In February, President Obama awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom to the legendary athlete/civil rights champion Bill Russell – adding, "I hope one day, in the streets of Boston, children will look up at a statue built not only to Bill Russell the player, but Bill Russell the man." That was what Boston mayor Tom Menino was waiting for – and this past May a statue was commissioned - bringing full-circle someone whom I have admired since childhood.
That might not seem strange to those who know I live in New England. But I grew-up in the New York suburbs, when the New York Knicks of Walt Frazier and Willis Reed were starting to come-of-age – and yet it was Bill Russell I was drawn to. And not simply as a player, as you’ll see after-the-jump …..
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The sportswriter Frank Deford wrote in Sports Illustrated that – while Michael Jordan may be the best basketball player of all time – Bill Russell was the greatest team player of all time. Bill Russell’s teams played in 21 winner-take-all games: spanning his collegiate NCAA tournament games, Olympic medal-round games, as well as Games 5’s (in a best-of-5 series) and Game 7’s (in a best-of-7 series) in the NBA .…. and all 21 times they walked away victorious. He led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA titles (in 1955 and 1956), the US to the gold medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia and joining the (underachieving) Boston Celtics mid-season to lead them to their first NBA title in the spring of 1957. In his 2010 book Rise of a Dynasty: The '57 Celtics the sportswriter Bill Reynolds believes that the 1957 championship not only changed basketball, it changed American sports.
For some time, I had thought that Russell’s 11 NBA championships (in only 13 seasons) were the most titles won by an athlete in the four major sports leagues (the NBA, NHL, NFL and Major League Baseball). It turns out that the hockey player Henri Richard won the same number of Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens. But Henri Richard played for more than 19 NHL seasons and – as good a player as I recall him to be – he was nowhere near as important to his team than Bill Russell was. Add to that the two NCAA titles and Olympic medal ... and you'd have to say Bill Russell stands alone in the 20th Century.
Bill Russell hails from West Monroe, Louisiana and wrote in his several books about the racial injustices he, his parents and grandparents endured. His grandfather Jake was the first generation removed from slavery and endured threats from the Klan to build a schoolhouse for black children. Towards the end of his life (in 1968) Jake was amazed to see that his son was not only coach of the black Celtic players ... but also the white ones. And he wept when he saw Celtic players Sam Jones and John Havlicek (black and white) showering next to each other, laughing.
After his wife Katie died, Bill's father moved the family to Oakland, California when he was age twelve. Contrasted with, say, Lebron James, who was drafted into the NBA out of high school: Bill Russell was cut from his junior high team, and nearly cut as a sophomore at McClymonds High School in Oakland. But his coach George Powles saw something in his leaping ability and defensive prowess, and helped him mature as a player (and having future Hall of Fame baseball player Frank Robinson as a teammate didn’t hurt, either).
But with limited offensive skills at the time, that may have been it …. and Bill Russell may have gone to work after high school …. except that a booster for the University of San Francisco (USF) named Hal DeJulio – who passed away nearly three years ago – saw him play in 1951 and begged the school to award him a scholarship, becoming the only school that was interested in him.
He had the good fortune to be roommates with a black player who was also from the South originally – K.C. Jones from Tyler, Texas. And while the ‘vertical game’ has become increasingly important, Russell says that he and K.C. Jones saw defensive play as being more important horizontally (more akin to geometry), looking at angles, passing lanes and allowing an opponent to get into a certain spot earlier in the game … but not in the last two minutes, you see.
All along, Bill Russell had become embittered at the racism he endured. In one of his books he mentioned being ignored by several of the white professors at the (nearly) all-white, Catholic university … but interestingly, not from the priests on the USF faculty, of whom he would write, "The Jesuits were fair to me". But whatever he endured in the classroom was nothing compared to what he found on the court: jeers and rough play at away games, not receiving MVP honors instead of white players and in Oklahoma City being refused hotel rooms, etc. He determined that his career path was not to stand out individually, but to ensure his team won – "Then, no one can take that away from you".
