Bill Russell
American basketball player and coach (1934–2022) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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William Felton Russell (February 12, 1934 – July 31, 2022) was an American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. He was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career.[2] Russell is widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players and centers of all time.
At the University of San Francisco, Russell led the San Francisco Dons to consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956.[3] He was named NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, and captained the gold medal-winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics.[4]
After being chosen by the St. Louis Hawks with the second overall pick in the 1956 NBA draft, Russell was traded to the Boston Celtics for Celtics center Ed Macauley and small forward Cliff Hagan. With Russell as their starting center and defensive anchor, the Celtics went on to win their first NBA championship in 1957 and won an NBA record eight consecutive championships from 1959 to 1966. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and a 12-time NBA All-Star, Russell's rebounding, defense, and leadership made him one of the dominant players of his era.[5][6][7][8] Standing at 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) tall, with a 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) arm span,[9][10] his shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' dominance during his career. Russell also led the NBA in rebounds four times, had a dozen consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds,[11] and remains second all-time in both total rebounds and rebounds per game. Russell played in the wake of black pioneers Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Sweetwater Clifton, and he was the first black player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. During the final three seasons of his career (1966–1969), he served as player-coach of the Celtics, becoming the first black NBA coach and the first black NBA coach to win a championship.[12] Russell ended his playing career and left his position as Celtics coach after helping the Celtics win the 1969 NBA championship.
Russell served as head coach and general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics from 1973 to 1977. He also coached the Sacramento Kings from 1987 to 1988. Russell worked as a color commentator and authored several books.
Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975, was one of the founding inductees into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. He was selected into the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971 and the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996[4] (being one of only four players to receive all three honors), and was selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021. In 2009, the NBA renamed the NBA Finals MVP Award in his honor.[13] In 2011, Barack Obama awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments on the court and in the civil rights movement.[14] In 2021, Russell was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame a second time in recognition of his coaching career.[15] Shortly after his death in 2022, the NBA retired Russell's #6 jersey league-wide, making him the only player in NBA history to receive that honor,[16] as well as the third person in North American major professional sports to have their jersey number retired league-wide, behind Jackie Robinson and Wayne Gretzky.[17]
Family
William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934, to Charles Russell and Katie Russell in West Monroe, Louisiana. Like many Southern towns and cities of that time, Monroe was segregated and the Russells often struggled with racism in their daily lives.[18] Russell's father was once refused service at a gas station until the staff had taken care of all the white customers first. When he attempted to leave and find a different station, the attendant stuck a shotgun in his face and threatened to kill him if he did not stay and wait his turn.[18] In another incident, Russell's mother was walking outside in a fancy dress when a white policeman accosted her. He told her to go home and remove the dress, which he described as "white woman's clothing".[18]
During World War II, the Second Great Migration began, as large numbers of Black people were moving to the West to look for work there. When Russell was eight years old, his father moved the family out of Louisiana and settled in Oakland, California.[18] While there, they fell into poverty and Russell spent his childhood living in a series of public housing projects.[18]
His father was said to be a "stern, hard man" who initially worked in a paper factory as a janitor, which was a typical "Negro Job"—low-paid and not intellectually challenging, as sports journalist John Taylor commented.[19] When World War II broke out, the elder Russell became a truck driver.[19] Russell was closer to his mother Katie than to his father,[19] and he received a major emotional blow when she suddenly died when he was 12 years old. His father gave up his trucking job and became a steelworker in order to be closer to his children.[19] Russell stated that his father became his childhood hero, later followed up by Minneapolis Lakers superstar George Mikan, whom he met when he was in high school.[20] Of Russell the college basketball player, Mikan said: "Let's face it, he's the best ever. He's so good, he scares you."[21]
Russell's older brother was playwright Charlie L. Russell.[22]
Initial exposure to basketball
During his early years, Russell struggled to develop his skills as a basketball player. Although Russell was a good runner and jumper and had large hands,[19] he did not understand the game and was cut from the team at Herbert Hoover Junior High School. As a freshman at McClymonds High School in Oakland,[23][24] Russell was almost cut again;[25] as he saw Russell's raw athletic potential, coach George Powles encouraged him to work on his fundamentals.[19] After Russell was cut from the junior varsity basketball team as a junior in high school, Powles gave him a spot on the varsity team and bought him a yearlong community center membership.[26] Since Russell's previous experiences with white authority figures were often negative, warm words from Powles reassured him. Frank Robinson, a future member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, was one of Russell's high school basketball teammates.[27]
Russell soon became noted for his unusual style of defense. He later recalled: "To play good defense ... it was told back then that you had to stay flatfooted at all times to react quickly. When I started to jump to make defensive plays and to block shots, I was initially corrected, but I stuck with it, and it paid off."[28] In an autobiographical account, Russell said that while on a California High School All-Stars tour, he became obsessed with studying and memorizing other players' moves, e.g., footwork such as which foot they moved first on which play, as preparation for defending against them, which included practicing in front of a mirror at night. Russell described himself as an avid reader of Dell Magazines' 1950s sports publications, which he used to scout opponents' moves for the purpose of defending against them.[29]
