Bill Russell, a cornerstone of the Boston Celtics dynasty who won eight straight and 11 career victories, died Sunday. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1988.
Russell died “peacefully” with his wife Janine by his side. Read statements posted on social mediaArrangements for his memorial service will be announced soon, according to a statement.
A cause of death was not specified in the statement, but Russell was not in good enough shape to be awarded the NBA Finals MVP trophy in June due to a long illness.
From boycotting the 1961 exhibition game, to exposing discrimination that has been tolerated for too long, to leading Mississippi’s first comprehensive basketball camp to the burning ruins of Medgar. [Evers’] To assassinations, to decades of activism finally acknowledged by the receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom… Bill invoked injustice with unrelenting candor intended to disrupt the status quo and set a powerful example. It was never meant to be humble, but it will forever inspire teamwork, selflessness and thoughtful change,” the statement read.
publication… pic.twitter.com/KMJ7pG4R5Z
—TheBillRussell (@RealBillRussell) July 31, 2022
“Bill’s wife, Janine, and his many friends and family, thank you for continuing to pray for Bill. Perhaps we will remember one or two of the golden moments he gave us, or he You’ll remember his trademark laugh when he happily explained the true story behind how that moment unfolded. I hope we can find new ways to speak about our uncompromising, dignified, and always constructive commitment to
Russell began his junior year at the University of San Francisco and spanned 15 years with one of the most notable careers in the history of team sports. At USF, he was a two-time All-American and won the NCAA championship two times in a row, leading the team to his 55th straight win. And won the gold medal at the 1956 Olympics.
During his 13 years in Boston, he led the Celtics to the NBA Finals 12 times and won 11 championships. His last two titles were also the first black coach in the NBA.
“Bill Russell’s DNA is woven into every element of the Celtics organization, from our relentless pursuit of excellence, to our celebration of team rewards for personal glory, to our commitment to social justice and civil rights off the court. Our thoughts are with his family and we mourn his loss and celebrate his enormous legacy in basketball, Boston and beyond.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called Russell “the greatest champion in all team sports” in a statement Sunday.
“I cherish my friendship with Bill and was thrilled when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I often refer to him as the Babe Ruth of basketball because of how he transcended time. Bill was the ultimate winner, the perfect teammate, and his impact on the NBA will be felt…forever,” Silver said.
A five-time MVP and 12-time All-Star, Russell was an exceptional shot blocker who revolutionized the NBA’s defensive concept. He finished his career with 21,620 rebounds (averaging 22.5 per game), leading the league with 4 rebounds. He had his 51 rebounds in one game and his 49 in his other two games, and in 12 consecutive seasons he had more than 1,000 rebounds. Russell also averaged 15.1 points and his 4.3 assists per game throughout his career.
Russell was considered the greatest player in NBA history until Michael Jordan’s rise in the 1990s.
“Bill Russell was a pioneer. As a player, as a champion, as the NBA’s first black head coach and as an activist. “The world has lost a legend. Our condolences to his family and may he rest in peace,” Jordan, now president of the Charlotte Hornets, said in a statement.
Russell was awarded the United States’ highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, by former President Barack Obama in 2011. And in 2017, the NBA gave him the Lifetime Achievement Award.
William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934 in Monroe, Louisiana. His family moved to the Bay Area and he attended Mac Lymons High School in Oakland. He was an awkward, unremarkable center on his McLymons basketball team, but his physique earned him a scholarship to San Francisco, where he blossomed.
“I was an innovator,” Russell told The New York Times in 2011. Excellent defense he player never takes his feet off. ”
Russell did it anyway, teaming with guard KC Jones to lead the Dons to a 55-game winning streak and a national title in 1955 and 1956. Best Player of 1955. He then led his team to victory in US basketball at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in Australia.
With the 1956 NBA Draft approaching, Celtics coach and general manager Red Orbach was desperate to add Russell to his lineup. Auerbach built a high-scoring attack machine around guards Bob Cousy Bill Sherman and diminutive center Ed McCauley thought the Celtics lacked the defense and rebounding needed to transform into a championship-caliber club. I felt it was the missing piece.
After the St. Louis Hawks drafted Russell, Orbach engineered a trade to exchange Russell for Ed McCauley.
Boston’s starting five of Russell, Tommy Heinsohn, Coogey, Sherman and Jim Rothcutoff was an energetic unit. The Celtics set his NBA best regular season record in 1956–57, defeating the Hawks and advancing to the playoffs for his first NBA title.
