William Felton “Bill” Russell
February 12, 1934, _ July 31, 2022
he is an American Civil Rights Activist and retired professional basketball player. Russell played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1956 to 1969. A five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a twelve-time All-Star. He was the centerpiece of the legendary Celtics league, winning eleven NBA championships during his thirteen-year career. He holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Before his professional career. He led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships (1955, 1956). He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the U.S. national basketball team. Bill is one of only seven players in history to win an NCAA Championship, an NBA Championship, and an Olympic Gold Medal. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was selected into the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971 and the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, and named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, one of only four players to receive all three honors. In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2009, the NBA announced that the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophy would be named the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in honor of Russell.
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 the Olympic high jump competition.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); at the meet, Russell tied Charlie Dumas, who would later 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). 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.He also competed in the 440 yards (402.3 m) race, which he could complete in 49.6 seconds.
Russell was married to his college sweetheart Rose Swisher from 1956 to 1973. They had three children: daughter Karen Russell, a television pundit and lawyer, and sons William Jr. and Jacob. The couple grew emotionally distant and divorced. In 1977, he married Dorothy Anstett, Miss USA of 1968; they divorced in 1980. In 1996, Russell married his third wife, Marilyn Nault; their marriage lasted until her death in January 2009. Russell was married to Jeannine Russell at the time of his death. He was a resident of Mercer Island, Washington, for nearly five decades. His older brother was the noted playwright Charlie L. Russell.
In 1959, Russell became the first NBA player to visit Africa.[189] Russell was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, having been initiated into its Gamma Alpha chapter while a student at the University of San Francisco. On October 16, 2013, Russell was arrested for bringing his registered, loaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun to the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. He was issued a citation and released, and the Transportation Security Administration indicated it would levy a civil penalty, which would be between $3,000 and $7,500.
Russell died at his Mercer Island, Washington, home on July 31, 2022, at the age of 88. The news was announced in a Twitter post by his family. In a statement, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that Russell was “the greatest champion in all of the team sports”.
Honors and Legacy
Russell is one of the most successful and decorated athletes in North American sports history. His awards and achievements include eleven NBA championships with the Boston Celtics in thirteen seasons, two of which were won as player-coach, and he is credited with having raised defensive play in the NBA to a new level. By winning the 1956 NCAA championship with USF and the 1957 NBA title with the Celtics, Russell became the first of only four players in basketball history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA championship back-to-back, the others being Henry Bibby, Magic Johnson, and Billy Thompson. He also won two state championships in high school. In the interim, Russell won an Olympic gold medal in 1956. His stint as coach of the Celtics was also of historical significance, as he became the first black head coach in the NBA when he succeeded Red Auerbach.
In his first NBA full season (1957–58), Russell became the first player in NBA history to average more than 20 rebounds per game for an entire season, a feat he accomplished ten times in his thirteen seasons. Russell’s 51 rebounds in a single game is the second-highest performance ever, trailing only Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time record of 55. He still holds the NBA record for rebounds in one half with 32 (vs. Philadelphia, November 16, 1957). Career-wise in rebounds, Russell ranks second to Chamberlain in regular season total (21,620) and average per game (22.5), and he led the NBA in average rebounds per game four times. Russell is the all-time playoff leader in total (4,104) and average (24.9) rebounds per game, he grabbed 40 rebounds in three separate playoff games (twice in the NBA Finals), and he never failed to average at least 20 rebounds per game in any of his thirteen playoff campaigns. Russell also had seven regular-season games with 40 or more rebounds, the NBA Finals record for the highest rebound per game average (29.5, 1959) and by a rookie (22.9, 1957).In addition, Russell holds the NBA Finals single-game record for most rebounds (40, March 29, 1960, vs. St. Louis, and April 18, 1962, vs. Los Angeles), most rebounds in a quarter (19, April 18, 1962, vs. Los Angeles), and most consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds (15 from April 9, 1960 – April 16, 1963).] He also had 51 in one game, 49 in two others, and twelve straight seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds. Russell was known as one of the most clutch players in the NBA. He played in eleven deciding games (ten times in Game 7s, once in a Game 5) and ended with an 11–0 record. In these eleven games, Russell averaged 18.3 points and 29.4 rebounds.
Russell being awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama at the White House, in February 2011.
