RIP, Bill Russell

[billhammond]

By JIMMY GOLEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOSTON — Bill Russell, the NBA great who anchored a Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 championships in 13 years — the last two as the first Black head coach in any major U.S. sport — and marched for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr., died Sunday. He was 88.

His family posted the news on social media, saying Russell died with his wife, Jeannine, by his side. The statement did not give the cause of death.

"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," the family statement said. "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."

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that Russell was "the greatest champion in all of team sports."

"Bill stood for something much bigger than sports: the values of equality, respect and inclusion that he stamped into the DNA of our league. At the height of his athletic career, Bill advocated vigorously for civil rights and social justice, a legacy he passed down to generations of NBA players who followed in his footsteps," Silver said. "Through the taunts, threats and unthinkable adversity, Bill rose above it all and remained true to his belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.

A Hall of Famer, five-time Most Valuable Player and 12-time All-Star, Russell in 1980 was voted the greatest player in the NBA history by basketball writers. He remains the sport's most prolific winner and an archetype of selflessness who won with defense and rebounding while leaving the scoring to others. Often, that meant Wilt Chamberlain, the only player of the era who was a worthy rival for Russell.

But Russell dominated in the only stat he cared about: 11 championships to two.

The native of Louisiana also left a lasting mark as a Black athlete in a city — and country — where race is often a flash point. He was at the March on Washington in 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, and he backed Muhammad Ali when the boxer was pilloried for refusing induction into the military draft.

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Russell the Medal of Freedom alongside Congressman John Lewis, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and baseball great Stan Musial.

"Bill Russell, the man, is someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men," Obama said at the ceremony. "He marched with King; he stood by Ali. When a restaurant refused to serve the Black Celtics, he refused to play in the scheduled game. He endured insults and vandalism, but he kept on focusing on making the teammates who he loved better players and made possible the success of so many who would follow."

Russell said that when he was growing up in the segregated South and later California his parents instilled in him the calm confidence that allowed him to brush off racist taunts.

"Years later, people asked me what I had to go through," Russell said in 2008. "Unfortunately, or fortunately, I've never been through anything. From my first moment of being alive was the notion that my mother and father loved me." It was Russell's mother who would tell him to disregard comments from those who might see him playing in the yard.

"Whatever they say, good or bad, they don't know you," he recalled her saying. "They're wrestling with their own demons."

But it was Jackie Robinson who gave Russell a road map for dealing with racism in his sport: "Jackie was a hero to us. He always conducted himself as a man. He showed me the way 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 at her husband's funeral in 1972.

"She hung the phone up and I asked myself, 'How do you get to be a hero to Jackie Robinson?'" Russell said. "I was so flattered."

William Felton Russell was born on Feb. 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana. He was a child when his family moved to the West Coast, and he went to high school in Oakland, California, and then 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 so coveted Russell that he worked out a trade with 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 by the Ice Capades, which were also run by Celtics owner Walter Brown.

Still, Russell arrived in Boston to complaints that he wasn't that good. "People said it was a wasted draft choice, 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 K.C. Jones, Russell's college teammate, in the same draft. Although Russell joined the team late because he was leading the U.S. to the Olympic gold, Boston finished the regular season with the league's best record.

The Celtics won the NBA championship — their first of 17 — in a double-overtime seventh game against Bob Pettit's St. Louis Hawks. Russell won his first MVP award the next season, but the Hawks won the title in a finals rematch. The Celtics won it all again in 1959, starting an unprecedented string of eight consecutive NBA crowns.

A 6-foot-10 center, Russell never averaged more than 18.9 points during his 13 seasons, each year averaging more rebounds per game than points. For 10 seasons he averaged more than 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 almost a decade before Frank Robinson took over baseball's Cleveland Indians. 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 Eastern Division finals.

Russell led the Celtics back to titles in 1968 and '69, each time winning seven-game playoff series against Chamberlain. Russell retired after the '69 finals, returning for a relatively successful — but unfulfilling —- four-year stint as coach and GM of the Seattle SuperSonics and a less fruitful half season as coach of the Sacramento Kings.