Russell was ignored by college recruiters and received not one offer until recruiter Hal DeJulio from the University of San Francisco (USF) watched him play in a high school game. DeJulio was unimpressed by Russell's meager scoring and "atrocious fundamentals",[30] but he sensed that the young Russell had an extraordinary instinct for the game, especially in the clutch.[30] When DeJulio offered Russell a scholarship, he eagerly accepted.[25] Sports journalist John Taylor described the scholarship offer as a watershed event in Russell's life because Russell realized that basketball was his chance to escape poverty and racism, and he swore to make the best of it.[19] Russell graduated from McClymonds in 1952.[31]
University of San Francisco
Basketball
Russell started college at USF in 1952.[32] He averaged 20 points per game on USF's freshman basketball team.[33] Russell made his varsity debut with USF on December 1, 1953.[34] He became the starting center for coach Phil Woolpert of the San Francisco Dons. Woolpert emphasized defense and deliberate half-court play, which favored Russell's exceptional defensive skills.[35] Woolpert's choice of how to deploy his players was unaffected by their skin color. In 1954, he became the first coach of a major college basketball squad to start three African-American players: K. C. Jones, Hal Perry, and Russell.[3] In his USF years, Russell took advantage of his relative lack of bulk to develop a unique defensive style: instead of purely guarding the opposing center, he used his quickness and speed to play help defense against opposing forwards and aggressively challenge their shots.[35] Russell played on USF's varsity team from 1953 to 1956.[36]
Combining the stature and shot-blocking skills of a center with the foot speed of a guard, Russell became the centerpiece of a USF team that soon became a force in college basketball. After USF kept Holy Cross Crusaders star Tom Heinsohn scoreless in an entire half,[37] Sports Illustrated wrote: "If [Russell] ever learns to hit the basket, they're going to have to rewrite the rules."[35] The NCAA rewrote rules in response to Russell's dominant play; the lane was widened for his junior year. After he graduated, the NCAA rules committee instituted a second new rule to counter the play of big men like Russell; basket interference was now prohibited.[38] Russell became one of several big men who have brought about NCAA rule changes. The NCAA had previously prohibited goaltending in response to George Mikan (1945) and later banned the dunk shot due to Lew Alcindor (1967), although the latter rule was later repealed.[39]
The games were often difficult for the USF squad, as Russell and his black teammates became targets of racist jeers, particularly on the road.[40] In one incident, hotels in Oklahoma City refused to admit Russell and his black teammates while they were in town for the 1954 All-College Tournament. In protest, the whole team decided to camp out in a closed college dorm, which was later called an important bonding experience for the group.[3] Decades later, Russell explained that his experiences hardened him against abuse of all kinds,[41] saying: "I never permitted myself to be a victim."[42]
Racism shaped his lifelong paradigm as a team player, about which Russell said: "At that time it was never acceptable that a black player was the best. That did not happen ... My junior year in college, I had what I thought was the one of the best college seasons ever. We won 28 out of 29 games. We won the National Championship. I was the MVP at the Final Four. I was first team All American. I averaged over 20 points and over 20 rebounds, and I was the only guy in college blocking shots. So after the season was over, they had a Northern California banquet, and they picked another center as Player of the Year in Northern California. Well, that let me know that if I were to accept these as the final judges of my career I would die a bitter old man." He is said to have made a conscious decision to put the team first and foremost, and not worry about individual achievements.[43]
On the hardwood, Russell's experiences were far more pleasant. He led USF to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, including a string of 55 consecutive victories, and a 26-point, 27-rebound, 20-block performance in one game.[44] He became known for his strong defense and shot-blocking skills, once denying 13 shots in a game. UCLA Bruins coach John Wooden called Russell "the greatest defensive man I've ever seen".[3][7] While at USF, he and Jones helped pioneer a play that later became known as the alley-oop.[45][46] During his college career, Russell was the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player in 1955, averaging 20.7 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game.[4][47]
Track and field
Besides basketball, Russell represented USF in track and field events. He was a standout in the high jump and according to Track & Field News was ranked the seventh-best high-jumper in the world in 1956, his graduation year, despite not competing in Olympic high-jump competition.[20][48] That year, Russell won high jump titles at the Central California Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) meet, the Pacific AAU meet, and the West Coast Relays (WCR). One of his highest jumps occurred at the WCR, where he achieved a mark of 6 feet 9+1⁄4 inches (2.06 m);[49] at the meet, Russell tied Charlie Dumas, who would later in the year win gold in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia for the United States and become the first person to high-jump 7 feet (2.13 m).[50] Like fellow world-class high-jumpers of that era, Russell did not use the Fosbury Flop technique with which all high jump world records after 1978 have been set.[51][52][53] He also competed in the 440 yards (402.3 m) race, which he could complete in 49.6 seconds.[54]
Before his NBA rookie year, Russell was the captain of the 1956 U.S. men's Olympic basketball team that competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics,[55] which was held in November and December in Melbourne, Australia. Avery Brundage, head of the International Olympic Committee, argued that Russell had already signed a professional sport contract and was no longer an amateur sportsman, but Russell prevailed.[56] He had the option to skip the tournament and play a full season for the Celtics, but he was determined to play in the Olympics. He later commented that he would have participated in the high jump if he had been snubbed by the basketball team.[20]
Under head coach Gerald Tucker, Russell helped the U.S. national basketball team win the gold medal in Melbourne, defeating the Soviet Union national basketball team 89–55 in the final game with an 8–0 undefeated run.[57] The U.S. dominated the tournament, winning by an average of 53.5 points per game.[44] Russell led the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game for the competition.[58] His former USF and future Celtics teammate K. C. Jones joined him on the Olympic squad and contributed 10.9 points per game,[59] including a Russell–Jones combined 29 points in the finals.[57]