In a rematch of the 1958 Finals, the Celtics and Hawks split the first two games at the Boston Garden. However, Russell injured his ankle in Game 3 and was ineffective for the rest of the series. The Hawks eventually won the series in six games.
Russell and the Celtics then dominated the NBA Finals, winning 10 titles in 11 years and giving professional basketball an unprecedented level of prestige.
In the process, Russell revolutionized the game. He is his 6-foot-9 center, whose lightning-quick reflexes have brought his shots, blocking and other defensive maneuvers to his fasts, his breaks and his offense to perfection.
In 1966, after winning eight consecutive championships, Auerbach retired from coaching and named Russell as his successor. hailed as a breakthrough. But neither Russell nor Auerbach saw the move that way. They felt it was the best way to keep winning, and as a player and manager, Russell went on to win his two more titles over the next three years.
Their biggest enemy was age. After winning his 11th championship in 1969 at the age of 35, Russell retired and was the catalyst for a mini rebuild. During his 13 seasons, the NBA expanded from his 8 teams to 14 teams. Russell’s Celtics his team didn’t need to survive more than his three rounds of the playoffs to win the title.
“If Bill Russell came back today with the same gear and the same brains he had when he joined the NBA in 1956, he would be the best rebounder in the league,” said former Celtics star Bob Ryan. Told. Beat his writer for The Boston Globe told his San Francisco Chronicle in 2019.
In addition to multiple titles, Russell’s career has Wilt Chamberlain.
In the 1959-60 season, the 7-foot-1 Chamberlain made his debut with the Philadelphia Warriors, averaging 37.6 points per game in his rookie year. On November 7, 1959, Russell’s Celtics hosted Chamberlain’s Warriors, with pundits calling the best-offensive matchup between his center and defense his center “Big Collision” and “Battle of the Titans.” I called. Chamberlain beat Russell 30-22, while the Celtics won 115-106, calling the game “a new beginning in basketball.”
The matchup between Russell and Chamberlain has become one of basketball’s biggest rivalries. His one of the Celtics titles came in 1964 against Chamberlain’s San Francisco Warriors team.
Although Chamberlain has outscored Russell in 142 career competitive games (28.7 rebounds to 23.7, 28.7 points per game to 14.5) and career overall (22.9 RPG to 22.5, PPG 30.1 to 15.1). , Russell usually got the nod as the better overall player, mainly because his team won 87 (61%) of those games.
In the eight-time playoff series between the two players, Russell and the Celtics won seven. Russell has 11 championship rings. Chamberlain only has two of him.
Chamberlain told the Boston Herald in 1995, “I was the villain because I was so much bigger and stronger than anyone else. Plus, he played for the greatest team of all time.”
“My team was losing and his team was winning, so it’s natural for me to be jealous. No, I’m happy with the result. It was the best. Please bring out the best in me.”
After Russell retired from basketball, his place in that history was secured and he moved into the wider field, hosting radio and television talk shows and writing newspaper columns on popular topics.
In 1973 Russell took over the Seattle Supersonics. This was an expansion franchise that had not made the playoffs for six years at the time, and was hired as coach and general manager. The previous year, the Sonics won his 26th and sold 350 tickets for his season. Under Russell, they won his 36th, 43rd, 43rd, 40th and made the playoffs twice. When he stepped down, they had a solid base of 5,000 season tickets for him and over the next two years he had a team that made it to the NBA Finals.
Russell was reportedly frustrated by players’ reluctance to embrace his team concept. He was said to be aloof, moody, and unable to accept anything but Celtic traditions. Ironically, Lenny Wilkens led Seattle to a championship two years after him, the same team Russell tried and failed to instill in him preaching his concept.
A decade after leaving Seattle, Russell tried coaching again. Jerry Reynolds As coach of the Sacramento Kings at the beginning of the 1987-88 season.
In between coaching sessions, Russell was most prominent as a color commentator for televised basketball games.For a while he was paired with an equally obtuse Rick Barryand the duo provided brutally candid commentary on the game.
He has also dabbled in acting, appearing in a Seattle Children’s Theater show, an episode of “Miami Vice,” and writing his provocative autobiography, “Second Wind.”
Russell became the first black player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975 and was named the NBA’s greatest player in 1980 by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America. He was part of his 75th anniversary squad announced by the NBA in October 2021.
In 2013, the City of Boston erected a statue of Russell in City Hall Square.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
