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: This article concerns the basketball player. For the baseball player, see Bill Russell (baseball); for the composer, music historian, and record producer, see Bill Russell (American Music).
William Felton Russell (born February 12, 1934) is a former United States basketball player remembered for his central role in the Boston Celtics dynasty (sports) that won 11 championships in the 13 seasons, in which he led the Boston Celtics to eight straight championships. He raised Defense (sport) play to a new level and is commonly considered the greatest defensive center (basketball) to ever play the game (and by some, the greatest all-around basketball player).
Tapped by Red Auerbach to succeed him, Russell became the first black coach of an NBA team and won two championships as player-coach. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975. http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016449.html
Russell holds the record for the most championships won in a North American sports league, with 11, sharing this distinction with only Henri Richard of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, who won 11 Stanley Cup rings in 20 seasons.
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Early years
Born in Monroe, Louisiana and raised in Oakland, California, the 6-foot 9-inch (2.06 m) tall Russell played at McClymonds High School. He also played college basketball at the University of San Francisco, which he led to NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in 1955 and 1956, including an impressive string of 55 consecutive victories (after Russell left, San Francisco would push the streak to 60 before losing)http://tsn.sportingnews.com/archives/sports2000/numbers/143117.html. For his college career, Russell averaged 20.7 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game.
Russell was the captain and leading scorer of the 1956 United States men's Olympic basketball team, which cruised to the gold medal at the Melbourne Summer Games with an average margin of victory of 53.5 points per game.
Boston Celtics
Russell was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks but played for the Celtics from 1956 to 1969, winning the National Basketball Association championship every year except 1958 (losing in the finals) and 1967. In his first 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 10 times in his 13 seasons. Careerwise, Russell ranks second only to Wilt Chamberlain in regular season total (21,620) and average (22.5) rebounds per game. Russell's 51 rebounds in a single game is the second best performance ever (only trailing Wilt Chamberlain's record of 55), and he still holds the NBA record for rebounds in one half with 32. 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, and he never failed to average at least 20 rebounds per game in any of his 13 post-season campaigns. In his career, Russell won four rebounding titles and earned five regular season MVP awards. He was named MVP of the National Basketball Association All-Star Game in 1963.
In 1966, legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach named Russell his successor as head coach; he thus became the first African-American head coach in US major league team sports history. Russell served as player-coach from 1966 to 1969, winning two NBA championships; he later coached the Seattle SuperSonics (1973 to 1977) and Sacramento Kings (1987 to 1988), but did not succeed in winning another championship.
Russell has received virtually every NBA honor that exists, and in 1968, he received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. In 1980, he was named the greatest player in the history of the NBA by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America.
Post-NBA
Russell has worked as a TV commentator on basketball since his retirement and is also the author of several books, usually written as a joint project with a professional writer. One, Second Wind , is rather different from the typical athlete's reminescences, being a sort of combined autobiography and athletic history of a particularly dramatic time in American history.
In recent years, he convinced Shaquille O'Neal to bury the hatchet with former teammate Kobe Bryant, with whom O'Neal had a bitter feud.
Personal life
Russell was life-long friends with another legend, Wilt Chamberlain, who many consider to be the greatest ever offense player; their on-Court (basketball) battles were perhaps the greatest individual rivalry in the history of the league. It should be noted however that Bill Russell never considered Chamberlain his rival and dislikes the term. In his book Russell Rules, Russell describes Chamberlain as his competitor, not his rival, because they were friends.
He was exceptionally active in the American Civil Rights Movement. At one point, he refused to play a game when he and his black teammates were refused service at a local restaurant. In 1968 Russell's home was vandalized by bigots, an event that led him to call the city of Boston a "flea market of racism"http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=8829.Bill Russell was also active in the "Black Power" movement. He was often called "Felton X" and he even purchased land in Liberia.
Player Profile
:An uncanny shotblocker who revolutionized NBA defensive concepts.
::— introductory line of Russell's nba.com summary http://www.nba.com/history/players/russell_summary.html
Russell is the NBA's greatest winner of all time. He won 11 championships in 13 years, anchoring the most successful dynasty in all American team sports. He was a five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 12-time All-Star who collected 21,620 career rebounds (22.5 per game, second all-time behind his perennial nemesis Wilt Chamberlain), and led the league in rebounding four times.
As neither All-Defensive Teams nor defensive stats like steals or Block_(basketball) were documented during Russell's career, it is difficult to make definite statements, but it is commonly believed that Russell was one of the most terrifying defensive presences of all time. He especially excelled at blocking shots. NBA.com writes: "His ability to leave his man and slide over to cover an opponent driving to the hoop was startling. He was unmatched at swooping across the lane like a big bird to block and alter shots. The rest of the Celtics defenders began to funnel their men toward Russell and become more daring with their perimeter defense, knowing that he was looming behind." He would also pluck defensive rebounds and make mid-air outlet passes to teammate point guard Bob Cousy for easy fast break points. http://www.nba.com/history/players/russell_bio.html Russell excelled also in getting into the minds of his opponents: sportswriter Frank Deford observed "Russell blocked shots without blocking shots. People wouldn't take shots, knowing Bill Russell was there. He changed the whole game."