In late 1954, USF coach Phil Woolpert made a fateful decision to add to his starting lineup the guard Hal Perry – thus making USF the first major school to start three African-American players. It was the final piece of what led to back-to-back NCAA titles for USF, whose legacy led to the 1962 NCAA title for Loyola of Chicago (who had four black starters, also for a nearly all-white Catholic school) and the 1966 Texas Western champions commemorated in the film Glory Road – going up against the all-white University of Kentucky squad (which featured future NBA coaching legend Pat Riley, the only non-Southerner on the team).
Afterwards, Bill Russell helped lead the US team to the 1956 Olympic gold medal in Melbourne, Australia (along with his teammate K.C. Jones).
Arriving in mid-season (due to the Olympics being held later in the year in the Southern Hemisphere than normal) he helped the Celtics to a 4 games to 3 win over the St. Louis Hawks in the 1957 NBA Finals that year, with a double-overtime 125-123 victory in Game #7.
The following year Russell suffered torn tendons in his foot in the NBA Finals re-match against the Hawks: missing two games and returning in Game 6 where his rival Bob Pettit scored 50 points to lead St. Louis to the title. (That is also the answer to a trivia question: the 1958 St. Louis Hawks were the last all-white team to win the NBA title).
Russell and his teammates believe they would have prevailed but for the injury – and proceeded to win the next eight championships (from 1959 through 1966). Bill Russell wrote that he knew the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers were the superior team: and they defeated Boston 4 games to 1 en route to the NBA title. But the Celtics won two more championships in 1968 and 1969 before Bill Russell retired.
His relationship with his coach Arnold (Red) Auerbach was key to the team’s success. In Bill Russell’s excellent 2009 book Red and Me – he notes the machinations that Auerbach took in order to select Russell with the #3 draft pick in 1956. While the Harlem Globetrotters were still (in the mid-50’s) a competitor for African-American players coming out of college, Russell considered them to be undignified, and hence was delighted at a team trading two players just for the rights to draft him.
And he recalls Auerbach speaking to him alone day:
Do you know how good you are, Bill?
Yes, I do.
And their relationship was forged: Bill Russell was allowed much more leeway in practice because Red Auerbach knew he’d be there when it mattered. When Red Auerbach decided to retire as head coach after the 1966 season, Russell became the first African American head coach in NBA history when Red offered to make him player-coach. Their relationship continued until the death of Red Auerbach in 2006.
It’s fair to say that Bill Russell had a difficult time adjusting to the city of Boston upon his arrival in late 1956. He was used to overt racism (and saw his home in Reading, MA vandalized) but the indirect sort that was prevalent in the North hurt him just as much. For many years, it left him with a bad taste in his mouth towards the city.
Yet his idiosyncratic personality made it an even more difficult for him to overcome this obstacle. Bill Russell did not sign autographs – not even for teammates – and was aloof from journalists and Celtics fans, believing that his on-court actions should be sufficient. If someone said to him "You're my hero" he recoiled - how did they know what sort of person was he? He not only refused to attend the Celtics retirement of his uniform #6 – he also refused to attend his induction into basketball’s Hall of Fame. I understand his way of doing things, and suspect many others did as well – but it led to his image as an enigma.
One got to know Bill Russell through his books – Second Wind (1979), Russell Rules (2001) and Me and Red (from 2009). He mentions the help he received from Arnie Risen – who was the aging center on the Boston Celtics when he arrived in late 1956. Russell was amazed that Risen knew this rookie was going to take his job … yet offered advice on the bench, saying "Here’s how I might guard player X" or "Here’s what to watch out for from player Y". Risen had already won an NBA title with Rochester in 1951, and settled into a back-up role, winning another title with the Celtics as a result and later being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
After his retirement, Bill Russell's image began to change. He did commercials for AT&T, was a guest host on Saturday Night Live and was an analyst for NBA games on television, where his cackling laugh showed everyone a side of him that few people saw before. He had unsuccessful stints as head coach at Seattle and Sacramento in the 1970’s before leaving basketball.
