Remembering a Legend: Russell's Legacy Lives On
After the 2022 NBA free offseason began to quiet down, the basketball world received some news that few expected to hear.
At the age of 88, the 11-time NBA champion and Boston sports legend Bill Russell passed away, leaving a massive hole in the sports world and the entire country. Russell was not well enough back in June to present the NBA Finals MVP award and died peacefully with his wife by his side on the last day of July. Depending on the perspective, some may say Russell was the best basketball player of all time, paving the way as a player and coach during the Civil Rights movement for African Americans to make a difference and spark a change in a society that desperately needed it.
From his infectious smile and personality off the court to providing the platform for people who did not have the opportunity during his playing days, Russell defined what it meant to be a winner on and off the court.
Despite being the coach of the Celtics in the final two years of his playing career, Russell still played a critical part between the lines, averaging over 18 rebounds during the regular season in both of those seasons. As Boston gears up for another season as a potential championship-caliber team, the entire franchise will be gunning for the success that one of its greatest players reached an astounding 11 times during his illustrious career. Just like Kobe Bryant, Russell may not be physically here, but he lives on through the people that he touched during his 88 years on Planet Earth, on and off the court.
C/O: Paul J. Maguire/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
After the news dropped on July 31, the Celtics released a statement stating, "Bill Russell's DNA is woven through every element of the Celtics organization, from the relentless pursuit of excellence to the celebration of team rewards over individual glory, to a commitment to social justice and civil rights off the court...Our thoughts are with his family as we mourn his passing and celebrate his enormous legacy in basketball, Boston, and beyond."
Russell played in the NBA when it was not popular, and the world around him gave him every reason to give in to the racial hate. After growing up in the deep south and fighting against the constant disapproval from the public, Russell channeled the racism he received not only when he was growing up but in Boston into succeeding, winning, and proving that he belonged. He always had the goal to create a better future for the generations to come, and despite his passing, society was left a better place because Russell always tried to make a difference.
To think Russell nearly played with the Harlem Globetrotters before he entered the NBA Draft at a time when the league was not as popular, and the salaries averaged out to around just $10,000 begs the question of where the league would be right now without him. He not only revolutionized the ceiling of an NBA player and a center, but Russell also showed the world how to be a leader on and off the court in a constant fight against a country and a city with which he had a complicated relationship.
Walter Brown traded the Ice Capades in a legendary trade with the Rochester Royals (now Sacramento Kings) to move up in the draft to secure the player that Red Auerbach desperately wanted. Russell won eight straight titles after Boston lost to the St. Louis Hawks without him in 1958, and never lost in a Game Seven in his career, going 10-0, averaging over 29 rebounds in those games. He also helped bridge the gap between the Cousy days and passed the torch down to John Havlicek at the end of his career en route to his successes in the 1970s. Basketball was a team game, and while Russell was a great player in his own right, he knew who to lead a team to the pinnacle of the basketball world time and time again.
He is the only Celtic to lead the league in rebounding, and he did so five times. Russell sits second all-time in league history in rebounds with over 21,000 during his 13-year career. He is the first of four players to win an NCAA championship and an NBA championship in back-to-back years. He collected 40 or more rebounds in a single game an astounding eight times, including possessing three out of the four largest single-game rebounding totals for a player. Despite being an 11-time NBA champion, and five-time MVP, the accomplishments do not do Russell's impact on the game justice.
There are no words, numbers, comparisons, or superlatives that can completely encapsulate the impact that Russell made on the entire country as a whole. He was known for his high-pitched laugh that had the power to light up a room and fought against constant racism during his career, refusing to play games along with his fellow black teammates to getting denied rooms in a hotel during the All-Star Game. If it wasn't for what Russell did on and off the court, it is difficult to say if the NBA and the world would have made as much progress as they did. He reconciled with the city that he had called "corrupt and racist," getting his jersey retired in 1972, and while he refused to attend the ceremony, Boston re-retired his number in 1999 with NBA legends in the building in front of a sellout crowd.
His former teammate Don Nelson spoke about Russell during his playing days, stating, "There are two types of superstars. One makes himself look good at the expense of the other guys on the floor. But there's another type who makes the players around him look better than they are, and that's the type Russell was."
C/O: The Sporting News/USA Today
As the world and close friends and family of Russell mourn his passing, the world is going to be left with a giant crater that no one else is going to be able to fill. However, the league and society can honor his legacy by continuing to fight the battle against racial equality and leaving the world in a better place than when they found it. From Russell's statue in City Hall Plaza in Boston to the West Coast Conference introducing the "Russell Rule" in 2020 to introduce more diversity among coaching staff around the conference, the country began to honor him even before he passed. He walked alongside Martin Luthur King Jr. in 1963 as the fight against racism persisted and was awarded for his impact on society. He was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 by President Barack Obama.
He was born a black man in the south in 1934, and through thick and thin in the city of Boston and around the country, Russell never let what was said about him or not said about him affect who he truly was, a trailblazer, and a champion.