Although being an undersized center, Russell could shut bigger pivots down. This is perhaps best illustrated in his games against Wilt Chamberlain, an all-time top scorer who was far taller, bigger and arguably more talented than him. Frank Ramsey observed. “When he (Chamberlain) wants to take his banker against anyone else, he squats, jumps and shoots. Against Russell, he squats, fakes, shoots, fakes and then shoots. He’s thinking Russell is going to block the shot. He knows the other centers can’t, but Russell can, and it bothers him.” http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/players/bill_russell.html. Against Russell, Chamberlain averaged a decent 28.7 points, however, in his career until Russell's retirement in 1969, Wilt's "usual" production was about 37 points http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/chambwi01.html, so Russell single-handedly took away a third of his scoring. Im addition, Russell was also good in intimidating opponents into making lower percentage shots, as well as disrupting fast breaks: John Havlicek said Russell not only could predict what his opponent was going to do, he "could take a sequence in which there was a 90 percent scoring chance and reduce it to 50 percent.", just by threatening to block the shot http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/players/bill_russell.html. Rusell could leave his man, help out a teammate on defense and then recover his man, while still being able to grab the rebound. Russell scored a lot of points on putbacks with offensive rebounds and gave his teammates a lot of second chances. In addition, he was a fast and quick center and therefore a dangerous fast break weapon. Remarkable is also that his assist average rose from a low 1.8 in his rookie year into a peak of 5.8.
Russell was a superb defender and also lightning quick, best shown in the "The Coleman Play" (see below), regarded as one of the most unbelievable clutch defensive plays of all time.
Apart from being a legendary defender, rebounder and shotblocker, Russell was famous for his mental toughness. With 11 rings and five MVP Awards, he is the most profilic clutch performer in American team sports. Not only his teammates, but also contemporary greats like Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit and Jerry West (himself regarded as a supreme clutch player) testified how competitive, smart and tough Russell was psychologically http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/players/bill_russell.html. In Russell's last year, the Celtics won their 11th championship in 13 years. When Russell retired, the Celtics won only 34 games and failed to make the playoffs, illustrating how valuable he was to his team.
Russell was not without his weaknesses however. He was a mediocre scorer (15.1 points career average), a poor free throw shooter (56.1%), and shot just 44 percent from the field for his career. His post game was effective, but raw and rudimentary. He did have a decent left handed hook shot, and could hook with the right as well. To his benefit, it must be pointed out that Russell had many high-scoring teammates around him who carried the scoring load.
:To me, one of the most beautiful things to see is a group of men coordinating their efforts toward a common goal, alternately subordinating and asserting themselves to achieve real teamwork in action. I tried to do that, we all tried to do that, on the Celtics. I think we succeeded."
:: — Bill Russell http://www.nba.com/history/players/russell_bio.html
The Coleman Play
The Coleman Play'' is the name of a clutch defensive play of Bill Russell in the double-overtime Game 7 of the 1957 Finals against St. Louis. In this play, Bob Cousy has just scored a basket to give the Celtics a 103-102 lead with less than a minute remaining. However, St. Louis made a quick outlet pass to guard Jack Coleman, who was running towards the basket for an uncontested layup.
Literally standing behind the opposing baseline, Russell sprinted back and closed in on Coleman, who — as a guard — was a decently fast player. Cousy said: “Coleman (...) was a good four or five steps ahead of everybody. He was going to score, and they were going to get the lead back with 40 seconds or so left to play. Russell took off with those loping steps and they must have been six or seven of the longest steps ever seen. He covered the entire 94 feet in no time at all and blocked Coleman’s shot.”
The block sent legendary Celtics Johnny Most into a frenzy, screaming, “Blocked by Russell! Blocked by Russell! He came from nowhere!” Cousy, Red Auerbach and Tom Heinsohn have cited that play as the greatest they ever saw. http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/players/bill_russell.html
Trivia
At McClymonds High School, Russell only played varsity basketball in his senior year.
At McClymonds High School in Oakland, California, one of Russell's basketball teammates was a future Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer, Frank Robinson.
Russell was offered a place in the legendary Harlem Globetrotters after college. However, when owner Abe Saperstein would only talk with Russell's white coach, he declined signing, saying that if Saperstein was too smart to talk to him, he was too smart to play for him. Consequently he signed with the Boston Celtics and became an NBA Hall of Famer.
Having won an NCAA Championship his final year with the University of San Francisco in 1956 and an NBA title with the Celtics in 1957, Russell is only one of four players in basketball history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA Championship back-to-back, the others being Henry Bibby (UCLA 1972, New York Knicks 1973), Magic Johnson (Michigan State University 1979, Los Angeles Lakers 1980) and Billy Thompson (University of Louisville 1986, Los Angeles Lakers 1987). In the interim, Russell collected an Olympic gold medal in 1956.
The 1958 St. Louis Hawks and 1967 Philadelphia 76ers were the only two teams to prevent Russell from winning an NBA championship; coincidentally, both teams were coached by Alex Hannum.
Is left-handed.
Brother of playwright Charlie L. Russell.
Father of lawyer and television pundit Karen Russell.
Guest starred on the television series Miami Vice as a corrupt judge.
Further reading
Courtesy of: http://www.wikipedia.org/
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