Henry Roldán
Last Sunday, the NBA and the sports world mourned the death of Bill Russell, one of the greatest and most successful basketball players in history, at the age of 88.
Russell left an indelible mark on and off the court after 13 seasons in the NBA, thanks to his talent and his social struggles.
That’s why we will recall below some of the Celtics player’s amazing deeds and the impact he had on subsequent generations of athletes.
Bill Russell and His Impressive Records
“The Lord of the Rings”
In the NBA, as in any professional sport, there is nothing more precious to a player than becoming a champion. That’s everyone’s goal, and very few succeed in achieving it very often. And we say very few because there are some, like Bill Russell, who won more than they lost.
Between 1956 and 1968, the stellar center managed to win 11 championship rings with the Boston Celtics in a span of 13 seasons, a feat that led him to be recognized within the NBA, and rightly so, as “The Lord of the Rings”.
Teammate Sam Jones comes in second with ten championships, while LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala have the most with four each.
NBA’s MVP
While Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the man with the most MVP awards in the NBA with six, Russell follows him on the list, along with Michael Jordan, with five Most Valuable Player awards.
These five awards, together with the All-Star Game MVP he has to his credit and the possible Finals MVPs he would have had if the award had existed at the time he played, led the NBA, in 2009, to name the Finals MVP award after him. A well-deserved distinction.
No Fear of Being Eliminated
Not Michael Jordan, not Kobe Bryant, not LeBron James, not anyone else. If there is one player any team would like to have in elimination games, it would be Bill Russell.
Taking into account his college basketball career, Olympic Games and games #5 and #7 in NBA postseason series, the Celtics center finished undefeated with a 21-0 record, including 10-0 in games #7. In other words, he has never, in his successful career, been eliminated in a decisive game .
An Absolute Legend, Even on the Bench
Bill Russell was so good, that in the 1966-67 season he took the reins as coach of the Celtics, serving as player-coach and thus becoming the first African-American to lead an NBA team.
But as if that weren’t enough, in his last two seasons as an active player (1967-68 and 1968-69), the Louisiana native led his beloved Celtics to the title by contributing both on the court and as manager. Amazing!
Russell’s Full Track Record
In 1975 Bill Russell was elected, as a player, to the NBA Hall of Fame, while in 2021 his work as a coach was recognized and his name also rests in the league’s immortal coaches’ pavilion.
In addition to the aforementioned records, he was the circuit’s leader in rebounds on four occasions and finished with 21,620, the second-highest figure in history. He was also selected to 12 All-Star Games, 11 All-NBA teams, and is credited with redefining the defensive game in basketball.
He was also a gold medal winner at the 1956 Olympic Games with the United States, and is one of four players who were selected for each of the NBA’s four historic teams (25th, 30th, 50th and 75th anniversaries of the league).
