleveland Indians in baseball. Boston finished with the best regular season record in the NBA, but its title streak ended with a loss to Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers in the East Division Finals.
Russell led the Celtics back to titles in 1968 and 1969, winning a seven-game playoff series each time over Chamberlain. Russell retired after the ’69 Finals, returning for a relatively successful – but unsatisfying – four-year stint as Seattle SuperSonics coach and general manager and a less successful half-season as Sacramento Kings coach. .
Russell’s No. 6 jersey was retired by the Celtics in 1972. He earned spots on the NBA’s 25th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1970, 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, and Team of the 75th anniversary. In 1996, he was hailed as one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players. In 2009, the NBA Finals MVP trophy was named in his honor.
In 2013, a statue was unveiled in Russell Town Hall Square in Boston, surrounded by granite blocks with quotes about leadership and character. Russell was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975 but did not attend the ceremony, saying he should not have been the first African-American elected. (Chuck Cooper, the NBA’s first black player, was his choice.)
In 2019, Russell accepted his Hall of Fame ring at a private gathering. “I thought others before me should have had this honor,” he tweeted. “It’s good to see progress.”
“I cherished my friendship with Bill and was thrilled when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Silver said in his statement. “I have often called him Babe Ruth of basketball for how he transcended time. Bill was the ultimate winner and an accomplished teammate, and his influence on the NBA will be felt forever. condolences to his wife, Jeannine, his family and his many friends.
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