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 and 35th anniversary team in 1980. In 1996, he was hailed as one of the NBA's 50 greatest players. In 2009, the MVP trophy of the NBA Finals was named in his honor.

In 2013, a statue was unveiled on Boston's City Hall Plaza of Russell surrounded by blocks of granite with quotes on 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 in a private gathering. "I felt others before me should have had that honor," he tweeted. "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 often called him basketball's Babe Ruth for how he transcended time. Bill was the ultimate winner and consummate teammate, and his influence on the NBA will be felt forever. We send our deepest condolences to his wife, Jeannine, his family and his many friends."

His family said that arrangements for Russell's memorial service will be announced in the coming days.

[david]

I fondly remember my dad and I rooting for Russell and the Celtics in those playoff games against Chamberlain and the 76ers.

[TKennedy]

"Years later, people asked me what I had to go through," Russell said in 2008. "Unfortunately, or fortunately, I've never been through anything. From my first moment of being alive was the notion that my mother and father loved me." It was Russell's mother who would tell him to disregard comments from those who might see him playing in the yard.

"Whatever they say, good or bad, they don't know you," he recalled her saying. "They're wrestling with their own demons."

Wow!

[t-bob]

That was probably the best professional team - Celtics - 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Ditto RIP

[drlj]

Oh, man! The guy that invented the elastic capo?

[brucemacneill]

Great player back when I watched Basketball.

R.I.P.

[theevan]

Jul 31, 2022 13:35:45 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

"Years later, people asked me what I had to go through," Russell said in 2008. "Unfortunately, or fortunately, I've never been through anything. From my first moment of being alive was the notion that my mother and father loved me." It was Russell's mother who would tell him to disregard comments from those who might see him playing in the yard.

"Whatever they say, good or bad, they don't know you," he recalled her saying. "They're wrestling with their own demons."

Wow!

That is truly wonderful.

[t-bob]