In 1970 (shortly after his retirement) Bill Russell was asked to meet with an outstanding college prospect, and traveled to the University of Massachusetts in the western part of the state. As the young man recalls:
Bill Russell asked me what was the most important building on campus. Like any athlete, I said `the gym.'
He said, "I don't think so".
I said, 'Then what's the answer to that, Mr. Russell?'
He said "The library. You can find anything you want to know about the world in the library and there should be things you want to know about. You seem like a bright enough young man, there should be things you want to learn about. The library is the most important building, remember that."
A young Julius Erving took that advice to heart. And the future Hall of Famer always invites Bill Russell to his charity golf tournament that he hosts in western Massachusetts.
Years later, Bill Russell began to mellow a bit: he started returning to Boston to meet with the contemporary players. When Larry Bird called out his teammates during a 1980's playoff series, Russell said that he called Bird to congratulate him on how he conducted himself.
If you watch CNN, you may be familiar with his daughter Karen Russell - a legal analyst. Frank Deford wrote of her visiting West Monroe and telling Bill's father Charlie of the experience - with Bill seeing his father (who had a sixth-grade education) and his daughter (who had graduated from Harvard Law) as having come full-circle. She was instrumental in convincing her father to forget the past and allow the Celtics to host a tribute night for him in May, 1999. He did so only if the proceeds went to a youth mentoring program which he was a major booster of.
I was lucky enough to attend - it was not a regular season game; instead a special night at the Fleet Center (today the TD Garden). There were two musical guests: Aretha Franklin sang the national anthem, and Johnny Mathis was there to sing "The Shadow of your Smile" - which Bill Russell first heard him sing when they competed in AAU track meets in the Bay Area back in the mid-1950's. Bill Cosby was the master of ceremonies, Bob Costas conducted several on-stage live interviews and NBA commissioner David Stern also participated. (David Stern, by the way, announced in 2009 that the NBA playoff Most Valuable Player award would henceforth have a new name - and thus when the Dallas Mavericks' star Dirk Nowitzki was named as the NBA Finals MVP, he received the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award from ..... Bill Russell himself).
Members of past Boston Celtics teams were there at Bill Russell Night in 1999, as were many rival players (Rick Barry, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) ... and Wilt Chamberlain, his old rival. Wilt died a few months later, and so their last meet-up featured them playing ..... an old basketball game played with levers.
The night ended with Red Auerbach and Bill Russell officially re-retiring Bill's #6 uniform number, raising it to the ceiling ... this time with thousands to cheer him on. But before that: in his address to the audience, I distinctly recall him speaking about education. Bill Russell had once said (which I cannot locate online) how tired he was about wealthy Republicans complaining how tough they had it. That night, he mentioned people shaking his hand at college graduations (when Russell might have received an honorary degree, or been chosen as commencement speaker) but then grumbling later on about 'having to pay to educate other people's children'. Once, Bill decided to respond:
"Sir ... if these are American children .... there is no such thing as "other people's children".
But another side of Bill Russell that few white Americans were aware of was his efforts in the civil rights movement.
He was one of the first celebrities to proudly call himself black, when "negro" was still the accepted and polite term. At least twice, he refused to play a scheduled game when his black teammates were given inferior accommodations, and since Russell's presence sold many tickets ... the problem with accommodations was quickly addressed. He spoke at the 1963 March on Washington and in 1967 publicly stood by Muhammad Ali’s decision to resist military service. He was active in the Black Power movement, often referred to as "Felton X" (using his middle name).
He worked with the NAACP and after the murder of Medgar Evers called his older brother Charles, asking what he could do to help? "Get down here," Evers told Russell, "and we'll open one of the playgrounds and have the first integrated basketball camp in Mississippi." Despite much trepidation, "We had a few white kids come to that camp," Evers said. "That's the kind of respect even some of the white folks had for Bill Russell. The camp was a success."