Russell was considered the consummate defensive center, noted for his defensive intensity, basketball IQ, and will to win. He excelled at playing man-to-man defense, blocking shots, and grabbing defensive rebounds. Chamberlain said Russell’s timing as a shot-blocker was unparalleled. In 2009, Russell’s erstwhile Knicks opponent Bill Bradley wrote in The New York Times Book Review that Russell “was the smartest player ever to play the game [of basketball]”. He could score with putbacks and made mid-air outlet passes to point guard Bob Cousy for easy fast-break points. He was also known as a fine passer and pick-and-roll setter, featured a decent left-handed hook shot, and finished strong on alley-oops.On offense, Russell’s output was limited and his NBA career personal averages show him to be an average scorer (15.1 points career average), a poor free-throw shooter (56.1%), and an average overall shooter from the field (44%, not exceptional for a center). In his thirteen years, he averaged a relatively low 13.4 field goals attempted (normally, top scorers average 20 and more), illustrating that he was never the focal point of the Celtic’s offense, which instead focused on his elite defense. He ranks No. 1 in NBA history for defensive win shares at 133.6, with Tim Duncan in second at 106.3. While blocked shots were not a recorded basketball statistic during Russell’s career, he averaged 8.1 blocks in 135 games, as Boston writers often attempted to tally his blocks. Bill Simmons has estimated that Russell had between 8 and 15 blocks per game in the playoffs.
In his career, Russell won five NBA MVP awards (1959, 1961–63, 1965), which is tied with Michael Jordan for second all-time behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s six awards, and is at No. 6 for most regular season MVPs–NBA Finals MVP awards, despite the latter being assigned only since 1969. He was selected three times to the All-NBA First Teams (1959, 1963, 1965) and eight Second Teams (1958, 1960–62, 1964, 1966–68), and was a 12-time NBA All-Star (1958–1969). Russell was elected to one NBA All-Defensive First Team. This took place during his last season (1969) and was the first season the NBA All-Defensive Teams were selected. In 1970, The Sporting News named Russell the “Athlete of the Decade”. Russell is universally seen as one of the best NBA players ever, and he was declared “Greatest Player in the History of the NBA” by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America in 1980.
Former President Bill Clinton and Russell at the LBJ Presidential Library’s Civil Rights Summit in 2014
For his achievements, Russell was named “Sportsman of the Year” by Sports Illustrated in 1968. He is one of four players (along with Cousy, George Mikan, and Bob Pettit) to have made all four NBA anniversary teams: the NBA 25th Anniversary Team (1970), the NBA 35th Anniversary Team (1980), the NBA 50th Anniversary Team (1996), and the NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021). Russell ranked No. 18 on ESPN’s “50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century” list in 1999. In 2007, he was voted the third-best center of all-time by ESPN behind Abdul-Jabbar and Chamberlain. In 2009, Slam named him the third-best player of all-time behind Jordan and Chamberlain. In 2020, he was ranked No. 4 in ESPN’s list of the top 74 NBA players of all time, the second-best center behind Abdul-Jabbar and ahead of Chamberlain. In 2022, he was ranked No. 6 in ESPN’s NBA 75th Anniversary Team list, and No. 4 in a similar list by The Athletic.
Russell, former NBA player, and head coach Don Nelson said: “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.”In 2000, his longtime teammate Tom Heinsohn described both Russell’s stature and his uneasy relationship with Boston more earthily, saying: “Look, all I know is the guy … came to Boston and won 11 championships in 13 years, and they named a bleeping tunnel after Ted Williams.”During the NBA All-Star Weekend on February 14, 2009, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the NBA Finals MVP award would be named after Russell. He was named a 2010 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On June 15, 2017, Russell was announced as the inaugural recipient of the NBA Lifetime Achievement Award. In October 2021, Russell was honored as one of the league’s 75 greatest players of all time.
On August 11, 2022, it was announced that Russell’s No. 6 jersey would be retired throughout the National Basketball Association, the first time a jersey had been retired league-wide in NBA history, and joining Jackie Robinson and Wayne Gretzky in the honor among the four major American sports leagues. However, the NBA players who wore the number 6 jersey at that time, under the grandfather clause, may keep the number until they voluntarily change it or retire.
On August 2, 2020, the West Coast Conference (WCC), which has been home to Russell’s alma mater of USF since the league’s formation in 1952, the first NCAA Division I conference to adopt a conference-wide diversity hiring commitment, announced the Russell Rule, named after Russell and based on the National Football League’s Rooney Rule. In its announcement, the WCC stated: “The ‘Russell Rule’ requires each member institution to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach, and full-time assistant coach position in the athletic department.”
Russell was honored with Statue
In 2013, Boston honored Russell by erecting a statue of him on City Hall Plaza. He is depicted in-game, surrounded by 11 plinths representing the 11 championships he helped the Celtics win. Each plinth features a keyword and related quote to illustrate Russell’s multiple accomplishments. The Bill Russell Legacy Foundation, established by the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, funded the project. The art is by Ann Hirsch of Somerville, Massachusetts, in collaboration with Pressley Associates Landscape Architects of Boston. The statue was unveiled on November 1, 2013, with Russell in attendance. During the spring of 2015, two statues of children were added, honoring Russell’s commitment to working with children. These statues were modeled by a local boy from Somerville and multiple girls from the surrounding area.