By Yahoo Sports Staff
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Bill Russell was a late bloomer. Before the college basketball accolades and a pair of national championships, before the 11 NBA titles and five MVPs, before he became the most fearsome defensive player ever and a man firmly entrenched in the conversation for the greatest player of all time, there was a gangly, 5-foot-10 kid from Oakland's McClymonds High School who believed a job in the shipyards was in his future.
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There proved to be so much more.
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William Felton Russell died Sunday with his wife Jeannine at his side. He was 88. The greatest winner in professional sports — Russell’s 11 championships in 13 seasons is a mark unlikely to ever be matched — had a career that included 12 All-Star appearances and an Olympic gold medal in 1956. He was at his best in the biggest moments: In 30 elimination games at the college, pro and Olympic levels, Russell was a staggering 28-2.
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Said Tommy Heinsohn, a teammate of Russell’s in Boston: “He would do superhuman things when they needed to be done.”
Russell was born on Feb. 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana, where racism was deep-seated. Russell’s parents, Charlie and Katie, knew people there who had been born slaves; Black men and women were forced to wait in line behind whites at places like drug stores and gas stations, and Katie Russell, dressed in a new suit she made for herself, was once stopped by police and told not to wear “white women clothes,” according to a feature on Russell written in 2001.
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Russell’s family moved to Oakland in the 1940s, where basketball first took hold. Russell was a gifted athlete — his Celtics teammate, John Havlicek, said Russell could have been a champion decathlete — but basketball came slowly. As a sophomore at McClymonds,
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Russell was nearly cut from the junior varsity team. He suited up for only half the games that season.
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Russell didn’t start until his senior year, and even then scholarship offers were scarce. Phil Woolpert, the head coach at nearby University of San Francisco, was the only coach to offer him a scholarship. Under the guidance of Woolpert and assistant coach Ross Giudice — “Much of what I am, I owe to Ross,” Russell wrote in his 1966 autobiography “Go Up for Glory” — Russell transformed from a clumsy kid who struggled to make layups into one of college basketball’s most dominant players. Backboned by Russell, the Dons won two college basketball championships and strung together a winning streak of 55 straight games.
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NBA team executives took notice. One was Red Auerbach, Boston’s grizzly head coach. In 1956, Rochester held the No. 1 pick in the draft. St. Louis had No. 2, and Boston had arranged a trade to move up — if Russell were still on the board. As legend has it, Walter Brown, the Celtics owner who co-owned the popular Ice Capades, made a deal with Rochester owner Lester Harrison: Don’t draft Russell, and the Ice Capades would commit to performing at Rochester’s arena.
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The Royals drafted Sihugo Green. The Celtics sent Ed Macauley and the player rights of Cliff Hagan to St. Louis in exchange for the second pick — and the rights to Russell.
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Russell was a defensive pioneer. He popularized shot-blocking. “I was an innovator,” Russell told The New York Times. “I started blocking shots although I had never seen a shot 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 was a master of tip-blocking, tapping shots to his teammates to ignite fast breaks instead of swatting shots into the stands.
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Much of what defines today’s great defensive players began with Russell. His ability to slide across the lane to provide help defense. His ability to alter shots. Said Auerbach: “He put a whole new sound in [the] game. The sound of footsteps.”
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To his teammates, Russell was gregarious, known for a bellowing laugh. To the those outside the locker room, Russell was often withdrawn. “Jekyll and Hyde,” Bob Cousy once said. Russell had a complicated relationship with Boston. He often said he didn’t play for Boston — he played for the Celtics. Russell lived in Reading, Massachusetts, a town just north of the city. One night, Russell came home to find his house vandalized. Racial epithets were spray-painted on his walls. Burglars poured beer on his pool table, smashed in his trophy case and defecated on his bed.
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“Every time the Celtics went out on the road, vandals would come and tip over our garbage cans,” Russell’s daughter, Karen, wrote in 1987. “My father went to the police station to complain. The police told him that raccoons were responsible, so he asked where he could apply for a gun permit. The raccoons never came back.”
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Russell was never just a basketball player; in airports, he often replied, “No,” when asked if he was. Everywhere, Russell stood up against inequality. Once, in Marion, Indiana, Russell was presented with the key to the city. Later that same night, Russell was refused service at a local restaurant. He immediately drove to the mayor’s house and gave back the key.
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Few athletes were as outspoken as Russell on controversial subjects. He fought back against the racism he dealt with in Boston. He criticized the NBA for what he saw as quotas on the number of Black players in the league. In 1961, after a restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky, refused to serve some of the Celtics’ Black players before an exhibition game, Russell organized a boycott of the game. In 1975, he declined to attend his Hall of Fame induction, later calling it insulting to all the Black players who were not inducted before him.
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He refused to sign autographs, but welcomed a conversation.
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"What I'm resentful of, you know, is when they say you owe the public this and owe the public that," Russell told the Saturday Evening Post in 1964. "You owe the public the same thing it owes you. Nothing. I'd say I'm like most people in this type of life; I have an enlarged ego. I refuse to misrepresent myself. I refuse to smile and be nice to the kiddies. I don't think it is incumbent upon me to set a good example for anybody's kids but my own."
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On the court, Russell’s career was highlighted by his rivalry with Wilt Chamberlain. At 7-foot-1, 275 pounds, Chamberlain was significantly bigger than Russell and arguably just as quick. While Chamberlain had the statistical edge against Russell — 28.7 points and 28.7 rebounds in a whopping 142 matchups — Russell’s teams routinely came out on top. Russell’s Celtics were 85-57 against Wilt; in eight playoff series against Chamberlain, Russell lost only once.
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Russell retired in 1969, serving the last three seasons as Boston’s player-coach. He returned to the coaching ranks in 1973, in Seattle, where he stayed for four seasons. In 1987, he took over the Sacramento Kings, but lasted just 58 games before moving to the front office. He was fired in 1989. He didn’t return to the NBA.
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In retirement, Russell continued to be recognized for his achievements. He was named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players in 1996 and had the Finals MVP trophy named after him in 1999. In 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2013, Boston unveiled a statue in his honor.
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For all he accomplished, he is best known for this: On the court or off, Bill Russell never backed down.

[t-bob]

I saw more articles about Bill Russell's life. Amazin' !!!

[Marshall]

Jul 31, 2022 14:43:10 GMT -5 drlj said:

Oh, man! The guy that invented the elastic capo?

RIP