BOSTON (AP) — NBA great Bill Russell, who started the Boston Celtics dynasty, won 11 championships in 13 years — the last two as the first black head coach in any major American sport — and Martin Luther King Jr. played with civil rights. – youth. ., died on Sunday. 88 years old.
This was announced by his family on social networks.Russell said he died with his wife, Janine. The cause of death was not specified in the statement.
“Bill’s wife, Janine, and many of her friends and family thank you for supporting Bill in your prayers. “Maybe you’ll look back on one or two of the golden moments he gave us, or remember the laugh he gave as he happily recounted the true story of how those moments came to be.” “And we hope that each of us will find a new way to act or speak in accordance with Bill’s uncompromising, noble and always constructive principles. This will be the final and lasting victory for our love #6.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Russell is “the greatest champion in all team sports.”
“Bill championed much more than sports: the values of equality, respect and inclusivity that are stamped into our league’s DNA. “At the height of his athletic career, Bill was an active advocate for civil rights and social justice, a legacy he has passed on to generations of NBA players who have followed in his footsteps,” Silver said. “Despite teasing, threats, and unimaginable hardship, Bill rose above all else and remained steadfast in his belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.
Hall of Famer, five-time Most Valuable Player, and 12-time All-Star, Russell was voted the greatest player in NBA history in 1980 by basketball analysts. He remains the sport’s most prolific goalscorer and an archetype of dedication, winning on defense and rebounds and leaving the scoring to others. This often meant the only player, Wilt Chamberlain, who was a worthy opponent for Russell at the time.
Boston Celtics Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson at work. (Sports News via Getty Images / Sports News via Getty Images)
But Russell dominated the only stat that mattered to him: 11 titles in twos.
The Louisiana native has also left an indelible mark as a black athlete in a city and country where race is often a hotspot. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was in Washington in March. He delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech and supported Muhammad Ali when the boxer was convicted of refusing to enlist.
In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Russell the Medal of Freedom, along with Congressman John Lewis, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and baseball great Stan Musial.
“Bill Russell, this man stood up for the rights and dignity of all people,” Obama said at the ceremony. “He walked with the king; He was with Ali. When the restaurant refused to serve the Black Celtics, he refused to play in the scheduled game. He endured the insults and harassment, but continued to focus on making his beloved teammates better players and enabled the success of many who would come after him.”
The lucky couple pictured here is Red Auerbach, who coached the last game for the Celtics, which won their 8th straight NBA playoff title after beating the Lakers 95-93 at Boston Garden.
Russell says his family, who grew up in the separate South and then California, gave him a calm confidence that allowed him to fend off racial disdain.
“Years later, people would ask me what I was going through,” Russell said in 2008. “Unfortunately or fortunately, I experienced nothing. From the first moment of my life, my parents thought they loved me.” Russell’s mother told him to ignore comments from anyone who might see him playing in the garden.
No matter what they say, good or bad, they don’t know you, he remembered his words. “They’re fighting their own demons.”
But it was Jackie Robinson who gave Russell a roadmap on how to tackle racism in his sport: “Jackie is a hero to us. He always looks like a man. He showed me how to be a professional athlete.
Russell learned the same feeling when Robinson’s widow, Rachel, asked him to carry the coffin to her husband’s funeral in 1972.
Russell said, “He hung up and I said to myself, ‘What kind of hero have you been to Jackie Robinson?’ I asked,” he said. – I’m so proud.
William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934, in Monroe, Louisiana. He was young when his family moved to the West Coast and attended high school in Oakland, California, and then at the University of San Francisco. He led the Dons to the NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, and won a gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in Australia.
Celtics coach and general manager Red Auerbach loved Russell so much that he went to St. Louis Hawks is second in the draft. He promised the number 1 Rochester Royals. 1 pick from a lucrative visit from Ice Capades led by Celtics owner Walter Brown. However, Russell came to Boston to complain that he wasn’t all that good.
However, Russell came to Boston to complain that he wasn’t all that good. “People said it was a wasted draft, a waste of money,” he recalled. They said ‘not good’. All he can do is block punches and jump.” And Red said, “That’s enough.”
The Celtics also selected Russell’s college teammates Tommy Heinsohn and KC Jones in the same draft. Although Russell joined the team late as he led the USA to Olympic gold, Boston finished the regular season with the best record in the league.
The Celtics won the NBA championship – the first of 17 – in Game 7 of St. Louis Hawks by Bob Pettit. Russell took his first MVP award the following season, but the Hawks won the title in the final rematch. The Celtics won once again in 1959, kicking off an unprecedented streak of eight consecutive NBA titles.
A 6-foot-10 striker, Russell has never averaged 18.9 points in his 13 seasons and averaged more rebounds per game than in a year. He averaged 20 rebounds in 10 seasons. He once took 51 rebounds in a game; Chamberlain holds the record with 55.
Auerbach retired after winning in 1966, and Russell became the first black head coach in NBA history and player-manager almost a decade before Frank Robinson led the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Boston finished with the record for best regular season in the NBA, but the championship streak ended with a loss to Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Division Finals.
Russell led the Celtics to back-to-back titles in 1968 and 1969, winning a seven-game playoff streak against Chamberlain each time. Russell retired after the 1969 Finals, returning to a relatively successful but uncertain four-year stint as coach and general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics and a less productive half-season as coach of the Sacramento Kings.
No. Russell’s six jerseys were retired by the Celtics in 1972. He was on the NBA’s 25th Anniversary Team in 1970, the 35th Anniversary Team in 1980, and the 75th Anniversary Team. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in the NBA in 1996. In 2009, the NBA Finals MVP Award was given in his honor.
In 2013, a statue surrounded by granite blocks was unveiled on Boston’s City Hall Square in Russell with quotes about leadership and character. Russell was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975, but did not attend the ceremony, saying he should not be the first African American to be elected. (His choice fell on the NBA’s first black player, Chuck Cooper.)
In 2019, Russell accepted the Hall of Fame ring at a private meeting. “I felt that those before me should be honored,” he tweeted. “It’s good to see progress.”
Silver said he “frequently referred to (Russell) basketball player Babe Ruth for how he spent the time.”
“Bill was an all-round winner and an incredible teammate, and his impact on the NBA will always be felt,” Silver said. “We offer our deepest condolences to his wife, Jeannine, and to his family and many friends.”
His family said arrangements for a memorial service for Russell will be announced in the coming days.
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Source: Breitbart