Of course, not everyone (not even in 2011) is happy with that ... especially not the racist Youth for Western Civilization - group that noted the Medal of Freedom at this link (if you dare) by using this headline: "Obama awards Medal of Freedom to White-hating Russell".
(Wisely) ignoring this wacky admonition: in the words that began this essay, President Obama summed up his life this way:
"He marched with King; he stood by Ali. When a restaurant refused to serve the black Celtics, he refused to play in the scheduled game. He endured insults and vandalism, but he kept on focusing on making the teammates who he loved better players, and made possible the success of so many who would follow. I hope that one day, in the streets of Boston, children will look up at a statue built not only to Bill Russell the player, but Bill Russell the man".
And now, sometime next spring they can do so: not at the basketball arena, but at Boston's City Hall Park - where one of three designs will be chosen in October.
Now, on to Top Comments:
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From lineatus
In response to my my diary - musing about a career change to being an owl pellet gatherer - the responses from both enhydra lutris and Belinda Ridgewood discuss the implications.
From trashablanca:
In Ed Tracey's Sunday Feature Odds and Ends - Donna O tells of hosting Rev. Gary Davis and his caregiver back in the Bad Ole Days, when segregation prevented performers of color from renting hotel rooms. People forget that this was common in many of our lifetimes, and we need to remember so it can't happen again.
From mdmslle
In the diary by Horace Boothroyd III entitled I Have Nothing More to Add about income equality - Canis Aureus seems pessimistic that income equality can work as a rallying cry.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening .... ....
In the diary by cberlet on the Christian Right Dominionism that wants to impose a form of Christian nationalism on the US: the additional thoughts of both entlord (who writes of an alliance with Southern Reconstructionists being forged) as well as Tchrldy (who warns of everyday right-wing Christians becoming confused) ..... easily met with the essayist's approval.
Lastly, here is Top Mojo for yesterday:
1) Only 24 years old, to top it all off. by zett — 152
2) This time it pulled the plug on grandson. by middleagedhousewife — 133
3) i think bbb has it backwards by BlueDragon — 127
4) I agree it's sick behavior, but I also think there by Eileen B — 115
5) You ask: by Major Tom — 101
6) I'm going to vote for him by Burned — 97
7) It's such a terrible tragedy... by Major Tom — 85
8) You know what is sadder than this kid dying... by Clive all hat no horse Rodeo — 81
9) Did you keep reading the article? It gets worse by voracious — 80
10) This is so exciting. I wish we would do it here. by grelinda — 78
11) Hate (or love) for Obama won't buy you a hot dog by FishOutofWater — 77
12) :( Horrible! by middleagedhousewife — 76
13) Here are the things we can do, wage war, move by lakehillsliberal — 67
14) Proper care would have involved pulling the tooth. by middleagedhousewife — 67
15) Thanks for the hard, cold facts warts and all. by FishOutofWater — 66
16) ... by PerfectStormer — 65
17) Sisyphus by Karl Rover — 65
18) You know how when you see a diary by Penman — 61
19) My husband and I had our 23rd by irishwitch — 61
20) Important for Israel, and important for the world. by flitedocnm — 60
21) Yes yes yes by soothsayer99 — 60
22) By the way...some links for others in my nightmare by Eileen B — 58
23) Sounds good on paper. by brooklynbadboy — 58
24) So what? by Eileen B — 58
25) Nobody belongs. And once we all realize it and by zenbassoon — 57
26) lazee caturday by Debbie in ME — 56
27) No, he was NOT treated "appropriately", he by mumtaznepal — 55
28) Eyes, too. by zett — 55
29) Just wait until Obama's approval rating sink... by expatjourno — 55
30) wos stuck on mai tail earlier by Debbie in ME — 54